Asis! (comic book thread)

[erisesoteric]

Asis, I just want to thank you for recommending those three comic books. Not only did I like them very much, but the girl in the comic store also approved of my choices. When I mentioned that a friend of mine who worked in a comic store recommended them, she was of the opinion that comic store chicks should get together and start a consortium, to promote good comic books, and to celebrate breaking into the boy's club.

Dan won't let me quit my job to work in a comic store. Something about never bringing home a paycheck, just a big pile of books. No faith, that man, no faith!

Anyway, the three books that Asis recomended were:

Alias: very cool, very nice book. Perhaps leaning too much on the whole Daredevil connection, but ah well, what do you expect. I liked the whole turn around on the secret identity thing... the superhero turned private investigator was a nice angle. They didn't have the first graphic novel, so I picked up the second one, which a nice piece of story telling.

Boneyard: a nice little comic, maybe a little too focused on "things are not always what they appear to be" but hey, it's the first book. Definately got potential.

Fables: Man, that Snow White is a cold bitch. Fairy tales run away and live in the modern world. Totally cool.

[AsIs]

LOL, glad you liked them.

The first book of Alias has more of a Nick Cage/Avengers leaning than Daredevil. I like that she is very human. If I were casting a movie with this character, Janeane Garofalo would so be the lead!

I love Boneyard because it is funny and has a inherant sweetness to it.

Fables just flat out rocks!

Hey don't forget to check out www.comicsontheweb.com

There are a few comics you can read there for free from Crossgen. And you can read pretty much thier entire line for $20 a year. I finally figured out I was spending too much on comics so I signed up for a year so I could cut back a bit on their books. Crossgen makes way too many, too cool books. Check out Sojourn and Ruse for the best of their line.

[Neophobic Man]

I'm going to give AsIs a big WOO HOO for her Crossgen suggestions...Ruse and Sojurn are two of the best books on the market today...

As for the others, metnioned in Eris's post...Alias, you guys (I know you know AsIs) are aware that it's going to be folded into a more mainstream Marvel line, so I've been hearing...maybe someone has better information? And Eris, if you're liking Alias, was it because it fit a certain genre type? Why aren't you reading Powers? Same writer. Same tone. Same kick ass kinda book.

Anyone know if Fables has been collected yet? I missed out on this one early and it's going to cost too much to collect the ebtire run thus far...

[AsIs]

It's funny, I am not a powers fan, the book seemed to be about nothing when I picked it up. Not enough dialog, action, etc. So I never really liked it. Alias, while slower than most other books intrigued me. I liked the humaness of the character. I didn't know they were going to fold it more into the Marvel universe. I sort of like it being on the fringes. We'll see what he does with the story.

Yes, Fables is out in trade form for the first storyarc. You can also read the first issue for free by going to DC's site, clicking on features tab, and selecting the Fables #1 link. I think it uses acrobat to download it.

[erisesoteric]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Neophobic Man:
Why aren't you reading Powers? </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cause I'd never heard of it before, that's why...

[batfreak]

Have to recommend the New Lady Death by CGE (Crossgen) Excellent book when done by Chaos, Now Even better. Give it a look.

Ultimate Spiderman: I hate being a fanboy but this title ROCKS with the intro of Ultimate Venom.

Hero bear & the kid: New TPB just out Read it, love it.

Batman (Alas my weak point) Since the new team took over in 608 this book is f*!@king Excellent.
[img]graemlins/bat.gif[/img]

[RichC]

I loved Alias when I was collecting (alas, I stopped to help me achive my goal), but loved loved LOVED it.

As for news on the web, the best thing to do is find a site you know is reliable and take the "If they don't say it, I don't believe it" approach. For me & comic news, my site is www.newsarama.com

[Neophobic Man]

Hoo boy...here's a good debate topic for all those comic lovers out there:

Marvel's Ultimate Line. Good or Bad?

I don't read them all. What I do read (Ultimate X-Men and Ultimates) I think are fantastic. Sure I know the real history of the characters and such, but fresh, new ways of telling their stories...damn fine reading...I'll comment more if a real debate starts up on the topic...

Since Planetary is on some sort of hiatus (though I hear it's coming back) Ultimates is possibly the best comic on the market of it's type...

[AsIs]

Ultimates is one of my favorite books. It has a grit and a edge to it that I love. Ultimate Spiderman started out as a book targeted at teens. Sort of a contemporary restart for Spidey.

Ultimate X-Men started out the same way. To draw in movie fans and update the characters.

But Ultimates...I can't say I would recommend Ultimates to adolesants or even teens. It has a very hard edge to it. I believe it should actually be part of Marvel's MAX line. For those who don't know it is a line of comics targeted at adults. There is one scene it Ultimates where Giant/Ant Man and Wasp get in a spousel abuse fight and he beats the crap out of her and damn near kills her. I love the edge to the comic and wouldn't change a thing about it, except move it to the Max line...

[erisesoteric]

OK, keep in mind that I've not encountered either the MAX line, or the Ultimate line...

However, I'm not sure that targeting real life scenarios towards teens is a bad idea. "Teen" doesn't mean "clueless," and I've never been fond of the idea of protecting kids from things that they have to deal with in real life eventually. Or, that they may be dealing with currently. I rather like the idea of raising the expectations of teen targeted comic books from pure escapism to rl with capes.

Of course, that doesn't changed the fact that it's all been done before (in Watchmen), but that's another discussion entirely.