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Did anyone actually read Holy Terror?

Started by James Dilworth, 05 September, 2015, 09:58:55 PM

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James Dilworth

Was thinking of giving it a try.  Out of sheer, morbid curiosity more than anything.

Is it as mental as everyone says?

The Adventurer

No, I smelled the old man racism from a mile off.

THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

Professor Bear

Any guilty pleasure you might deride from seeing where Miller has done a hilariously bad patchwork job of transforming it from a Batman comic (after DC declined to print it) by changing pages of fluttering bats into pages of nails falling is overshadowed by the calculated Islamophobia.
Make no mistake, this book is not "pro-American propaganda" as Frank would have you believe: Holy Terror is plain old racism.

TordelBack

It's vile crap, full of crude caricature and hatred, and devoid of irony. Some of the imagery is striking, and reminds of what Miller is/was capable of, but unless you enjoy muttering 'jeebus effing kriste' every 30 seconds, that's all it has to recommend it.

jacob g

I still don't know what happened to Miller. This guy used to question authorities, he critized propaganda. Damn, his older books was very important for me when I was younger... He was THE number one for me.

Yet Holy Terror is utter shit.

The racism is one thing, second thing this book is just poorly written. Constant repetition in dialogues and monologues. This whole book is like pastiche of his Robocop and All-Star Batman & Robin but without any satire.

Goddamn sad.
margaritas ante porcos

CrazyFoxMachine

#5
I still hide it when I see it in shops. It's petty I know and not entirely fair but really I think there's a very thin line between expressing free speech through art and illegal hatespeech that so many "not famous" folk are locked up for. Hatie Kockpins' recent "Migrants are cockroaches" piece in the Sun for example. Her expressing her freedom to write as she feels? Or something that a thousand eyes absorb and say "at last... on paper something that justifies my views, time to get outside and start breaking heads!"

I just think if the cultures were reversed and you had a story of a hardcore vigilante smashing up any other caricatured group you certainly wouldn't be able to see it in every single bloody branch of Waterstones.

Additionally this Richard Pace bit can't be shared enough:


von Boom

You are absolutely right CFM. On all counts.

Hawkmumbler

Legitimately the worst comic I've ever read. Just plain awful, vile, tasteless and....Urgh.

Echidna

Quote from: jacob g on 06 September, 2015, 11:42:24 AM
This whole book is like pastiche of his Robocop and All-Star Batman & Robin but without any satire.

If there was any satire in either of those it was too subtle for me. The only entertainment I managed to squeeze out of them was of the "so bad it's good" variety.

I'm vaguely curious to read Holy Terror but I'm sure as shit not buying it and I'd hesitate to endorse any library that stocked it. Has he done anything worth reading this century?

jacob g

#9
Quote from: Echidna on 06 September, 2015, 12:53:36 PM
Quote from: jacob g on 06 September, 2015, 11:42:24 AM
This whole book is like pastiche of his Robocop and All-Star Batman & Robin but without any satire.

If there was any satire in either of those it was too subtle for me. The only entertainment I managed to squeeze out of them was of the "so bad it's good" variety.

Too be honest, from his Robocop stories I really like Robocop & Terminator crossover and from his two solo Robocop scripts I kinda think that Robocop: The Last Stand was quite fun read, unlike previous one.

And about this satire thing... I meant that this book (HT) feels like failed at attempt autoirony.
margaritas ante porcos

Professor Bear

I'm starting to think the board should start passing around their copies of Holy Terror to curious readers so as to prevent any financial endorsement of it.

I always liked Robocop 2 (it progressed/regressed from the end point of the previous films in a more logical way than it is credited for), but as Frank's opinions became more well-known, it got a lot easier to spot what Miller created for it and what was the studio's doing: unions are the bad guys, lawyers are a barrier to justice, people are always a hair's breadth away from rioting and going on a looting spree, the hero is literally crippled by having to listen to the general public and can only function as an effective tool of order by ignoring "the rules" and launching a military attack on counter-culture - which naturally is represented by drug-taking thieves and rapists... I'll go out on a limb and say all that is Frank's doing.

James Dilworth

Yeah there's probably better things I could spend 25 quid on.

Bad City Blue

It's the only comic I have recoiled from when trading it.

Ignorance beyond belief.

Not looking forward to the new Dark Knight at all
Writer of SENTINEL, the best little indie out there

locustsofdeath!

Quote from: jacob g on 06 September, 2015, 11:42:24 AM
The racism is one thing, second thing this book is just poorly written.

For a college course I wrote a paper on propaganda posing "literature", and I read the Turner Diaries. This is exactly how I felt about it (along with, as others have said, the lack of irony or humor). I intended to read Holy Terror for the same report, but after subjecting myself to the Turner Diaries...I just couldn't do it.

M.I.K.

Slightly tangential, but I chanced across this earlier today...

https://youtu.be/grTMBzOImGg?t=3m51s

Made in 1987, according to this, and shown on MTV for a few years afterwards.

The first Sin City story appeared in 1991.