Whats everyone reading?

[Colin YNWA]

I love Final Crisis (back to another post you made I do have that in a lovely hardcover collection as its not too big and just works so well for his story pulling everything together and has extra pages not in the comics which really add something) and I find it so wonderfully ...charming.

Comparing it to Infinite Crisis is interesting and says in some specific ways why I like it so much. In Infinite - as I recall - Superboy bends reality by hitting the wall of the world they are trapped in after Crisis on Infinite Earths (its been a while so excuse me if that is wrong). In Final Superman sings to create vibrations at specific frequencies to save the day. The former felt a little weird, the latter is entirely weird but in a way that embraces the crazy charm of the silver age and the hyper-reality of superhero comics. The former feels 90s, the latter feels like its straight form the imagination of Jack Kirby.

[broodblik]

I can remember reading 52 but I can not remember Final Crisis. Maybe its just me but I find reading Morrison's work mostly painful with over complicating concepts and arcs which becomes difficult to follow and mostly incomprehensible. I never liked anything Morrison did except Zenith. He was always for me very much over rated writer.

[Colin YNWA]

I can remember reading 52 but I can not remember Final Crisis. Maybe its just me but I find reading Morrison's work mostly painful with over complicating concepts and arcs which becomes difficult to follow and mostly incomprehensible. I never liked anything Morrison did except Zenith. He was always for me very much over rated writer.

And to think I had such respect for you [colin_ynwa turns away and walks away from POV, slowly, head bowed. His slow arm movements suggest he's wiping a tear from his eye]

[broodblik]

....and I like marmite too 

[Colin YNWA]

....and I like marmite too 

Oh just get outta here you freak!

[pictsy]

I agree Morrison is over-rated*... but liking marmite is a step too far!

*I didn't think especially highly of Zenith after finally getting to read it.  Steve Yeowell's artwork was great, sure... but I found the story very meh.

[Le Fink]

... and finally reached the end of Final Crisis...  It hangs together quite nicely and you could probably get away with reading it without picking through 52 or Countdown...

Funnily enough I've just [tried to] read Final Crisis, without any of the run up to it or back story. Why would you do such a crazy thing, Le Fink? Because I'm reading the Morrison Batman Omnibuses, that's why! I made it through Omnibus 2 and was fairly bemused and baffled by it - Bruce Wayne being thrown through time... reading the blurb at the back Morrison mentions how it's all tied up with Final Crisis. Great! I'll just get that to clear it all up!

Cue utter bewilderment. It just made it worse! 

... Maybe its just me but I find reading Morrison's work mostly painful with over complicating concepts and arcs which becomes difficult to follow and mostly incomprehensible...

I'm currently sympathetic to this view!

I liked All-Star Superman and We3 though.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

I read Morrison's Batman recently and really loved aspects of it (Bats being more of a detective than the modern ultra-violent version often is, Damian and Dick's relationship, the concept for Batman Inc) but was put off by some of the gorier aspects (Professor Pyg torturing people being the main part). I did not like Final Crisis at all though, I could see what Morrison was trying to do but found it far too much of a disjointed mess to be in any way satisfying.

I've just read Alan Moore's Nemo trilogy, two years after reading all of the rest of LOEG, and I loved it a lot. Which definitely wasn't always the case with LOEG, and thought it contained some really stunning double splash pages from Kevin O'Neill.

I'm also slowly working my way through the Dredd Case Files, I recently read Volume 16 (it has its moments but I didn't click with some of Ennis's comedy Dredd stories) so thought I'd check out the first Restricted Files and I'm really loving it, some of the stories are extremely silly but it's during a period where I find that quite charming, and I already have a feeling I'll really miss this era when I get round to reading the 17th Case File.

[Le Fink]

...Bats being more of a detective than the modern ultra-violent version often is, Damian and Dick's relationship, the concept for Batman Inc) but was put off by some of the gorier aspects (Professor Pyg torturing people being the main part)...

Agree with all that. Omnibus 2 started with Batman and Robin, Frank Quitely on art, and it was such an improvement on the (visually and story-wise) dull RIP story from the previous omni. The rest of #2 had its moments but didn't quite live up to the liveliness of those first chapters. I'm not sure about getting omni 3 which has the Batman inc. stuff. I've not read it before. Recommended?

