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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 19, 2014 11:13:43 GMT -5
My family is Nordic, and I was reminded almost daily, but beyond that nobody said a thing about our heritage except my last name means "Brother Viking." But now some members of my family are Odinist. I'm not sure I believe they're serious about it. Maybe they're just trying to put the Odin back in Wednesday. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 19, 2014 12:36:44 GMT -5
Finally completed P. Craig Russell's adaptation of Ring of the Nibelung, as recommended by mrp. From an execution standpoint, it earns a solid 10.0. However, my personal enjoyment of it was scaled down to an 8.5 for two reasons: 1. Russell's style has changed quite a bit from the work I'm used to seeing. It's a lot less fluid/psychadelic, and that feels a bit odd in a story about gods and magic. An early concept sketch for this adaptation was included in the back, drawn in 1978, and it was much more in line with what I expected from the series. The artwork was still phenomenal, but it was almost too meticulous. 2. I first watched Fritz Lang's 5 hour epic adaptation of this same myth,"Die Nibelungen," this past summer, and then two more time since. I even showed it to my mythology class, and they devoured it. But it stems from a different version of the myth than what Russell is working from. Lang pulled from the Germanic version while Russell pulls from an opera based on the Norse version. Thus, many of the basic plot points are the same, and most of the characters are the same in name, but the motivations and characterizations are completely different. I spent far too much time being surprised by, and often disappointed by, the source myth itself, and that distracted me from enjoying an otherwise outstanding labor of artistry and love. So I highly recommend it for others and am a bit disappointed that I didn't get maximum enjoyment out of it, myself. I have this on my shelf to read, too... soon, I hope  |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2014 20:57:21 GMT -5
I hit a thousand comics this week. I want to finish this trade though, because this year I haven't been listing partial trades in my list. But I have plenty of time to finish it before the year ends.
I think I'll cut back a bit next year. I got through a lot of unread stuff this year, although I still have several months worth of unread stuff left. I want to catch up on the Game Of Thrones books though, and the more recent Tami Hoag and Erica Spindler novels I haven't read yet.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 21, 2014 22:07:04 GMT -5
I hit a thousand comics this week. I want to finish this trade though, because this year I haven't been listing partial trades in my list. But I have plenty of time to finish it before the year ends. I think I'll cut back a bit next year. I got through a lot of unread stuff this year, although I still have several months worth of unread stuff left. I want to catch up on the Game Of Thrones books though, and the more recent Tami Hoag and Erica Spindler novels I haven't read yet. The GoT books are a blast, I've actually been thinking of rereading them from the beginning again in preparation of the new season. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2014 2:28:31 GMT -5
I am reading the most sublimely ridiculous but awesome strip on Thrillbent right now....Santa Claus: Private Eye; welcome to Nick Santana Investigations....holiday noir? It's like Rockford Files with Santa as Jim Rockford...except he can see if people are naughty or nice...
-M
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2014 14:27:48 GMT -5
The GoT books are a blast, I've actually been thinking of rereading them from the beginning again in preparation of the new season. I really like the material, and the short chapters are great, but I can't get into the character-based chapters format. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 23, 2014 15:29:31 GMT -5
There are some character based chapters I can't get into(like the Cersei chapters) but I like most of the other characters so I dig the focus on them.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 23, 2014 21:13:54 GMT -5
I had myself an Usagi read-a-thon today and it was amazing! Grasscutter is probably in my top ten comics now. I loved the way Stan deftly melded Japanese history, mythology and his own brand of samurai action into a single story and it blew me away.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,864
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Post by shaxper on Nov 24, 2014 18:59:51 GMT -5
I had myself an Usagi read-a-thon today and it was amazing! Grasscutter is probably in my top ten comics now. I loved the way Stan deftly melded Japanese history, mythology and his own brand of samurai action into a single story and it blew me away. Grasscutter is AMAZING, but I liked Grasscutter II even better. Did you get that far? Grasscutter works hard to tell an epic, all encompassing story, while the sequel has a much tighter focus on one critical event, and the hopelessness of the mission therein feels very much like Kurasawa's Seven Samurai in so many respects. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 24, 2014 22:29:29 GMT -5
I haven't purchased that one yet, I think that's two volumes away and I'm excited to see how the trip to the shrine goes. I thought about pulling the trigger yesterday but the last few years Dark Horse has had a major cyber monday sale so I'm going to wait a little longer.
