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Post by repulsionist on Feb 12, 2019 16:52:57 GMT -5
I definitely would like to bro-down with Box Brown after reading Is He For Real? I'm going to the library today to get his Tetris. Brown makes a good argument for how much Kaufman improved the fortunes of an ebbing entertainment in Professional Wrestling. His work with Lawler really inflamed the masses. I have faint recollection of reading about the Letterman event and seeing clips back in the early 1980s. I strongly remember Latka Gravas, and the history behind that characterisation is really illuminating as to what drove Kaufman's desire to perform. This is worth a read, if only to enhance the understanding as to why many of us here find rasslin' so endearing.
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Feb 13, 2019 11:07:19 GMT -5
I definitely would like to bro-down with Box Brown after reading Is He For Real? I'm going to the library today to get his Tetris. Brown makes a good argument for how much Kaufman improved the fortunes of an ebbing entertainment in Professional Wrestling. His work with Lawler really inflamed the masses. I have faint recollection of reading about the Letterman event and seeing clips back in the early 1980s. I strongly remember Latka Gravas, and the history behind that characterisation is really illuminating as to what drove Kaufman's desire to perform. This is worth a read, if only to enhance the understanding as to why many of us here find rasslin' so endearing. I read his Tetris and Andre The Giant books and had the library order the Kaufman book. I am looking forward to it. |
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Post by repulsionist on Feb 13, 2019 16:23:55 GMT -5
Tetris: The Games People Play, Box Brown (2016)
Another good and fun graphic novel. The 19th century history of Nintendo was eye-opening: "Work hard, but after that it's in God's Hand" or "Leave it to Heaven". Nice that Alexey had a happy ending, barring the events concerning his pal and colleague Vlad. Henk is a character, I'm sure. Made me a bit homesick for Seattle.
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patbat
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Post by patbat on Feb 14, 2019 10:55:22 GMT -5
Started reading Jeph Loeb's run of Superman/Batman after finishing his "Hush" Batman arc and his Legends of the Dark Knight early '90s Halloween specials. I think he might be my overall favorite Batman writer.
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Post by patbat on Feb 18, 2019 12:06:08 GMT -5
I might be a sap, but I am legitimately excited about all the upcoming DC Black Label trade reissues. And YES, before you ask, that includes the Frank Miller stuff.
ETA: Well, fuck
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Post by patbat on Mar 18, 2019 12:58:45 GMT -5
I really disliked Dark Nights: Metal, which was my first exposure to Scott Snyder's writing, but I'm liking The Black Mirror a whole lot more. Gonna check out Batman & Robin Eternal next.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Apr 4, 2019 16:56:40 GMT -5
Even More Bad Parenting Advice, Guy Delisle (2013)
I guess this is Tome 3 or Tome 4 in his parenting advice series. It bears diminishing returns. I verily enjoyed the first two. This one, meh.
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Post by patbat on Apr 4, 2019 20:01:25 GMT -5
Man, to be as influential as it is, the "No Man's Land" arc sure isn't very entertaining to read!
