Comic Genesis Forums

by **Remi** on Wed Jun 06, 2001 1:10 am

I'm bored and it's four in the morning <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">Just thought I'd throw in a couple of comics and agreements of my own.I haven't seen Age of Bronze mentioned. It's a thoroughly researched story of the fall of Troy. The guy uses archeological evidence as well as the literary standbys. The art sometimes looks like a Greek frieze or the art on Greek pots mixed with a solid comic style. The characters live and breath. It's beautiful. You can check out sample pages at <A HREF="http://wwww.age-of-bronze" TARGET=_blank>wwww.age-of-bronze</A> .Also good is the Clan Apis, which is just the story of bees. But it's really well told and the art is wonderfully cartoony. Plus, you'll learn something!'Eagle: The making of an Asian-American President' is exactly what it says it is. A very intense look at the American political system by a manga artist. Creepily dead-on. There's some nudity later in the story, but you can see it coming a mile away. Finder is a very cool alternate-world science-sociofiction book about this guy named Jager Ayers who is this thing called a Finder. An incredibly deep world with affecting and believable characters. A hard read, expect to spend some time with this one, and be amply rewarded. There are two trade paperbacks collecting the Sin Eater storyline. The art gets much, much better as it goes along, so don't be put off by the early sketchiness.I've just gotten into Nausicaa and really like the first volume that I've read. I worry that it might just turn into a "oh no! now I must fly here!" type of thing. Still, I wish I could draw like Miyazaki.Lone Wolf and Cub rules. That is all. 300+ pages for ten bucks! What do you have to lose?As a side note I tend to prefer large trades as opposed to pamphlets, and so it's been easier for me to get into Japanese comics than a lot of American ones, it looks like that's turning around, though.More when i think of it.

by **Screwball McGoo [gDC]** on Thu Jun 07, 2001 12:58 am

I feel like I SHOULD contribute but I don't have much to add at this point. I mean "Age of Apocalypse" just doesn't seem to cut it, eh?I've seen AN episode of Invader Zim. I'm more or less boycotting Viacomm because of a bad vibes I get. And because I feel they have a problem with creating good things, in general, but still succeed. They're like the Electronic Arts of TV. It was pretty funny, though. Is there one comic that anyone sees as an easily accessible introduction to comics without superheroes?------------------
<A HREF="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/Forum33/HTML/000067.html" TARGET=_blank>Chocobos vs. Yoshis</A>: Versus #5!

by **Matt Trepal** on Thu Jun 07, 2001 5:45 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Screwball McGoo [gDC]:

Is there one comic that anyone sees as an easily accessible introduction to comics without superheroes?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Whew! I dunno. After perusing the list offered again, stuff ranges from adventure (Usagi Yojimbo, Spy Girl) to fantasy (Bone, Cerebus) to "real life" (Strangers in Paradise, Sin City) to historical (Lone Wolf & Cub, Age of Bronze) to just wierd (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Milk & Cheese). It probably depends on what type you're most interested in reading.Maybe pick a type that's most similar to the hero books and work your way further?------------------
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Speak not of the accursed vicuna!

by **John Pierce** on Thu Jun 07, 2001 10:32 am

I picked up the Box Office Poison TPB Wednesday. Over 600 pages, and I finished it in a day. It was that good. I literally couldn't put it down. I recomend it to everyone here.Another good title that hasn't been mentioned is Thieves and Kings. Very fun fantasy adventure stories, with beautiful art and amazing page layouts. The Incal is also great. A spin-off of the Metabarons, it's the same insane sci-fi, but on a more relatable scale.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Screwball McGoo [gDC]:
 Is there one comic that anyone sees as an easily accessible introduction to comics without superheroes?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I can tell you what took me out of my superhero-only days, and that was back issues of Dark Horse Presents. In there I discovered Concrete, Milk and Cheese, Sin City, Usagi Yojimbo, Devil Chef, Fish Police, Madman (whoops! A super-hero comic! Read it anyway.), and plenty of others. It's as good a starting point as you're likely to find. Just stay away from the last forty or so issues.

by **Screwball McGoo [gDC]** on Fri Jun 08, 2001 7:09 am

Just an update because I feel like I have something to say. I picked up a Transmetropolitan and was mildly unimpressed. Mostly because I didn't know what was going on. Here's what I know:Spider Jerusalem: funny glassess, funny tattoo
President: evil
Smiley Face Motif: No connection to story.------------------
<A HREF="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/Forum33/HTML/000067.html" TARGET=_blank>Chocobos vs. Yoshis</A>: Versus #5!

by **SuperJoe** on Sat Jun 09, 2001 1:31 am

I saw this one comic called Smiley The Psycotic Button. Guess what it's about.And yes I know I don't know enough about the cool comics like this. I sometimes pick up comics I've never heard about because they look weird... I wish a comic shop was within an hour of where I am.. Or even two hours...------------------
Oy! You there! Look!
<A HREF="http://jwalkin.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>J-Walkin'</A> smells cool!
<A HREF="http://comicollage.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>Comicollage</A> shows you that... It shows you nothing!
<A HREF="http://spoon.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>Spoon on High</A> featuring Fire On The Mountian. But only on Sundays.
<A HREF="http://www.fourtoontellers.com" TARGET=_blank>The Four Toon Tellers</A> is the last of these links. Big whoop!
"You're fast becoming the Don Juan of the 'Space, Joe!" says Damonk. So you know it's true!

