Whats everyone reading?

[Dandontdare]

And i want to take a look at Elephantmen... is a compelling story?.

Elephant men is definitely worth a read. Big thick phonebook-sized trades in full colour and nicely produced, so they're not very cheap (about £18 a book IIRC) The main storyline may not be 'compelling' if by that you mean dense and fast paced - it advances rather slowly across the volumes with lots of flashbacks and side-incidents; but I'd certainly call it gripping and well written.

The art however, oh, the art is just crack cocaine for the eyeballs. Mainly by the sublime Moritat but lots of guest artists such as Boo Cook also appear. The usual 'covers & sketches' bumf at the back has a novel twist - lots of convention sketches and peronalised pieces from the various artists, rather than just generic prep sketches.

And if you get a chance, Starkings and Cook did an Elephantmen vs Strontium Dog one-off for last year's Thought Bubble Anthology. I forgot to get one at TB on the day, but they're still on sale in my local Travelling man.

[Mabs]

I concur, Elephantmen is excellent. I bought the first volume for around a tenner from Amazon and it was money well spent. Like Dan said it's a really chuncky graphic novel with almost cardboard like paper quality with a glossy feel. I loved the stories contained within but the extras are sonething else- some of the best i've seen! I loved Starkings guide through British comics and his pick of great artists (including some 2000ad greats!). I really recommend it.

[Mabs]

The artwork is beautifully rendered by the talented artists on board such as Fraser, Weston and Flint.

I keep forgetting that Weston & Flint were involved int he early days (as were Charlie Adlard and Andy Clarke) - I've just got so used to thinking of Dante as a Fraser/Burns duopoly

Prior to reading this volume i was under the impression that Dante was purely a Morrison & Fraser gig, so was pleasantly surprised to see quite a line-up of talented artists. My favourite without doubt is Fraser's work, but some great work from the other artists too, such as Weston and Adlard. It's interesting especially looking at Flint's work, which is very different from his style of today - it's very reminscent of Moebius, actually! (i remember Flint citing the French master as one his influences in an interview). 

[Dark Jimbo]

But one comic i have been getting stuck into last night, was Nikolai Dante! I'm just 2/3 of the way through but might i say it has been an absolute blast! Wow. Now i know why the character is so popular amongst readers!

Oh my word. I envy you desperately, having the whole saga still in front of you. I'd easily rank it somewhere in Tooth's all-time top ten, along with Dredd, Stront, Nemesis, et al.

[Basilisk]

I'll pick up at least the first EM tome and judge. So it's everything in colour. I thought its was a mix of first on b&w, then colorized.

[Ancient Otter]

How much Richard Corben have you read already?

Only this - but I have 'Creepy Presents' on my wish list after reading Ragemoor.  Its not just the art I liked though - it was the gothic setting, haunted castle, faithful servant, etc.

I don't know much about Jan Strnad (I really should have mentioned the author of Ragemoor) but I've read a small bit of Richard Corben.

I haven't read his Haunts of Horror titles, one is a series of H.P. Lovecraft adaptations and another Edgar Allen Poe adaptations. They were available as separate collections and as one omnibus.

Edgar Allen Poe wise, he has a adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher coming up as a mini series and his adaptation of The Conqueror Worm was released last year as a single comic.

The Creepy collection is a mix of different types of horror and sci-fi stories with a few Edgar Allen Poe adaptations.

[Hawkmumbler]

Just finished Spies by Micael Frayn, genuinly engrossing little WW2 melodrama and spie pastiche. Good stuff.

[Mabs]

I just finished Nikolai Dante: The Courtship of Jena Makarov, just a few moments ago. Absolutely superb stuff. Just as enjoyable as the first volume, and some of the artwork by John Burns and Simon Fraser was magnificent. I've taken to Dante in a bigway, and rest assured i will track all the other volumes down even if it takes me to the ends of the earth!

I've still to read Defoe so will get started on that later. The Strip magazine i bought yesterday looks very tempting so i might start on that now.

[Mabs]

Hey, our very own Jim and Richmond in the line-up! Nice one guys! (loving that goatee, Richmond!) 

[Dandontdare]

That just reminded me of another book I bought recently that was lettered by Jim - Porcelain (written by Benjamin Read, illustrated by Chris Wildgoose, and coloured by André May, published by Improper Books). A beautiful book described as a 'gothic fairy tale' it tells of Child, a street urchin who climbs into the garden of a mysterious old man who makes living porcelain statues. Dark, poignant and beautifully drawn.

Also, a testament to the power of Giving Stuff Away - the creators were handing out copies of the first "issue" at Thought Bubble (well not really an issue as it was never actually published in serial form - it was a properly printed comic of the first half a dozen pages of the GN). I was impressed enough to buy it when I later saw it in Travelling Man, but would not have considered it without that freebie.

[Mabs]

Porcelain sounds really intriguing , Dan. I'm going to add it to my must read list, thanks for that.

EDIT: just had a browse through Amazon, can't seem to find it.  , any ideas where i might be able to buy it?

[Dandontdare]

Porcelain sounds really intriguing , Dan. I'm going to add it to my must read list, thanks for that.

EDIT: just had a browse through Amazon, can't seem to find it.  , any ideas where i might be able to buy it?

It's available at branches of Travelling Man; also at Orbital and Gosh comics in London and page45 comics in Nottingham apparently, not sure if they do any direct sales.

You can read the 12 page freebie on the publisher's website: http://www.improperbooks.com/2013/01/porcelain-indie-launch/

[Mabs]

Porcelain sounds really intriguing , Dan. I'm going to add it to my must read list, thanks for that.

EDIT: just had a browse through Amazon, can't seem to find it.  , any ideas where i might be able to buy it?

It's available at branches of Travelling Man; also at Orbital and Gosh comics in London and page45 comics in Nottingham apparently, not sure if they do any direct sales.

You can read the 12 page freebie on the publisher's website: http://www.improperbooks.com/2013/01/porcelain-indie-launch/

That is a massive help, thanks mate, and thanks for that link too. 

[Davek]

How much Richard Corben have you read already?

Only this - but I have 'Creepy Presents' on my wish list after reading Ragemoor.  Its not just the art I liked though - it was the gothic setting, haunted castle, faithful servant, etc.

I don't know much about Jan Strnad (I really should have mentioned the author of Ragemoor) but I've read a small bit of Richard Corben.

I haven't read his Haunts of Horror titles, one is a series of H.P. Lovecraft adaptations and another Edgar Allen Poe adaptations. They were available as separate collections and as one omnibus.

Edgar Allen Poe wise, he has a adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher coming up as a mini series and his adaptation of The Conqueror Worm was released last year as a single comic.

The Creepy collection is a mix of different types of horror and sci-fi stories with a few Edgar Allen Poe adaptations.

Cheers for that - I will take a look at the Lovecraft Haunts of Horror 

[judgefloyd]

I am reading The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, very slowly, on my new phone.  So far it's terrific - very chaotically written, very modern before its time, quite witty.  I got a free version off gutenberg.org and had to wade through a really long introduction, full of Latin tags, extinct words (eg 'morigerant')  and very roundabout references to some sort of scandal involving the author. 
  Did anyone see the Steve Coogan movie?