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    Graphic Novels

    Happy Free Comic Book Day everyone!

    Londoners are lucky as you can pick some up at your local library. For everyone else, it's a schlep to your nearest participating comic shop. Even better, if your town has more than one so you can multiply your freebies. Equally, partners and children can be dragged along to maximise the amount of comics you can get.

    There is generally a good and varied selection if you get there early enough. It's not just marvel and dc stuff. It's an excellent opportunity to try something new without commiting to buying it. There are always loads of kids' (normally dubbed 'all-ages') comics and that's what we tend to go for. (My comic reading habits have changed dramatically since having a son). In the last couple of years, the free comic book day samplers of Scooby doo team up and dc super hero girls have been good enough to commit to buying regularly. (Although I do tend to buy the collected trade paperbacks rather than the individual issues). Hilda by Luke Pearson was another excellent find. A beautifully drawn and designed comic set in a fairy tale world which, to my mind, should be a modern children's classic.

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      I've spent the last few months reading Alan Moore's Providence. I've just finished the last two issues. Providence has been called both a prequel and a sequel to Moore's other Cthulu Mythos comics – The Courtyard and Neonomicon. I wish I'd known that beforehand. The first ten issues stand alone from these two previous comics. They are utterly brilliant. Providence has been called 'The Watchmen of horror comics' and the parallels are definitely there. It's such a well-crafted comic, with many of the visual narrative techniques that Moore first used in the eighties. It's complex world building a la Watchmen, incredibly well-researched and has text pieces at the back of each issue to add to the Watchmen analogy. And in Jacen Burrows, it looks like Alan Moore finallyhas his Dave Gibbons for the 21st century, an artist who is happy to follow Moore's notoriously detailed panel descriptions to the letter

      I'm not a Lovecraft fan, in fact I know very little about him. However, I didn't feel like this detracted from my enjoyment of the series. There is a fan-written blog with annotations for every issue, detailing every single Lovecraft reference. I did look at it a couple of times and it certainly helped but I didn't want to get too bogged down in all the annotations and references. The story-telling was superb and I just wanted to enjoy it for what it was – a brilliantly crafted comic. I've been an Alan Moore fan since the 80s (although I can't claim to have read even half of his comic output) and it was brilliant to see how good he still can be.

      However, the last two issues that I have just read. What the fuck? In my opinion, Alan Moore's endings have always been the weakest part of his stories. And the same can be said of Providence, but more so. After issue 11 I had to go running back to the annotations website. It seemed to require a detailed knowledge of the life of HP Lovecraft and of his later acolytes too. Issue 12 then brought in a lot of hitherto unseen characters who I discovered were from his previous two Lovecraft comics, The Courtyard and Neonomicon.

      A shame as, as I said, the first ten issues were amazing but, given the last two issues, I don't know if I could recommend it to anyone but an HP Lovecraft fan or the most diehard Moore fan. He's still a bloody genius though and we should treasure him while we've still got him. It was announced at San Diego that he and Kev O'Neill are doing a final League of Extradinary Gentlemen and this will be his 'retirement project.' Now he's said he's going to retire from comics before but, I don't know, I think this time he might just do so. Unless another large tax bill comes along.
      Last edited by Jon; 03-08-2017, 00:29.

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        Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
        The Complete Bloom County is in the Humble Bundle at the moment.
        And this week it's a fantastic Fantagraphics Humble Bundle.

        Probably my favourite comic publisher, they've got some great titles included. The most recent Love and Rockets volume for example. (And other Los Bros Hernandez stuff too). I've always liked their comic strip anthologies and these are represented by early Krazy Kat and Peanuts collections.

        I won't be buying it, no matter how ridiculously cheap it is as I still can't get my head around reading comics digitally (or books, for that matter). The only comic I sometimes used to read online was Hip Hop Family Tree, back when it started on boingboing a few years. Ironically, Hip Hop Family Tree was then picked up by Fantagraphics and volume 1 is part of this week's bundle.

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          Action comics #1000 is out tomorrow!

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            Read the Providence TPBs and agree with Jon.

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              I'm glad you gave them a go, sw2. There's a lot to admire and, indeed, love in that series, despite its unsatisfactory ending. Are you a lovecraft fan?

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                Happy free comic book day everyone!

                Top tip for next year. Get there early.
                Last edited by Jon; 05-05-2018, 11:32.

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                  Steve ditko dead, aged 90. I think he worked up to nearly the end, although in advertising, not in comics, which he hadn't worked in since, I think, the 1980s.

                  Those early lee/ditko spiderman comics were my gateway drug into comics as a child and rarely has a superhero comic been better, in my opinion. His reclusiveness, his politics and general shunning of the limelight (in complete contrast to his spiderman co-creator, Stan Lee) make him, for me, the most interesting of comic book creators. If you're interested, a good starting point is Jonathan Ross' "In search of Steve Ditko" on YouTube.

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                    I've been reading comics a bit more regularly these past two years or so. Nothing new, mostly just stuff I've acquired over the years and never got round to reading until recently. I thought I'd highlight some of them in a few posts.

