Comics you've never read, but would like to

[thunderbolt]

Tried really hard to get into manga,(Appleseed, Akira, Gunhed, etc) but couldn't. The black and white bothered me, and a lot of the storylines are just plain boring and seem to be drawn out like a lot of the stuff today. Guess Japan invented "writing for the trade".

I've hit most of the big ones mentioned here, Starman, Animal Man, Watchmen(if you are an American comics fan, this is must reading), Doom Patrol. One thing I've been meaning to get around to but haven't is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

[The Toyroom]

>If it ain't American super-heroics, I ain't interested.

I always think it's a shame when folks say stuff like this. There's SO MUCH out there you're missing.

Not missing it if I know for a fact that I'd have absolutely NO interest in it whatsoever...

[ctc]

>The black and white bothered me

I’ve heard that a lot; mot just for the Japanese stuff, but for the independents of yesteryear. I read tons of B&W stuff when I was a kid, whereas most folks were into the colour books. I think that’s one of them formative things: you get used to one way of doing things and everything else seems wrong. (My formative years were filled with guys like Spain, Crepax, Corben, Crumb, Saito, McCay, Gould....)

>Tried really hard to get into manga,.... but couldn't.

I think just reading them wouldn’t work ‘cos you sorta need an “in.” Some kind of cue or template that “explains” how to take things. If the Kirby formula is what you know it’s difficult to pace the Tezuka one. AND you need a REASON to get into them. For a lot of hardcore comic fans it’s easy to say “THAT book? The one all them kids are reading? Pfth! Just a stupid toy marketing plan it is.... now; GI Joe, THAT’S a comic!” Not realizing there’s no real difference except they were young and open to new ideas when they first saw the stuff they like.

Which is why I think people’s tastes get so cloistered. After a certain point (for a few reasons) you get closed off to actual new ideas, and spend your time swishing around stuff that’s a BIT different, but not enough to really deviate. Not to say the affection for...., oh, we’ll say Batman, isn’t genuine; or the dislike of.... let’s stick with Naruto, is any less authentic; but you should ask yourself what generates these feelings. Why one, and not the other. (‘Course, I ask that of my own curiosity. It’s not a moral judgement or anything. The question has puzzled me since a friend; who owns 10,000+ “Magic: The Gathering” cards expressed a great deal of contempt over his son’s affection for the “Yugi-Oh” game.)

....and I find it interesting that nobody brings up any European comics in these discussions. (Well; almost nobody.) There’s more than just the American superhero and Japanese action way of doing a comic.

>seem to be drawn out like a lot of the stuff today.

You can think of Japanese stuff as Pre-Dragonball and Post-Dragonball. Most of what we get over here is Post-Dragonball, and follows the formula pretty seriously. That is, endless fights that go on forever; endless quests for powerups for the next endless fight, etc. Didn’t used to be like that; but the Japanese fall into ruts as readily as us. (They DO have more of ‘em though. Which helps. N. America pretty much stopped doing drama, romance, sports, and most comedy books a long time ago.)

Don C.

[ctc]

>Not missing it if I know for a fact that I'd have absolutely NO interest in it whatsoever

Odd statement, since it implies that you've perused a great deal of non-superhero stuff and didn't find it to your liking. Which is odd 'cos there's so many different things out there it'd be strange not to find anything else appealing. Unless you've just decided to not bother. In which case I'd point out that your favourite superhero WASN'T your favourite before you read them.

>Crisis On Infinite Earths? No let-down there

The only problem with reading it now is that you might miss a lot of the impact considering how much that changed in it has already changed back/changed around/ been negated; and the Crisis formula has been done so many times since. When it first came out it really was an event; since you didn't know how it was gonna turn out and you really felt the things that changed were ACTUALLY changed. (Unlike now, when you know it could all be uprooted in next year's big cross-over.)

Don C.

[toys2cool]

I've always been intrigued by Kriminal as well.

Has anyone seen the movie?

http://i25.tinypic.com/2guea04.jpg

I have huge piles of manga around the house that I've acquired over the years from my trips to Asia that I wish I could read. Despite the wealth of things that have been translated and reprinted in English or even "scanslated" online, like the Lone Wolf and Cubs that weren't reprinted by First, Mad Bull, Ricky-Oh or Offered that I can now read, there is still many many volumes I have that are filled with Wild Visceral Imagery that I wish I could make sense of, particularly the non-Samurai Scifi, Fantasy and Thriller material of Lone Wolf and Cub writer Kazuo Kioke that I own.

I'm dying to read this series in particular...

http://www.ebookjapan.jp/include/image/brathers_top.jpg

Filled to the brim with Terminator style Cyborgs, sex, violence, and Nazis. It seems to just suck in all kinds of eighties exploitation and genre films and mash it into one insane storyline. Everything from Ms 45/I spit on your Grave, The Bad Lieutenant, The Warriors, and The Godfather.

Best of all... they save Hitler's brain and put it into a Terminator!


I'm also a big fan of Gon and would love to read this Western series by Masashi Tanaka that I own.

no but I wanna watch it now

[The Toyroom]

>Not missing it if I know for a fact that I'd have absolutely NO interest in it whatsoever

Odd statement, since it implies that you've perused a great deal of non-superhero stuff and didn't find it to your liking. Which is odd 'cos there's so many different things out there it'd be strange not to find anything else appealing. Unless you've just decided to not bother.

