Comix tab
 

well, there's a movies tab, and a books tab, both of which are very cool ideas, but frankly, my favorite medium is comics. so it's high time we have a comic books tab (if there is already one, let me know and i'll just post there, i didnt see one.)

so to start off: here are the one's i've finished recently:

the megalomaniacal spiderman, by peter bagge, marvel:
"didnt i 'defeat' this lunatic (dr. doom) last week? what a revolving door our justice system has become!"
--written and illustrated by none other than pete bagge (hate, neat stuff, editor of wierdo for while). a very witty 'what if...' one shot that poses the question: 'what if spiderman read ayn rand, and it drove him mad?'
of course, it also functions as a very witty tribute/send up of spiderman's cocreator, steve ditco. the nutty creator of such classic characters as mr. a, and the question (moore and gibbons based the watchmen's rorschack roughly on the question).


nausicaa, of the valley of the wind, volume 1, by hayao miyazaki, viz, fifth time:
a good start to the story, excellent action/drama, and as expected from miyazaki, good art. but it's one that just gets better as it goes along, and it's volumes three and four in particular that make this my favorite manga, as well as my favorite comic of all time.

My latest comics reads:

Transmetropolitan ("Being a bastard works.") and The Authority ("We're going to have to go kill God."): both Warren Ellis, both fabulous, taking the idea of the superhero and pissing on it before molding it into something new and better.

The man is a god.

Dark Knight


*whilst picturing Marilyn Manson as Scarecrow... I must admit it has possibilities...*

I own over 3,000 comic books, but I haven't bought or read one in years.

Actually, I take that back: I did get Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns sequel, but before that it had been probably 1990 or 1991, when I was still collecting 'em.

>mary, i havent yet gotten around to checking out transmetropolitan or anything by ellis, though have heard a lot (word on the street :rolleyes: is that his work is quite good). did you check out top ten? also in the context of turning super heroes on their head, some others by moore that you may have heard of: the watchmen, and the somewhat older miracle man retreads (gaiman also wrote some, now i think the rights are being dueled over by mcfarlane and gaiman). if you havent already, i'd strongly recomend checking both out.

>toose, to which dark knight are you referring? dk2? the dark night returns? other?

>holden, for the sake of posterity, a couple questions. what type of comics were you into (i.e. -big two super hero stuff, old kurtzman era stuff, krazy kat/popeye/etc, french, manga, korean? why'd you stop reading?
so you came out of comic collecting stagnation to get dk2? kind of a dissapointing return, if you ask me....what'd ya think of it?

Angel

X-men

Captain America

Comix I read recently:

The Authority
Preacher
The Life and Death Of Fritz the Cat
Hate
Dork!
The Ultimates
Strangers in Paradise
Bone
Flaming Carrot
The Boondocks

and tons more that I can't remember.

There was a time when I planned on naming any theoretical son I might have, and get this: Spider Jerusalem.

Great comic. I really ought to stop by my local shop and pick up a few issues.

Ellis is great--if you like Alan Moore, I think you'll dig Ellis.

I haven't read Miracle Man, but I do love Neil Gaiman's stuff. And, of course, Watchmen is a classic, classic book. One of the best comics ever, up there with Dark Knight. But...

DK 2 was definitely a disappointment, after waiting so long to see it. Not half as well executed as TDKR, plus the added bonus of Carrie Kelley in a horrible cat suit with f*cked up ears and humongous rollerblades. Frank, what the hell?

You bet your ass you should, my friend. ;D "To me, my filthy assistants!"

DK2 was just wretched. I hated that comic so much.....

I never got to check it out.
There was a time when I was anxiously anticipating it, but it just took too long to come.
I guess I got wrapped up in the whole "Holiday" saga instead.

