What Classic Comic Have You Read Lately? Pt. 2

[Johnny P. Sartre]

Rereading Cyborg 009; one of the best anti-war mangas I've ever read

[dr chimp]

I read Asterix And The Big Fight recently and frankly, I thought it sucked! To be honest, I've never been the biggest Asterix fan...even as a kid I was much more into Tin Tin. I was leant this book by a friend following a passionate "who's better - Tin Tin or Asterix?" conversation. Having read it (my first reading of an Asterix book since I was a child), I have to say that it was actually worse than I expected or remembered.

My biggest complaint would be that the whole story was extremely childish, with almost nothing to hold an adult reader's attention. Sure, the cartoony artwork is very well drawn, but there is none of the slick plotting, snappy dialogue, fast-paced action and well rounded characterisation that you find in the Tin Tin books. In addition, the so-called "jokes" are so excruciatingly lame that they border on the offensive. What's more, the puns that litter the character's dialogue aren't just bad....they are abysmal. Worse…they are abysmal and over-abundant!

God i am totally the other way - i love the way they just throw out so many stupid jokes and puns - in the same way I love Airplane. Its just an onslaught. Everytime they draw a Visigoth as well it always makes me laugh but then I am very easily amused.

[The Confessor]

God i am totally the other way - i love the way they just throw out so many stupid jokes and puns - in the same way I love Airplane.

The thing for me though is that Airplane is actually funny. Stupid jokes are perfectly fine as long as they actually manage to raise a laugh. Unfortunately, I had no such reaction to Asterix.

[MWGallaher]

I've been sampling some of Marvel's late 60's/early 70's westerns, which I've never paid a whole lot of attention to. The later issues of Rawhide Kid (90-100) by Larry Leiber were sometimes crudely rendered (especially when George Roussos was inking), but they weren't the "superheroes in cowboy clothing" that Lee & Kirby's issues appear to have been. At first I was put off by the old "shooting the gun out of his opponents' hands" trick (like TV's Lone Ranger always did), but it didn't take many issues to realize that the series wasn't so entirely sanitized: yes, Rawhide did do that pretty often, but he also shot to kill when the story required it. I was also surprised to see the contrast between Rawhide and the Two-Gun Kid, having assumed that these westerns were pretty much interchangeable. Rawhide's a roamer, while Two-Gun is settled down, with a locale and a supporting cast (albeit a meager one), and that makes a big difference in the feel of the stories. I'm enjoying seeing Ogden Whitney's art (and sometimes scripting) on Two-Gun; I was aware that Whitney had drawn the strip, but had never seen his work here before. It's far more energetic than the Herbie comics I knew him from. Maybe it's Silver Age Superhero fatigue, but I'm liking this stuff more than the better known superhero Marvels of the era.

[benday-dot]

I've been sampling some of Marvel's late 60's/early 70's westerns, which I've never paid a whole lot of attention to. The later issues of Rawhide Kid (90-100) by Larry Leiber were sometimes crudely rendered (especially when George Roussos was inking), but they weren't the "superheroes in cowboy clothing" that Lee & Kirby's issues appear to have been. At first I was put off by the old "shooting the gun out of his opponents' hands" trick (like TV's Lone Ranger always did), but it didn't take many issues to realize that the series wasn't so entirely sanitized: yes, Rawhide did do that pretty often, but he also shot to kill when the story required it. I was also surprised to see the contrast between Rawhide and the Two-Gun Kid, having assumed that these westerns were pretty much interchangeable. Rawhide's a roamer, while Two-Gun is settled down, with a locale and a supporting cast (albeit a meager one), and that makes a big difference in the feel of the stories. I'm enjoying seeing Ogden Whitney's art (and sometimes scripting) on Two-Gun; I was aware that Whitney had drawn the strip, but had never seen his work here before. It's far more energetic than the Herbie comics I knew him from. Maybe it's Silver Age Superhero fatigue, but I'm liking this stuff more than the better known superhero Marvels of the era.

The Whitney stuff is nice isn't it? Personally I always find the Trimpe artwork in these books to be a real treat. He was pretty fantastic with the genre, showing a real flair for well choreographed action, in keeping with his Kirby influence i suspect. Another draw was all those great Gil Kane covers.

Tom Sutton, looking not too much like the dream-charged atmospheric craftsman of a few years latter, actually makes his debut in Kid Colt Outlaw, and if one fails to recognize it as Sutton, its naturalism makes it very lovely to behold.

