Whats everyone reading?

[Hawkmumbler]

Bit of a shot in the dark here but does anyone have a copy of Doctor Who: The Bodysnatchers they would like to sell off? Doub't it but it's worth a shot.

[Mabs]

I managed to locate a few copies on ebay, Hawkmonger. I think this is the best one starting at £1.99 & £3.00 P&P:

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=221225815611&index=0&nav=SEARCH&nid=70693564435

I'd put a bid down and get it if i was you!

[Richmond Clements]

It's a good book - but I sold my copy years ago, I'm afraid.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I wonder if that is the same Mark Morris who wrote The Secret of Anatomy. I enjoyed that, I did.

[Zarjazzer]

Pathfinder RPG comic, nicely done by Jim Zub and chums but very american manga-some of the characters seem to blend into one another though but only a small crit , a nice enough read with lots of action and a Lovecraftian horror it seemed as well as the usual goblins, bugbears etc And some game stats at the end with some sublime covers.

[von Boom]

Bit of a shot in the dark here but does anyone have a copy of Doctor Who: The Bodysnatchers they would like to sell off? Doub't it but it's worth a shot.

Just checked this on abebooks.com. Why the hell is it going for so much money?

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=doctor+who+the+bodysnatchers

[Hawkmumbler]

Aparently it's really good. Anyway, snagged one on ebay yesterday for little under a tenner, so i'll find out soon. It is a sequel to two of the best stories of all time mind so now pressure.

[HdE]

Just finished off the second volume of Duane Sweirczynski's Cable run.

Good stuff! I've been longing for a Cable story for some time that felt comprehensible. No slight on teh previous writers, mind you - I've just struggled with older Cable stuff because of my lack of continuity knowledge. This stuff is more focused and self contained - although it DOES spill out of other Marvel material.

I also just made a start on Marvel's 'Iron Man: Believe' trade. This is solid stuff so far... but I HATE those silly 'Augmented Reality' tags that appear all through the book. Comics should NEVER be handled like that. I don't want to see anything in the panels that doesn't directly serve the story I'm reading. 

[sheldipez]

This is solid stuff so far... but I HATE those silly 'Augmented Reality' tags that appear all through the book. Comics should NEVER be handled like that. I don't want to see anything in the panels that doesn't directly serve the story I'm reading.

All the new Marvel Now series have them and I agree with them being a nuisance. It's one thing putting extras on the web for each issue but pastering "look at me" logos all over the art is off putting. Only ones I bother with is Superior Spider-Mans for Dan Slotts crack. Trolling the haters.

[Link Prime]

Just finished off the second volume of Duane Sweirczynski's Cable run.

Good stuff! I've been longing for a Cable story for some time that felt comprehensible. No slight on teh previous writers, mind you - I've just struggled with older Cable stuff because of my lack of continuity knowledge. This stuff is more focused and self contained - although it DOES spill out of other Marvel material.
ndled like that. I don't want to see anything in the panels that doesn't directly serve the story I'm reading.

I really enjoyed Sweirczynski's run on Cable too- he's a bloody good writer.
One of the reasons I was even more disappointed with his IDW Dredd

[Colin YNWA]

Don't you just hate when a classic comics run just hasn't stood the test of time. It seems to be happening more and more when I read stuff these days. So for example (and I'm ready to duck here) I can't stand the Claremont X-Men run when I re-read it a few years back, even the Byrne stuff, I found it really hard going. Likewise I'm not a big fan of the Lee Kirby FF run, art aside and even there for me its far from Kirby's best.

Its not like I just don't like the 'older' stuff. I love Lee and Ditko's Spider-man (and Romita and Gerry Conway, in fact about 75% of the first 300 issues of Amazing), as discussed elsewhere I love The Spirit and 70s Kirby is quite possibly my favourite comics writer of all time... just some stuff doesn't pass the test of time.