?'holiday' saga?
?

anyway, yes, i'd have to say dk2 is a bit disapointing, but not quite terrible (though the art and particularly the coloring are some of the most half-assed that i've seen(in a "much less than i'd expect from so-called 'professionals'" kinda way)). basically, my impression was that miller was going stricktly for the fan-service angle, which was both the comic's greatest strength and it's primary weakness. in other words, it had some great nostalgia value for golden age dc buffs, which in my book is a plus (very authentic portrayal of the always enjoyable plastic man, plus it's cool to see the atom, shazam (i always liked him better than supes), and company bouncing around). but on the other hand, very little substance beyond the derivative, and many of the retreads (the fact that batman and superman have their obligatory show down in the first issue, and that it was no more than one would expect of a scene thrown in merely to draw favor from it's association with what it was derived from) were just plain lame. of course, my problems with it dont end there, but still a decent example of miller doing what he has a nack for: having fun with cliches.

okay, mary, you're making ellis sound better by the minute, guess i'll have to check his stuff out sooner, as opposed to later.

some good one's mentioned by monkeypunch too...hate is one of my all time faves!-->did you get to check out bagge's recent take on spiderman and steve ditco (see my first post of the thread). havent read bone, but for some reason i always imagined it as being an early cerebus deciple (is it just the similar character designs that gave me this idea?). can you give a little more information?

My absolute favorite Comc Book is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Peter Jackson. It is an absolute masterpiece. I can't post a link directly to the comic book, but I can give you directions. www.ninjaturtles.com . Click on the link that says Comics to the right, and go to the bottome where it says. "To read the comic book, click Here." It really is good.:yup:

Yeah, the Dark Knight sequel was disappointing, but on one hand how could it have been anything but? The original is such a masterpiece, a sequel was automatically going to be a losing proposition by comparison. I didn't find it a complete waste, but overall a definite miss. Oh well.

I collected all sorts of comic books, though mostly Marvel & D.C. stuff. Some of my favorite series were Captain America, Groo the Wanderer, What If?..., Grendel, The Avengers, Sin City, Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, Howard the Duck, The Sandman...lots of stuff, I'm drawing a blank just now on others, and don't feel like digging out the boxes. I stopped because I got bored with them by in large, and because I happily started spending all my money on LaserDiscs instead.

Just got Phoenix: A Tale of the Future, by Osamu Tezuka, which is just incredible. If you liked the anime movie Metropolis, you owe it to yourself to buy this book.

studs kirby "the voice of america", by peter bagge
"the message is this: you made the mistake of your life when you hired that communist to write your music reviews and now you're gonna pay for it!!!"
if you've read some of bagge's other stuff, you know the drill, this should be available from fantagraphics, not as good as the totally amazing 'hate', but a fun collection of satyrical shorts and strips about a drunken, egotistical, libertarian talk-radio host. i think most of these were from bagge's 80's series 'neat stuff'. funny stuff.

Wow!!! I can't believe i haven't thought about starting this thread! I love comics :D :yup:

I just finished:

Birds of Prey #14

Flash Gordon

Deep Under

Batman : Year One
Batman : Year Two
Birds of Prey # 15 - 28

Garfield (about 23 of them)
Snoopy (3 of them)
X-Men (one)
Conan (one)
Archie (five)

i never realised how many comix i owned until now!!

I was reading Blue Monday and DeadEnders for a while until Blue Monday got hard to find and DeadEnders continued to suck.

I'm just now getting around to reading Astro Boy volumes 6 and 7, which are both really great, funny stuff. I also got the final Authority collection, and while the stuff about the New Authority, a group of superheroes hired to keep the status quo firmly in place, was hilariously spot on, I felt let down that at the end when the real Authority ships the President of the U.S.A. to Iraq, the artist copped out and didn't draw Bush as the prez despite various times he'd previously appeared in the book. I guess they copped out "post 9-11," which makes me not respect the artist very much, since The Authority was all about anarchistic political views and offensive humor. I hope the re-launch next year will be back to business as usual.....

Angel: Earthly Possesions :cool:

Asterix The Gaul :laugh:

Tin-Tin :cool:

Footrot Flats 14 :laugh:

Birds of Prey 29 - 35
Bought a couple of issues of Sandman

alright naisy! -->tintin is great, i just love herge's artwork. i recently read 'the cigars of the pharaoh'. classic stuff!

i just couldnt get fully into astroboy, monkeypunch. i got the first volume, and though i loved what i read of tezuka's 'pheonix' and 'metropolis', and did enjoy 'astroboy' some, i was hoping for a bit more continuity. good, but not as cool as my personal favorite vintage manga: sampei shirato's 'story of kamui'.

anyway, recently, i've read:
oneshot's by akira toriyama:
escape
pink
dragon boy
mr. ho

kajika, by akira toriyama

hikaru no go, volumes 1-15, by obatta.

all very fun stuff.

Smallville #1
Birds of Prey #39

Found old copies of the comic Tron and What If

Subscribed to Wizard Magazine ....received first one today.:D

wondering if anyone read 'Akira'. The manga which the anime is based on. Its huge and epic. Great read.

Another one worth reading is 'Fax from Sarajevo'. This is serious stuff. Its very emotional.

yeah, i read akira, and very thouroughly enjoyed it. so i'm asuming you've read it, aditya? what did you think? how'd it compare to the movie? read anything else by otomo?

havent read fax from sarajevo...but it sounds interesting. can you tell us a little more? would i be wrong in guessing it's along the same lines as joe sacco's 'palestine' and 'safe area grozne'? by the way, if you havent already, you might want to check those two out.

got the october issue of dragonball about three weeks ago. fun stuff...anyone else like toriyama's humor comics better than his action comics?

I'm currently rereading Evan Dorkin's Hectic Planet, even though there will probably never be another issue of it. I loved the alien hockey game issues, and the ultra-violent issue about the series' villain. Also, I've just read every issue so far of Grant Morrison's New X-Men. It's so good, it puts every other superhero book out there to shame.

-tin tin, volume two.

more tin tin. damn, now i'm gonna have to go out and find volumes 3-7, or however many...

-hikaru no go

ah, it's like a soap opera about chess, except about go instead,
and with ghosts.

-bremen, volumes 1-4

for a comic about crossdressing guys who want to become "the gods of rock and roll", this sure is square.

-yaiba, volumes 1-5

kind of like dragon ball meets ranma 1/2, but not as good as dragon ball.

-gyo, tankoban volume 1

alright! more great horror weirdness from junji ito (uzumaki). anyway, this time around, the theme is vacationers in a resort town overrun by fish with legs. how cool.

Lupin III Volume 1 - by Monkey Punch (not me, the guy I stole my name from!:D )

hmm, i think i heard a while ago lupin was getting an english release. who's publishing it? is it in the standard monthly issue format, or that trendy new tankoban style?

It's published by Tokyopop comics, and I'm not quite sure what a Tankoban is, but it's printed like a small paperback book of about 200 or so pages, and reding backwards, like the Dragonball comics that came out a few years ago....

yeah, that's a tankoban. and thanks, i ordered a copy of lupin volume 1 today at my comic store.

while i was there i also bought:

orochi: volume six -kazuo umezu, classic 60's suspense/horror manga. equal to anything in the genre today, the genre which umezu himself had a large hand in fostering. good stuff. also see: tomie and uzumaki, by junji ito, or hell baby, by hideshi hino.

dragon ball part 5, issue 7, now on to the introduction of king piccolo!

blade of the immortal, #74, damn, i cant believe i have to wait another month for more of this great, frustrating series.

alita (new) #4, hmm i was really satisfied with the ending of the original gunnm/battle angel series, so it seems kind of odd that he'd choose to retell the final two volumes (and perhaps extend beyond) as a divergent story line, but it's pretty good so far. i'm curious to see where it's headed. and of course, it's a welcome alternative to his dissapointing "aqua knight" series, so no complaints.

hate anual #3 -p. bagge: more hate, more great editorials and comics by bagge. what more could you ask for?

yeah #5 and 6 -p. bagge does a child friendly archy-style comic for dc's "homage" line (same as archy comics). illustrated by gilbert hernandez (love and rockets). this is unbelievable, and kind of disturbing. if i didnt know better i'd say this was a spice girls fanboy zine...

a friend of mine also just gave me some sam henderson comics (magic whistle), and a volume of love and rockets and penny century, by the hernandez brothers. damn, these should keep me busy for a couple days.

