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Okay, I do...
But to be honest, most modern comic books (and I refused to use the condescending term "graphic novels", except in pretentious irony) bore me to tears.
I really like the DC Comics Archives and Marvel Essential reprint lines a lot, and just about anything by Will Eisner, Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko. And reprints of Dick Tracy, The Phantom, and Li'l Abner.
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Posted: |
Jun 28, 2003 - 1:10 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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As a kid I read many of DC's "Battle Books" like Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, G.I. Combat & the Unknown Soldier. Also western anti-hero Jonah Hex was a favorite. But alas, DC's war books are no more, however, DC Archive Editions released hardcover reprints of classic Sgt Rock and Enemy Ace books, which look fantastic with their new full-color presentations on high quality paper...
I also loved, adored, and was pretty much obsessed with the Claremont-Byrne run on THE X-MEN; my favorite of all the super-hero books, although Batman, Spiderman, Fantatsic Four etc., were also a *big* part of my collection, and my childhood.
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Posted: |
Jun 29, 2003 - 10:33 AM
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By: |
Olivier
(Member)
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Disney comics-- the great ones: Floyd Gotfredson (Mickey Mouse strips), Carl Barks, Al Taliaferro, Keno Don Rosa, William Van Horn (Duck comics all-- Taliaferro: Duck strips)
(my site: http://ob7.free.fr/mice_and_ducks/ )
Pogo-- by Walt Kelly
EC Comics-- got several sets:
Westerns, Crime, Horror, New Trend; Science Fiction (in comic book format); looking for the other Crime/Horror sets and the War comics set; also have the first Mad volume recently re-reprinted
Alan Moore's comics-- since I discovered his work last year thanks to From Hell
Currently reading The Sandman Library by Neil Gaiman
Others: Spider-Man ("Essential" volumes), Alex Ross (beautiful art-- Marvels, JLA large format books), Superman dailies...
The hardcover Batman, Superman, ..., collections are mighty appealing but too expensive.
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DC Archive Editions released hardcover reprints of classic Sgt Rock and Enemy Ace books, which look fantastic with their new full-color presentations on high quality paper...
Yeah, I loved the SGT. ROCK and ENEMY ACE volumes, too...as well as BLACKHAWK. Didja know that DC will be releasing a second SGT. ROCK volume in 2004?
I loved THE ESSENTIAL SILVER SURFER from Marvel, but dammit, I miss the color! I'd buy high quality reprints of this series pretty much instantly. And the early CONAN series, too.
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Posted: |
Jun 30, 2003 - 12:05 AM
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By: |
ANZALDIMAN
(Member)
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Are comics an artificial market like "limited prints" "baseball cards" etc, etc, etc??? Does Thomas Kinkade ring a bell?? Methinks with all the pressings of things nowadays, and warehouses full of this"limited edition", ahh stuff, some folks may be wanting issues of "MIGHTILY BULLSHITTED".."FLYFRYMAN".."An UN Marvelous Comic"..Volume 1..(Ahh, that might be enough!)
The story of a unmild mannered 26 year old Burger King employee, (and rabid comic collector) who becomes enraged when he finds that his "pop" kicks him out of the house for being late (again) in helping out with bills, and paying RENT ...All because of his "comic fetish"..And his partying ..His "inner pain" forces him to lash out, and REFUSE to pay the cable bill..He is burned while changing the dirty oil for french fries at his job and encounters a dead fly in the oil while doing so.."FLYFRYMAN"! Where is Stan Lee in 2003 on "Superlazyheros" when you need him, Huh?? .. Stan?? Didn't think so...
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Well, I used to read my sister's copies of ARCHIE and BETTY AND VERONICA. Liked the stories, and the artwork was pretty slick.
She used to read romance comics, too, but I never touched them until I bought a copy of a book called TRUER-THAN-TRUE ROMANCE COMICS. The book, written by Jeanne Martinet, is a work of genius. She took some stories from 50's and 60's DC romance comics, and erased the dialogue and thought balloons, and "re-dubbed" them, sort of like Woody Allen did for WHAT'S UP, TIGERLILY?
You need to read this book. Honest. You do.
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American comics:
when i was really small i liked to read used 70s marvel because they were psychedelic, hip and counter-cultural but full of interesting contradictions, much like Ang Lee's Hulk movie, the only Marvel film to get that feeling.
Then I liked the first wave of graphic novel upstarts Frank Miller and Alan Moore, because they were fairly original and the outside influences like Manga and such were genuinely referenced out of respect and creativity, not just to be cool. And they had literary chops, overturning stereotypes, demolishing icons and rebuilding them in a way even more hyperbolic but realistic in their inner dimensions.
OK. After that, EVERYTHING in comics got all fanboy-pandering and EVERYTHING had to be "dark" and McFarlane-ish. So, at that point and up to now, it's low-quality thought processes attempting to cash in on a style that is popular in the mainstream, but it didn't start out that way. Since it has to be "edgey" and everything "edgey" has already been done, how far can anything go? Americans do not have the cultural background to be as casually insane as Japanese, so when they get "edgey" it just looks like they're trying to compete, and just come off as Marilyn Manson fans. Hot Topic mainstream.