That has never been more so than with Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams Green Lantern, Green Arrow run. I've just been working my way through Showcase Presents Green Lantern 5, which has the whole of the run and it was a real effort, so much so I abandoned it after the series, not wanting to put myself through reading the strips when it moved to back-up. I enjoyed the issues as a younger reader and can't even begin to imagine how much impact they must of had when they were first released. Today I found them just laboured and hackneyed. Their relevance and importance just wasn't enough to save the poor plotting and dialogue.

I am of course worried that not liking this run makes me a bad person... I'd dreading getting to their Batman stuff I have working there way up my too read list.

[SuperSurfer]

Interesting point Colin. Now I think of it, I've hardly read any comic more than once and fewer clear runs (apart from 2000AD of course).

At the time I thought the Claremont & Byrne X-Men run was brilliant. Don't imagine I'd get on with it now.

I used to read Conan UK reprints as a kid but only because the strip was a back-up, mainly to Avengers. A couple of years ago I bought an original US colour Conan the Barbarian comic by Thomas & J Buscema from my local Oxfam. I was quite shocked at just how good it was so I guess revisiting my old comics might lead to some surprises. 

[Sideshow Bob]

Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Art by Gabriel Rodriguez.....

Was recommended this series by Albion and Link Prime....
Thanks very much guys, I've now bought and read the 1st 4 Volumes and now waiting for the 5th next month... .... ( Think there is 5 or 6 in the complete series )....
Horror / fantasy....a great storyline, bristling with tension,  and doses of surreal humour amid the carnage....And with absolutely amazing artwork by Gabriel Rodriguez....

Highly Recommended for Horror / Fantasy / Mystery / Thriller lovers.....

What a great 'thread' this is....I've picked up loads of great stuff based on recommendations here.....Best reads so far....Locke and Key and Paul Chadwicks' Concrete...  and also Bad Company : Goodbye Krool World !!

[Link Prime]

Really glad you liked 'Locke & Key' Bob, it's a brilliant series.
Just noticed that comiXology are doing a sale on it today, right up to the latest issue.

I'll sorely miss this comic when it wraps up at the end of the year.

[TordelBack]

I love Eddie Campbell, and not just his work.  I find the person that his work reveals to be completely fascinating, a savagely intelligent insightful fool, a conservative and a revolutionary, a gregarious exhibitionist and a misanthropist, a homebody and a traveller, an empiricist observer and a fantasist, a loving family man and a selfish self-absorbed ass.  He's my all-time favourite writer-artist, while at the same time being one of my favourite writers and one of my favourite artists, if that distinction makes any sense.

So I was beyond excited to get my quivering mitts on his latest, The Lovely Horrible Stuff, a continuation of his autobiographical work in the form of an examination of money, and how he relates to it. It's a great read, entertaining and enlightening and ultimately deeply tragic.  It's a handsomely produced full colour TopShelf hardback, and in no way does its spine or size fit in with any previous Campbell publication, which in itself is consistent, as it seems no two ever do.

However.

As with Fate of the Artist before it, Eddie is working with yet another new style, again incorporating photos, this time with linework and/or digital colour on top.  While that book was quite beautiful, this time, for me, it doesn't work. Well, that's not strictly true, it still tells the story well, but to me it is ugly, in places distractingly so.  In many places it looks like the MS Paint spraycan tool has been used to build flat colour layers over holiday snaps, with greyed or no linework at all.  Elsewhere linework characters hover in front of colour photo backgrounds with cut'n'paste props, or some scratchy lines roughly outline a colour portrait.  At times I found myself thinking 'it's his Buttonman period'.

Eddie has always used photos, photocopies, letratone, collage and closely referenced drawing extensively in his work, integrated into his fabulously loose but razor sharp linework, but this is a step too far for me. It's obviously an intentional stylistic choice, and there are many variations on the technique on display with different levels of success (for me), in addition to copious solid drawing.

I'd urge you to give it a read yourselves and see what you think - it's still a brilliant book, and worth every penny, but for me this is one of those occasions when the very spirit of experimentation and development that makes an artist so exciting pushes past the borders of this reader's narrow tastes.