Whats everyone reading?

[Marbles]

For me the best Alan Moore is V For Vendetta & Captain Britain. Recently re-read the CB omnibus (after getting a CB headshot sketch from Alan Davies at Bedford NICE Con) and it really stands up. Creative, fun and intelligent storytelling as you would expect.

[Barrington Boots]

Amtrak Wars Patrick Tilley. 

This is a blast from the past! Weird series imo - the setting and ideas are cool but also a murderous, manipulative, incestuous main character who is amazingly dislikable: I haven't read it for years but I'd like to hear what you think of it. I think the series goes off the rails a bit when it moves to psuedo-Japan.

Also I'm on the camp that Moore's Captain Britain is excellent. I don't really like superhero comics but this is really imaginative stuff. I'm not much of a fan of his later work but I have a feeling he wouldn't be a fan of me either.

[Funt Solo]

Amtrak Wars Patrick Tilley. 

This is a blast from the past! Weird series imo - the setting and ideas are cool but also a murderous, manipulative, incestuous main character who is amazingly dislikable: I haven't read it for years but I'd like to hear what you think of it. I think the series goes off the rails a bit when it moves to psuedo-Japan.

I read the series vociferously circa '88/'89, and remember enjoying it. I can't remember, now, much beyond the title - and my memory says that the series stopped with various plot threads left dangling - a bit like Game of Thrones.

[Tjm86]

Aye, the lead character is a bit of a git.  Then again that seems reflective of the culture he comes from.  I did stumble across an overview of the series online that mentions that Tilley left things hanging a little at the end.  Apparently he planned another series but never got around to it.

As for Moore's Captain Britain, to be honest I think that is the best run of the character as well as some of his strongest work.  There is just so much insanity there, it's great.  What Claremont did with some elements in later years with X-men and Excalibur doesn't hold a candle to it.  To be fair the more recent Excalibur series Marvel ran was more akin to what Moore did and is probably about the only one I thought worth the effort (until American comics became too blessed expensive).

[BadlyDrawnKano]

while I can absolutely imagine rereading Swamp Thing, Halo Jones, and Top Ten, I doubt I'll ever go back to Miracleman.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen contains my favourite Moore, although it becomes more obscure and less entertaining (for the less hardcore, i.e., me) as it goes on. Kevin O'Neill on good form too.

I do revisit the first couple of books of Miracleman from time to time. I like the 'alien suit' and warpsmiths concepts, the world building and storytelling is pretty good. I can leave the final Olympus part. Maybe not his best but still worth a re-read... Captain Britain, anyone?

In Hell though ... not sure I'll be reading that one again.

I really love the first two volumes of League, but the final cynical ending isn't really what I wanted from the comic, I completely understand why Moore wrote it that way, and he's been treated appallingly by so many in the industry, but I still love comics and so didn't click with it.

I've still not read From Hell, an ex-girlfriend lent it to me for about six months and it just sat on my bookshelf gathering dust, so I gave it back to her as I just wasn't in the mood to read something so bleak and since then that feeling hasn't changed.

I do want to read Captain Britain and will definitely get it at some point soon, but due to being very fortunate to live near a couple of charity shops that sell trade paperbacks for about £3 - £4 a shot my backlog is ridiculously huge at the moment!

Batman - The Long Halloween by Joseph Loeb and Tim Sale

It was good art-wise but I found the story a bit repetitive and it felt like it took too long to be resolved. I've not read much Bats other than Frank Miller's efforts, but I did enjoy Paul Pope's Batman year 100. Quirky, bit different and worth a look. Tried reading the first massive Morrison omnibus recently but didn't get too far.

It definitely didn't need to be 13 issues, but the art was so good, and the dialogue so minor an aspect of the comic, that I was able to read it all over the course of two evenings.

I've read up to Morrison's Batman R.I.P. and liked it, but haven't rushed back to finish their run, and I'm normally a big fan of them.

Oh – and Complete Case Files 7. This is the stuff from 1983-84, when I was lukewarm about the prog and was drifting in and out.
Now I'm thinking that it wasn't just me in the grip of a long post-Apocalypse War letdown. A lot of these stories are pretty substandard.
'The Highwaymen' from Prog 353, anyone?
I'm sure 'The Haunting of Sector House 9' has its fans around here, but I'm not one of them and never was.*
And I wish nothing but happiness and prosperity to Kim Raymond, but I can't help deploring that he was ever given Dredd stories to draw.
Let me just emphasise that it's not as if this stuff is genuinely bad, but I'd come on board in the summer of 1981. Need I say more?

*Judge Omar's turban does not suggest Justice Department's inclusion of Sikhism but looks instead like a low-rent stage magician trying to sell his audience on Oriental mystery.

I get your stance on Case Files 7 but I read and enjoyed it recently, though the fact that I'm not really a huge fan of any recent Dredd stories in 2000AD might be a reason why.

