Quoting Kurosawa Fan (view post)
I love Thompson's art.
Have you heard of the band Menomena? The artwork on thier 2007 album was done by him...
I love Thompson's art.
Have you heard of the band Menomena? The artwork on thier 2007 album was done by him...
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
I own the album.
BTW, I edited my first post to include my story of reading Blankets, in case you missed it.
Yeah I had a similar experience, though my first read was two sittings spread across one day.
It's super-cool to know someone else loved the book as much as I did.
Did you like my brief write-up? I mostly wanted to communicate how very authentic the book felt. It wasn't a book that was like "oh, yeah, the publisher was pressing for a love story so Thompson churned one out".
And I can't imagine his writing going with someone else's artwork, or vice-versa. His writing and art compliment each other nicely.
It's just such a great book. Glad you liked this entry.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
My all-time favorite graphic novel remains Ed the Happy Clown. It won some awards and stuff. Anyone here read it? Meg?
No, I haven't even heard of it.
*looks up on Amazon*
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
"Daredevil: Yellow" is arguably the best entry in the series of re-imaginings that wonder-team Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did for Marvel over the years. There was also "Spider-Man: Blue", "Hulk: Gray", and the one currently being worked on is "Captain America: White".
But "Daredevil: Yellow" was the best at really capturing the essence of both the character, and the world they inhabit.
Tim Sale's lush water colour washes bring New York City to vibrant life, and the contrast between these backdrops and the eye-popping vibrancy of Daredevil's yellow and red suit almost outshines Jeph Loeb's great writing.
Beginning on a rather somber note, Matt Murdock swings through New York City in his signature red costume, remembering Karen Page - the love of his life, his secretary at the law office, and the victim of Daredevil's adversary Bullseye.
The narration of the comic book consists of a letter written by Matt Murdock to the dead Karen, as a means to let go of the guilt he feels for not having been able to save her. The book tells of the origin of Daredevil, from the fateful night when his father was murdered, to the love triangle between Matt, Karen, and Foggy Nelson (Matt's best friend and law firm partner).
Throughout the book, we see many familiar faces - some old, cheesy adversaries such as The Purple Man (a villain who uses the power of a purple aura to control peoples' minds), to Electro, a more well-known villain who has appeared in both Daredevil and Spider-Man's rogues galleries.
Daredevil has often been called "Marvel's Batman", and this is not just because of his origin story being nearly one and the same, with his father's murder being the catalyst for his crime-fighting adventures. He also uses his presence and the ability to create fear in his opponents, and he is a decidedly darker character.
But the great thing about this book is that it's not all just frowns and grimaces. Loeb and Sale captured the itty-grittiness of the much-loved Frank Miller run of "Daredevil", while also making it a fun and involving story that doesn't make you want to take prozac every time you finish an issue. The action is exciting and beautiful drawn and painted by Loeb, who makes Daredevil's acrobatic skills a real sight to behold.
One of the coolest parts of the book, for me, was discovering the origin of Daredevil's suit. I had long known that he originally wore the yellow suit, but I had no idea how he came to have it.
As anyone who has seen the Ben Affleck movie knows, Matt Murdock's father was a boxer with some ties to organized crime. When he refuses to take a fall during a fight and win his boss some money, he is gunned down, leading the young Matt Murdock to seek revenge.
The night that Matt's father was killed, he had given Matt his yellow and red robe as a keepsake to remind him of his father, the great boxer. After his father is killed, Matt actually takes that very robe and stitches it together to create the Daredevil costume he wore for his first adventures as The Man Without Fear.
My words certainly don't do the scenes justice, but it's got quite an impact to see him put that suit on for the first time.
"Daredevil: Yellow" was the first book that got me to take interest in the Daredevil character, and single-handedly made me a life-long fan. I now find him one of the most interesting characters in the Marvel universe, and love finding new material that expands on his mission to rid Hell's Kitchen of crime.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
I just wanted to say... there was some discussion of Menomena in this thread. That is good.
Because they're amazing. I wish they would bring out another album. Friend and Foe is a joy to listen to.
It's great, but I kind of overdid it last summer, and am still not listening to it regularly again.
It was in my CD player at all times for about 4 weeks straight.
Thompson's art on that album reminds me of the stuff my friends and I used to do during class in high school, to pass the time.
We have 2 or 3 books of completely full pages of doodling all kind of dorky shit. I should find those books.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
I agree.
Great cover/poster artist, but not so great at interiors.
For fans of Blankets, I cannot recommend the work of Chester Brown enough. Mind blowing stuff, and my favorite artist/writer in the comic book world.
Both of these are masterpieces of the medium.
I love that Brown has embraced the words "comic book" and "comic strip". He does not try to add importance to his work by using the phrase "graphic novel", he lets the work add the gravitas, and it does.
These comic books are stunning; two of the most personal stories I've ever read.
Meg - good choice with Daredevil Yellow. That is a really good book.
Cool list. Keep it up. My two cents:
Love Moore's Swamp Thing, mostly for the art rather than the writing.
Ross's Kingdom Come is the best looking terrible comic I've read. Had he spread it out into two volumes worth of development, it could've been something spectacular. Is too truncated.
Have tried to read Blankets many times, but I cannot get into his sentimentality. Feels too easy.
Am interested in reading the others you mentioned.
Yeah - it does feel more like a recap than an actual narrative.
I have a confession to make...I've actually never read anything by Chester Brown.
