Comic books anyone?? (novels, character, teenage, stories)

[TomSD]

When you talk comics you tend to get the same reaction as anime/manga. Some people just see the words, generalize the entire genre and form a negative opinion on it. In reality there is a broad range of choices when you talk about comics/manga. It is like saying do you like movies, lol.

As for me there is a lot I like. Watchmen was good and really opened up the whole arena. For that I respect it and give it another read every once in a while. Other than that I like a pretty wild mix.

Y: The Last Man is good and has quite a collection to back it up.
The Demo series was a collection done by different artists/writers that showed a wide range of styles/talent. Very well done.

Many others but those are the ones that stick out in my mind.

[citizenkane2]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

I read the Batcomics pretty faithfully until Morrison came in and ruined everything. But I'm really a Marvel boy from childhood.

As for Watchmen, I think I appreciate it more than I enjoy it. I think it's rather overrated. V For Vendetta is actually a much better book, both in terms of art and story.

I had to read Watchmen twice to get it all. I still don't quite get the Black Freighter tale.

[Bunjee]

Originally Posted by citizenkane2

I had to read Watchmen twice to get it all. I still don't quite get the Black Freighter tale.

The survivor who's desperate to warn his town about the Black Freighter is supposed to parallel Veidt, whose, to him, rational plan for saving humanity ends up corrupting him. Watchmen wasn't thematically all that mindblowingly original, but to structurally illustrate moral ambiguity using the primary colors of the comic convention was pretty unique.

[citizenkane2]

Originally Posted by Bunjee

The survivor who's desperate to warn his town about the Black Freighter is supposed to parallel Veidt, whose, to him, rational plan for saving humanity ends up corrupting him. Watchmen wasn't thematically all that mindblowingly original, but to structurally illustrate moral ambiguity using the primary colors of the comic convention was pretty unique.

[skel1977]

I would still read comic books if i had the money. I was never a fan of marvel or DC but loved stuff like Spawn and Groo the Wanderer

[Rob Allen]

I've been into comic books since 1963, and today I visit a lot of comic-related sites regularly. First and foremost is comicbookresources.com, which uses forum software very similar to city-data.com. The Classic Comics forum there is great for those of us who remember and/or enjoy comics from earlier decades. There are also a ton of Yahoo Groups for comics fans, and the Grand Comic-Book Database at www.comics.org has some Google Groups associated with it. I also frequent oddballcomics.com, Tony Isabella's message board, and the blogs of Mark Evanier, Fred Hembeck, and "Comics Should Be Good".

(I'm intentionally not posting links; not sure if the TOS here frowns on links to other message boards. DM for details if you have trouble finding any of the sites)

[Fat Freddy]

The comic book characters that had the most impact on my life was Bucky Bug and his friend Bo.

[Rob Allen]

Originally Posted by Fat Freddy

The comic book characters that had the most impact on my life was Bucky Bug and his friend Bo.

Here's something you might like - the guy who scripted the most recent English-language Bucky Bug stories, Don Markstein, has a website devoted to cartoon and comic book characters.

Here's the main site:
Don Markstein's Toonopedia

And here's a direct link to his article on Bucky Bug:
Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Bucky Bug

[Puru]

Ahhh, comics. I didn't really get into them until I got older, like into my preteens and teens, but I love them. I love manga as well, but that's for a different thread, IMO. In my mind I always try to keep manga and western comics separate. My favorites are the Sandman comics (the ones by Neil Gaiman, not the really old ones), Strangers in Paradise, and recently Watchmen. My all time fave is Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis. Lately though, most of the comics I read are free online comics such as Pheonix Requiem and Freak Angels (another one by Warren Ellis).

Like citizenkane2, I didn't really get the Black Freighter Tale either. I found most of it hard to read, actually, and my second time through the comic I just skimmed most of it. I got the connection of the author of it to the rest of the story, but the Black Freighter story itself seemed like more of a filler than anything else, but I'm not sure.

[Bunjee]

Originally Posted by Puru

I got the connection of the author of it to the rest of the story, but the Black Freighter story itself seemed like more of a filler than anything else, but I'm not sure.

Apparently it was! The initial issues of the series weren't selling too much ad space, since this wasn't a conventional comic book with presumably a smaller, non-conventional readership as well. So the creators had several extra pages to fill.

Non-Watchmen: I was always struck by how well certain male comix writers handled their female characters. The Bros. Hernandez and Daniel Clowes in Ghost World, specifically. There was a story about how a young and enthusiastic female fan of Love and Rockets was disgusted to discover the creators were men. Therefore Maggie and Hopey's beautifully rendered relationship came off as pervy to her, which on the immediate face of it is somewhat understandable, but still completely (youthfully ) narrow minded. Ghost World was just gorgeous.

Non-comix: I'm kind of surprised at the lesser effect John Byrne had on draughtsmanship. I had expected the '90s to be filled with copycat artisans, but instead a lot of comic art seemed to go the route of a (sometimes somewhat juvenile) Mannerism more inspired by Frank Miller. Where are the Children of Byrne?