No.41821
Never really could get into comics. Especially mainstream Marvel/DC. Too many iterations/interpretations of characters and I just don't bother. Even a long running shounen is easier to get into since all you have to do is read from chapter 1 to wherever it is now.
Only comic I read was The Boys though. It wasn't spectacular, but I found it to be pretty amusing. I also remember reading something with a succubus who got stuck in a magical world except the joke was that she was super violent and ruined everything. It had nice art.
No.41833
Too expensive for me to really get into. It take a massive amount of disposable income for so little entertainment.
I have read some, and maybe once every 6 months I will get a discounted or used trade paperback of a intresting story line, but other then that I don't even bother to try to pirate anymore.
I also can get into the cape stuff because you have to do so much homework to be able to even get into episodic stories.
So far my favorite comic is Sandman. It is really good. I haven't read the whole thing yet but I really enjoy putting on some goth music, getting comfy and reading a few chapters.
No.42597
>>41821Read 2000 AD. Much better than the capeshit comics form the u.s
No.42615
What is the name of first comic
No.42617
>>42615The Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison.
No.42621
>>42620Lol, I don't think I'd be able to take this comic seriously at all.
No.42622
>>42620I doubt I could get into it. Even in batfam crossover events, I lose interest so quickly. I don't even like reading Nightwing and Catwoman standalone stories, who are characters I like, unless they're interacting with Batman. He's just the only superhero I like at all. Even so, can you recommend a good story or run?
No.42625
>>42624>Azzarello writing BatmanNot sure how I missed this one. Thank you anon.
No.42634
>>42624I read that in 2015 when I was just getting back into Batman comics, and was looking for a darky, gritty, noir, stand-alone comic without the Batfamily.
IDK I kind of feel like it went no where though. Although maybe it just means comics aren't for me, since its everything I requested.
No.42642
>>42634I read it last night when it was recommended, turns out I already had it in a torrent I downloaded a while back. I thought it was Azzarello doing what I like him for: hard-boiled crime stories. You're right that it didn't really go anywhere, but there are plenty of times in the comics and other media where it touches on that theme of Batman fighting a city that will never succumb to his mission. He did a one-shot called Joker which is similar in a few ways.
If you want good stand-alone stories, check out Legends of the Dark Knight if you haven't already. It's a long anthology series of nothing but stand-alone stories
No.42658
>>41819I used to love comics. Even drew some comics. Used to like music and reading too. Now I can't enjoy anyhting but the odd movie.
No.43437
>>43435delete Scott Pilgrim is the worst comic I've ever read in my life. Read it if you don't believe me.
No.43439
>>43437You haven't been reading many modern comics then. There is so much shit that is worse then Scott Pilgrim. It is no wonder that comics is dying as a medium.
No.43441
>>43437I saw the movie when it came out and thought of it as a dumb fun ok fun. Wasn't planning on reading the comic anyway since according to people the movie was better.
>>43439Don't know much about comics, but isn't it only really dying in America? Manga does amazing in Japan and comics across Europe do fine from what I heard.
No.43443
>>43441The manga industry is totally different from and separated from the comic industry.
And Europe has always been a very small market that can barely sustain its self. It too has shrunk as a market and had some real quality problems.
There are a number of factors involved, but the big factor that has had a direct effect on quality is the focus on identity politics and feminism rather then interesting well written stories and good art.
Basically no one wants to pay $5 bucks for 20 pages of crappy SJW propaganda.
No.43444
>>43443>>43443>but the big factor that has had a direct effect on quality is the focus on identity politics and feminism rather then interesting well written stories and good artBut were comics actually selling that well when well written stories with good art were a thing? It just seems there's been a general disinterest for comics in the west for years.
No.43445
>>43444Yes, not as good as during the speculation bubble of the 90s but the business was still thriving and there was still room for market growth.
No.43464
>>43445I don't know, from what I heard comic books in the west have been stagnating for a while now and the surge of SJW shit just pushed away the handful of people interested in them.
No.43486
Wizzies, can someone recommend me some good post-apocalyptic comics, please?
Something with a mad max or fallout vibe. With the emphasis on raiders/evil humans instead of zombies or some such shit.
Thank you.
No.43487
>>43486 again.
Actually, I'm trying to remember the name of that one comic I saw several years ago. It was pretty brutal and graphic, I remember a scene where the protagonists (probably) were shooting at some perverted-looking raiders or something. Rings a bell to anyone?
Wasn't in the mood for such a genre back then, then forgot about it at all, now remembered and kinda want to read it.
No.43488
>>43487Did the raiders have infected scars on their face? If so, that's Crossed.
No.43489
What's a good website for pirating comics?
No.43490
>>43488I remember them having bodyparts (like limbs and such) sawn or glued to their bodies. They looked like crazy cannibal slaaneshites.
>CrossedYeah, that must be it. Thanks.
No.43492
>>43489I just use piratebay and kickass - they usually have the stuff unless it's something really obscure.
No.43504
>>43494oh i like batman and lovecraft, maybe ill check it out
No.43505
>>43464Most people stay away from comics (mainly DC/Marvel shit) because no one wants to deal with what's essentialy fanfiction everywhere. With manga you read a story from chapter one until the end. With comics you have to deal with characters having 500 different stories with different writers taking places in different universes and it's just a giant mess to fucking deal with.
No.43506
>>43505You know Disney got a lot of flak for nuking the Star Wars EU. But I think it might actually be a good thing if comic books had hard reboots every decade or so, instead of expecting us to know 70 years of history.
Ultimate Spider-Man was one of the main comics I read in high school, and for a while the ultimates were close to usurping the mainstream universe.
Like these heroes are supposed to be in their 20s and 30s but they have 70 years of stories and soap opera drama behind them.
it be nice if every decade they got a total blank slate, where we just preserve the basic character and mythos, and everything else is up for grabs.
I mean I'm aware of things like Infinite Crisis, New 52, Flashpoint. But to me New 52 was like the worst of both worlds, ugly and stupid new designs, but most of the soap opera shit of the 70 years still considered canon. Like Batman's 70 years of adventures including Jason Todd, Killing Joke, oracle was supposed to have happened in like 2 years of his career.
No.43507
>>43506>But I think it might actually be a good thing if comic books had hard reboots every decade or soBut they do, at least DC seems to do that every decade or so.
No.43508
>>43505Honestly that's the main reason I don't even bother reading capestuff. I stick to standalone things that don't deal with superheroes at all. One day I might try going through some, but not today.
No.43509
>>43508I do admit that it takes a lot of homework to get into most capes.
No.43510
>>43507New 52 was both a reboot and keeping most of the history at the same time.
No.43512
>>43511I actually bought the first issue (it was on sell). I don't normally buy physical media but I really like the comic and wanted to read it when my internet was down.
No.43557
>>43510I used to read some of the titles, but i left it after the future end event. After that i left reading cape comics.
No.43597
>>43568Does the other character of moorcock hav any comics?. I think corum have one
No.43645
Why idw has his own dredd? is just as cool as the british one?
No.43726
>>43708Never read it but it looks cool and I will probably enjoy the show quite a bit.
Hope the current SJW crowd don't shit all over it for cultural appropriation or some other dumb shit.
No.43806
I thought about posting this in the /lounge/ news thread in response to a few posts there but I didn't want to contribute to derailment and this is at least as much about comics in general as about that specific bit of news.
http://archive.is/83nMW>[Watchmen] was specific to the Eighties of Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev,” he writes. “Ours needs to resonate with the frequency of Trump and May and Putin and the horse that he rides around on, shirtless. […]I don't see why the entire comics-centered industry cannot let anything be. They have to realize that there is such a thing as tarnishing a brand. The film had neither the artistic merit nor financial success to warrant a series; judging by the reactions I had observed it seemed to have disappointed the fans of the comic and did not seem to engage with anyone who had no familiarity with the comic. Any attempt to squeeze more milk from those blood-scabbed teats will be correctly seen as unmerited greed, and will have to overcome a hostile kneejerk reaction from its fanbase. It seems so pointless. According to its Wikipedia page the
Watchmen film had a budget of $130 million and a total box office intake of $185 million, which makes it pale even in comparison with Zach Snyder's other comic films;
300 had a budget of $65M and a box office of $450M,
Man of Steel had a budget of $225M and a box office of $668M.
Watchmen's profit margin was not so low as Snyder's
Sucker Punch ($82M budget, $89M box office), but did not reach the level of Snyder's
300: Rise of an Empire ($110M budget, $337M box office). I have never heard of anyone who thought that the story of
Watchmen would do well if expanded or reinterpreted, and the most positive reception of the
Before Watchmen prequel comics that I have seen amounts to "they're not actually bad as comics, just not Watchmen, and you can't expect every comic to be Watchmen. This doesn't destroy the original, it's okay to enjoy fanfiction." As a television series I would have had more interest in a continuation of
300, and I couldn't even make it all the way through
Rise of an Empire. There have got to be better choices available as vehicles for contemporary social commentary. If they really wanted to, people could even do some serious Trump commentary using Greece as a setpiece. Especially if they used Alexander, a blond-haired barbarian king with a controversial legacy and many alternative interpretations to choose from. For example, in the Koran, Alexander became Dhul-Qarnayn, the legendary builder of an immense wall separating the civilized world from the nations of Gog and Magog. There's plenty of people who have and had negative opinions on Alexander; the Spartans despised the Macedonian upstarts. For centuries there has been argument between the Macedonians and Hellenes about whether Alexander was more Hellenic or more Macedonian, but in various eras this was a matter of trying to assign blame, rather than trying to claim credit. HBO could make some fucking hay with that, if they had the inclination. They'd have a problem with Frank Miller's personal politics if they used
300 as the basis, but if they went with, let's say, Wonder succubus lore as the basis instead and had it as Wonder succubus prequel stuff they could find a way to make it work.
>>>/lounge/185923> completely destroy it even worse then that movie to suit a petty political agenda.Alan Moore's work was always political and the spirit animating those politics ranged from the grand to the personal, from the insightful to the petty and obscene (
From Hell,
Shadowplay,
Big Numbers, arguably even
Neonomicon). His political purpose was usually contemporary, even when set in the past or on alien worlds. Moore's run on
WildCATS, with its vanquished, suffering exploited Daemonite world and corrupt, inhumane Khera victors enriching themselves off the ruin was about the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. If Moore were to revisit
Watchmen he would probably have done so in the context of contemporary politics as well. But these writers are not Alan Moore. The trouble is not that the work is being made for a political purpose, the problem is that it is being made at all. Worse, made by a complete fucking hack judging by the fact that he's credited with writing
Star Trek Into Darkness, a film that managed the incredible feat of being worse written and less watchable than
Star Trek V. If he were just a producer or just a director on it that might be forgivable. There are things men do for the sake of a career. But he was a co-writer. He helped author it. That is the sort of thing he writes. That is what happens when this man is put behind a typewriter.
Star Trek Into Darkness.>“In [our writers’] room, Hetero White Men like myself are in the minority,” he writes, “and as Watchmen is (incorrectly) assumed to be solely our domain, understanding its potential through the perspectives of succubi, people of color and the LGBTQ community has been as eye-opening as it has been exhilarating. We’ve committed to doing the same in front of and behind the camera. And every single person involved with this show absolutely adores Watchmen.”A social justice explanation for this "remix" doesn't make sense, when they talk about bringing people of color and LGBTQ in front of and behind the camera. Rorschach's psychiatrist was a black man and as good a person as any in that story, Hooded Justice was a homosexual and there were lesbians as well, all of whom were depicted more positively than the straight white males, BUT. That was only possible specifically because they were not the main characters driving the action of the story. The whole thing collapses into incoherence if people are actually better than Ozymandias, king of men, a vengeful, prideful narcissist whose true motive for murdering Comedian was less to silence him than to finally pay back the narcissistic injuries Comedian had laid upon him years earlier. Ozy had demonstrated he was quite capable of more subtle and remote murders, there was a particularly personal need to bring about Comedian's end with his own two hands. Bringing nonwhite nonstraight representation more fully into the lens would require making them as amoral as Dr. Manhattan, immoral as The Comedian, or otherwise as sexually disturbed and depraved as the rest of the main characters, just in order to fit the emotional and tonal needs of the story. Is there really an outcry for more depictions of black men and homosexuals as murderers, sadists, useless perverts, psychopaths and rapists, like the main cast of Watchmen? It sounds more like an advertisement slogan than like something that could have any meaningful impact on the story, or even on the depiction and representation of minorities. Mr. Lindelof must be preparing this as an exit strategy. Maybe he knows he is going to trek into darkness again, and is preparing to blame the minorities, or public intolerance for them, for his own inability to make a watchable product. No,
Lost was not watchable . But it's not really going to work this time. The guy who directed the all-female
Ghostbusters had some significant successes in comedy under his belt and there were no blindingly obvious glaring signals that he was A Very Bad Idea. Damon Lindelof has some questionable successes under his belt such as
Lost, and then he also has
Star Trek Into Darkness.
I just don't understand why or how anyone could think it was so vital to run an updated series on Watchmen that they had to rush headlong into it instead of at least waiting for the disappointments the fanbase had to fade away, and to make sure they hired the right team this time, instead of giving the matter to someone who wasn't suitable for it like Zach Snyder. Instead they make do with a guy who had
Star Trek Into Darkness on his resume. I am not even saying they should have left the property alone preserved in amber forever. I am just saying
Star Trek Into Darkness.
No.43807
>>43806I thought someone someone already did?
As I said then, I have no intent on watching this bullshit. It is watchmen in name only. Just another thing take over by SJWs because they are hacks that can't make new shit so they have to destroy old shit and paste together a shitty thing of their own from the shards left over.
No.43808
>>43806Probably because cape stuff is what's making money and HBO wants a slice of the pie before it's gone.
