What comics are you all reading? What do you think?

As always, I've been reading plenty of comics. My recent reads have been a mix of Quite Good all the way to Duds. Here's some thoughts on my recent reads:

Friends With Boys: Every Fall I feel the urge to read horror, and coming of age stories. The Horror craving makes sense given the time of year, but the urge for coming of age stories not so much. Oh well, the itch was there so I scratched it. Friends With Boys is written and arted by Faith Erin Hicks....it's only okay from a story standpoint but Hicks' art is pretty great. Her cartooning style is solid, and I liked how she let the art tell the story, and how she dropped hints about plot points and character history in the art rather than the text.

Revival: This sorta zombie tale was a total comic shop impulse buy on my behalf and I wish I hadn't listened to that dude who recommended it to me. Revival is a pretty stupid comic. The comic is billed as Rural Noir, which I thought would be an interesting conceit, but it really isn't noir, it's an inane action/drama that didn't do a single portion of the comics process in a new or interesting way. It's horror, crime and drama all done to appeal to the least common denominator. Its like if comics were made to be on network TV. I pretty much hated it.

The Nao of Brown: Moving completely in the opposite direction of Revival....The Nao of Brown! Comics as art and literature. This is quite possibly the BEST comic I've read this year. I can't think of a better one off the top of my head so there's that. Every aspect of comics; art, story, and characters is painstakingly crafted to a high level here. This comic deals with some big issues and delivers the most intense scene in a comic I've ever seen. Highly recommended.

Battling Boy: I'm a sucker for Paul Pope's comics, so this was a day of release purchase, and it only sat on my shelf a few days before I read it. As usual, Pope's incredibly dynamic art breathes an incredible amount of life into this comic. The story is solid too, it's basically a super hero comic...but a take on super hero comics that is actually interesting. The end left me wanting more, in fact I felt like it came to a sorta abrupt end and left things hanging. The good news is, there's 5 more Battling Boy books planned, so this is just the very tantalizing tip of the iceberg. Now I just have to wait.
 
I read Batman Battle for the Cowl, the first graphic novel in the series. When I moved to Korea, this was where I left off in the series and it was nice to jump back into it. The first few stories were really great but the last two left a lot to be desired. I will probably pick up the next book in the series.
 
I received an advanced copy of Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden's Cemetery Girl and was pleasantly surprised with the first book in the series. Great artwork and the beginnings of a great trilogy.
 
I've read the first two arcs of Saga by Brian K Vaughn, after seeing them in the top Goodread picks for 2013, and I liked them a lot, especially the graphic art. Character focused space opera (Romeo and Juliet in space having a baby instead of a suicide pact) with a little too much swearing and nudity, but very promising for future developments.

Also read some old issues of Savage Sword of Conan (10-15) with excellent black & white artwork.
 
The Killer, reprinted by Archaia Comics. It's a french comic which was translated to english back in 2009, however, I've just gotten around to reading it now and it's brilliant. It's a noir tale that gives a disturbingly practical insight into the life of a hitman.

As for more recent fare, I've started reading Sex Criminal by Matt Fraction and it's probably the most inventive take on the "coming of age" concept I've seen in many a year. I don't want to say too much out of fear of spoliers but it's well worth a speculative glance.
 
Always reading/enjoying Hellboy, BPRD, Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson sometimes.

Just re-read Casanova by Fraction/Ba/Moon. One of my faves.

Only read first issue, but enjoying Starlight Millar/Parlov a kinda old retired Flash Gordon on Earth. Art is very French comics vibe.

Invincible is always solid to me.

Black Science is pretty cool so far, dimension hopping scifi. Kinda dark tone.

Rocket Girl is fun and pretty to look at.

I get Skullkickers and Powers TPBs whenever they come out.

There’s more but I forget.

Nick
 
The only floppies I read currently is Quantum & Woody, Astro City & Ghost. I still read the occasional GN - IDW's run on GIJoe and Fables is 2 series that I tend to get, though I haven't purchased GIJoe recently because it's getting so convoluted as to which series is the next in the line. Whatever happened to telling a single story and compiling things in a way that you can easily go from point A to point B?
 
I'm just re-reading the Watchmen at the moment. I discover these books quite by accident and going through this forum is such a great way to get suggestions on what next. My cousin gifted me a "behind the scenes" type book for the watchmen. I find it totally fascinating. Especially how they draw, the process, how they develop characters etc.
 
More comics.

Trying out Trees Jason Howard/Warren Ellis. Cool so far. Jason's playing with a heavy/messy hatching style compared to his Astounding Wolfman. Nice to see experimentation. Sci-fi.

Just finished up Wake by Sean Murphy. Pretty cool and purty as usual. Sci-fi.

Wonton Soup by James Stokoe doubleshot/mondo collection/whatever. Very fun sci fi meets iron chef.

