Philotic Web

Because for some reason, when I already have more than what I can reasonably expect to read, I want to add more stuff to my pile, so I've put a hold on vol. 1 of Fables. If we have vol. 1 of Sandman, it's proving somewhat difficult to find and Fables is at the Main, very easy to find. I'll let you know what I think as soon as I've read it.

I got Fables yesterday, started it last night but was too tired to finish it, so I did that at work. I liked it well enough to get volume 2 (issues 6-10) and although I know it's not similar enough to really compare to Y, I haven't been as drawn into Fables as Y.

In somewhat preparation for the movie and somewhat a wave of nostalgia, I found online a complete collection of Tintin volumes and have been trying to read them in chronological order. Note "trying": they're pretty boring to read. Like, this is the comic that actually got me into comics way back in third grade, but I've found it very hard to pay attention to them. The first couple volumes I could forgive easily, as they were his first ones and were in a completely different style, but apparently Hergé went back and rewrote and redrew all of the volumes from the forties and fifties or whatever so that they matched the style that was, by the sixties (or whatever, I'm no Tintin historian), his renowned style. And, well... they're boring. Almost entirely random-events plots where Tintin and Snowy get accosted by various people, tracking down the bad guys, escaping via deus ex machina, and eventually solving the mystery. The art style was very novel, but today is boring and uninvolved.

I'm going to try to make it to Captain Haddock's regular appearances.

But, as a breather to myself, I read Flight: Volume 1. Man, that was pretty fun. Seeing a bunch of indie artists just write comics on a theme, enjoying themselves, telling cool stories, some more involving (or coherent) than others... that is a fun volume. Highly suggest.

So, since I'm expecting the Green Lantern movie to be pretty terrible, and GL is just about my favorite super-hero, but that's mostly based on Justice League episodes, I decided to shore up my geek cred by reading through all of the GL and GL Corps leading up to and including Blackest Night. If I'm honest, it all felt a bit ham-fisted, a bit like they felt Green Lantern was somehow lacking, and they needed to weave all these loose ends into some sort of cohesive fabric, and while it seems to have worked... they may have been a bit over the top. Opened a bit of a Pandora's Box with the scale of things in Blackest Night, and then kind of hurriedly swept them back under the rug. I don't particularly care enough to follow up after this event - DC and Marvel's big heroes' continuity snarls and huge, sprawling storylines make the whole process seem like a puppet show - nothing every really feels resolved or done, and while that's given these characters more fully fleshed out lives and motivations, it's less satisfying to read than self-contained miniseries or graphic novels.

So, since I'm expecting the Green Lantern movie to be pretty terrible, and GL is just about my favorite super-hero, but that's mostly based on Justice League episodes, I decided to shore up my geek cred by reading through all of the GL and GL Corps leading up to and including Blackest Night. If I'm honest, it all felt a bit ham-fisted, a bit like they felt Green Lantern was somehow lacking, and they needed to weave all these loose ends into some sort of cohesive fabric, and while it seems to have worked... they may have been a bit over the top. Opened a bit of a Pandora's Box with the scale of things in Blackest Night, and then kind of hurriedly swept them back under the rug. I don't particularly care enough to follow up after this event - DC and Marvel's big heroes' continuity snarls and huge, sprawling storylines make the whole process seem like a puppet show - nothing every really feels resolved or done, and while that's given these characters more fully fleshed out lives and motivations, it's less satisfying to read than self-contained miniseries or graphic novels.

I totally agree. I haven't read any of Blackest Night (and I'm not sure I will), but these huge storylines like 52 make everything so stupidly complicated (One Year Later? What the hell...). I was really enjoying Nightwing until they did that.
Self-contained miniseries are way more interesting.

It's only semi-comics but I just adore Hyperbole and a Half. The most recent post about wolves had me in hysterics, practically.

That was great, Ali. I emailed the link to my SIL, whose daughter is obsessed with wolves. I've been reading a book (Julie of the Wolves) with her for awhile and she likes to put a pile of blankets on the floor and pretend it's a caribou carcass to eat.

