Last Comic Book You Read 1-10

[The Real MPD]

1st Issue Special #8/The Warlord #1-28 - 9

[THE KILL]

The thing with Morrison for me is basically that he'll forever get a free pass because he wrote Arkham Asylum. That book seriously operates at an artistic level that not even Alan Moore ever really got to.

Lol wat... I have read Arkham Asylum, but I guess I must have missed something... it is well written, but to me it felt as if it had mainly been relevant at the time when it was published. A broken Batman is just not that special anymore, and for me it seems a bit dated for that reason. Watchmen, to take the most obvious example, still feels incredibly fresh. What is it that makes you value AA so much?

Re: the whole Holy Terror debate, once again it was a good, but not very good exploitation comic; if there was anything I didn't like about it it was the fact that it was at times a rehash of Sin City clichées and, of course, the horrible way that Miller draws people nowadays (fuck how can he look at his drawings and not go "that's some extremely ugly fuckers I just drew there". My god, look at their hands Frank). As a German, the political ideology behind it felt refreshingly repulsive; just like Miller said, it's a piece of propaganda, and as such, it's rather entertaining. I guess 6/10 is in order.

[spacehamster]

What is it that makes you value AA so much?

I have an e-mail exchange with a friend about it somewhere that could probably fill about ten pages. None of it has anything to do with the idea of a "broken Batman", of course that's been done to death since then and was never particularly interesting in the first place. I have a hard time coming up with good specifics to illustrate what I mean just off the top of my head because there was so much once we started digging, but one thing I remember is that we found that it can be read, among a lot of things, as an attempt to merge the ideas of C.G. Jung and Aleister Crowley (Batman's rogues basically being "shadows" in the Jungian sense/all-pervading references to Crowley's Tarot throughout.) But that's just one aspect of it that's interesting. Specifically as a comic book, what's always impressed me most about it is how it always rigorously processes all its ideas simultaneously and interactively at the level of text and visuals in a way that I've honestly never seen in any other book before or since, including everything else I've read by Morrison or McKean. I really doesn't matter at all to me that it's a Batman comic, although I also love what it does with all of those characters, especially Two-Face - if you just see it as a story about a broken Batman, honestly, you're not even scratching the surface.

[THE KILL]

What is it that makes you value AA so much?

I have an e-mail exchange with a friend about it somewhere that could probably fill about ten pages. None of it has anything to do with the idea of a "broken Batman", of course that's been done to death since then and was never particularly interesting in the first place. I have a hard time coming up with good specifics to illustrate what I mean just off the top of my head because there was so much once we started digging, but one thing I remember is that we found that it can be read, among a lot of things, as an attempt to merge the ideas of C.G. Jung and Aleister Crowley (Batman's rogues basically being "shadows" in the Jungian sense/all-pervading references to Crowley's Tarot throughout.) But that's just one aspect of it that's interesting. Specifically as a comic book, what's always impressed me most about it is how it always rigorously processes all its ideas simultaneously and interactively at the level of text and visuals in a way that I've honestly never seen in any other book before or since, including everything else I've read by Morrison or McKean. I really doesn't matter at all to me that it's a Batman comic, although I also love what it does with all of those characters, especially Two-Face - if you just see it as a story about a broken Batman, honestly, you're not even scratching the surface.

Sounds very interesting - I've just ordered a printed copy, I only read a scan before and obviously I read it in a very superficial way (although I'm not much into esoteric bullshit like Tarot cards etc, so mostly I simply ignore stuff like that if it comes up in films or comics).

As for the rest:

The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones 9/10
Even better the second time around, apparently I'd missed many of the unifying themes when I read it the first time. I even enjoyed the artwork this time, which takes a little getting used to IMHO; but I hadn't read much 2000AD before.

Batman VS Spawn 4/10
I admit I used to enjoy Todd McFarlanes drawings when I was a little shaver, but nowadays I think they pretty much suck. Well. The story is largely shite as well, but if you read it in a sauna it doesn't matter much if you keep interrupting yourself all the time to check out nekkid people.

The Invisibles Vol 1 9 to WTF/ 10
Amazing; takes a little getting into, but then there's a wealth of themes and allusions to enjoy. Although I keep wondering whether it all adds up to something; reading Morrison I often get the impression that he (brilliantly) makes it up as he goes along. Bonus points for having the Marquis de Sade showing up.

Baltimore: The Plague Ships, Volume One 7,5/10
Nice, but I'd have preferred it if Mignola had drawn it himself; I haven't seen much other artwork by Ben Stenbeck, but to me his stuff looks a bit like a less refined copy of Mignola's style; it's good, but rather generic. Good pseudo b-comic, but frankly, I don't understand why people rave so much about Mignola's writing in this one; it's a basic revenge story with vampires and a WWI background.

Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels 8/10
See above, but I thought the main character was more interesting.