                    Starting with X-Men Grand Designs by Ed Piskor.


                    I absolutely love Ed Piskor. He does an amazing youtube comics channel with another comic book creator, Jim Rugg. (They prefer to call themselves cartoonists, not artists). The channel is called Cartoonist Kayfabe (they are big wrestling fans too). Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/c/CartoonistKayfabe
                    There is such a wide variety of videos up there you're bound to find something you like.

                    You might know Ed Piskor from his Hip Hop Family Tree comics. Certainly, that's how I first came across him, on the boingboing website. He's not the kind of creator who would normally work for Marvel or DC but he was a big X-Men fan growing up so he pitched X-Men Grand Designs to Marvel a few years ago to Marvel and they ran with it.

                    It's kind of his love letter to the X-Men, I guess. What he does is take all of the X-Men stories ever told, from the 60s up to sometime in the 90s, including all of the flashbacks and retcons and stitches all of the continuity chronologically together into one linear storyline. It's a 6 issue run but I only read 3 issues. It's quite good if you're interested in Marvel history (plenty of footnotes at the back of each issue) but it's not the most thrilling read and continuity has never been my thing. Nor was I ever massively into the X-Men, although I have read plenty of Chris Claremont issues plus many 60s Lee/Kirby reprints.

                    I read Grand Designs purely for the creator. In a way, it is like Piskor's Hip Hop Family Tree but he's chronologically retelling the history of the X-Men rather than the history of hip hop. They also share the same retro art style, design and aesthetic. If you look at these corner boxes you'll get the vibe he went with:



                    In conclusion, it works better as a historical document than an actual story. Ed Piskor said he'd love to get new fans on board to read it as it tries to make sense of decades of continuity but I can't see X-Men Grand Designs being any kind of jumping on point for fans of the films who were curious and wanted to try and read the source material.
                    Last edited by Jon; 28-07-2021, 09:41.

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                      I've recently read a few Jeff Lemire comics. Creators like Lemire mostly write creator-owned books because they obviously stand to make a ton of money if their comic gets picked up by Netflix et al. Writing for Marvel or DC doesn't facilitate this so it is no longer the smart option for the talented comic-book writer. Cf Robert Kirkman, Brian K Vaughan and Mark Millar.

                      Black Hammer - a really excellent superhero comic. The superheroes are all homages to golden age heroes. They are trapped in a small rural Canadian town. It really works. You don't have to be a fan of superhero comics to enjoy it. Highly recommended.

                      Plutona - a bunch of kids find the body of a dead superhero in the woods. It's OK. A bit of a Stephen King/Breakfast Club vibe to it. Didn't make it to the last issue though.

                      AD After Death - so this was only drawn by Lemire and written by Scott Snyder. I'd heard of him (he has written an acclaimed run on Batman) but I'd never read anything by him. Quite prose-heavy but that's OK as Scott Snyder is a cut above the average comic book writer. Set in the future where someone has found a cure for death and it deals with the implications of this. Quite good but I think the story would have been better served as a short story or maybe as a film.

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                        Originally posted by Jon View Post
                        Cf Robert Kirkman, Brian K Vaughan and Mark Millar.
                        To be fair, Kirkman and Vaughan went creator-owned long before streamers were turning everything into TV shows. Not sure about Millar

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                          I used to buy a fair bit of manga back in the day. I also really liked a couple of the independent American publishers - Slave Labour Graphics and (particularly) Oni Press. Folk like Andi Watson, Judd Winnick, Jim Mahfood and Chyna Major. I know he'll have been discussed earlier on the thread but I just can't see past Garth Ennis. Guy is a fantastic writer.

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                            Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
                            To be fair, Kirkman and Vaughan went creator-owned long before streamers were turning everything into TV shows. Not sure about Millar
                            Yeah, that's right. Robert Kirkman started writing The Walking Dead about 20 years ago. The other comic he was writing at the time - Invincible - has now been turned into a TV programme. Haven't seen it though (or indeed read the comic). Mark Millar did some kind of deal with Netflix a few years ago. I think, although I could be wrong, that they fund the comics that they he writes, with a view to making new content for themselves.

                            Edit - and Vaughan's Y the Last Man, also written about 20 years ago, has recently been made into a TV programme. Papergirls is also due out soon.
                            Last edited by Jon; 29-07-2021, 20:02.

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                              Originally posted by BallochSonsFan View Post
                              I used to buy a fair bit of manga back in the day. I also really liked a couple of the independent American publishers - Slave Labour Graphics and (particularly) Oni Press. Folk like Andi Watson, Judd Winnick, Jim Mahfood and Chyna Major. I know he'll have been discussed earlier on the thread but I just can't see past Garth Ennis. Guy is a fantastic writer.
                              https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts...e-kVtAdCixr6E/

                              This is a great podcast episode to listen to, BSF, if you're into Garth Ennis. I found it fascinating. He grew up in Northern Ireland and, was raised on a strict diet of 1970s war comics - Commando, Warlord and Victor. His British comic writing contemporaries were all raised primarily on 2000AD but apparently it was really hard to obtain 2000AD in Northern Ireland.

