What Comics Are You Reading?
 

I got caught up on The Boys after getting a little tired of how slow the story was developing and the quality of the writing was dropping. After catching up on the latest 15 odd issues, I'm happy to see some relationships progress, but story/writing still feels subpar. Ennis just seems to be stretching his ideas and plot way too thin.

I also started reading Invincible (16 issues in). Yeah, it seems I can't get enough of the superhero deconstruction genre. It's interesting to juxtapose The Boys and Invincible. Same genre, but they are polar opposites in terms of tone and content. I'm not in love with the series, but art is growing on me and some of the relationships are starting to pay off.

Does anyone have any comic recommendations (superhero or otherwise)?

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

I haven't read comics for a long long time, but maybe some of these 'retro' choices would suit?

2000AD is a British sci-fi comic which started off as pulp and then rode the popular comics wave the late Eighties/early Nineties very successfully. This timelapse video of front covers illustrates that transition (it hits the late eighties at around 1:10 I believe) :



There was a lot of good writing in there. The Best of 2000AD gives a taster; dunno if it's available in the States and it does have a rather British sense of humour.

One of my favourites at the time was Swamp Thing, esp the Alan Moore years. It was an awesome strip:

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...TRis4SxW91B5CV

And here is a guy dressed as Swamp Thing at a convention (that's him on the left).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...d_Len_Wein.jpg

Another one I enjoyed was Lone Wolf and Cub:

http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/300/l/lwc1.jpg

All or none of these may still be popular for all I know; but I'd recommend checking them out for any young whippersnappers that may be unaware of them. :cool:

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

As soon as I saw the title of this thread, I clicked to mention that I have also been reading The Boys, religiously. I'm a huge fan of Ennis' work on the two The Punisher series he worked on for a few years (both the Marvel Knights and MAX imprints were excellent, in different ways), and so took the plunge with the first two collected volumes of The Boys. By the time I'd finished the first volume, I had ordered volumes 3-5, and by the end of volume 4, I had ordered 6 and 7, and pre-oredered volume 8.

Other than the sub-standard Herogasm miniseries, I've loved every moment of The Boys. I love how it has a sense of humour, extreme depiction of violence, and above all, how grim it all is. I can also understand why I read a lot of scepticism on the series, often for the very reasons I've just praised it for.

Just finished volume 8 a couple of days ago, which is the storyline where Hughie goes back to Scotland for a bit. I was very pleasently suprised by how good it was. The last few pages made a very audible "fucking hell!" (you'll know why if I said "Vigors", Chi ;))come from my mouth, which is rare for me whilst reading.

Regarding the recommendation of 2000AD by Pedro- haven't read that since I was about eleven, but to this day I'm a huge Dredd fan. Keep meaning to get round to buying the collected volumes of that.

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

I read like the first 3 volumes as collected graphic novels and loved everything about it like you, but once I caught u and started reading monthly issues, I'm sure that affected the overall pace of the story. It just makes it painfully obvious how some conversations and plotting is so unnecessarily dense for the sake of padding or pretentious dramatic effect. Did you really think some volumes were even needed? The whole Gmen arch just seemed to beating a dead horse with the supes behaving badly theme don't you think? I'd also see a tiny bit of character development and growth in any of the characters, but Ennis prefers to keep all the characters dark and mysterious and reveal details in obtuse conversations as if that's what makes for drama. Thank goodness they got on with all the origin stories, but its execution wasn't exactly original either.

I skipped this side story because I was so desperate for the main plot to progress that I didn't want any distractions, but since you recommended it, I give it read. Thanks.

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

I was a little disapointed with the Gmen arch, if I'm being honest- but more because I think they could have done something really interesting with them, and then Ennis just ended it how he did. The "confrontation" between The Boys and most of the Gmen divisions was a massive cop-out, too. The whole "dues ex machima" thing *can* work, but when it amounts to a few helicopters blowing the shit out of the bad guys to save the day... I just thought that was incredibly lazy. I think when you add new characters to a story as often as The Boys does, it s going to get difficult to get much characterisation of even a small percentage of them. A couple of volumes felt more like filler than others, but the only arc I wouldn't miss is the Herogasm one.

I get what you mean, though. I thought that, other than the humerous focus on Tek Knight early on in the series, they could have fleshed out team Payback a lot more. However, Ennis often makes up for this, in my eyes at least. One of my favourite stories/ set of characters so far has been where it focused on the hopelessly nice, naive Super Duper. I hope that we get to see more of them.

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

Just got the fourth trade paperback of The Red Star since I absolutely adore the art style. The story itself is so-so, has it's highs and lows.

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

Oh, the mentioning of 2000AD above had just got me thinking about probably my favourite comic of all time- The Ballad Of Halo Jones. I think Alan Moore is completely over-rated, but I loved this. Haven't read it for years so I'm going to give it a re-read soon. The start of it is kind of annoying- It's set in the future, and there are a lot of made-up words at the start, so it is confusing at first. But Moore ditches this idea after the first section of the book, thankfully. I remember how Moore follows a large section of Halo (and her robot dog companion, Toby)'s life was really well done.

Here's hoping rose-tinted glasses aren't in play...

EDIT: If you have never read The Ballad Of Halo Jones before, you are in for a treat. Don't wikipedia it though; there is a huge plot twist around half way through, which would have been even more satisfying for me if I didn't know it was coming :p

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

The last comic book I read was Wolverine by Aaron Albert. I loved the story it peaked my interest till last.

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

I've begun reading Grendal: Behold the Devil. Really shouldn't be taking this long, just a standard comic, but I've been busy reading other items. However, so far, so good.

Trying to get back into comics, but keeping it mainly to the electronic side of the medium. Would love to hear more suggestions. Right now I am relying on the Dark Horse app, as all the other ones I've tried so far have stunk out loud.

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

Got some comics after recommendations:

Yiu by Téhy and J.M. Vee
Die Vierte Macht by Juan Giménez
Morea by Christophe Arleston

I don't know if they were published in English, I'm reading German translations (since my French and Spanish are barely good enough to order in a restaurant ;))

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

Theres a new comic about madonna I think Im into that one XD

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

currently following the Fear itself storyline on Marvel~

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

I've been flipping through some old issues of The Darkness, checking out how much of the comic got featured in the game. The early story-arches are so corny, it hurts.

And upon recommendation from a friend, I've been reading Grant Morrison's run of Animal Man, in preparation for the new 52 version. So far, I'm really digging it.

Ah, and just finished Alan Moore's Miracle Man.

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

Started reading Phonogram, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. How I came to reading it is a typical internet-story: I was checking out an article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun where I followed a link to the song Silent Girl. Silent Girl, as it turns out, is a tribute to a character in aforementioned Phongram. I went on Amazon and got the singles vol. 2 (vol 1 was sold out) and here we go.

Re: What Comics Are You Reading?
 

Currently reading Phonogram Volume 1 - Rue Britannia. A comic about music, nostalgia, britpop and about getting old once you stop moving forward.

http://www.phonogramcomic.com/

Incitentally: