What comic are you reading at the moment.

Perkinstock

The Walking Dead

Fysh

Ridley wrote: »

Hellblazer 1: Original Sins - Struggled with it. Had to restart three times but it picked up with When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Might skip ahead to the Ennis run and go back if I feel like it.

Yeah, I re-read most of the early Hellblazer stuff recently and it's quite hard going - I do like a fair amount of Delano's stuff but the early days often feel a bit overwrought. I think it's a bit compounded by the art being in need of remastering - I found a lot of the pages were a bit muddy in a way that would probably benefit from increased contrast to bring out the blacks and sharpen up the outlines.

Of course, the writing is also the issue at times. I found the end of Delano's run to be the worst for this - the last issue or two with

The Golden Child

managed to go from interesting to waaaaaaaay-up-its-own-arse pretentious guff that didn't even particularly make sense.

At the other end of the spectrum, his longer-form storylines like The Fear Machine or The Family Man are pretty damn good. And there are some nice one- and two-parters with guest teams on that mix things up pretty well - Grant Morrison's 2-parter with David Lloyd is probably the best of the bunch, but there's also a short by Neil Gaiman in there and a couple of others, I think.

The most recent reissues have finally properly collected Ennis' run in chronological order, including one or two fill-ins - I remember the first time I read it thinking that it felt a bit hollow, like a dry run for Preacher. Re-reading it in the new collections made me realise that this is because they skipped something like 15 issues of material between Dangerous Habits and whatever issue it was that brought Steve Dillon on as the main artist, and thus a bunch of stuff didn't really make sense (The Lord of the Dance and the King of the Vampires for one, but also a lot of the development of John's relationship with Kit).

CastorTroy

Started to read Avengers Undercover after finding out it had Nico and Chase from The Runaways and was a continuation of Avengers Arena.

ren0bscure

Hello! I'm new here, so I'm just going to jump into the conversation and feel awkward about it.

I am about to start reading some Grant Morrison work. I might start with The Invisibles.

Mal-Adjusted

ren0bscure wrote: »

I am about to start reading some Grant Morrison work. I might start with The Invisibles.

I've never read the Invisibles. it's something i always meant to get around to. I quite like his work though, especially his earlier stuff.

I'd suggest off the top of my head...

Doom Patrol,
Animal Man,
WE3,
The Filth *strong constitution required

Thwip!

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

I've never read the Invisibles. it's something i always meant to get around to. I quite like his work though, especially his earlier stuff.

I'd suggest off the top of my head...

Doom Patrol,
Animal Man,
WE3,
The Filth *strong constitution required

The entire omnibus of which is out next week

Nervous Wreck

Big Bang has 20% off all Batman books today. Haven't read any New52 Batman... anyone tell me if the first book (think it's Court of Owls?) is any decent? Pretty sure the only thing I've read by Snyder is The Wake but that's pretty fantastic...

Nervous Wreck

Nervous Wreck wrote: »

Big Bang has 20% off all Batman books today. Haven't read any New52 Batman... anyone tell me if the first book (think it's Court of Owls?) is any decent? Pretty sure the only thing I've read by Snyder is The Wake but that's pretty fantastic...

No one answered before I left so I got the first 2 books!

Fysh

ren0bscure wrote: »

Hello! I'm new here, so I'm just going to jump into the conversation and feel awkward about it.

I am about to start reading some Grant Morrison work. I might start with The Invisibles.

I think it's probably better to start with some of his shorter stuff, the longform stuff like The Invisibles can be a bit inaccessible at first. I personally dont muchmrate The Invisibles, it had lots of notions and ideas in it but as an actual story I thought it descended into an incoherent mess at the end.

We3 is very good, and Flex Mentallo is a decent introduction to how he tends to approach superheroes. I really liked most of his Seven Soldiers of Victory series, but he once again flubs the ending. The Filth is also a lot of deranged fun, and manages not to collapse into incoherence unlike The Invisibles. His All Star Superman is also great, though that's partly because of awesome Frank Quitely artwork. And I still have a soft spot for St Swithins Day, though I don't know how easy that would be to get hold of these days...I haven't read his Doom Patrol so can't comment on it.

MarkHall

Mostly rereading.

