Nerd Outreach Program: Comic Books

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shawkins

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At my last job everybody I worked with was an unapologetic nerd. We’d go out to lunch and talk comic books, which brought much joy into my life. At my current job everybody’s into home improvement and sports. No one even went to see Iron Man, for @#%’s sake. So, I thought I’d start a thread where nerds could gather to discuss our raison d’etre.

The canon (Watchmen, Dark Knight Sandman) have been talked to death. If you haven't read all of them get thee to a comic shop and come back when you're done. Have you read anything lately that you consider in that league, or at least really good?

Supreme Power
The best title that isn’t Watchmen, Dark Knight or Sandman, and I never would have picked it up if it weren’t for my buddy Steve. Thanks Steve. Supreme Power is a thinly disguised take on some DC stalwarts with a much more, um, realistic tone. Superman Hyperion landed on a farm in the midwest and was immediately snatched from Jon & Martha his parents to be raised by the government, who did a predictable job of mangling his emotional equipment. Batman Nighthawk’s parents were killed by racist rednecks when he was a boy and he’s not entirely at ease with race relations. Wonder Woman Zarda would kill you as soon as look at you. Etc.

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The main series was published under the Marvel Max imprint, so there’s plenty of carnage and T&A. A wise nerd in another thread pointed out that the Supreme Power series is descended from a 1980s run of the same characters, but I don’t know anything about that.

Supreme Power Volume 1 - Main story arc. I envy you the experience of reading it for the first time.
Supreme Power Volume 2 - First half continues the main story arc, the second half is a related self-contained story.. Just as good as vol. 1.

Doc Spectrum: Full Spectrum - Of the lackluster spin-off titles, this one is my favorite.
Supreme Power: Nighthawk - Batman Nighthawk vs. the Joker Someone Who Isn’t The Joker But Looks A Lot Like Him. Readable, but didn’t rock my world.
Squadrom Supreme - The Pre-War years. I forgot I had this one actually. Same writers, but it’s not under the Marvel Max imprint so it’s toned down.
Ultimate Power - Reed Richards opens a portal into the Supreme-verse. Meh ensues.

I think the series is still running--the story arc doesn’t feel concluded, anyway--but I haven’t seen anything new in the main arc for a while. Also, lead writer J. Michael Straczynski is currently campaigning to be a writer/producer on the next Superman movie. He’s been quoted as saying he wants to do Superman as sort of an angry god. That sounds promising, but I still want more Supreme Power.

The Ultimates
This is the only one of Marvel’s Ultimate <pick character> series that I really dug, so far anyway. (I’ve also looked at Spider Man & X-Men). Capt. America is your grandfather trapped in the body of a wrestler, Quicksilver has a love for his sister that extends well into creepy-land, and Betty Ross keeps Banner's manhood in her purse.

Uniformly good writing, phenomenal art.


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Books of Magic
Around 1993 Neil Gaiman wrote a four issue run on a kid who’s gonna grow up to be a great wizard. This was in parallel to, not imitation of, the start of Harry Potter. It pulls in most of the obscure DC supernatural characters (Deadman, Mister E). Personally, I think it’s the best thing Gaiman ever wrote. I loved it unreservedly.

Fables
This is a soap-opera like saga of fables living in exile in NYC. The collections are about 6 inches tall when stacked on top of each other, so there’s too many story arcs to summarize. Bigby Wolf is the sheriff, Goldilocks is a rabid left-wing revolutionary, and so on. I dug it and I’ll read it when nothing better is handy, but to me it didn’t stand out tot the degree that the stuff above does. YMMV, though. A lot of people loved it.

So what else is good?
 
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Jodotha

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*cry* Gol I miss comic books! At one point in my life I was sure I needed to be a comic book artist. I went to Comi-Con, Wizard World....*sigh* alas, my pocketbook cannot afford such pleasures anymore and I haven't bought a GN in over three years. Sad...
 

