Not Anonymous

Mark Andreyko's "Manhunter". I can't recommend that title often enough. Female lead who doesn't fit into the stereotypical molds like mother figure, sex bomb or victim, a gay "sidekick" with a happy and funtional relationship who is neither mocked nor threatened. It was the only recent DC superhero title that I wholeheartedly wanted to read, but it's about to get cancelled (again), which is another reason for me to recommend it like there's no tomorrow.

There's only one title left that I follow (somewhat, by buying the trades), and that's Vertigo's Hellblazer. I've lost interest in a lot of titles because they either started out amazing and then had to include rape or passive women in the storylines, or the writer did something really stupid in his other title and I got so pissed that I started boycotting his titles altogether. (Yes, I am very consequent and stubborn, why do you ask?)

Other titles are, well, over (Sandman, Transmetropolitan, one-shots/mini series like WE3, How loathsome (http://www.popimage.com/content/viewnews.cgi?newsid1049699286,95359,) ♥, or Harlequin Valentine).

However, I am going to buy NEXTWAVE as soon as I have the money for it. A) it's Warren Ellis, dammit, B) these icons made me do it (http://apiphile.livejournal.com/1104515.html).

I also loved "Planetary" (which is still coming out, but at extremely irregular intervals), which was very meta-ish about Superheroes in general by twisting their iconic images into new shapes, and had amazing artwork and a kick-ass woman on the protagonist's team.

Wikipedia entries:
Planetary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_%28comics%29), Nextwave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextwave), Manhunter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunter_%28Kate_Spencer%29)

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Ah! Excellent!

I knew I could trust you :)

As soon as I read more stuff, expect a whole lot more Meta from me and my LJ!

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Yays! I'm all for the meta!

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"Planetary"'s story arc is about done.There remains only 1-2 issues for epilogue purposes and then I believe it'll be finished.

I also highly recommend the 12 issue "Monarchy" series that was put out some time ago(the TPB was called "Bullets Over Babylon" IIRC) it is weird, it is desperate, it's basically "The Authority" well crossed with Transmet, it had so much potential that after I read the TPB at a friend's I went digging for the next release date for 4 days straight because I couldn't believe they fucking stopped it after the first arc.

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Sounds very intrigueing! I'll see if I can get it somewhere. If I like it, I'll be sad and pissed off at the end, but I think that's worth it.

How come the good series get cancelled and the annoying stuff goes on and on and on and on? ... Or is it just me?

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Probably for the same reason original SF&F holds a smaller market share then the generic stuff:There are more people looking for comics that is a no-brainer, that they can simply read when they're tired and want to unwind and not be bothered by those pesky new ideas that the good writers tend to put in their comics.

To be sure- the generic stuff has its place and I've unwound with more then one Eddings book, but when I want something that's really good, that will stay with me for a long time- that's not what I go to read.Many people see both SF&F and comics as something that should be entertainment, and only entertainment- so when they go buying there SF&F and their comics they gravitate to that kind.

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There are more people looking for comics that is a no-brainer, that they can simply read when they're tired and want to unwind and not be bothered by those pesky new ideas that the good writers tend to put in their comics.

Yes. No. I mean, the thing is... with me, at least... that I DO read these comics with "pesky new ideas" to unwind. Like, Planetary has interesting analogies, but also lots of action. Or Transmetropolitan, which managed to almost make me cry at times (especially with "Lust for Life"), but it's also crazy fun. And I understand what you said about people who just want to read no-brainers, but I always boggle at that because Niveau and Entertainment aren't exclusive for me. And you are right; no-brainers don't really *stay* with you.

... Okay, I won't go on a tangent about the success of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" now. Mel's journal doesn't deserve this.

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I don't mind people going in tangent in my LJ, I like inspiring discussions and seeing my friends and readers opinios on things to do with pop culture and fandom.

It's fun :)

And after having three (or four?) recs for Manhunter, I'm definitely getting into that title :D

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Yay! Go, Manhunter, go! :D

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I know, it boggles me sometimes too- in books I can understand it, because the idea books tend to be heavy and I don't always have the energy(or time) to sit with them and digest them.The idea comics I've run across OTOH have both good flow and action scenes, and the ideas can either be digested or stored for later inspection.

Also, since Mel just allowed it, I'd be happy to hear that tangent if you're still interested.I like tangents.:)

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PS.Love your icon(Tas, right?)

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All three icons are from the cartoon show The Angry Beavers (http://nick.co.uk/nicktoons/shows/beavers/index.aspx). ;)

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i second Manhunter.

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1. I just friended you. Looking at my profile, you might see why. Or so I hope.
2. I added your comic journal to the

comicstorewatch friendslist, which serves as the editors' link-collecting journal for

comicstore_news. If you don't want your posts to get linked in the newsletter, just say so and we'll remove you from the list, okay?

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Well, you friended me long ago ;P, but sure!

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*blinks* Did I reply to the wrong comment? O_o

*checks*

Whew. No, I didn't. It was a reply to

ayellowbirds' comment. But I forgot that you, as the original poster, would get that reply e-mailed to you as well. Sorry for the confusion.

