Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

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Thad
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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Fri Feb 27, 2015 1:29 am

Brentai wrote:Wait, there's an actual Sonic x Megaman crossover comic?

How the hell long has THIS been going on?

Thad wrote:I told you about it a year and a half ago! You said, and I quote, "They stole our idea!"


And now X is going to be in it.

And apparently also

The new event will include characters from Sonic Boom, Mega Man X, it will also include SEGA franchises Alex Kidd, Billy Hatcher, Golden Axe, NiGHTS, Skies of Arcadia and Panzer Dragon plus CAPCOM franchises Breath of Fire, Ghosts N’ Goblins, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Okami and Viewtiful Joe.

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Mazian » Fri Feb 27, 2015 1:42 am

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:12 pm


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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Mothra » Sun Mar 01, 2015 2:21 am

Whoa, what the

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:09 pm

Hey guys, remember how a few months ago Marvel announced there would be an X-Men comic based on the 1992 cartoon series?

And remember how a couple years ago we were talking about Chris Sims's reviews of the 1992 X-Men cartoon series?

Well, it turns out Chris Sims is co-writing the X-Men '92 comic.

You'd better believe there will be Scumbag Gambit.

Check, please!

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Tue May 12, 2015 5:09 pm

Dark Horse to publish complete Masters of the Universe minicomic collection, more than 1200 pages, hardcover, $30. Enlarged to 6x9.

There's some good shit in there. Early work from Bruce Timm and Mark Texeira.

I've still got my old minicomics. I keep meaning to find a better way to store them.

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Alex » Thu May 14, 2015 12:42 am

It feels like Marvel is trying to kinda sorta downplay X-Men and Fantastic Four (which isn't hard, since FF has a difficult time selling) until they can get rights to make the movies back. I can't think of much reason for them (temporarily) killing off Wolverine and Deadpool.

I don't mind though. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the new run of Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 (henceforth known as The Best Spider-Man).

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Thu May 14, 2015 1:48 am

Alex wrote:It feels like Marvel is trying to kinda sorta downplay X-Men and Fantastic Four (which isn't hard, since FF has a difficult time selling) until they can get rights to make the movies back. I can't think of much reason for them (temporarily) killing off Wolverine and Deadpool.


Um, because comic books constantly kill off popular characters?

They just did a Death of Deadpool story like three years ago. Mood-swings and the occasional funk and attempt to kill himself have been part of his character for...pretty much as long as he's existed.

I mean yeah you've got a point about Fantastic Four; they've actually cancelled the book, and word is it's at Ike Perlmutter's insistence because he doesn't want to cross-promote the new movie. But Deadpool? I'd be surprised if he didn't pop back up again with a new series after Secret Wars is over. Wolverine? They are currently publishing a book called Wolverines. There are now multiple Wolverines. All of whom are characters Fox already owns the movie rights to. I really can't see how that works as a "fuck you" to Fox, or a de-emphasis of Wolverine, in any way. What it is is Reign of the Supermen.

And it bears noting that X-Men and Fantastic Four are completely different animals. There's a possibility that, if the new Fantastic Four movie tanks, Fox will write the license off as not worth keeping and just let it revert to Marvel. (This has already happened with Daredevil. As well as Ghost Rider over at Sony, if I'm not mistaken.)

As for X-Men, that's not going to happen. It might have if First Class had tanked and the franchise had had three consecutive failures on its hands, but it didn't; the series is popular and profitable again and it's not going away. And as long as Fox keeps making X-Men movies, Fox keeps the rights to keep making X-Men movies, in perpetuity; it's not a matter of "until they can get the rights back", because as of right now there's really no foreseeable circumstance in which Marvel gets the X-Men movie rights back.

(In fact I think Fantastic Four is a longshot too. Even if the new movie totally bombs, I think Fox is likelier to do an X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover movie than to let the rights revert to Marvel. Failing that, I suspect they'll follow Sony's lead with Spider-Man and work out a deal that lets Marvel use the FF in their movies but keeps the rights at their studio.)

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Büge » Thu May 14, 2015 7:12 am

Then maybe we'll get an Annihilation film trilogy.
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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Alex » Thu May 14, 2015 1:12 pm

Thad wrote:Um, because comic books constantly kill off popular characters?

They just did a Death of Deadpool story like three years ago. Mood-swings and the occasional funk and attempt to kill himself have been part of his character for...pretty much as long as he's existed.

I mean yeah you've got a point about Fantastic Four; they've actually cancelled the book, and word is it's at Ike Perlmutter's insistence because he doesn't want to cross-promote the new movie. But Deadpool? I'd be surprised if he didn't pop back up again with a new series after Secret Wars is over. Wolverine? They are currently publishing a book called Wolverines. There are now multiple Wolverines. All of whom are characters Fox already owns the movie rights to. I really can't see how that works as a "assfuck you" to Fox, or a de-emphasis of Wolverine, in any way. What it is is Reign of the Supermen.