No.43809
>>43806It is shit like this that make me think it is not even worth getting invested in anything because every few years some uncreative fuck will dig it up and shit all over it for both money and to shill their ideological bullshit.
Add to that all the other massive problems in the comic industry and I sometimes think that maybe I should just stick to manga and anime since the west can't have a good idea without later killing it in one way or another. We just can't have nice things and I am sick of it.
No.43812
>>43488>>43490Well, since the thread got bumped I might as well report on my experience with Crossed.
The first three volumes (Original, Family Values and Psychopath) were ok, I liked them. As well as the general idea for the series about humans being masked shit, and the "crossed" being who dropped the mask.
In "Badlands" quality was all over the place due to different authors working on it. On average it got palpably worse closer to the end with some arcs featuring quite a shitty art-style and one even being authored by fucking Bemis (you can imagine what it's about). In fact, I wouldn't recommend anything made by anyone other than Ennis, Lapham or Hine in this series.
The "Wish You Were Here" webcomic was surpsisingly long and story-rich, but got weaker towards the end. The other webcomic was too short to even mention.
And the final installment (+100) was so ridiculously over-saturated with SJW propaganda that it nearly gave me cancer, so I ended dropping it in disgust. And a real pity that was, because it's set 100 years after the outbreak and has a very comfy atmosphere. But alas, everyone's there is either homosexual or bisexual, the protagonist is a mulatto strongwoman, her mother is a lesbian, a local community is run by an FtM butch, a neighboring one is a town of peaceful muslims that are just like real muslims except they don't discriminate against gays and succubi, and have a female Imam leading them, and all of that happening on the territory of former Tennessee. Wow-wee.
To summarize I can only say that Crossed timeline shows the process of degradation of comicbook industry, as barely anything made after 2013 is worth looking into.
No.43904
They have vol.5 of the darkness trade paperback plus two other comics I don't give a shit about at Dollar General for 6 bucks.
I am debating whether to get it or just pirate it.
No.44053
>>43904Pirate it.
If you really like it and want a physical copy then buy it after.
If I remember correctly vol.5 is old and the company already made their money when they sold it to the store.
No.44175
I benn reading some Usagi Yojimbo Comics, and i still wonder if lord Hikiji is still a human or now is an animal
No.44494
Does anybody knows comics that have the noir and pulp feeling of sandman mysterie theater?
No.44501
>>44494Like actual pulps like The Shadow and The Phantom or do you mean stuff inspired by the pulps like Sin City?
No.44587
>>44263Just bought my first proper physical cap book.
Batman, the 100 page special from Walmart.
While I really liked batman cartoons and such this is my first time picking up a comic for batman. Hopefully it is good and not a waste of $5 bucks that I could have spent on used discount bin trades or something nice from the net.
No.44611
Well I just read this and absolutely loved it. And it all began a couple days ago when I found out by chance that there was a new DuckTales on (found that out by flipping through the channels, first time I turned the TV on in 5 years or so). I remember enjoying the original series a lot so I decided to check it out. It's ok I suppose. Reading about the series on wikipedia ended up on on an article about Rosa. I did read Disney comics as a kid some times but had no idea who Carl Barks or Don Rosa was.
I'm glad I found this and at the right time too, they're publishing a Don Rosa library, which I stole on a torrent site but intend to buy it soon.
Anyway, it's a straight forward adventure about uncle Scrooge and his nemesis Glomgold competing to see who finds a hidden Inca treasure first. The whole story is a perfect example what I used to like about comic books like The Smurfs or Tintin. Colorful, no nonsense, don't take itself seriously, likable characters, easy to follow, no need to keep track across a trillion other editions. I mean I never cared about super-hero stuff in the first place and thethings mentioned by
>>43505 really kills it for me, though I did follow the X-Men for about 8 years beginning with the whole Phalanx invasion thing in the early 90s I think but that was it. Then I tried again a decade later when they began with the All-New X-Men but before I realized I was having to keep track of multiple time travels with young and old versions of the character jumping around between time lines and for fuck sakes that's exactly why I don't read this shit.
tldr: Get this book for free and give it a chance, I think it will make you like comic books again.
No.44612
>>44611Btw this got me so happy about comic books again that I got a full set of Tales from Crypt to give it a try. Will report back after reading a couple of issues.
No.44885
>>43439How bad is Scott Pilgrim? I never understand why it was so popular
No.44889
>>44885It's nonstop references to video games and "nerd" culture.
No.44892
>>44885It has the same level of quality as a mid-00s web comic that somehow got published.
No.44893
>>44611 again. So I'm still reading a bunch of comics. Here's some of the stuff:
Frank by Jim Woodring
Weird, beautiful drawings with nothing really going on storywise. Really liked it though. Very surreal stuff.
The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
Meh. Has its moments but mostly didn't speak to me at all. This guy get super powers and spend doing sculptures of his girlfriend. Then they
die.
Adventure Time The Four Castles
I watched that show up to the third season or so and wanted to take a look at the comic. It's actually alright, has the same mood as the cartoon but I think I should've got a Ice King title because apparently he has a solo comic going (at least I saw one in GetComics).
A Contract with God by Will Eisner
Got it because everybody says it's a very important comic book in comic book history. Read the first story and it's OK, there are interesting moments in there. I was expecting more I guess because it's Will Eisner and all.
Betty Boop n.4
I was curious about it. Drawings are nice, story is super simple and straight forward. I actually read the whole thing fairly easy, which is something I can't say for hero comics like Superman.
Tales from the Crypt n.20 (which is actually n.1)
Really liked it. Read only the first story, The Thing from the Sea. It's a very charming comic book and I totally got it why some many comic book aficionados say it's one of the best comics ever made. I read it because Don Rosa said it was his favorite comic in the world after Uncle Scrooge and Donald stuff by Carl Barks.
Micronauts n.9, the new one.
I was surprised. Got it just because it had a Sphinx at the cover. Drawings are meh but the story got me hooked. Planning to read the other issues.
Mort Cinder
Liked it a lot. My spanish is kinda shitty but managed to read it. Just wish it was easier on the way. Those crips black and white illustrations are hard to get into.
Understanding Comics
Read the first couple of chapters. Didn't agree with a few points (for example if the character looks realistic you'll have a harder time to symphatize with it, which I think it's pretty much nonsense). Good stuff otherwise, guy really love comic books.
I got a bunch of other stuff too, here's a list;
Aliens - Labyrinth
Bird Boy
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
Dick Tracy
Disney Giant Halloween
El Eternauta
Fallout New Vegas comic book
Hearts at Sea
Heck
Lament of lost Moors
Lazarus Churchyard
Lucky Luke
Memetic
Metropol
My Favorite thing is Monsters
Over the Garden Wall
Paper succubi
Plutona
Reanimator
Zap COmics
Shadowman
Strangers in Paradise
SuperMutant Magic
Bulletproof Coffin
The Goon
If you know any of these and want to say something about it please do. Also if you want to recommend me stuff I appreciate it. I'm basically binging on comics right now. Let's see how far it lasts.
No.44906
>>44893 again.
I just finished to read Heck. Best stuff I've read so far. Can't recommend it enough. It's about a guy who can go into the netherworld to ask stuff for people residing in there (turns out it's pretty much everybody who have ever lived) and he makes a living out of it.
it's actually about friendship but don't let that stop you, it's more like a friendship between a man and his dog really.Very simple drawings and dialogue but I found it so gripping. Really nice way to spend a hour or so. I also read the Fallout New Vegas which establish the characters you meet as soon as you begin the game. It's OK.
Mickey's Craziest Adventures was also a nice surprise. One pagers, really smart humor, loved it. Read The Age of the Apocalypse which is more like a profiling of how the each X-men created his/her own little group to survive in a scenario where Apocalypse won and Xavier is dead. Kinda nice but the story is spread across so many issues, kinda of a hassle. Also gave it a chance to Paradiso. Not really my type of stuff I guess but it's interesting enough I'll continue to read it. It's about a guy in a post-apoc world wanting to get inside the only city that is not complete shit, called Paradiso. At least that's what's going on in the first issue. And finally I read the first issue of The Superannuated Man which has a weird and intriguing premisse. Will continue.
If anyone feeling like reading comics again or starting to,
https://getcomics.info for most things and
https://www.zipcomic.com for more rare stuff. It would be nice to have someone to discuss all the stuff I'm reading. Give it a shot, once the feeling of "this looks like shit and dumb, I can't read this" is gone, you really can get into it.
No.45102
>>44587#2 of 100 page Batman comic is finally out at my local WM.
I am so hype I am going to read #1 again then read #2 tonight.
This is legit getting me into Batman comics. Might binge some stuff online after I finish while I wait another month for #3
No.45613
>>45102I think I might have missed out on #3 as it sold out or wasn't in stock every time I checked.
I will see if I can find it online ether as a scan or if I can get a used copy.
Anyone know if batman rebirth is any good?
No.45628
>>45613They restocked with fresh #3 and they have a Halloween 100 page special with a new swamp thing comic in it.
Very happy.
Thinking of ordering a few used comics on Amazon. Stuff like The Shadow and Sandman.
No.45672
Can any one recommend me some comics to read online? I want something dark, broody. More Dredd than Noir but doesn't have to be science fiction.
Keep the pozz low please.
No.45679
>>45672Can't you read just about anything online now days if you look hard enough and the ones you can't find you can download?
Anyway Sandman is pretty damn good and usually pretty easy to find. It is very dark and "broody" but it is very different from Dredd.
No.45966
I found a random trade paperback at the dollar store called Irredeemable.
It is a lazy deconstruction of superheros written by someone who I think doesn't actually like supersheros but read watchmen once and thought they could one up that, mixed with really bad art direction and panel flow. The over all art quality is pretty mediocre. It could have been saved with good writing but it isn't written well at all.
I think in the future anything written by this guy, Mark Waid, is something that I should probably avoid. Even McFarlane, who while being a great artist and promoter isn't all that good at writing, writes way better then this.
No.46102
>>46101Your phone is big enough that you can actually enjoy the art?
I have seen memes related to the comic but never got around to reading it. You make it sound interesting though so I might give it a shot.
No.46218
>>46217I couldn't without constantly thinking of early 2000s goths and myspace users. That's mainly invader zim's fault though.
No.46559
>>43486garth enniss and carlos ezquerra make a comic just like that, but i dont remember the name ritgh now
No.47688
>>47566I'll start posting here instead.
Conan The Barbarian #5 is out. So Conan is smuggling a wooden idol
that ends up killing everyone on the ship and when animals eat those killed by this monster, they turn into tentacle monster themselves. It bothers me that Conan is now killing Cthullu with a sword. I'm talking about a creature that could feasibly swallow the whole ship. It felt way overpowered to be a Conan enemy but what do I know. I have a few Mr. Aaron seems to put Conan into situations only someone with actual powers could get out of. And why the idol killed everyone BUT Conan there remains a secret to the ages. This issue suffers with the whole show don't tell approach to storytelling. We never see how
he killed that huge monster. That was a fight everyone would like to see, instead we get a single panel of it. Then when everything is done,
Conan is alone on a ship with burned sails, marooned and ready to die. So they just throw another ship at him.All that said it was a fun 10 minutes read, I think they're trying too hard to show how cool Conan is instead of telling a compeling story.
Link to comic:
https://getcomics.info/marvel/conan-the-barbarian-5-2019/ No.47690
>>47688Next releases:
Savage Sword Of Conan 04 - Apr 10 2019
Conan The Barbarian 06 - Apr 15 2019
Age Of Conan Belit 02 - Apr 10 2019
No.48236
I've been reading a ton of comic books again. Perhaps I'll post about all of them. My favorite right now is The Marquis of Anaon. In the 1720s, Jean-Baptiste Poulain, son of a merchant and former medical student, travels to countries where mysterious phenomena have been observed or where inexplicable crimes were committed both to enrich his scientific knowledge to come assistance to victims of events that seem supernatural. Spirit Cartesian and rational, it must cope with living in remote regions where reigns the obscurantism and where crisis situations often result in the persecution of groups living on the margins of the community.
Art is brilliant, all the characters have clear, interesting expressions. Their anxiety, fear, joy and all other emotions are crystal clear on their faces. There are only five books, I've read three so far. I think the second one has the best art, the first one the best story.
You can read all the books online here:
https://comiconlinefree.com/the-marquis-of-anaon/issue-1Or download them here:
https://europeanclassiccomic.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-marquis-of-anaon.html No.48268
>>48258I've read from 94 to 108 just now and there's a good reason lots of X-Men fans tell people to start with the Claremont run on the series. We go from the mutants fighting carnies, dinosaurs and bank robers to truly cosmical threats and creatures from the Beyond. It feels like a huge improvement and it's very easy to get invested. My only trifle with it is how they had Beast vanishing from the book, no explanation given. I had to hunt down other Marvel titles "something I find really annoying in American comics" to find out what happened to him.
People talk a lot about jumping in points but I do believe Giant Size X-Men 1 and #94 onwards is a really good place to start. There's very little you miss by ignoring the previous issues. This is where Wolverine comes into the team as well, along with Colossus, Nightcrawler and others. If anyone want to start reading it;
https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8890356/Uncanny_X-Men_(001_-_544__amp__Annuals)_(-_Nem_-) No.48296
>>48268Just finished reading the famous story Days of Futura Past, #141, #142. It is by far the best X-Men story so far, way better than Dark Phoenix or the Proteus stories, even though those were pretty good too. Finally I felt like there were actual stakes on their struggle and the whole thing is really tense, specially the first issue.
I'm going through these fairly quickly, let's see how far I can get before burning out. I've read every single X-Men story from its debut in 1963 all the way to 1981. Let's see how far I can get before burning out.
No.48310
>>48258I went back on those first 66 issues and made a list of my favorite stories. Maybe I'll to another list when I reach #200.