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                                Originally posted by Jon View Post
                                Edit - and Vaughan's Y the Last Man, also written about 20 years ago, has recently been made into a TV programme.
                                Y: The Last Man was Vertigo, so I assume DC owns the rights. But he did Ex Machina in 2004 and Saga started in 2012 (Christ that makes me feel old), and of course he set up Panel Syndicate around then.

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                                  I went past this bar in Liverpool about 5 years ago. I didn't go in but it did inspire me to buy loads of Love and Rockets trade paperbacks and reread them. I have only read the Jaime Hernandez stories so far, not the Gilbert ones yet, but they still really stand up. I find it mind-boggling that they are not more celebrated but I suppose that goes to show that comics still is very much a cultural backwater, in the UK and US anyway. However, glad to see there's a bar in Liverpool that is still flying the flag.

                                  Another big hero of mine back in the 80s was Frank Miller. Every 10 years or so, I try and read something new by him. It never goes well. Last thing I tried was Superman Year 1. Maybe it gets better after the first issue but I somehow doubt it.

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                                    Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
                                    Y: The Last Man was Vertigo, so I assume DC owns the rights. But he did Ex Machina in 2004 and Saga started in 2012 (Christ that makes me feel old), and of course he set up Panel Syndicate around then.
                                    Fairly sure that, although published by DC, the creators owned the rights to the characters they created in Vertigo comics, although not the characters that originally came from the DC universe eg Sandman and John Constantine. I'd never heard of Panel Syndicate before but, having checked it out, it's no surprise as they seem to be digital comics only and I'm afraid I'm still very much an analogue reader, not just of comics but newspapers, magazines and books as well.

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                                      Frank Miller's been dropped from this year's Thought Bubble convention in Harrogate.

                                      Here is the whole story: https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/tho...r-from-lineup/

                                      Back to my recent comic reading. Rogan Gosh. Written by cult/under-rated/doesn’t sell very much British writer Pete Milligan and cult/under-rated/doesn’t sell very much British artist Brendan McCarthy in the 90s, This was mentioned in Grant Morrison’s autobiography as one of his favourite comics. I met Pete Milligan at a comic shop signing a few years ago and I asked if he was aware of this. I don’t think he was. We also had a discussion about cricket. He’s a fan and he mentions The Corridor of Uncertainty in Rogan Gosh. It’s a very trippy comic so I’m assuming most readers thought the Corridor of Uncertainty was just next to The Doors of Perception.

                                      Also mentioned in Grant Morrison’s autobiography, Identity Crisis. Although not mentioned in a good way. If I remember correctly, it’s mentioned in a chapter about the disturbing prevalence of rape in superhero comics. Alan Moore gets in the neck as does Brad Meltzer, writer of Identity Crisis. Putting aside the despicable rape scene, it’s just a storytelling mess and pretty shit. Nice art though.

                                      Finally, Grant Morrison’s Flex Mentallo. I think he’s in the Doom Patrol TV series but I haven’t seen it. This came out as a mini-series in the 90s, spinning from Morrison's Doom Patrol run. I read it for the first time last year. A tour de force with beautiful art by Frank Quitely as one would expect. It is very meta and also quite autobiographical. This is never going to appeal to a wider, non-comic reading audience like Watchmen does but the two comics do have distinct similarities.


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                                        I can't believe how badly Amazon has managed to fuck up Comixology overnight. The store, the app, subscriptions outside the US. It's a complete shitshow.

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                                          Sounds like Whole Foods redux

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                                            Originally posted by sw2borshch View Post
                                            Graphic Novels

                                            I've been reading Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez's 'Locke & Key' and it weren't 'arf good.
                                            Just finished book 4. And totally agree.

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                                              Neal Adams has died, aged 80.

                                              A giant in the comics industry. He was a real pioneer for creators' rights in the seventies and worked hard on behalf of seigel and Schuster, creators of superman, to get some recompense for their work. His artwork was seminal on many titles, probably most famous was batman in the 70s. He and the writer, Denny O'Neil, were largely responsible for the grim and gritty batman that we still see today in all forms of media.

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                                                Happy free comic day everyone!

                                                The plan is to get an early train into Birmingham, grab our free comics and then head to the Odeon on new street to see Dr strange and the multiverse of madness.

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                                                  Heartstopper vol 1 - a Young Adult graphic novel, set in an all boys grammar school. It's a heartwarming, boy meets boy story that started off as a webcomic. Very readable and a noticeable manga style art and layout. First series has recently come to Netflix with the second and third series announcement coming just the other day.

                                                  Talking of Netflix adapting YA graphic novels, sadly Jeff Smith's Bone doesn't look like being made now, due to Netflix cuts.

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                                                    Not sure I'd classify Bone as YA, but it is a bummer. Seems like one of those cursed adaptations, like Y: The Last Man until that finally got made (and arguably after it got made).

                                                    Any other new recommendations? My pull list is looking a little thin these days and I'm less enamoured with some of my previous stalwarts than I was. I started West of Sundown which seems promising but I'm not sure it'll go the distance.

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