Tank Girl: The Oddessy. Imagine a retelling of The Oddessy, and James Joyce's Ulysses, but with a huge body count, cannibalistic movie producers, a kid with a TV for a head, talking kangaroos, and more perverse humor than you can shake a stick at, and you're STILL not ready to read this. I give this my HIGHEST reccomendation.

Thought I'd resurrect this one, bein's how I've read an a*sload of comics over the past few months.

So...

Live, damn you! LIVE!! :insert insane Smilie here:

Preacher - my first Garth Ennis, and I am in awe. I'm up to about #20, but am bulldozing through the rest.

The Invisibles - likewise my first Grant Morrison, and not quite so in awe. Some good stuff, but not quite what I'd hoped.

Weapon X - an interestingly told Wolverine-gets-his-admantium story. Very good.

The Sandman - a 2nd read, moving up through the collections. Makes me want to weep, it's so f*cking good.

300 - Frank Miller. Blew. Me. Away. Beautiful.

The Mask - interesting and crazy. This ain't Jim Carrey, folks.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2, Issues 1-5 - God, I love it. I don't think two sex scenes could ever disturb me more. I'd weigh in on the movie here, but that's another post for another thread. :insert menacing Smilie here:

There are others, but I can't think of them right now.

You're BACK?!? (Doing a stupid little happy dance) Welcome back!

Comix:

Reading X-Statix. It's a hilariously perverse marvel comic taking the piss out of the concept of the X-Men. A group of camera friendly mutants pretending to be superheroes, all pre-packaged for media consumption. They fight, argue, get stinking drunk, shag the hell out of each other, and very frequently get killed off in gruesome ways. All this, plus some eye popping art from Mike Allred. A must read.

did you ever read evan dorkin's official piss take on dc continuity convolution, monkeypunch? i dont remember the title, but it was a while ago, and it was totally hilarious; all the various batman and superman retcons taken out and battered black and blue, but all in good loving fun.

also, havent read that x-statix, but it sounds like you'd do well to check out the one shot spiderman issue pete bagge [neat stuff, hate] did for marvel last year, 'the megalomaniacal spiderman'. it's tough to find, but well worth the search. spidey reads ayn rand and goes nuts, just like steve ditco apparently. really a high point of superhero satire, in my opinion.

been a while since i posted here, but i havent read all that many comics lately. today though, i finally read the copy of 'electra' that my friend gave me a couple months ago. loved every panel of it, might be my new favorite by miller. sienkevitzch's messy art and miller's messy writing go together perfectly.

I did read that. Very funny, even if I really do wish Peter Bagge would get away from mainstream comix work and get back to the underground where we need him desperately!

Hey! Today's R. Crumb's birthday! (He's sixty) So I read some old Bijou Funnies books (My favorite strip was the sicko "Neato Keeno Time!", with Forky O'Donnell, a truly disturbing and hilarious character)and stared at women with large @sses in his honor! :laugh: Viva los Underground Comix! (Speaking of which, I need to get cracking on my own underground book, Zero Comix! I still only have three finished pages! :bawling: R. Crumb has nothing to worry about from me...yet. I wish. )

Recently:

The Hood - Brian K. Vaughn.

I wasn't expecting much from Marvel's Max titles (*cough Vertigoknockoff cough*), but I was surprised as hell by The Hood, the first Max comic I've read. Lots of action and an intense storyline that manages to be affecting as well as witty. And for Marvelites, the writer utilizes various Marvel characters and continuity, an integration that builds the tension and humor, rather than detracting from the story itself.

