What comic books/graphic novels are you reading at the moment?

[Matteo]

I'm reading the good old classic The Invisibles by master Grant Morrison.

I've read just about all of his stuff and The Invisibles remains his best work - though he come mighty close to the line between just plain weird and what the...? towards the end.

 

[airsophia]

I've read just about all of his stuff and The Invisibles remains his best work - though he come mighty close to the line between just plain weird and what the...? towards the end.

okay I'm through it, I've read the whole day through it and I find it weird yes, but it's also super spiritual stuff.
he is implying that both sides are actually part of the same thing.
I just found the end to be kind of sudden.. that was confusing.

 

[HareBrain]

he is implying that both sides are actually part of the same thing.

I think he's saying basically that it's all us. Or that we are not separate from whatever the rest of it is.

I'm not sure I ever really got the point of Ragged Robin's time travel suit, though, except to make the point that we all have one.

 

[airsophia]

Do you know any other like The Invisibles btw? Different but as meaningful?

 

[HareBrain]

Do you know any other like The Invisibles btw? Different but as meaningful?

It seems to be a one-of-a-kind. I enjoyed the volumes of Alan Moore's Promethea that deal with the Hermetic Qabalah, which is often very inventive, but it's narrowly focused on that magical system, and the rest of the story didn't amount to a huge amount, in my opinion.

I have a feeling that Morrison's The Filth might be coming from the same kind of place as The Invisibles, but after two readings I still haven't made much sense of it.

 

[Graymalkin]

Amphigorey (1972)
Collection of Edward Gorey stories
Great illustrator. Dubious habit of placing toddlers in jeopardy in this collection of grotesque tales.
Pretty sure he was one of John Kenn Mortensen's inspirations.

 

[airsophia]

HareBrain, I've already put Promethea onto my read-it-list and checking out the filth right now, thank you.

It's really crazy and hilarious, but that boring american comic style and the bad designs.. argh..
The concept of the filth ensuring sh!tty status Q is pretty genius though

 

[chongjasmine]

I am rereading lucifer, and start reading on batman and thor.

 

[HareBrain]

Picked up Paper Girls vol 1 at the library today. Never heard of it before. It's brilliant. Just reserved the next three volumes.

 

[Matteo]

Yesterday I finished Mike Carey's 75 issue run of Lucifer that was published by Vertigo (2000 to 2006) - collected in five graphic novels. Highly recommended.

Recently I also read another bizarre offering by Jodorowsky called Moon Face about, I suppose, religion and revolution - in a quality production by Humanoids.

The Ring of Seven Worlds by Giovanni Gualdoni (Humanoids again) about a planet that is being invaded by another planet after a portal opens that has been closed for centuries.

The first issues of Geoff Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy comic (collected in "Start Trek") which had wonderfully intricate artwork and was very bizarre (at one point he fights a shark, which is being controlled by a zombified head that's lodged in its mouth) with two chainsaws strapped to the end of pole - inside a giant tortoise type thing...

The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (also Darrow) which is wild ride of the titular characters fighting an enormous lizard in Japan.

And the delightful Mouse Guard by David Petersen - lovely artwork and great stories.

 

[anno]

Punisher Max and Born last week.

 

[Jondo_]

I finally got around to Alan Moore's From Hell, which I got in one big old hardcover from the library. Pretty good, but long and sometimes hard to follow.

 

[HareBrain]

Picked up Paper Girls vol 1 at the library today. Never heard of it before. It's brilliant. Just reserved the next three volumes.

Volumes 2 and 3 down. Better and better. Annoyed now that I have to wait for vol 4 (out on loan to someone else) and then for vol 5 (not yet published). Anyone else read these?

Also quickly polished off Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmons, which has a great central character (a misanthropic ageing art gallery owner and convicted fraudster, who nonetheless keeps our sympathy even as you are appalled by her) and is extremely well drawn and written.

 

[sunspoke]

I read Epileptic by David Beauchard a few years ago and it is still my favorite graphic novel. It is a beautiful black ink biopic of epilepsy's troublesome effects on his family when he was a young boy.

 

[Matteo]

Just finished the 11 tbk collection of The Unwritten by Mike Carey. Highly recommended. Tells the story of Tom Taylor, the son of an author of a hugely successful series of thirteen books about a boy wizard - called Tommy Taylor (based the author's son) - and his two friends.

He finds out that maybe the connection between the fictional Tom(my) Taylor and him is a lot closer than he ever imaged. Or maybe not...

And then it gets really weird. Not "Grant Morrison weird", but fantastical nonetheless. Lots of references and integration of classic novels and stories in the plot.

 

[HareBrain]

Read vol 1 of Isola last night (Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl). Beautiful, beautiful art, some of the best I've ever seen, and an interesting story so far (if not quite up to the stratospheric standard of Monstress).

 

[Matteo]

Just finished the five books collecting Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan. The story (all the men (and male sperm) and male mammals suddenly die - apart from one man and one male capuchin) lost its way a little towards the end, but overall a good read with nice, clean artwork.

 

[airsophia]

Nihei's Aposimz is my new manga I'm reading.

 

[Keldaris]

Just finished the five books collecting Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan. The story (all the men (and male sperm) and male mammals suddenly die - apart from one man and one male capuchin) lost its way a little towards the end, but overall a good read with nice, clean artwork.

One of My favorite series, I'm kind of afraid to see how the TV series is going to turn out...



I'm currently reading through "Powers" by Bendis.. on Vol 3 now and loving it!

 

[Toby Frost]

I've been reading Johnny Hiro: Half-Asian, All Hero by Fred Chao. This is an odd and rather charming comic book about a young man working as a waiter in a sushi restaurant in New York. Johnny Hiro lives with his girlfriend and they scrape by, and ultimately this is a story about being young and broke. However, surreal events break into the story, usually from Japanese pop culture: the main theme is a law suit brought by Johnny's landlord when Godzilla kicks a hole in the wall of their block of flats. It's full of quirky oddities. Various real people show up (including Judge Judy and Anthony Hopkins!), Johnny's girlfriend have big comedy accent despite nobody else having one, and the characters are essentially blase about the monsters and lunatics who keep attacking the city. I think I'm missing quite a few of the references, but it's funny and feels strangely accurate, and I'd recommend it.