[img:$uid]http://img-a.onemanga.com/mangas/00000051/Ouran_High_School_Host_Club.jpg[/img:$uid]

I really liked the anime but the manga is the original source and is longer (the anime only covered 25% of the manga) It's hilarious

[img:$uid]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172883196l/228063.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://www.the-games-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Tsubasacover.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1293/1342517674_de428708e9.jpg[/img:$uid]

Efan said:

Cerebus said:

Huge Bone fan. Absolutely love it. Especially that it continued to get better and had a satisfying ending. I been trying to follow Rasl, but I'm REALLY annoyed that he's not able to keep the book on schedule (which is stating it mildly). Not keeping it on a tight schedule means fewer shops will keep ordering it AND that the people who really want it are more likely to end up missing issues (which is the case for me). He kept bone mostly on schedule for YEARS, so it's not like we don't know that he can do it. My guess is that the Scholastic money has made the struggling indie comic book creator a bit more comfortable than he used to be.

I don't know if it's the Scholastic money that's holding him back; although I kind of think it's more that he's trying to keep doing new Bone books while also working on this. I do love those Scholastic ones. I didn't think I'd be impressed by rendering those books in color, but I'm actually impressed with the job they did.

Oh, hey, I'm sure you already know about these, but just in case: Since you mentioned you love noir, are you reading the Parker books? I think they're tops.

I'm not sure that I know what the Parker books are, so I'm going to say no on those. What are they?

It's not that I love noir so much - in fact it's a relatively new thing for me to actually speak about the genre by name. But I've ALWAYS loved whatever was alt, indie, weird, different, strange, dark, twisted, gross, abstract, inventive, imaginative, etc. These days, a lot of that gets thrown into the noir and horror categories. I don't think it always fits, but if it helps the shops keep those books on their shelves I'm fine with it.

Without meaning to speak poorly of anyone with an affinity for them, superhero books feel like I'm reading the same thing over and over. Plus, whenever something isn't working they just, ya know, reboot it, or kill someone and bring them back "different", or with a new person in the costume. There was a time when I'm sure the superhero book would have filled me with wonderment. I'm sure they were mindblowing to in their early days, or to people who discovered the form through that type of storytelling. But my first exposure to comic books was Heavy Metal magazine, then the magazine size Savage Sword of Conan & Elfquest, followed very closely by Cerebus. So I just never acquired a love for the spandex and super powers.

I was a loyal Elfquest reader for MANY years and probably still would be if they were releasing anything new (although I did get a bit annoyed with how Wendy and Richard treated the property in the latter years).

Also an EXTREMELY loyal supporter of Matt Wagner (Mage, Grendel, Sandman Mystery Theater, Madame Xanadu).

I was a giant TMNT nerd in the early years, too. But the first movie was pretty close to the end of that love for me.

I did get sucked into the Batman glut in 1989 like so many other collectors, and for whatever reason I've stuck with it. I find a good Batman arch as rewarding as anything else that I read.

The 90's boom and crash hit my annoyance button pretty hard. At first it was cool, but it got old really fast. What with the new companies and books popping up every other week. Books with eight variant collectors covers taking up shelf space, but never making it past issue five or six. If it wasn't for Sandman, and then Vertigo in general, I think I might have walked away. But that was enough to keep me in it and I'm glad I stayed.

And now, being able to go back and read so much that I missed in graphic novel form, I can see that there was some really good stuff published by some of those companies. But most of it really was crap.

These days (really, since around the time Oni started) there's ENDLESS cool stuff to read from publishers of all different sizes. I dig Oni, always loved Dark Horse. IDW is releasing a bunch of great stuff. But in general, if it's odd, there's a good chance I'm going to check it out.

Oh, I'm also a giant Warren Ellis nerd! He and Gaiman are definitely my two favorites.

[Edited 2/3/11 20:41pm]

I don't read manga either. The oversized eyes and so many of the characters looking so young just doesn't do anything for me. I think the only thing remotely resembling manga I was ever able to get into was the first few Darkminds archs.

These are the Parker graphic novels--Darwyn Cooke's adaptations of Richard Stark's (aka Donald Westlake) character. They're incredibly good.

Cerebus said:

I don't read manga either. The oversized eyes and so many of the characters looking so young just doesn't do anything for me. I think the only thing remotely resembling manga I was ever able to get into was the first few Darkminds archs.

