Whats everyone reading?

[Eric Plumrose]

Struggling with THE INCAL by Jodorowsky and Mœbius.

[Hawkmumbler]

Been wanting to read that for ages. Not to your liking Eric?

[Link Prime]

I have recently picked up my copies of the first Megazine issues. 

I've a real soft spot for Vol 1 of The Meg, Pictsy- apart from the obvious highlights, even lesser known thrills like Nosferatu, Middenface McNulty, Strange Cases, The Straight-jacket Fits and Heavy Metal Dredd are all fond memories.

Enjoy!


As mentioned on the 'New Comic Day' thread, I picked up the most recent issue of Dark Horse's Eerie;

http://www.midtowncomics.com/store/dp.asp?PRID=Eerie+Comics+%235+Cover+A+R_1347086

A fun monochrome anthology, and the Henry Flint contribution was ace- pure 'Future Shock' goodness.
Recommended.

[TordelBack]

I've read some strange stuff recently and no mistake.

11-22-63 by Stephen King.  Still can't decide if I like this monstrous lump or not, but I certainly haven't stopped thinking about it since I finished it.  The very oddest of things, a supernatural time-travel story, including a particularly unsettling foray into King's back-catalogue, sadly seems to lose some of its conviction in the final pages as it veers back towards conventional SF theme and away from the intriguing idea of the past manifest as a malevolently conservative entity (insert own thin-ice-proof political joke here). 

I couldn't help but think about King's reaction on discovering Under The Dome was such a common SF trope that it had formed the plot of The Simpsons Movie, and wonder if he had the same problem on submitting the manuscript for this one: 'You mean someone's already done a story about time-travellers saving JFK?'.  Certainly as his protagonist feels his way blindly through the very concept of time-travel at the beginning of a very long book, you have to wonder what cultural rock our 2011 hero must have been hiding under.  Happily, the plot soon spreads its wings and becomes more than an ordinary tale of paradoxes, and in some ways becomes a pretty definitive 'How to Save Kennedy' story. 

In offering two vastly different mechanisms for the dire consequences of tampering with history it somewhat dilutes what is still a considerable impact. 

I was left with such ambivalent feelings about 11-22-63 that I went for another King straight away, Full Dark, No Stars.  Yeah, no kidding with that title: probably one of the bleakest genre things I've ever read.  Enjoying it though.

Two rather unsatisfying and blase novels (at least partly) about Artificial Intelligence: Ken MacLeod's The Night Sessions and Jack McDevitt's Firebird.  Two great if very different authors thinking about what happens when AIs are an accepted humdrum part of everyday life, and then attitudes suddenly change.  Neither reaches a particularly insightful conclusion, but McDevitt has the better A-plot and MacLeod the better milieu.  Both manage to render some spectacular scenes in a rather dull manner.  Ah well, still love both authors, and both books went down easy.

Then comes Adam Nicolson's Sea Room, an intense account of the Shiant Islands.  This is a genre I absolutely adore, the scrupulously detailed outsider's account of a bloved locality, and no-one does quite as well as the English.  Nicolson himself comes across as a rather unlikeable observer, especially when he's blithely defending his laird-y position and pretending that buying whole islands chains andnlounging about on them isn't solely the preserve of the stupidly wealthy, so it's a good job that he does his subject justice, and parses some solid expertise into something lyrical and complete.  It's my most self-indulgent ambition to write a book like this (without the ownership requirement).

[Fungus]

Thrill-Power Overload, begun today.
Wonder how it ends.

[Ancient Otter]

Struggling with THE INCAL by Jodorowsky and Mœbius.

Yep, struggled with this as well. Prefer some of Jodorowsky's other works far more.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Struggling with THE INCAL by Jodorowsky and Mœbius.

Yep, struggled with this as well. Prefer some of Jodorowsky's other works far more.

I got it off someone who was struggling with it so I'm grateful for its impenetrability.

Nothing that wouldn't phase fans of surrealist non-narratives but those in search of a coherent story look elsewhere. It's basically the Fifth Element (lawsuitishly so) getting mashed with the end of Kubrick's 2001. Definitely an absorbing and enthralling experience but not an easy read particularly. Needless to say the art is stunning and there are some astounding moments. Definitely happy to own it.

[Colin YNWA]

Well colour me intrigued as Incal is right at the top of my too read list and will be read in the next month I hope... will I get it, will I be prepared to work with it... the need to lose a desire for coherent narrative makes me nervous... ever way can't wait...

