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Last Comic Read

Started by Magnetica, 20 August, 2018, 05:57:25 PM

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Magnetica

Does any one else find it strange there isn't a "last comic read" thread in a similar vein to the last movie watched or box set obsession one? I.e. somewhere to witter on about what you have just read without having to start a whole thread dedicated to it.

Anyway I wanted to comment on The Last American without resurrecting the old threads on it. I finally got round to reading my special edition hardback, having owned it for over a year and having brought it on last year's summer holiday and not ever having read it before.

Given the creative team (Wagner, Grant and McMahon) and the comments on the old thread (" absolute classic" ) I had high expectations. But I have to same to say I was disappointed. The outcome was telegraphed from pretty early on i.e. [spoiler]it was obvious there was no-one else around[/spoiler] and McMahon's art was after what I view as his classic period.

Frank

Quote from: Magnetica on 20 August, 2018, 05:57:25 PM
Given the creative team (Wagner, Grant and McMahon) and the comments on the old thread (" absolute classic" ) I had high expectations. But I have to same to say I was disappointed. The outcome was telegraphed from pretty early on i.e. [spoiler]it was obvious there was no-one else around[/spoiler] and McMahon's art was after what I view as his classic period.

Together with Chopper in Oz, it brought the crisis in John's and my partnership to a crescendo. We had radically different ideas on how to play it--or should I say, our overall idea was the same, we just couldn't agree on how to do it.  Eventually, John wrote Books 1 and 2, I wrote 3 and 4.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050414030202/http://www.2000adreview.co.uk:80/features/interviews/2005/grant/grant8.shtml


I think I remember Mick McMahon saying the comic was originally supposed to run for 8 or 9(?) issues, but was cut down to its current size because he was taking so long to draw it (and he was coming back from a long period of ill health).

It didn't grip me as an unfolding story at the time, but I like the characters and there are lots of sequences I enjoy. It might be a candidate for Grant Morrison's approach of treating comics as non-linear narratives that can be read in any order.



Professor Bear

Just done the latest issue in my re-read of the kid version of 2000ad with Eagle 137, and where 2000ad of this vintage (late 1984) was starting to mature a little, Eagle was attending to the younger end of the sci-fi/adventure comics market, with a lacklustre post-Wagner/Mills Dan Dare only made interesting thanks to some great Ian Kennedy art, and Doomlord mixing the blackest of black humor with fantastic post-Scream! Eric Bradbury artwork as an Australian town suffers an ethnic cleansing at the hands of alien robots, prompting the completely proportionate exclamation "strike me down with a platypus!"
John Wagner and Carlos Cruz continue on good form in the second book of Blood Fang, following on from a great first series by Wagner and the late great Jim Baike by turning the series into a Flesh knock-off that has its moments, but I preferred the first arc's non sci-fi pseudo-documentary approach.  Blood Fang is no Satanus, but he sure eats a lot of people for a kids' comic dinosaur before moving onto "the beloved horse, Bess."
The Fists Of Danny Pike is a riff on the then-popular Rocky movie series and is about a scouse world boxing champion, and it's passable enough soap operatics elevated by John Burns' flawless draughtsmanship - though some of the visual depictions of African American boxers are a bit... uh... well it was a simpler time.
One-Eyed Jack lumbers along, with his cop partner Calucchi suddenly coming back from the dead and Jack returning to his old stomping ground of NYC.  I think this is a story from an earlier issue (when Jack was a cop) that they edited to bring into current continuity with Jack as a spy-hunting James Bond type, with the story tweaked a little bit here and there so now Jack is hunting for a traitor in an organisation in which there are only two named members, and Jack is one of them - I wonder who the traitor will turn out to be?!  This strip can actually be entertainingly daft and brutal at times, and this episode is no exception, with Jack asking directions from a guy wearing a flamethrower in the middle of a New York street who suddenly turns out to be an enemy agent and Jack looks surprised he isn't just an honest flamethrower-wielding citizen going about his business - I knew 1980s NYC was tough before Guilliani cleaned it up, but fuck me.
Monster continues its post-Scream! run with a slow episode in which Uncle Terry murders absolutely no-one.  If I was a kid, I would feel cheated at this, especially after the past few issues in which the hunchbacked homocidalist tried to strangle an entire Scotch village before rampaging through Blackpool in a chase sequence that involved him surfing a roller coaster into a waxwork museum where he had a one-sided fight with a Frankenstein mannequin that he tries to murder - I think you have a problem, Terry.  Great Redondo art.
Manix is Eagle's answer to 2000ad's MACH 1, being about spy robot type - think if MACH 1's computer was the only narrative voice in that strip and you wouldn't be too far off.  In this one he ends a romp behind the Iron Curtain in which he's posing as a premiership footballer, and it wraps up pretty quickly to the point I think this adventure was truncated to make room for the ROBO MACHINES strip that house ads have been threatening for the last few issues.
The issue rounds off with a jaunt to the Thirteenth Floor, wherein Max takes obvious pleasure in telling an innocent technician (whose crime is that he tried to do the right thing and repair potentially dangerous faulty wiring) that for his transgression he will never die, he will simply experience an eternity of agonising pain that will make him beg for death, and then Max crushes him with a giant boulder and then boils him in lava, entirely in keeping with the scene an issue or two back in which a gang of hapless thugs are skewered on the end of a trident wielded by Satan himself before being cooked over a giant fire like marshmallows, as little imps in bowler hats scream "into the ovens with them!" so yeah that all-ages thing is going well.
Really enjoying reading these.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Magnetica on 20 August, 2018, 05:57:25 PM
Does any one else find it strange there isn't a "last comic read" thread in a similar vein to the last movie watched or box set obsession one? I.e. somewhere to witter on about what you have just read without having to start a whole thread dedicated to it.

