I was right with this until I read the last pages of issue 3.Originally Posted by feverishparade
I was right with this until I read the last pages of issue 3.
I didn't notice this until Spencer pointed it out. I have two statments and one question about OMD.
Ugh.
God.
Why?
Because Joe Quesada is a douchebag.
No, seriously. JMS wanted to take his name off this crapfest, but Quesada wouldn't let him.
But that's neither here nor there. I would like to agree with everyone who recommended Fables and add that Astro City is hellacool.
Now I respect Gaiman even more than I already did.Haha.The story of a young British boy with glasses who finds out he's a powerful wizard and begins training that predates that other story of a young British boy with glasses who finds out he's a powerful wizard and begins training.
Gaiman didn't sue her ass off because he's a nice guy.
...
from http://groups.google.com/group/alt.f...55f055aadc0052Speaking of what kids are reading: You created Timothy Hunter and The Books Of Magic. How do you feel about J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, which is incredibly similar yet wonderfully different?
People have been trying to get me... there was a very peculiar time about eighteen months ago, I did an interview with The Scotsman. The Scotsman newspaper tracked me down, and we had a very awkward interview, during which they were trying to get me to say, "Oh, yeah, J. K. Rowling has ripped off Harry Potter," and the most they could get out of me was, "Well, it makes things a little awkward for a Books Of Magic movie."
I was astonished that about six months later, to be sent a copy of... English newspapers started, for a period of about three days--as they all ripped each other off--did an article about this madwoman who's been accusing J. K. Rowling of stealing Muggles and things like that, and then finished off with "...and Neil Gaiman has accused her of ripping off Harry Potter of Tim Hunter."
At that point, I wrote a little thing, sent it out to a few places, that just basically said, "This is absolute bollocks." And it is absolute bollocks! I mean, the thing about genre fiction--it's like a great big bubbling stewpot: ingredients go in, and stew comes out. And as you go, you add stuff to the stew. If you're a good writer, you keep popping stuff into the stew while you're going.
I was certainly not the first writer to create a bespectacled kid who had the potential to be the world's greatest magician. To create a kid with magical power--and more important, magical potential--and to use owls and so on, it's all stuff that's fairly obvious going on what went before. J. K. Rowling was not the first person to send a kid to wizard school. From Jaime Olan and Diane Duane in recent years--Diana Wynne Jones is marvelous! (Witch Week and Charmed Life.)--going back to T. H. White and E. Nesbitt.
When I was eighteen, I started trying to write my first book, and I got nine pages into it, and they're still mucking around. And because I didn't really have any experience of anything other than school, I was writing a story about a kid who was sent to wizard school, and Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar (who wound up in Neverwhere) were going to be the baddies. I was cleaning up and doing some tidying in the basement, and I came across these pages, and I thought, "Now if anybody ever found these, they'd be going, 'Cool! Look at this Harry Potter rip-off!'" Which is fine, except it was a Harry Potter rip-off I was writing in 1978. And, of course, as an eighteen year old, I never finished it, and didn't actually think that I really wanted to write a school story, so I left it behind. When I went back to try another school story, it was a few years later, and it was a much, much more sick and peculiar and twisted thing called The End Of The Third Form At St. Andrew's Eve, which was much more about how I hated school than trying to romanticize it. That was in a periodical that never appeared, and its still probably knocking around in a file somewhere, and I've never gone back to it.
Which is a very long and blabbery way of saying that ideas are public domain.
What I do wish, with the Harry Potter stuff, is that we could get DC Comics to re-issue Books Of Magic with a much more Harry Potter-like cover to appeal to the kind of people who like Harry Potter. Every other comic company in the world's going, "Oh, wouldn't it be cool to have our own Harry Potter?" And with DC, I've been, "Well, actually, you've had your own Harry Potter now since 1990! Why don't you do something with that? Why don't you get him into bookstores?"
"...that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little." ~ Ray Bradbury
I give Quesada another 2 years before he's gone. People are getting really sick of him.
And, speaking of JMS...
Supreme Power by J. Michael Straczynski & Gary Frank is a must read.
It's the DC Comics icons, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman and The Flash but reimagined by Marvel Comics as a dark, real world 18+ only comic.
Y'know, except for his Post-The Other Spider-Man, Supreme Power is the only thing JMS has ever done that really disapointed me. I just felt like it was a good idea that took to long to go anywhere, and I dropped it on issue #10.
His Midnight Nation, however, is one of the best horror stories ever told in comic book form.
JMS did some amazing audio drama for scifi.com's seeing ear theater years back.
There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long.. people. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.
I noticed Erin's original post included Bone as something she'd already read, but I gotta throw that out as a suggestion to anyone here who hasn't. Such a great series, and you don't even necessarily have to buy more than one book to read (almost) the whole story.