by **Screwball McGoo [gDC]** on Sat Jun 09, 2001 4:13 am

Maybe you should use Internet comic shops, Joe?I always thought that there were comic book shops near every first-world town much as there are hospitals or supermarkets.------------------
<A HREF="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/Forum33/HTML/000067.html" TARGET=_blank>Chocobos vs. Yoshis</A>: Versus #5!

by **Remi** on Sun Jun 10, 2001 3:16 am

As for Transmetropolitan;
Pick up the first Trade (collecting the first three issues, it's like nine bucks) and see if you like that. Having seen it mentioned a few times that vulgarity and cursing were kind of no-no's I wouldn't recommend Transmet. It's dirty, caustic fun for the rest of us.I will be the next (but probably not last) voice to chime in for Box Office Poison, i is excellent, and the new trade is really wonderful (thank you Russ for lending me all your back issues). Also, James Kochalka's Monkey vs. Robot is really good. Age of Bronze has a trade out of the first nine issues that I would encourage you to pick up if you want to see where the whole 'hero' thing started (the classicist in me goes, "Ooooh, extrapolated from orginal texts!")

by **Remi** on Sun Jun 10, 2001 3:16 am

As for Transmetropolitan;
Pick up the first Trade (collecting the first three issues, it's like nine bucks) and see if you like that. Having seen it mentioned a few times that vulgarity and cursing were kind of no-no's I wouldn't recommend Transmet. It's dirty, caustic fun for the rest of us.I will be the next (but probably not last) voice to chime in for Box Office Poison, it is excellent, and the new trade is really wonderful (thank you Russ for lending me all your back issues). Also, James Kochalka's Monkey vs. Robot is really good. Age of Bronze has a trade out of the first nine issues that I would encourage you to pick up if you want to see where the whole 'hero' thing started (the classicist in me goes, "Ooooh, extrapolated from orginal texts!")

by **Screwball McGoo [gDC]** on Sun Jun 10, 2001 5:05 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Remi:
Having seen it mentioned a few times that vulgarity and cursing were kind of no-no's I wouldn't recommend Transmet. It's dirty, caustic fun for the rest of us.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Gah! Look at what you've done, russ! Let me clarify. I believe that cursing and such is generally a crutch. Most dirty jokes aren't really that funny but the shock that comes with it makes people laugh. Similarly, very strong words are sometimes used when normal words could very well suffice simply to get attention. This is low.I also picked up the Exiles (or is "eXiles?" ::shudders::) and it was good commonplace superhero fun.------------------
<A HREF="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/Forum33/HTML/000067.html" TARGET=_blank>Chocobos vs. Yoshis</A>: Versus #5!

by **Russ** on Sun Jun 10, 2001 9:51 am

Daniel Clowes is an author I'd heard about but not read. I read an interview with him in latest Comics Journal and decided to check out his stuff, so I picked up David Boring (hardback graphic novel) and just read it this evening. Enjoyable, and rather more surreal than I expected. His art style is very clean and bleak, reminding me of Adrian Tomine whom I also like, and both guys deal with alienation and angst and so forth, but Clowes is weirder than Tomine (at least based on the David Boring story).Speaking of The Comics Journal, I recommend it as another good way to learn about less-than-mainstream comics you wouldn't otherwise know about it. Each issue usually has 1 or 2 rather lengthy interviews which I usually enjoy, and lots of reviews, and other articles. E.g. this issue also had a 2 or 3 page article about a comics conference in Africa and talked about the issues of censorship and terrible economies that African comic artists work under. And a profile of a German comic artist. And an article about the term "graphic novel" (apparently first coined in the early 60s, explicitly to be a more respectable marketable term than "comic book"). And an update on the fall of Stan Lee's latest venture. And so forth.------------------
russ
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by **Screwball McGoo [gDC]** on Mon Jun 11, 2001 12:58 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by russ:
And an update on the fall of Stan Lee's latest venture. And so forth.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Did you notice he constantly bashed on-line comics because he believed the Internet could bring video and interactivity? Nuts.So, again I must ask, where would one find a "Comics Journal?"------------------
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by **John Pierce** on Mon Jun 11, 2001 9:56 am

In any large bookstore, next to MAD magazine. Or in a good comics shop.

by **Russ** on Tue Jun 12, 2001 8:58 am

Yeah, both comic shops I frequent have TCJ.And I'm thinking my #1 recommendation to you for a nifty easy-to-enjoy nonsuperhero comic would be Box Office Poison especially since it's now available in the nifty phone-book-sized complete collection. I love BOP. Did I mention Alex Robinson was nominated for an Eisner this year? Woohoo!------------------
russ
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