I'm gonna find some with regular sized eyes and post them here.....they're out there

The big eye thing has to do with expressive chraracters. The characters who are stoic are the ones with the very small eyes and stone faced in the ones I read

bboy87 said:

Cerebus said:

I don't read manga either. The oversized eyes and so many of the characters looking so young just doesn't do anything for me. I think the only thing remotely resembling manga I was ever able to get into was the first few Darkminds archs.

I'm gonna find some with regular sized eyes and post them here.....they're out there

The big eye thing has to do with expressive chraracters. The characters who are stoic are the ones with the very small eyes and stone faced in the ones I read

I hated all things manga/anime for a long, long time. I still don't gravitate toward it. But Pluto and 20th Century Boys are both pretty good, and I've found a few others I liked quite a bit.

bboy87 said:

Cerebus said:

I don't read manga either. The oversized eyes and so many of the characters looking so young just doesn't do anything for me. I think the only thing remotely resembling manga I was ever able to get into was the first few Darkminds archs.

I'm gonna find some with regular sized eyes and post them here.....they're out there

The big eye thing has to do with expressive chraracters. The characters who are stoic are the ones with the very small eyes and stone faced in the ones I read

It's the stylized characters/art that doesn't excite me. I just don't enjoy that asthetic. I can appreciate it as art, and I find their factory system really fascinating. But it's not what I want in my comic books.

Efan said:

These are the Parker graphic novels--Darwyn Cooke's adaptations of Richard Stark's (aka Donald Westlake) character. They're incredibly good.

Awesome. You've already supplied four books for me to put on my check list. I think they might be trying to make this into a movie, too.

Edit. Four, not for.

[Edited 2/3/11 20:50pm]

These are the ones I could find at the moment

[img:$uid]http://www.nexternal.com/dreamland/images/bananaFishV12.jpg[/img:$uid]

1973, Vietnam - an American soldier goes mad and guns down his buddies. Since then, the only words he has uttered are "Banana Fish"...

Twelve years later, in New York City, police investigate a series of puzzling suicides and a dying man gives a charismatic young gang leader named Ash Lynx a vial of a mysterious substance...

[img:$uid]http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/Uzumaki%20volume%201.jpg[/img:$uid]

The story concerns the inhabitants of the small Japanese town of Kurôzu-cho as they become obsessed by the occurrences of natural and artificial spirals around them. The result of this obsession is a slow transformation into something other than human, leading to a gruesome, realistically-depicted death.

bboy87 said:

These are the ones I could find at the moment

[img:$uid]http://www.nexternal.com/dreamland/images/bananaFishV12.jpg[/img:$uid]

1973, Vietnam - an American soldier goes mad and guns down his buddies. Since then, the only words he has uttered are "Banana Fish"...

Twelve years later, in New York City, police investigate a series of puzzling suicides and a dying man gives a charismatic young gang leader named Ash Lynx a vial of a mysterious substance...

[img:$uid]http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/Uzumaki%20volume%201.jpg[/img:$uid]

The story concerns the inhabitants of the small Japanese town of Kurôzu-cho as they become obsessed by the occurrences of natural and artificial spirals around them. The result of this obsession is a slow transformation into something other than human, leading to a gruesome, realistically-depicted death.

DUDE BANANA FISH IS MY FAVORITE!!

good story-good characters. i finished this serious in a week its like 13 chapters. the only manga i read through.

[img:$uid]http://decomicshop.nl/images/MAY10/luke-cage-noir-tp-gn-may100688.jpg[/img:$uid]

Harlepolis said:

[img:$uid]http://decomicshop.nl/images/MAY10/luke-cage-noir-tp-gn-may100688.jpg[/img:$uid]

I love Luke Cage. I need to pick this up. Is it set in Harlem?

Cerebus said:

But my first exposure to comic books was Heavy Metal magazine, then the magazine size Savage Sword of Conan & Elfquest, followed very closely by Cerebus. So I just never acquired a love for the spandex and super powers.

I was a loyal Elfquest reader for MANY years and probably still would be if they were releasing anything new (although I did get a bit annoyed with how Wendy and Richard treated the property in the latter years).

Huge Elfquest fan here! At least back in 1983. There were 3 big color books right?

Recently I read Joe Hill's (you know who he really is, right?):

[img:$uid]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Joehilllockekey.jpg[/img:$uid]

Efan said:

Harlepolis said:

[img:$uid]http://decomicshop.nl/images/MAY10/luke-cage-noir-tp-gn-may100688.jpg[/img:$uid]

I love Luke Cage. I need to pick this up. Is it set in Harlem?