I must get on that, promptly.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Louis Riel is amazing. The two that Davis mentioned are also great.
I'll have to give Blankets a try
Huh... What? Come again?
And yeah, Winston, I think it goes on beyond the "alone in the planet" adventure. Assuming you mean the Blue Planet.
Inspired in part by Marvel's hugely successful "Ultimate" books (including "Ultimate Spider-Man, "Ultimate X-Men" and "The Ultimates"), DC comics began releasing books in 2005 which had similar goals in mind - to use writer/artist wonderteams to re-vamp the major characters, creating easily accessible books which occur in a continuity all their own, so the creators had the freedom to do whatever they wanted with the character without worry about years and years of backstory to honor.
The first book to be released under this "DC All-Star" label was "All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder", which was written by Frank Miller and drawn by Jim Lee. The first issue was pretty neat - Batman's a little more psycho than usual, but that can be expected. After all, it's Frank Miller, right? We're shown the death of Robin's parents, and Batman taking him under his wing immediately after having kind of stalked the kid for quite a while - again, different from anything I've read before, but I can dig it.
Then a big car chase involving the Batmobile and a couple of cop cars occurs. Again, not like this has never happened before - I would be a little concerned if Batman wasn't challenged by the police every once in a while.
But then...Batman kills a couple of cops. Yes, you read correctly. Albeit shown as being crooked cops, Batman has the cops positioned behind the Batmobile, then turns his flaming engines up to full, effectively roasting them alive.
Then this brilliant piece of dialogue occurs, and it becomes clear that not only is this Batman book totally not Batman at all (something I half expected anyways), but it also kind of sucks...
To say I was worried when I picked up the first issue of "All-Star Superman" would be an understatement. While the team of Grant Morrison (one of my absolute favorites) and Frank Quitely (one of the best artists in the 'biz) seemed like a dream come true, well, so did Frank Miller and Jim Lee.
Luckily, my caution was thrown to the wind when it turned out to be one of the most fun, vibrant, and true-to-the-character books I had read in years. Honestly, this is the best regular-issue Superman series to come out in years...maybe even decades!
We begin with an incredible deep space rescue, where Superman flies the closest to the sun that he's ever been in order to rescue some astronauts. Upon returning home, he feels different. He's stronger, faster, smarter...but something just isn't right.
He has some tests done, and discovers that being so close to the sun - the source of his powers - has effectively "super-charged" him, but it has also caused a great problem. His body cannot handle all of this raw energy, and before long, he will die.
Through the first few issues, we see some of the most defining character moments of Superman's life, re-imagined and given new life and energy. Clark Kent reveals his secret identity to Lois Lane, Superman's earth father (Jonathan Kent) is killed, he and Jimmy Olsen become friends - it's all here, and it all feels fresh and new, and you don't need to know anything about Superman or his many bazillions of previous stories to be able to understand and enjoy this book.
It's surprisingly touching, too. After revealing his identity to Lois, he brings her to the Fortress of Solitude, where he seems to be acting a bit strange. There's one room in the Fortress that he insists she do not go in, and she's beginning to worry. Is there a weapon in there? Plans for some world domination plot?
But when he finally reveals the contents of the room to her, it's a sweet moment, where he gives her the greatest birthday gift ever - using the technology passed down to him by his Kryoptonian parents, Superman built Lois a suit which will give her the ability to fly, handle the pressures of high altitude, and be just like him for one day.
While Grant Morrison is known for his many weird and quasi-existential books ("Animal Man" and "Doom Patrol" push the boundaries of comic books and what the mind can handle in a single issue), he puts that part of his writing prowess away for "All-Star Superman", and gives us an entertaining actioner with heart and soul, and a story that gives us back what the monthly Superman books have been missing for years.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Frank Quitely, the guy who does the interiors as well.
He's one of my favorites. He'll be making another appearance down the list, and it's actually with Grant Morrison again.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
I'm having problems with his art in general, but this is so true. The best work Alex Ross has ever done were the series of "real world problems" books he did with Paul Dini, because they were illustrated novellas, not comics, so it was pretty much a series of paintings. The problem is he doesn't know visual storytelling, and you try to read his comics and it's just one tiny painting after another; no sense of panel continuity whatsoever.
Movie Theater Diary
I've always had small quibbles with Ross' art having very little distinction between character faces, and characters looking like they have balloons for muscles. But his images are just so darn pretty.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
I see all of you guys objections about Alex Ross and I raise you a Tim Bradstreet:
That guy is just as photorealistic and a hell of a lot more expressive.
This is true, nicely said. Ross really doesn't understand the art of sequential story-telling. As you said, each panel is merely a small painting, and while they look nice, there is almost no context between the panels. In comic books, it is important for the artist to suggest what happens in between the panels - the stuff we don't see is just as, if not more, important than the stuff we do see. And while Ross shows us some awesome stuff, I never get the sense that anything else is going on.
I do like his posters he did for G-Force - those are pretty awesome.
Are these panels all done by Quietly? I love the bottom panels, but that top panel is messy and generic - it's got all those "Image" lines (I am so tired of the over use of hatching and cross hatching on faces like that - a technique popularized by old McFarlane, and taken to an absurd level by Jim Lee, Rob Leifeld, and the whole Image crew).
I think the reason that I like Quietly's art so much is that it reminds me of Arthur Adams, one of my favorites.
Art Adams' Appleseed covers are amazing.
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BIG thumbs up for I Never Liked You and All Star Superman. Both are fantastic.
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