Author Topic: Comic books, graphic novels, and so on (Read 57030 times)

Finn Solomon · « **on:** April 10, 2007, 03:21:56 pm »

Is anyone a True Believer here? Maybe some of you Americans? If you recognise my avatar and my signature you'd realise I'm a huge follower of comics in general and Watchmen in particular, written by the legendary Alan Moore (who happens to be English). Graphic novels have been gathering steam in the mainstream community for quite some time now, and no one ridicules you if you can link Batman to moral absolutism or know why Gwen died when Spider-Man stopped her from falling off the Brooklyn Bridge (well, at least not much). I like Marvel's Ultimate titles, Fantastic Four, the Ultimates and so on, as well as Wildstorm's The Authority.

Rusty Oysterburger · « **Reply #1 on:** April 10, 2007, 04:19:38 pm »

I used to be a very keen reader of comics for a few years when i was a teenager. Dont really get them anymore though, I think the overall quality in the industry has been in decline for a few years now.

I still buy the odd graphic novel, I think it much better than buying the weekly/monthly releases. I also think that Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are 2 of the best pieces of art/literature of all time, including regular 'books'. i usually read both of them at least once a year, they never get old.

Barney_Rubble · « **Reply #2 on:** April 10, 2007, 04:59:51 pm »

Read some pretty graphic novels in me time...

SportBilly · « **Reply #3 on:** April 11, 2007, 02:36:23 am »

Quote from: Barney_Rubble on April 10, 2007, 04:59:51 pm

Read some pretty graphic novels in me time...

"Fanny Hill" doesn't count

SportBilly · « **Reply #4 on:** April 11, 2007, 02:46:55 am »

Dark Knight and Arkham Asylum were the biggies for me. I never really did the whole graphic novel thing in a big way at the time (I did get the four-part First Edition hardback DK but it was stolen from my flat on Huskisson Street back in the late 80's. I'm being specific in case the bastard who took it is reading this!). From there it was a natural progression to Watchmen. I won't jump on the 300 bandwagon as I never read it, but I did go down the 'V for Vendetta' 'From Hell' road, even though the reinvention of Batman that Miller brought about will always be closest to my heart.

Mouth · « **Reply #5 on:** April 11, 2007, 03:15:44 am »

I used to read 2000AD as a kid, and still keep my hand in with the odd book now and then. Its a combination of being too lazy and busy to be bothered with the drip drip of the weekly/monthly issues, so the collections and graphic novels suit me fine.

My tastes tend to be fairly anglocentric, never did like much of the Marvel stuff. Always found the a lot of the artwork generic and dull. I do follow artists a bit more than writers (people I know from 2000AD actually) That said I do have a lot of time for a few writers, like Garth Ennis, fucking love his work. But I'm more likely to be attracted if its by an artist I like. It does help if its a writer I like as well, like Ennis, Moore or Grant Morrison.

I dont mind the stuff Darkhorse & Vertigo put out. Have a lot of time for the Batman though, have to agree about Dark Knight Returns as well. I'd add Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum as classics as well.

If you like Watchmen and havent seen it, should give Marshal Law by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill a look. Its fucking mental, a gloriously violent funny satire on the Marvel/DC world. One example is raising an eyebrow about why all these muscle bound men in lycra take young boys as "companions"

The other recommendation I'd make is Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. Kinda defies description, you name it its got it, sex, violence, god, religion, perversion, vampires, conspiracies and even Bill Hicks pops up in it. Seems that tv series from HBO is in the works as well. Read more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preacher_%28comic%29

Its a touch naughty, but I have taken to getting stuff from bittorrent. Not a patch on the real thing mind, but quite handy if you want to have a look before you buy, or even for stuff you have already got but cant be arsed to get out the box to read. Its even better for getting stuff you cant get hold of anymore, some stuff I just want to read but have never been able to get my hands on it. Preacher & Marshal Law can be found on torrent.

