I've been looking for that one all over the net...also found a place that was selling the OOTS compilations, and got one of the prequels, 'origin of PCs'
So, do you have a scanner?!
- Status
So, do you have a scanner?!
T
ThatNickGuy
Started reading Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 (the first volume) and...wow.
I'd started reading DMZ earlier this year and I thought for sure that would be my favourite comic to read this year. Mouse Guard is just...amazing. I'm honestly awestruck by the story and mythology. Seriously, I can't recommend this enough.
CajunGal? I know you love Bone and I honestly thing this would be right up your alley, too.
I'd started reading DMZ earlier this year and I thought for sure that would be my favourite comic to read this year. Mouse Guard is just...amazing. I'm honestly awestruck by the story and mythology. Seriously, I can't recommend this enough.
CajunGal? I know you love Bone and I honestly thing this would be right up your alley, too.
also, it seems that warren ellis really *is* psychic. first 'anal skrulls' and now...
(from planetary, several years ago)
Blue lanterns? whatever will they think of next.
(from planetary, several years ago)
Blue lanterns? whatever will they think of next.
Shannow
Staff member
Seemed a slower week last week. Snagged a lot and went throguh it, but aside from a couple (The Boys, Irredemable, and a couple others), nothing really jumped out at me.
(Well, except for Ghost Riders. Holy shit I love whats been going on with that story for last couple years. One of the hands down funnest reads whenever it comes out).
(Well, except for Ghost Riders. Holy shit I love whats been going on with that story for last couple years. One of the hands down funnest reads whenever it comes out).
If the lead blue lantern gets his head blown off, and has his power surgically extracted for use by a corrupt human military scientist, I will laugh my ass off.
Shannow
Staff member
one of the consistantly funnest, and funniest books out there right now. Simply one of the best monthly (well, bimonthly) comics you can get.
North_Ranger
Staff member
Reading and re-reading the first part of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century. I like it because it feels like every time I read it, I find something new, what with the industrial hatchery's worth of easter eggs and (popular) cultural allusions.
Plus, I think Orlando, the immortal being constantly shifting between sexes, is just so goddamn amusing.
Plus, I think Orlando, the immortal being constantly shifting between sexes, is just so goddamn amusing.
*cracks his knuckles* Right, I'm back and I'll be damned if this page is going to hit the second page.
I realized that in the past year, I've had the absolute pleasure of checking out all sorts of new series, ones that aren't part of the mainstream. Mind you, I consider Vertigo (a sub-company of DC) as non-mainstream. They have a different order of things when it comes to soliciting, planning and collecting their books compared to their parent company. Anyway, my point is that I've grown increasingly sick and tired of mainstream books, with a few exceptions (Marvel's Incredible Hercules comes to mind). I'm tired of life-altering events where changes are promised but the status quo more or less remains the same or goes back to normal after a few months or a year. So, you know what? Keep your dead Batmen. Keep your Rainbow Bright Lanterns. Keep your evil Avengers. I'm enjoying better stuff that's self-contained, with a single creative direction in mind.
Anyway, here's a bunch of stuff (one or two that I've mentioned on here before) that I introduced to myself last year:
1) Elephantment: This book is like Ninja Turtles meets Blade Runner. It's futuristic sci-fi pulp and I love it. The premise starts in Africa, with a big war going on. A company breeds mutant animals created from African animals, such as elephants (hence their name), crocodiles, hippos, etc, and turns them into war machines. The world finds out about this and the elephantment are emancipated. The comic is actually about the various mutants living in the world and how they fit in. It's got some great stories about human rights and such, but also has a lot of fun, pulpy sci-fi. I think it's funny how the two collections of the series so far (Wounded Animals & Fatal Diseases) are printed on very heavy papserstock, which means that - although only a little over half a dozen issues are collected - the volumes are these massive, heavy beasts. Funny, given the main characters are giant rhinos, elephants and hippos.