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Post by Superb Owl π¦ on Apr 4, 2019 20:03:38 GMT -5
Mister Miracle was the slap
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Post by sarapen on Apr 4, 2019 20:37:41 GMT -5
Man, to be as influential as it is, the "No Man's Land" arc sure isn't very entertaining to read! It's not? The novelization was actually rather decent, which I was surprised by since it's a freaking novelization of a comic book storyline. No, I haven't read the comic books it was based on. Huh, after checking it looks like the book was written by Greg Rucka. |
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Apr 7, 2019 18:12:21 GMT -5
Library got vols. 4, 5 and 6 of the Valerian complete collection and Iβve just finished vol. 4. The series kicked off (in 1967) with a story about the world going to hell in 1986, and with the actual eighties approaching, so with the actual eighties approaching Christin and MΓ©ziΓ¨res decided to go ahead and do a big set of linked stories diving into the difference between the world of 1986 in the first volume and the fast-approaching real-world year. Itβs pretty greatβa big chunk of it takes place in ca. 1980 Paris, so you get a ton of Mesrine: Public Enemy 1 NΒΊ 1-style fashions, chases in the MΓ©tro and Pompidou, etc. so itβs a lot of fun. Lots of great mind-warping stuff as Valerian has to juggle his disintegrating sense of reality with being displaced in time and telepathic communiquΓ©s from Laureline (Iβve been suffering from intense dreams recently so I really felt this part), science fiction melded with myth and alchemy, and great art throughout. Highly recommended, if a bit confusing because itβs an overstuffed time travel story with a bit of back-series continuity (and itβs been a long time since I read the earlier volumes). Also probably has the best explanation for why so much of the story takes place in the authorβs country (eschewing the outright jingoism of American and especially British sci-fi with a bit of self-mockery): And us Americans get perfectly caricatured, too: |
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Post by Superb Owl π¦ on Apr 11, 2019 9:27:35 GMT -5
patbat As requested, recent-ish Marvel reccomendations. Fair warning, I kind of shy away from some of the bigger name/crossover-y stuff, so this might not be the "big" stories, just stuff I enjoyed. Hawkeye - Matt Fraction/David Aja Immortal Iron Fist - Matt Fraction/Ed Brubaker/David Aja Daredevil - Mark Waid Ant-Man - Nick Spencer Vision - Tom King Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) - Kelly Thompson Ms. Marvel - G. Willow Wilson Squirrel Girl - Ryan North
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Post by sarapen on Apr 23, 2019 20:16:35 GMT -5
Hey, they rebooted Runaways again. Gert is alive again and rescued from her untimely death in the past. She doesn't know what Brooklyn Nine-Nine is! Oh, what wit.
Seriously, I feel like the original Runaways had a certain bite and verve that this one is trying to recapture. It's not terrible but it hasn't caught me immediately like the first series. I'll hang in there to see if this gets to somewhere interesting, or instead gets cancelled near the beginning like the last time Marvel tried to restart the series.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Apr 23, 2019 20:46:40 GMT -5
DC Universe now (as of the last 24 hours or so) has nearly everything DC has digitized available apparently, which means, in the past month, they've gone from having a fairly terrible selection to an absolutely overwhelming one. I need to figure out where to start because I honestly don't have a clue what to read; I haven't regularly read anything from DC since Kyle Baker's Plastic Man ended. I may end up with it like I am with Marvel Unlimited, functionally having an out-of-date pull list for the new additions every week.
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Apr 28, 2019 17:12:21 GMT -5
The Bojeffries Saga, Alan Moore (2014)
Collecting stories written in Warrior between 1983 and 1991, with a sort-of coda written for the compilation, this book is probably the dearest and most precious thing Moore has developed. Akin to The Munsters and Steptoe and Son this comic comic is a series of humourous observations about a council flat and its occupants. It's a fun book, but reading this comic requires attention given to the elliptical dialog.
