• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

JD's Comic Book Thread

Yeah, It sounds more like brand loyalty to me than anything else. Which I have been guilty of in the past too.
 
See that's where we differ, I just look for anything that looks interesting, whether it's a Big 2 character that I'm curious about, or an indie with a cool sounding story.
Rather than only reading a certain genre of books, to me what you do would be more like only reading books published by Simon & Schuster or Del Rey, and refusing to read other stuff just because it was published by HarperCollins or Penguin.

No, I'd say its like loving Sci-Fi and fantasy books, and having no interest in romance novels. Besides, indies don't have stories that interest me (outside of licensed stuff). I have specific likes and dislikes. I don't happen to like many original stories not connected to characters or franchises I already like in general, and in comics its even rarer. Its the same with books. I almost never try out a novel just because it sounds interesting, and when I do 90% of the time I loathe it. I have a very good sense of what I like and dislike. Indy comics are just something I generally dislike.

Yeah, It sounds more like brand loyalty to me than anything else. Which I have been guilty of in the past too.

Is it brand loyalty when you have never really liked what you've tried of the competition? Should I be required to like stuff that I have no interest in, and if I don't I'm just a "Marvel zombie" or whatever the DC/Marvel equivalent is? I like some other comics, but I only love comics because of marvel/DC. I don't care about other characters, or other types of comics. Its not out of specific loyalty, I'm not refusing to read indy comics out of loyalty to anything. I don't read indy comics because I don't have any interest in them. I could go read 50 indy comics right now, and I'd probably like 1 of them, maybe. They don't give me what I want out of comics, so I don't read them. If this was the golden age or silver age, I'd probably be reading Charlton, Fawcett, and a bunch of other companies that used to publish comics in the styles DC/Marvel did at the time.

But, the comic companies that aren't Marvel/DC nowadays don't have a style I like, and they don't publish comics like DC/Marvel do. There is no other superhero universe in comics except Valiant, which is terrible (and I pretty much swore to never read any Valiant again after they cancelled Harbinger, the only good book they ever published). Some companies have individual heroes, but from what I've read, they all suck. They don't hold a candle to the lamest DC/Marvel heroes. There is also Rob Liefeld's collection of characters I guess, but about 90% of them are just Cable or Wolverine clones and the rest are the normal Liefeld brand of terrible. If a comic company ever comes around that publishes a superhero universe and makes that most of their line and tries to be like DC or Marvel, I'd give them a shot. That's basically guaranteed not to happen, and even if it did it would almost certainly be terrible, so I'm fine sticking with the only comic companies that publish the books I want to read.
 
You keep making it sound like all indie comics are the same, but they're even more diverse than Marvlel/DC's output.
Saga and Lumberjanes couldn't be anymore different, one is about a PG level light hearted fantasy story that's about girls at a camp , and the other is a beyond R rated sci-fi/fantasy story about a couple who come from the opposite sides in an interstellar war and other craziness. There are also realistic espianage stories like Velvet, post-apocalyptic stuff like East of West and Lola XOXO, and fantasy like Rat Queens.
I could see not liking a specific genre, or writer, but it seems excessive to me to say you don't like indie comics in general.
 
The impression I am getting is that K5s likes the shared universe aspect and long histories of DC and Marvel more than anything else.
 
I guess that makes a certain amount of sense, but even that can be found in some indies.
I need a bit of clarification here, would things from companies like Image and Boom! be considered indies? I tend to think of indies as anything not from the Big 2, but I realize now that it might refer to a more specific group of comics than that.
 
.... There is no other superhero universe in comics except Valiant, which is terrible (and I pretty much swore to never read any Valiant again after they cancelled Harbinger, the only good book they ever published). Some companies have individual heroes, but from what I've read, they all suck. They don't hold a candle to the lamest DC/Marvel heroes. ...
I agree to disagree.
X-O Manowar has been awesome, sadly ending it only cause the creative team for the last 5yrs is leaving. Issue #50 will be the last and that arrives in Sept or October.
Bloodshot, Rai, Archer & Armstrong, Ninjak, Ivar Timewalker, Doctor Mirage, Faith(mini) and Imperium have all been great!
Since you liked Harbinger you really should check out Imperium(it's concluding at #16) as it's the continuation of Harbinger and is the fallout of Harada's exposure by the Renegades.