SportBilly · « **Reply #6 on:** April 11, 2007, 04:26:11 am »

Ahhh, 2000AD. Should have thought about that, I used to love that (and well done for knowing Marshall Law, Mouth!) I was a huge fan of Simon Bisley's Slaine and later his 'Judgement on Gotham' back in the day, too, but vividly remember my then art-teacher telling me 'That stuff's not proper art' whenever I wanted to draw it in school, lol.

PortlandRed · « **Reply #7 on:** April 11, 2007, 07:19:21 am »

The Punisher (hence the avatar)
The Walking Dead
Hellblazer
Uncanny X-Men

and a several others

Comics are great. Underrated form of literature. I've been reading them since childhood and have no intention on stopping. Of course most of the comics I read now aren't appropriate for youngsters.

Rafalutionary · « **Reply #8 on:** April 11, 2007, 11:17:23 am »

I read Watchmen a while a go and I still haven't got me head round it, found it confusing but still very good.

Filler. · « **Reply #9 on:** April 11, 2007, 12:28:45 pm »

Quote from: Barney_Rubble on April 10, 2007, 04:59:51 pm

Read some pretty graphic novels in me time...

You might like 'Lost Girls' - Alan Moore's new book then

(co-written with his missus, Melinda Gebbie). Not sure if it's out on general release yet... read somewhere that the first 3 super-deluxe copies were going for £150,000 each! In an interview Moore was asked about his new book, and quickly dismissed the term 'erotica' for Lost Girls, preferring 'pornographic' instead.

Finn Soloman.. Moore lives up the road from me.. he was recently spotted in Sainsbury's by a friend of mine but was looking a little frailer apparently.

Armin · « **Reply #10 on:** April 11, 2007, 12:32:17 pm »

Quote from: Filler. on April 11, 2007, 12:28:45 pm

You might like 'Lost Girls' - Alan Moore's new book then (co-written with his missus, Melinda Gebbie). Not sure if it's out on general release yet... read somewhere that the first 3 super-deluxe copies were going for £150,000 each! In an interview Moore was asked about his new book, and quickly dismissed the term 'erotica' for Lost Girls, preferring 'pornographic' instead.

Thanks to Rob and Kath I got the chance to meet Alan when he gave a talk in Northampton. He's quite a character. He talked about 'Lost Girls' then and he sounded really enthusiastic about it. Quite a departure for him but he's not one to repeat himself.

Sad to hear he wasn't looking too good, he's a big man and looked anything but frail when I saw him. However the strain of wearing all that jewelry may be starting to tell.

mulfella · « **Reply #11 on:** April 11, 2007, 12:45:01 pm »

Used to read Batman and X-Men a lot.

As somebody said before, stuff like Dark Knight, Arkham Asylum and Killing Joke were excellent and help to redefine comics.

Was a big fan of Hellblazer too, John Constantine was a really dark character.

Rusty Oysterburger · « **Reply #12 on:** April 11, 2007, 01:54:39 pm »

Ahhh, I forgot about Preacher. Very good piece of work that. Can't believe they are gonna make a TV show about, in America especially. There will be outrage about it!

hooded claw · « **Reply #13 on:** September 17, 2007, 09:57:18 am »

Your favourites, now and as kids?

There a season on BBC4 under way, and with more and more comic characters making it to the big screen (Watchmen is now in production), which do you remember from childhood, and do you still read them?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/comicsbritannia/comics-britannia.shtml

Armin · « **Reply #14 on:** September 17, 2007, 09:59:05 am »

Anything by Alan Moore, especially V for Vendetta and Watchmen which were the first two I read. Preacher by Garth Ennis was pretty good.

PaislyShankley · « **Reply #15 on:** September 17, 2007, 09:59:39 am »

The Beano
The Beezer
Whizzer & Chips
The Dandy
Warlord
Fireball
Action

I remember all these comics at one time or another in my childhood.

Armin · « **Reply #16 on:** September 17, 2007, 10:31:26 am »

Yep I had Whizzer and Chips and the Beano for awhile, never really liked them all that much though. I used to like the war comics, Commando and Victor, 'Gott In Himmel!' etc.

Was much later that I caught onto stuff like Moore and Sin City etc.

