Comics and Graphic Novel General Discussion!

[Barry the Nomad]

I've read Maus in grade school, scary stuff!

[George]

Barry = hipster.

[CosmicCastaway]

The first twelve issue story arc of Marvel Knights Spider-Man is great. One of my favorite comic book story lines. Here's the paperbacks:

Part 1: Down Among The Dead Men

Part 2: Venomous

Part 3: The Last Stand

[MadeManG74]

I like the Marvel Knights banner, had some of my favourite Punisher Stories under that.

[Barry the Nomad]

Can't believe I didn't give these a shout out:

RADIOACTIVE MAN



A beyond amazing Eisner Award winning mini-series of comics (1994). Probably my favorite comedic comic series ever. The premise is great. Basically, you are reading the same comics as seen in episodes of the Simpsons. The first issue, #1, is the same origin story seen in the Simpsons episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", but is much more fleshed out. The artwork is great. Steve Vance and Bill Morrison have this style that looks like high quality Simpsons art combined with shadowy realistic classic comic art. The stories are both funny and exciting. The characters and their back stories spoof a number of classic and modern characters. Radioactive Man's alter ego, Claude Kane III, has the family of Bruce Wayne (complete with a family corporation) the powers of Superman and the atomic origin of Spider-Man. He is terrible with women, constantly failing at striking up a relationship with reporter Gloria Grand and wrestles with the handicap of having a piece of lightening bolt-shaped shrapnel lodged in his skull. Should he remove it, he will go nuclear and explode. So as Claude Kane, he must always wear a hat to cover it. Poor guy.



Read the full second issue here: http://cacb.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/ra ... r-no-evil/

Another great concept of the series is that the issue dates and numbers skip forward. Issue 1 is #1 published in the '50's, but issue 2 is #216, taking place in 1972. Thus, each issue parodies comics and current events of those eras. The early issues feature Nixon and Russians, while the 70's feature hippies and beatniks. Often, you'll learn that a character has died or switched sides in a previous unseen issue. The character Bleeding Heart, a WWII vet with a love for America, is never seen in the original mini series. However, his later costume and character change to the Bleeding Heart (a hippie sympathizer and Vietnam opposer) is seen.

As such, having a complete collection of the comics results in having an incomplete collection which allows readers to fill in the narrative holes via notes from the editor (a fictional character) and paying attention to what characters say. It's a lot of fun, as you get the feel of a 1,000+ issue series but told in 17 issues.

The series lampoons Spawn, Watchmen, Crisis on Infinite Earths (Radioactive Man's being Infinite Secrets of Legendary Crossover Knight Wars), gritty 80's comics, super hero movie adaptations and more.

If you're a fan of super hero comics and/or classic Simpsons humor, I give them a strong recommendation.

[MadeManG74]

Maaaan I think I had the first issue of Radioactive Man! I remember thinking it was really good too, I distinctly remember one bit where he's in his version of the fortress of solitude and in the background is a 'To Do List' with
1) Do Laundry
2) Buy Corn for Saturday
3) Destroy international communist conspiracy

or something to that extent.

In any event, I just finished reading the new line of Punisher Max comics where they've introduced Kingpin and Bullseye into the MAX universe. I F***in' loved it! It's such a brilliant take on Punisher, started by Garth Ennis with the original MAX run, and Aaron was really continued the series brilliantly IMO. The difference between 616 Punisher and this one is subtle but makes such a difference. This Punisher uses his family as an excuse rather than it being his cause. You get the feeling he's just a madman and mass murderer and he comes very very close to crossing the line a few times. Both Punisher and Bullseye do some very disturbing things but it's offset by some genuinely funny moments like this:

[max_cady]

DC Universe getting major reboot in September

Same-day digital comics? I'm in!

[SOUP]

I was really into comics a few years ago, but the buying got a bit out of control, so I pretty much quit reading them cold turkey.

A couple months ago, I decided to get the last couple issues of Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight, and finally get around to reading the series. After that though, I really wanted to get back into comics in general. I decided to cut things back a lot though. I used to get a bunch of DC series, and addition to pretty much anything X-Men related. Now the main goal is to stick to the main X-Men series, and just get the odd issue from another one if there's a cross-over.
I've spent the last couple months getting about 3 years worth of back issues to get myself up to date. I've got all the Uncanny X-Men issues I was missing, most of the issues of Cable, Astonishing X-Men and  X-Men: Legacy. I'm missing a decent amount of X-Factor, and I still have to track down the X-Force issues that relate to Messiah War and Second Coming.  I plan on picking up the new X-Men series (X-Men vol. 3), but it's not a huge priority. I've got enough built up that I've been able to start reading through them.