2) Chew: This and The Unwritten were the two big standouts for me in 2009. Tony Chu is an FDA agent. He's also a chibiopath, which means he gets psychic readings from anything he eats. If he eats an apple, he sees where it was grown, harvested, etc. If he eats beef, he sees the cow being raised and slaughtered. And if he happens to eat the flesh of a murderer? He finds out who they murdered. This is where the book shines, because it's so ridiculously tongue-in-cheek and over the top that you can't help but love it. Every time John tastes someone's blood, we get a Pushing Daisies-like narrated sequence of the person. Come to think of it, if you liked Pushing Daisies, you'll likely love Chew.
3) Incognito: Imagine you were a former supervillain. You were the baddest mothereffer on the planet. And then, because death was the only other option, you're forced into a witness protection program and forced to live an ordinary life without superpowers. That's Incognito and goddamn, is it good. If you're familiar with other works by the same creative team - Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips - then you know you're in for a good story. Their work on Sleeper and Criminal is, by far, some of the best stuff out there and Incognito is no different. If Sleeper was an homage to spy thrillers and Criminalan homage to film noir, then Incognito is an homage to the old Doc Savage pulp serials. I think my only complaint about the series - and it's a small one - is some themes are starting to repeat themselves in Brubaker's work. The guys are jackasses, the women are sultry and demure, and any time he gets a chance, there are flying cars. It hardly takes away from what's a great book, but if you're familiar with a lot of Brubaker's other work, you'll start to see some repetition.
4) Atomic Robo: This book is like Hellboy meets Iron Man meets The Incredibles. Seriously, this is the most fun you'll have with a comic book outside of Calvin & Hobbes. It's hilarious, action packed and (much like some of my other favourite books), very pulp-like. Atomic Robo fights everything from super-genius velociraptors to Egyptian pyramids with legs. It's silly and Atomic Robo is a great character. He's an indestructible robot with the attitude of a grandfather who has that "I'll kick your ass" attitude. Here's my best example of how awesome this book is: Robo is sent to Mars to study the planet for NASA. They can save a lot of money sending him, who doesn't need to eat, sleep or breathe, instead of a human. But they piss him off because they don't give him reading material for the trip. In retaliation, he does the work, but also stacks a bunch of rocks together to form a message by the time he's done. The message "Stephen Hawking is a jerk".
5) Parker: The Hunter: Darwyn Cooke is a name in the business that basically boils down to one word: quality. Everything he does is head and shoulders above the rest. New Frontier should attest to that. But like Brubaker, Cooke's strength lies in film noir, hard-boiled detective stories. And when he adapts Richard Stark's "The Hunter"? You know you're in for a treat. You might be familiar with the story, actually, if you've ever seen Mel Gibson's Payback. Unlike that adaptation, Cooke is much more loyal. Parker is a total asshole. He was a con man who got screwed and is now looking for the money that was owed him. He's not a likeable character in any way and because of that, he's incredibly interesting.
6) Mouse Guard: Fantasy stories are tough to do because there's the sense that it's all been done before. You've got knights, kingdoms, dragons, yadda yadda yadda. Mouse Guard, on the other hand, is original. You have this order of mice that protect their kingdom from ruin. What makes Mouse Guard stand out is its use of other animals in nature. Giant monsters like dragons are replaced by snakes, crabs and bees. What to us are minor pests are great and dangerous beasts for the mice. The visuals in the book are beautifully painted. Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of big splash pages with a single image taking up an entire page or a two-page spread, but in this case, it works perfectly. When you turn the page and there's this huge frigging snake towering over our heroes, you can't help but go "Oh, crap!"
7) The Unwritten: Comics are rarely literary. I mean this in the sense that comics rarely refer to other great pieces of literature to heighten its stories. Oh, sure, you might get a quote here or a ripoff of a story here (like "Flowers for Rhino" in Spider-Man: Tangled Web). But rarely do you see a comic that feels like it'll be great literature, itself. Welcome to The Unwritten, which I truly believe will one day stand shoulder to shoulder with Neil Gaimen's Sandman. In the story, we're introduced to Tom Taylor. His father wrote a series of Harry Potter-like adventure books, starring...Tommy Taylor. As a result, Tom Taylor has become something of a pseudo-celebrity, touring conventions, signing autographs, etc. He's done that moreso since his father disappeared after finishing his last book. But someone's discovered something about Tommy: he may actually be Tommy Taylor from the books. His father may have conjured him into this world. The power of words and all sorts of literary tricks are referred to in the book and as a literary buff, myself, I'm completely enamoured by it. This may honestly compete with Sandman, one day.