Shadowman was a mixed title. Quantum & Woody are not my kind of book and until the current series they had mixed results with their Eternal Warrior title. It's a better book now for sure but I'm not ready to just toss it into the great pile yet. They had a stinker of a mini, self contained event, with Dead Drop.

The current summer event 4001 A.D. has been great. They have a slate of new titles rolling out over the end of summer & first of Fall I'm eagerly anticipating.
Faith ongoing(July) - Harbinger connection, first character from Renegades w/an ongoing
Generation Zero(August) - spinning out of Harbinger Wars
Britannia mini(September) - dateline 65A.D., Antonius Axia, Romes top detective in it's most remote outpost must deal with locals and bridge the gap of myth & mystery.
Bloodshot USA mini(October) - think Spider-Island, nanites are released over NYC turning civilians into BS type walking weapons.
Harbinger: Renegades(November) - The team is back and trying to get adjusted to a world that knows who they are.
Savage(November) - described as "Tarzan meets Turok", the son of a famous soccer star and his unborn wife is raised on an unknown island where creatures from out of time exist.
Divinity III mini - with the fallout of Divinity II still unsure the real clue in the write up is "Welcome to the Stalinverse). In Divinity II the loyal Soviet Myshka seeks to alter the timeline and make history go the way it should have....according to her.

There are at least 3 Valiant titles over the rest of the year that you might want to consider.
 
You keep making it sound like all indie comics are the same, but they're even more diverse than Marvlel/DC's output.
Saga and Lumberjanes couldn't be anymore different, one is about a PG level light hearted fantasy story that's about girls at a camp , and the other is a beyond R rated sci-fi/fantasy story about a couple who come from the opposite sides in an interstellar war and other craziness. There are also realistic espianage stories like Velvet, post-apocalyptic stuff like East of West and Lola XOXO, and fantasy like Rat Queens.
I could see not liking a specific genre, or writer, but it seems excessive to me to say you don't like indie comics in general.

Its not excessive. I only want to read stories about DC/Marvel characters or licensed stuff I like. I don't give a care about creator owned work, or junk like Valiant comics. I don't like espionage stories, and I don't want to read Sci-Fi or fantasy comics. I don't read comics by genre. I read comics based on how I feel about the characters, and I only read comics with characters I like from DC/Marvel 99.999999999% of the time. I don't know how much clearer I can be. Outside of rare exceptions, if its not about a DC/Marvel character/team, I don't like it and I won't read it. As far as I'm concerned, DC and Marvel ARE comics as a medium. They are the be all end all of comics. The reason, as far as I'm concerned, that comics exist nowadays. I don't want stories about girls at camp, or sci fi porn with TV robot aliens. I want stories with Superman, batman, Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Power Girl, Captain Marvel (the real one and Carol danvers), Darth Vader, The TMNT, The Doctor, etc, etc. Without characters like those, I have no desire to read a comic (again, outside of very few exceptions).

So, yeah, I don't like Indy comics. They have nothing I want and, unless DC or Marvel stop caring about copyright, the vast majority of Indy comics will never have something I want. Generally speaking, I don't want to read comics that don't have what I listed above.

The impression I am getting is that K5s likes the shared universe aspect and long histories of DC and Marvel more than anything else.

Yeah, that's a big part of it. I also like the style of the companies. They have problems (less event comics would be great), but they're still the pinnacle of the medium. Plus, they just have great characters. Through having talented people (and in DC's case adding to that by buying a bunch of the old failed comic companies) they've created the best collection of stories in characters around.Plus, like i said, I don't like non hero stories in comics, and I don't like hero comics that aren't DC/Marvel.

I agree to disagree.
Since you liked Harbinger you really should check out Imperium(it's concluding at #16) as it's the continuation of Harbinger and is the fallout of Harada's exposure by the Renegades.

