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#1

Announcements / Re: 2000 AD - The Ultimate Col...

Last post by Max Headroom - Today at 01:19:15 PM

Hope is complete in the sense that all that has been published is collected. But the story is not over - the next arc will see our main protagonist and his wife search for their son.

#2

Prog / Re: Prog 2381: A grizzly fate

Last post by Richard - Today at 01:09:20 PM

I'd be quite happy for Rico to take over and go back to using his original name of Dredd, but I think Wagner said in an interview that he wasn't interested in doing that. 

#3

Film & TV / Re: Rogue Trooper News…!

Last post by JayzusB.Christ - Today at 01:06:53 PM

Oh, you fecker. I was looking forward to that.

#4

Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...

Last post by Fortnight - Today at 12:57:20 PM

And, see, even if we just accept that all the additional surface rendering in the modern version is just How Things Are Done Now™, I've noticed in a lot of these re-colouring jobs, there's a tendency for the colourist to think about light and palette and forget about depth and clarity.

Notice the first panel on the right-hand page. In the new version, I completely lose Swampy's hands because they're coloured identically to the beetle. Wood's original picks them out in a different tone.

I wonder how much of a purist approach there is to this argument. I read a few Amazon reviews of this set before I bought it and the biggest complaint was that the re-colouring was done at all; completely replacing the original. I've never read it in this form, and until today I've never even looked through one of my original issues. So I'm not really biased towards one over the other. I think the new colours look amazing. Especially in volume 1.

There are panels where clarity has been increased, I think. Consider below. In the original it's not clear what's happening - the "double exposure" effect is not clear at all, but clarified in the new colours. There are pros and cons, I guess.



(With apologies to Colin for derailing his thread a bit!)

#5

Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...

Last post by Jim_Campbell - Today at 12:24:33 PM

Issue #56 is one of only 4 from this era that I actually have in an original copy!

Oh, nice!

And, see, even if we just accept that all the additional surface rendering in the modern version is just How Things Are Done Now™, I've noticed in a lot of these re-colouring jobs, there's a tendency for the colourist to think about light and palette and forget about depth and clarity.

Notice the first panel on the right-hand page. In the new version, I completely lose Swampy's hands because they're coloured identically to the beetle. Wood's original picks them out in a different tone.

#6

Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...

Last post by Fortnight - Today at 11:54:51 AM

Issue #56 is one of only 4 from this era that I actually have in an original copy!

#7

Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...

Last post by Jim_Campbell - Today at 11:25:18 AM

The Absolute editions somewhat controversially recolour the run IIRC, I've not seen it for comparison myself.

I'm not a fan of what I've seen of the new colouring. I mean, I understand that just slapping the old newsprint colours onto high quality paper is a non-starter, but I've seen a number of pro colourists say that the new colours could certainly be a lot closer to Tatjana Wood's original work by using them as a guide and desaturating them to avoid the My-God-my-EYES! effect that's certainly present in the colour Titan reprint I have from decades back.

(It's worth tracking down an original copy of #56, just to see Wood's colouring on 'My Blue Heaven' — I think the total colour palette for comics of this era ran 124 total combinations of cyan, magenta and yellow... and Wood colours the whole thing using only the blue-ish subset of those combinations... maybe 16-20 colours total.)

#8

Books & Comics / Re: Recommended Comic shops th...

Last post by IndigoPrime - Today at 11:15:32 AM

Depending on age of your daughter, she may like both stores. Mini-IP enjoys FP's upstairs for all the toys and tat, but she loves Gosh's extensive children's section (from younglings to YA). We always come home with at least one new thing for her to read.

#9

Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...

Last post by Le Fink - Today at 10:30:39 AM

As someone relatively unread in comics, but trying to catch up (despite being beset by long delays due to renovations taking an insufferably and inordinately long time to get finished), and who has read almost all the Moore Swamp Thing now, from cold, without having read anything from before or after that run, and the only exposure to Swamp Thing before that being the 80s movie, I have to say I don't really recognise what I have read of it from these descriptions all that much!

Maybe it's because I've read so little of comics (compared to you vets), or because I approached it without any particular reverence for Moore. I've thoroughly enjoyed what I've read so far, but didn't think the incidental characters were neglected, unlikeable, or irritating. I also it doesn't really feel much like a superhero story, despite some of those old trouts turning up.

Perhaps I should also say that I'm reading the Absolute editions, and I'm not forcing myself to keep reading when I get tired - I just pick it up again later. I'll definitely be re-reading them, too, at some point.

Pretty much how I came to it, apart from the edition, and how I responded to it too. I've given it a couple of re-reads since, but the first read was the most enjoyable for me. The Absolute editions somewhat controversially recolour the run IIRC, I've not seen it for comparison myself.

#10

Books & Comics / Re: Completely Self-absorbed T...

Last post by Colin YNWA - Today at 10:03:41 AM

Interesting read this. Swamp Thing is something I've often thought about checking out. I've only ever read a single issue - a girl gave it to me as a gift and given I'm not hugely into superhero stuff I didn't want to taint it by reading around it and finding I didn't care for the series, if that makes sense - I rather like it in isolation.

Interesting what issue if I may be so bold. When I've been asked in the past I've always recommended issue 43. Not that its representative of the run as a whole - as I've said that would be hard to do - just cos its my fav!

Issue 55 is the issue in question....
Because I've not read any more of the run, I've literally no idea if it is representative or not. Read in isolation its quite trippy and beautiful.

Oh interesting that's one of the issues with very little actual Swamp Thing in that focus on the supporting cast as Swampie is cast into the cosmos.

Perhaps I should also say that I'm reading the Absolute editions, and I'm not forcing myself to keep reading when I get tired - I just pick it up again later. I'll definitely be re-reading them, too, at some point.

Oh nice - they are lovely editions and one of the many formats I've has some of the stories in - having picked up Vol.2 when it was in an Amazon glitch that meant you could pick it up for bobbins. I do thing these are a lovely way to read the series but think they are getting hard to get hold of now.

Good to hear someone coming in fresh is really enjoying the series.