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Post by sarapen on Apr 29, 2019 17:26:19 GMT -5
DC Universe now (as of the last 24 hours or so) has nearly everything DC has digitized available apparently, which means, in the past month, they've gone from having a fairly terrible selection to an absolutely overwhelming one. I need to figure out where to start because I honestly don't have a clue what to read; I haven't regularly read anything from DC since Kyle Baker's Plastic Man ended. I may end up with it like I am with Marvel Unlimited, functionally having an out-of-date pull list for the new additions every week. I think most of the stuff from Vertigo was good, or at least better than average. Umm, does this include Wildstorm? They were knocking it out of the park like around the turn of the millennium - The Authority, Planetary, WildCATs, another one I can't remember. I think only Planetary really paid off satisfactorily but it was fun while it lasted. |
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Post by Ben Grimm on Apr 29, 2019 17:58:03 GMT -5
DC Universe now (as of the last 24 hours or so) has nearly everything DC has digitized available apparently, which means, in the past month, they've gone from having a fairly terrible selection to an absolutely overwhelming one. I need to figure out where to start because I honestly don't have a clue what to read; I haven't regularly read anything from DC since Kyle Baker's Plastic Man ended. I may end up with it like I am with Marvel Unlimited, functionally having an out-of-date pull list for the new additions every week. I think most of the stuff from Vertigo was good, or at least better than average. Umm, does this include Wildstorm? They were knocking it out of the park like around the turn of the millennium - The Authority, Planetary, WildCATs, another one I can't remember. I think only Planetary really paid off satisfactorily but it was fun while it lasted. Ironically, that's the DC I've read the most of, and I mainly need pointers on what to read from the conventional superhero line. I've read almost none of it in the last 15 years. |
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Post by sarapen on Apr 29, 2019 18:29:28 GMT -5
I think most of the stuff from Vertigo was good, or at least better than average. Umm, does this include Wildstorm? They were knocking it out of the park like around the turn of the millennium - The Authority, Planetary, WildCATs, another one I can't remember. I think only Planetary really paid off satisfactorily but it was fun while it lasted. Ironically, that's the DC I've read the most of, and I mainly need pointers on what to read from the conventional superhero line. I've read almost none of it in the last 15 years. Ah dang, sorry, I've always been more of a Marvel zombie so I can't recommend a lot offhand. Umm, Red Son was decent, it's an Elseworld one where Superman landed in the USSR. I preferred the alternate history beginning where Supes was Stalin's most loyal officer because it got progressively more comic book-y by the end (Brainiac, Green Lantern Corps, etc). I definitely don't recommend any crossovers like Identity Crisis though. Oh yeah, The New Frontier was pretty good, it ties DC supers more into actual 1960s history, so there's a Vietnam War that Wonder Woman intervenes in and whatnot. Lots of people recommend All-Star Superman but personally it fell flat for me because apparently I didn't catch all the Silver Age callbacks. Wait, I just remembered one crossover that is both stupid but not terrible: JLA/Avengers. It's basically your schoolyard arguments over whether Thor could beat Superman but in comic book form, so kind of like a rehash of Marvel vs DC. But entertaining for what it was, which was DC and Marvel giving a loving handjob to their fanbases. |
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2019 22:06:48 GMT -5
Reading Berserk  |
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on May 5, 2019 17:03:23 GMT -5
Just finished The Bojeffries Saga (2014). Seeing that the last story was drawn in 2009, the post-series summing up does a good job of lightly lampooning the sillier aspects of the "that was then" surveillance/celebrity capitalism: tell-all book, lives of chaos raised up and integrated into publicly-visible society that go on to cause more chaos, documentaries narrated by toffs, television dramatisation of said tell-all book, and chat shows. Though Ginda is the most abrasive character, she does have the funnier lines. Raoul is consistently the most comic of all the family members. Some of his malapropisms are memorably funny. Festus's turn to fronting a goth band was not as funny as it was drawn and written to be. Recommended for those wanting to see Alan Moore flex a different brain muscle.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2019 1:43:11 GMT -5
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patbat
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Post by patbat on May 17, 2019 13:55:16 GMT -5
Reading Loeb & Sale's Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! and it is so damn '80s
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Post by Ben Grimm on May 17, 2019 15:25:00 GMT -5
Wanting some Ralph and Sue Dibny stuff, I read most of the Justice League Europe that was on DC Unlimited (I skipped crossovers). Fun book that I hadn't read at the time; the standout was probably the issue where the JLE and the Injustice League end up in the same French class. That was fun.
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Post by Celebith on May 20, 2019 20:13:53 GMT -5
I'm (half-way through) re-reading Umbrella Academy. I forgot how much of the stuff in the TV show wasn't in the first six-issue arc of the comic. And how much less of a mystery the comics were. Still enjoying them, though.
