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Whats everyone reading?

Started by Paul faplad Finch, 30 March, 2009, 10:04:36 PM

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maryanddavid

Just read the first two Y The last Man, and have really enjoyed them, Great writing, the art is good, but a little generic american comic art. Looking forward to reading the rest.

David

klute

At the moment im reading alan moores watchmen and the summons by john grisham
loveforstitch - Does he fall in love? I like a little romance in all my movies.

Rekaert - Yes, he demonstrates it with bullets, punches and sentencing.

He's Mega City 1's own Don Juan.

mogzilla

been to the library for the first time in ages

so... reading three goon gns, marvels by alex ross and spider-man brand new day...

Paul faplad Finch

Since I last posted in this thread I doubt I've read 20 pages combined of the two novels I'm on with.  I have however read an absolute shitload of comics.

In no particular order;

Books/Names/Age of Magic/Magick.  In which the lead character becomes progressively more obnoxious as successive writers fail miserably to tell a half decent story about him. The Molly character is qute endearing though, in the earlier series.

Unknown Soldier v1.  In which the hero is a flag waving uber patriot and the villlains, including reglar appearances by several real world Nazis, including Hitler himself, are some of the most crudely drawn characatures I've ever read and the editors congratulate themselves for the 'gritty realism' that makes their comic stand out against other publishers.

Sandman Mystery Theatre. Early days as yet, with me just delving into the second storyline but if the first - The Tarantula - is anything to go by this should be a keeper.

Jonah Hex v1.  Being the sad little completist that I am I felt compelled, before reading the well regarded new series, to go back and read the earlier incarnations. These are actually realy solid stories. I'm not overly versed in Western comics in general but this one is certainly much better than I thought it would be. Given the writer - Michael Fleiscer - I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and the duffness to creep in but it hasn't hapened yet. Still got a lot to read and very much looking forward to it.

The Losers. What can I say? I've just read the first 20 issues over the last 3 days and I daresay I'll finish the series before weeks end. Excellent stuff, and criminal that it didn;t run for longer. Again, not well versed in the history. Did it end so soon intentionally or was sit cancelled? I know Vertigo series tend to be finite but 70ish issues seems to be the norm. 30odd seems awfully short.
It doesn't mean that round my way
Pessimism is Realism - Optimism is Insanity
The Impossible Quest
Musings Of A Nobody
Stuff I've Read

Tiplodocus

MAN AND WIFE by TONY PARSONS.

I've not read the first (Man and Boy) as apparently you don't have to. The missus got this free with SHE, another one of those magazines that proves, as HOU (I think) said that "Feminism has failed utterly").

Anyway, some bits of it are brilliant but I have two major problems with it.
a) the secondary characters are really badly written. Really. Like he pot rough placeholder sketches in "Character A is an arsehole" and then forgot to go and replace them with anything decent.
b) it's not funny. And this sort of book should be.

He's also projecting a lot. His kid loves Star Wars. But the original movies. I reckon most kids today would be bored rigid by the original movies (though appreciateing that they exist).  Cue everyone onthe board giving me examples of their eight year old kids loving the original movies and hating the prequels.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Daveycandlish

QuoteJust read the first two Y The last Man, and have really enjoyed them, Great writing, the art is good, but a little generic american comic art. Looking forward to reading the rest.


I loved this series. I always felt it would make a good tv series a la 70s show KUNG FU, as Yorick wanders the land

I've just bought the latest Jonah Hex collection to have a go at. Now where's me cuppa and kitkat?
An old-school, no-bullshit, boys-own action/adventure comic reminiscent of the 2000ads and Eagles and Warlords and Battles and other glorious black-and-white comics that were so, so cool in the 70's and 80's - Buy the hardback Christmas Annual!

Colin YNWA

Just finished Roger Stern and Tom Peyer's late 80s Atom series. Nowt like random silly 80s superhero nonsense that's really bloody good to hit the spot. Wonderful fun!

HOO-HAA

Quote from: Daveycandlish on 17 April, 2010, 07:21:15 AM
QuoteJust read the first two Y The last Man, and have really enjoyed them, Great writing, the art is good, but a little generic american comic art. Looking forward to reading the rest.


I loved this series. I always felt it would make a good tv series a la 70s show KUNG FU, as Yorick wanders the land

I just couldn't get into Y... I tried, even buying and reading the first TPB, but it just didn't connect with me.

House of Usher

I am still reading The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman. I'm up to page 140 and, so far, a lot of characters have been introduced and nothing has happened that has moved the plot forward. I was expecting a bit more action, to be honest.

It scores highly on the geek factor for assembling so many characters from literature and cinema into a single coherent narrative, but it's not the literary achievement Anno Dracula is trumpteted to be by the reviews printed on the dust jacket.