[Le Fink]

... the Dredd Case Files, I recently read Volume 16 (it has its moments but I didn't click with some of Ennis's comedy Dredd stories)

A not uncommon view! I was reading it at the time. Not his best work, although I thought Death Aid was pretty good.

...so thought I'd check out the first Restricted Files and I'm really loving it, some of the stories are extremely silly but it's during a period where I find that quite charming, and I already have a feeling I'll really miss this era when I get round to reading the 17th Case File.

Not read #1 but Restricted Files #2 is great, defo worth picking up as well.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

...Bats being more of a detective than the modern ultra-violent version often is, Damian and Dick's relationship, the concept for Batman Inc) but was put off by some of the gorier aspects (Professor Pyg torturing people being the main part)...

Agree with all that. Omnibus 2 started with Batman and Robin, Frank Quitely on art, and it was such an improvement on the (visually and story-wise) dull RIP story from the previous omni. The rest of #2 had its moments but didn't quite live up to the liveliness of those first chapters. I'm not sure about getting omni 3 which has the Batman inc. stuff. I've not read it before. Recommended?

I really liked Batman Inc a lot, the main problem I had with it is that Morrison leaves after about (iirc) 18 issues, and Chris Burnham takes over writing the last three issues and it didn't work for me, and then the series was cancelled. The omnibus is pretty expensive too, I got lucky with ebay auctions and paid about £20 and I was very happy with that, but I'm not sure I would have been if I'd paid double.

A not uncommon view! I was reading it at the time. Not his best work, although I thought Death Aid was pretty good.

Likewise and I enjoyed that one as well, and some of Ennis's stories are much stronger than I remembered them to be (Muzak Killer springs immediately to mind as a good example), but there's a couple of one offs that made me wince, like the Edward Scissorhands parody and the mutant who looked like a teddy bear.

Not read #1 but Restricted Files #2 is great, defo worth picking up as well.

I definitely plan on getting #2, though I'm hoping I might get lucky on Ebay as it's around £40 on Amazon, and I'd like to get #3 as well but that's out of print and going for silly money sadly.

[JohnW]

Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

It's been a long time since I read Vonnegut because too much Vonnegut can quickly become too much of a good thing.
I'm enjoying this one just fine, though, getting a third of the way through in one sitting this evening.

But let me draw the Squaxxs' attention to the following:

'...there was a radio antenna under the crown of his skull, and that it would hurt him whenever he did something a good soldier wouldn't ever do. The antenna also would give him orders and furnish drum music to march to.'

See?
I just found out where the Different Drummers came from.

[Colin YNWA]

Kurt Vonnegut my favourite author. I really do a re-read, its been too long.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I really hated Garth's run on Dredd - sometimes my dislike of it probably crossed over into the irrational; I just really resented that John Wagner had been replaced by someone who was clearly inexperienced and didn't really seem to understand the nuances so meticulously put in place in the preceding years.  I remember I knew someone from my student days who was a mate of Garth's, and I really hoped I wouldn't have to meet him and pretend that I liked his stuff.

Nowadays, I honestly think he's one of the best writers comics has to offer.  The likes of Crossed, for all its lurid violence and depravity, is for me at least a profoundly moving look at how human relationships endure in the face of horror.

Speaking of which, I'm reading Stephen King's The Stand for the first time.  I've really lost my reading habit and tried to get back into it with Alan Moore's Jerusalem, but my brain just isn't ready for that yet, so I've given up and gone with something less taxing.

The Stand is great, though, it really is.  It's very different from how I imagined it to be - in fact it's more like the Walking Dead without the zombies, and without the repetitiveness.

[JohnW]

I'm reading Stephen King's The Stand for the first time.  I've really lost my reading habit and tried to get back into it

When it comes to getting back into reading, early King is always a good route, and The Stand (at least before he dicked around with it) is a grand satisfying wodge of a read.
There's a lot about the man's style I don't have much time for these days, but that's offset by the sheer amount of content he delivers. My habit now is to read one of his books until things start drifting towards absurdity and then I chuck it. As soon as he introduces stuff like space turtles I know I probably won't like how the story ends. But that doesn't matter because the book has already served up several hundred pages of human interest with spooky stuff added.