I use the 'Whats everyone reading' thread for this (or the 'New comic book day mega thread') but this is a cool idea.

I've just read Prog 842... its a pretty good Prog all in ... but with very significent problems. I'll get all self absorbed about it later...

Magnetica

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 20 August, 2018, 09:55:07 PM
Quote from: Magnetica on 20 August, 2018, 05:57:25 PM
Does any one else find it strange there isn't a "last comic read" thread in a similar vein to the last movie watched or box set obsession one? I.e. somewhere to witter on about what you have just read without having to start a whole thread dedicated to it.

I use the 'Whats everyone reading' thread for this (or the 'New comic book day mega thread') but this is a cool idea.

I've just read Prog 842... its a pretty good Prog all in ... but with very significent problems. I'll get all self absorbed about it later...

Thanks Colin. I see "The New Comic Book Mega Thread" as different to this- that is more about new stuff, whereas  I see this more being primarily about old stuff one happens to have just read. It could also cover new stuff if people want to mention that too... which is what happens on the "Last Movie Watched" thread. For example people sometimes mention the latest Star Wars film there despite their being dedicated threads for that.

But really I wanted a thread to talk about trades of old stuff I am reading, like The Last American, or Meltdown Man or the Volgan War without having to start a new thread every time.

JamesC

I've just read the first few issues of Black Hammer which I enjoyed but can't really see what all the fuss is about. It may get better I suppose but even if it doesn't it's still an entertaining read.

Also read the latest issue of Doomsday Clock recently. I've been enjoying this series even though I think, ultimately, they should have left Watchmen alone (I feel the same about the upcoming TV series).
It's been handled quite well but the whole alternate reality thing is so tired. The most interesting characters in the story are The Mime and Marionette. I'd rather they just did something totally new with new characters.

The things I've enjoyed the most recently are straight up action comics - Freeway Fighter (just plain good fun) and some Gail Simone penned Red Sonja (which I thought really invoked a VHS era sword and sorcery feel).

Colin YNWA

Quote from: JamesC on 21 August, 2018, 10:53:20 AM
I've just read the first few issues of Black Hammer which I enjoyed but can't really see what all the fuss is about. It may get better I suppose but even if it doesn't it's still an entertaining read.

Well have to be honest I'm part of the fuss! Love this series and issue 1 was a blast as I recall. it does build from there and get better and better as the world its set in grows.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 21 August, 2018, 01:02:26 PM
Well have to be honest I'm part of the fuss! Love this series and issue 1 was a blast as I recall. it does build from there and get better and better as the world its set in grows.