Of course all the reprint material alone from Wildey to Williamson to Severin make Marvels westerns worthwhile.

[Slam_Bradley]

Marvel Graphic Novel: A Sailor's Story by Sam Glanzman.

Glanzman tells the story of his time on the USS Stevens in this graphic novel. This is an overview of Glanzman's time on the Stevens, telling of his wait to enlist after Pearl Harbor (he was 17) through his return following the wars end. As a result it's not quite as intimate a portrait as his previous short stories while at the same time being more autobiographical. There's no question though that the art is Glanzman at his very best. And that is very good indeed.

[TomServoFan]

EC Archieves: Crime Suspenstories Volume 1: Just bought this as i have the other EC hardcover archieves collections, i always collected reprints of the classic EC horror and Sci-fi comics when i was a kid in the late 80s and early 90s and enjoyed them. Crime Suspenstories is quite timeless and unique as it was more than horror and Sci-fi that EC did but also realistic crime tales that were more for adults but it didn't stop kids from reading them.

[whiteshark]

Avengers by Roy Thomas and John Buscema.
Absolutely loving reading these Avengers stories.

[icctrombone]

I read Warlock 1-8 and Hulk 176-178. It started out nice but fizzled out at the end. Also, bad art by Trimpe on the Hulk issues messed it up for me.

[Polar Bear]

Re-read the Thanos story by Starlin in Avengers Annual and Marvel Two-in-one Annual. Still reads well after all these years.

Went to the in-laws for a several-day out-of-state outing; brought Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four volumes 1-7 for between-activities fillers for the kids. Munch, munch, devour, devour. Happy kids.

[The Confessor]

Been re-reading the Gathering Of Five and The Final Chapter storylines from the various Spidey titles, just prior to the renumbering/reboot of 1999. The Gathering Of Five isn't really much of a story at all, it's just a way of showing how Norman Osborn gets some extra magical powers for a time (in this case, he becomes even more bat-shit crazy than usual) and really, that could've been accomplished in one issue.

Likewise, The Final Chapter is an averagely average Spidey tale, but is well known (notorious?) for featuring that most ridiculous piece of comic book nonsense: Aunt May's resurrection, following her "death" in ASM #400. While the story may be somewhat lacking, the thing that has really impressed me while re-reading these books is the pairing of John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna on inks and pencils respectively in Peter Parker: Spider-Man. Just breathtakingly good artwork! No wonder this team made my list of favourite penciler/inker teams in the last Classic Comics Christmas.

[webhead68]

Just finished reading Showcase Presents World's Finest V3 - really enjoy the Silver Age team-up stories. Though, when you read 30 of them in a row like that, the plot repetitiveness is extremely noticable. The covers of those 60s stories were just great.

[MRP]

Been continuing through the Grell run of Warlord slowly (a few days without power thanks to the storms ripping htrough Ohio didn't allow for much reading time with the clean up and well the darkness :) )

Read through 6-12 today between innings of the Sox-Yanks game. Issues 8 and 9 are perhaps two of my faves so far. Lair of the Snowbeast and Tower of Fear contain all the classic tropes of sword & sorcery but each have a little unique twist put in by Grell to make them fresh. However, as a whole the pacing is still a bit odd and it feels like Grell is stalling, especially with issue #11 (a reprint of 1st issue special debut w/new framing sequence) and #12 featuring fill in stories set in the past while Morgan engages in a bar room brawl. The supposed quest for Tara and Shamballah has gone nowhere in a year's worth of bi-monthly issues, which would have been absolutely frustrating tome as a reader if I were reading this in real time as it was released. The art is gorgeous as always, the individual stories have been good, but the overall series as a whole seems to be moving at a snail's pace.

-M

[mrc1214]

Just finished Defenders #112-114 by JM DeMattius and Don Perlin. What an amazing story featuring a crossover with the Squadron Supreme. Perlins art is great in this the best work from him. I dont want to spoil this too much but I have no clue why this epic is talked about more.

[crossbones]

been reading The Question by Dennis O'Neil and Denys Cowan (1987-1992), including The Question #1-36, The Question Annual #1-2 and The Question Quarterly #1-5... it also includes a few Green Arrow and Detective annuals, they're part of the story and also written by O'Neil.

i'm almost half way through it all and so far it's been incredibly good... holds up very well, doesn't feel dated at all. it's actually even better than i remembered it to be. i'd recommend this to any fan of gritty street level comics.

one can only hope the new Question book DC has coming up at some point in the near future is even half this good.