8) DMZ: Politics and world news tends to bore me. I think war is pointless and politics even moreso. So, imagine my surprize when I really, really enjoyed DMZ. It takes place in a world where the U.S. suffers a great civil war and Manhattan has turned into a demilitarized zone (hence, DMZ). Your main character is a freelance photographer who was supposed to be just an intern for a big-time war correspondent..that is, until their heliocopter is shot down and Matt is the only one left alive. On the surface, DMZ is very political, but deeper down, it's also a tale of survival. It's about the people who are left to survive in very dangerous Manhattan. You have a Chinese crimeboss that has control over all of Chinatown. You have a small group of marines who have left their post to defend Central Park. You've got a med student who is one of the few people in the DMZ with medical training. It's extraordinarily compelling with a very strong human side behind it.
9) Northlanders: Also written by the same guy that writes DMZ, Northlanders is about one thing and one thing only: mothereffin' vikings. Again, much like politics, history tends to bore me to death, but with Northlanders? Not so much. It's just as compelling, as you have some really great characters. The first story is about a viking who went off into the world and left his home behind, only to come home to find his sworn enemy and murderer of his father in control. Or you have a father who is running from the enemy with his daughter in tow in a Viking version of Lone Wolf & Cub. My description isn't giving this series any justice, to be honest. The great thing about Vertigo books like Northlanders, DMZ and The Unwritten is their trade paperbacks tend to be super cheap. You can pick up each of them for $10 a piece.
10) Icon: A Hero's Welcome: This is a collection of the first 7 issues of Icon, one of less than half a dozen titles released by Milestone, another DC Comics imprint, in the 90s. The idea for Milestone was simple: create a cast of strong African American superhero characters, as written and drawn by African Americans. Dwayne McDuffie, who you may have heard of since he wrote many episodes of Justice League and other DC cartoons, along with a short run on the Justice League comic, headed up Milestone with this idea in mind. I was just getting into comics at the time, so I couldn't afford to get these on top of Superman, Steel, Superboy, etc. And I regret that every day, because this was damn fun. This is a well-told, well-balanced superhero comic with a great cast. Now, mind you, I don't like the idea of the main character being a former slave, given that he's immortal. But as a friend of mine pointed out with Martha Jones travelling back in time in Doctor Who: "It'd be more uncomfortable and weird if they didn't address it." I really wish DC would get off their ass and collect more of the Milestone books. My only sampling of them was the Static trade for the first four issues and the crossover (the criminally underrated Worlds Collide) that the Milestone books had with the Superman books back in the early 90s. Admittedly, I'm kind of cheating with my own rules by bringing up that they crossed over with DC books, but at the time, it was to promote Milestone and help support the sub-company.
I realized that in the past year, I've had the absolute pleasure of checking out all sorts of new series, ones that aren't part of the mainstream. Mind you, I consider Vertigo (a sub-company of DC) as non-mainstream. They have a different order of things when it comes to soliciting, planning and collecting their books compared to their parent company. Anyway, my point is that I've grown increasingly sick and tired of mainstream books, with a few exceptions (Marvel's Incredible Hercules comes to mind). I'm tired of life-altering events where changes are promised but the status quo more or less remains the same or goes back to normal after a few months or a year. So, you know what? Keep your dead Batmen. Keep your Rainbow Bright Lanterns. Keep your evil Avengers. I'm enjoying better stuff that's self-contained, with a single creative direction in mind.
