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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 27, 2021 15:16:11 GMT -5
One of the books I picked up for free last week was World's Finest #322. (...) I lost interest in World's Finest after it switched from dollar to standard format. Now I kind of regret that, as apparently there are some hidden gems in there. I'm only 15 or so issues shy of having a complete run of World's Finest from #141 (the first edited by Weisinger) through the series' end.
Cei-U! I summon the treasure hunt!
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Post by tonebone on Sept 27, 2021 15:46:45 GMT -5
I HAVE to find an Ollies! Finding one is Only half the battle. The trick is to get there after they get a shipment in but before they've been picked clean by aging fanboys. I gotta say, though, I often wonder how huge this warehouse full of unsold graphic novels is. Marvel and DC must've really overestimated the demand for some of these books. Back a few years ago, when DC did their first Ollies dump, my local stores each displayed basically a 8x8x6 foot (solid) cube of books, which they continued to replenish as they sold them, for months. EVERY Ollies got that much stock at each of their 500 stores. Periodically, they get new GN's and Hardcovers, but never to the extent of the Great DC Dump. I have, over the past couple of years, bought a TON of good stuff. About 10 Showcase volumes, tons of hardcovers (Star Wars UK, Camelot 3000, The Twelve, 75 years of JSA- Robin- Lex Luthor- Shazam, etc.), lots of paperbacks (a bunch of Star Wars Epic Collections, too many to name), and some coffee-table books. I usually drop in once every couple of months to see what's there.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 27, 2021 22:25:25 GMT -5
I finished Cerebus. I’m deciding what to read next.
For a while, I’ve been wanting to re-read one of my favorite runs ... Supergirl: The Midvale Orphanage Years.
I have the Showcase presents Supergirl volume and I read it when I first got it four or five years ago. I haven’t looked at it since. So I’m gonna read the first few stories in that tonight.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 28, 2021 5:49:47 GMT -5
The First Kingdom #1 and 2 (reprinted).
That series has EPIC written in large letters on every single page (which is of course a metaphor, as it would make reading the story a bit difficult). But I'll be darned if it isn't as majestic, awe-inspiring and ambitious as any other fantasy tale I might have read.
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Post by profh0011 on Sept 28, 2021 13:34:32 GMT -5
MOBY DICK by Will Eisner I was reminded not long ago that Eisner had a long-standing interest in adapting "the classics". This 1998 book was nicely done. I was telling my home care client about this, and showed him a couple pages. I said, his linework is a bit rough, but VERY expressive, and, the coloring goes right along with it. He replied, " You're right, that's GORGEOUS!" It'd been sitting aorund in a box for more than 2 decades, and this morning I finally read the whole thing in one sitting while he was in for an EKG.
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Post by kirby101 on Sept 28, 2021 15:25:29 GMT -5
The First Kingdom #1 and 2 (reprinted). That series has EPIC written in large letters on every single page (which is of course a metaphor, as it would make reading the story a bit difficult). But I'll be darned if it isn't as majestic, awe-inspiring and ambitious as any other fantasy tale I might have read. I still have all 24 original issues of this. It is a very different comic, but I found the art and story compelling. It is not a decompressed story.
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Post by badwolf on Sept 30, 2021 10:21:05 GMT -5
A few hundred pages into the Man-Thing omnibus... It's no Howard the Duck, but it's okay. The "main" character is actually pretty dull, so it's more about the supporting cast. Still it's interesting to see the introductions of characters like Wundarr, Foolkiller, Richard Rory, and Howard himself. The best pieces are from the B&W mags, which are slightly more mature in tone. Mike Ploog is about to take over the art.
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Post by Ozymandias on Sept 30, 2021 12:01:39 GMT -5
Anyway, the art is Giffen at his Giffeniest, so I'm all in. Looks pretty José Antonio Muñoz-ish to me.
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Post by tartanphantom on Sept 30, 2021 12:06:06 GMT -5
Anyway, the art is Giffen at his Giffeniest, so I'm all in. That doesn't look like very good Giffen art to me, because I can still figure out what's actually happening in the story.
Giffen at his "Giffeniest" is absolutely, frustratingly, unfathomably confounding. I direct you to the final three issues of Hex, in which Giffen takes a so-so Fleisher storyline and absolutely destroys it (apparently on purpose) with multi-panel ultra-tight perspective jump-cut shots. By this point, I don't think Fleisher even cared anymore.
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 30, 2021 12:28:01 GMT -5
Giffen at his "Giffeniest" is absolutely, frustratingly, unfathomably confounding. Yeah, heralding anything as "Giffen at his Giffeniest" is guaranteed to kill any interest I might've had in it. I like his early work but by the time he was doing art like that posted above, I tended to avoid it (though I do own some, like his Ambush Bug stuff).
Cei-U! I summon the big ole turn-off!