Currently unboxing most of my collection after nearly a year and a half in storage.
Have been giving Floppies away to mates. Most recently a large chunk of X- Books.

But I kept The Excalibur Run.
May that was a fun and silly book at times.
Love the fight between Cap. Britain and Juggernaut.

Jenda

I'm all caught up on Saga now - really enjoying it. The narrative device takes a BIT of the tension out of the cat-and-mouse chases but it's still so much fun it doesn't matter.

Also loving Wicked & The Divine, Southern Bastards, and re-reading a lot of the Claremont X-Men run from the start.

CastorTroy

I'm reading Saga via the trades so only have the first 3 read. And they're great

RobbingBandit

Reading Batman Cacophony the last couple of nights, was pretty strange but a good read. Kevin Smith is weird.

Fysh

I've been reading The Spread, Trees and The Wicked + The Divine as singles recently, as well as doing a re-read of a load of Hellblazer (from Azzarello's run to the end of Mina's story).

The Spread is decent enough, but I think after 3 issues I'm happy to drop it and tradewait. Trees I'll finish up because there are only 3 issues left in the current series and I like that the issues are entirely story - no ads or backmatter. WicDiv I'm not sure on - I like it a lot (I'm a sucker for Gillen+McKelvie, at least when they're doing their own thing) but it's going to be longform according to the backmatter in the most recent issue, somewhere between 30 and 60 issues, and I loathe the idea of reading a series that long in singles rather than trades...but, on the other hand,there's the Phonogram problem i.e. if everyone tradewaits it instead of picking up the singles it'll die an early death. (I really wish the DM had some sort of Kickstarter/Patreon type setup where you can bung creators the cost of the trade up front, so that they can create it as singles if they want but without having to depend exclusively on the singles to cover the production costs...)

Hellblazer - it's been a while but I still really like both Azzarello and Carey's storylines. Azzarello's feels somehow shorter than I remember it being, but that's preferable to having it outstay its welcome. I think my favourite parts of it were the flashbacks to John's punk days illustrated by Guy Davis. Carey's run is good too (though it feels a tiny bit over-structured in a way - given the length of it, I think it would have benefitted from being punctuates by a couple more individual stories that didn't have to tie into the bigger overall story) and actually ends in a way that feels like it could have been a fitting conclusion to the series. If I had to fault it at all, I would say that I've gone off Leonardo Manco's artwork due to its heavy reliance on photomanipulation; it doesn't hold up too well in comparison to either Marcelo Frusin or Giuseppe Camuncoli's art, IMO.

I'm really looking forward to DC finally releasing trades of the Jenkins run. I've read the stories and thought they were great, not least because

it's one of the few times John gets a win that doesn't involve him having to throw his friends into the woodchipper along the way, which makes subsequent reversions to his usual bastardry hit him all the harder.

I hope they'll also rerelease the out-of-print trades from the Diggle and Milligan runs - I stopped buying the trades when Diggle took over (I wasn't impressed with his Swamp Thing) but have since read them and want to pick them up, and will probably want to try out the Milligan run as well.

chrislad

I'm re-reading Fables. This is really such a great book. Utterly captivating.

Mal-Adjusted

chrislad wrote: »

I'm re-reading Fables. This is really such a great book. Utterly captivating.

I'm working my way through the deluxe editions of it at the moment. Totally agree.

Ridley

Fables: The Deluxe Edition 6
Fables: The Deluxe Edition 7
Fables: The Deluxe Edition 8
The Israel Analogy is worth a side-eye but this thread and elsewhere on the interwebs had given me prior warning that I might find Willingham's views an uncomfortable fit. That my reading of it happened during the more recent Israel-Gaza conflict was... interesting.

Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love

The Unwritten 3: Dead Man's Knock

Waid Daredevil 3 oversized hardcover

Doctor Strange: Season One - I would quite like to see a Marvel line where the books move at the pace of TV seasons.

Season One does its own thing as opposed to Fantastic Four: Season One more or less following the stories as they were told by Lee 'n' Kirby. It's fine I suppose. Don't really get on with Doctor Strange anyway so I'm waiting for a take on the character that'll click with me beyond a general interest in the concept.

The reprint of the Defenders issue in the back is far from Fraction's best work as well. And according to Wikipedia the series was undone by time travel shenanigans anyway.

Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four 1: Family of Heroes
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four 2: Fantastic Voyages - Series of four one-shots per book makes for a nice change of pace although some of them feel like the ending was rushed because the issue ran out of pages. Read the second volume first and it had an almost perfect sequence of Marvel Universe elements that I don't like:
1/ Savage Land
2/ Mole Man
3/ Sub-Mariner
Lockjaw ruins it in the final issue by not bringing the Inhumans with him. Still, it had Reed Richards in it so I suffer enough just to follow stories with the Human Torch in them. Did think the depiction of Sue Storm was a bit rubbish. Not that she can't have a sense of humour or anything but her quippage felt like she was channeling her brother and Ben Grimm.

Fantastic Four 1: The Fall of the Fantastic Four

Lone Wolf and Cub Omnibus 1

The Star Wars - Surreal reading with R2-D2 speaking C-3PO lines and The Hidden Fortress influence on A New Hope being much more apparent. I'd love for the

simultaneous screaming of Artoo and Threepio when they fall upon the dead body

to make it into the films some day.

Star Wars: Dark Times 5 - Fire Carrier
Star Wars: Dark Times 6 - A Spark Remains - Fine chapter in the story of Dass Jennir, lousy ending for a series. Can't be helped, I know.

Asterix and the Picts - Well, it's better than Asterix and the Falling Sky. Thought the Roman census taker was a wasted idea that deserved expanding. Would have been more suited to one of the Gaul based stories eye em oh. As far as bagpipes-are-awful jokes go, I did like

Obelix slapping the bagpiper for making his disrespectful Cacofonix-like sounds during a meal

. Not particularly keen on

the Loch Ness Monster existing

in Asterix's world. As with

Atlantis and especially the manga-hating Mickey Mouse alien

, it's beyond what fits into that series for my tastes.

Donald Duck: A Christmas For Shacktown - I love "Gladstone's Usual Good Year". Even though it doesn't have the best ever panel in comics, the story's similar in the way the absurdity builds and I'm totally fine with that.

I love that Donald Duck would rather spend what little he has on a near-guaranteed win in a raffle for a turkey while already on his way to buy a turkey then still lose.

I love that in the other stories, Scrooge McDuck can lose his fortune down a massive hole from the additional weight of one extra dime.

I love that Donald Duck can sell a song he's written, go on holiday and find it on the jukebox in a day.

The Carl Barks collection is pretty rewarding for me. Plus it has Donald Duck dressed up as a little girl, what more could you want?

Fysh

I re-read Lost At Sea and found it to be as enjoyable as the first time around. Thematically it's a great complement to Scott Pilgrim, to the extent that I think if you've read Scott Pilgrim without having also read Lost At Sea you don't get quite as much out of it.

Also read Kot's Zero volume 2, which had some lovely art but somehow felt more meandering and unfocused than the firsr volume. Horse Collector was a great story, though.

Next up: Prophet - Empire.

Mr.Saturn

Just binged Avatar: The Last Airbender's 'The Promise' and 'The Search'. For what essentially amount to interquels between The Legend of Aang and The Legend of Korra, they do manage a steady dose of consequence.

Definitely one for those who were into the animation, don't stand alone at all. I mean, they could, but you'd be shooting the bollock out of a decent series in that case.

Ridley

Mr.Saturn wrote: »

Just binged Avatar: The Last Airbender's 'The Promise' and 'The Search'. For what essentially amount to interquels between The Legend of Aang and The Legend of Korra, they do manage a steady dose of consequence.

Definitely one for those who were into the animation, don't stand alone at all. I mean, they could, but you'd be shooting the bollock out of a decent series in that case.

As Nickelodeon looks to be ridding themselves of the Avatar franchise as soon as possible, I'm hoping Dark Horse does a continuation Korra series.

Or anything with that world, really.

Except Aliens vs. Korra.

Mal-Adjusted

Ridley wrote: »

Except Aliens vs. Korra.

Alien Vs. Korra Vs. Ash?

Mr.Saturn

Ridley wrote: »

As Nickelodeon looks to be ridding themselves of the Avatar franchise as soon as possible, I'm hoping Dark Horse does a continuation Korra series.

Or anything with that world, really.