Anyway, here's a bunch of stuff (one or two that I've mentioned on here before) that I introduced to myself last year:
1) Elephantment: This book is like Ninja Turtles meets Blade Runner. It's futuristic sci-fi pulp and I love it. The premise starts in Africa, with a big war going on. A company breeds mutant animals created from African animals, such as elephants (hence their name), crocodiles, hippos, etc, and turns them into war machines. The world finds out about this and the elephantment are emancipated. The comic is actually about the various mutants living in the world and how they fit in. It's got some great stories about human rights and such, but also has a lot of fun, pulpy sci-fi. I think it's funny how the two collections of the series so far (Wounded Animals & Fatal Diseases) are printed on very heavy papserstock, which means that - although only a little over half a dozen issues are collected - the volumes are these massive, heavy beasts. Funny, given the main characters are giant rhinos, elephants and hippos.
2) Chew: This and The Unwritten were the two big standouts for me in 2009. Tony Chu is an FDA agent. He's also a chibiopath, which means he gets psychic readings from anything he eats. If he eats an apple, he sees where it was grown, harvested, etc. If he eats beef, he sees the cow being raised and slaughtered. And if he happens to eat the flesh of a murderer? He finds out who they murdered. This is where the book shines, because it's so ridiculously tongue-in-cheek and over the top that you can't help but love it. Every time John tastes someone's blood, we get a Pushing Daisies-like narrated sequence of the person. Come to think of it, if you liked Pushing Daisies, you'll likely love Chew.
3) Incognito: Imagine you were a former supervillain. You were the baddest mothereffer on the planet. And then, because death was the only other option, you're forced into a witness protection program and forced to live an ordinary life without superpowers. That's Incognito and goddamn, is it good. If you're familiar with other works by the same creative team - Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips - then you know you're in for a good story. Their work on Sleeper and Criminal is, by far, some of the best stuff out there and Incognito is no different. If Sleeper was an homage to spy thrillers and Criminalan homage to film noir, then Incognito is an homage to the old Doc Savage pulp serials. I think my only complaint about the series - and it's a small one - is some themes are starting to repeat themselves in Brubaker's work. The guys are jackasses, the women are sultry and demure, and any time he gets a chance, there are flying cars. It hardly takes away from what's a great book, but if you're familiar with a lot of Brubaker's other work, you'll start to see some repetition.
4) Atomic Robo: This book is like Hellboy meets Iron Man meets The Incredibles. Seriously, this is the most fun you'll have with a comic book outside of Calvin & Hobbes. It's hilarious, action packed and (much like some of my other favourite books), very pulp-like. Atomic Robo fights everything from super-genius velociraptors to Egyptian pyramids with legs. It's silly and Atomic Robo is a great character. He's an indestructible robot with the attitude of a grandfather who has that "I'll kick your ass" attitude. Here's my best example of how awesome this book is: Robo is sent to Mars to study the planet for NASA. They can save a lot of money sending him, who doesn't need to eat, sleep or breathe, instead of a human. But they piss him off because they don't give him reading material for the trip. In retaliation, he does the work, but also stacks a bunch of rocks together to form a message by the time he's done. The message "Stephen Hawking is a jerk".
5) Parker: The Hunter: Darwyn Cooke is a name in the business that basically boils down to one word: quality. Everything he does is head and shoulders above the rest. New Frontier should attest to that. But like Brubaker, Cooke's strength lies in film noir, hard-boiled detective stories. And when he adapts Richard Stark's "The Hunter"? You know you're in for a treat. You might be familiar with the story, actually, if you've ever seen Mel Gibson's Payback. Unlike that adaptation, Cooke is much more loyal. Parker is a total asshole. He was a con man who got screwed and is now looking for the money that was owed him. He's not a likeable character in any way and because of that, he's incredibly interesting.
6) Mouse Guard: Fantasy stories are tough to do because there's the sense that it's all been done before. You've got knights, kingdoms, dragons, yadda yadda yadda. Mouse Guard, on the other hand, is original. You have this order of mice that protect their kingdom from ruin. What makes Mouse Guard stand out is its use of other animals in nature. Giant monsters like dragons are replaced by snakes, crabs and bees. What to us are minor pests are great and dangerous beasts for the mice. The visuals in the book are beautifully painted. Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of big splash pages with a single image taking up an entire page or a two-page spread, but in this case, it works perfectly. When you turn the page and there's this huge frigging snake towering over our heroes, you can't help but go "Oh, crap!"