[Frank]

Thrill-Power Overload, begun today. Wonder how it ends.

With the scariest author photograph ever. I feel David Bishop knows where I live, and plans to creep into my bedroom so he can insert broken shards of mirror beneath my eyelids.

[Hawkmumbler]

Just want to shout out now, anyone who is dissapointed with The Incal, i'm willing to pay a fair amount for it.

Anyway, Baoh. On my travels down to Oban today I had 6 hours to spare so read both volumes of this manga by Hirohiko Araki of "Oh look, Zac's talking about Jojo again" fame. It's a fairly bog standard revenge, sci-fi tale of a boy, experimented on and humiliated. Attempts yo find piece with a young friend but is constantly foiled by the forces that created him. Some amusingly odd ideas and outrages violence ultimately foiled by a typical canceled shonen rush ending. Worth a read due to how short it is and some splendid gore art.

[Sideshow Bob]

In reply to TordelBack on Stephen Kings' tome 11-12-63, I feel pretty much the same!! .....
I actually do like it though, despite some of the reservations I had after reading it.  It certainly made me think about what I'd just read, which is no bad thing.....His characterisation is, as usual, superb, and the story moves along at a fairly brisk pace and does evoke a pretty good feel of that 'more innocent' time.
However I ended up thinking that Mr King wasn't really sure exactly what he was trying to write, and was caught between the supernatural and the science fiction and ended up with a strange mix of the two....
Not a bad novel but !!!!!???? ultimately left me wanting a 'better constructed' conclusion...

If you like his stuff though, I highly recommend Dr Sleep....This is the sequel to The Shining and tells the story of Daniel Torrance ( the little boy in the Shining ) as a grown up.....Not quite an 'out and out' horror but close....and what I think is a welcome return to form from Mr King..
Cheers

[Ancient Otter]

Well colour me intrigued as Incal is right at the top of my too read list and will be read in the next month I hope... will I get it, will I be prepared to work with it... the need to lose a desire for coherent narrative makes me nervous... ever way can't wait...

Well there is a coherent narrative in it, its just that there is a lot to understand in the book, like the whole book is full of the imagery of the standard deck of tarot cards. I don't get all references but the first two are obvious on the first panel of the first page. Jodo is a big fan of Tarot cards from a psychotherapy viewpoint, he wrote a massive book on it before.

[Grugz]

well since my copy of spiderman ghosts of the past turned up while I was away I perused heroes for sale in inverness and thought I'd give marvels civil war a go and now want the rest to fill in the blanks.

[pictsy]

I've a real soft spot for Vol 1 of The Meg, Pictsy- apart from the obvious highlights, even lesser known thrills like Nosferatu, Middenface McNulty, Strange Cases, The Straight-jacket Fits and Heavy Metal Dredd are all fond memories.

Enjoy!

I haven't got to Nosferatu or Middenface McNulty just yet - certainly looking forward to them both.  A good portion through Raptaur at the moment which I remember reading in TP format in the early days of my collecting 2000AD

There are loads of things I'm looking forward to reading as I move into Vol 2.  I'll read until I get bored (probably the start of Vol 3) and then move onto the early 2000ADs I have (and haven't read yet).

[Theblazeuk]

In reply to TordelBack on Stephen Kings' tome 11-12-63, I feel pretty much the same!! .....
Not a bad novel but !!!!!???? ultimately left me wanting a 'better constructed' conclusion...

If you like his stuff though, I highly recommend Dr Sleep....This is the sequel to The Shining and tells the story of Daniel Torrance ( the little boy in the Shining ) as a grown up.....Not quite an 'out and out' horror but close....and what I think is a welcome return to form from Mr King..
Cheers

Another who feels the same. Could have been cut down a bit though eh? Stephen King needs a strict editor to make sure his extended fiction has the same punch as his short stuff - give the man over a hundred pages and he will take a thousand.

Dr Sleep is however an exception to the rule of the last few tomes; I never thought I'd care about Danny Torrance grown up, but the supporting cast and the antagonists really drive this book forward. More of a supernatural thriller than a horror, but the members of the 'True Knot' - the aged antagonists who hunt down those with the Shining - are truly creepy characters. One element I didn't like was a soap-opera style revelation towards the end, but that's not all that important to the narrative so I'll forgive it.

If you guys haven't tried Joe Hill, you should. Not quite the same as his dad but Heart Shaped Box is a true horror story.