Yes... the early issues very much feel like a well-executed, affectionate homage but they're also carefully laying the groundwork for the story to develop and grow.
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Fungus

I like that What's Everyone Reading can widen things out into wordy-books, fine with a comic-only thread like this one.
FYI Black Hammer is fantastic, but I'm a bit comic-lite these days so the 2nd trade was my last look at it.
My Hachette library grows and so tackled Dante vol. 1 and Tales of Ordinary Madness recently. Looking forward to Dante's world expanding, but 'Madness' felt less charming than I hoped. Crazy Town looks a better bet with the great Otto Sump.
Also, read the Black Hole trade the other day. The Burns one, not the Bisley. Enjoyable - with occasionally dense and rewarding art - but about twice the length it needed to be. Meandered a bit, but the cast of characters maybe justified this. An acquired taste. Realised with horror that I was reading this exactly 5 years after picking it up. Ouch.

JamesC

I've finished the first collection of Black Hammer. Still enjoyable but still not really wowing me. I'm going to stick with it though.

I've also been having a leisurely re-read of Hellblzer. I've just finished part 7 of The Fear Machine which is a story I've been really enjoying after the slightly dull 'Devil You Know' arc. The Fear Machine has a really good Nigel Kneale vibe about it and feels very British. God knows what the American audience made of it at the time. The only downer is that Mark Buckingham seems to struggle making the characters look consistent.

AlexF

Brink book 2: AMAZING! Even more fun than the first, I reckon, although it wouldn't work as well without the background of the first, much denser, story.

Jinty collection: really enjoyed this, as did my 8-year-old daughter, which was pleasing to see. I wouldn't say it's quite the second coming of reprint comics, as perhaps implied by the recent Thrillcast on the 'Treasury' would have it, but it's bizarre and emotional in all the right ways.

But what I really want to talk about is Universe: A periodical of Cosmic Wonder by Albert Monteys. Just read a collection of 5 issues of this, all available from Panel Syndicate, and it's some of the best comics I've read in years. All VERY 2000ADish - it's like a collection of the best Future Shocks you've never read, with sumptuous art that reminds me of peak-period Belardinelli meets Ian Gibson.

If you don't know, Panel Syndicate is a website that hosts comics that you can choose what to pay for. Mostly comics by Brain K Vaughan and Marcos Martin (Private Eye - pretty good; Barrier - great first 2 issues, but doesn't really go anywhere after that). If you can cope with digital comics, super highly recommended.

Colin YNWA

Just finished a re-read of Simon Oliver and Robbie Rod Rodriguez's FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics. It's really good read in one go (well over several sittings you understand). Physics starts to break down and in the US members of government agency charged with helping folks with there physics based emergencies start to investigate why, while teaching us all about family and fate. Its great stuff.

In the end it does get a little compacted and rushed which makes its a little pot boilery. I suspect that was a factor of DC making sure it filled enough trades to support an opinioned movie that never happened, but not wanting to sustain its rubbish sales anymore than that. Shame as with a little more room it could well have transcended from just really good to great.

That said its kinda fitting I guess that as it goes on it feels compressed and pulled by the outside forces that supported its existance!

CalHab

I've just finished the Shadows West collection of the 90s Vertigo western/horror version of Jonah Hex. For some reason I wasn't taken with these at the time but, on reading them collected, I have to say they stand up with the best of Vertigo's 90s output. Joe R. Lansdale has a wonderful way with dialogue and Timothy Truman's art is outstanding. These are among the best Western comics I've read, and seem to have been overlooked (at least by me).

Colin YNWA

Has anybody else read Mark Waid's Irredeemable? Working my way through it now and just finished Volume 4? Its blooming superb.

Okay so the art isn't the best and the colouring is plain bad but the story. Wow. Everytime I think I've read enough superhero comics in my life something like this comes along and reminds you they are a fine, fine source of story potential.

Just superb.

Greg M.

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 16 September, 2018, 06:55:45 PM
Has anybody else read Mark Waid's Irredeemable?

I read it when it first came out (along with its companion comic, Incorruptible) but I never quite made it to the end of the series - I must have missed the last year of the title. I liked it a lot when it started - first 8 or so issues were great - but I wasn't sure Waid was able to sustain the initial excitement. It went off in some directions that, at the time, I felt lessened the doom-fuelled atmosphere of the early issues.