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Post by Jesse on Nov 30, 2014 6:50:45 GMT -5
November total: 57
Highlights: Alan Moore's Swamp Thing was amazing and I simply could not put it down once I got into it. Really looking forward to reading more of that run. I'm glad I finally got around to reading Ghost in the Shell it was excellent.
Other highlights: Finally finished Tom Strong. It's a really fun series and I was kind of sad when it was over. I also reread X-Men Fatal Attractions which I thought holds up pretty well.
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 1, 2014 9:58:44 GMT -5
I enter December 1st with a total of 1076 comics read and won’t equal the 1400 that I read in 2013. Too many obligations but that’s life.
The Good:
Kid Cosmos
I enjoyed Jim Starlins, Kid Cosmos series which included an Original TPB called Cosmic Guard. Many think he writes the same story over and over again . Maybe That’s true but I enjoy that story.
Thor ( v.2) 12,61,68,69,74-79
I Am currently catching up with the Thors that have been published in the last 20 years. This wasn’t a bad run of books although they were an alternate universe/What if type story thrown into the regular series. In a nut shell: Thor is the ruler of Asgard and he takes over earth in order to protect them. His son and a few like minded people go against this.
Ultimate X-men 41
I never read this first run but this issue was really gripping. It features a sad story about a teen that wakes to discover that his mutant power is emitting chemicals that make people dissolve. Wolverine is enlisted to handle the problem. He does.
X-men (v.1) 56-63,65
The famous Thomas/ Adams run. It was great.
To be continued
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 1, 2014 10:49:17 GMT -5
Review of December continued-
The Bad:
I may surprise a few with this first pick but…
Avengers ( v.1) 141-143
Bad art by a rookie George Perez and really dated dialogue by Engelhart made me wonder why Avengers fans hold Engelharts run as one of the best. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed his run before this arc.
AI 10-12
I know this is a relatively new series about robots/Androids/cyborgs getting together to cash in on the hot Avengers name, but boy did this series stink.
The Ugly:
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers 3
I picked these up on the cheap in a recent comic show. Maybe you had to be high to enjoy this stuff but the black and white small print made this a chore to get through.
Warriors of Plasm 0-2
The Jim Shooter/Dave Lampham series wasn’t bad . The gunky world that is mostly slime was. Yuck.
Teen Titans (2003) 62-65
Dude, Wonder Dog kills Marvin and cripples Wendy. Goodbye childhood.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 1, 2014 10:59:00 GMT -5
Just 50 books read in November, which pretty much kills any hope I'd had of reaching 1200 this year; actually, this entire fall has done that, with me reading fewer than 150 total books since the beginning of September. With a strong December, I may still be able to make 1100, which would be 100 more than last year, but I'm pretty disappointed with myself, as I've allowed myself to get distracted the last few months with other things and I have been lax about reading.
Nothing stood out as tremendous this month, although I did quite enjoy reading the majority of the current Aquaman series to get caught up on that. The classics I read were either OK (Further Adventures of Indiana Jones) or unsatisfying (Abadazad, which was great but left open-ended at issue #3 with no further books in the series).
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2014 11:21:35 GMT -5
Smallest month of the year for me as I spent more time making comics than reading them this month. Way behind lat year's pace and probably won't break 1000 for the year (I would need my biggest month of the year by a significant margin to do so) and since I have a deadline on a project in 2 weeks I don't see that happening. I have enjoyed what I have been reading lately whether classic (Ka-Zar/Doom Astonishing Tales & early GA Batman in Chronicles) or modern, but just haven't been reading more than 1 comic a day or so.
-M
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