A damn good time, and highly recommended. :yup:

Yeah, Marvel's MAX comics are pretty lame, mostly. Alias was probably the best one, but it's getting canned, and re-written as a regular Marvel title, totally ruining why it stood out to begin with... :( On a side note, the only other MAX title I really dug was Steve Gerber's 5 issue Howard the Duck Miniseries. Was it as funny or as mind warping as the original 1970's masterpiece/Train-Wreck? No, but it was a fun desecration of a unfairly reviled character. (The HTD comic from the 1970's was NOTHING like the 80's movie version. It was clever and subversive, which the movie did away with...)

i'm pretty out of the loop as far as the big two go. the last time i actually bought or picked up a normal marvel or dc product was probably the 'age of apocalypse' retcon series, several years ago. i dont know anything about the "marvel MAX" line?

but is vertigo any good anyhow? i was under the impression that other than republishing a few old greats, like alan moore's classic 'v for vendetta' [one of my very favorite moore comics, right up there with watchmen and halo jones in my book], that it was for the most part just sandman and stuff trying to be like sandman?

AHA! I'm bringing back the Comix tab... even if I'm the only one who's going to post in it.

Last weekend I went into the city and bought a ton of comics, comix and graphic novels at Jim Hanley's Universe (the one near Penn Station). Actually, mostly just graphic novels.

I bought and immediately read Gary Panter's Cola Madness. I can't get enough of this guy, his stuff is a religious riot (by religious I mean the trancendental religion devoted to worshiping Jack Kirby).

I also got the latest issue of The Comics Journal, for Bill Randal's column and for the big, big Eddie Campbell interview (which I have to admit was a little disappointing).

The other one I read was el Borbah, by Charles Burns. This one was also a little bit disappointing, but then, it's pretty old and I like how Burns has matured as a storyteller since doing this series in the early 80's. The artwork's great. Superficially this is a hard boiled crime fiction, but the story and dialog are so very farcical that more than anything, one can say this is about disgorging and assimilating a vast array kitchy iconography from 50s/60s/70s subculture. The title character himself is a wisecrackin' detective who talks like Mickey Spillane and rastles like el Santo.

Edit: El Borbah:

http://www.nwlink.com/~xcarriex/elborbah.jpg

Oh, I'll post. I love comix!

So anyways, lost my favourite comic book store recently, so I am reading pretty much whatever i can find, which is mostly mainstream stuff. Re-Reading Watchmen again, and Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's comic the Ultimates is pretty damn good, so is Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's new Superman series. A really weird, retro take on him, to be sure, but it's a lot of fun so far. Also Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men book. very cool.

Just read Heavy Liquid. This is the first that I've read by Paul Pope but I'm excited to read more.

Just finished Powers Forever, which was fantastic. Really digging the powers stuff that I have gotten my hands on, and, it appears there is a lot more to be had...

I also broke out my Ronin originals the other day, and will read that soon...

Identity Crisis - Great series until the lame ending.

Army of Darkness - This comic book is full of great art, blood and hilarious one liners. Usually 4 different covers to choose from for each issue. Great read for fans.

If you can find it, read the One Trick Rip Off by Paul Pope next. It's my favourite of his books.

I'll see if I can get that at Hanley's in a couple weeks. Heavy Liquid is a lot of fun. Pope's art kind of reminds me of a more pulpy, processed-looking Iou Kuroda, you should definitely check out the Viz edition of his series Sexy Voice and Robo. It's easilly the best manga that's been brought over in the last couple years.

Infinite Crisis #4 - Geoff Johns is the best writer in comics today.-

I'm reading The Invisibles right now. Recommend something.