"The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas" and "Dogs Don't Understand Simple Concepts Like Moving" also had me on the floor. Somehow she manages to capture the UTTER SERIOUSNESS that is life as a small child.

It's only semi-comics but I just adore Hyperbole and a Half. The most recent post about wolves had me in hysterics, practically.

I am obsessed, obsessed, obsessed with Hyperbole and a Half.

"The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas"

I peed my pants over that one.

I've been trying not to read them at work and have been completely failing, until yesterday.

Yesterday I 100%ed Hyperbole and a Half.

Anyway, yes, probably one of my favorite things on the web, right now.

My other obsession lately is Our Valued Customers, which are real life stories from working at a Comic Book store. Hilarious.

"Dogs Don't Understand Simple Concepts Like Moving"

My husband came home while I was reading that one and I was laughing so hard, tears were just rolling down my face. He didn't know what to make of me.

Dudes! What is the point of having a comic thread if we're not talking about Batman?

It's been confirmed that Anne Hathaway is playing Selina Kyle (Catwoman) and Tom Hardy is playing... Bane?!

Catwoman was expected but I'm not sure I like the idea of Bane. It's not just that thinking of Bane in a movie reminds me of "Batman and Robin" which totally destroyed his character among other things, but it's just that Batman encountering him this early in his career seems wrong.

Ah well. I'll refrain from making snap judgements. So far Nolan has done no wrong with these films in my eyes. He will most likely find a way to do Bane justice.

I'm not sure I like the idea of Bane.

And yet, I'm so sure I like the idea of Tom Hardy.

To apologise for derailing the thread with filthy internets, I bring you Kill Shakespeare, in which heroes from his plays have to fight their way past his villians to kill the evil wizard called Shakespeare.

It sounds awesome, and I will add it to my wish list.

I read through Civil War, mostly because after Blackest Night it seemed like "In for a penny, in for a pound," even if the DCU holds no interest for me, that was no reason not the give Marvel a chance while I was in the mood to read through piles of comics.

I'm not even going to touch any of the allegory to real world politics, but it seems like, depending on who was writing, the Anti-Regulation forces had two problems with the SHRA:

1) The government couldn't guarantee that their secret identities would be kept

2) The government had no right to conscript superhumans to fight for it, and this would eventually lead to a totalitarian police state, etc.

So... if the act was being passed to allay fears about reckless use of powers, why were either of those provisions necessary? Why couldn't the superhumans just register their superhero identity, powers, and take some licensing test that authorized them to act as heroes? This is pretty much was The Xavier School does for mutants with the Danger Room, before they're allowed to be X-Men. Why did the government need a database of secret IDs? SHIELD obviously had extensive data on most of the superhumans, certainly enough for their cape-killers (Who chose that name, anyway?) to pursue the anti-registration forces, and at no point would any of these people's secret IDs really have been of much use in doing so. Even after Spidey goes completely public with his ID, he evades SHIELD and goes underground after switching sides.

And why did the heroes have to been conscripted? Although they're vastly more powerful, in principle they're similar to civilian CCW permit holders, why is a system of training, regulation, licensing, and review not sufficient to weed out the "amateurs and sociopaths" as Iron Man put it?

This whole thing didn't need to happen.

I was sort of pro-registration when I read it, at least in theory. They weren't asking anyone to make their identities public, or asking them to stop their vigilante actions. The whole point was simply to provide some government oversight, training, and even protection from legal liabilities. That's a pretty reasonable compromise considering that in exchange they'd allow people with dangerous abilities to continue to exercise authority that even police forces don't have. If you're strong enough to hurl tanks and you take it upon yourself to put on a mask and violently enforce the law, how can you complain when authorities will actually let you do it provided that you tell them who you are and accept some basic training?

At least that's how I remember it. I read it some time ago.

After at least 2 months, the library finally got Scott Pilgrim In His Finest Hour, or whatever vol. 6 was named, so I finally got to finish that off. I plowed through it before I even left work. Fun. So much of what he says reminds me of Mich; it's weird.