BINGO! I know what I like and Manga ain't it....same for Anime as far as cartoons go.....it's not my thing. Can't teach an old dog how to read new books, as it were.

[samurainoir]

Not so say that European comics haven't found footholds here in the past few decades (at least as far as my own observations in Canada).






Smurfs may be gone (they were in every bookstore in the eighties), but most Chapters/Indigos have plenty of Asterix and Tintin in the kids section.

Didn't anyone else read these as kids? I remember my library being filled with them at a time when "comic book" was still a dirty word in those circles.

[samurainoir]

>Anything else at onemanga that you recommend?

FrankenFran, Billy Bat, Giant Robo, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. UruseiYatsura is an old fave.

I liked Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, never really got into UruseiYatsura or Giant Robo. I'll have to go check out the other two!

FrankenFran looks interesting.

[thunderbolt]

> CTC quote>I think just reading them wouldn’t work ‘cos you sorta need an “in.” Some kind of cue or template that “explains” how to take things. If the Kirby formula is what you know it’s difficult to pace the Tezuka one. AND you need a REASON to get into them. For a lot of hardcore comic fans it’s easy to say “THAT book? The one all them kids are reading? Pfth! Just a stupid toy marketing plan it is.... now; GI Joe, THAT’S a comic!” Not realizing there’s no real difference except they were young and open to new ideas when they first saw the stuff they like.

Which is why I think people’s tastes get so cloistered. After a certain point (for a few reasons) you get closed off to actual new ideas, and spend your time swishing around stuff that’s a BIT different, but not enough to really deviate. Not to say the affection for...., oh, we’ll say Batman, isn’t genuine; or the dislike of.... let’s stick with Naruto, is any less authentic; but you should ask yourself what generates these feelings. Why one, and not the other. (‘Course, I ask that of my own curiosity. It’s not a moral judgement or anything. The question has puzzled me since a friend; who owns 10,000+ “Magic: The Gathering” cards expressed a great deal of contempt over his son’s affection for the “Yugi-Oh” game.)


I had an "in" I tried it and didn't like it. Manga seems more than a bit full of itself, and the art for the most part is very homogeneous and sterile. At least American and European comics have a wider variety of art styles.

[ctc]

>(at least as far as my own observations in Canada)

There were TONS of 'em when I was a kid; almost every bookstore had 'em, and the World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto used to stock the older audience ones en masse.

>FrankenFran looks interesting

It's really, REALLY weird.... and disturbing. Not only is it NSFW; it's probably NSF-ANYWHERE. (If you've read story 2 you've probably noticed.) But it's VERY different from anything else I've ever read. (And that's what I look for.) Same with Billy Bat; but you gotta read that one for a while before it starts picking up. (At least until the first guy's friend is found dead.)

>Manga seems more than a bit full of itself, and the art for the most part is very homogeneous and sterile. At least American and European comics have a wider variety of art styles.

That to me sounds really strange.... It’s always bothered me how American books, especially the superheroes seem to latch onto one or two ideas and run ‘em to death. (Like the 70's when everything was VERY Romita-esque.... or the zillion Jim Lee clones in the 90's.) America HAS had a lot of uniqueness, but it’s usually kind of tough to find. Japan has a lot of uniqueness that’s tough to find HERE; ‘cos it’s mostly the boy’s action stuff we get. (The Japanese equivalent of the superhero.) Europe has an amazing swatch of art; no arguing that. Probably ‘cos they produce books for such a variety of audiences.

As for being full of itself.... I don’t get that either. Very few things are as sanctimonious as an 80's gritty superhero. (‘Cept maybe a BRITISH 80's superhero....) I’m not sure I’m getting exactly what you mean though.... maybe some examples would help?

Don C.

[thunderbolt]

All the manga art has the same style. (doe eyed girls and boys, speed lines, cartoony expressions) People all look cartoony and the action scenes are done the same. I just find it very bland. I tend to like artists with unique styles like Mignola, Ditko, Quitely, Powell, Infantino, etc and don't go for the Image type clonage. Maybe its manga fandom that is full of itself, acting all highbrow because they read manga. Oooooo so cool. My favorite is when people correct me on manga's pronounciation. They are comics plain and simple.

[ctc]

>Maybe its manga fandom that is full of itself

HAW! THAT I can give you! Since the early 90's they've been pretty bad; even adopting the term "otaku" for themselves. (Which is a HUGE insult in Japanese.) 'Course, I've found superhero fans to be just as bad. (Watch how they react to even the slightest change in a character's costume; and how they go off when NON-superhero comics come up.) I think it's a dedicated nerd thing. (I HATE dogma, of any shade.)

>People all look cartoony and the action scenes are done the same.

I disagree; but I'm betting that's 'cos I've seen more of it than you have. Like anything there are definite trends; but if you follow over a long period of time you see a lot of changes and distinction. But at any given time everything tends to be pretty similar.

>I tend to like artists with unique styles like Mignola, Ditko, Quitely, Powell, Infantino, etc

Kinda like that. Note that you've picked artists from a long time period. (60's to 90's: 30 years.)

Don C.

[TrueDave]

I've always wanted to read Savage Dragon #50 ( memory working?) God vs the Devil I hear its one of the best fights ever.