Torso, Brian Michael Bendis
Invincible, Robert Kirkman
Watchmen, Alan Moore
Kingdom Come, Alex Ross/Mark Waid

Hey Garrett, how come we never see you around here anymore? And how is the invisibles? Personally I say stay clear of Brian Michael Bendis until you've read some other stuff, he's strictly nonessetial. Try Black Hole, by Charles Burns, or if you're in the mood for good manga, go pick up Sexy Voice and Robo, by Iou Kuroda or Blue - Kiriko Nananan:

http://www.ponentmon.com/new_pages/e...blue/cover.jpg

I just started Osamu Tezuka's Buddha and Bacchus, by Eddie Campbell.

Has anyone else read this? I'm not sure how to describe it without it just sounding like a really over the top horror story along the lines of Cronenberg or Lynch, which it isn't at all. I guess you'll all just have to take my word for it when I say what a great comic this is.

I try to stop in every once in a while to read latest posts of my favorite users. To be honest, there isn't any one particular reason why I don't come around more often. I'm really not around the computer as much as I used to be.

The Invisibles is an old favorite, and I pick it up now and again when I've hit a dry spot for reading material.

Read the first five volumes of the collected Bacchus (volume four was a bitch to find, and easilly the worst of the volumes so far), currently going through volume 6 and 100% by Paul Pope. Not too long ago read Heartbreak Soup (short stories) by Gilbert Hernandez, Skin Deep by C. Burns, and a couple of Clowes graphic novels: Ghost World and David Boring. On new comics I read Issue 1, Batman Year 100 by Paul Pope, issue 2 is hard to get. Reread some chapters from volume 1 of Battle Angel which I am considering getting rid of from my collection (long ago ran out of space on my book shelves and am now trying to thin the herd of books, graphic novels and cds that I don't want).

Comics:

Re-Reading all of Peter Bagge's "Hate" comics, that's probably my favourite comic ever. I have to say that Peter Bagge was at one point the gutsiest artist in the underground scene of the 1990's, there are moments in Hate that escape the humour genre altogether and will just shock the hell out of you. I haven't enjoyed any of his newer material since Hate ended though.

The current run of Daredevil by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark is fantastic. Very psychotic. Matt Murdock, who is also Daredevil, is put in prison, and his law partner is murdered during a visit, so he goes apesh*t and plots to violently take down all the prison gangs who were involved. Plus, the Punisher purposefully gets himself arrested to get into the same cell block. Daredevil hasn't been this good since Frank Miller wrote it.

Oh, and the current Superman comics are fun, very loopy. Lex Luthor is stock piling Kryptonite under the city to keep Superman powerless, and for another goal we don't know yet. It's light and fun, like Superman comics should be.

Finished Preacher Volume 1

Astonishing X-Men Volume II was pretty damn good, if a little nonsensical...

Reading V for Vendetta again...

The Reason strips and Apocalypse Nerd don't come close to the humor and meanness of Hate, but I still enjoy em. I question whether it's a fair comparrison though, since much of his more recent work is shorter and basically a political editorial or reportage in comic strip form, so they're bound to be a lot less fun than the Hate stuff almost by definition.

That said, I still get a lot of enjoyment from these more recent comics, even though I don't subscribe to Bagge's libertarian arguments, and they're far, far supperior to the strain of "bash greedy, war-mongering republicans"/"bash flip-floppin, naiive democrats" cliches that dominate political cartoons. I particularly liked the pieces he did on "the Infommercial Award Show" and his profile of Alan Keyes in the first Hate Annual(2000). And Marvel's cancellation of his "Incorrigible Hulk" story is a crime.

Calexico + Iron & Wine

Fantastic concert. First Iron & Wine did an acoustic set, then a plugged in set. Then they did a couple of songs together with Calexico. And then a fantastic Mexican singer called Salvador Duran did a couple of songs acoustically and I do believe that he might have gotten the biggest applaudes that night. And then Calexico entered the stage and was marvellous. It was a long concert and since it was in Copenhagen and I had to catch the last train back to Sweden I didn't see it until the end. So I bet they played "He Lays in the Reins" after we'd left. But it was a very very good concert.

Ahh! Watch the spoilers, bro!

Oops. Wrong thread.