GreenFriend

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Even though it's talked about a lot these days, the actual graphic novel 'Wanted' is wonderful. It's not for everyone, but I found it to be the anti-Watchmen. It was like the first real "popcorn film" comic.

The Boys, which is a book for mature readers or snickering kids is about the people who keep the "superheroes" in line. It's hard, it's fast, and it's gutsy.

JSA right now is just the best team book I've ever read. Johns is taking teamwork to places it's never been. Plus, the action is just vivid and fun.

Finally...

If you've never read it, read the Invisibles. It really is the most groundbreaking comic most never even heard about.

edit: Oh, man! I forgot Blankets. I was crying by the end like a schoolgirl at a Hanna Montana concert.
 

shawkins

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Jodotha; said:
Gol I miss comic books! At one point in my life I was sure I needed to be a comic book artist. I went to Comi-Con, Wizard World....*sigh* alas, my pocketbook cannot afford such pleasures anymore and I haven't bought a GN in over three years. Sad...

Marvel has a number of collections out on CD for like $10. I picked up Ultimate X-Men that way. Reading them off the monitor isn't my fave, but if there's no other choice it might be worth a shot.

JSA right now is just the best team book I've ever read. Johns is taking teamwork to places it's never been. Plus, the action is just vivid and fun.

Finally...

If you've never read it, read the Invisibles. It really is the most groundbreaking comic most never even heard about.

edit: Oh, man! I forgot Blankets. I was crying by the end like a schoolgirl at a Hanna Montana concert.

I've already got Wanted and The Boys. I'm with you, both are great. Clearly you are a connoisseur.

The other 3 are now in my amazon cart awaiting payday. Thanks!

Have you read Black Hole by Charles Burns? It's a standalone about a venereal disease epidemic in 1970s America that turns high schoolers into icky monsters. No one fights crime or anything. Very surreal. If you liked the movie Naked Lunch it would probably be to your taste.

The story is that Burns wrote and illustrated it all by his lonesome over a period of like 10 years. I think he might have self-pubbed as well(?). Now supposedly there's going to be a movie made of it. David (Fight Club) Fincher is directing.
 

Shweta

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*cry* Gol I miss comic books! At one point in my life I was sure I needed to be a comic book artist. I went to Comi-Con, Wizard World....*sigh* alas, my pocketbook cannot afford such pleasures anymore and I haven't bought a GN in over three years. Sad...

For cost-free comic book addiction pleasure, I recommend Girl Genius :)

Also, shouldn't this be in the comics forum?
 

ChaosTitan

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I kind of like seeing a Comic Book thread here. Superhero comics, in particular, have always had a healthy influence of SF and Fantasy to them.

I bought a book recently called The Physics of Superheroes. Not being a particularly science-minded person, I picked it up because the author is a Physics professor. He teaches this course in an effort to explain physics concepts to students who otherwise might not take a physics course.

I've only read the intro and part of the first chapter, but a quick scan of the book makes me believe it will be an invaluable tool to me, as a writer. Seems that comics have been getting physics right for a long time now. And who knows? Maybe I'll come out a little smarter for the experience.

I don't read many comics, but over the last sixteen years I've collected most of the Wolfman/Perez The New Teen Titans and their various spin-offs and reboots. I'm big on ensembles, especially in TV shows, so I adore these books. When I was fourteen, they inspired me to create my own super team. Granted, at the time the costumes were a little cheesy, the code names kinda corny, and the storylines very, very cliche. But I found that notebook two years ago, dusted off the concepts, rebooted those characters, and have written two novels based on them.

Fun times. :D
 

Albedo

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How about Transmetropolitan? Warren Ellis' satirical cyberpunk series has nary an ambiguously gay superhero or insufficiently explained superpower in sight. Unless you consider gonzo journalism a superpower.

transmetropolitan08.jpg


Spider Jerusalem is in fact almost an anti-hero.
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Shadow_Ferret

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I have never read Watchmen, Dark Knight, or Sandman. Never even heard of the Watchmen. And the whole Dark Knight thing, well, I liked Batman when he was just a caped detective, not some angry vigilante. And Sandman, all I know is that's some character Jack Kirby created back in the Golden Age and I'm not sure if it's related to Neil Gaiman's.

