I couldn't get to the end of...

[SmallBlueThing]

I read Maus and its sequel while at university, after being told how important it was and how it was the epitome of good graphic storytelling. While I read them both, I can't remember a single thing about them. I'm sure it's a brilliant, worthwhile thing- but it obviously wasn't for me.*

SBT
*I'm not a nazi though.

[mygrimmbrother]

Gotta come down on the other side of the Maus-indifference fence here. Thought it was a monumental, emotionally shattering story. Read both volumes in a couple of days many years ago and it has stayed with me ever since.

[johnnystress]

That makes me want to have another go

handy thing with books, they don't go off

[Roger Godpleton]

The problem with Maus is that it's probably the least visually interesting of Spiegelmen's work, possibly because of the weighty subject matter.

With Sacco, the thing to remember is that he's more or less "only" doing actual journalism. There's possibly some ethical issues to the scenes which are essentially conjecture, but I guess that's a problem inherent to all investigative journalism. Personally, I find he really gets inside his stories and his artwork is just incredibly vibrant.

Anyways, let the negativity commence! I should point out that I will gut something out to the bitter end 99 times out of a hundred. I've never walked out of a movie.

Comics-wise, Y: The Last Men. I quite like Ex Machina, but most of the time I just seem to find BKV's writing incredibly irritating and precious. I really enjoyed it at first, but eventually wore super-thin. TBH, once I became a comics snob, I got bored with pretty much all DC Vertigo books.

[radiator]

Haven't read Ex Machina (though the concept sounds awful to me), but I thought Y The Last Man and Pride of Baghdad were both pretty crap.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I've always avoided Maus - it just looks worthy in the extreme and not the sort of thing I read comics for.

Good point, well made.

[TordelBack]

That makes me want to have another go

You probably should, it's pretty amazing stuff, and perhaps not as 'worthy' as it appears - it's a seemingly very honest mix of autobiography and biography, and is at least as much about parents and families as it is about the holocaust.  Art doesn't spare himself or his father any blushes.

Radiator's point is a good one, though - if you're looking for escapism in your comics, look elsewhere.  I bought and read the one-volume edition while en route to Washington DC.  I was all set to visit the Holocaust museum/memorial while there (among that city's many incredible sights, I wasn't on some kind of atrocity tour), and got as far as the entrance before literally running away - I just couldn't face any more.

[johnnystress]

s
Radiator's point is a good one, though - if you're looking for escapism in your comics, look elsewhere.

?

[johnnystress]

badum...tish

[Professor Bear]

If you read Batman/Houdini, the only thing you're escaping is the possibility of not reading a shitty comic.

most of the time I just seem to find BKV's writing incredibly irritating and precious.

Yeah, I got that from Runaways and Y The Last Man, but the problem I have with BKV's work as a body is that if anything he lacks a distinctive voice in the manner of a Millar, Ennis, Morrison, Aaron, Ellis, Whedon, or Bendis.  I find his characters pretty unmemorable, too.  Might just be me.

[Dandontdare]

Mervyn Peake's Gormengahst trilogy. I bought them as part of a book-club deal years ago because I'd always been told they're classics, but I just can't get into them. I tried the TV adaptation (how long ago was that?) hoping it would spark my interest, but I found that just as impenetrable.

I tend to lend my copy of Maus out a lot to people who have no interest in capes, robots or zombies (I know, some people huh?   ) and who therefore don't think comics could ever interest them. (non-relevant anecdote: I once showed myself up in front of Art Spiegelman by drinking too much free wine and trying to ask a rambling incoherent question at a signing). I'm the opposite of Prof Byeh in this - I didn't find Maus at all 'worthy', I found it an easy gripping read, but I've borrowed and failed to finish a lot of Joe Sacco books for that reason.

A friend got me the first season of True Blood the Christmas before last and keeps asking me whether I've watched them yet. I'm running out of excuses.

[WhizzBang]

I couldn't get to the end of...

too many things to mention as I really have a very low boredom threshold and give up immediately if I am not enjoying something. This includes many of the things people have listed so far like Catch 22, Apocalypse Now and Coen Brothers.

However, some of the things that I have given up on early through actively disliking them quite intensely (rather than just being bored) have stuck in my head such as:

Books
History of the world in 10 and a half chapters - Julian Banks
Great Apes - Will Self

Films
California Man
Soul Man

TV
24 - I actually quite enjoyed the beginning of the first series but about half way through it started to get ridiculous.
All vampire crap my wife watches

[Jared Katooie]

Aliens Vs Predator: Race War - I remember paying the best part of £20 for this about ten years ago, and being unable to slog through it. Turgid, incoherent, pretentious nonsense that bore little resemblance to either of it's source properties.

Actually a quick check on Amazon confirms that it was called Deadliest of the Species and was written by Chris Claremont.

Well I read that piece of shit all the way through and I can tell you - you missed nothing.

[radiator]

I don't expect an Aliens Vs Predator comic to be a work of high art, but to be fair the original comic series that kicked off the whole AvP enterprise was pretty damn good IIRC and I wouldn't mind reading it again. It made clever use of both the creatures and was well thought out and easy to follow story.

All I can remember about Deadliest of the Species was there was some sort of convoluted, nonsensical mystery plot involving a cyborg woman, it was tiresomely overwritten, there were lots of confusing Twin Peaks type dream sequences and there were hardly any aliens or predators in it. I think it betrays a kind of arrogance in a writer to be commisioned to write an Aliens Vs Predator comic and turn out something so self indulgent. What a crock of shit.

[Roger Godpleton]

Cool story bro.