Comics - what are you reading?, your thoughts Options

[Rebus]

I'd say a lot of people will be reading Watchmen for the first time over the next six months or so, and as I haven't done so in years I'm going to have to hunt them down again.

[Hobbes]

I have to say though, and I'll probably be lambasted for saying it, but I got more than a little fed up of the comic-within-a-comic element after a while. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice touch, but I just felt my interest levels waning, and as a consequence I found myself skimming a lot over the Black Freighter sections in order to get back to the story proper. Sacrilege perhaps, as I realise that it mirrors certain aspects of the main story, but it just got a bit too dense for my feeble brain to deal with at the moment. I fully intend to re-read it before the film comes out, as there are no doubt many layers that I have missed, and will hopefully appreciate second time round.

I actually agree with this Ade so don't worry. I too love the idea, especially the idea that superhero comics ceased to popular when real masked heroes turned up, but there's no need to include the entire thing I don't think. I understand its parallels to the main story etc, but it does detract from the utter genius of the main story.

[maian]

'Wanted' is superb.

I thought Wanted was a big ol' pile of wank.

Just so Joe has a balanced idea of what to expect.

[ipse dixit]

I read The Long Halloween. I read it too quickly. Kinda detracts from the whole passage-of-time thing. Still good though.

[maian]

Just finished From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell and I thought it was brilliant, possibly Moore's best work. Well, I say I've finished it, I'm now getting through the Appendices and it's exhausting work. The sheer level of research and detail he put into writing the thing is staggering.

[Hobbes]

Finished re-reading watchmen the other day, and funnily enough it's still tremendous.

Also bought the Long Halloween and Sin city: a dame to kill for. Read sin city, it was good but I preferred The hard Goodbye. Again contained some lovely artwork and a great story, but my only problem is that they're pretty short, i bought and finished this one in a day and only read it for about an hour and a half.

Looking forward to the Batman one though, if it's a patch on Return of the Dark Knight it'll be fucking awesome.

This post has been edited by Hobbes: Aug 13 2008, 02:17 PM

[maian]

Started reading Alice In Sunderland by Brian Talbot in Borders today. Wow.

[ipse dixit]

Long Halloween

Learn from my mistake and take a bit more time over it. I read through it too quickly and it really lessened the epic-ness of it.

[thirtyhelens]

How did I not know that Moonstone did a Buckaroo Banzai prequel?

http://www.moonstonebooks.com/banzai.asp

[NiteFall]

The deluxe edition of The Killing Joke is only £6 at Amazon at the moment. I've never read it. I'm assuming it's worth getting at that price?

[maian]

Thanks to Lewis I've recently read the Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl?, the first trade paperback of the series, and I'm in two minds about it. On the one hand, I was quite impressed by the plotting of the story, the characters were entertaining and well-drawn, if only barely sketched psychologically. As someone who is fascinated with police procedurals, I found it interesting to see one in which many of the participants were superheroes.

However, I couldn't help but feel that more could have been done. I didn't really get a sense of the world in which the story was unfolding (though I imagine that comes to the fore more as the series has progressed) and the superhero aspect quickly became almost superfluous, as if the story could have been done without them and been more or less the same. That may have been the point, I don't know, but it just felt as if the story could have offered more of an insight into what it means to be a superhero, rather than just a tale of the death of one.

Anyway, I did like it, with reservations, and will probably check out the rest of the series in due course, I just wasn't wowed by it.

[ipse dixit]

It does drop you straight into it, but you get more backstory as the series goes on. I really like what I've read of it.


Anyway, I've just started on Ex Machina. Onto the third TPB volume now. Pretty interesting. Not sure about the art...half the time it works, half the time they look a bit odd and blotchy.

[Rua]

The deluxe edition of The Killing Joke is only £6 at Amazon at the moment. I've never read it. I'm assuming it's worth getting at that price?

Honestly, I think it's over-rated but for £6 you should go ahead.

[monkeyman]

There was a very nice looking collection of The Dark Knight/Dark Knight strikes back in Foridden Planet, it was £60 though.
I have read Dark Knight (and thought it was fantastic) but not Dark Knight strikes back, is it any good?

[Jessopjessopjess...]

the superhero aspect quickly became almost superfluous, as if the story could have been done without them and been more or less the same.

That's definitely the point. And you have to bear in mind that Powers is written with an unfolding story in mind, so themes are explored over many books. Every investigation explores a small something about not what it's like to BE a superhero, but to live in a world where they exist.