A lot can change in ten years. And rarely for the better. Local legend, Luke Cage, invincible, unstoppable, unflappable, finds that out the hard way when he returns to the mean streets of Prohibition-era Harlem after a ten-year stretch in Riker's Island. All he wants is to be back in the loving arms of his woman, but certain powerful men have different plans for Cage. Willis Stryker, Cage's childhood friend turned Godfather of Harlem, wants him on his crew, and under his thumb. And wealthy white socialite Randall Banticoff, whose wife is now very dead, murdered in a Harlem alley, wants Cage to investigate her death. Cage is about to learn that coming home is never easy, and to survive he might just have to kill a whole lot of people. Collects Luke Cage Noir #1-4.

Cerebus said:

Efan said:

Tonight I read X-Men: The Birth of Generation Hope and I wanted to throw it across the room. Who reads this crap?

A LOT OF PEOPLE! There has been a constant glut of X titles for over twenty years now and ALL of them continue to sell well. When one of them slows down, they kill it and start a new one.... or three. Being and indie guy I've pretty much been massively against all things X since, like, 1982. Some friends who could actually articulate why they thought the books were good have gotten me to read a some archs and a couple of artist or writer runs over the years. But generally, REALLY not my thing.

Like Astonishing X-Men, right?

I mean, if you don't like Joss Whedon's run then you must really hate X-Men.

Harlepolis said:

Efan said:

I love Luke Cage. I need to pick this up. Is it set in Harlem?

A lot can change in ten years. And rarely for the better. Local legend, Luke Cage, invincible, unstoppable, unflappable, finds that out the hard way when he returns to the mean streets of Prohibition-era Harlem after a ten-year stretch in Riker's Island. All he wants is to be back in the loving arms of his woman, but certain powerful men have different plans for Cage. Willis Stryker, Cage's childhood friend turned Godfather of Harlem, wants him on his crew, and under his thumb. And wealthy white socialite Randall Banticoff, whose wife is now very dead, murdered in a Harlem alley, wants Cage to investigate her death. Cage is about to learn that coming home is never easy, and to survive he might just have to kill a whole lot of people. Collects Luke Cage Noir #1-4.

I will need to pick this up. But wait: Did Harlem really HAVE alleys during the Prohibition?

This should have been my very first recommendation:

Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (Fantagraphics) LOVE IT! The above cover is the collected HC that I have and has since been reprinted in more affordable softcover collections. I'm currently reading the follow-up collected HC, Luba about the continuing adventures of the main character from the Love and Rockets Palomar stories:

Efan said:

Harlepolis said:

A lot can change in ten years. And rarely for the better. Local legend, Luke Cage, invincible, unstoppable, unflappable, finds that out the hard way when he returns to the mean streets of Prohibition-era Harlem after a ten-year stretch in Riker's Island. All he wants is to be back in the loving arms of his woman, but certain powerful men have different plans for Cage. Willis Stryker, Cage's childhood friend turned Godfather of Harlem, wants him on his crew, and under his thumb. And wealthy white socialite Randall Banticoff, whose wife is now very dead, murdered in a Harlem alley, wants Cage to investigate her death. Cage is about to learn that coming home is never easy, and to survive he might just have to kill a whole lot of people. Collects Luke Cage Noir #1-4.

I will need to pick this up. But wait: Did Harlem really HAVE alleys during the Prohibition?

Give me a time machine and I'll try to find out

Harlepolis said:

Efan said:

I will need to pick this up. But wait: Did Harlem really HAVE alleys during the Prohibition?

Give me a time machine and I'll try to find out

I hate when movies and TV shows show murders and crimes going down in NYC alleyways (like even in Spider-Man, which tried to be all about real NYC shots). I always think, "WHERE are you finding these alleys, because they just don't exist."

I mean, granted, there are a couple here and there, but they pretty much don't exist. But maybe they hadn't closed them all off during the Prohibition.

If you're a fan of Britpop then you have to read this:

Phonogram Vol.1 (Image) Phonomancer David Kohl has to save his Britpop goddess, Britania, who is missing. Cursed by a goddess, he follows a series of leads and meets with other 'mancers, and spends time with a "normal" friend, Kid-With-Knife.

Very cool how the issue covers were homages to Britpop albums:

Efan said:

Harlepolis said:

Give me a time machine and I'll try to find out

I hate when movies and TV shows show murders and crimes going down in NYC alleyways...

It does seem like a cliche, on the other hand, I can understand why it looks appealing from a storytelling perspective.

Finally, I found this one to be interesting:

Strange Tales TPB (Marvel) - Well-known and up-and-coming indie artists contribute several short stories featuring Marvel characters. Some are great, many are just "WTF???" There is also a second series that I'm sure will be collected soon. I would have bought it for the cover of #2 alone by Jaime Hernandez:

Good topic...

