Whats everyone reading?

[Aonghus]

Bob Byrne's Mister Amperduke, which is exactly the kind of project creators cutting their teeth on 2000ad need to show the world after their tenure with Tharg...

Amperduke of course precedes Bob's dalliance with Betelgeusian green.  And truly brilliant it is too.

Speaking of his pre-Tooth days, do any of you remember The Shiznit, the free comic he pretty much singlehandedly drew, wrote, and produced, back aroun '07 '08? AFAIK you could only get it in the odd place in Dublin, but it was a sign of things to come. I was pondering them having read his most recent Twisted Tale, but dang if I can't find where my old copies are...

[Link Prime]

The Shiznit is still the funniest comic on Earth, but there are certain gags you'd only get as a child of Eire.
I think it only went up to 4 or 5 issues though. Would love to own a collected edition...

[TordelBack]

The Shiznit is still the funniest comic on Earth, but there are certain gags you'd only get as a child of Eire.
I think it only went up to 4 or 5 issues though. Would love to own a collected edition...

I treasure my Shiznits, and my Mblehs! (for some reason I want to say 'milky milky' now), they're in the go-to pile for emergency cheer-up reading.  They were readily available by the till in FP Dublin up to a few years ago.  A lot of the really good stuff has since been re-presented on Bob's Clamnuts site. 

Cheers for the clarification on the dates of Amperduke, Joe, I'd have sworn it was the other way round - possibly because of the short that ran in the Meg's small press section?  Even so, he must have had it substantially completed before Twisted Tales kicked off.  Later, I used to love browsing the huge pages in the windows of the Crow Street comics shop.

As to the sequel, he seems to be doing a good bit of paying work at the mo, more power to him, but I presume now he's finished Today We Worship Michael Landon he'll get it out fairly soon.  To  my eternal shame I still haven't bought the print version of that piece of genius.

[Aonghus]

The Shiznit is still the funniest comic on Earth, but there are certain gags you'd only get as a child of Eire.
I think it only went up to 4 or 5 issues though. Would love to own a collected edition...

I had all of them bar one, a fact that still rankles

A lot of the really good stuff has since been re-presented on Bob's Clamnuts site. 

[...]

I used to love browsing the huge pages in the windows of the Crow Street comics shop.

Ooh, didn't know about the website; thanks for the tip TB!
Man, I miss that shop too... Tales of Dublin past, that's what this thread's becoming 

[Dandontdare]

I just finished reading the first volume of Sweet Tooth last night - and it was drokkin' awesome! Lemire's artwork is stunning. I read The Underwater Welder not too long ago and fell in love with his storytelling. He's a name I will definitely look out for in the future.

I found 'sweet tooth in captivity' in the library recently, but haven't read the first one. Grim as fuck. I think I described it a few pages back as 'Bambi meets the Walking Dead'

It is pretty grim Dandontdare, but if you can, then I really recommend you to read the first volume because you get a clearer picture of how Sweet Tooth (Gus) came to be where he is. Its a really great read, a cross between The Road and Mad Max.

Have you read The Underwater Welder also by Lemire? It is quite possibly the best graphic novel of the year - absolutely stunning (although Brandom Graham's awesome Prophet volume 1 comes close).

At the moment I'm reading Dan Abnett's awesome Kingdom Volume 1 and 2! I love the whole premise, not to mention Gene the Hackman! ''GET WHET''!

I already plan to seek out more Sweet Tooth, but I'll look out for the Undwerwater Welder too.

And I heartily agree about Kingdom. Sadly, the next instalment seems to be endlessly delayed as both creators are busy putting out for DC.

[Mabs]

I just finished reading the first volume of Sweet Tooth last night - and it was drokkin' awesome! Lemire's artwork is stunning. I read The Underwater Welder not too long ago and fell in love with his storytelling. He's a name I will definitely look out for in the future.

I found 'sweet tooth in captivity' in the library recently, but haven't read the first one. Grim as fuck. I think I described it a few pages back as 'Bambi meets the Walking Dead'

It is pretty grim Dandontdare, but if you can, then I really recommend you to read the first volume because you get a clearer picture of how Sweet Tooth (Gus) came to be where he is. Its a really great read, a cross between The Road and Mad Max.

Have you read The Underwater Welder also by Lemire? It is quite possibly the best graphic novel of the year - absolutely stunning (although Brandom Graham's awesome Prophet volume 1 comes close).

At the moment I'm reading Dan Abnett's awesome Kingdom Volume 1 and 2! I love the whole premise, not to mention Gene the Hackman! ''GET WHET''!

I already plan to seek out more Sweet Tooth, but I'll look out for the Undwerwater Welder too.

And I heartily agree about Kingdom. Sadly, the next instalment seems to be endlessly delayed as both creators are busy putting out for DC.