Lets see. Since my last visit, I bin reading volumes of Astroboy and One Piece. Astroboy= good, One Piece = good pictures, boring episodic writing.

I also picked up some volumes of Lupin III, by Monkey Punch (no, not that Monkey Punch). I've only skimmed these, but man, Monkey Punch's artwork is phenomenal. The anime version is funny, but it completely fails to do his incredible, eccentric-yet-articulately-crafted linework justice.

Read a few issues of Berlin, by Jason Lutes. Is okay, not something I can read in large doses, so 20 page issues are a convenience.

I just read 8 Ball by Dan Clowes. ALthough I'd read a few bits & pieces before, I hadn't noticed the way in which his stories were arranged, the type of details he chose to present. Being someone who messes with writing, his style appealed to me in that you don't need to be over the top to attract readers.

Liked the artwork too.

Currently reading Fables, which is a really great, twisted little comic, and it's spin-off, Jack of Fables, which gives the series' loutish anti-hero, Jack, his own story, and is also a great satire on Walt Disney.

I like Dan Clowes. Which 8 Ball story did you read? (8 Ball is just like an open forum that Clowes uses for all his comics, but some issues are just 1-shot dealies and others serialize his graphic novels like ghost world and david boring.

It was... hmm, I forgot to check the number. It had MCMXLVI in it, but a quick google search isn't helping. I shall have to procure.

Been a while since I posted here...

I read through a good deal of The 'Nam, recently. Old 1980's Marvel book. The first twelve issues are brilliant, then when the series' original artist, Michael Golden, left and took his idiosyncratic art style with him, the book suffered. The art became bland and amatuerish, and I lost interest despite the fact that the writing was still good.

Also plowed through the entire run of Preacher again, cause you can never read that too many times.

lots of manga. picked up hakai (naoki yamamoto: sex, psychic powers, two waldo (of where's waldo) lookalike thugs....), and have very slowly been working on it.

http://www.matsuosuzuki.com/books/im.../t21_hakai.gif

Re: Comix tab
 

DC: The New Frontier volume 1, written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke. I haven't read a mainstream comic that's as good as this in a long long time. It seems to be a sequel of sorts to James Robinson's epic miniseries the Golden Age, and also it seems to round out the unofficial trilogy of revisionist super-hero books which ends with Alex Ross' apocalyptic Kingdom Come.

Re: Comix tab
 

Sometime before June last year I stopped reading comics but since January this year I've gone through a couple. Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan occurs in the aftermath of a terrorist bombing that doesn't effect anyone in the story directly. The protagonist is an Israeli taxi driver probably in his late twenties who is informed by a female soldier that his estranged father may have died in the bombing, and the two of them go about trying to find out what happened to his dad (him reluctant and sceptical, her the desperate child/lover). It has nice full color artwork but while there are some ambiguities that lend shading to the characters' behavior it's not that complex or amazing. It was fun while I was reading it in the library but not something that I was thinking about for the rest of the weekend after I put it down.

I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason is even better but still not quite great. It's a brief but convoluted time-travel epic with a somewhat dry/schematic feel but still manages to be somewhat touching.

Re: Comix tab
 

I've been reading fewer and fewer comics lately. The "big Two" are completely unreadable, bogged down in endless confusing crossovers, and even books I really liked have seen their quality decline. (Looking right at you, Daredevil...)

Last comics I've read were:

The Umbrella Academy - this is just batsh*t crazy stuff. It's probably the most insane comic since Grant Morrison's series Doom Patrol. It moves along at a brisk pace for it's six issues, but it isn't untill you stop to think about what you've just read that it hits you, this is absolutely genius. An emotional sucker-punch wrapped in a super-hero story.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 - Joss Whedon and his crew (Drew Goddard, and Brian K Vaughn) have done the impossible and made the first really great "licensed" comic book series. It seems like a logical continuation of the series, with some shocking plot twists and major character development. Joss Whedon has stated that once this series ends, "season 9" is already in the works.