What Comic Books Have You Read Today?

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I finished Captain Britain Weekly #1-23 (see "In Depth Comics Discussions" forum) and plan to move on to the second tpb collection of early Captain Britain adventures as well as Joss Whedon's Fray later this afternoon.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I just read the two trades of the Sinestro Corps war -- a heck of a good story, and it gave me a primer (though rushed in some places) on the zillions of new GL's that have been introduced since I was reading regularly. I really like the Stel/Green Man partnership!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Mark Sullivan said:

Mark Sullivan said:

Half of Criminal Vol. 1: Coward. I had been meaning to read this, and finally gave up on the library buying it. So far it's definitely been worth the wait. Also Book One of Deadman: Exorcism, the second Mature Readers Deadman story from Mike Baron & Kelley Jones. This one really piles on the spooky, with a dramatic appearance of the Mysterious Stranger at the end.

Finished these. Criminal really took a bad turn at the end. Even though I should have expected something like that from a noir story, it was still shocking and exciting to read. Looking forward to more of the series; I've already got the second trade.

I remember hearing an interview with a noir writer (Charles Ardai, I think) who described noir protagonists as flies who crawl and crawl up the inside of a glass to get to the top so they can fly away, only to discover that the glass was turned upside down all along, and they can never escape.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I finished up the Avengers/Defenders War. A trade that includes Avengers 115-118 and Defenders 8-11. A Real good yarn for the most part. My problem? That same problem I have with a lot of Marvel comics of this time: it is over captioned. Way, way too many captions. I swear sometimes its like they forgot comics are a visual medium.

I also started reading Art Spiegelman's Breakdowns

[The Baron]

Black Jack Vol. 7, by Osamu Tezuka. As always, the good doctor doesn't disappoint.

[John Dunbar]

I enjoy Englehart's writing on Avengers for the most part, but yeah, that's a valid point. And it's less narration and more talking directly to the reader. It's as if he was trying to make a weird fusion of Stan Lee's narration style and his dialogue style.

[Figserello]

I haven't read the Avengers/Defenders War in a while, but a lot of the added verbiage in these old comics have to do with the 'Marvel Method'. The artists generally didn't work from a full script, but usually plotted and drew the comics with minimal input from the writer.

The writer gets these pages out of the blue and as he adds the dialogue he realises that things he wanted to say weren't included in the art, or the artist has included things (not nessecarily on that page - maybe elsewhere in the comic) that need explaining. Sometimes the art is just 'wrong' and some excuse needs to verbalised to account for it.

As time went on, it just became second nature to the writers to 'cover all the bases' with their dialogue and narration.

The Marvel Method was successful for TPTB at Marvel and as a bonus kept the artists and writers in their place, but wasn't nessecarily to the benefit of the comics themselves.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Read the first two parts of BPRD: The Warning in single issue form. This is about the fastest-moving BPRD story I can recall. A lot has already happened, both in terms of character development and action. Also Scarlet Traces, a steampunk story by Ian Edginton & D'Israeli. It is set in England after the Martian invasion from War of the Worlds. The Victorians have assimilated Martian technologies, so there are Hansom cabs that walk around on legs, heat ray pistols, and airships. But the heart of the story is a murder mystery.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Two more issues of BPRD (I'm saving the final issue for tomorrow), and all I can say is: Woo-hoo! Giant robots! Also half of The Collected Stray Bullets Vol. 6. Back to standalone stories in this one, the last of my Heroes Con haul.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

Read the last chapter of Old Man Logan today. That was pretty disgusting. I'm glad this story is finally over.

Then I read Blackest Night #3. The Indigo Tribe finally make themselves know and shine a little light on the situation. Still enjoying this.

[Captain Comics]

It took me three days to read Dark Reign: The Hood #1-5, because I fell asleep Thursday night in the middle of #3, and Friday night in the middle of #5. If you assume from this circumstance that I found DR: The Hood a poorly written, boring story, even at the so-called climax, featuring boring, D-list characters, and The Hood himself to be a poorly-conceived, cliched character of low morals, whom the writers attempt to make me sympathize with even though he is an unrepentant killer of women and children and husbands and grandfathers and so forth ... well, you'd be right.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Finished BPRD: The Warning. It ends on a cliffhanger, but I was expecting that, since it's the first part of a three-part story. Also read War On Frogs #2, with great art from John Severin. This is a series of historical tales from the frog wars which have been published during the breaks between the longer BPRD series. Plus I finished the sixth Stray Bullets collection.