And it bears noting that X-Men and Fantastic Four are completely different animals. There's a possibility that, if the new Fantastic Four movie tanks, Fox will write the license off as not worth keeping and just let it revert to Marvel. (This has already happened with Daredevil. As well as Ghost Rider over at Sony, if I'm not mistaken.)

As for X-Men, that's not going to happen. It might have if First Class had tanked and the franchise had had three consecutive failures on its hands, but it didn't; the series is popular and profitable again and it's not going away. And as long as Fox keeps making X-Men movies, Fox keeps the rights to keep making X-Men movies, in perpetuity; it's not a matter of "until they can get the rights back", because as of right now there's really no foreseeable circumstance in which Marvel gets the X-Men movie rights back.

(In fact I think Fantastic Four is a longshot too. Even if the new movie totally bombs, I think Fox is likelier to do an X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover movie than to let the rights revert to Marvel. Failing that, I suspect they'll follow Sony's lead with Spider-Man and work out a deal that lets Marvel use the FF in their movies but keeps the rights at their studio.)


Aside from general purpose 'shake up the status quo (until it either doesn't sell or the backlash is bad enough)', it just feels like Marvel is trying to scale back anything regarding mutants, if only just to be spiteful. It would also explain the sudden interest in the Inhumans.

Isaac Perlmutter could also be wishing really really hard in his office every day.

(Sorry about that, Thad. Hit the wrong button there. Posting right after waking up was a great idea!)

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Fri May 15, 2015 12:50 am

Like I said over in the other thread, I'm sure Fox's ownership of the X-Men movie rights is a factor in this stuff, but I don't think it's the factor. They've been doing stuff like this in X-Men comics since before I was reading them.

But I think you're dead-on about the Inhumans.

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Sat May 16, 2015 4:00 pm

Sims explains Usagi Yojimbo, and I think he makes a good argument for why it's not a higher-profile book: when a book is consistently great for thirty years, that paradoxically makes it harder to praise, harder to talk about.

I feel like he should spend more time in that paragraph near the end talking about books to buy -- he mentions Daisho but doesn't mention that it's collected in a new, excellent, bargain-priced omnibus from Dark Horse, and he mentions that the Fantagraphics books aren't always available but doesn't mention that they've got a paperback omnibus edition coming out later this year.

I think I'll E-Mail him and suggest it.

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Wed Jun 03, 2015 2:39 pm

Thoughts on the books I've read from the current Humble Bundle so far:

Parker: The Hunter is good. I'm not familiar with the books or the various film adaptations, but Darwyn Cooke is one of those artists who I've been a fan of since before I kept track of the names of artists I was a fan of. I love the work he does here; it's stylish crime noir that knows how to strike a balance between action and narration. Occasionally instead of comics panels he'll have a one-page illustration with a paragraph of text, like the old pulps and dime novels.

If I'm not mistaken, the bundle originally just had the first and fourth Parker book, but now it's got all four.


March is fantastic too. John Lewis knows a thing or two about telling stories, and here he strikes the right balance between past and present (he uses Obama's inauguration day as a framing device), between humility and the acknowledgement that yeah, what he and his peers did was pretty important stuff. Andrew Aydin helped with the script and Nate Powell drew it. I think it all comes out really nicely. It's a familiar story but it's well-told, particularly for its target audience of young people learning the history of the civil rights movement. I finished volume 1 over the course of one day and decided to up my contribution to the top tier so I could get volume 2.


Locke and Key...I'm still deciding how I feel about it. It's well-written and -drawn and I like the characters and the setting, but man it's just so violent and cruel.

Well...sometimes. Actually when people aren't getting shot or raped or hatcheted or bricked or stabbed or impaled through the eye with a tire iron it manages to be a surprisingly uplifting story about a family coping with tragedy, with peers and teachers who support them when you might expect genre conventions to make them loners and outcasts.

The thing with Kinsey's hair bugs me though. You can't cut off dreadlocks and then grow hair down past your shoulders in three months. That just feels like a glaring continuity error and it bugs me every time I see her until she cuts her hair again.

So...yeah, pretty mixed feelings about this one. It's certainly a horror book, and it does a pretty good job of being horrifying -- and truthfully, the psychological elements are a lot more disquieting than the graphic violence that accompanies them. It just feels like it's too much sometimes.

But I guess I've got plenty of time to form a more concrete opinion, seeing as the bundle's got all six volumes.

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:30 am

X-Men '92 is exactly what you expect an adaptation of the X-Men cartoon series co-written by Chris Sims to be: Gambit is creepy, Rogue has a ridiculous accent, Storm repeatedly uses the phrase "the forces of nature" and you hear her pronouncing it "naycha" in your head, Jean shouts "SCOTT!" and faints, Cyclops is a total buzzkill who whines all the time and uses the phrase "But Professor..."

