This Old Neon Forum

This thread will be different from the What are you reading? discussion and the Anime/Manga Thread. Let's have a thread that focuses specifically on traditional western comic books. It doesn't have to be limited to just the big companies like Marvel and DC, or to just super-hero comics, but I think it deserves a separate topic.

Discussion of movies based on comics will be acceptable here in the context of conversations about comic books moreso than on their own (see the Last movie you watched & your rating thread for that).

Are there any comic fans here?

Death of Wolverine is the latest big story arc in the Marvel universe. The first issue was recently released to good reviews, but I haven't had a chance to read it. Here's the cover:

Jeez, I haven't kept up with comic books in years. The most recent titles I grabbed as they released were:

HAPPY!



SPACEMAN





Bizarrely, I haven't read either series. They've been sitting half-forgotten in their bags and boards, collected in their entirety on each release day. Guess I should read them! As you might glean from those choices, I'm not generally as interested in superhero comics. Batman and Daredevil are my go-to books for do-goodery, and even then I'm largely interested based on who's writing and penciling. Actually, I follow writers and artists rather than series as a general rule.

I've been reading Sandman: Overture

Unfortunately it taking an extraordinarily long time for issues to come out. Ten months and only three issues seems really rather silly considering Neil Gaiman has talked about having wanted to write this story for a long time. I had assumed that the story was finished but instead it seems he is writing it in between book tours and the like. It's supposed to be a special prequel commemorating the anniversary of the original Sandman comic but at this rate the final issue will be released just in time to commemorate the ten year anniversary of the first!

Anyway, fortunately it is good.



I still hope they never make a film out of Sandman. I don't understand why people keep wanting to.

I've read comics as a kid. Not much of the DC comics and the like (just a few), but more of the local comic from Hergé, Peyo and Willy Vandersteen mostly.

In terms of "Core" comics, i.e. DC/Marvel/other superhero comics, I'm really not that into them. I've read the entry level great comic novel Watchmen but that's it.

I have most of my comics history reading just about every Calvin and Hobbes strip there ever was. I have just about every collection except the complete. Someday I'll go through the complete collection and see if there are any extras I haven't read. I also read a lot of Foxtrot collections.

I used to be WAY into webcomics, but it's really fallen back to what I think are the two or three best webcomics ever. One is Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, which still astonishes me with its daily (!) wit. The other is Subnormality, which is less well-known. It's a freeform slice-of-lifey comic that doesn't really hit its stride until past 100 comics, but trust me, it's TOTALLY worth it. About half of the strips are disparate episodes in the lives of a few central characters. It doesn't have strong plot arcs, just very vague trends revealed in conversations or something. The rest of the strips are one-offs. The point is I FUCKING LOVE SUBNORMALITY. It's a wonderfully empathetic comic strip and I think it's incredibly honest about how people work. Go read it.

the other thing I'd like to plug is Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. It's a thorough study of the properties and mechanics of the medium of comics rendered itself as a comic book. It was a pretty seminal out-of-nowhere hit when it came out in the early 90s, too. The insights McCloud makes are incredibly deep and brilliant and informed me not only of how comics work but of certain cognitive biases people have in general as well. Also highly recommended.

In honour of this comic club, I bought my first serious comic. I've heard it mentioned many times. It's called Saga by Brian K Vaughan, and the first issue was released in 2012.

I literally know nothing about it, but it was cheap enough to give it a try.

I got Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1 in the queue, actually. Looking forward to it.

After giving up on Cerberus, I recently picked up a copy of Maus by Art Spiegelman.

Reason for giving up half-way through a comic: It just felt like I was reading the same joke over and over and kinda went nowhere. Also it didn't really make good use of it's art, instead relying far to much on narration.
I still have the follow-ups High Society and Church and State 1 & 2, who are said to be much better, but I doubt I will read them anytime soon.

As for Maus, it has been on my to-read list for quite some time and have high hopes for it.

Cerebus does indeed get better after the first arc. Was he even paired up with Gerhardt in the first book?

Okay, I know this is too generic; but I've read Archie comics over the years. I can't believe it's still going on these days too!