And if you liked Jeff Smith (the artist and writer behind Bone), you might be interested in Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil (might be "VS" and not "and", I can't recall at the moment). I haven't read it yet, and to be honest I've never been real interested in Shazam that much, but I plan to pick it up. Smith is also just about ready to release his new comic called Rasl. I read an interview months ago where he said it was about an art thef that uses a machine to move between realities to get past security and steal stuff; don't quote me on that. I may not be 100% sure what it's about, but it's still going on my pull list.
As someone who primarily reads super-hero comics, I'd really probably just suggest stuff like X-Men and Spider-Man books. Volumes of the "Essential" line are a nice way to check out some of the older comics; about $15 for about a year's worth of comics, printed on fairly low grade paper, in black and white. Major story arcs like Dark Phoenix Saga and Age of Apoclypse have been collected in TPB format, and I'd heartiy recommend them.
Also, a raid on my brother's closet leads me to believe I'll be getting Neil Gaiman's Eternals HC for Christmas, and that sounds good to me. I've also been meaning to pick up Ed Brubaker's Captain America Omnibus, and Marvel's Annillation trilogy.
Transmetropolitan will treat you right and love you tender. And those Conan books are a great gift idea...barbarians slaughtering folks is something a whole lot of people can get into.
You might like [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Sentences-Life-Grimm-Percy-Carey/dp/1401210465]Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm.[/ame] It's autobiographical, and the blurb on Amazon is a good synopsis. It's definitely more serious than most other graphic novels, but if that's what you're after, it delivers.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Squees-Wonderful-Giant-Unspeakable-Horrors/dp/0943151244/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197137623&sr= 1-1]Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors[/ame] is very entertaining. It's all 4 issues of Squee, and a lot of one-page comics used as humor breaks in his other books. Much more of a friendly read than the author's other books, since you aren't 14, don't hate the world, and don't want to die. Same guy who did Invader ZIM, which I can't remember if you're a fan of.
Transmetropolitan > *
There are 10 books of Transmet, and you can ignore Volume 0.
People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
Yay, another Tranmetropolitan fan. I think I suggested it as reading to Erin a long time ago but she ignored me like she usually does the first couple of times I recommend something(see Sword of Truth, Sandman, etc. haha)
There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long.. people. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.
I loved Tranmetropolitan, everything Morrison has ever done actually, I just thought it might be too strange for new readers. Doom Patrol or JLA is a great starting point for readers unfamiliar with Grant's style, imo.
Jimmy, come here...I want to give you a bigfor mentioning Doom Patrol - I was beginning to think I was the only person in the world who'd heard of it!!
I have the entire series starting with the Kupperberg run...I didn't collect the new Arcudi stuff, but I might end up getting it.
Crazy Jane is probably my favourite character.
Yeah, Transmetro is pretty strange, but I think, based on knowing Erin and her reading, she'd love it. She always has to wait until someone, aside from me, recommends something before she tries it, though, for some reason. haha.
There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long.. people. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.
Thanks for the hug Darkthoughts but I'm a bonehead. Grant Morrison didn't write Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis did. Thankfully this allows me to recommend another trade paperback.
Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E by Warren Ellis & Stuart Immonen
There is no Marvel comic funnier than this one.
Being that I love a lot of Ellis stuff(Transmetropolitain, Planetary, and The Authority being among my favorites), I am suprised that I didn't catch that.
There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long.. people. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.
It's relatively new, but any of you not reading The Boys should correct that.
Garth Ennis (Preacher) and Darick Robertson (Transmet), and it's about a CIA-backed superhero watchdog group. If a supe gets out of line, causes too many civilian deaths, whatever, The Boys bust their asses. It's really funny and pretty twisted, but if you like the idea of superheroes all being fucked-up junkie perverts hiding their shit from the public, you'll get into it.
People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
I read it over the weekend and I see where you're coming from Spence. I have a feeling that Issue 4 is going to make me hate Quesada.I was right with this until I read the last pages of issue 3.
I'm about half way through The Black Dossier- its a lil' racy, huh?
Mister E: Came back.
Favorite graphic novels so far in no particular order:
Star Trek (any)
Sandman (any)
Dark Tower (the one the only so far)
The Maxx (any)
Sam & Max freelance police
30 Days of Night (first two I've read so far)
28 Days Later (first two I've read so far)
Bleach (a new love.. I've read through 10 now)
Hellboy
This is my blog/page:
www.facebook.com/thespermwhaleandbowlofpetunias
This is my donation page:
https://www.razoo.com/br/causes/Maje...h-Resorption-1
I used to love the cartoon of Sam and Max - that's the names of my sons too
Holy shit, you named your sons after Sam and Max?
People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
And my daughter is called Ruby - so if you prefer, they're named after Max and Ruby
If I ever have a kid, I'm going to name him Morpheus.
I think naming your kids that and having a Christmas Spike av means we're friends now.And my daughter is called Ruby - so if you prefer, they're named after Max and Ruby
People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
The brain-damaged bunny kid and his whiny, nagging bunny sister?And my daughter is called Ruby - so if you prefer, they're named after Max and Ruby
"...that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little." ~ Ray Bradbury
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