I'm only halfway through because it has some Claremont-sized fucking dialogue balloons. But if you want an X-Men comic that's halfway between faithful adaptation and parody of the cartoon series, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby IGNORE ME » Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:53 am

I... might actually have to read a comic book!

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Mongrel » Thu Jun 25, 2015 2:07 am

But does it have

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Fri Jun 26, 2015 12:14 am

Not quite, but he DOES make a sarcastic remark about Christmas. Wherein he addresses Sabretooth as "you egg-suckin' dog?!"

Also, something I should have expected, given Sims's fascination with how Batman '66 has added characters who didn't exist at the time the original TV series was made (Croc, Harley, Bane, etc.) with a period makeover: that's exactly what he's done here. The villain reveal midway through the issue is a character who didn't exist until years after the cartoon ended, and yet it's somebody who really is absolutely perfect in this setting, and even follows logically from a couple of the show's story arcs. (And then is used as a very direct metaphor for the transition of the X-Men from the 1990's into the 2000's.)

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Mongrel » Mon Jul 13, 2015 12:00 pm

So Congressman John Lewis recently created a comic about his experiences in the civil rights movement (March). And then this.

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Tue Jul 14, 2015 12:39 am

Yeah, I got the first two volumes of March in a recent Humble Bundle and it is highly recommended. Looking forward to the third.

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Re: Comics for People who Don't Read Comics

Postby Thad » Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:36 pm

Thad wrote:Locke and Key...I'm still deciding how I feel about it. It's well-written and -drawn and I like the characters and the setting, but man it's just so violent and cruel.

Well...sometimes. Actually when people aren't getting shot or raped or hatcheted or bricked or stabbed or impaled through the eye with a tire iron it manages to be a surprisingly uplifting story about a family coping with tragedy, with peers and teachers who support them when you might expect genre conventions to make them loners and outcasts.

The thing with Kinsey's hair bugs me though. You can't cut off dreadlocks and then grow hair down past your shoulders in three months. That just feels like a glaring continuity error and it bugs me every time I see her until she cuts her hair again.

So...yeah, pretty mixed feelings about this one. It's certainly a horror book, and it does a pretty good job of being horrifying -- and truthfully, the psychological elements are a lot more disquieting than the graphic violence that accompanies them. It just feels like it's too much sometimes.

But I guess I've got plenty of time to form a more concrete opinion, seeing as the bundle's got all six volumes.


FOLLOWING UP, now that I've finished it:

It's pretty fucking great. The subsequent volumes are never quite as squicky as that first one, largely because Sam is mostly sidelined after those early issues in favor of a more conventional horror villain.

It doesn't stop being violent -- oh Lord it does not; I think the last book I read with this high a bodycount was X-Statix -- and it never stops ripping out your heart. But it's a damn good horror series with a beautifully-crafted mythology, and makes for a relatable high-school coming-of-age story besides.

It feels like it's all over pretty quickly in only 37 issues; I'd like to spend more time in this world (and apparently there were a couple of special issues that weren't in the bundle, including a Depression-era gangster story). I think the TV series would have been a good way to explore more of the corners of the world (and there's an issue made up largely of single-panel allusions to adventures they have over the course of a month; there are clearly a lot of adventures the Lockes have that we don't see on the page), though on the other hand it could have adapted the entire series in only a season, and padding it out with more material would have run the risk of dragging it out too long; that it occurs as Tyler is in his last year of high school and on the cusp of manhood is pretty essential to the story and the vibe.

(I also don't see how it could have worked on Fox without the gore being toned way down. It could have probably gotten away with minimal changes on basic cable.)

Moot point, I guess. I never saw the pilot but I hear it was pretty good, but the network passed and it didn't happen. Still, if another TV adaptation were to happen, I'd think yeah, that's a good medium to adapt it to.

Course, speculation about TV adaptations isn't intended to say it's anything less than a spectacular comic, and certainly not to trivialize artist Gabriel Rodriguez's role in just why it's so goddamn good. Rodriguez is a big, big part of what makes Joe Hill's scripts work; this is a series that's all about balancing supernatural horror with human drama. Rodriguez doesn't just excel at the big fights or the big monsters, he also nails the quiet human moments. His character designs and facial expressions are what really carry the weight of the story, from pathos to humor to just plain old good guys and bad guys (and his ability to turn a face from one to the other is enough to give you sympathy for the devil -- the question of "How much of this is Dodge and how much is the demon, and is the real Dodge still in there somewhere?" isn't addressed directly until the very end, but there are enough moments where he seems like an all right guy that you can't help wondering.

It's not a perfect series -- that first volume was pretty hard to get through, and some of the implications aren't explored with the depth and sensitivity I think they deserve (like the keys that allow people to change their race or sex) -- but I'd definitely list it as one of the best I've read in years.

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