With the news of this DC reboot, I might get back into Green Lantern and Batman, but that's still up in the air. It all depends on who's writing them I think.

[max_cady]

With comic book, I've had an on-again, off-again relantionship... Personally, Grant Morrison did the impossible, he got completely off Batman on comics for the fist time in years.

The status quo of the Batman universe has become so muddled that it's not funny anymore.

So now we have Bruce Wayne as Batman, with his Batman Inc group going on an international fight against crime. We have Dick Grayson posing as Batman with Damian Wayne as Robin (he has made the impossible, I hope he doesn't exist post-reboot, I hate the little brat), Tim Drake as Red Robin.

We have comics with Bruce as Batman and Dick Grayson as Batman. Give me a f***ing break. I don't want to have to juggle between Batman, Detective Comics, Streets of Gotham, Batman: The Dark Knight, Batman & Robin and such, to listen to the stories that I want.

The Green Lantern movie is doing a lot to get me interested in the comic book.

[CosmicCastaway]

One of the coolest cosmic stories in Marvel's vast library and a perfect reason why Thanos is one of the most feared villains in the Marvel Universe.

[SOUP]

@max_cady: I got out of comics right around the time that Bruce Wayne "died", so I haven't really read much of the stuff that followed that. The huge deluge of series seemed pretty overwhelming though. I don't mind the idea of Dick moving up to Batman status though. I really enjoyed the Nightwing comics, so it was nice to see him take a starring role in the main series. The Red Robin thing ties into Kingdom Come too, but I don't know much about it.
I'd been enjoying Grant Morrison's run up to that point personally.
With this reboot though, I don't think any of it will be an issue anymore.

@CosmicCastaway:
I don't know much about Thanos, but apparently he's going to tie into the new Avengers movie, so that'll probably be my introduction.

[MadeManG74]

Thanos is going to be in Avengers? Ohhh, infinity gauntlet ey? All i know about it is from the old Saturn Marvel Super Heroes game which was loosely based on the Infinity Gauntlet arc.

Anyway, I've been reading the old Ghost Rider comics at the moment. Got Essential Ghost Rider 1 which is about 250 pages of his original run. It's pretty good, but it's also about as cheesy as you would expect from a 1970's comic series. It's still a cool insight though and I can see they slowly tie him into the greater Marvel universe.

There's obviously been some change in his powers though, at the moment he's just invincible (because "the devil"/Mephisto will save his life each time he dies) and can shoot flames. He doesn't have him chains or special phantom bike yet.

[CosmicCastaway]

Thanos is going to be in Avengers? Ohhh, infinity gauntlet ey? All i know about it is from the old Saturn Marvel Super Heroes game which was loosely based on the Infinity Gauntlet arc.

Anyway, I've been reading the old Ghost Rider comics at the moment. Got Essential Ghost Rider 1 which is about 250 pages of his original run. It's pretty good, but it's also about as cheesy as you would expect from a 1970's comic series. It's still a cool insight though and I can see they slowly tie him into the greater Marvel universe.

There's obviously been some change in his powers though, at the moment he's just invincible (because "the devil"/Mephisto will save his life each time he dies) and can shoot flames. He doesn't have him chains or special phantom bike yet.

Yeah, I've read Essential Ghost Rider Vol. 1 as well. (I wish they were in color, but I do suppose they are cheaper and lengthier than the Marvel Masterworks collections.) There are some interesting issues in the first run of Ghost Rider. The 1970s had a lot of "horror" themed titles like Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night and Dracula and they usually met up with one another at some point.

[MadeManG74]

Yeah it is pretty good value for money. It cost me like $25 or so and it's got a huge amount of comics collected in it.
Reminds me of Rogue Trooper Volume 1, which was about 500 pages as well. Another great series if anyone is interested.

Does anyone know any other good Ghost Rider series to look into? I was thinking of checking out his Marvel Knights runs since that's only about 16 issues or something, but I haven't found them collected anywhere.

[CosmicCastaway]

The newest series is supposed to be quite good. I haven't read it myself but I've been interested in checking it out. Here's Vol. 1 on the new series: