GARTH ENNIS PLANES and BOYS

Colin YNWA · 04 August, 2009, 12:57:58 PM

Well the last issue of Tankies was great. I've really enjoyed the series and I'm very much looking forward to the sequel, although it will keep Carlos away from 2000ad for a while, he seems to be getting a lot of work in America these days.

Anyway Ennis will be returning with a sequel to Tankies and a couple of other 3 issue Battlefields mini next year apparently. Something to look forward to.

Tiplodocus · 04 August, 2009, 01:04:37 PM

I must say I've got the opposite opinion of teh final issue of THE TANKIES. There are some individual moments that are very good but overall, it was just too disjointed and lacked any form of narrative drive for me. It really did seem like a random collection of events. Whether that was the point (i.e. war can seem random and you never see the big picture) I just don't know.

I'll read all thre parts again in one sitting just to see if it holds up better.

I've seen Carlos do tanks much better as well.

Overall, a bit of a disappointment after the sublime DEAR BILLY.

I, Cosh · 04 August, 2009, 09:32:14 PM

While entertaining, The Tankies was the weakest of the three stories for me. It did read better in one go where it became clear what parts of the confusion were deliberately part of the story and which were down to my forgetfulness.

While it's the most obvious candidate, it didn't explicitly say that Tankies 2 was coming, did it? I can easily handle another Night Witches story.

Colin YNWA · 05 August, 2009, 08:34:20 AM

Quote from: The Cosh on 04 August, 2009, 09:32:14 PM
While it's the most obvious candidate, it didn't explicitly say that Tankies 2 was coming, did it? I can easily handle another Night Witches story.

Oh yeah sorry not in the book itself I've read it elsewhere... hold on... can't for the life of me find it but it has been announced that Tankies sequel will be one of the three. If I find the report I'll post.

Paul faplad Finch · 09 August, 2009, 06:59:35 PM

Read The Pro and Back To Brooklyn yesterday. Was a bit surprised by the ending of The Pro. What had been a quite light hearted read ending in the way it did could have been a wrench but they pull it off. Have to admit, [spoiler]her giving the villain a golden shower at the end of the fight [/spoiler] made me piss myself laughing (no pun intended), on the bus home. Got some funny looks I can tell you.

Gotta say though, have to agree that the bit in Back To Brooklyn with [spoiler]his wife being a bad 'un[/spoiler] did kind of come out of nowhere, as Tiplodocus noted, but I'm not sure he ended up looking as bad as the rest of them though. I'd have thought that [spoiler]killing your own mother cos she turned out to be a psychotic bitch[/spoiler] probably takes a certain strength of character. Yeah, he's done really bad stuff but just the fact that he's willing to make any kind of stand, against everything he's ever believed in, makes him something of a hero, regardless of his methods. It woud have been very easy to turn a blind eye.

Have to say, as differet as they both were I loved both of these books. Maybe I have a little bit of hero worship going on but I can't think of whwen Garth Ennis last let me down.

I, Cosh · 09 August, 2009, 09:21:44 PM

I was a bit surprised to see John McRea filling in for Carlos on the latest issue of The Boys. Hopefully it's because Ezquerra's busy drawing hundreds of pages of Stront & Dredd.

Dandontdare · 26 August, 2009, 02:00:26 PM

Picked up Battler Britton from the library the other day, mainly because I couldn't find anything that appealed to me that I hadn't already read (which is rare). I really didn't think I'd like it as I've never been a fan of straight war comics, but The Mighty Garth's name was enough to sway me - I was curious to see how he'd manage to fit all the blasphemy and sexual deviancy into a WWII story.

I was pleasantly surprised and totally gripped! A brilliant, action packed, character-driven story in which nobody needs to get tortured or fuck a chicken!

As for the Boys vol 4, I thought the cover was absolutely awful, but the story is trundling along nicely in the same vein. Is the novelty wearing off? A bit - I'd like to see the plot threads - Hughie and his girl, Butcher's backstory, the showdown with the Seven - start to get wrapped up now as it's beginning to feel a wee bit stretched out.

And I'm having second thoughts about Carlos Ezquerra. Has his run stared in the comics yet? Although he's one of my favourite artists, I'm not sure if his style would fit this strip. Well, I've had vol 5 on pre-order since before vol 4 came out, so I'll just have to wait and see!

pauljholden · 12 September, 2009, 09:32:10 PM

http://titanbooks.com/chat/uk/garth-ennis/

I'm drawing a three part strip for Garth's Battlefields series "Happy Valley" - I'm just over the halfway mark - and I'll let you all know when you can pick it up - it's some good stuff (even ignoring the artwork, scripts are excellent!)

-pj

Colin YNWA · 12 September, 2009, 09:36:42 PM

Quote from: pauljholden on 12 September, 2009, 09:32:10 PM
http://titanbooks.com/chat/uk/garth-ennis/

I'm drawing a three part strip for Garth's Battlefields series "Happy Valley" - I'm just over the halfway mark - and I'll let you all know when you can pick it up - it's some good stuff (even ignoring the artwork, scripts are excellent!)

-pj

That'll be worth checking out looking forward to it but really Tharg needs to be reining you driods in and getting you to concentration on the Galaxy's Greatest. I mean you'd think he was advocating artist freedom rather than cracking the whip (or threatening the Mekquake however its phrased?)

House of Usher · 13 September, 2009, 06:34:13 PM

I did a bit of a stock-take on Friday and found that I'd missed 5 issues of The Boys between issues 25 and 31. I picked up all the missing back issues on Saturday and read them this morning. I'm sure it's an expensive way to do it, and the trade paperbacks would probably have been cheaper. Hmm. Why do I even buy monthly comics any more? Anyway, I was surprised at how the G-Men story ended. The story of the G-men was sad, and the ending made me think "is that it?" [spoiler]I was expecting something more like a fight, with survivors![/spoiler] But I did like how the story grabbed the ~~X-Men~~ G-Men and really rubbed their noses in it. I've always been more of a fan of the Avengers myself, but I don't care about them much any more either. Which is probably why I'm enjoying seeing the punishment being handed out to Payback in The Boys at the moment.

Trout · 19 September, 2009, 01:58:31 AM

The latest issue of The Boys had me laughing aloud at the return of [spoiler]Love Sausage![/spoiler]

Also, reading Herogasm, I only just got that the vice-president and president are called Vic and Bob.

- Trout

Proudhuff · 24 September, 2009, 01:37:59 PM

there seems to be a bit of a derth of GE in the comic shops just now, the next issues of couple of other things i picked up over the summer seem to have disappeared too, can't be arse chasing them down either...

Still PJ on Happy Valley is something to look forward to

Paul faplad Finch · 04 October, 2009, 03:25:09 PM

I picked up Streets of Glory and Chronicles of Wormwood from The Travelling Man the other day. Not read Wormwood yet but as for Streets... What 's up with the art?

Anyone else read this? At first I thought the guy was maybe just struggling with the excessive gore in the fight scenes but on closer inspection the book is chock full of niggling little flaws. The guys anatomy is well off in a load of places. One panel of the hero holding a shotgun in the crook of his arm is so stiff and awkward it actually looks like the guy has a prosphetic hand.

It's a shame because on first glance in the shop it looked like nice stuff.

Mike Wolfer is the name of the artist. Has he done much else do we know? Maybe he's just starting out.

As for the story, while not Garths best work it was still a very enjoyable read. It covered a lot of his favourite ground, with a vicious basterd for a hero who is condemned by the townsfolk for the things he's done but continues to do them anyway because he knows there is worse than him out there.

Wormwood is on hold cos I got Flesh from FP on the same day so thats next.

Dandontdare · 04 October, 2009, 04:57:44 PM

let me know what you make of Wormwood as I've been considering this.

Tiplodocus · 07 October, 2009, 10:55:51 PM

Reread THE TANKIES in one sitting last night and I still stand by my opinion that it was the weakest of teh three. Too muddled, no central narrative and Ezquerra's art was, and this may get me burnt at the stake, a bit too muscular for the story.

DEAR BILLY is still superb and I really liked NIGHT WITCHES though so, as Meatloaf says...