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What comics have you been reading?

Started by irishmoxie, March 30, 2016, 10:49:35 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

DeCarlo Rules


DeCarlo Rules

#1516
FIST OF THE NORTH STAR: Master Edition Vol. 1-9 by Buronson & Tetsuo Hara [Raijin Comics, 2004] - Great story, and the single best presentation of any manga I've seen in English translation. Each volume was 196 pages, 7"x10" (same page size as a golden age comic book, or Shonen Jump, but on heavy glossy paper and digitally colored), with a b&w cardboard cover wrapped in a color dustjacket, and contains some extras. These were originally priced at $17.95 cover price, but I got them on sale about 10 years ago for $11 per volume. The same story had an earlier, different translation (with reversed pages) by Viz, in both the 'prestige format' standard comic size, and as 4 smaller b&w trade paperback volumes, but covered less than half the story contained in Raijin's 9 volume set. Unfortunately, those 9 volumes still barely scratch the surface of the complete Japanese saga, which ran for 5 years (245 chapters serialized in Shonen Jump) and was collected in 27 tankobon volumes, while the Master Edition only got as far as reprinting the first 74 chapters, so there are still 18 1/2 volumes in the saga of Fist of the North Star that I'll probably never get to read. An anime TV series which originally ran for 152 episodes from 1984 to 1988 (and is a fairly faithful adaptation of the manga) is available on an American DVD release with English subtitles, and even that doesn't adapt all the events of the manga's 245 chapters, but I guess it's the best I'll be able to do unless I learn to read Japanese.

The real point I'm getting at here is that I wish some of the current English-localized manga publishers would do something in a format exactly like these deluxe editions.

rusty

#1517
Berlin by Jason Lutes - This hardcover is over 500 pages and collects the entire 22 issue run which has taken since 1996 to complete.  I've been reading the series since it began, but purchased the hardcover as well.   It takes place in Berlin from 1928-1933 and utilizes a lot of characters who are not necessarily important historically - Marthe Muller, an art student who comes to the city at least in part to get away from her father - Kurt Severing, a journalist who writes for a paper read by poets and intellectuals - Silvia Braun, a young girl whose father is a National Socialist and whose mother is a Communist - The Cocoa Kids, an African-American jazz quintet in town playing at a jazz club - and others as well.  The unrest in the city is shown and the gradual buildup of power for the National Socialists (Nazis) plus the battles with the Reds (Communists) and the anti-Semitism as well.  This is a well researched and entertaining story that is well worth checking out.

Edited to add - One thing that I should note is that the font size used in the word balloons is kind of small which may make it difficult for some people to read.  It is still worth it, though.

DeCarlo Rules

#1518
ARCHIE'S MADHOUSE MAYHEM (HCF 2018) minicomic - This year's ACP Halloween ComicFest offering reprints two 6-pagers, Betty in "Scaredy Cat" by Angelo Decesare & Stan Goldberg, and Archie in "The Halloween Scene" by George Gladir & Fernando Ruiz. Apart from the relative rarity of ACP Halloween stories, neither of these two stories are particularly noteworthy, but on the whole, I enjoyed this minicomic more than either of ACP's previous two HCF Archie's Madhouse minicomic reprints.

ARCHIE HALLOWEEN SPECTACULAR (Dec. 2018 issue) - Unlike the above free giveaway minicomic, this one's a regular-format floppy comic with a $2.99 cover price. It contains reprints of four 5-pagers, all of which were written by Dan Parent: Archie in "Something Is Missing" (with art by Bill Golliher); B&V in "They're Creepy and They're Kooky" (art by Jeff Shultz); B&V in "A Bewitching Tale" (art by Bill Galvan), and B&V present "The Ultimate Halloween Bash!" (art by Dan Parent). The last of those was more of a "special feature" than a story per se, being mainly instructional in nature, but it contains some relevant tips on how to throw a Halloween-themed party, and even though it isn't really a story, Dan P. remembered to end the feature with a final-panel gag to wrap everything up nicely in the Archie Comics tradition. The special feature originally appeared in BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #85, back when it was given a face-lift by Dan P. to be styled more like a magazine, and each issue featured at least one special feature (usually fashions, sometimes quizzes, but sometimes other things, depending on the season and theme of the individual issue). I really liked the idea of special features, and never felt like those were robbing the reader of the equivalent number of pages of story, simply because they added variety and were usually interesting in and of themselves. All of them were the work of Dan Parent (showing off his design talents using computer graphics software), and they always had an attractive look to them.