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Post by profh0011 on Sept 30, 2021 13:14:46 GMT -5
For decades now I've been saying Keith Giffen may be the only artist I can think of who is on BOTH my "favorite" artist and "MOST HATED" artist lists... AT THE SAME TIME. I've tried telling my best friend in Georgia (who's way too "forgiving" of too many things) that I don't care if Giffen is a "nice guy". His artistic INSTABILITY and ERRATICNESS has driven me crazy too many times, and if I were an editor at DC, I'd MAKE SURE he never, ever touched LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES again for the rest of his life. I rate Andy Helfer as a GENIUS, because he was the one who figured out how to take best advantage of Giffen's best abilities-- story & layouts. He got OTHER, far better people to do the pencils, inks, colors & dialogue. JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL may be the only "later" JLA run that I don't eventually GET RID of. It was extremely well-done, and lots of fun. In 1974, Argeninian artist Alberto Breccia, who went thru several styles in his time (he allegedly inspired Jose Gonzales!), did something that-- I swear-- had to be an influence on some of Giffen's later work.
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Post by profh0011 on Sept 30, 2021 13:26:30 GMT -5
Optometrist appointment today. While waiting, I plowed thru the Ted Knight STARMAN stories from ADVENTURE COMICS #72-75... Case Of The Magic Bloodstone! The Case Of Murders In Outer Space! The Case Of The Monstrous Animal-Men The Strange Case Of The Luckless Liars! All of these were by Gardner Fox & Jack Burnley. They look and read very nice and "professional", but it's too easy to see why this series didn't catch on at the time. Apart from the entire series concept and the hero's costume & powers seeming too "generic" and "deritivate" (the Ted Knight series was the result of a TEAM of 5 editors & Burnley pooling ideas-- "creation by committee" if there ever was an example), you have the bit about Ted always faking illness which gets tiresome. Then there's his not wearing a facemask, yet both his girlfriend Doris and his FBI contact somehow never recognize him. Burnley's art is VERY nice, sharp, clean, "realistic", I'd almost say for comics, decades ahead of its time. It actually looks like it would have been a better fit in newspaper strips (in fact, Burnley did most of the BATMAN Sunday stories in the early 40s). At the same time, it's a bit "stiff", and not very "lively". I'm reminded that at the time the Golden Age Archive book came out (2000), it was one of many inspirations for a project I was working on. But since then, I've tried to take the advice of another artist and friend who kept urging me to "back away from too much photo-reference". As a result, while I still think it's pretty, it doesn't "grab" me the way it did 21 years ago. Most of the line reproduction isn't bad (though I sometimes find myself wishing somone had done photographic reproduction right off the original printed comics), but the 4th story I read today looked like they really didn't have good source material to work with (some pages looked really fuzzy). I guess with stuff from that era, one should be grateful you can read it AT ALL these days, in any kind of "reasonably" decent shape.
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 30, 2021 21:09:11 GMT -5
A few hundred pages into the Man-Thing omnibus... It's no Howard the Duck, but it's okay. The "main" character is actually pretty dull, so it's more about the supporting cast. Still it's interesting to see the introductions of characters like Wundarr, Foolkiller, Richard Rory, and Howard himself. The best pieces are from the B&W mags, which are slightly more mature in tone. Mike Ploog is about to take over the art. Howard is more down to earth showing the world as a madcap den of insanity that some choose not to question
Man-Thing focuses more on the "impossible" aspects of fantasy, horror, and the supernatural, or at least that's my impression so far
And Ploog is THE artist for Man-Thing in my opinion
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Post by brutalis on Oct 1, 2021 8:49:49 GMT -5
Begun diving into the world of Valiant comics. In the day I sporadically might buy an issue here or there that looked to catch my interest, bit never followed any of them regularly. Found a DVD-Rom collection at the Antique store Brass Armadillo that has if not ALL, then mostly all of the various series. Going to be fun reading these.
Not trying to follow in any order, rather just picking various series or specials to enjoy. Blew through Armorines which could have been better than it was. Lots of good ideas and potential but never really gets to focus on them. The "team" is not truly a highlight as it focuses more upon 2 of them more than others. Interesting read with its flaws hampering it from being better. Ok if not spectacular or innovative art.
Next up, I am 12 issues in on the Archer and Armstrong series. Nice to see BWS art in a comic again, even if he is "slumming" with a less intricate style. This is an oddly entertaining comic with a pair of unique "buddies" on the road. I can almost hear Hope/Crosby in my head when reading. I love Armstrong and his "teaching" Archer of life. Truly fun in some issues, especially when playing up the comedic and historical aspects.
Looking forward to exploring all the various series and characters yet to come.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 1, 2021 10:06:57 GMT -5
A few hundred pages into the Man-Thing omnibus... It's no Howard the Duck, but it's okay. The "main" character is actually pretty dull, so it's more about the supporting cast. Still it's interesting to see the introductions of characters like Wundarr, Foolkiller, Richard Rory, and Howard himself. The best pieces are from the B&W mags, which are slightly more mature in tone. Mike Ploog is about to take over the art. Howard is more down to earth showing the world as a madcap den of insanity that some choose not to question
Man-Thing focuses more on the "impossible" aspects of fantasy, horror, and the supernatural, or at least that's my impression so far
And Ploog is THE artist for Man-Thing in my opinion
Agreed. The series takes a huge leap with #5. Ploog is amazing, his panel design is more inventive, and the writing & story concepts are much better too.
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