Whats everyone reading?

[Colin YNWA]

Must dig in to Auster some day - I think I read a story once about a gambler who was forced to dig ditches on some guy's land to repay a poker debt, which I really enjoyed - was that him?

That's 'Music of Chance' from the Auster golden age I mention below. Interesting runs almost opposite to the 2000ad one. The only answer to this is of course while 2000ad was a bit rubbish Paul Auster stopped reading it and therefore had more time to concentrate on his books... its clearly the reason.

[zombemybabynow]

Jasper FForde "early riser"
the paperback's just come out
loved shades of grey [the jasper fforde one!]
Only thing, there's a lot of asterisks but they're all explanatory !
F@@k i miss Pratchett

[Apestrife]

Alan Moore's Swamp thing saga. I found it to be very cool. Did a good job with it's focus on sex stuff and nature's beauty in the guise of a horror comic. Very different from my usual reading of Moore. Quite disturbing at times (as expected from Moore) but I think it's focus love stood out.

I'm looking forward to the recolouring made for the absolute of Swamp thing. Hoping it's on par with the work DC did on Sandman.

[The Adventurer]

I signed up for DC Universe app to give its comic selection a go and set some goals to hit by the end of the month. So far I’m making pretty good progress. These are the comics I’m working through



This is some of the stuff I’ve been reading on ComiXology recently.

[Apestrife]

American Carnage #1-9 by Bryan Edward Hill.The first ever Vertigo comic I read was 100Bullets. A fantastic start. American Carnage will probably be the last one (technically), and it's a damn fine swan song.

American Carnage is a really dark tale about a former undercover FED Rick who takes on a job infiltrating a far right leader's inner circle. The back drop is a war between white supremacy groups and Rick himself is a mix race (black/white) who can get away as white, something the book takes into some very interesting and tough directions.

Bryan Edward Hill writes a story which is far from good guys vs bad guys. I get the feeling he's done quite a bit of research, and a fantastic job on making the characters being the driving force of a story which is alot more complex than a bunch of "I vote Obama" vs "I vote Trump" hoo-ha. A burning cross in the first issue got me a bit worried, but in a later issue it was adressed in a very interesting way which really served the story.

I read it on comixology and can't wait to pick it up as a trade.

[Colin YNWA]

Just read 'Phonogram - Rue Britannia' for the first time and while I was nervous going in, seeing as Britpop has such a specific part in my growing up and to be honest it mirrored exactly my fears. And it knew it, it was completely self aware, but still couldn't save itself... well almost entirely.

I did a lot during Britpop. I briefly celebrated folks suddenly getting my music as 'Stay Beautiful' got to number 2 (or whatever, just checked and it was number 3 but in my head it will always be number 2! oh and that really isn't a poo joke!). Then realising that I didn't like folks liking my music, as being a self righteous, self preclaimed music snob it all rather wreaked it for me. Then realising quite quickly that it was all okay and they didn't really get it and most of Britpop was crap and as a movement it was bland beyond words and anyway America and other countries were still producing the most of the best music anyway...

...that Pulp made it wasn't cos of Britpop it was cos they were bloody brilliant and world's collided and they got what they deserved, even if people didn't get the 10 years slogging it in Sheffield was what made them important...

Britpop matters exactly nowt...

and Keiron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie completely get that and play with it. They even get which bands were good and which were bad ... most the time there are no bloody excuses for Sham-bloody-poo... but still they make this the heart of the comic and hence it nags away.

It makes what's a great story about the very things we think shape us, that should mean something but don't, all the harder to buy into and embrace by wrapping it in somethings that's sad meaninglessness makes it perfect or the tale told... it just kinda did my head in.

The at the end SPOILERS Beth realising you can lock away the meaning, move on and hug your new life and still relish the old for what it was and I want to read it again and love it more 'cos I love that ending.

Bloody annoying comic!

Oh and the Boo Radleys are from bloody New Brighton - well across the Wirral - but I believe its New Brighton that counts, not Liverpool. I bloody love Liverpool but that always bugs me.

[sheridan]

Very minor negatives first: I do find the dialogue very much, of its time, kinda on the nose and a bit cheesy. And I groan a little inside when considering the fact the female cat Yujee just looks like an attractive woman with vaguely feline characteristics, while all the other yujees have full animal heads. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love their design. I’m referring to the fact that if they’re all going to be animal head humanoids, that should apply to Liana too. To be fair, she is a bit more catlike in Bellardinelli’s art than her long haired design on the front cover (which is also nice) but she is still rather more humanlike than the other yujees. There is another cat character, who has a full cat head, the tiger henchman, who fits the normal yujee profile.

Tiger Commander and Leo the Lionman.  Agree with you on Liana - the first time we see her we could charitably agree with Stone's assessment that "your face, like a cat's" but from that point on she looks human, even more so after the meta plague.  Though I think in early episodes - literally just the first two or three - her hands are more claw-like.


p.s. glad you like it - Meltdown Man is one of my absolute favourite 2000AD series, and one of the worst parts of the 1990s for me was when editorial of the time slagged off what had gone before, including Belardinelli's magnus opus (not to downgrade his fine work on Ace Trucking Co and Slaine).

[The Adventurer]

What I'm reading... a Twitter Thread.... because I'm too lazy to transpose it to Forum format... Read and be enlightened of my comic reading goings on in the month of July 2019...

https://twitter.com/JamesQPurcell/status/1156945945109630977?s=20

[Colin YNWA]

And tonight I read 'Phonogram - Singles' and to be honest it feels very empty. A good idea with nothing to back it up (aside from pretty pictures)

[Karl Stephan]

The Best of Milligan & McCarthy. It's got some old favourites and gems I've never read before.

[TordelBack]

Ender's Game. The Boy has to read this for school, and despite being a major OSC fanboy in my youth I had rid my shelves of his writing a few years back in response to his reprehensible views. So I picked up a second hand copy (no revenue for religious homophobes) as part of the hateful back-to-school rituals and decided to give it a read on the way home.

Blimey. There's no denying Card's shockingly precise vision  (in 1985) of how the internet would work, and how ambitious psychopaths could manipulate it to create a political power base.  And there's a lot to enjoy in Ender's struggles in the brutialsing lacophiliac* world of the battleschool.

But holy crap, is he obsessed with those wily Jews!

The same Boy also has read To Kill A Mockingbird over the summer, so I got reacquainted with that joy of a book. Surprisingly similar at a superficial level, pecocious siblings kids somewhat separate from but embedded within their twisted societies deal with the moral impositions of the adult world, but the quality of the writing and the sensitivity of portrayals are on completely different levels...

*borrowing an important neologism from @MykeCoye.

[CalHab]

Just read 'Phonogram - Rue Britannia' for the first time and while I was nervous going in, seeing as Britpop has such a specific part in my growing up and to be honest it mirrored exactly my fears. And it knew it, it was completely self aware, but still couldn't save itself... well almost entirely.

Kieron Gillen is ex-NME, isn't he? Phonogram reads exactly like a comic from an NME writer, anyway.

[Professor Bear]

Ender's Game.

The only science fiction book that was required reading in USMC officer training programmes.  Make of that what you will.

[Theblazeuk]

Just read 'Phonogram - Rue Britannia' for the first time and while I was nervous going in, seeing as Britpop has such a specific part in my growing up and to be honest it mirrored exactly my fears. And it knew it, it was completely self aware, but still couldn't save itself... well almost entirely.

Kieron Gillen is ex-NME, isn't he? Phonogram reads exactly like a comic from an NME writer, anyway.

I think he might have written some stuff. To me he's mainly ex PC Gamer/Rock Paper Shotgun

[von Boom]

Ender's Game. The Boy has to read this for school, and despite being a major OSC fanboy in my youth I had rid my shelves of his writing a few years back in response to his reprehensible views. So I picked up a second hand copy (no revenue for religious homophobes) as part of the hateful back-to-school rituals and decided to give it a read on the way home.

Blimey. There's no denying Card's shockingly precise vision  (in 1985) of how the internet would work, and how ambitious psychopaths could manipulate it to create a political power base.  And there's a lot to enjoy in Ender's struggles in the brutialsing lacophiliac* world of the battleschool.

But holy crap, is he obsessed with those wily Jews!

Typical Mormon xenophobia. Good luck trying to find a black Mormon.