Hey, of course I friended you ages ago! You're cool!

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LOL!!!

How silly of me to assume you were referring to me in my own LJ ;)

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No problem! I'm always happy to have more readers, on this journal....

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huperanthro.livejournal.com

...and on this one. What determines whether my posts are linked to?

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My own personal opinion, in a nutshell: they are about comics, longer than three sentences, and don't make the editors want to spork their eyes out. But of course editors are only human, so we might overlook something. To a certain extent, inclusion's also at the individual editor's discretion. *shrugs* See our handy FAQ post (http://comicstorewatch.livejournal.com/652.html) for detailed information. ;)

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*looks shy/humble/bashful*
How come you never added me?

I know, I know, attention whore much ;P

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... huh? But you are on the watcher list and have also been linked in some issues already?

Or was that a joke I didn't get? Sometimes my English language skills fail me...

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The watcher list isn't on my "also friend" of list.

*shrug*

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I could have sworn you were already friended. (Well, now you are. ;)) We probably overlooked it because you were on my friendslist and usually covered by WFA, so we often found your entries anyway... heh. How embarrassing. ^^°

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morchades.livejournal.com

Seconding the Manhunter recommendation above.

Wonder Woman is very good right now, on the rare occasions it actually ships. I'm really enjoying Blue Beetle, and I don't like the current guest-writer on Green Lantern Corps, but the regular writer is really good.

Justice Society of America, the most recent relaunch, is off to a really strong start. The writer was burned out for a while, but he's come back from it here.

As I am a rabid Grant Morrison fan, I would strongly encourage All-Star Superman.

Off-genre? Castle Waiting, The Spirit (which is only sort of off-genre).

And the great stuff that's ended is still coming out in trades. Starman, Transmetropolitan, Bone, Invisibles, and Seven Soldiers are still available in collections. Grab a few of those, especially Starman.

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What's Castle Waiting about and The Spirit is after Will Eisner's Spirit, right?
Or am I totally off base?

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beckyzoole.livejournal.com

I bet you'll like Cerebus.

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considering what i've read of Mel on here, i really hope you're being sarcastic....

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beckyzoole.livejournal.com

No, I'm not. But I've only just started reading it myself. What's wrong with it?

A friend whose judgment I trust recently told me that if I like Sandman I'll love Cerebus, and he loaned me his stack of original issues. I've barely started reading them. It looks good so far.

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huperanthro.livejournal.com

The author, Dave Sim, is one of the most openly and unwaveringly misogynistic people in all of comics. Much of his work incorporates his dim view of women; I have yet to see a Cerebus panel where a female character is being portrayed as anything more than incompetent. He has described himself as being "vehemently opposed to feminism in all of its forms", and refers to women as "a gender which has no ethics, no scruples, no sense of right and wrong."

To be fair, I read HP Lovecraft; he was horribly xenophobic, and some of his writing is fairly bluntly racist. Sometimes you can enjoy the creation without enjoying the creator, even when the creator's problems get into the creation. It's a matter of what you can stand to ignore, I suppose, or where it crops up in the work. I personally avoid reading Lovecraft's stories which have racist content. However, I can't read Sim for more than a few pages without seeing his anti-female mindset all over the story.

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Seeing as I appreciate what Frank Miller *gag, spit and yuck* did for the Modern Age in The Dark Knight Returns I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to Dave Sim if Cerberus is good enough that the underlying misogyny can be ignored.
Is it?

HP Lovecraft is a product of his time, so are Heinlein, Asimov and Dick. The only one of the Old School SF writers (I consider old school before the mid 70's) who is male and fell gave women equal (and on occasion) more powerful standing was Frank Herbert. His Dune Novels are chock full of hugely powerful women (though a lot of their power is sexual in nature, they are depicted as "stronger" than the men).

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What's Cerberus about? What's the genre and label?

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beckyzoole.livejournal.com

It's an independent, published by the author as "Aardvark-Vanaheim, Inc."

My friend described Cerebus as "a really smart series about a stinky, mean, sarcastic aardvark".

What I've read so far is parody -- Cerebus the Aardvark is a parody of Conan the Barbarian, and all the other characters seem to be parodies too. And, yes, it's smart and funny and about a stinky, mean, sarcastic aardvark. And about politics and religion and philosophy and sex.

I googled about Cerebus and the author, Dave Sim, to learn more about his attitudes towards women and so forth. From what I can figure out, Sim went crazy about half-way through the 300-issue run of Cerebus.

He did a lot of drugs, especially LSD, and had hallucinations. He had "religious visions", then new visions that explained that the old visions were from a false god. He invented his own religion, based on a combination of Islam and Christianity.

Friends of his say he once admitted that he had been hospitalized for schizophrenia, but he denies it now.

So... I'm going to read it anyway, and if the insanity gets to be too much for me at about issue #186 (the one that everybody talks about as mysogynistic), then I'll stop reading it.

Should be interesting!

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