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects 9/10
Great artwork by Mignola himself and awesome surreal short stories.

The Complete Concrete 9/10
For some of you it might not be as fresh as when it was released, but for me it's still so different to almost any other comic out there. The characters feel so real and Concrete's musings made me laugh out loud a couple of times.

Concrete, Volume 7: The Human Dilemma 10/10
Just fantastic on every level. Paul Chadwick's fucking awesome.

[spacehamster]

(although I'm not much into esoteric bullshit like Tarot cards etc, so mostly I simply ignore stuff like that if it comes up in films or comics).

Well, if you ignore all of that, I guess it's just a story about Batman stumbling through dark hallways and fighting a bunch of bad guys.

But really, AA treats the esoteric/occult concepts as a different approach to psychology, it has nothing to do with using Tarot cards to predict the future or any such nonsense.

[danox3]

Just bought myself Sandman Season of Mists graphic novel. Sure I could go to my parents, and dig out the issues, but it was an impulse buy. Reading it again this weekend.

[The Real MPD]

The Barry Windsor-Smith Archives: Conan Vol. 1 - 8

[james]

no dude its cool you can just dl the movie

[james]

umesh that sounds like a mystery caper that only a chronic inebriate with magic visions can solve

[Iron Goldie]

no dude its cool you can just dl the movie

Seriously, one of the most beautiful works of literature that exists and my county is so ass backwards they not only owned only one copy but they let some meth head STEAL it.

Yeah, it's not like you can't go out and buy a comic you hold in such high regard or anything...

And I chuckled at the movie comment.

[Honky Kong 64]

Batman Inc. Leviathan Strikes - 9/10

Uncanny X-Force #18 - 8.5/10

Batman #4 - 9/10

Batman the Black Mirror complete - 7.5/10

Something about the way Snyder writes American Vampire and his run on Detective Comics really bothers me and prevents me from scoring those comics higher. Although what he is doing on Batman proper is hitting on all cylinders...thank goodness.

[Honky Kong 64]

Oh yeah that Spaceman title on Vertigo is awesome...dudes that did 100 Bullets

[spacehamster]

Oh yeah that Spaceman title on Vertigo is awesome...dudes that did 100 Bullets

+1

[danox3]

The Barry Windsor-Smith Archives: Conan Vol. 1 - 8

[Gay for Cock]

I had 2 issues of From Hell years ago that I ordered from Kitchen Sink Press. I guess that's another series I need to add to my list of things to read. Did anyone ever read Black Hole by Charles Burns?

[ibn Horowitz]

charles burns's art makes me feel ill, i guess in a good sort of way

Habibi - 5/10
very pretty, really liked the narrative style and the sort of heavy-handed combination of the story with quranic and biblical stories, really good, cartoony action sequences too
still, way too long, really self-indulgent, and very poverty/torture-pornish at times, which is pretty off-putting

[THE KILL]

Did anyone ever read Black Hole by Charles Burns?

Got it from the wife for my birthday. I'm not a particularly big fan of Burns' art style, but BM has a creepy, neurotic, and surreal atmosphere and a nice flow. 8,5/10 man!!

[THE KILL]

Supreme - Story of the Year 10/10

You have to love old-school super heroes to enjoy this one, but if you do, it's almost perfect. The only thing I didn't like about it is that until the last couple of chapters (Chris Sprouse - not as good here as in Tom Strong, but still great) the art is typical Image-90s-style meaning they suck shit. Has "retro-chapters" in it that were made to look like Golden Age-comics (with peudo-yellowed paper!)/ were drawn by Rick "Swamp Thing" Veitch and a thousand other great things.

[Iron Goldie]

no dude its cool you can just dl the movie

Seriously, one of the most beautiful works of literature that exists and my county is so ass backwards they not only owned only one copy but they let some meth head STEAL it.

Yeah, it's not like you can't go out and buy a comic you hold in such high regard or anything...

And I chuckled at the movie comment.

No, I have it. I meant in terms of introducing kids to it, getting new people into it. Every branch of the library here should have 5+ copies.

Fair enough. And I agree, stealing shit from a fucking library is lower than scumbag low.

[spacehamster]

Yeah, I had to stop reading that after three questions. Oh well. Fraction rules, not his fault the interview's stupid.

[Honky Kong 64]

Yeah, I had to stop reading that after three questions. Oh well. Fraction rules, not his fault the interview's stupid.

I love Casanova.

[badgevvrecker]

Thor would gaze on Mastodon with total disdain. Life metal.

starts and ends with that demo with their first vocalist. i can see the appeal, but it's not for me.

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

[Gunther]

you dudes should read chew, because it is awesome.

you probably already have but i didn't know until recently so get off my fucking back already.

[The Real MPD]

The Walking Dead 86-92 - 7.5

[The Real MPD]

The Barry Windsor-Smith Archives: Conan Vol. 2 - 10



holy shit does this bring back memories.