I've been a comic book / art / action figure collector for the past 35 years and have always loved this stuff.

My big collection that I have kept up with were The Avengers, Spiderman, Captain America, Batman and some indie's.. I have over 10,000 books and 300 figures.

However in the last couple of years I have seen the prices of comics go up from 2.99 to 3.99 or more and the stories started to re-hash and some of the art was terrible. I started dropping titles from then on.

Bringing back dead characters from 30yrs ago was becoming too common for Marvel. When the brought back Norman Osborn as head of Shield--that was corny.

So I have not bought anything in the last 12 months. I do miss the books and will check them out at my local store but when I see the same stuff for more money than they are worth- I walk out empty handed. It seems to be easy now to just say no and let them know I won't pay inflated prices when we are are in a recessin for the last 2 yrs. This is supposed to be cheap entertainment.

I would normally spend about $25 a week on stuff ( books and figures) but now I have been saving my money for other things.

I know I'm not the only one to feel this way but I still see people buying them up. Sometimes you need to take a stand and say the product is not worth the price anymore.....

SANSKER7 said:

Good topic...

I've been a comic book / art / action figure collector for the past 35 years and have always loved this stuff.

My big collection that I have kept up with were The Avengers, Spiderman, Captain America, Batman and some indie's.. I have over 10,000 books and 300 figures.

However in the last couple of years I have seen the prices of comics go up from 2.99 to 3.99 or more and the stories started to re-hash and some of the art was terrible. I started dropping titles from then on.

Bringing back dead characters from 30yrs ago was becoming too common for Marvel. When the brought back Norman Osborn as head of Shield--that was corny.

So I have not bought anything in the last 12 months. I do miss the books and will check them out at my local store but when I see the same stuff for more money than they are worth- I walk out empty handed. It seems to be easy now to just say no and let them know I won't pay inflated prices when we are are in a recessin for the last 2 yrs. This is supposed to be cheap entertainment.

I would normally spend about $25 a week on stuff ( books and figures) but now I have been saving my money for other things.

I know I'm not the only one to feel this way but I still see people buying them up. Sometimes you need to take a stand and say the product is not worth the price anymore.....

DC comics dropped the prices of most of their books back to $2.99.

Would you guys consider Robert Crumb's work as comic?

Harlepolis said:

Would you guys consider Robert Crumb's work as comic?

Do you mean "comic" as in comic book art? That was the medium in which his work first appeared back in the 60s so definitely yes.

sextonseven said:

Harlepolis said:

Would you guys consider Robert Crumb's work as comic?

Do you mean "comic" as in comic book art? That was the medium in which his work first appeared back in the 60s so definitely yes.

Yeah, definitely.

I consider it all comics, to be honest. I understand why people want to differentiate some styles and genres, but to me, comics is a pretty all-encompassing term.

Efan said:

sextonseven said:

Do you mean "comic" as in comic book art? That was the medium in which his work first appeared back in the 60s so definitely yes.

I understand why people want to differentiate some styles and genres.

Thats the reason I asked. Because somebody told me that his work is more geared toward the caricature/illustrated satires genre.

So of course, me being clueless about comics, I ran with it.

Harlepolis said:

Efan said:

I understand why people want to differentiate some styles and genres.

Thats the reason I asked. Because somebody told me that his work is more geared toward the caricature/illustrated satires genre.

So of course, me being clueless about comics, I ran with it.

I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I'm not as familiar with his work as I should be. Although I have researched him and read some things, I feel I should be a lot more familiar with the comix scene than I am.

That said, I don't know you that well but I do think you would appreciate and like his illustrated version of the Book of Genesis. It's very respectful and his drawings in it are excellent. I particularly loved his research into clothing depicted. I think I started a thread about it here when it came out.

Efan said:

Harlepolis said:

Thats the reason I asked. Because somebody told me that his work is more geared toward the caricature/illustrated satires genre.

So of course, me being clueless about comics, I ran with it.

I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I'm not as familiar with his work as I should be. Although I have researched him and read some things, I feel I should be a lot more familiar with the comix scene than I am.

That said, I don't know you that well but I do think you would appreciate and like his illustrated version of the Book of Genesis. It's very respectful and his drawings in it are excellent. I particularly loved his research into clothing depicted. I think I started a thread about it here when it came out.

Well, to be honest, I'm not familiar with his work either. In fact, I was never exposed to it until I watched the "Crumb" film.

Thanks for the tip though.