Progressive Boink

[TheEvilGingivitis]

Although the premise might sound really stupid, I just read the entirety of Fables and it was awesome.

I know the basic concept, but I haven't read any of it, and I really want to read #64 just for Aaron A.'s awesome art. So...
1) Is it easy to get into?
2) Have you read that one?

[Wat, But A Girl]

For serious (i.e. non-comedy) webcomics, I really like Bohemian Drive and Outside The Box, but both of them are finished. Any other good ones floating around out there?

I'm a fan of Everafter and Lackadaisy. Everafter doesn't update that frequently, but when it does it's usually pretty badass. I don't know if Lackadaisy is necessarily what you'd call serious, but it is a drama of sorts and is well written and illustrated.

[normalman]

1) Is it easy to get into?
2) Have you read that one?

1.I'd say it's really easy to get into. The story's pretty simple and it's the interaction between all the characters that keeps you reading. It's all in trades now so it's easy to find in a bookstore or something.
2. Yeah. It's pretty good. The goofy art style is a little jarring, since the book usually has a more stable, serious look, but the storyline in that issue's pretty goofy too, and it all works out. I liked it.

[the Alpha AND Omega]

For anyone new to comics, I'd recommend Marvels and All Star Superman. The former is pretty much a history of the Marvel universe from the perspective of a photographer, from the Golden Age stuff up until the 1970s. It also has excellent art by Alex Ross, and the trade paperback is pretty easy to find. All Star Superman is written by Grant Morrison who just seems to have the character down perfectly. The plot takes place outside of whatever is going on in the main DC universe (Countdown sucks, by the way. Especially when compared to 52). I think there have been 8 issues so far, and I like it a lot more than All Star Batman and Robin.

How awesome was the issue of All-Star Superman where Clark goes to interview Luthor at the prison before his execution? Morrison nailed it. In particular the final confrontation between Clark and Lex was extremely bad ass. Clark is screaming at Lex, asking him why he's choosing not to fight his execution verdict and you see for a moment that Clark cares for Luthor almost as if he were his brother, views him as an equal, feels responsible for the fact that if he hadn't crashed on earth, Lex might have been the beloved hero of humanity instead of the twisted thing that he has become. Good shit.

Frank Quitely is ALWAYS amazing at everything he draws. Another great teamup from these two is the comic WE3, which is a lot like one of those family movies featuring cute housepets who get separated from their owners and have to go on amazing adventures to get back home. Except that the housepets in WE3 are modified-cyborg killing machines.



Quitelyisgod

[Terry Cheesecake]

The full spread is cool. We3 is one of my favourite comics.

[TheEvilGingivitis]

I am reading Kingdom Come. The premise is pretty dumb but it's generally good thus far. The art is fantastic.

[Andy]

I thought the plot for Kingdom Come was neat. Not super-original, but cool, and definitely one of the most spectacular artistic comics of all time. Alex Ross is the industry's most wanted man for a reason.

[Wat, But A Girl]

I just finished the last issue of Silver Surfer: Requiem.

Anyone who has ever enjoyed comics and has a heart should pick up this series.

[TheEvilGingivitis]

I can't use this (It's US-only), but you can read comics for free here while the artists still get paid. There's prose too, somewhere.

[Andy]

READ THIS
http://www.shigabooks.com/strips/fleep/scroll.html
I don't know what it is, who wrote it, or if it was illegally reproduced, but it is fucking tight, and free.

[Andy]

Okay, guy's name is apparently Jason Shiga, and was originally strip he did. Every two rows of images is one strip.

[TheEvilGingivitis]

Reading through those now.

I picked up volume one of Viz's English print of BLEACH yesterday, because I've been meaning to. It's pretty good, but it's kind of lame that they translated the SFX. Doing so changes the artwork, and they had plenty of room just to footnote what it meant. They even added a dumb <<READ THIS WAY<< sign in the corner every few pages.
Also they translated "Shinigami" to "Soul Reaper" which is kind of lame and not really accurate.
Not that I'm not enjoying the book a lot though.

Two webcomics I have been interested in lately:
http://www.webcomicsareawesome.com/
Comic by David McGuire about how much webcomics suck. Absolutely hilarious, especially if you are familiar with Scott McCloud. The main character is given a background by a Drunkduck series that satirizes webcomics so well it can hardly be considered parody.
http://www.nedroid.com/
I've read most of his work before but it's just too good not to reread. Beartato cracks me up and the 200 "bad" comics he did (at the request of a fan who said that he wrote too many good comics) are all absolutely hilarious.

[James]

so yeah TEG i can fully put you in the UGH STUPID GAIJIN pile now

(i actually prefer the english SFX because i don't speak japanese and i don't enjoy flipping to the back of the book every ten seconds or whatever i'd have to do)

(seriously though the WHY DIDN'T THEY LEAVE IT JAPANESE WAAH thing is a real peeve of mine)

(but at least you bought the books so i guess that's good)

(even though i use the online reader i still have all the released volumes so far so that i don't feel bad about reading years ahead)

[TheEvilGingivitis]

I really like knowing what all of the sound effects mean now, but I seriously don't like the idea of altering the artwork just to put in obvious stuff like "CRASH" and "WHAM".

[James]

sometimes it's not obvious though

also: english translators (i think) are obliged to actually TRANSLATE THINGS TO ENGLISH

[Wat, But A Girl]

but you could always put it as a footnote next to the picture like some mangas do instead of photoshopping part of the picture out and replacing it

[James]

yeah but that takes you out of the action and is also fuckin annoying

sound effects that you have to read afterwards might as well not be there at all

[TheEvilGingivitis]

Also changing the SFX requires hiring letterers and artists to rewrite it and touch it all up, which makes it more expensive to produce and therefore sell.
As much as I inherently dislike Tokyopop I will always admire their shrewdness in not flipping the artwork or translating SFX to lower both production and sale costs and then marketing their manga as "authentic".

Please do not hate me James.

[James]

No, I have to on principle, sorry.

The principle of FUCKING SHEEPLE WHY WOULD THEY MAKE THIS ACCESSIBLE TO A GENERAL AUDIENCE INSTEAD OF CATERING TO PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO GET FANSUBS ANYWAYS

[TheEvilGingivitis]

Aw I'm sorry I made you mad James.

I just finished Fleep and it was pretty amazing.