One chapter is just lifted straight out of Swamp Thing #83, 'Brothers in Arms,' substituting two other literary mad scientists for Anton Arcane and wasting them both.
STRIKE !!!

I, Cosh

I'm in the middle of rereading Shade The Changing Man and it's predominantly great stuff. The Ernest & Jim story wasn't as brilliant as I remembered but there are plenty of others which are better. I've just read two single issues which deal with almost exactly the same things as Milligan's Scab storyline in Hellblazer and the interminable Greek Street, both with a lot more wit and in just 24 pages.

Also, I now know where Banners' avatar comes from.
We never really die.

Paul faplad Finch

Okay, I apologise if this is old news to all you hardened geks out there but I'm still reading old Detective Comics and have just come across a stamp collecting column, called Stamp Detective, written by someone caled Phil Ately.  Good grief.

Oh, and in Unknown Soldier Hitler has just been briefed on how many Jews will b gassed this month and is literally dancing around the room, singing "soon there will be none left, soon there wil be none left."

Why aren't todays comics as subtle as this? 
It doesn't mean that round my way
Pessimism is Realism - Optimism is Insanity
The Impossible Quest
Musings Of A Nobody
Stuff I've Read

radiator

#1106
QuoteI just couldn't get into Y... I tried, even buying and reading the first TPB, but it just didn't connect with me.

Same here. I think the main problem with it for me was that I was entirely unconvinced by the concept. Its an interesting idea - a world without men - but I didn't buy how it was portrayed at all - things didn't seem nearly messed up enough. I also thought that some of the dialogue was cringe-inducing and the artwork functional but bland. Brian K Vaughn seems very popular these days, but I seem to have an inexplicable aversion to his work.

I had the same thing with The Losers, Astonishing X Men, Sandman, Fables and The Walking Dead - all hyped series - all left me scratching my head wondering what all the fuss was about. I bought book one of each, all of which eventually ended up on eBay.

So far I've yet to find a US series that can fill the gap left by Transmetropolitan, Preacher and 100 Bullets.....

I recently read book one of the deluxe hardback Saga of the Swamp Thing - it's probably Moore's longest stretch of mainstream work, and I've never read it before so it's a bit of a treat. I've always tended to avoid hardback graphic novels, but it's an absolutely gorgeous book. I've been so impressed with it that I've started replacing my tattered, decade old Preacher trades with the lovely new hardback editions.

SuperSurfer

Quote from: radiator on 17 April, 2010, 04:07:48 PM
So far I've yet to find a US series that can fill the gap left by Transmetropolitan, Preacher and 100 Bullets.....
I bought book one of 100 Bullets a couple of weeks ago and am looking forward to getting stuck into it. It was one of those all too familiar moments when in FB and thinking that I wanted to buy something but nothing took my fancy. (There has been a comics drought for me over last few years.) I was thinking of buying Walking Dead but opted for 100 Bullets. I like the newsprint paperstock. Ok, it will probably go yellow but I like graphic novels to be printed on the paper stock that the original comics were printed on otherwise the colouring can be really garish, as is the problem with many of the Marvel reprints (which I don't buy) and with some of the Swamp Thing reprints.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: The Cosh on 17 April, 2010, 03:49:09 PM
I'm in the middle of rereading Shade The Changing Man and it's predominantly great stuff.

Funnily enough I'm starting on re-read of Shade next with the first 19 issues. Looking forward to it as I used to love it and haven't read it since it first came out and have never read the last 20.

I, Cosh

Took delivery of Dave Langford's collected White Dwarf/Gamesmaster review columns teh other day. One to leave on teh bedside/bogside table to be immediately followed up by a visit to Amazon I think. Read the first few on the bus and he's already stuck the boot into Hubbard, Donaldson and Heinlein, been very complimentary about a non-fiction work by someone I vaguely know and given me half a dozen recommendations! This is a book that's going to cost a lot more than the cover price.
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 17 April, 2010, 06:06:26 PM
Quote from: The Cosh on 17 April, 2010, 03:49:09 PM
I'm in the middle of rereading Shade The Changing Man and it's predominantly great stuff.
Funnily enough I'm starting on re-read of Shade next with the first 19 issues. Looking forward to it as I used to love it and haven't read it since it first came out and have never read the last 20.
The way I remember it, it starts to go downhill really quickly after #50 and I finished A Season in Hell (can't believe I forgot what happens at the end) last night, so I'm just about to find out. I'd be interested to see what you make of it. For me, the real standouts have been: Edge of Vision, the couple of episodes focusing on Kathy towards the end of the American Scream, Shade the Changing Woman and pretty much everything once they get to the Hotel.
We never really die.