Topic: Comics / Graphic Novels

[DJ Doena]

I've been reading the Buffy and Angel comics that represent the eighth / sixth season for a while now. And I have read good critics about the works of Frank Miller - he wrote the graphic novels Sin City and 300 which were made into movies and Christian Bale's Batman is also based on his interpretation of the hero.

So I decided to order a batch of new stuff.

These are the Buffy / Angel comics that I already have:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wolves at the Gate

Angel: After the Fall

Angel: After the Fall: First Night

And now I continue with

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Time of Your Life

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Predator and Prey

Angel: After the Fall: Volume 3

Angel: After the Fall: Volume 4

And outside the Buffyverse I ordered

Star Trek: Countdown

This is the comic that sets up the new movie and since a few people have said one would understand Nero's character better if one reads this first, I decided to do so.

Heroes: Volume One

Heroes: Volume Two

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns


Do you read any comics of some kind?

[Najemikon]

I think we had a run of chatting about comics a little while ago and I kept meaning to kick a thread off, because there were several of us who seemed quite into it.

I've read 2000ad for years and they've produced some seriously good stuff. Alan Moore was a regular contributor and I know Watchmen is flavour of the month (and well deserved), but my personal favourite is from his 2000ad days: The Ballad of Halo Jones.

My all-time favourite, and in fact it rides very high in favourite books including novels, is Judge Dredd America. Utterly magnificent and I highly recommend it even if you aren't familiar with Dredd. The character was written by John Wagner, also responsible for Button Man. Great thriller, no sci-fi at all, being made into a film. Already a film is his A History of Violence.

I do enjoy Frank Miller's stuff, although The Dark Knight Strikes Back (sequel to Returns) I didn't like at all. Far more my thing is Preacher.

[lovemunkey187]

Far more my thing is Preacher.

Preacher is indeed awesome. Just about anything by Garth Ennis is fantastic TBH(love the Hitman series of books).

I'd say that these are my fave funny book writers;
Garth Ennis - Preacher, Hitman, Hellblazer, Punisher
Frank Miller - 300, Sin City, Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil
Alan Moore - League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Swamp Thing, Hellblazer
Brian K Vaughan - Y the Last Man, Swamp Thing, Runaways
Judd Winnick - Barry Ween Boy Genius(imagine Calvin & Hobbes on crack laced with angel dust)
Warren Ellis - Fell, Planetary, Black Summer, Storm Watch, The Authority, Freak Angels,  Crooked Little Vein (it's a novel rather than a comic)
Andy Diggle - The Losers, Hellblazer
Brian Azzarello - 100 Bullets, Hellblazer, DMZ

Kevin Smith's run on Daredevil and Green Arrow are also really worth reading.

[Tom]

I didn't collect many comics in the past. But the last year or so, I have build-up quite an extensive manga collection. In the beginning I bought some complete series runs from eBay and later on volumes of newer series. I have slowed down now with buying, as I have everything I was interested in. Currently I am only buying new releases of series I have started buying.
I became interested in reading mangas, because I got curious about reading the source material of animes I was enjoying. And I must say, that most times, I like the manga version even better.
If I would have to recommend one series above others, then it would be "Death Note". I highly recommend it to all comic fans even if you stayed clear of Japanese manga until now.

For my list of mangas and a few non-Japanese comics click on the tab "Manga/Comic" in my Onlinecollection

[DJ Doena]

Mangas. That's a different story. When I went to the university we established a radition to watch Dragon Ball animes on free afternoons. I quite liked it and bought (and read several times) all 42 volumes of DB (thus my Son-Goku avatar).

I bought other mangas, too: 3×3 Eyes, Rurouni Kenshin, Ranma ½ - but none of them could keep me reading for more than 4 to 8 volumes.

[Tom]

Rurouni Kenshin, Ranma ½

I am currently borrowing the Kenshin series from a friend. But I don't get forward with it quickly, as it doesn't really pull me in. I don't like the anime/manga stuff, where there are fights where the characters have to announce each of their moves, or another character is explaining what extraordinary move has been done.
The image I have of such series (like Dragonball, no offense) were the main reasons, why I didn't start watching animes earlier. I know that the fans of Dragonball and Naruto proclaim that there is much more to it, but they couldn't convince me yet. For example the friend, from whom I have the Kenshin series, is a very big fan of the Naruto manga series.

Ranma I enjoyed. Though it gets very repetetive after a few volumes.

[DJ Doena]

You should try DB though. I concur that later volumes are also a bit repetitive but at least the first 16 volumes tell a very nice story with interesting characters.

[lovemunkey187]

Others I forgot in my earlier post.
J. Michael Straczynski - Rising Stars(if you like Heroes then this will probably interest you), Midnight Nation, Spider-man
Brian Michael Bendis - Powers, Avengers, Daredevil, Alias, Pulse
Ed Brubaker - Scene of the Crime, Sleeper, Daredevil, Criminal

A title I forgot to mention in my earlier post, The Boys by Garth Ennis.

[DJ Doena]

Today arrived

Spike: After the Fall

[Tom]

Star Trek: Countdown

This is the comic that sets up the new movie and since a few people have said one would understand Nero's character better if one reads this first, I decided to do so.

Karsten, does this comic address the issues raised in the following review?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeaoCXsP-7c

[DJ Doena]

Star Trek: Countdown

This is the comic that sets up the new movie and since a few people have said one would understand Nero's character better if one reads this first, I decided to do so.

Karsten, does this comic address the issues raised in the following review?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeaoCXsP-7c

Partly. The comic explains that there were actually political comlications that delayed the rescue of Romulus. When you read the comic, Nero's motivation to blow up Vulcan is much more understandable. Yet the comic doesn't explain why he wanted to punish Spock personally - on the contrary, Spock was his only ally in the future and he did everything he could to prevent the supernova.

Here's my review of the comic: http://doena-journal.net/en/109/star-trek-countdown

[Achim]

Partly. The comic explains that there were actually political comlications that delayed the rescue of Romulus. When you read the comic, Nero's motivation to blow up Vulcan is much more understandable. Yet the comic doesn't explain why he wanted to punish Spock personally - on the contrary, Spock was his only ally in the future and he did everything he could to prevent the supernova.

I think all of this was sufficiently conveyed in the movie... Nero's motivation was clear enough to me and Spock was also portrayed accordingly (he did it, albeit he didn't mean to).

[DJ Doena]

Today I got:

World of WarCraft: Book One

I own several novels from the WC universe and I always found the game book from "WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness" as interesting as the game itself.

[Najemikon]

I thought we must have a more up-to-date thread than this, but whatever, it's always worth waking up!

Recommendation especially for Kick-Ass, Mark Millar fans, or even Watchmen, Alan Moore. I'm just reading The Boys by Garth Ennis (Preacher) and Darick Robertson. It's great! Very, very violent and sweary, so it's in your face from the off and utterly outrageous, but still, the writing is superb. But if you've read Preacher you'll know what to expect.

It's set in a world like ours, but one heavily populated by superheroes, who are becoming arrogant. The Boys are a CIA funded team whose specific purpose is to put these heroes in their place. So it's an interesting twist on the Watchmen, Marvels line of thinking. Oh I should point out, The Boys have no powers as such. They're just very, very hard!

I think this random cover I've found sets the tone in a rather simple way!

[lovemunkey187]

If you want some more quality stuff have a browse through some of the other titles I mentioned a couple of posts further up.

From The Boys, issue 2ish I think,

At the moment I'm rereading 100 BUllets to refresh my memory before reading the final tpb.