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Post by patbat on May 21, 2019 9:14:22 GMT -5
Started on the 2015 Star Wars: Darth Vader series on what Vader was up to between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. 'S good.
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Post by patbat on May 23, 2019 9:17:44 GMT -5
Started on the 2015 Star Wars: Darth Vader series on what Vader was up to between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. 'S good. Holy SHIT I am loving this series, despite Salvador Larrocca's terrible, obviously traced art. Vader's basically Evil Batman, and Dr. Aphra is maybe my favorite non-film character since HK-47. I'm definitely going to start the Dr. Aphra series after this, as well as check out the 2017 Dark Lord of the Sith series. Does anyone (maybe Superb Owl π¦? Ben Grimm ?) have any other favorite Star Wars comics I should check out? I've heard good things about both of the Darth Maul books ( Darth Maul and Son of Dathomir), but after that I'm in open water--other than the films and video games, I've never really checked out any other Star Wars media due to Sturgeon's Law. |
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Post by Superb Owl π¦ on May 23, 2019 11:27:11 GMT -5
Started on the 2015 Star Wars: Darth Vader series on what Vader was up to between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. 'S good. Holy SHIT I am loving this series, despite Salvador Larrocca's terrible, obviously traced art. Vader's basically Evil Batman, and Dr. Aphra is maybe my favorite non-film character since HK-47. I'm definitely going to start the Dr. Aphra series after this, as well as check out the 2017 Dark Lord of the Sith series. Does anyone (maybe Superb Owl π¦ ? Ben Grimm ?) have any other favorite Star Wars comics I should check out? I've heard good things about both of the Darth Maul books ( Darth Maul and Son of Dathomir), but after that I'm in open water--other than the films and video games, I've never really checked out any other Star Wars media due to Sturgeon's Law. The Vader series was really the class of the Marvel stuff, imo. I kind of fell off of it, so I don't know how good the newer series are. I thought the Han Solo limited series was fun too. |
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Post by Ben Grimm on May 23, 2019 11:39:04 GMT -5
Started on the 2015 Star Wars: Darth Vader series on what Vader was up to between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. 'S good. Holy SHIT I am loving this series, despite Salvador Larrocca's terrible, obviously traced art. Vader's basically Evil Batman, and Dr. Aphra is maybe my favorite non-film character since HK-47. I'm definitely going to start the Dr. Aphra series after this, as well as check out the 2017 Dark Lord of the Sith series. Does anyone (maybe Superb Owl π¦ ? Ben Grimm ?) have any other favorite Star Wars comics I should check out? I've heard good things about both of the Darth Maul books ( Darth Maul and Son of Dathomir), but after that I'm in open water--other than the films and video games, I've never really checked out any other Star Wars media due to Sturgeon's Law. Dr. Aphra has her own solo series that begins after the end of the first Vader series, and it's a lot of fun. There's also a second Vader series, set just after the prequels, that's good - I didn't like it quite as much as the first one, but still like it quite a bit. And the main (recent Marvel) Star Wars series is pretty good, if you need a OT main cast fix. Beyond that, things get complicated. In general, the quality level for the new Marvel series has been quite high - there have been a bunch of little minis lately as well (including a Solo-era Lando one) that are fun, if pretty far from essential. The old Marvel stuff is fun, but in a near-perverse way; it's sort of interesting to see the weird rabbit trails they went down when they were virtually the entire EU, and there was no real overall coordination. There's stuff that would never in a million years fly today, and while some of that is for the best, some of those stories are fun. The Dark Horse era is all over the map. I have a soft spot for some of it, like Dark Empire, that I recognize, intellectually, may have been bad for the mythos, but it was my gateway into both getting ongoing comics for the first time, back when I could first drive, and into Star Wars comics specifically, and as such I have a soft spot for it. I've read a lot more or less at random, and most of it is at least ok, some of it is good, some of it is pretty bad. Minis tend to be better than ongoings. I don't really remember specific stuff that well, aside from definitely read the Tag and Blink stuff. |