Do seek Sweet Tooth out mate, you won't be disappointed. Same goes for The Underwater Welder; its a really moving, heart-wrenching (not to mention spooky!) tale about dealing with loss of a loved one. By the end I had a tear in my eye!

And I've just finished the 2nd volume of Kingdom (Call of the Wild) and I thought it was an absolutely brilliant read! Simply superb no questions about it. And I look forward to the next book with great fervour! : )

[Mabs]

I'm reading Judge Dredd Case Files 15 and Restricted Files 04 and I have to say I haven't laughed so much as I did reading them, especially the latter!

Absolutely brilliant.

[TordelBack]

Library trip finally yielded ASoFaI: Dance of Dragons, after a wait of over a year now, although perversely I find myself not in the mood, just having finished the surprisingly terrific first volume of The Anvil of Ice, by Michael Scott Rohan, and wanting to track down the second.  The latter book is one I would have sworn from the cover that I had already read and dismissed in the late '80s, or at the least the kind of sub-Tolkein muck Dave Langford would have defended me from, but in turned out to be a very good high-concept fun, po-facedly setting a highish fantasy world in the Pleistocene of North America on the cusp what I presume is the Wisconsin glaciation, complete with (predictably) Neanderthals for Dwarf-analogues, Mammoths and Smilodons.  All very silly, but well sustained and engaging.

Also in the library-run grab-bag were Psi-Files 2 and Restricted Files 2.  Now I would have said that I didn't care that much for the contents of either two volumes, particularly their latter parts, hence I've not got round to buing them. Yet again I was wrong - these are big collections, deceptively so with their slimmish high-quality-paper size, but both are brimming with little and not-so-little gems.  Standouts on first skim are Ranson's incredible page designs in Anderson, and all of McCarthy's and Higgins' contributions to Restricted Files.  Amazing looking stuff.

[Daveycandlish]

Fables volume 1. Thought I'd give it a try as I picked it up cheap in Smiths. It's rather good isn't it? Does it maintain the standard for the rest of the run? I know I'm way behind in the collections but are they worth getting?

[Mabs]

Fables volume 1. Thought I'd give it a try as I picked it up cheap in Smiths. It's rather good isn't it? Does it maintain the standard for the rest of the run? I know I'm way behind in the collections but are they worth getting?

Yeah, Fables is pretty awesome! Theres a lot of volumes to get through though (i think 17 last time I checked), but its well worth your time. I read the first few volumes only, so cannot really comment on the later ones. When you're done reading them, might I suggest you read Jack of Fables - its an offshot of the original series but really good fun!

[Albion]

I too have just read Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder. It really is very good. A moving and thoughtful tale.
I'm a huge Fan of Sweet Tooth too.

[Mabs]

I too have just read Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder. It really is very good. A moving and thoughtful tale.
I'm a huge Fan of Sweet Tooth too.

Glad you liked it mate! It really is a superb story. I've read a (very) few criticsms about Lemire's artwork, but I personally love it. It remind's me of William Blake's brilliant line drawings in the Roald Dahl tales, which I used to love as a kid. I also love the presentation of the book itself. Reminds me of the awesome From Hell paperback.

Sweet Tooth is another great comic. I've yet to read volume 2 and the rest, but thats definitely on my shopping list (as soon as I finish collecting the remainder of the Y The Last Man deluxe volumes - i've read the first two books, just waiting for the third to be delivered - Royal Mail are a royal pain in the ass! ). But I heard Lemire's Essex County and in particular The Nobody is really great also, so a lot of reading material lined up! : )

[Albion]

But I heard Lemire's Essex County and in particular The Nobody is really great also, so a lot of reading material lined up! : )

Essex County gets a lot of praise but I wasn't so keen on it as I am his other stuff. It's good but for me it's not his best.  I haven't read The Nobody.
I understand the criticisms his art gets but I like it too.

[Zarjazzer]

The Haunter of the Ring Robert E Howards (most famous for Conan) Horror stories.There's no getting past it Howard was a racist by our standards, the baddies invariably Oriental or Latins. The heroes upstanding Yanks with the occasional Afghan/Arab thrown in. I acknowledged it reflected the times they were written and tried to read them as best I could. Some I had read before (the Hyena) but others "Haunter of the Ring" and the "Fire of Asshurbanipal" were new to me. Pulpy and mad with Lovecraft elements Asshurbanipal was definitely the best-most others were middling to okay.Some of them were even scary.  At least it's made me want to read some Clark Ashton-Smith and the lesser known british writer John S Glasby and got me a nerding some of the Conan and pulp/horror blogs.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

The City and the City by the ever-great China Mieville. I was put off reading this by my missus, who gave up on it. Dunno why. It is incredibly good. Got about 30 pages to go, so I'll finish it on the train in the morning.