Summer Magic by Alan McKenzie, John Ridgeway, Steve Parkhouse - I absolutely adore the Ridgeway era, it gave me a bit of nostalgia for when I first read 2000AD as a teenager and the nostalgia of the 60s and the supposedly simpler times, even if I never did experience them myself. But I struggled with the Parkhouse series, the art's not quite the same (he's great at mood, less so at capturing Luke) and the story starts to feel like it's running out of steam. Which is a shame as I really did love the first half an awful lot. 4/5

Slaine - Dragontamer by Pat Mills and Leonardo Manco - Supposedly the final ever Slaine story, I wasn't expecting much from this. I'm  not Slaine's biggest fan in the first place and modern Mills has rarely been my cup of tea, but this was a decent final outing for the character. The art's absolutely stunning, which might be partially why I enjoyed it so much, but while the plot doesn't do anything that original the script is amusing enough and doesn't take itself too seriously, and the whole event doesn't outstay its welcome either. 4/5

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Oops, that should be "a hit of nostalgia", rather than a bit!

[Le Fink]

Summer Magic by Alan McKenzie, John Ridgeway, Steve Parkhouse - I absolutely adore the Ridgeway era, it gave me a bit of nostalgia for when I first read 2000AD as a teenager and the nostalgia of the 60s and the supposedly simpler times, even if I never did experience them myself. But I struggled with the Parkhouse series, the art's not quite the same (he's great at mood, less so at capturing Luke) and the story starts to feel like it's running out of steam. Which is a shame as I really did love the first half an awful lot. 4/5

Ridgeway was such a hard act to follow, that first series was beautifully, beautifully drawn.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Summer Magic by Alan McKenzie, John Ridgeway, Steve Parkhouse - I absolutely adore the Ridgeway era, it gave me a bit of nostalgia for when I first read 2000AD as a teenager and the nostalgia of the 60s and the supposedly simpler times, even if I never did experience them myself. But I struggled with the Parkhouse series, the art's not quite the same (he's great at mood, less so at capturing Luke) and the story starts to feel like it's running out of steam. Which is a shame as I really did love the first half an awful lot. 4/5

Ridgeway was such a hard act to follow, that first series was beautifully, beautifully drawn.

It really is Ridgeway at his very best, though I bought the Doctor Who spin-off graphic novel Omega last year and was really pleased to see that he's still producing some really fantastic artwork.

[Dash Decent]

Amtrak Wars Patrick Tilley. 

I think the series goes off the rails a bit

I see what you did there.

[JohnW]

Zoe Thorogood, It's Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth

As is the usual case with what's happening in comics these days, it was this forum that brought this to my attention. IndigoPrime spoke highly of it; it won an award; it was only eleven quid odd; I gave it a whirl.

This is an autobiographical work by a young artist coping with depression and as such it's introspective to a painful degree or, as the author asks herself,
'Wow. Is it even possible to suck your own dick any harder?'

Much as I wanted to, I didn't care for this.
Thorogood writes engagingly and draws beautifully, but I just could not connect with her. She makes a joke of her fan-base repeating the word 'relatable' until it becomes meaningless, but I couldn't relate. Her life and her observations are too specific to her generation.
Can I empathise with a young woman who battles depression (wonderfully personified as a looming black cartoon monster) while trying to create something? Sure – if I put my mind to it. But it turns out that I can't put myself in the shoes of someone who is 23 in the here and now. Her shoes are not mine. Her world is not mine. Her generation is one that has nothing to do with me.
I am, I realised, the exact same age as her parents.
Maybe if I had grown-up kids this would work better with me.
So, all in all, while I appreciated the many qualities of this, I came away somewhat disappointed – not with Thorogood, but with myself.
When the hell did I get too old for comics?

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Because of the recommendations on here I did end up buying Captain Britain despite my ridiculous comics backlog, and I absolutely loved it too. You can really see both Alan's grow in confidence as the series goes on, and I loved all of the mad elements in it, and Jim Jaspers made for a superb villain. 5/5

[Tjm86]

Aye.  I'd say of all Mr Moore's output it is the bit I love the most.  As impressive as Watchmen and V for Vendetta are, none of them have the sheer, anarchic 'fun' of his run on CB.  Plus, Alan Davies on art ....

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Aye.  I'd say of all Mr Moore's output it is the bit I love the most.  As impressive as Watchmen and V for Vendetta are, none of them have the sheer, anarchic 'fun' of his run on CB.  Plus, Alan Davies on art ....

It's definitely in my top 3, I think I slightly prefer Top Ten as I only read it a couple of months ago and feel it has a similar sense of anarchic fun, and if anything is even more mad, the only problem I have with it is that Moore's ending wasn't that satisfying. I really like the Smax and Forty-Niners mini-series, but I wish he'd returned for the rest of the run as I didn't really click with the writers took over.

[JohnW]

It must be a dozen years at least that Captain Britain has been on my reread list.
After reading this thread I'd just resolved to pull it off the shelf when my email pinged at me, telling me in quick succession that deliveries from Rebellion, Amazon, and AbeBooks are all on the way.
My life is too damn abundant.
Maybe I should go back to drinking. It used to sort out all my time and money problems for me.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

It must be a dozen years at least that Captain Britain has been on my reread list.
After reading this thread I'd just resolved to pull it off the shelf when my email pinged at me, telling me in quick succession that deliveries from Rebellion, Amazon, and AbeBooks are all on the way.
My life is too damn abundant.
Maybe I should go back to drinking. It used to sort out all my time and money problems for me.

Funnily enough I gave up drinking this year, mainly as it was affecting my mental health, and while I'm not certain if  I'll ever drink again or not I have noticed how much extra money I have to spend on things like comics! And I was considering rereading Alan Moore's Future Shocks again the other day but then spotted Ed Brubaker's Kill Or Be Killed in a charity shop, so picked that up and started reading it instead.