Except Aliens vs. Korra.

They've set themselves up handy with the whole Avatar concept, it could run on forever, dipping into Avatars post-Wan/pre-Aang/post-Korra, a la the craic they pull with the litany of 'Lost Adventures of The Doctor' in the Whoniverse. Granted, there'd be a greater looseness there in terms of character, fate and whatnot.

Ridley

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

Alien Vs. Korra Vs. Ash?

I thought the Archie Meets Predator news was unpleasant.

Though IDW's Star Trek/Planet of the Apes crossover has to be the one that throws out the setting of both franchises.

MarkHall

Just finished off the last X-Factor Run. With a Bing reading of the last 6 trades I nabbed at DICE.

X-Factor: Together Again for the First Time
X-Factor: The Road to Redemption
X-Factor: Breaking Points
X-Factor: Short Stories X-Factor
X-Factor: Hell On Earth War
X-Factor: The End of X-Factor.

Really enjoyed the wined up on the series. PAD does his best to give all his characters an ending that suits as well as will please the reader.
Even if he fails to answer any number of lingering questions and leaves many plot-related matters hanging, Which I'll forgive as he succeeds in offering a satisfying emotional conclusion to most.
X-factor really has been one of Marvels best character driven books of the last few years. And for the most part managing to tell its story inspite of all the Marvel events. I do love Maddrox and have enjoy his growth throughout the book. And The ending does make me hope I shan't see him in the pages of an X-Book for a long time.

Morag

The Justice league Dark run and Nikolai Dante The Romanov Dynasty

Nervous Wreck

Southern Bastards - vol.1: Here Was A Man by Jason Aaron. Fantastic book about an oul' lad who returns to his hometown after 40 years and finds the place is being run by the high school football coach who orders murders on a whim and has the law in his pocket. Great read, though the first volume only contains issues 1-4 (I think issue 5 came out this week). Will defo continue reading this.

American Vampire vol. 1 by Scott Snyder & Stephen King. If you haven't read it, it's about a new breed of vampire in the late 1800s. Each issue is written in two parts; one by each writer. Great read, I'll be getting the next book this weekend, I reckon.

Saga - Just finished the 3rd tpb and have to wait til December for #4, which is heartbreaking. So good.

Next on the list is Thief of Thieves by Robert Kirkman. Will start tonight!

Fysh

I've recently read Dan Clowes' Wilson, which I found strangely unsatisfying (it had some interesting experimentation with different styles, but felt hampered by the stylistic choice to make each page fit a "gag a day" format - usually with the punchline "Boy, isn't that Wilson a jerk?!" - to the detriment of the overall story) alongside Zero volume 2 (good, but not as good as the first volume, though "Horse Collectors" was a great story) and Fatale volume 5 (a good conclusion, but the series could have been a good bit shorter without losing much of importance, IMO).

I'm finally making a start on Moore's Swamp Thing now (I'm 2 issues in so far and it's very good), with the 3rd Prophet trade to follow. I've also got Chris Ware's Building Stories and Jason Aaron's Southern Bastards on the way to me.

CastorTroy

Runaways Vol 3. - Think I said before but I started Runaways when Joss Whedon started writing it. Loved it so have gone back and started on the trades. Alternating between buying the these trades and Chew, while waiting for Saga Vol 4

Looking at my too read pile and its getting a little ridiculous. There's at least 40 trades stacked up and I added book one of C.O.W.L. to it today.

Thwip!

Fysh wrote: »

I've recently read Dan Clowes' Wilson, which I found strangely unsatisfying (it had some interesting experimentation with different styles, but felt hampered by the stylistic choice to make each page fit a "gag a day" format - usually with the punchline "Boy, isn't that Wilson a jerk?!" - to the detriment of the overall story) alongside Zero volume 2 (good, but not as good as the first volume, though "Horse Collectors" was a great story) and Fatale volume 5 (a good conclusion, but the series could have been a good bit shorter without losing much of importance, IMO).

I'm finally making a start on Moore's Swamp Thing now (I'm 2 issues in so far and it's very good), with the 3rd Prophet trade to follow. I've also got Chris Ware's Building Stories and Jason Aaron's Southern Bastards on the way to me.

Southern Bastards is one of the best books I've read this year