I've been out of comics for some 30 years. Thought I outgrew them. Then Ed Brubaker went and murdered the greatest comic book hero of all and I was dragged back in. So I'm reading Captain America and getting more and more angry as I realize they have no intention of bringing back Steve Rogers. They don't seem to realize no one can walk in his shoes. Anyway, I wrote Ed Brubaker an email expressing my dismay that they'd diss the great Jack Kirby that way by murdering his masterwork.

And I'm reading some other books, too. I didn't realize Joe Kubert was still alive, much less creating books, so I'm reading his latest effort, Tor.

And I'm caught up in Secret Invasion and Avengers Invaders.

But I don't read much independents except someone is doing the Kolchak Papers, which I think is pretty good so far.
 

channeller

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I used to be massively into x-men when I was younger, but my favourite was actually one of the spin-offs-- Excalibur. It was so crazy and imaginative! I picked up a whole pack of them on e-bay a few years ago and re-read them, it was great!
 

ILove2Write

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Shawkins,

On that first comic strip that you posted, every time I look at it I can't help but see a resemblance to Angelina Jolie (on the very left pic with the blonde. Not so much the middle one.) - maybe it's her big lips and eyes...it's interesting.

Anyway, to get to your question, I used to read lots of comics. I loved them when I was kid. I still like them now but I haven't found many that could hold my attention. Recently I've just started getting into Frank Miller's Sin City. I don't know if you like superhero comics more but if you like film noir or pulp short stories then this is the closest you can get in comic form I think.

I still love all the Batman comics- I was and still am a HUGE fan of the Batman the Animated Series. I really wish they would bring it back or that I could find them on DVD. My VHS is starting to look old. Fortunately, I saw Batman Mask of the Phantasm in the store the other day! YAY! I bought it on DVD of course.
 

Inkdaub

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And Sandman, all I know is that's some character Jack Kirby created back in the Golden Age and I'm not sure if it's related to Neil Gaiman's.




Gaiman 'reinvented' Kirby's Sandman for his series and the original is mentioned early on in Gaiman's series. The mention is an explanation of why both Sandmen exist.

I wish Steve Rodgers would stay dead...but he won't. I just hope they don't bring him back until my main man Brubaker is finished writing the title...which means I won't be reading it anymore. Granted, if there's going to be a Cap it should be Steve. I just hate all the 'Oh god no so and so's dead...no wait no he's not he lives!' crap.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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Well, I'm steamed they killed him off in the first place. Steve Rogers was Captain America and no one can simply put on his suit and become Captain America.

What I hate is when there are so many different Green Lanterns, or Flashes, or Robins, as if to say that the alter-ego doesn't matter. Well, maybe in those cases the alter-ego doesn't. Maybe those characters were just so shallow and one-dimensional that they can be replaced like the Soup of the Day.

Steve Rogers was different. Whereas most other superheroes became that way through an accident, Rogers VOLUNTEERED. He was a man who loved his country and would do anything to serve. Since he couldn't fight because he was too scrawny, he volunteered for an experiment as deadly as any he would have faced as a real soldier, maybe even more deadly since it was an unknown.

Rogers had high moral principals and a deep abiding love for his country. Whereas the current Bucky/Cap seems not to have any of those qualities.

Personally, if Captain America comic was doing that bad, I'd have prefered they just cancel it than destroy everything wonderful about it.

And I think the whole thing was a stab in the back to Jack Kirby.

If they don't bring back Steve Rogers (and every sign is he will stay dead), I'm not going to continue reading it, no matter how wonderful Ed Brubaker's writing might be.
 
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