Readcomix

Scaly creatures to More scaly creatures

6 minutes ago, buttock said:

Dr. Dre's lesser known Eastern European debut.  

Thx, I keep to a low-information diet, so I'm often (non-comic) pop culture clueless. 

1 minute ago, Flex Mentallo said:

kronika

The Romanian newspaper??? 

3 minutes ago, Flex Mentallo said:

Aigoo! (those books are so great they made me exclaim out loud in Korean - and I don't even speak Korean)

You're ok...you're just speaking in tongues...seeing those 5 is a religious experience, after all! 

Still working on top 5....can you wait a week for 11-15, Rick? 

Seriously, this does give everyone a place to park all those agonizing honorable mentions that everyone is saying could've displaced their fourth or fifth picks on any given day. Cool! 

8 hours ago, JTLarsen said:

You do know he's considered an innovator in terms of comic book layouts, right? Starting with Daredevil. And into, uh, Ronin.

Yes, I do. His work, with notable exceptions such as DD, is mostly not to my taste. I like his writing better than his art, generally. I'm just in the "underwhelming" camp on Ronin, and gave me reasons why. That's all.

6 hours ago, cmcfan said:

Thanks. Still pinching myself.

There's got to be a good story here, Jeff...

And congrats! 

Monster to monstrosity of a marriage

5 hours ago, mschmidt said:

He gets a 20% discount on the grading fees - I guess that would add up to a "free" submission for every 5 books he submits ...

Cool, thx! 

Guess whether it's worth it depends on how much help your LCS is and how much you need. If you have the time (for forms and shipping etc) and are confident in your own grading and how it reflects cgc's grading, maybe get a membership and save the $$ yourself. But if time and grading are an issue, the LCS may be worth it.

But know that if you get a membership and choose to submit through the LCS, you do not get your discount. Your explanation is likely why. 

11 minutes ago, kav said:

Ah yes Lou Wahl aka Kurt Schaffenberger

Really? I did not know that pseudonym. Thx! 

Sal Trapani does the lead story inside; cool, old-school feel.

29 minutes ago, JTLarsen said:

Literally every criticism in here amounts to a matter of taste, unsupported by specific example. The artwork was by no means "murky." And in relation to what comic of the time were the characters underdeveloped?

Yep. His art can be pretty to look at, but I often cannot tell what is going on. My eye is drawn nowhere. (Not that I can draw.) I just find his layouts disturbing. And for whatever reason thru six issues I Could not bring myself to care about any of the characters. Their personalities did not come alive for me; no connection. It's not relative to any other comic; just an absolute experience I had with this story. I realize others experience this work differently. 

8 minutes ago, nepatkm said:

Where's the Poll? Anyway I have to go Betty.

No poll....we're keeping with the theme of the books themselves....eternal competition....just call out your  vote and post the supporting evidence. Change your vote every time, and post a vote as often as you like! And maybe sneak a Josie/Sabrina/Cheryl/Katy K/Ginger etc in there once in a while! It's all good! 

I've only shipped through one LCS, so I don't know if my experience is typical, or whether they have latitude under their submission privileges. But yes my LCS packages it, does not mark up cost, and receives the books back at the shop, where I pick up. He says he gets a free submission for every "X" number that he sends in; I forget how many. Seems like a bargain for the service he provides, which includes expertise from seeing so many before/after submissions. 

Gasp! #4 from ACG. SA horror anthology with decidedly 50's Art.,pretty cool, especially ghosts vs Nazis and a giant octopus-like serpentine thing stuck into the legend of the Marie Celeste. What's not to like???

Back to another Electro

10 minutes ago, nepatkm said:

Money wise #23, I remember I liked #24 better, especially the cover. Yep! time to read my raw copy again now.

Yeah, but that poolside strip panel in 23..... BWS is a fan of "The Last Picture Show," I bet. 

Added today, via trade:

4 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

Sin City, which he 'co-directed' with Rodriguez.

Thx; his ambitions make his comics work make more sense to me. I like but unlike many do not love his comics work. DD yes, and the DK plot/concept, but otherwise he's in the OK camp for me. The filmmaker wannabe thing sheds light on this.

9 hours ago, edowens71 said:

OK, I'll stop for now...but I have more ECs to come at you with if there's a lull in the action 

Bring 'em please! I keep going back over those Internationals...what an array of covers! And the logo lettering strikes me because it reminds me of a very 70's underground comix logo feel. Wonder if an old EC letterer worked with Crumb et al?

4 hours ago, comicnoir said:

No that cover is a terrible drawing of PL, not done by the master Matt Baker.

Sure, but maybe knocked off from an inside panel?

1 hour ago, Ken Aldred said:

Miller didn't make the transition from comic book creator to film director terribly well (The Spirit).  The only time his work successfully translated to film was while assisted by a talented director with the right skill set; Robert Rodriguez. 

I did not know he actually worked in film, but Ronin reads and looks like a film fanboy making a comic book in a movie's image, not a like the work of a comic creator working lovingly in his medium. 

6 minutes ago, kav said:

Ps this is why many movies put a dog in the --script-character cares about dog-we care about them.  Eg John wick.

Oh, Miller put a dog in the -script alright...but not the kind that helps!  

Just now, kav said:

agree 100%.  and yes in movies you can only show.  expositional voiceovers are a dud.  

Thx Kav! I figure we're in the minority on this one, but I stuck it out, read it all, couldn't connect to the characters. The surprise twist ending confirmed it for me when I couldn't care. The characters never became real to me so it left me flat.

I'm underwhelmed ... Found it trite, with murky artwork and underdeveloped characters. By the "surprise" end I didn't care because none of them had been made complete enough for me to care. Lack of thought balloons hurts; it does not make comics more "adult" and "film-like." It abandons a part of the medium in a pale effort to imitate moving pictures.

So much for this "classic of the genre." 

After all these years, finally, Ronin.

I wasn't missing much. Trite, convoluted, abrupt cuts from scene to scene .... Archie Goodwin praised Miller for aping a movie, but had this been made into a film it would be another early 70's style sci fi also-ran. Almost every character was underdeveloped. So many comics writers don't seem to get that by losing the thought balloons you diminish a unique aspect of the form.

You can't effectively imitate film just because comics are in some way like film storyboards, especially if you drop thought balloons. Storyboards are not a final product; comics are. Movies rely on actors in action to bring aspects of a character to life. Movie-like comics are part of what hot us into the mess we have today, not some advancement of the medium.

This goes up for sale and out of my collection.