Whats everyone reading?

[Syne]

Talking of Alan Moore- I read 'Neonomicon' last night. Blimey.

There seems to be a lot of negative noise about that one, particularly the 'rapey' elements. Even Moore comes across a bit apologetic when discussing it. It's nice to hear something positive for a change, and I'll def. be putting it on my to read list.

[Syne]

Started reading M. John Harrison's Viriconium Nights last night. I'd previously given up on his The Pastel City and felt a little put-off by his self-proclaimed 'anti-fantasy' stance, but wow! Nights is amazing. Reminds me of Mervyn Peake in its grimy baroque detail, only a lot more concise and less exhausting to read. Nightmarish and beautiful.

[PreacherCain]

Talking of Alan Moore- I read 'Neonomicon' last night. Blimey.

There seems to be a lot of negative noise about that one, particularly the 'rapey' elements. Even Moore comes across a bit apologetic when discussing it. It's nice to hear something positive for a change, and I'll def. be putting it on my to read list.

It's nowhere near his best work but I do find Neonomicon an interesting comic to discuss. I've seen a lot of that negative noise about it too. I will say that my interpretation of what Moore was trying to do here was to demonstrate just how awful and disgusting and disturbing the act of rape is. He has given out in the past about how representations of women in mainstream comics often deal with them in a sort of ugly, dismissive way, and often trivialises rape/sexual assault in a sort of quietly aggressive way. And it's often done as a way to 'get at' the male hero or to demonstrate just how badass the villain is. A recent issue of Mark Millar's Kick Ass 2 is a very good example of the latter (an issue I found repugnant on so many levels I actually dropped the book).

While I would agree with Moore's point, I'm not sure I agree with his execution here. Moore's comics work has featured a lot of sexual assault on women as well but I would argue his execution of it is done in a much more mature and intelligent way than other examples in comics. Mina Harker, for example, remains a strong character and it's the perpetrator of the assault who is seen as pathetic and weak.

I don't think it's an issue that should be treated trivially but there sure is a lot of it going on in comics, films and television to massively different degrees. The comics industry is so overtly male-dominated and geared toward male fantasy that I do find it's repetitive use in the medium a little creepy and off-putting (hello David Lapham's Crossed!)

[judgefloyd]

I've just finished 'The Visitor' by Lee Child - pretty banal stuff, with twists from the 'do plot twists just like Agatha Christie' book and some pretty rubbish writing.  However, once you start it's hard to put down. 

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

The Strain Trilogy. Not very good, but an easy read.

[klute]

My wife's bought me the George R.R.Martin  Game of Thrones collection (to date ofc) and the the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay

Can't wait to read the lot i now just have to toss a coin as to which collection to read first

[von Boom]

Read Kay. Excellent writer who knows at least how to finish a story.

[Mardroid]

A recent issue of Mark Millar's Kick Ass 2 is a very good example of the latter (an issue I found repugnant on so many levels I actually dropped the book).

Yeah, I came to that in the last issue of Clint I read*, and I was considering dropping it too. I probably won't though as we're coming near the end of that story and I'd like to see how the rest of it turned out, but I really don't think they should have gone there.

[spoiler]I think they could have taken a different route to show how bad Red Mist has become... or does he really need to be portrayedthat evil? I think I preferred the three dimensional version we saw in the film. A lonely rich kid who really just wanted to be liked before going to the dark side. Sure, he should be worse now, but Millar has this habit of going to extremes just for shock value. Not that there shouldn't be shocks in comics or any story-based medium, but the execution should be better, in my view.[/spoiler]

*Shows how far back I am. Heh. I tend to pick up back issues when I visit FP in London, which isn't that often.

[Professor Bear]

Moore is a special case because he said superhero comics were silly and not very inventive and that made me feel bad about my hobby and by extension myself, so it's only fair I shout on the internet that he doesn't use about what an arsehole he is, and how he's not that great a writer anyway.  Walking Dead, now that's a comic!  This guy totally bites this other guy's dick in this month's issue - that is some hardcore shit right there, not like that waitress in space bullshit that Moore did that only a homo would want to read.

Orbital vol 1 is probably the first of the Cinebook titles where the lack of any effort in the translation utterly derails the story for me, particularly the unconvincing exchanges between the main character and her daughter, the rationale for going to the moon which seems to be little more than an illogical whim, and the constant and unconvincing straight-translation dialog hack job that makes a mockery of the arguments against scanlators, because scanlation groups would be ashamed to put something like this on the net for free even though Cinebook are asking actual money for it.  It is a horrendous read, a total slog to get through, and it's not all the fault of whoever decided that a localised translation wasn't the way to go because there are glaring logical flaws in the original plot, particularly [spoiler]the sudden ending where everyone on a lunar expedition just decides to go to Mars now since they are already in space[/spoiler].  The art is very pretty, like Greg Land gone right, with these strange things on the character heads that I think might have been "facial expressions", and behind them all these weird pictures of the places where the characters were supposed to be are in every panel, so as a superhero reader this was quite disorienting - no photoshopped pictures from Imagestock.com of oil rigs or anything, the artist had actually drawn the places!
Nice pictures, but a terrible story.

[Professor Bear]

Orbital vol 1

D'oh!  I confused Orbital with The Champanzee Complex - both Cinebooks, but very different stories.  I hold out hope Orbital may still be good even if tCC was not.

[Rog69]

I have just finished The Scar by China Mieville.

It was no where near as good as Perdido Street Station but still not a bad read.

[Kirbs]

Just starting to read Judge Dreed the complete case files vol 2. Yes I know I'm miles behind!!

[Mardroid]

Just starting to read Judge Dreed the complete case files vol 2. Yes I know I'm miles behind!!

Don't worry, I've only read the first volume of the Case files. I read it three or four years back (or is it five now? Time seems to speed up as you get older) when I considered getting the prog, but from a 2000 AD big volume POV I've just been working through the S/D Agency files so far, and I haven't finished those yet. Oh, and the Dante collections but they're not that big.

I mean, I've read plenty of Dredd elsewhere, I'm just referring to the Case Files volumes here. I've yet to read any of the Cursed Earth stuff.

[Kirbs]

Thanks Mardroid . I've read loads of Dreed over the years but have forgotten loads. I don't have the room to collect the prog or meg every week/month so the Trades and GN collected files are great. I'm also reading SD vol 1 too, can't get enough of Alpha and Wulf.

[Syne]

I don't think it's an issue that should be treated trivially but there sure is a lot of it going on in comics, films and television to massively different degrees. The comics industry is so overtly male-dominated and geared toward male fantasy that I do find it's repetitive use in the medium a little creepy and off-putting (hello David Lapham's Crossed!)

I'm more familiar with Ennis's Cross than with Lapham, but rape and the threat of rape seem hard-wired into the story, I mean that's the Crosseds' big thing right? Super-sadistic-psychosexual-mega-maniacs on the rampage, to coin a phrase.

Rape is horrible, so I guess it's natural that writers intent on plumbing the depths of horror are going to gravitate towards it sooner or later.

Where it get's dodgy is when the titillation factor creeps in, as exemplified by pretty much all Hollywood depictions of the act. One of the few instances where any trace of eroticism is successfully excluded (that I know of) is in Peter Greenaway's The Baby of Macon. Just harrowing minute after minute of someone screaming off-screen. I love the movie, but I hate that scene.

Coming back to comics, there's also the problem of sexual violence against a female character being used as motivation for a male hero. Pat Mill's Marshall Law, fantastic as it is in most ways, being a case in point.