Garstonite · « **Reply #17 on:** September 17, 2007, 10:36:07 am »

It's quite sad the amount of comics I have in my Mum and Dad's house still.

Finn Solomon · « **Reply #18 on:** September 17, 2007, 11:09:03 am »

Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Some of the best fiction I've ever read.

Okkervil · « **Reply #19 on:** September 17, 2007, 01:57:55 pm »

Faves now (and as a kid!)

Iron Man
X-Men
Spiderman
The Watchmen
Batman

+ anything Ditko really.

hooded claw · « **Reply #20 on:** September 17, 2007, 01:59:08 pm »

Anyone remember the ABC Warriors in 2000AD?

kitster · « **Reply #21 on:** September 17, 2007, 02:09:06 pm »

Love Red Meat - my favourite comic strip. The Film i designed a poster for has announced they are doing a Comic Book of it too - going to see if i can do a bit for it.

PaislyShankley · « **Reply #22 on:** September 17, 2007, 05:09:01 pm »

There was a comic strip in the 40s called 'Jane'. Jane was a saucy spy who for some reason always ended up in her stockings etc.

I'm not quite that old but I certainly remember the tv version of it with Glynis Barber in the 80s. It was like yer Mum's Grattan catalogue on the tv.

Terry de Niro · « **Reply #23 on:** September 17, 2007, 05:22:37 pm »

Loved reading this when I was a kid.

BIGdavalad · « **Reply #24 on:** September 17, 2007, 05:46:49 pm »

Quote from: Armin on September 17, 2007, 10:31:26 am

Yep I had Whizzer and Chips and the Beano for awhile, never really liked them all that much though. I used to like the war comics, Commando and Victor, 'Gott In Himmel!' etc.

Still occasionally buy Commando comics.

Viz is a monthly purchase too.

Ben_JP · « **Reply #25 on:** September 17, 2007, 05:58:10 pm »

One of the few I have left is Batman: The Killing Joke, although it is more a graphic novel than a proper comic.

Used to love Roy of the Rovers and the Beano. As I got older I collected a few of the Alien comics, such as Colonial Marines.

FinnishRed · « **Reply #26 on:** September 17, 2007, 06:09:27 pm »

The Adventures of Tintin is perhaps the only one I´ve ever liked.

Mimi · « **Reply #27 on:** September 17, 2007, 10:42:01 pm »

I never read any serious comics until I did a course on Comics this summer. We looked at how comics portrayed history, and the ones we examined were the following:

Art Spiegelman's Maus- Spiegelman interviewing his father for his experienes as a survivor of Auschwitz. It is a true classic in every sense of the word. Also a seminal text if you want to look at other graphic novels dealing with real-life situations.

Chester Brown's Louis Riel- if you want some Canadian history plus Brown is renowned for using Herge's clean line style of drawing in interesting ways.

Howard Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby: a young boy coming to terms with his own sexuality in the midst of the Civil Rights movement in the US.

Joe Sacco's Safe Area: Gorazde and Palestine- the first deals with the fate of a Bosnia town in the mid-1990s conflict and the second is Sacco's visit to the various refugee camps that compromise Palestine. The honesty in both texts is heartbreaking.

Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers: Spiegelman after Maus, and his reflection upon the 9/11 attacks and it is also an interesting collection of early comics history.

Phoebe Glockener's A Child's Life: a collection of Glockener's strips (which is superberly illustrated as she is a medical illustrator by profession) about her own history of sexual abuse and growing up on the streets.

Marjane Satrapi's Perespolis- which is coming out as a movie this year, about her childhood at the dawn of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how she leaves her family to study in Austria.

When I have time I would like to read Gaiman's work.

Mouth · « **Reply #28 on:** September 18, 2007, 03:29:55 am »

Quote from: stagger lee on September 17, 2007, 01:59:08 pm

Anyone remember the ABC Warriors in 2000AD?

They are still going, still written by Pat Mills and now drawn by Clint Langley who is a fucking awesome artist.

There is already a comics thread in here somewhere, which is directly responsible for me recently picking 2000AD again. I still find the drip drip feed of four pages a week very hard to take, it doesnt hold my interest the way a full book does. But the over all standard is better now than when I stopped reading it.