Imperium is basically why I will never read another Valiant book. I hate Hamada. Seriously, every panel he got in Harbinger was pure misery (not quite as bad as having to suffer through Bloodshot invading the book, but close). So, basically, Valiant cancelled the book I liked (Harbinger) and replaced it with a book starring the character I could barely tolerate when he was just a small part of a comic I liked. Since it was the only book of theirs that I cared about, that move was enough to guarantee I'll never read them again.

There are at least 3 Valiant titles over the rest of the year that you might want to consider.

Like I said, I will never read Valiant again. Those books mostly seem terrible anyway, but at this point they could relaunch Harbinger and say all the events of Imperium were just the dream of a heroin addict, and kill off Hamada in the most painful way possible in the first panel, and I still wouldn't read it. To be fair, I would read any of the books you mentioed even if Harbinger hadn't been cancelled, I'd just read Harbinger. But how they treated Harbinger means I won't even read the books related to Harbinger.

I guess that makes a certain amount of sense, but even that can be found in some indies.
I need a bit of clarification here, would things from companies like Image and Boom! be considered indies? I tend to think of indies as anything not from the Big 2, but I realize now that it might refer to a more specific group of comics than that.

To me, indies are companies that publish unlicensed (aka not based on pre-existing movie/tv franchises) comics, and aren't DC/Marvel. Its not just creator owned. Valiant Comics, for example, doesn't do creator owned, but its still an Indy publisher.
 
I finished reading the first collection of the first series of Marvel's Runaways earlier today. I really enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun, and I really liked all of the characters.
I have admit, I was a little surprised we didn't get any kind of cameos from any of the big players from other parts of the Marvel Universe. It was actually kind of nice, we got a few sold references to establish that the series was in MU, but they didn't force anything unnecessary into the book.
I was kind of confused though, because at one point they made it sound like The Pride didn't actually kill the girl whose "murder" set everything in motion, but then at the end she was dead.

I think despite my issues with Saga, Brian K Vaughn is on his way to becoming one of my favorites writers.
 
Runaways was a very good book, and the whole run (through 3 volumes, I think) was pretty great. It didn't really have a definitive ending or anything though (I think it kind of ends on a cliffhanger, although its been awhile since I read it so I'm not sure), and at this point most of the characters are in limbo except for Nico. I wish Marvel would go back to it and at least tie up loose ends.
 
Do all three Volumes deal with the kids and their parents or do they eventually move on to other bad guys?
 
Do all three Volumes deal with the kids and their parents or do they eventually move on to other bad guys?

They move on from the parents eventually, although I don't remember exactly when the Pride storyline ends.
 
This doesn't really fit in the DC: Rebirth thread, even though its technically a dC comic, so I'm putting it here.

Fables, the (generally very good) Vertigo book by Bill Willingham is getting a spin off book, set some time after the finale issue

http://www.comicbookresources.com/a...ium=internal_links&utm_source=breaking_banner
http://www.comicbookresources.com/a...ium=internal_links&utm_source=breaking_banner
Even though the main book got weaker near the end, I enjoyed it for most of its whole run, and I've hoped we'd see more from the universe. The writers of this book aren't really people who give me a lot of confidence (Jack of Fables was pretty terrible, and the writer of basically all of that spin off is one of the co-writers of Everafter), but I just want to see more from the Fables Universe, so I'll definitely be reading it.
 
I've been meaning to give Fables a try. I used to love Bill Willingham's "Elementals" series.
 
I've been meaning to give Fables a try. I used to love Bill Willingham's "Elementals" series.

I really liked it. Some people say it gets weaker at a certain point (which I won't spoil), and I kind of agree, but I still enjoyed the whole run. It also had art that was consistently good, I can't remember any really bad art for the whole 150 issue series, which was impressive.
 
Does Willingham illustrate it too or is he just the writer?

He's just the writer. I don't how how consistently the book had the same artist, but at worst the art was still generally good. Sometimes it was great, sometimes just ok. But, for a book with so many issues, you're almost guaranteed to have a few really bad looking ones, even if its just a bad fill in artist. Outside of maybe a story in an anthology (there were a few anthology style Fables comics, although I can't remember if they did that in any individual issues or as a seperate TPB), Fables art was usually pretty good.
 
i've read the first three trades of Fables and really enjoyed em. need to pick up the fourth volume but it always slips my mind.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top