Comic Books

[Psy-Fi]

Thought I'd start a thread about comic books since we don't have one yet.

Here's a mind-boggling true comic book story to start the thread off...


Superman's first appearance sells for $6 million, becoming world's most valuable comic

[Trollheart]

I'll probably get a lot of flak for this (Batty would be out with a shotgun and a mean dog hunting me down if he were here) but I read Arkham Asylum (Batman) a few months ago and I really was not impressed with it. Which is weird, as I'm sure I read it before, a long time ago. But the way the Joker's dialogue was written (kind of elongated, misshapen letters in red) put me off. I get the idea, but it made it hard to read what he was saying. Plus, the idea in the story confused me. Only one thing stayed with me and I'll spoiler it for those who have not read it and intend to.

Spoiler

The scene where the doctor guy (I think) comes home and finds his family killed, and is looking for his daughter's head, finds it in the dollhouse. The text says "I look in the dollhouse and the dollhouse looks back at me" and you see her head looking out the little window.

[close]

THAT I loved. Excellent piece of writing. But I ended with a feeling of shrug and how is this considered one of the best comic books of all time? And I do like Batman (more than Superman, for sure) so it's not that. I was just... underwhelmed with it? Like everyone tells you this movie is amazing, you have to see it, and then you do and it's like what's the big deal?

Am I alone here?

Oh and just to add another nail to my cross, could not get into Sandman at all. Didn't understand it and it did not engage me. What's that you say? On a rail, eh? If you insist. Never liked this town anyway.

[Guybrush]

Nah, I'm with you, Trollheart 🙂 I haven't read Arkham Asylum, but I've read all the Sandmans and Alan Moore's big hits from the 80s/90s like his run with Sandman and Hellblazer, of course Watchmen. I remember others like Transmetropolitan, Hellboy and Lobo of all things.

Some of them do drag a bit and I wonder if it might come from wanting to legitimise comics as a more serious art form that could do drama. But for myself, I think the medium's biggest strength comes from going very dark or visceral or over the top. You can draw anything, so just looking at panels of people talking and lots of text isn't the best use of the medium imo.

A series that is occasionally delightfully over the top is Preacher. That had some fun moments, I think.

For Sandman, I think my favourite books were Season of Mists followed by The Doll's House.

The comic book story that I remember best was a Clive Barker story, probably an illustrated version of something out of Books of Blood. In it, villagers from some eastern European hamlets join together to form these giants made up of many people who then fight.



That's a good use of the medium, I think 🙂 at least for my tastes.

[Trollheart]

Oh hell yeah. I didn't know there were any comic book versions of Barker's work! Must look those up on my favourite illegal download site. I love love love Watchmen (writing a journal about that - no I won't shut up) and V for Vendetta, loved The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight but just could not appreciate Arkham at all. Preacher does sound good; I meant to look for that then forgot. I also love the Marvel parodies (Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, anyone?) and I'm a massive fan, always have been, of 2000 AD, especially Dredd and Strontium Dog. There was a short-lived comic called Starlord (ended up being absorbed by 2000 AD) which was great too, had some amazing stories including Ro-Busters and Mind Wars (I think).

I do agree that the strength of a comic book (or, if you will/must, graphic novel) is in the dark places it can go, but I feel with Arkham they overran this, or overdid it, and Sandman, to me, was just like coming in about halfway through a series like Lost or 24 or something you really have to have been watching all the episodes to understand. And it kicks off in the middle of something already having happened, with no explanation (though I'm sure if you stick with it you get that explanation, or something close to it).

Comic books/graphic novels which do not, to my knowledge, exist but which should, in my opinion:

Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles
Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series
Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and something that is the opposite to ice
Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series
Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (I know there are stories, but TMK not the originals)
Asimov's Foundation trilogy
Douglas Adams' Hitch-Hikers, um, quintology