Anyone who enjoyed Preacher should look up The Authority - Kev books, also written by Garth Ennis. Its very fucking funny and does a good job of subverting the super hero genre. There are torrents out there for a lot of stuff, if you can be arsed reading stuff on a moniter.

mulfella · « **Reply #29 on:** September 19, 2007, 05:51:54 pm »

Batman, especially the Dark Knight stuff / Killing Joke etc

Hellblazer - turned awfully into the Constantine movie

X-Men, though that was all very silly in comparison to the above

Mouth · « **Reply #30 on:** September 20, 2007, 04:08:36 am »

Have to say I think Stan Lee came across as a bit of a snide in Ross' Ditko docu.

Filler. · « **Reply #31 on:** August 9, 2008, 08:09:10 pm »

A quick heads up for Alan Moore fans...

Comics Britannia

Saturday 09 August
10:00pm - 11:00pm
BBC2
3/3 - X-Rated: Anarchy in the UK

Armando Iannucci presents a series which explores the history of British comics. He looks at the new characters and strips which emerged in the 1970s and 80s to appeal to an older, more adult readership of comics, from Judge Dredd and Tank Girl to Viz and Watchmen. At the forefront of this comics uprising was writer Alan Moore, who reads from his works such as V for Vendetta and talks about his latest graphic novel, the controversial Lost Girls.

hooded claw · « **Reply #32 on:** August 9, 2008, 08:54:13 pm »

I've just read the first few chapters of Watchmen. Absolutely remarkable stuff.

Mouth · « **Reply #33 on:** August 9, 2008, 10:32:07 pm »

Pat Mills & Kev O'Neill also feature in tonights episode, and if anyone is interested in Moores Watchmen, they should give Mills & O'Neill's Marshall Law a read. Its a ruthless satire of mainstream Marvel/DC classic comic book heroes.

xavidub · « **Reply #34 on:** August 9, 2008, 10:33:55 pm »

Anyone who has never read 'Maus' should remedy the situation asap. One of the best works of literature ever written.

'Preacher' is also very good.

Rob Jones Maybe? · « **Reply #35 on:** August 9, 2008, 11:39:38 pm »

I love reading the well drawn ones when you've got them in front of you and they're well printed on thick, glossy paper. Overlooked by many and often for good reason but there are some crackers out there.

Is there anywhere in Liverpool that sells them? Other than Forbidden Planet, that is.

Rusty Oysterburger · « **Reply #36 on:** August 10, 2008, 12:36:57 am »

Quote from: Rob Jones Maybe? on August 9, 2008, 11:39:38 pm

I love reading the well drawn ones when you've got them in front of you and they're well printed on thick, glossy paper. Overlooked by many and often for good reason but there are some crackers out there.

Is there anywhere in Liverpool that sells them? Other than Forbidden Planet, that is.

World's Apart over the road from X in the City. Much bigger than Forbidden Planet

.adam · « **Reply #37 on:** October 3, 2008, 03:10:11 pm »

Have just bought Watchmen based on the recommendations here and other sites. Looking forward to getting stuck in to it.

Corkboy · « **Reply #38 on:** October 3, 2008, 04:56:10 pm »

Some great memories in this thread. I fucking LOVED 2000 AD when I was a kid. I collected all the "bionic" stickers in the vain hope that, when applied to the relevant parts of the body, they would actually make me bionic. Dredd, the Mekon, happy days.

Here's a cover from 1977 which was probably when I started with it.

Rob Jones Maybe? · « **Reply #39 on:** October 3, 2008, 06:32:13 pm »

Quote from: .adam on October 3, 2008, 03:10:11 pm

Have just bought Watchmen based on the recommendations here and other sites. Looking forward to getting stuck in to it.

£10 in most HMVs, loads of copies in the one in Southport. Bargain, and a classic.

If you like it, be sure to give V for Vendetta, From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a go. Same author and arguable equally good. All three shit over the film equivalents from varying heights.

Might want to wait til you've read it but anybody who has read and enjoyed The Watchmen, this video is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ONqFE1x23w