I think I also swiped everything Bill Willingham wrote, Fables related, that the library owns. I had my mom grab 4 volumes from her library and I managed to get the rest at mine, as well as a chapter book. It should last me on the ride to Tucson and back.

In other news, you (guys) make me feel like a natural ner-erd.


Yeah. That was bad, even for me. Going to go die of embarrassment now. :)

After at least 2 months, the library finally got Scott Pilgrim In His Finest Hour, or whatever vol. 6 was named, so I finally got to finish that off. I plowed through it before I even left work. Fun. So much of what he says reminds me of Mich; it's weird.

Just because I'm kind of a slacker who is a bit goofy and ALL OF THE LADIES LOVE ME doesn't mean that I'm Scott Pilgrim!

This won't mean much to anyone but I thought I'd share anyway; I really, really dislike Michael Allred's depiction of the Fables in The Dark Ages. Gepetto was okay and Beauty was, in my opinion, an improvement over her previous depiction(s) but the rest are so blasted ugly, those two characters can't do anything to warm me up to the art. Now I'm wondering who was responsible for the other volume that had a chapter or two I wasn't too crazy about, art-wise.

Engaging story, though.

I got really annoyed when that one artist came on who drew Big Bad with, like, no mouth, but then realized, when it changed to someone else, that I really liked him.

Man, I need to re-read Fables so I can get caught up.

There have been a few spots where I didn't like the art; I left a note for myself in Gmail about another artist I discovered I wasn't fond of and I'm too lazy to go digging for it, but overall, it's been on the good side.

As for Bigby, I have a pretty massive crush on him.


Oh, um, if any comic fairies want to help me find issues after volume 14 (that would be issues 94+), I'd be much indebted and grateful.

I started reading the Walking Dead omnibus, but quit after the helicopter rescue because it just got waaay to dark for me.

On the manga front, I've picked up Black Butler (after watching the anime). Very pretty, good story. Worth the read, if you're a fan of demon contractors ^_^

I read the first three issues of Neonomicron.

That was... weird.

I suppose I should have expected that from the subject matter... if I had known what the subject matter was going in to it.

X-Men: First Class Trailer

I think this one has potential.

cool, looks better than i expected that it would.

X-Men: First Class Trailer

I think this one has potential.

I actually plan on seeing that.

So. X-men: First Class comes out in a matter of weeks and there hasn't been much in the way of promotion as far as I've noticed. It's only by chance that I came across these recently released character themed promos on youtube:

Banshee, Havok, Beast

Mystique

Now we'll really need to collect a bunch of Tintin and Asterix to be wherever we're living. It's just not childhood if you don't grow up reading at least one of those.

Now we'll really need to collect a bunch of Tintin and Asterix to be wherever we're living. It's just not childhood if you don't grow up reading at least one of those.

Quoted. For. Truth. I may buy a few and ship them to you guys, as a baby shower present. At least the Tintin ones.

D'awwww. We have a stack of Asterix somewhere (even a couple in Latin!) but we are woefully short of Tintin.

I only have the one volume of Tintin, Cigars of the Pharaoh.

Did anyone here read the Kick-Ass comics? I haven't but I did watch the movie this evening and I have to say, while I thoroughly enjoyed the trailers I saw on TV last year, the movie itself was a let-down. I'm wondering if the comics are any better.

Did anyone here read the Kick-Ass comics? I haven't but I did watch the movie this evening and I have to say, while I thoroughly enjoyed the trailers I saw on TV last year, the movie itself was a let-down. I'm wondering if the comics are any better.

The comics are, as books written by Mark Millar tend to be, kind of a rage against comic book tropes in general. You might have noticed how the movie kind of forgets that it's supposed to be deconstructing comic books about halfway through; the book doesn't really forget. It's pretty much the same story, just with everything in the movie that went right ending up with either a downer end or a downer backstory.

At least, that's how I remember it. Anyway, it's only four issues, can totally read through them in an hour or so. I always say to read and decide for yourself.

What didn't you like about the movie?