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Post by Superb Owl π¦ on May 23, 2019 12:00:09 GMT -5
Holy SHIT I am loving this series, despite Salvador Larrocca's terrible, obviously traced art. Vader's basically Evil Batman, and Dr. Aphra is maybe my favorite non-film character since HK-47. I'm definitely going to start the Dr. Aphra series after this, as well as check out the 2017 Dark Lord of the Sith series. Does anyone (maybe Superb Owl π¦ ? Ben Grimm ?) have any other favorite Star Wars comics I should check out? I've heard good things about both of the Darth Maul books ( Darth Maul and Son of Dathomir), but after that I'm in open water--other than the films and video games, I've never really checked out any other Star Wars media due to Sturgeon's Law. Dr. Aphra has her own solo series that begins after the end of the first Vader series, and it's a lot of fun. There's also a second Vader series, set just after the prequels, that's good - I didn't like it quite as much as the first one, but still like it quite a bit. And the main (recent Marvel) Star Wars series is pretty good, if you need a OT main cast fix. Beyond that, things get complicated. In general, the quality level for the new Marvel series has been quite high - there have been a bunch of little minis lately as well (including a Solo-era Lando one) that are fun, if pretty far from essential. The old Marvel stuff is fun, but in a near-perverse way; it's sort of interesting to see the weird rabbit trails they went down when they were virtually the entire EU, and there was no real overall coordination. There's stuff that would never in a million years fly today, and while some of that is for the best, some of those stories are fun. The Dark Horse era is all over the map. I have a soft spot for some of it, like Dark Empire, that I recognize, intellectually, may have been bad for the mythos, but it was my gateway into both getting ongoing comics for the first time, back when I could first drive, and into Star Wars comics specifically, and as such I have a soft spot for it. I've read a lot more or less at random, and most of it is at least ok, some of it is good, some of it is pretty bad. Minis tend to be better than ongoings. I don't really remember specific stuff that well, aside from definitely read the Tag and Blink stuff. Yea Dark Empire is simultaneously Fun, Ugly As Hell, and Everything That You Don't Want Episode IX To Be, But Things Were Different At The Time |
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Post by Ben Grimm on May 23, 2019 14:54:21 GMT -5
Dr. Aphra has her own solo series that begins after the end of the first Vader series, and it's a lot of fun. There's also a second Vader series, set just after the prequels, that's good - I didn't like it quite as much as the first one, but still like it quite a bit. And the main (recent Marvel) Star Wars series is pretty good, if you need a OT main cast fix. Beyond that, things get complicated. In general, the quality level for the new Marvel series has been quite high - there have been a bunch of little minis lately as well (including a Solo-era Lando one) that are fun, if pretty far from essential. The old Marvel stuff is fun, but in a near-perverse way; it's sort of interesting to see the weird rabbit trails they went down when they were virtually the entire EU, and there was no real overall coordination. There's stuff that would never in a million years fly today, and while some of that is for the best, some of those stories are fun. The Dark Horse era is all over the map. I have a soft spot for some of it, like Dark Empire, that I recognize, intellectually, may have been bad for the mythos, but it was my gateway into both getting ongoing comics for the first time, back when I could first drive, and into Star Wars comics specifically, and as such I have a soft spot for it. I've read a lot more or less at random, and most of it is at least ok, some of it is good, some of it is pretty bad. Minis tend to be better than ongoings. I don't really remember specific stuff that well, aside from definitely read the Tag and Blink stuff. Yea Dark Empire is simultaneously Fun, Ugly As Hell, and Everything That You Don't Want Episode IX To Be, But Things Were Different At The Time I just remember seeing this cover and knowing that I absolutely had to find out the story behind it:  |
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