I think I've read all of these stories previously somewhere before, although it's hard to say definitely in some cases. One oddity struck me in the story "They're Creepy and They're Kooky", in which Archie, Betty & Veronica meet the Addams Family-like Plumley family and their daughter Monica (whom of course, B&V are immediately suspicious of because of Archie's interest in her), who have just moved into a reputed haunted house that's been abandoned for years. When Archie goes inside the Plumleys' house to visit, B&V are sure that the family is up to something no good (because, of course, they've SEEN The Addams Family), and start freaking out. Wandering away, they discuss what they should do to extricate Archie from the family's (and especially Monica's) clutches, and they recruit Jughead to help them. Veronica works her dander up to the point where by the time they've returned to the house, she bangs on the door. When Monica answers the door, Veronica demands to see Archie, and she responds that she doesn't know any Archie, and that they've just moved to the neighborhood, and slams the door in her face. While B&V and Jughead are still standing in front of the house discussing what to do now, Archie approaches from behind them and surprises them. B&V are overjoyed to see he's just fine, but then Monica shows up again, seemingly from nowhere, and invites them all into the house for some snacks, in an attempt, I guess, to allay their fears that there's just something weird about her family. I was a little confused because Monica never attempts to justify her earlier behavior when she answered the door -- I'd already decided that Monica must have a twin sister whom none of the gang had seen before, who had arrived home after Archie & Monica left, but it's never mentioned one way or the other, so I was left scratching my head about why Monica answered the door earlier and claimed she didn't know anyone named Archie. Not only that, but B&V and Jughead had never left the front of the house, while trying to decide what to do, before Archie and Monica reappeared, and Monica didn't come out the front door of the house, either, but seems to have followed Archie (from wherever, but not from inside the house). Or is it possible that the story, as it originally appeared, was longer than the 5 pages reprinted here?  ???

DeCarlo Rules

FIST OF THE BLUE SKY VOL. 1-4 by Tetsuo Hara
MEGA MAN TRIBUTE HC (art book)
INFINITY WARS #4 (of 6)
BLACK HAMMER: THE QUANTUM AGE #3
PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #3
RED SONJA/TARZAN #5
(of 6)
A WALK THROUGH HELL HCF 2018 #1
ALBERT EINSTEIN: TIME MASON #1
DETECTIVE COMICS #888-890
PLASTIC MAN #5
(of 6)
HAWKMAN #5
SWAMP THING HALLOWEEN HORROR 100-PAGE COMIC GIANT #1
- One new 12-page story, the rest reprints, but not bad for $5. A Walmart exclusive.

PTF

Just my usual Power Rangers, Transformers, dropped TMNT to get Amazing Spider-Man and I really like it.

But good news is that I got some money back from my healthcare insurance so I actually have extra money. So I'm probably going to get Vamperonica because, eh, it's October. I haven't heard much about it, but the covers look good.

rusty

I've started getting caught up on the new comics from the past year or so that I fell behind on - probably around 1800 comics total.  My goal is to be caught up before Christmas so we'll see how that goes.

Today I read Motor Girl #1-10 by  Terry Moore.  It is about an Iraq war veteran who survived two bombings and torture during a year of captivity and new runs a junkyard in the desert.  Very well done.

I also read around a dozen comics from Joe Books.   Their output is nonexistent now so I am wondering if they have financial problems.
Bongo Comics is next and then I will move on to other publishers.

BettyReggie

I read each of books for 12 minutes each
Menage A 3 - Volume #1
The Secret Loves Of Geeks - Volume #2
Love Is Love
New Romancer - Volume #1
Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #292
Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #266 & #267


rusty

I read:

Bill and Ted Save the Universe #1-5 - another entertaining entry in the Bill and Ted universe.

Lucy Dreaming #1-5 - a girl finds that she has the power to enter other worlds when she is dreaming due to her parents scientific experiments.  It was fun.

Mech Cadet Yu #1-12 - Every four years, three giant mecha come down to Earth to bond with cadets at the academy so that they can aid in the fight against the alien Sharg.  Something unexpected happens with the latest bonding ceremony.  I enjoyed the series.

Misfit City #1-8 - Not much happens in the coastal town of Cannon Cove, except for the occasional fan of the 1980s kids movie The Gloomies which was filmed there shows up (guess which movie this is based on).   Then a pirate map turns up with bad guys trying to steal it from a group of kids who are trying to figure the map out.  A decent if somewhat predictable series.

Skybourne #1-5 - A Frank Cho series about the children of Lazarus who are immortals with great strength and other abilities.  Bloody but good.The Woods #33-36 - The end of a series about a group of high school students and their teachers who were kidnapped to an alien moon along with their school building and then had to survive for a few years. 


I'm all caught up with Boom now.  On to Titan Books.