-X-Men first visit to the Savage Lands. "The Coming of Ka-Zar!" (#10)
-An alien codenamed Stranger takes Magneto to a space zoo. "The Triumph of Magneto" (#11)
-First appearance of Juggernaut and the -Crimson Gem of Cyttorak. "The Origin of Professor X!" (#12)
-The whole Sentinel saga starting with "Among Us Stalk… the Sentinels" #14, #15 and #16
-Magneto's attempt to build a mutant clone army in "If Iceman Should Fail..!" #18
-Prof. Xavier going solo to Lucifer's underground base in "I, Lucifer…" #20
-The X-Men get caught in an underground feud between Mole Man and Tyrannus in "War – in a World of Darkness!" #34
-The X-men try to avoid an Alien ploy to trigger World War III beggining in "We, the Jury…" #37, #38 and #39
-The uncanny world and fate of Grotesk and the Gortokians in "Now Strikes…the Sub-Human!" #41
-Mesmero and the City of Mutants, also the first appearance of Polaris in "Who Dares Defy… the Demi-Men" #49 and #50
-The Living Monolith saga and first appearance of Havok in "Wanted: Dead or Alive… Cyclops!" #54, #55 and #56
-The Sentinels return under the direction of the Sentinel's original creator's son, Larry Trask in "The Sentinels Live!" #57, #58, #59
-Magneto relocates to the Savage Lands and start to buid a mutate army there in "War in the World Below! #63
No.48336
Still reading it. Currently at issue 154 so I can make a list of my favorite stories from the second volume. Here it is.
-The rise (beginning in the last volume), appearance and fall (in this volume) of Dark Phoenix starting with "Too Late, the Heroes!" in #134, #135, #136, #137.
-A grim, grim future for the X-Men in "Days of Future Past" in #141, #142.
-Sprite has to fight a relentless, eldritch N'Garai demon from another dimension in "Demon" #143.
-Cyclops has to overcome his fears by teaming up with Man-Thing in "Even in Death…" #144.
-A solitary, childish mutant is desperate to find a friend in "Cry, Mutant!" #148
-Terrible things lurks deep within the underground ruins of Magneto's base in "And the Dead Shall Bury the Living!" #149.
-One of the most emotional stories from this period and great character development for Magneto in "I, Magneto…" #150.
No.48396
>>48310where do you read them?
can you pls gib the link to read them?
i used to watch the 90s cartoon
No.48398
>>48397ill try to donwload it
thanks
No.48953
I was reading the latest Sonic issue and they had a preview for this series called Canto. It just came out and it looks promissing. Cool premise, the art is not the best but I can tell I'm going to like enough to keep up with it. You can find on getcomics or read online if you like.
There's only one issue out so I can't tell what the story is going to be about but we have this character called Canto, he's from a race of enslaved androids living in an apoc future with a medieval feel to it. They work to keep a furnace heated under a city called Arcana. Nobody knows why. One day a slaver kills one of his friends and he sets out on a quest to find a cure.
https://readcomicsonline.ru/comic/canto-2019/1/6https://getcomics.info/other-comics/canto-1-2019/ No.50151
>>50129I've read it before. It's different from anything else I guess, too "meta" for my liking. If you are interested in the history and evolution of comics, that's what it plays with.
No.50723
>>41819>favorite ComicCalvin and Hobbes. So many childhood memories.
>favorite authorProbably J.R.R. Tolkien, or C.S. Lewis. Also a huge fan of Robert Jordan. If you mean comic author, I liked Greg Farshtey when he wrote Bionicle. Loved reading those as a teenager.
>favorite cartoonistProbably Bill Watterson
>favorite characterTracer Bullet
No.50724
>>50723To add on to this, I also really loved Spaceman Spiff
No.50733
>>50724I was more into Stupendous Man myself.
No.50799
I like the one with the khajiit umm I forgot what it was called but it takes place in the elder scrolls universe and the main character is katia managan or something
No.51153
>>51151I'm aware the Archie comics ened and IDW tookover and they have this new Forces style "resistance" arc but I've lost most of my interest in Sonic so no. I went through a time of reading the Archie comic and I adored it, but got bored at what I later learned was the exact point Flynn tookover. I must be one of the very few that liked Penders Sonic.
I'm past the age that I can stomach any cheesy fan-service anyway.
No.51185
>>51153I tried to read Archie's Sonic but the sheer amount of issues made me gave up on it.
No.51210
hey conan wiz are you still here?
No.51213
>>51210Hey wizzie, yeah. I'm also the x-men wiz and the sonic wiz, Uncle Scrooge wiz.. it's awful lonely itt to be honest. Well at least the Crossed wiz is not me. Anyway what's up?
No.51228
>>51213alright, watched the conan the musical vid on jewtube, remembered you wrote a indepth post on comics and why conan is good, tried to find it on wayback machine, couldnt, so just posted here
also you posted a link to dl conan comics but i dropped it at the 2nd book sadly, just not my thing i guess
No.51233
>>51228I remember that. It was a response to some guy saying the comic was shit because the main character was just a chad or something. I don't recall exactly what I said though, sorry. It was something about Conan being the barbarian's archetype and the comic working exactly because of it. The fact his absolute masculinity is played to the point of silliness and he can brute force his way though a grimdark world infested with magic and monsters makes the perfect character to create fun comic book stories with. It also makes him more impervious against political correctness, as both Conan and the world he lives in is suppose to be the darkest age of man in all its aspects. I don't know, it's just fucking great imo.
Hey if you want to try picking up again it would be cool to have someone to talk to about Conan. It's hard to get into but if you read just one issue a day or something and let that sink in you can have a great time.
No.51243
>>51233I see, it was probably me that said he was just a chad wish fullfillment etx
If you have a link for dling a series of it ill retry reading it
No.51256
>>51243There's a lot of Conan comics that got published over the years. If you're more into books you can just download all of the Hobert Howard's books (
https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/16355301/The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Conan_-_Robert_E._Howard_[EN_EPUB]). Many of the comic book adventures are of course based on the books. If you want to try the comics again, you have to decide how grim you want your stories to be. If you want absolute grimdark, then the best way to go is reading Savage Sword of Conan, (
https://getcomics.info/marvel/savage-sword-conan-1-235-annual/) that's the favorite of many Conan fans because of the more adult approach to the character and the unique art. It's, well, savage. If you want a more "campy" "comicbooky adventure" Conan, then Conan The Barbarian is what you're looking for (
https://getcomics.info/marvel/conan-the-barbarian-vol-1-1-13-1970-1972/). Both of those titles are old though. Old art, old way of storytelling. If you want a more recent approach, Marvel bought the rights to publis Conan again at the beginning of this year, which makes an interesting jumping in point. You can get those on getcomics also.
Read a couple of issues of everything and see what suits you. I hope you find something to your liking wizzie, good luck! Any questions or something else just post itt, I'll be happy to talk about this stuff.
No.51257
>>51256will check out the savage sword, thanks wizzie
No.51258
>>51256It's also worth mentioning that the comics went downhill after Roy Thomas left.
No.51261
>>51258I would rather let the new reader finding out for himself what writers/artists he prefers.
No.51269
>>51268Damn math teachers. Am I right boys?
No.51442
I like to read Unbeatable Squirrel succubus and I think she and Kraven have cute chemistry and I like to imagine he used a time machine to go back and take her virginity on her 5th birthday just like the Turks did to Bulgarian succubi in 1907 except it is with consent and enjoyable (since Doreen has super-strength it would not hurt her) instead of being rape and unenjoyable.
No.51445
>>51442>>51443did you just draw this?
No.51446
>>51344
Hey man sorry I didn't see your post. I don't have any steam or anything like that, I pirate every media I consume pretty much. You can make short posts here you know, it's not like there's a bunch of other people using this thread anyway.
No.51491
>>51443>>51444I remember fapping to these, not proud at all. And eve less so to Squirrel succubus now
No.51973
>>51256welp conan wiz-san, i finished the savage sword of conan, bretty gud, liked it overall. tho havent properly read comics before so dont have much of a reference
any other recommendations?
No.52005
>>51444Can we have a whole series of similar artwork?
No.52021
>>5200524 hours and no new post, guess every time i see my old post i'll just have to draw or do something productive while i wait for replies?
Where has everyone gone? Have they (the smart wizzes of 2013-2016) moved to the dark net or something, is there better conversations there that update more regularly?
No.52022
>>52021Comics is kind of a dying hobby with very few new people getting into it and a high barrier to entry.
Also the site is just slow and this board is usually super slow. Threads last for years and there usually isn't extended back and forth in most threads. Well at least not the productive good natured kind.
No.52033
>>52022High barrier to entry to comics you think? Why?
Couldn't i create a comic right now?
No.52035
>>52033>High barrier to entry to comics you think? Why?Everything about getting into comics takes a large amount of effort (and in the case of buyfags fuck tons of money) for very limited entertainment compared to alternatives, especially with the major decline in quality of writing and art in a lot of more curret and surface level content like the vast majority of superhero comics for the past decade.
Only in the past 5 or 6 years has there even been a reliable place to read comics online compared to say manga, and you can't find them in normal stores or even the rare few book stores left most of the time. You have to go out of your way to a specialty comic book store for find physical comics. Shops that have been closing at record rates.
Then you have the dense about of research and back issue reading to get caught up on what the hell is going on with a charicter to even have a hope of understanding what is going on in a story that is usually build of parts of other interwoven other stories of totally separate series because they are writing towards a event that then turns out to be a total dud anyway.
It isn't like dropping into a series of genera fiction novels or something. It takes weeks or even months of real deal research to actually keep up with a current story line if you are just starting out.
And don't get me started on the community compared to other fan communities when it comes to newbies.
>Couldn't i create a comic right now?Totally missing the point to a extreme degree. This thread isn't even about making comics and I have to think you are just being dense because you think it is funny. It isn't.
No.52144
>>51973Hey wiz, did you read the whole thing? That's pretty cool, and to know that you liked it too. I'm glad to know that. I'm sorry taking this long to respond, I'm trying to keep my internet usage to a bare minimum.
>so dont have much of a referenceYou read the very best comic book series of Sword and Sorcery ever committed to print my good friend. I wouldn'to recommend it otherwise. I don't know what I could recommend after that, it depends on what you liked about it. If you liked specifically because it's sword and sorcery, then I'm afraid it's all downhill from Savage Sword.
No.52145
>>52144yooo
may i ask why youre trying to keep internet to a minimum?
and i liked it because..uuuh.. id say it wasnt pretentious? its good at what it does (testesterone oozing man kills monsters, saves scantily-clad succubi) and doesnt try to be more than that
dunno how best to put in words
anyways, its fine if you recommend stuff other than conan, ill check it out regardless
No.52728
>>43443comics are inherently jewish
No.52729
>>52728jews invented comics
No.52741
>>43439If you ask me, Scott Pilgrim laid the groundwork for comics of the 2010's. For better and for worse. And since I don't really like most of the characters from the little I've read, I want to say worse.
>>52728>>52729That is both a wrong and a non-issue. Fuck off.
No.52782
>>52598I wonder if they will take a whole new direction in the post-corona world.
No.54103
I tried to read sandman two times when I was a Teenager, but I left it in the issue where Chesterton appeared because I couldn’t understand it. I finished it a couple of months ago. Just in the issue where Lucifer leave the hell, I realized the bad taste I used to have for stopped reading it. Even if the main characters are abstract concepts with human form, they have feelings and sorrows. And the secondary characters that are just humans are not less interesting just for being normal people. The day by day of the stories flow with naturality that could be boring in other kind of comics or books. The everyday bitching of work, money, relationships, politics and sex that make the Stephen King novels so boring, if you are not from the U.S, Especially from Maine, it’s a part of the comic i couldn’t understand the first times I tried to read it. Now I can’t understand how Neil Gaiman makes possible writing about that without being boring.
The Only flaw I have with this comic is the Issue Where Marco Polo appears. I know an Argentinean comic about him which does a better job. It’s called El Libro Secreto de Marco Polo. The best chapter is where he knows Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the dream Palace of Kublai Khan.
Sorry is the English is not good enough. Is not my first language
No.54185
What happened to the huge amount of horror comics from the 50s? Titles like tales of the crypt, or creepy. The only horror modern comic I know is the new volume of Creepy, and some adaptations of horror books of Clive Barker. Horror comics never became a thing again, after Fredric Wertham and Cape comics. The same thing goes for the sword and sorcery ones. Besides of the limited series of Conan and Kull, published by Dark Horse, those types of comic’s remains forgotten in detriment of superheroes comics. Now that the superheroes seem to be useless against a virus, we should probably see a growing in other kind of genres.
No.54187
>>54185Most of those genres are European dominated now.
There are still stories from the US being published but they get nowhere near the attention as the shit put out by the heavyweights of the US industry.
No.54188
>>54185Look harder wizzie, there are a lot of horror comics still coming out and lots of recent stuff. Gideon Falls, Ice Cream Man, The Empty Man, Wytches, Redlands, Nameless, Rat God… Take a look at Vault Comics and Image, they always put out horror stuff, you just have to keep an eye for it.
>The same thing goes for the sword and sorcery onesTo be honest that genre never managed to go much beyond Conan and you're probably never going to see something as good as The Savage Sword of Conan ever again. Hell it's my favorite comic of all times, it's as good as a comic will ever be imo. Marvel is currently publishing 3 Sword and Sorcery titles, Age of Conan, Conan the Barbarian and The Savage Sword of Conan. I haven't been following comics too closely for the past year but there's probably something else getting published besides those.
>>54187Do name some of those titles, I would love to know more about Euro horror comics.
No.54191
>>54188>Do name some of those titlesI haven't dived too deeply into them myself, epecially not the serials, as I tend to stick to graphic novels but a few I read last year were
Little Miss Cheery
The Suicide Forest
and some old random Italian comics about female vampires that I read mostly for the art like Yra the Vampire and Sukia.