7) The Unwritten: Comics are rarely literary. I mean this in the sense that comics rarely refer to other great pieces of literature to heighten its stories. Oh, sure, you might get a quote here or a ripoff of a story here (like "Flowers for Rhino" in Spider-Man: Tangled Web). But rarely do you see a comic that feels like it'll be great literature, itself. Welcome to The Unwritten, which I truly believe will one day stand shoulder to shoulder with Neil Gaimen's Sandman. In the story, we're introduced to Tom Taylor. His father wrote a series of Harry Potter-like adventure books, starring...Tommy Taylor. As a result, Tom Taylor has become something of a pseudo-celebrity, touring conventions, signing autographs, etc. He's done that moreso since his father disappeared after finishing his last book. But someone's discovered something about Tommy: he may actually be Tommy Taylor from the books. His father may have conjured him into this world. The power of words and all sorts of literary tricks are referred to in the book and as a literary buff, myself, I'm completely enamoured by it. This may honestly compete with Sandman, one day.
8) DMZ: Politics and world news tends to bore me. I think war is pointless and politics even moreso. So, imagine my surprize when I really, really enjoyed DMZ. It takes place in a world where the U.S. suffers a great civil war and Manhattan has turned into a demilitarized zone (hence, DMZ). Your main character is a freelance photographer who was supposed to be just an intern for a big-time war correspondent..that is, until their heliocopter is shot down and Matt is the only one left alive. On the surface, DMZ is very political, but deeper down, it's also a tale of survival. It's about the people who are left to survive in very dangerous Manhattan. You have a Chinese crimeboss that has control over all of Chinatown. You have a small group of marines who have left their post to defend Central Park. You've got a med student who is one of the few people in the DMZ with medical training. It's extraordinarily compelling with a very strong human side behind it.
9) Northlanders: Also written by the same guy that writes DMZ, Northlanders is about one thing and one thing only: mothereffin' vikings. Again, much like politics, history tends to bore me to death, but with Northlanders? Not so much. It's just as compelling, as you have some really great characters. The first story is about a viking who went off into the world and left his home behind, only to come home to find his sworn enemy and murderer of his father in control. Or you have a father who is running from the enemy with his daughter in tow in a Viking version of Lone Wolf & Cub. My description isn't giving this series any justice, to be honest. The great thing about Vertigo books like Northlanders, DMZ and The Unwritten is their trade paperbacks tend to be super cheap. You can pick up each of them for $10 a piece.
10) Icon: A Hero's Welcome: This is a collection of the first 7 issues of Icon, one of less than half a dozen titles released by Milestone, another DC Comics imprint, in the 90s. The idea for Milestone was simple: create a cast of strong African American superhero characters, as written and drawn by African Americans. Dwayne McDuffie, who you may have heard of since he wrote many episodes of Justice League and other DC cartoons, along with a short run on the Justice League comic, headed up Milestone with this idea in mind. I was just getting into comics at the time, so I couldn't afford to get these on top of Superman, Steel, Superboy, etc. And I regret that every day, because this was damn fun. This is a well-told, well-balanced superhero comic with a great cast. Now, mind you, I don't like the idea of the main character being a former slave, given that he's immortal. But as a friend of mine pointed out with Martha Jones travelling back in time in Doctor Who: "It'd be more uncomfortable and weird if they didn't address it." I really wish DC would get off their ass and collect more of the Milestone books. My only sampling of them was the Static trade for the first four issues and the crossover (the criminally underrated Worlds Collide) that the Milestone books had with the Superman books back in the early 90s. Admittedly, I'm kind of cheating with my own rules by bringing up that they crossed over with DC books, but at the time, it was to promote Milestone and help support the sub-company.
- Status