DeCarlo Rules

CUTIE HONEY '90 Vol. 1 Part 1-6; Vol. 2 Part 1-6 (Studio Ironcat 1998) by Go Nagai - A sequel manga set 30 years after Go Nagai's original (1973) Cutie Honey series. It has nothing to do with the 8-part anime OAV series (usually called New Cutie Honey to distinguish it from the original anime series); that was set 100 years after the original series, so I guess neither the manga nor the anime invalidates the other. Unfortunately, just as the story was beginning to take on some coherence, it's quickly wrapped up in the space of just a few pages and brought to a hurried conclusion.

CRUSHER JOE #1-6 (Studio Ironcat 1998)

PLANETES Vol. 1-4.2 - For reasons that completely escape me, what should have been volumes 4 and 5 were instead marked as volumes 4.1 and 4.2 ... ? I don't know why; it's not like thematically they comprised a particular story arc together. Maybe in the original Japanese publication order Volume 4 was a single volume that (for whatever reason) had twice as many pages as the previous three volumes, and ToykoPop just split it in half for the English translation? It's a bit of a disappointment for the series to end as soon as it does, because it really doesn't feel like there's any sense of resolution, and many characters' plotlines are simply left dangling. I was also surprised to learn that there was a anime series adapted from the manga, since I'd never heard of it. There were a lot of side characters whose stories didn't really reach any satisfying ending. This could have been better-focused and a little less rambling off on tangents, but in general, it's a good kind of near-future hard-science based type of sci-fi that I enjoy a lot. ASTRA: LOST IN SPACE is another such similar series. Wish I could find more manga like this. It's SO near-future that much of the underlying backstory historical context has probably already been invalidated since the books were published by TokyoPop in 2004.

rusty

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on October 22, 2018, 10:29:38 AM
CRUSHER JOE #1-6 (Studio Ironcat 1998)

PLANETES Vol. 1-4.2 - For reasons that completely escape me, what should have been volumes 4 and 5 were instead marked as volumes 4.1 and 4.2 ... ? I don't know why; it's not like thematically they comprised a particular story arc together. Maybe in the original Japanese publication order Volume 4 was a single volume that (for whatever reason) had twice as many pages as the previous three volumes, and ToykoPop just split it in half for the English translation? It's a bit of a disappointment for the series to end as soon as it does, because it really doesn't feel like there's any sense of resolution, and many characters' plotlines are simply left dangling. I was also surprised to learn that there was a anime series adapted from the manga, since I'd never heard of it. There were a lot of side characters whose stories didn't really reach any satisfying ending. This could have been better-focused and a little less rambling off on tangents, but in general, it's a good kind of near-future hard-science based type of sci-fi that I enjoy a lot. ASTRA: LOST IN SPACE is another such similar series. Wish I could find more manga like this. It's SO near-future that much of the underlying backstory historical context has probably already been invalidated since the books were published by TokyoPop in 2004.


I enjoyed Crusher Joe.  I wonder if any company will license and publish the new Crusher Joe: Rebirth series.   


Planetes is a series that I love.  The fourth volume was double sized in Japan so it was understandable that it was split in two for English release, though it came across a bit strange.  I wish the series had been longer.  I also enjoyed Astra and finished reading it recently.


Have you tried Space Brothers and Twin Spica?  I have really enjoyed each of these.  Space Brothers is only available digitally, unfortunately, and certain volumes of Twin Spica can be a little more difficult to find/expensive these days.

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: rusty on October 22, 2018, 12:18:05 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on October 22, 2018, 10:29:38 AM
CRUSHER JOE #1-6 (Studio Ironcat 1998)

PLANETES Vol. 1-4.2 - For reasons that completely escape me, what should have been volumes 4 and 5 were instead marked as volumes 4.1 and 4.2 ... ? I don't know why; it's not like thematically they comprised a particular story arc together. Maybe in the original Japanese publication order Volume 4 was a single volume that (for whatever reason) had twice as many pages as the previous three volumes, and ToykoPop just split it in half for the English translation? It's a bit of a disappointment for the series to end as soon as it does, because it really doesn't feel like there's any sense of resolution, and many characters' plotlines are simply left dangling. I was also surprised to learn that there was a anime series adapted from the manga, since I'd never heard of it. There were a lot of side characters whose stories didn't really reach any satisfying ending. This could have been better-focused and a little less rambling off on tangents, but in general, it's a good kind of near-future hard-science based type of sci-fi that I enjoy a lot. ASTRA: LOST IN SPACE is another such similar series. Wish I could find more manga like this. It's SO near-future that much of the underlying backstory historical context has probably already been invalidated since the books were published by TokyoPop in 2004.


I enjoyed Crusher Joe.  I wonder if any company will license and publish the new Crusher Joe: Rebirth series.   


Planetes is a series that I love.  The fourth volume was double sized in Japan so it was understandable that it was split in two for English release, though it came across a bit strange.  I wish the series had been longer.  I also enjoyed Astra and finished reading it recently.