No.54381
>>47600if you want argentine comics check out el cazador, patoruzito and mafalda
No.54409
After years of reading only manga i want to get into western comics but dunno where to start since it's so massive.
Im interested in the best batman stories/arcs, planet and world war hulk, and classic thor and daredevil stories. I read V2-V3 of wolverine,the one where he fights romulus,and enjoyed it.
Are there any avaible lists for what im looking for?
also spiderman is my favourite superhero;what runs should I run about him?
>also where do i download. torrent?
No.54410
>>54409I don't know about Daredevil, Hulk, nor Thor, but in terms of Batman I can only recommend Hush, Arkham Asylum (illustrated by Dave Mkean) and Mad Love in my subjective opinion.
Dont read The Killing Joke nor Whatever happened to the caped crusader? unless you can stomach the people behind them
No.54412
>>54410is the one where batman is an old man and fights superman with a tech suit good?
i dont remember the name but I like the movie about it i saw
No.54413
>>54412Hard to say, I never saw Dawn of Justice.
There's also Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller but I could never endure the disorganised style past the first few pages.
No.54459
>>54456This is really great. Black and white comic art is underrated over here, and yeah I know it was a meme in the 80's.
I've been meaning to get into the Judge Dredd comics since high school.
No.54461
>>54457Mignola is a master of the form and I can appreciate why he's so renowned, but his style just doesn't jive with my taste. Highly subjective thing, taste.
No.54530
I read the court of owls and im going to read miller's batman trilogy
Any other essential modern batman stories i should read?
No.54848
¿Why the original writer of Thorgal left the comic? The other writer is not a good as Jean van Hamme.
No.55040
>>54188¿Is Marvel publishing Conan comics again? I thought that was impossible. Conan is basically everything the new Marvel writers hate.
No.55042
>>55040Yes they are. I haven't been following it too closely because there's only few issues out yet and I like to binge but so far it's been more or less the same vibe you get from the original Conan The Barbarian, only the art is current year. The Savage Sword of Conan is also pretty close to CtB, which imo shouldn't be. They should aim to copy the original Savage Sword like CtB now is going for the original CtB footsteps. Going for a more gritty approach, maybe even b&w art, who knows, right now there isn't a difference between the two titles, I don't know who would be purchasing both, but there's always hardcore fans out there. All in all, both those titles feel rushed as hell and are of mediocre quality.
About new Marvel, I assume you're talking about agenda-driven identity politics.
For people with those sensibilities, Marvel is putting out a third series based on Conan's universe called Age Of Conan. It's focused on female characters like Belit and Valeria. Belit was pretty bad but I heard Valeria is decent, I'll check it for myself eventually, she was always too much of a smug swashbuckler for my taste but who knows, I'll give it a shot.
No.55926
I remember reading an Achilles adaptation published by Marvel and written by Roy Thomas. ¿Does Marvel used to publish adaptations of classic books? ¿When they stopped published them and why?
No.56309
¿The comics written by Brian K Vaughan are enjoyable? I’m looking for some apocalyptic comics, and Y: The Last Man is one of the most recommendable in almost every comic’s site. Also, are Saga and Paper succubi worth reading?
No.57187
¿How many comics Elric of Melnibone have? I know Marvel published “The Dreaming City” back in the 80s, and I think DC had an Elric comic written by Neil Gaiman, along with other series based on Michael Moorcock work. I think there was an French adaptation, but I don’t know if they are only doing the first Elric book or if they are gonna do the 8.
No.57237
Anyone here like bone? any recommendations for long, self-contained comics in a similar vein?
No.57273
>>57272Perhaps I mean to say underground comics, not indie comics. There still are indie publishers and comic creators making new stuff.
No.57277
>>57273There are still underground comics just like there are still zine scenes.
It is just hyper niche and they like it that way.
And yeah, indie comics are actually booming right now compared to the mainstream industry. Mostly through crowdfunding.
No.57628
¿The comics written by Brian K Vaughan are enjoyable? I’m looking for some apocalyptic comics, and Y: The Last Man is one of the most recommendable in almost every comic’s site. Also, are Saga and Paper succubi worth reading?
No.57634
>>57628Stop it or I will start reporting you for using ¿This? shit as a pseudo signature.
It ain't cute.
No.57843
¿ Stan Sakai still does Usagi Yojimbo? The last thing I remember reading about him in 4chan /co/ is was about a cartoon based of the comic. I don’t know if was released or not.
No.58355
hello is there a conan adaptation that is not SJW or changing the plot to be PC?
No.58358
>>58355I love Conan and read all the original books. Seconding this wizard's question.
No.59714
How many comics based on the works of Lovecraft or any other writer from Weird Tales exist? I know two good Argentinean adaptations, and I think there are a few adaptations of Clark Ashton Smith works in France. Even a Vathek with the fan fiction he wrote about Zulkaïs and Kalilah. Robert Howard had the best luck with comic adaptations. Just look at the bunch of conan comics
No.60265
>batman fear state event sucked ass
>x-men green was actively morally disgusting
Welp I am officially done with reading current mainstream comics. It's ether bad writing, forced politics at the expense of everything else, or more usually the case both.
No.60271
>>60265care to post some screenshots ?
No.61990
>>60565Your library has the Moomins comics? Lucky.
No.62128
>>51256>>51257>>51973>>55042Conanwiz here, I hope some of the Conan readers are still lurking, there are big news around and pretty much nobody is talking about it.
Conan is out of Marvel. It's official. They've decided not to renew the license and his last appearance in a Marvel book is probably going to be around July.
https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/marvel-conan-the-barbarian-rights-leaving-publisher/https://screenrant.com/marvel-confirms-conan-rights-savage-avengers/Maybe it's because Marvel doesn't own the character and can't change it to fit its current lineup, maybe the sales weren't good, whatever the case, they're not renewing the license. So this is the end for Conan as a Marvel character yet again. One interesting development of this is the actual license holder for the character, Heroic Signatures, decided to publish their own Conan comic, though details are still pending.
This might be an extremely interesting development since they also hold the IP for pretty much everything Robert E. Howard. If they pull this off right, this is a golden chance to make a Conan comic with the quality and appeal we haven't seen since the classic Savage Sword and that came out in the 70s, so yeah, I think there's some space for big expectations here.
No.62130
I didn't realize there was a thread for this already here in /hob/ (so I posted this in
>>>/jp/39067 instead). I've been enjoying the rebooted sonic comics. The metal virus arc was nuts.
No.62180
>>62128hey conan wiz, glad to see youre still here, thats all
No.65165
>>65125Conan was always the 'have the cake and eat it too' character. When he works as a mercenary it just so happens everytime the people he's going against happens to be irredeemably evil. Same happens when he's doing some assassination job. It's always some evil wizard or something like it. When he's a warlord in Aquilonia things work out in a way that he's the good warlord. And last but not least, everytime he's doing some thieving, he happens to be stealing from the people who stole the thing in the first place, not the rightful owner.
No.65169
>>65125The dark horse conan is major sjw. You have been warned
No.66354
Dose anyone know a good place to download comics? Libgen and all it's mirrors has absolutely gone to shit. I'm so bummed about this because they had such a huge library of stuff. You could also find foreign versions of manga that had better resolution than english releases. Real loss tbh.
No.66357
>>66354libgen.rs seems fine. There is
getcomics.org or you can just go for torrents if you have anything specific in mind, you can use an add-on like Jackett to help you search.
About manga, I don't know what resolution you want, but it there are several sites with raw, here are some:
a-zmanga.net
jraws.net
dlraw.to
The problem is that most of them use some shitty direct download sites, but this itazuraneko mirror has a decent amount of stuff upped in mega:
https://djtguide.github.io/library/manga/mangalist.htmlOr you can try nyaa.si as well.
No.66406
>>66357>libgen.rs seems fineAm i missing something? I can't find comics on here anymore.
No.66407
>>66406I don't really use it specifically for comics, did some tests with random names and it does seem to have a lesser variety.
https://libgen.li may be what you want.
No.66822
It's saddening how every time I stop posting in this thread it just dies. This actually happens with a lot of hob threads, you would be surprised how much content from this board is written by a single person.
>>48336Look at that, 2019. I stopped at 186.Just found my old folder with the high quality scans and I'm thinking about going back to it. Maybe I'll finish watching the 7th season of ST first.
No.66857
>>66407This was the libgen i was bitching about but it seems to be working again. That djtguid looks good but most of the links seem to be dead.
No.66874
I remember in 2015 posting here that I wanted Batman to be more grimdark. But having seen the fiasco of the DCEU in the years since, I think its all gone too far.
No.67031
>>48336Might as well continue with this. The X-Men Omnibus Vol.3 covers #154-175. Thing is I've read those issues 4 years ago and I'm not tempted to go back and check, so here are the stories I liked based on my hazy memory of them (and looking at the covers on marvel.fandom):
-An odd high fantasy adventure with demons and goblins in "Chutes and Ladders" in #160
-The whole Brood thing, it's a nice Alien/mindfuckery storyline I remember fondly, starts at "Beyond the Farthest Star" and concludes in "Live Free or Die!" #162 to #166
-First story that really explore the Morlocks, starting at "Catacombs", concluding with "Dancin' in the Dark" #169, #170.
No.67032
Yesterday I read issue #193 and since volume 4 of the collected stories on the Omnibus publication goes from #176-193 I'll list my favorite stories of the bunch. Like I said
>>66822, issue #186 and prior to that I read years ago, so I'm going half by memory here.
…
Funny, it's been 10 minutes since I wrote the ellipsis above. I'm here looking through the covers and I'm starting to remember now why I quit all those years ago. These issues are one stinker after the other. lol
#176 is about Cyclops fixing a boat. #177 and #178 is some of the X-Men running around in a circus or something, really reminds you of the worst stories from the 60s X-Men. Then #179 is about Kitty almost marrying Caliban because…reasons I don't remember beyond the fact I was bored with it. #180 is so uneventful I can't figure it out what's going on even after reading the synopsis on the wiki, it's just one of those Claremont's jumbled messes.
"Tokyo Story", the story on #181 I distinctly remember being the worst fucking X-Men story I've ever read and that still stands. They fight a goofy dragon in Tokyo and the whole thing is just atrocious. Then in #183 you have Wolverine fighting Colossus because he made Kitty cry, boo hoo. #186 is about Storm's love life. It's just trash after trash after trash here.
And to make things worst, this is around the time they began releasing more X-Men books beyond Uncanny, so now they're inserting consequences of events and characters from other storylines you would have read somewhere else. Anyway, #188 they fight a boring native-american demon and next issue you have succubi shopping. Then it's more shitty DnD X-Men in #190 on. The only good part of that plot is the appearance of Nimrod on the epilogue. It's quite hilarious so I'll add to my favorite stories in this collection.
Finally things are back on track and we get a nice story with the X-Men fighting a powerful Technarch that also happens to be Warlock's dad. The only thing that pisses me off about this story is that for me it came out of nowhere since they now expect you to keep track of all this goofy shit across different titles. The Technarchs and Warlock appears on New Mutants. Anyways, here it is, the only two interesting stories in #176-193:
-Hilarious introduction of Nimrod at "Raiders of the Lost Temple!" #191
-A Technarch fucks up the X-Men on "Fun 'n' Games" #192
No.67044
I can't follow the omnibus anymore since it currently only goes to #193, so I'll be talking about Uncanny X-Men in chunks of 30 issues from now on. Just finished reading #224, so I'll talk about #194-#224 in this post. Generally speaking the stories here are certainly better than what I read on #176-193 but there's still the problem of rarely having a full story in a single issue and when it does, it very much feels like filler. To give an example of how this works, at issue #220, Storm decides to seek Forge to get her powers back (she was shot with a weapon Forge designed that strips mutants of their powers several issues ago). OK, so far so good.
Instead of using the next issues to solve this Storm/Forge plot and move on, we have 2 issues where the X-Men fight the Marauders instead, then in #223 continues with with the Storm/Forge again but next issue it only uses half the pages to follow on that story, using the first half to talk about the Freedom Fighters, a federal team of mercenary mutants led by Mystique. This is the type of thing it's not too bad if you're binge-reading like I'm doing but imagine waiting a full month in between issues. You would have forgotten all about the plot by then, specially because some plots are not explored again several issues later. This jumping around got more and more fierce as Claremont went on the book and his last few years it's in full gear. Right now I'm on the later part of his run with the X-Men. He wrote the book from 1975 to 1991 and I'm on 1987, so his last 4 years.
That said, it IS entertaining otherwise I wouldn't be reading it. I was first introduced to the X-Men with the animated series so it's particularly fun to me to read the Claremont era which immediately precedes the team you see in that TV show. Anyway here are my favorite stories from issues #194-#224:
-The fight between Juggernaut, Nimrod and the X-Men in "Juggernaut's Back in Town" #194.
-The return of the Sentinel Omega Class in "X-Men… I've Gone To Kill – The Beyonder!" in #202
-The whole Mutant Massacre event beginning with "Massacre" in #211 and on. The genocide against the Morlocks is pretty intense and has some very interesting consequences down the line.
The things that didn't quite work for me was the Secret Wars stuff with the Beyonder character. I was not interested in that at all but I read it was a huge hit with readers back in the day. I just didn't find the Beyonder a very compelling villain. And Nightcrawler's loss of faith during that plotline was quite forced and uninteresting. Two issues of the bunch I really dislike is #197 with the story "To Save Arcade?!?" where Colossus and Kitty go to Murderworld to fight Arcade. Seriously, since the introduction of this character, I've never read a single decent story involving this character. Arcade is god damn fucking awful, there's no redemption for this guy. The other annoying one is "What Happened to Nightcrawler?" in #204, a story made purely of padding.