Prophet - Image Comics w/Brandon Graham and friends - Interesting far future sci-fi revamp.

That's all I got from the top of my dome, son.

Nick.
 
Le Sursis and Le Vol du Corbeau by French artist Jean-Pierre Gibrat. Amazing graphics that made me almost ignore the storyline, set in France towards the end of World War Two. No superheroes or supernatural elements, just people trying to get on with their lives under the Occupation.
 
Recently picked up an issue of Batman under New 52, with White Rabbit. I'm intrigued by this rabbit. hehe
 
I've been reading Joe Madureira's Inhumans.

Madureira's mostly been working outside comics since Battlechasers. He some Ultimates/Avengers and started out Avenging Spiderman then bailed. I really like his style, but I have to say I really dislike that he does pencils, skips inking and then gets colored. Just hire a fricking inker. There are plenty with skills that have worked with him before.

I haven't been following the marvel universe very closely so I don't have any continuity complaints.

The art is full of interesting visual ideas for me.

For those who don't know his stuff it's very manga/anime/1980s streetfighter with I think a dash of Arthur Adams deep underneath.

Kinda rambling post style, but that's all I got today.

Nick.
 
I've just recently started reading comics after wanting to delve into them for decades. I came to it by way of my interest in Alejandro Jodoroswky's films, so I began with his Metabarons and Techno-Priests, both of which are awesome fun. Looking forward to the re-release of Incal in September so I can hit that one as well (not too keen on electronic versions for now).

Currently working on Sandman, which I was initially deeply unimpressed by, but has grown on me as the series finds its legs. Also enjoying the Lone Wolf & Cub omnibus, and have a few other things on the shelf standing by (Planetary, Nausicaa). It's been fun exploring the form so far. Not sure how deep down the rabbit hole I'll go - I enjoy superhero stories a little, but so much of it has been over-sold and super-saturated in our culture that my automatic distaste for popular things has kicked in for things like Batman.
 
For non-superhero American/European comics, I'd recommend:
  • Frank Miller's Ronin.
  • Pretty much anything written by Howard Chaykin. Faves - Iron Wolf, Twilight, American Flagg, Twilight, Adaptation of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
  • King City - light, surreal sci-fi-ish.
  • Heavy Liquid is my fave thus far of Paul Pope, but it's all good to me.
  • The Invisibles by Grant Morrison. Trippy, very 90s counterculture to me.
  • Casanova by Fraction, Ba, Moon. Sci-fi spy trope-a-palooza.


If you like Japanese comics, I'd recommend:
  • AKIRA.
  • Domu.
  • Venus Wars 1, 2 (But I prefer 2 a lot due to political intrigue).
  • Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell 1, 1.5. Didn't like Ghost in Shell 2 that much.


There's more but I can't think of any at the moment.
 
High Fantasy comic/graphic novel

What are some good and unique works of High Fantasy secondary world comic books/graphic novels? I know only Sojourn and Artesia. Is there anything else? R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms comic book adaptations are there, there are D&D books and adaptation of Martin's Hedge Knight etc. but not particularly interested in them, I'm looking for works with original worldbuilding. S&S comics like Conan, Red Sonja, DC's Warlord etc don't count. Haven't tried Northlanders. Then there are Battleaxes and Marada the She-Wolf, I'm aware of both but haven't read. Is there anything that I've missed?
 
Oh, I read The Star Wars a while back, a graphic novel based on one of the early Star Wars scripts. I can see why they decided to change a lot of the story before making the movie, but seeing some of the early ideas and what they later evolved into was pretty interesting (e.g. Han Solo was a big green alien thing).
 
I've been getting deeper and deeper into comics in the last couple of years...
Right now I'm working my way through Superior Spider-Man. The first Spider-Man comics I've read are the ones where it's not really Spider-Man, go figure. I'm enjoying this series a lot.

Also just read the fourth volume of New 52 Wonder Woman, "War". I like this series, though it feels more like its own stand-alone thing than a Wonder Woman story in the main DC universe.
 
RE: high fantasy

Skewing younger/fun I'd recommend Tellos w/art by Mike Wieringo who unfortunately passed on fairly young.

I don't do high fantasy much so I'm not the best source.

if you like japanese comics, Orion by Masamune Shirow is a very different take on fantasy but leans a little more science fantasy than high.

Manga generally has a crapload of high fantasy. http://mangafox.me/directory/fantasy/

http://www.mangareader.net/search/?...nre=0000001000000000000000000000000000000&p=0

Gyakushu by Dan Hipp was pretty cool. I only have vol1 & 2.

Orc Stain by James Stokoe is a little out there but high fantasy. I haven't read it but I liked Wonton Soup by same dude which was more goofy sci fi.
 
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