Have you tried Space Brothers and Twin Spica?  I have really enjoyed each of these.  Space Brothers is only available digitally, unfortunately, and certain volumes of Twin Spica can be a little more difficult to find/expensive these days.

I looked up SPACE BROTHERS, and that seems to be just the type of thing I was asking about, so I will probably check out the anime film adaptation to get a flavor for it -- after I get through watching the anime version of PLANETES (seems quite different so far). What I have on hand right now in that genre that I will probably read fairly soon is Yukinobu Hoshino's 2001 NIGHTS (which will be a re-read for the first time since I read it when it was originally published in 1990-91), along with Hoshino's follow-up to that, a 1997-98 Dark Horse adaptation of James P. Hogan's THE TWO FACES OF TOMORROW.

I don't know about this trend to just release stuff digitally and forget about doing print version, but it seems it's the way things are going now, so I'll have to get used to it. I'll look into finding Space Brothers that way. Seems like they're releasing some of Osamu Tezuka's early classic stuff that way too, like AMBASSADOR MAGMA. Or who knows... Digital Manga did a Kickstarter for WONDER 3 and seven others of Tezuka' works in 2017 that was successfully backed, but it seems like the backers are still waiting for print copies, while in the meantime DMP's webstore is selling Ambassador Magma in digital-only format? Something's not right here, and the Kickstarter backers seem restless for their promised rewards.

TWIN SPICA seems like a bit of an oddity there, in that it doesn't really focus on the realistic hardware and science, but is more a story of a girl growing up to realize her dream of going into space. Certainly the art style sets a very different tone for the story than I expect for a typical hard-SF. Maybe I can find it at the library to sample it.

You never know about Crusher Joe: Rebirth. Unless it has someone at a publisher really backing it, it probably won't happen. CJ was a well-known and regarded property once, but doesn't seem as well-remembered these days (you rarely hear anything much about Haruka Takachiho's Dirty Pair these days, either). There are certainly any number of remake/sequels to classic manga (or anime) icons that just never get picked up for US translation. It's very spotty.

rusty

I realized after I replied that Twin Spica isn't really the same type of SF manga, but it is pretty good.
I am a backer for DMP's Kimagure Orange Road and Wonder 3 kickstarters.  I have backed a couple other things from them as well and they have been really bad with these last few.  I think that they ran into some serious financial problems.  I have been much more patient than many, though one of the biggest problems has been a lack of communication.  They have gotten things turned around on the KOR kickstarter and I should get my books within the next month or two - only a couple of years late.  After that, I think there is one other backed up kickstarter before they get to the Wonder 3 books.  Hopefully we will get them by next summer.  I think that I ordered 6 or 7 manga with the add ons.
I'm not a fan of the digital only releases, but I can understand it if they are anticipating low print sales.  I would think that Space Brothers would sell pretty well, though.
One other thing I don't like, but can understand, is when the publisher publishes part of the series to sort of test the waters and skips around without publishing the entire series or even making the attempt.   This is what happened with Golgo 13 from Viz with a best of series that barely scratched the surface.  Same thing with Oishinbo from Viz and Drops of God from Vertical, though Vertical did start from the beginning before jumping ahead to try and increase sales.

rusty

I'm caught up on Titan Comics for now.


Assassin's Creed #1-14 - I've never played the games, but enjoyed the movie so I thought I'd check out the comics.  This first series from Titan was a lot of fun.  I plan to check out the other series from Titan and other publishers.


Dan Dare #1-4 - A good modern version of Dan Dare as the supertreen Mekon is now a prisoner and seems to be reformed.  Entertaining science fiction.


Forever War #1-6 and Forever Free #1-3 - These are pretty good adaptations of the Joe Haldeman science fiction novels.


Lost Fleet: Corsair #1-5 - I am a fan of Jack Campbell's various series - The Lost Fleet, The Lost Stars, Pillars of Reality, etc.  This is a nice side story in the Lost Fleet universe telling what happened to Black Jack Geary's great nephew and his escape from the Syndics.  More Lost Fleet comics would not be a bad thing.


Robotech #1-12 - I was a fan of the various comic series from Comico back in the 1980s.  I never watched the anime, though, and lost interest in the comics during the Sentinels run.  This updated version has been pretty good so far.


Torchwood The Culling #1-4 - Not as good as some of the other Torchwood series, but okay.  None of the comics measure up to the first two tv seasons, but that is likely an unreasonable expectation.




Up next is Valiant.

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: rusty on October 20, 2018, 03:04:02 PM
I also read around a dozen comics from Joe Books.   Their output is nonexistent now so I am wondering if they have financial problems.

I haven't paid too much attention to JoeBooks, but they're still soliciting new product for January 2019 shipping (Disney Cinestory graphic novels). Only two items for that month's solicitation, but they're still in business.

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