The other thing I don't quite like is having Magneto as the head of the Xavier school. I dislike this milquetoast Magneto, it's completely out of character. Xavier and Magneto are two sides of the same coin. They offer salvation for mutants, one through peaceful coexistence, the other by having mutants at the top of the social chain, through violence if necessary. It's fun to see how those two approaches collide as the story develops but with Magneto adopting Xavier's place, both politically and as the head of the school that dynamic is gone. The trial of Magneto in #200 shows how boring that idea is, but we'll see how it goes. I'll be illustrating the post with my favorite cover from the issues I'm talking about.
No.67170
Last night I began reading the Tintin books, starting with the first, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, published in serialized form in the conservative Catholic paper Le Vingtième Siècle. Herge, the author, was only 22 at the time. The story is an anti-communist, anti-Soviet satire but the political side here is superficial. The villains have nearly no characterization at all, you could replace them with any group of people and it would still work. The meat of the plot is a fast-paced series of chases, daring escapes and fights. Fast-paced doesn't even begin to describe it. You can tell this first came out in a serialized form because every few panels you have an over the top explosion or some car chase for that week. Tintin never stops and he's effectively immortal.
Tintin is an odd character. All my years watching the cartoons I never really connected with him. The only time I remember him showing any emotion is in Tintin in Tibet, one of my favorite adventures. He's the perfect Christian (he doesn't pray or anything, I'm talking about his moral compass) hero and it's like his sense of duty have completely consumed him. He helps people but not because he has any empathy but because it's the right thing to do. He's also a thrill junkie, it's the only thing that he seems to love.
He's also a loner. He barely talks to people at all, choosing instead to have conversations with his dog Snowy. The fact his only connection is with a dog gives the character a very deep sense of isolation. But then again, a dog is the only creature crazy and faithful enough to follow Tintin around, since he has very little regard to his own life. There's no tactical retreat with Tintin, he'll push forward at high speed at all times no matter what. I guess God will protect him.
The story utilizes every vehicle out there to keep Tintin on fast-track. Cars, motorcycles, planes, trains, he'll use them all to get around. Sometimes his vehicle will explode and accidentally toss him into another moving vehicle just so the story can keep going. And then sometimes Tintin finds himself in a situation of certain death and he cannot find a way out. The world just solves the problem for him so he can keep going. Sometimes he'll go to sleep to wait for a problem to solve itself. Invariably it works.
The art and plot is primitive in this book but there are panels here and there that shows what's to come. Bold and heavy lines giving life to this crazy, linear story. All in all a fun read. It's not the Tintin I like yet, since it's missing the best part, the lovable, funny and human side-characters.
Next stop, Tintin in the Congo.
No.67171
>>67170Theres also a WW2 issue, while Belgium was Axis occupied, again not overtly political, but he does compete against the Americans
No.67174
Tintin in the Congo published in 1931 is the second book to come out featuring the hero reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy. This time I'm not even sure what he's doing there. As soon as he arrives at Congo American diamond smugglers track him down and try to kill him. The plot here seems even less important than in the first comic and again it's mostly a series of fights, chases and daring escapes. Some modern readers, being idiots and ready to be offended by everything, tried to ban this book saying the depiction of the Congolese is racist. Reading the book I don't notice any ill intent from Herge toward the Congolese in the story. His views of the Congolese is rather positive actually, they're depicted as peaceful and naive people with good hearts. Regardless, even if the Congolese were to be shown as evil and stupid, it's absurd to expect people from all ages to have the same sensibilities that you have today, but I guess that's just too complicated for some people to understand.
The other thing that make people uncomfortable about this book is the animal cruelty. I was actually amazed with some of the stuff Tintin does here. He kills a chimp and then uses its skin as a suit in order to rescue Snowy. He shoots an entire herd of antelope. Kills an elephant for fun and then, in the most egregious stunt of this comic, after his firearm fails to penetrate the skin of a rhino, he drills a hole in the animal's back and explodes it with dynamite. Just because. Then he single-handedly arrests the American smugglers (they'll show up in the next book), film some giraffes and go home.
The first two books have little to do with the Tintin that is to come in later entries. They read more like action-packed strip of the week type of thing, with lots of scenes being there simply for amusement or excitement, the plot is almost unimportant. The artwork is also rather primitive and rushed and doesn't come close to the charm of later books. One thing that is consistent throughout the entire series however, even in the first two comics, is the choice of location. Tintin is always going to a new, strange and exciting place to uncover some secret or menace there and defeat bad guys that seem to line up to get arrested by our hero.
Next is Tintin in America.
>>67171I don't know which book you're talking about but I'm sure I'll get there.
No.67177
>>67174Always thought Congo was underrated just because of how much it makes me laugh.
>He shoots an entire herd of antelopeOne of the best visual gags in the book.
No.67179
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of my favorite stories. I'm very fond of pictures of deserts and arid places and this book has plenty of that. I think by this point Herge has a better handling on the art of story telling through panels. He manages to have all the wacky action scenes and not lose track of the main plot, though I do feel sometimes the info on what's going on gets a little to scattered around, mainly due of how fast Tintin changes locations in the story. This time Tintin is chasing a bunch of opium smugglers and he chases them down through Egyptian tombs, Mecca all the way to India, where he befriends the Maharaja of Gaipajama, one of the good guys who has been fighting the drug dealers his entire life.
Chasing Tintin are Thomson and Thompson, lovely characters that make their debut in this story. Every time they show up it makes me smile, those guys are hilarious and their design endearing. Kind of remind me of two Erik Satie walking around, hitting people with an old fashioned cane. Visually, the colored version is a stunningly beautiful comic book and it's really interesting to compare it with Tintin's first adventure. The progress is amazing. I read somewhere this is the last story where Snowy has a full fledged conversation with Tintin (as in Tintin can actually understand what Snowy is saying and responds to it). As more human characters are introduced, there's no reason to have Snowy as a conversational partner to Tintin anymore, he can talk to other humans instead. There's also a turn towards realism here, even though Tintin can still talk to elephants on this issue.
This is the first story that feels like the Tintin I know. Next one is The Blue Lotus, a sequence to this story but I'll make another post here before that.
>>67177Tintin is shockingly cruel to animals in that issue and if you know the character only through his later stories like I did, going back to the early issues is a very intriguing experience. It's basically a different character. I read Herge regretted making Tintin explode a rhino and kill elephants so he created a scene in Cigars of the Pharaoh where Tintin saves an elephant instead of killing one. It's a rather goofy scene (he makes a trumpet out of wood in order to talk to the elephants.
No.67180
While I was looking for the Tintin facsimile editions for the early stories I came across this comic: Incidents in the Night and I had a really good time with it. The atmosphere is pretty good and the plotline is inventive. It's basically about this bookworm guy tracking a rare book in Paris and ends up finding a guy that has been cheating death for over a 100 years. The way he does it is quite imaginative. Cheating death is a trope but I don't think I've ever came across his method anywhere else.
The story loses a little bit of momentum halfway through but it picks it up again before it's over. A very nice read. You can borrow it for free on archive.org. All you need is an account.
https://archive.org/details/incidentsinnight0000bdav No.67181
found out theres a post apocalyptic scooby doo comic lol
No.67185
The Blue Lotus is definitely a point where Tintin stops being just a comic for children and becomes a lot more involved. There's so much plot here it's an inch from becoming convoluted. Dozens of characters coming in and out of the plot with different motivations, allies and with their own scheming. This time Tintin is fighting the opium smugglers again, but in China. This story is very critical of the colonial pretensions both of the West and Japan, even though Tintin appears as the savior for the Chinese people in the story. I guess you can have your cake and eat it, too. At least when you happens to be Tintin. This book was released in 1934 and it touches several historical events of the time period. Herge also used a lot of pictures and read books about China during the development of The Blue Lotus, something he didn't care about doing with the first adventures. The mood changes from the previous books and now you feel there's more of a reality to it. Tintin feels more like a reporter in this one as well, having long conversations with several characters to piece the story together, using disguises to infiltrate bad guy's hideouts and whatnot. Artwork is absolutely beautiful as always. Some of the panels in this book is among my favorites. I might post a selection of them in the future.
All that said, I still prefer Cigars of the Pharaoh. Blue Lotus feels a little too involved with the plot and at times it feels condescending (Tintin goes on a lecture about China in a couple of places that feels odd to a modern reader, but I guess that type of information was not easily available in the mid 30s.) Regardless, this is definitely one of the best, if not the best book from the early Tintin stories. This is also where Chang, a central character during the events of Tintin in Tibet, makes his first appearance.
Next one is The Broken Ear.
Did anyone read Incidents in the Night (
>>67180) btw?
No.67189
I hate Tintin and tintinophiles are weirdos.
I don't mean that as an personal attack against you I just wanted to get this off my chest. Sorry.
No.67191
The Broken Ear was published between 1935/1937. This is the story where Herge starts doing some world building, making up a couple of countries and organizations that would appear in later adventures. This time Tintin is looking for an ancient Peruvian relic stolen from a Belgian museum. He tracks the object all across the jungles of South America and ends up getting embroiled in a land dispute between two countries that culminates in an armed conflict. The villains here feel way too real. Corrupt politicians, opportunistic corporations, arms dealers, the depictions of how business and politics are conducted are very accurate and brutal. The contrast between the realities of the plot and the optimistic, colorful artwork is almost painful at times.
Tintin also goes through not one but two mock executions and the whole thing has a very harsh, dark tones to it despite the scenes being played with a rather comic beat. I sense perhaps Herge was having too much fun putting Tintin in psychologically scarring situations and pulling him out in literally the very last second. This happens quite often in this story and I began to feel bad for Tintin. I did enjoy this story a lot and it's my second favorite after Cigars of the Pharaoh thus far. Also general Alcazar is introduced in this book, he'll appear in a few other stories after this.
>>67189No worries, I didn't feel attacked in anyway actually. I am curious though why do you hate Tintin? As far as I can tell, Tintin is a rather inoffensive, inconsequential comic book for children and young adults. As for Tintinophiles, I think there could be more of them, I could not find a good article or video comparing the two versions of The Broken Ear anywhere, nor could I find the facsimile version by Casterman for download, either. I'm now considering actually buying the book.
No.67194
>>67191It's cheesy and childish in the worst possible ways, and you can tell the author was a simpleton. He also happened to be a boy scout, and it shows.
>Tintin is a rather inoffensive, inconsequential comic book for children and young adults.Maybe, it is indeed something you might pick up and read at the school library when you're twelve, nothing particularly memorable about it… so what's with the cult following?
No.67201
>>67194I would probably say that they are a distillation of classic adventure stories with overall likable but simple to understand characters.
While I personally am not a fan (too French for my taste), I don't see what is worthy of your ire.
No.67203
The Black Island is the seventh Tintin book to come out (1938) but the redrawn, colored version came out in 1966. By that time Herge's style is fully consolidated and he has a team of artists working on the books and it shows. I keep saying how nice the artwork in these books are but this entry is perhaps one of the nicest looking Tintin adventures to ever come out. It's all about the English countryside and it looks absolutely gorgeous. This time Tintin goes to England after a couple of bad guys try to kill him. He tracks the men to England and then Scotland, walking and driving around a beautifully depicted countryside and the highlands. He unravels a counterfeit operation, fights a gorilla, pilots an airplane through Scottish sea fret, among other things.
This is also the book with the best scenes for Thomson and Thompson and Snowy from the earlier books. Thomson and Thompson have several excellent slapstick moments here and their modern design brings their scenes to a new height compared with their previous appearances. Snowy is also put to very good use in several lighthearted moments like his whisky drinking and bone hunting throughout the story. The plot is also more lighthearted than Blue Lotus and Broken Ear so the whole book doesn't have any uncomfortable moments showing corruption and evil politicking. It's straight up action and gorgeous backgrounds page after page. Cigars of the Pharaoh and this one are my favorites so far. Next up is King Ottokar's Sceptre.
>>67194Certainly there's cheese to the books but it's fun in a comicbooky sort of way. It has that optimistic, colorful, schlocky approach to the stories that really works, at least imo.
>so what's with the cult following?It's a very good comic book, as far as comic books go. For me personally it's the artwork. I can't praise it enough. What are some comics you like, so I can have an idea where you're coming from.
>>67201>too French for my tasteWhat do you mean exactly? I'm outside the Anglosphere so my perspective is different. I know the English publishers changed Tintin living in Belgium to him living in London and Americans often removed mentions of Tintin's nationality to make him more international. I find those choices rather odd, it's an intrinsic part of the character.
No.67215
King Ottokar's Sceptre came out in 1939 and it's the eighth volume in the series. It's also the last book produced before Belgium is occupied by the Nazis. The redrawn, color version came out in 1947. Now, this one is probably one of my least favorites thus far. It doesn't quite stand as a historical curiosity like Tintin in Congo or Land of the Soviets and it's not up there with the other modern stories. If you read the books in order this is preceded by the beautifully drawn and quite entertaining The Black Island, so your expectation for the next entry is quite high. Plot-wise, it takes too long to get it going. Tintin sets out to help the king of Syldavia to find his stolen scepter. This scepter is a royal jewel and the absolute sign of power and political upheaval is bound to occur if it's not retrieved in time for St. Vladimir's Day, a celebration where the king is suppose to appear with the scepter in hand.
The problem begins with how these plot points are given to you. At one point Tintin simply opens an article on Syldavia and you get all this exposition dump through there. This is after Tintin spends half the book wondering a little bit lost here and there, mostly talking to a professor that is about to go on a trip to Syldavia. The way the pieces are set for this story to move feels rather lazy, presenting it to you in a made up article instead of using the first 30 pages to show that stuff to us. It takes forever for Tintin to finally reach Syldavia. Good news is once he's finally there the story really picks up and it becomes a very fun read. The 90s cartoon fixed this book in one of the episodes by sending Tintin to Syldavia almost immediately.