Worse than that, all the comics that are mass produced let you know it in every frame-- all those elaborately "dark" panels are cgi and done by many hands clicking mice, ie, corporate. Without a soul.
I liked 70s Marvel cuz even though they were machined, before that they were hand made, by artists and writers and people skilled in 3 dimensions, not corporate-driven and all cgi panels. The intentions can be felt understood and traced back to an authentic source if the work is present, if you can see the craft, but not if it's a computer assembly clicked at by an elite committee driven to make money at what they do but not by love of the medium. Useless nostalgia indeed, no one wants to see entertainment that is true.
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Posted: |
Jul 1, 2003 - 9:56 AM
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By: |
Donna
(Member)
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Well, I used to read my sister's copies of ARCHIE and BETTY AND VERONICA. Liked the stories, and the artwork was pretty slick.
She used to read romance comics, too, but I never touched them until I bought a copy of a book called TRUER-THAN-TRUE ROMANCE COMICS. The book, written by Jeanne Martinet, is a work of genius. She took some stories from 50's and 60's DC romance comics, and erased the dialogue and thought balloons, and "re-dubbed" them, sort of like Woody Allen did for WHAT'S UP, TIGERLILY?
You need to read this book. Honest. You do.
I'm on my way to amazon.com to find the book! Thanks!
Sis
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Tell me what you think of it, Sis!
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Posted: |
Jul 1, 2003 - 9:33 PM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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I think it was Anzaldiman who ran a thread about "collectibles" awhile back. I posted some thoughts about my comic book collection in there, if you can find it...I'm too lazy to search the archives just now. This does nevertheless force me to venture into my past. As a kid (I guess up to age 16 or so), I was an avid comic book reader (and writer/artist!). I bought hundreds and inherited hundreds more. I think I must have had several thousands at one point, which I since gave to my 10 year younger brother as more pressing, "extrovert" activities took hold of my everyday life (life as an ageing teenager, you know!). I'm sorry to see that my younger brother has neglected to care for the collection, but at least he has willfully read much of it.
Even though my collection ran across the entire gamut - from soccer magazines to Marvel comics to kid stuff, it was always Donald Duck (or other Disney series) and The Phantom that were my major passion. I had an uncountable number of these. I spent many a day tucked up in a comfy chair in my room - perhaps with a bag of potatoe chips - devouring comic books as if I were a backyard junkie. Donald Duck is actually far more popular in Norway than it is in the US, as is The Phantom (even though Lee Falk's creation wears a BLUE suit instead of a purple one over here, as well as being married to Sala, not Diana). I was consequently sorry to see Simon Wincer's slaughtering of my hero with the - too date - only feature film about him. The feminine Billy Zane as The Phantom. Purple suit. Cheesy plot. Campy set. Characters devoid of Falk's trademark complexity. Ack! Let's hope there will be another film that does more justice to Falk's original conception (or better yet: a film that pays particular attention to Hans Lindahl's marvelous modern-day drawing, as exemplified in the many "Phantom chronicles").
Among my OWN creations were Reed Miles - young playboy adventurer with porno moustache and hockey haircut who found himself in trouble more often than normal, Timothy Wallace - stranded navy admiral who turns local hero among villagers on a desert island (cross between The Phantom and Robinson Crusoe!), Jack Miller - world champion boxer with plenty of fighting cores both in and outside the ring, Super-Ole (Superman's "Norwegian" cousin) and Richard Brook, tall and muscular private investigator with incredible sideburns. I even wrote a short NOVEL about the latter.
So there you are. Comic books have always been a very important part of my life and given me many things - increased reading skill and imaginative stimulation, to mention two. Even though I do not read them much anymore (I have more than enough with my academic curriculum, thank you very much), I still think they constitute a vastly underrated artform - like film music - and hope they will stand the test of time as both important directions in visual arts as well as a phenomenon in postmodern popular culture (were they ever separated?).
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Read several issues of "The Call" when it was launched last year. (Still have a few to catch up on, but I liked it!) Hadn't read a comic book in years before that -- I remember a particular favorite when I was a kid was a comic book version of Disney's "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh."
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Posted: |
Jul 7, 2003 - 12:33 PM
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By: |
Jehannum
(Member)
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Like my taste in film music, I like comic books that I can look at through the long telescope of time, i.e. things that are 30+ years old. By this time, all the hype has died down and something like the truth - separated out from contemporary culture - is visible.
New comic books seem to be steeped in pretentiousness and too much self-seriousness, always trying to overcome their limitations. They're comic books, not Ingmar Bergman films or Sartre books.
I like the real old garbage: pre-code horror comics, so basic and without pretention and containing the occasional gem of an idea. The newer stuff (1970+) doesn't appeal to me.
It's the same with modern films, the supreme archetype being 'Titanic'. To me, it is horrible, unwatchable, disgusting rubbish. I don't think I want to watch a film with Russell Crowe or Brad Pitt in it. I like that safety line of at least 10 years before I'll watch a film without prejudice. Terminator 2 is my idea of a new film, and is probably the last film I really enjoyed!
I'm 32 years old (tomorrow). Am I a fogey?
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). 