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Post by Adminenkainen on Jul 30, 2015 16:23:58 GMT
Share here when you've read a good comic book!
I just recently finished Essential Spider-Man vol. 6. There's a lot of Gerry Conway-written material in there, so we're not talking really good comics, but I've always had a soft spot for the Tarantula, and this volume includes the first appearance and origin story for one of my favorite Spidey foes!
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Post by Adminenkainen on Aug 27, 2015 15:11:14 GMT
Finished Essential Spider-man vol. 7 and the first Marvel Fanfare trade paperback!
Amazing Spider-Man was sure hit or miss back then, but I sure prefer Len Wein to Gerry Conway. Wish Gil Kane had done more issues, but Ross Andru was pretty good. Enjoyed Marvel Fanfare more for the artwork, with early P. Craig Russell and Charles Vess work in it.
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Post by order99 on Aug 31, 2015 0:43:41 GMT
Gigantic fan of James Robinson.
When he's under Editorial Mandate for the latest "yes, you too" Crossover Event-his work suffers a bit. But give him free rein over some obsure property nobody's doing anything with at the time-And you get The Golden Age (which single-handedly revived interest in the JLA) and Starman (which made C-list villains like The Mist and Ragdoll into terrifying creatures indeed, turned the Knight Family into bona-fide A-listers, and made The Shade my all-time favorite character, ever!).
Robinson has this knack for taking DC's weird continuity shifts, tying them together and making them flow logically even while acknowledging exactly how Weird things get every now and then...and of course there's the amazing way that Robinson allows every character on the stage time to be multi-faceted and complex, trailblazing the way for later writers like Gail Simone and her wonderful Secret Six run.
Lastly, while many comic writers have a distinctive voice or an ear for dialgue, Robinson has this...poetry, a singular rhythm to his prose that just draws me in, every time I read it-it's hard to explain, but it's there, I can hear the words in my head and suddenly i've got a direct line to the Muses...
He's not the only writer I admire of course-Grant Morrison and his forays sideways into the Reality-Bent corners of the DC Universe (Doom Patrol) almost anything by Alan Moore, the aforementioned Gail Simone...but James Robinson just plain inspires me.
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Post by order99 on Sept 4, 2015 3:36:17 GMT
Oh, and as long as you're reading Marvel Essentials collections, I believe this series(Tales of the Zombie) was given an Essentials run: www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=182451 Stan Lee Concept, Steve Gerber doing most of the later tales, some wonderful backup stories, my first glimpse of Brother Voodoo and Black Talon...and everything that the Comics Code wouldn't let Marvel do in color was unleashed here in glorious Black-and-White-(Fredric Wertham who?  ). Not to mention most of the cover art by an early Boris Vallejo... Oh, here's a copy- www.amazon.com/Essential-Tales-Zombie-Vol-v/dp/0785119167 |
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Post by Adminenkainen on Sept 4, 2015 18:08:00 GMT
I'll have to take your word on how good that is for now, as my current Marvel-related goal is to finish Essential Captain America v. 3 4, the Steve Englehart years... |
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Post by order99 on Sept 5, 2015 2:07:23 GMT
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Post by Adminenkainen on Oct 13, 2015 18:30:29 GMT
I'm still sort of taking a rest break after getting out Supplement V. Still, I thought I'd share that I picked up a copy of Super Powers #5 this last weekend, the only issue of Jack Kirby's last mini-series for DC I've ever seen in person. Sadly, it was cheap because it smells of mildew, so it won't be going in my permanent collection. Glad to have read it, though.
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Post by Adminenkainen on Nov 7, 2015 13:36:20 GMT
Though most of my daily reading is still 1938-oriented, I've been quietly reading the 2010 Avengers vs. Atlas mini-series on the side. I don't know why I like Agents of Atlas as much as I do. I normally dislike retconning, and all of the Agents are the result of retconning. Still, there's something about characters with that much history, but not that much published history, that I find appealing. The fact that most of the mini-series is one long battle-misunderstanding between the Agents -- often referred to as the 1950s Avengers -- and the Avengers of 1964 makes it even better.
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Post by order99 on Nov 7, 2015 18:31:24 GMT
Could it be because of all of that perceived unused potential you saw in the original characters? Sometimes, retconning can be a force for good if done right!
Exempli Gratia- James Robinson revitalizing the Starman mythos, tying multiple past series with nothing in common but the 'Starman' title into a vast common tapestry of stories...turning the Shade from some throwaway Flash villain into a multi-faceted antihero and sometime mentor of Jack Knight...bringing the JSA back into popular memory and paving the way for a later JSA comic.
Grant Morrison taking some Showcase B-lister called Animal Man and making a huge, ground-breaking comic series with him.
Alan Moore Retconning the origin of Swamp Thing, inventing The Green and expanding the Future DC Supernatural side of things...bringing Cain, Abel and Eve back into fandom memory, along with such forgotten Heroes such as Sargon the Sorcerer and Congorilla? Forgotten villains like the Floronic Man reminding readers why they should be taken seriously? OH YEAH.
And all of those Public Domain Superheroes-The Twelve mini-series gives many of them a home in Marvel history, and Project Superpowers makes a whole new mythos (and company!) around them.
Now Retconning existing Icons because we have a new 'business model'? Making The Punisher a Patchwork Man or an Angel because we're bored? Spidey makes a Deal with The Devil because we fear change? LAAAAAAAAAME. But digging into the soil, unearthing and cracking open coffins liberating the Forgotten Ones, pouring the life-giving fluids down parched throats, sewing up costumes and giving those Who Deserved More Stories a great warm hug before sending them back out to the world anew? Yes, MORE OF THAT!
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). Not to mention most of the cover art by an early Boris Vallejo...