The other thing about this book is even though the artwork is solid as usual, it felt rather uninspired compared to books like Black Island, Blue Lotus and Cigar of the Pharaoh, almost like Herge didn't care as much about this one. Syldavia is supposed to be a Balkan country and it does look like that but in a rather uninspired manner. It's also too busy with the uniforms and palace architecture. The designs here feel crammed. I still had fun reading it but definitely don't pick this one as your first read of this series.
No.67217
>>67203>What do you mean exactly?It's more of a meta-narative thing and the way the french structure stories that has always rubbed me the wrong way in all of their media and writings.
It's more apparent in stuff directly from France, it leaves a cultural mark on other francophone countries media production as well.
No.67222
>>67217Can you elaborate? That sounds interesting.
No.67223
>>67222>Can you elaborate?Not really.
Media analisis isn't something I do in detail so if I attempted it I would just make a ass of myself in trying to rationalize things I just feel but don't have the fancy words for.
>That sounds interestingIt's probably not. Just personal preference when you get to the bottom of it.
No.67225
The Crab with the Golden Claws is the story I really wanted to get at when I started with Tintin. This is the book that introduces Captain Haddock and his presence makes this entry the very best of the first 10 books. His hilarious self-pity, anger problems and alcoholism makes for an endearing and extremely entertaining character to follow around. Also Tintin finally has a person that resembles a friend and Haddock makes for a good counter-balance for Tintin’s extreme straight edge existence. In this book Tintin is again investigating drug smugglers operating in North Africa and beyond. I think the initial draft of this story had a much grander scope because we have a Japanese investigator at the beginning that suggests there was a plan to make these opium smugglers a more international bunch but in the end the story takes place almost entirely in and around the Saharan desert. Fine by me btw, I love deserts.
Excellent pacing, beautiful artwork, hilarious moments with Haddock, who quickly overshadows both Snowy, Thomson and Thompson and dare I say, even Tintin himself. The segment where Haddock realizes he’s in the Saharan desert, the “land of thirst” as he calls it, is my favorite scene from all the Tintin books I’ve read so far. The scene where they shoot his last whisky bottle is also pretty funny. I would say this is the first Tintin book that feels 100% like the Tintin people are familiar with (if they were introduced to the character through the cartoons.). Having Haddock around brings the whole thing together and it’s a breath of fresh air. It also makes the story more engaging and less uptight than having to follow only Tintin 100% of the time.
Next up is The Shooting Star.
>>67217I don't know, I searched what metanarrative means and to me it sounded mostly rubbish, but I don't have the energy to do more than a superficial duckduck search about it. What are some comics you do like? I've been posting alone itt for years, so excuse me if I use any opportunity to make other wizards to post here more. lol
No.67227
can't have even a comic's book thread without ppl talking about crabs *sigh*
No.67230
Yesterday I ended up reading 3 titles in a row. The Shooting Star, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's treasure. The Shooting Star is a very odd story and several scenes look like a fever dream. There's a scene where Tintin thinks a meteor will destroy the Earth and he sits on his sofa and goes to sleep, saying he's tired of it all. The pastel colors, the slightly odd remarks and the artwork makes for a rather cryptic scene imo and the rest of the plot is not far behind. It goes slightly off rails here and there, as Herge plays around with some fantasy tropes. We even get Tintin fighting a giant spider on this one.
Next one is Secret of the Unicorn and while I liked the book, a rather long section of it is dedicated to Haddock telling about his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock and his encounter with the pirate Red Rackham. Although I appreciate the comedic intervals between Tintin and Haddock I didn't quite care for the tale of Sir Francis. The said, there's a maturity to the plot and artwork here that surpasses the polish of most, if not all the previous books. I also enjoyed the slice of life scenes on this one like Tintin perusing items at a local flea market.
Secret of the Unicorn is a two-part story and it continues on Red Rackham's Treasure. This is the book that introduces Professor Calculus and just like it happened with Haddock, the appeal of this character can be felt immediately. He's a hard of hearing, brilliant professor who single-handedly builds a submarine in order to help Tintin and Haddock recover the remains of the sunken ship Unicorn and its treasure. The scenes where they visit Calculus's lab is quite a joy to read through. Thomson and Thompson are there too and serve as the butt of all the jokes. This is also the book that contains one of the two panels Herge said to be his favorites in all the Tintin books. Now Calculus is in, from here on we'll have the whole crew populating the stories, let's see how it goes.
Next stop, The Seven Crystal Balls.
No.67238
As much as I dislike Tintin I appreciate these reviews and your diligence. It would almost make me want to give them a chance but I'm too prejudiced.
No.67240
The Seven Crystal Balls is one of my favorites. It's the closest Tintin ever got of a horror story and there are a couple of actually freighting moments in there that works, even with the bright colors and optimistic atmosphere of the artwork. It's also a very effective mystery, for the first time it feels like Tintin's investigations are necessary for plot development instead of stumbling upon the bad guys like it usually happens, though to be honest we do have a fair share of Tintin luck here too. This book has one of my favorite comedic moment in the series in which Haddock, now living in the mansion Cuthbert bought him after the Unicorn adventure, goes through pains to look like an English gentleman. Nestor is also now working in the mansion and has some good comic moments as well. Several minor characters from previous books make an appearance, something I always appreciate, it gives a sense of solidity to this fantasy world.
The plot is based on the curse of the pharaohs (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs). A bunch of scholars are falling into a comma just days after returning from an expedition from Peru with an ancient Inca mummy. One of the things that have improved considerably as the series progressed in the pacing of the stories and The Seven Crystal Balls is pretty much perfect, never boring you with long expositions or rushing too quickly making you forget what the characters are even doing. There's also a very good balance between inside and outside backgrounds. We have roads, hospitals, mansions, labs, piers and the open sea, all in the course of a single book. This is a two-part story, concluding in Prisoners of the Sun, a story that has my favorite scene in all of the books. I'll talk about it when I get there.
This was a hard book for Herge. He got arrested several times during the The Seven Crystal Balls' production due to being accused of being a Nazi collaborator after the end of the WWII. Also his brother got back from a prison camp and his mother died during this period as well. No wonder this is the closest he ever got of making a horror book.
>>67238Glad to know you read or at least skim through these, I'm usually conflicted about making the effort to talk about stuff here, it feels like talking to myself most times, so why bother with actually writing it down? But it's a good way to organize one's thoughts at least.
>It would almost make me want to give them a chance but I'm too prejudiced.If you dislike Tintin but these posts stir some interest in you, you can try Tintin's less known cousin, Mortimer. Tintin is just one in a rich culture of Belgian comics from the first half of the last century. Blake and Mortimer has a more serious tone and it's geared towards a more mature readership. It's less goofy and many consider it to have better literary value. The artwork is beautiful, too.
https://getcomics.org/other-comics/blake-and-mortimer-1-26-2007-2019/You can find the first 26 issues in this link. The first 12 are drawn and written by the original author, Edgar P. Jacobs but the series got so successful it goes on to this day by other authors. Fun fact, Jacobs helped Herge in several Tintin books and he's honored in the cover of Cigars of the Pharaoh
>>67179 you can see his mummified self with the plaque 'Jacobini' at his feet.
No.67267
>>67259Again with the gags but the one thing i really remember from this book is it ending with the villain attempting to kill himself, failing and everyone laughing in his face. I remember that making me howl when i was younger.
No.67273
Explorers on the Moon concludes Tintin's moon journey with the perfect pacing and balance between sci-fi, comedy and action that you get in the first book. After finishing Destination Moon, Herge became clinically depressed and he was able to start the second book only a year and a half later. Perhaps – spoilers ahead –
Wolff's suicide was the result of some of his dark thoughts during that period. Other than that the story is actually imbued with the optimistic atmosphere that all Tintin stories have. I feel like Explorers on the Moon and Destination Moon is the most well accomplished Tintin story and it's many people's favorite. There's only 6 books left now (plus an incomplete title) and the only one I think has a chance to best the previous stories is Tintin in Tibet. I remember the cartoon version for that one being really good.
Next up is The Calculus Affair.
>>67267I think you remember it this way because of Abdullah, the emir's son who would prank and laugh at everybody's expense but in fact nobody laughs at Muller's suicide attempt. The scene is indeed followed by a comedic routine though, when Thomson and Thompson have their hair grow wild and change color after they ingest formula 14 pills by accident. Thanks for your comment!
No.67278
>>67273>>67274I could have sworn thats whats happened but yeah, it seems i'm mixing the actual comics up with the animated version.
https://youtu.be/pvi6UsxA1yg?si=NG38XoY_zURwdsP9&t=2303I've been meaning to read these again for years but i'm lazy so i'm enjoying your read through.
No.67279
>>67278Holy shit I completely forgot how they did it in the animated version. In fact I don't have a memory about this episode at all, maybe I didn't watched it back then. It's pretty damn brutal if you think about it. Guy tries to kill himself and becomes a laughing stock when he fails. Not the most boy scout moment for Tintin.
No.67286
The Calculus Affair is a cold war type story where two rival nations try to kidnap Prof. Calculus in order to use his sound wave machine for military purposes. Of course Tintin and Haddock can't allow that to happen and so we have a fast paced chase adventure through Geneva, Syldavia and a couple other places. Thomson and Thompson are barely in this one which is a pity. Calculus himself, despite being on the titles, spends most of his time kidnapped, so there's not much he can do in this book, either. This book introduces Jolyon Wagg and makes extensive use of him for comedic moments, something I didn't care one bit. In fact I quite dislike Wagg, I find him annoying instead of funny or amusing.
To be honest I didn't really care for this particular story. In fact it's one of my least favorite books so far, perhaps the one I enjoyed the least. I didn't care for Wagg, you go in thinking it's going to have a lot of Calculus in it but there isn't, Thomson and Thompson are all but absent, the villain is to derivative of previous villains (I don't even remember his name!). There's only a couple things I really enjoyed here. The beautiful panels showing the environs around Marlinspike Hall, the panels showing the mansion itself and the – spoilers ahead – the tank chase at the end. Once I finish all the books I'll post a selection of my favorite panels in all of the adventures. This one has a couple of really good ones, but that was not enough to elevate this book for me. That said, this is the favorite book of a lot of Tintin fans and it's generally praised by the critics.
Next one is The Red Sea Sharks
No.67325
The Castafiore Emerald is what I like to call a domestic story. This is the type of story you get when you have a long running series and at one point one of the episodes is going to be the main characters going shopping or to a restaurant or something like that. Here we have the disappearance of Castafiore's emerald. The plot is filled with red herrings and small slice of life moments for all the characters involved. This is mostly a Haddock book and you spend several pages with him as he goes through the pains of having Castafiore living under his roof for the week to flee from paparazzi. Of course it doesn't work and the journalists are all over the mansion. There's also some gypsies temporarily camping in front of the house, mostly to increase the number of suspects for the events that eventually unfolds. Tintin takes his time to solve this one but it doesn't feel like a slog at all.
I quite enjoy this book but according to wikipedia it didn't get so well accepted as the other Tintin books. It is a very different type of story. There are no chases, fights, travels or important events going on, like I said, it's a domestic tale for those who have grown to appreciate the characters and want to see them outside the chaotic world of high adventure they usually find themselves in. Some critics say this should've been the last book and I agree. Back in Tibet Haddock mentions how he's tired of running around with Tintin, getting himself into all sorts of trouble. This homely outing would be a perfect farewell to Tintin and his friends.
One thing that I really dislike in this series and in this book it becomes very evident is the growing imbecility of Thomson and Thompson. When they first show up in Cigars of the Pharaoh, they're honorable, duty bound police officers. Although certainly clumsy from the start, they're actually able to perform their police duties well and in fact manage to save Tintin in more than one occasion and trick the bad guys in order to do so. As more books come out however they grow increasingly stupid, to the point where it's actually uncomfortable to watch. It's like watching a man with broken legs try to run upstairs. It's painful. They go from clumsy and funny to severely mentally challenged and sad. In this particular book they're barely capable of breathing to stay alive. They can't even exist as humans anymore, let alone be police officers. It's a pity, but I don't think there will be anything in the remaining books to remedy this injustice. They deserved a lot better.
Next is a book I don't remember anything about. Flight 714 to Sydney.
No.67328
Flight 714 to Sydney is interesting in how it fails.
This post will be filled with spoilers, so if you want to experience this book by yourself (and my advice is that you do, it's a weird Tintin outing) hide this post and come back later. In an interview, Herge was growing increasingly disinterested in Tintin by the point he was developing this story and I dare say the final result makes that very obvious. Starting with the villains. Rastapopoulos and Allan, two of the most cunning and menacing bad guys throughout the series, start out strong with a ploy to kidnap a billionaire and his prototype aircraft. About 20 or 30 pages in however, they change completely and become clowns and completely toothless, in Allan's case, literally. It's like the author suddenly became completely unable to take what he was doing seriously. From then on the villains just wander around, accidentally getting hit by swinging tree branches and having rocks dropped at their heads for comical effect. It's over for them in terms of involvement in the plot.
This sudden and shocking veering off course doesn't happen with just the villains. The plot itself clearly suffers from a change of heart constantly. For example, Tintin and Haddock find an old war bunker inside the subterranean passages of the island they were taken by the bad guys. But then it feels like the story loses its interest in that and so they leave for another subterranean passage, this time an ancient cavern complex with long forgotten stone idols. But then again, it feels like Herge is not interested in doing that again, either (see
>>67244 for this type of plot), so suddenly Tintin and Haddock find some guy down there wondering around the cave, literally out of nowhere. There's absolutely no reason for him to be down there, but there he is, ready to take the plot into another direction.
This guy, called Mik Kanrokitoff, has been using
telepathy (!) to communicate with Tintin so he could find his way through the labyrinthine subterranean passages of the island. As if this is not ridiculous enough, even for a Tintin story, this guy is actually using
telepathy to communicate with aliens. Aliens! Mmkay. Meanwhile the chase continues, pretty much for no reason, since at this point Rastapopoulos and Allan have nothing to gain from this enterprise and have effectively became too stupid to keep up with anything.
So, about 10 pages left to go and having solved nothing, Mr. Kanrokitoff uses his
telepathic powers to hypnotize everyone and make them go aboard an UFO. Yup. Because fuck it, I guess, at this point, why not? Then the
UFO flies away, saving everyone from blowing up with the island since the volcano at its center just became active and erupted. Because why not? And then Kanrokitoff
telepathically erases everybody memories of all the events that occurred and Tintin and Haddock go to the airport to get another flight to Sydney. The end.
I have been reading these books daily and have them all fresh in my memory and to me it's very clear this book is the result of a guy completely losing interest in his own creation. Or rather, he wants to use his famous character to explore other ideas he's currently interested in, but those ideas are completely incongruous with the world he wants to explore it in. Sure, we have black magic in Seven Crystal Balls and a yeti in Tintin in Tibet but in those cases it's worked into the plot in a very elegant and enjoyable manner. Here we have an off the rails plot that pretty much feels like it's making shit up as it goes, just so it can end. Despite that, this is actually enjoyable in a train wreck sort of way.
And now we finally reach the final completed issue, Tintin and the Picaros.
No.67330
>>67328I can't remember if Rastapopoulos shows up in Herge's unfinished 'Alpha Art' but Tintin's arguable arch-nemesis straight up getting abducted by aliens and never being seen again is kind of hilarious.
No.67332
I got anxious about reading the last completed Tintin adventure so I read it soon after Flight 714 to Sydney. Tintin and the Picaros is such an odd book. While the world Tintin lives in breaks and falls apart in Flight 714 to Sydney due to the introduction of several out of place elements in the story and the ruination of key villains, in Tintin and the Picaros it's the heroes themselves that start to break apart. The whole thing starts when General Tapioca kidnaps the Thompsons and Bianca Castafiore. If this was in any other book, Tintin would immediately come up with a plan to infiltrate Tapioca's hideout and find a way to free his friends. Even Haddock wouldn't sit idly, even if the victim is Castafiore. In here though Haddock celebrates (!) that Castafiore has been kidnapped by a dictator and Tintin flat out REFUSES to go help them. They just lounge around the mansion reading the news and laughing about it. It's like these are completely different characters at this point.
Eventually Haddock decides to go there for selfish reasons and Tintin yet again refuses to go, allowing Haddock and Prof. Calculus to go alone behind enemy lines. And then he just shows up out of nowhere because his name is on the book's title. That's the only reason I can think of at this point. It is quite astonishing how the characters feel odd in this book. The only one that resembles his former self is Calculus and Castafiore. When some critics say the last book should've been Castafiore's Emerald this is what they mean. Whatever change of heart Herge had about these characters, it was to their detriment.
Herge began working on this book nearly 10 years after completing Flight 714 to Sydney and something must have happened during that time because everything feels quite different and off, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. It's also the only book Herge managed to finish in the last 15 years of his life. I guess he was just completely done with comic books at this point, though I hear his unfinished project, Tintin and Alph-Art is much better, I guess we'll see. Maybe in that story he managed to be interested in the project because it dealt with the art world. At that point in his life Herge was trying to establish himself as an abstract artist, which he mostly fails from what I read.
All in all Tintin and the Picaros is a very odd book, rather sad, uncanny in many ways and not the best good bye for such beloved characters. I'll read the script for Tintin and Alph-Art next, so I can catch a glimpse of what Tintin's last adventure would've been. As it stands, Tintin and the Picaros is usually considered the last Tintin book.
>>67330It's like Herge didn't care at all at that point and just brings some god inside the machine to solve everything in a page or two.
No.67334
And here's the very last Tintin adventure. Tintin and Alph-Art, the book Herge worked at for 3 years and left it unfinished by the time of his death in 1983. We have half a script and about 150 pages of sketches, ranging from decent pencil drawings to quick lines jotted down in pen you can't tell what's going on. Judging by what we have, this is a return to form for Tintin. He's back to be an active investigator, trying to bring bad guys to justice. The story is about the murder of an art curator and the art forger behind it. Judging by the script it's a very standard Tintin adventure, and its atmosphere, pacing and plot is much closer to the early books like Cigars of the Pharaoh and King Ottokar's Sceptre than the later oddballs Flight 714 and Picaros.
I guess one sees what one wants to see in it. Some critics say it would have been a triumphant return for Tintin after two lackluster books, others say it would have been a run of the mill, derivative adventure. I think it would have been a very interesting book and it's an artistic tragedy Herge's wife forbade Bob de Moor to finish it. Mr. de Moor was the most talented artist in Tintin Studios, and he was known to be able to draw in Herge style better than Herge himself. The publisher wanted him to finish it, the public certainly wanted him to finish it and for a little while Herge's wife actually requested him to finish it. de Moor himself was very keen into finishing this book for Herge as an homage. Alas, the wife eventually shut down the entire project because Herge mentioned he didn't want Tintin to continue after his death.
The thing is, this didn't stop artists to make their own homebrew versions of Alph-Art. The tragedy here is that Bob de Moor, having worked with Herge for decades and being a co-creator of so many Tintin books, was definitely the right man for the job, probably the only one after Herge's death and now it's too late. Mr. de Moor passed in 1992. We're left with half a script and sketches of what could've been.
And that's it, Alph-Art is the last one. I loved going through those comics and I appreciate Tintin not only as a huge part of my childhood but also as a part of my adulthood now. The past 3 weeks have been immense fun thanks to Tintin and his friends. We're not done yet. I'll be making some posts about my favorite panels from each book and some commentary I forgot to write down the first time.
No.67337
>>67334Any plans to go through Herge's other work like Quick & Flupke?
No.67338
I’ll make 8 posts in a row talking a little bit about my favorite panel for each story. The reason I don't do this in a single post is because I can only post 3 pictures per post and I don’t want to just link some imgur folder, I want to upload every image individually. The reasons behind my selection vary. Sometimes I really like the panel for its artistic value, other times I have an emotional attachment to it, either for the art or the moment the picture represents in the story. In many stories there are objectively better panels as far as art goes but they’re not always my favorites.
1 - Tintin in the land of Soviets
Both the artwork and the plot for the first book are primitive but we can detect glimpses of what’s to come. This panel of Tintin running away from a train encapsulates a lot of what Tintin is. Lots of vehicles, crazy chases and daring escapes. The panel also makes it look like Tintin is running inside a tunnel, and subterranean passages, caves and generally underground places are very common locations in all Tintin stories. I’m sure people who like psychoanalysis would have a field day with that one.
2 - Tintin in the Congo
Herge didn’t quite like the first two books. He got some flak for the way he depicts the Congolese but like I said before, they’re not shown in a bad light at all. Drawing them in a blackface style didn’t help. I always thought blackface actually looks cool for a character. It has a simplicity to it that makes it visually appealing and even endearing in a way. For example, in this picture the Congolese look all cooler than Tintin imo. Again you can see vehicles appear quite often in all Tintin stories.
3 - Tintin in America
Herge was fascinated by native americans and always wanted to see one irl as a kid. This panel shows the artist realizing his childhood fantasy through his fictional work. Tintin meets a real Red Indian! I think it’s funny the Indian here is not at all happy to see Tintin and probably considers him a disturbance, which let’s be honest, he usually is.
>>67337Probably not, there are other comic book artists I want to explore. I think I gave Herge a fair shake. I'll talk about it here when I decide what'll read next.
No.67340
7 - The Black Island
The most beautiful book of the bunch, as far as the illustrations go. Hard to pick a favorite panel, there are so many. The depiction of the English countryside and the Scottish highlands is plentiful and perfect. The rocks, the trees, the buildings, everything looks great here. The colors are quiet and invite a mental quietness I can’t quite explain. I guess you would have to read it for yourself.
8 - King Ottokar's Sceptre
Where Black Island is quiet and charming, King Ottokar's Sceptre is loud and pugnacious. In this story Tintin spends a lot of time in and around palaces, royalty and royal, regal things and those things are made to impress and exaggerate. The clothing, the buildings, everything has a visual excess to it. This panel captures it well. An excessively slippery marble. Poor Thomson and Thompson don't stand a chance against it.
9 - The Crab with the Golden Claws.
One of my favorites. Haddock’s debut book and a definite turning point for the series as a whole. An easy choice for this one, here we have Haddock, Tintin and Snowy wandering the desert, quite lost. The beautiful, deadly desert, the scorching sun. The yellow hues of the sand contrasting against the clear, blue sky. Snowy not giving a shit. Perfect.
No.67341
10 - The Shooting Star
Plenty of better panels in this book to choose from but this one panel right here is brutal and weird. Tintin visits a scientist after sighting a strange light in the sky. The scientist tells him it’s a huge meteor that is going to collide with Earth in a matter of hours. There are already signs of the collision already, and the scientist presents his calculations to Tintin. Tintin is absolutely convinced he’ll die and the world is coming to an end.. So he goes back to his apartment and this scene happens. He decides to go to sleep. It’s such an ominous moment and it’s the only time Tintin simply gives up in the entire series. Sure, there’s nothing he could do, but it’s still a depressing moment. Snowy looks dead at his feet. A bizarre, striking panel for me.
11 - The Secret of the Unicorn.
Slice of life is a genre that wasn’t in the scope of the comic book format when Tintin was being produced. I would very much like to have more quiet moments for Tintin and the other characters to exist in, maybe a page for every book of mundane, peaceful moments. They happen in many books but it’s almost an accident. In this panel we have Tintin and the Thompsons shopping for canes in an antiquity fair. What a nice moment to seize here with this panel. A few panels later Tintin will find a ship model in the same fair, triggering one of the best adventures of the entire series.
12 - Red Rackham's Treasure
This is one of the two favorite panels by Herge in the entire series. I agree with him. The disposition of the characters is very nice and it looks like it could be a painting if it were drawn in a different style. Again, this is a book that has plenty of very cool panels; you have hidden rooms, a mansion, treasure, open sea, ships, but capturing the moment Haddock steps in the island of Rackham’s treasure for the first time while Tintin and the Thompsons pull the boat ashore makes for foreboding moment. Alas! We have a coloring mistake. The bottom part of Haddock’s shirt is painted wrong. It doesn’t detract from the picture imo.
No.67343
16 - Destination Moon
The moon adventure has the best cliffhanger moment in the series imo and it all comes down to this panel. You can see the rocket managed to reach space, but we don’t know if the crew lived to tell the tale. We're just they’re desperately trying to contact Tintin on the radio but there’s no response. I don’t feel Tintin and his world is the most appropriate territory for a sci-fi story but Destination Moon and the next book certainly made it work.
17 - Explorers of the Moon
So many shenanigans happen in this book the only reason they managed to survive at all is due to plot armor. There are plenty of more awe inspiring panels in this book, lots of lunar scenery and the insides of a highly advanced rocket and moon vehicle. However I picked this one rather shabby panel because of how hilarious it is to me. Wolff, one of the astronauts, is a double agent and almost gets everybody killed by bringing a villain aboard the rocket. As a result, they’re quickly running out of air and may not make it back to earth alive. Haddock doesn’t spare Wolff, deriding him at every opportunity for his incompetence and villainous conduct. But then Wolff makes the ultimate sacrifice, killing himself in order to save oxygen for the others. This act of bravery has a deep impact on Haddock, who now considers Wolff a hero. Thompson, unaware of Haddock’s change of heart and Wolff sacrifice, casually asks Haddock about “that thug Wolff”, as he puts it, and Haddock explodes in rage, giving the speech you see in this panel.
18 - The Calculus Affair
I didn’t care much for this particular adventure. I can’t shake the fact Calculus is in the title and he barely shows up. Also the plot feels like a bricolage of earlier adventures. So I picked this panel for its artistic quality. This one here is a fine example of ligne claire, the style Herge and other Belgian artists developed during the 30s, 40s and 50s. It’s one of the best panels depicting an urban scene in that style. The fact it’s raining adds to my enjoyment of the scene.
No.67344
19 - The Red Sea Sharks
There are a lot of cool scenes in this adventure and lots of cool panels to choose from but this one is by far my favorite, easy pick. This beautiful illustration is based on the Al-Khazneh in Jordan. I’m averse to traveling but I would like to see this piece of architecture irl someday. Having cast enormous shades on the rock face to the sides and letting the sun shine bright at the center, giving Al-Khazneh an almost divine presence is a very cool idea. I like to think this could be the ruins of a cave entrance from the mythological days of the garden of Eden. Too bad the scan I have for this book is of bad quality and it slightly cuts the panel.
20 - Tintin in Tibet
Best book imo and here’s my favorite interaction Tintin has in Tibet. These monks save Tintin and Haddock after finding them almost dead in the mountains. The monks advise they should give up their search for the missing boy, who is certainly dead after all this time, and return to Belgium and to safety. Tintin refuses to accept that and pushes on with the search. Haddock agrees searching for Chang in the mountains is insane and deadly, but bound by friendship, goes along anyways, ready to die with his friend instead of leaving Tintin to his fate. Of course, Chang is alive and despite all perils and hardships, Tintin and Haddock manage to find him. The monks, utterly impressed by their kindness of heart and willingness to die for a friend, come to greet them in full Buddhist gear, to celebrate their efforts. A heartwarming moment to give close to a pretty much perfect adventure.
21 - Castafiore’s Emerald
The book that should’ve been the last. What nice farewell this book would’ve been for these characters. A small, quiet adventure happening all inside Marlinspike Hall. We have a nice mystery, good comedic moments and Prof. Calculus dressed in lovely gardening attire. This panel captures the leisure and peace this book expresses in its pages. A sunny, fresh morning, a walk around the garden, tending roses, Calculus in a yellow hat. Can’t ask for more than that for a series finale.
No.67345
22 - Flight 714 to Sydney
The book with the broken plot. Irregular, constantly changing pace, abandoning ideas, abandoning characters, loses focus all the time. The art is good and it’s surprisingly enjoyable despite its shortcomings. However the best I can say for it is that I prefer it to exist than to not exist. One of the worst books in my opinion. I picked this panel because Calculus walking around with his pendulum is such an iconic image for the series and here we have a clear instance of that. He’s practicing dowsing, a pseudoscience practice that kinda works in Tintin’s universe, it almost works sometimes, but not quite.
23 - Tintin and the Picaros
The book with the broken characters. Are these impostors? What have they done with the real Haddock and Tintin? That buffoon can’t even get his pants right. I don’t know who he is but he’s not Tintin. What better way to celebrate this bizarre entry in the series with this bizarre panel. A South American carnival. Haddock, Tintin and Alcazar donning Gilles outfits coming from the inside of a giant king with machine guns, saving the Thompsons from certain death! Balloons and music everywhere. Total chaos. I guess you have to enjoy it for what it is.
24 - Tintin and Alph-Art
The book that never was. Not much to say for this one. It looks like it would be better than the last two. It’s a curious book because we get a lot of sketches, something you don’t get to see often. It’s fun to look at the skeleton and rough ideas behind the finished product. Here’s the very last page Herge ever did for Tintin. He never completed it, page 42. The last panel: Tintin is being taken away by the villain of the book. He’ll be encased in plaster and transformed into a statue, an art piece. In a way it’s a very fitting last page. There’s no danger for Tintin here, he is already an art piece. The villain doesn’t seem to understand his plan poses no threat.
No.67361
After Tintin I felt like trying something a little more recent. During a quick search I read a lot of good things about Donjon, so I decided to pick it up. Donjon, or Dungeon, is a parody of DnD tropes and it's a lot smarter than it sounds. Not the parody itself, though that is often good too, but the quiet, serious moments are very good and it gets you by surprise. If I'm being brutally honest, I didn't quite care for the two main characters though, Herbert and Marvin. I'm not sure why, they're OK characters, nothing obviously wrong with them. Maybe it's the artwork, they look pretty much like a sketch, though I find the artwork decent and serviceable for the most part. Perhaps is the fact the Herbert tries to be funny to much, it feels forced at times, I don't know.
I read the first two volumes, Duck heart and King of Fighting, in English they're bound in a single volume as Duck Heart. The first story introduces the premise. A huge dungeon in DnD style, and we focus on the guys running this deadly labyrinth, keeping the monsters fed, corridors clean and traps functioning. Also we're introduced to our hero, Herbert the duck. He's given the job to bring a barbarian to the upper management people but when he accidentally got the guy killed, hr decides to pretend to be a barbarian and go in his place. This turns out to be a big mistake and after he gets captured they send Marvin the Dragon to help him out.
Their friendship is central to the book but I couldn't quite see why Marvin would bother to befriend this guy. Anyway, it's not important. They fight some monsters, retrieve some treasure and save the dungeon from certain destruction. It's mostly comedy but like I said there are some heartfelt moments in there I was not expecting. I was not too impressed but interested enough to try the second book. This time Marvin has a more central role to the plot and it explores his past a little bit. This is a much better story, but again I didn't quite care for the main characters.
That said, I completely understand why this is such a beloved series. It's funny, has a lot of clever moments and it's visually appealing.. for the most part. Apparently the authors are planning a humongous series, sprawling dozens of books. I didn't loved it enough for that but it was certainly fun. Maybe I'll come back to it eventually but for now I'll be trying something else.
No.67362
>>67361Forgot to add the wiki to the series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_(comics)And you can read the first volume for free in archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/dungeonzenithvol0001sfar_f4r5/mode/2upAll you need is a free account.
No.67408
>>67174>He shoots an entire herd of antelope.Wasn't that an accident, in that he saw one antelope at a time over a small ridge and he thought he missed it every time he shot it?
No.67409
>>67382Give it a shot if you haven't already. I linked the first vol at
>>67362, you can read it for free. It turned out not to be really my thing but it's quite popular and a lot of people rate it highly.
>>67408It was but it's still a joke made about killing a huge amount of animals. Herge himself said he regretted the animal cruelty stuff shown in that book and tried to redeem Tintin by showing him helping animals in the subsequent books. I mean everything is a product of its time. It's a book from the 30s, sensibilities were different.
No.67419
After reading the first two books of Donjon I decided to go back to classics I haven't read and went through Asterix The Gaul, the first Asterix book. It's interesting, with Tintin you might even forget you're reading a comic book. Herge and his collaborators were clearly more artists than they were writers. In fact there's only one truly solid as far as storytelling goes in the entire Tintin series and that is Tintin in Tibet, but the beautiful artwork make every book worth a look. However comics are not really about making beautiful pictures. It helps of course, but a comic book is about telling a story and that's why you might even forget Tintin is a comic, because the focus is clearly on the artwork's side.
Asterix on the other hand, is what I consider a creation fully devoted to the idea of what comic books are. For one, it's quite comical, if nothing else. Writing is excellent from the get go here and the jokes and pacing to me feel like the definition of what comic books should be. The artwork is not nearly as beautiful as in Tintin but it doesn't try to be. It's not trying to be beautiful, it's trying to tell you the story. The characters are incredibly expressive, both their faces and their body motion. Mr. Uderzo excelled in conveying movement in those clunky funny bodies his characters live in. The noses alone are amusing to look at and go through, making comparisons and how they enhance each character's personality. Even with the terrible coloring work his drawings shine through.
The plot is simple enough. You have Asterix, a Gaul, living during the Roman invasion of his homeland. All Gallic tribes are vanquished, except the tiny village Asterix lives in. Their local druid, Panoramix is able to brew a concoction that gives Asterix immense strength for a short period of time. On top of that Obelix, his buddy, fell in a pot filled with said potion, so he's also super strong forever. This premise is put to use to make several visual jokes and slapstick comedy to great effect. The centurion in charge sends a spy to try to retrieve Asterix's secret but he fails of course.
Goscinny's writing and Uderzo's artwork work incredibly well together and this first entry in the series is considered by Le Monde as one of the best books released in the last century, quite an honor for a comic book, but it is that charming and amusing and it probably deserves its place in that list.
Also if you're learning French and you're a beginner I highly recommend picking this series up for reading practice. I was able to breeze through this one in the original language despite having quite a subpar understanding of the language.
No.67457
>>67409I'll give it a look eventually, Reading other stuff at the moment.
No.67474
I've read The Push Man and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. I was feeling like a change of pace and came across this title more or less by accident when looking for alternative, against the grain comics and manga. There's an oppressing atmosphere and pessimism in all the stories in this collections but somehow they manage to be poetic and charming in a way. Many stories have relationships between men and succubi as their core and how they bring misery and disappointment from both sides of the deal. But then again, it seems like engaging with society at any level, being entering a romantic relationship, employment or simply going out in the streets, invariably results in varying degrees of bitterness, confusion and anger. Despite this, most characters keep the stiff upper lip to the point of looking numb, apathetic or pathologically reticent. Society feels like something made to humiliate and grind the characters' souls to that point.
The artwork is simple but charming and effective. Text is sparse, which I think helps with the pacing and the atmosphere. Silence is a big part of how these stories play out and is an essential part of the characters. It somewhat elevates them beyond the terrible situations they take part in or are responsible for, almost like if these things happen in silence they're less horrifying and crushing. If nothing is said there's less to think about. Yet this book gave me a lot to think about. I definitely recommend it.
You can borrow it for free at archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/pushmanotherstor0000tats1 hour is enough to read the whole thing but you can keep borrowing it if it takes you longer. All you need is a free account. There are tons of comics and books in there to borrow, so making an account is quite worth it.
No.67480
>>67474Yeah it was all right, though Abandon the old in Tokyo was slightly better (unless
that's the one with the slightly evil facially deformed lady, as far as I can recall).
No.67485
Lately I've been binge reading the legendary mechanic. The basic gimmick, being sucked into a VR video game, has been done a lot, but it's a decent base gimmick imo and they add additional stuff on top of it to make it interesting.
No.67487
Just finished reading A Drifting Life after having a positive experience reading The Push Man and Other Stories by the same author, Tatsumi Yoshihiro. This is a very long book, at almost 900 pages long and it tells the story of the author from 15 to his mid 20s. It’s a quiet and introspective autobiography about the author’s obsession with manga. This is an interesting book on several levels, one of them being his drive and passion for the media. This is something that always feels amazing to me, being a person without a great passion for anything, reading about people that have one great love that serves as the foundation of their very existence in this world. It's so odd and comforting in a way. The author himself is impressed at times at how deep he is into his own manga world bubble and how the world is changing around here without him noticing it.
This is an autobiography and a historical document of the development of manga in Japan in the 50s and 60s. If you’re interested in that at all, you’ll have a great time with it. If you’re not interested in the subject matter, this can become a slog. Like I said, at almost 900 pages, most of it is dedicated to the conflicts between the magazines and the mangaka, trends in artwork and script, important publications, important authors at the time and so on. Fortunately for me I’m interested in the world of comics and manga, so I had a great time with it. It was very interesting to read about manga before the great magazines, how they came to be and what they destroyed to become the hegemonic method of manga publication. There’s a bittersweet tone to the whole thing, and the feeling of longing the author has for the past is very evident. It’s like he’s trying to capture as much as he can from his young years and the events that made those days so important to him. I was very moved in many places during my reading of it. I say longing but there isn’t a sentiment of nostalgia, or a combative stance of ‘the good old days’ vs now. The work has a quiet peace about the whole thing, even in the moments of struggle. Like the previous work I read from this guy, I have to recommend this one.
This is a little more demanding than most comics/manga just due the sheer amount of pages. It took me 3 days to finish it but I was going purposely slow with this one. You can read it for free at archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/manga_A_Drifting_Life/mode/2up>>67480I might read that one at some point.
>>67485Since you're posting itt I assume you're reading the manhua adaptation and not the web novel. I've tried to find some good manhua lately but all I could find were works painfully derivative of Japanese stuff. I don't know Mandarin so my search was probably superficial at best. There are amazing works of literature from China (The Scholars and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio probably being two of my favorite books of all times) and I'm sure they can produce deeply personal and moving manhua but I just couldn't find it yet.
No.67661
I picked up Monsters Are My Business while perusing new stuff coming out. The cover struck me as the writers and artists have a fondness for the good old schlocky comic booky fun and I was right. It’s a comic that doesn’t take itself seriously, mixing some fun modern fantasy tropes and artwork that is giving me a sense of nostalgia for something I can’t quite pin it down. Perhaps the Comix Zone game for the Genesis, and also a smidgen of Metal Slug, I’m not sure.
This is a fast food type of comic, fast pacing, lots of action and likable characters. Not much to think about but super fun to go through. It does a very good job at establishing its characters right off the bat with minimal text, which I love. It’s the sign of a good comic book writer right there. The plot is simple and it’s piece together from well known tropes. Basically an evil cult in the best Lovecraftian tradition brings about some demonic rain that wrecks the planet and now you have all sorts of abominations walking around. The rich are all walled up somewhere but our hero, Tanner "Griz", his mute koala companion Cuddles and a necromancer named Hillary live in the Flooded Zone, helping people in need. If you ever watched the movie Cemetery Man and you like that sort of thing, this book will be a treat for you. It’s like that movie but without the eroticism and a lot more humor to it. I’m very happy to have picked this one up. It’s very refreshing in a way, which is weird because there’s nothing particularly new in this book. The art and the writing have this enthusiasm for the medium that is contagious in a way and I had more fun than I expected. Looking forward to the second issue.
No.68111
>>54456>to a lesser extent MoebiusKill yourself
No.68151
>>68149You reminded me I really should get around to ordering the other volumes. I have one and read the rest online but I kinda want a full physical set.
No.68152
>>68151Is the new one with her as an adult any good? Not sure what to think of it.
No.68156
>>68152Not as good imo but still worth reading.
No.68444
What is the difference betwen the way DC and Marvel do their comics. Is one better than the other.
No.68448
>>68446Looks amazing. Any English translation available? I couldn't find any.
No.68450
>>68446>>68448I really doubt it. Its really hard than a non mexican artist gain recognition around the world. A really sad thing, because i believe Enrique Alcatena could easily be one of the best living artist in the world. Sadly again, no one outside of argentina seem to know him, i dont know why, because he worked for DC and Marvel sometimes. His most know work in other parts of the world is batman of arkham, with Alan grant doing the script, but, is in the argentinian comics, the guy really shine. He do the art of one comic called el laberinto, a love letter to western literature, with the most beautiful homage to Don Quixote, althoug most of the comic is a love letter to shakespeare. And a comic based in Marco Polo, even has Samuel Taylor Coleridge in it.
No.68451
>>68446>>68448>>68450
>This story is a compilation of the series published in the old Skorpio magazine. Here the duo tells the adventures of the poet Percival, Oberon -king of the fairies- and a so-called king of the foxes, lost in a labyrinth that unites all possible universes, real and fictitious. The structure of an infinite labyrinth is used by the duo to take their characters from one tribute to another to the artists who formed the authors. There are allusions to Cervantes, Shakespeare, Fellini, Pink Floyd, Spinetta, Jethro Tull and Rimbaud, among many others. Despite the constant homage, the series stands out for its finely tuned sense of comic storytelling. The image is exceptional in its quality, but also in its sequential editing.Thread is gonna hit the limit. Im going to post more alcatena and argentinian comics in the next one
No.68516
>>67487Thank you for posting this. This one looks so sad it can be like one of those eisner comics, like contract with god.
No.68520
Is it bumping?