Any comic book/graphic novel fans?

Discussion in 'Books' started by Dr. Know, Dec 26, 2005.

  1. Iceblink

    Iceblink Member

    Oct 11, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Ipswich Town FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A couple things.

    1. Just finished American Born Chinese. Pretty fun book. Very quick read. It was sent as part of....

    2. Some study materials for a two-day seminar that I'm about to attend about using graphic novels in the classroom. I think it's going to be amazing. They have a U of I professor who teaches a course in graphic novels coming to talk to us at the Newberry Library as part of their Teachers as Scholars program... additionally, they sent me a chapter from...


    3. Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics. It's pretty amazing... at least this chapter. I think it's chapter two. I've never looked at comics in such a philosophical manner. I bought the rest of the book.

    That's all!

    Oh... I've added a couple of graphic novels... well... are they considered graphic novels if they're memoirs? I guess so. Anyway... I added Maus I & II and Pedro and Me to a couple of English courses at my school.
     
  2. TheSlipperyOne

    TheSlipperyOne Member+

    Feb 29, 2000
    Denver
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Such a great tool but also piece of work.

    It changed how I read comics.
     
  3. Dr. Know

    Dr. Know Member+

    Dec 5, 2005
    Macondo
    It's a great tool for filmmaking as well. At the AFI grad school they use it to help teach visual storytelling.
     
  4. irvine

    irvine Member

    Nov 24, 1998
    S. Portland, ME
    I'll be using it in the graphic novel class I'm teaching this fall. It's one of those books that is not only very smart and engaging, but also a kind of public service.

    Just read G. Hernandez' Sloth. Good stuff.
     
  5. Jacen McCullough

    Nov 23, 1998
    Maryland
    This is freaky. I'm teaching American Born Chinese right now with my 10th graders. I'm using it as part of a contemporary literature circles unit. They had the option of that, Pride of Baghdad or My Dead Girlfriend, Volume 1. They've been having a lot of fun with it so far.
     
  6. Iceblink

    Iceblink Member

    Oct 11, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Ipswich Town FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'd love to see unit plans... Hey.... that reminds me. You were going to send me some other unit plans like........ a year ago! Hehe.

    I'd like to add "ABC" to the 10th grade, American lit., curriculum as part of an immigration unit.
     
  7. Jacen McCullough

    Nov 23, 1998
    Maryland
    Yeah, I still plan to once I finish tweaking that performance-based unit that came out of the Folger experience. This year hit me hard and I've barely had time to process anything (I coached in all three seasons, lost my classroom which made me float in 5 different rooms, and got screwed on schedule placement- I have all the biggest 12th grade sections. My dept. chair (the other 12th grade teacher) has 115 students. I have 160. She is evil. :) )

    The bad news is that I dragged it along this long. The good news is that when I do get a chance to send it (likely once my seniors leave at the end of the month), I'll have three fully functional units to send along (probably on a cheapy Flash drive, as they are BIIIIIIIG files).
     
  8. TheSlipperyOne

    TheSlipperyOne Member+

    Feb 29, 2000
    Denver
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    For charity the San Jose Super Con had prints of a Cap piece by Jack Kirby inked and made their own by current artists.

    By far Frank Cho's was the best where he combined Steranko with Kirby.

    Original piece:

    [​IMG]

    After Cho got his hands on it:

    [​IMG]

    Fantastic!
     
  9. irvine

    irvine Member

    Nov 24, 1998
    S. Portland, ME
    I'm off to get Batman and Robin #1.

    Also, Daredevil Noir #3 is out today!
     
  10. G-boot

    G-boot Member

    Manchester United
    Nov 6, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Anybody like Shape-shifters? If yes, where else does this concept appear in story-telling?


    I did not look at comics as a kid, so shape-shifting is new and fresh entertainment for me. I was a young fan of the transformers, so the theme has always appealed to me.

    Any recommendations?
     
  11. spejic

    spejic Cautionary example

    Mar 1, 1999
    San Rafael, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Shape shifters have an extensive history in comic books. Probably the most important in the Marvel Comics universe are the Skrulls, but there have been plenty of others (such as the mutant Mystique).
     
  12. G-boot

    G-boot Member

    Manchester United
    Nov 6, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    thank you for responding. I will be looking into the examples you just provided. I'll also be looking for the type of mythology that goes along with shape-shifting. I would like to know the story behind the concept, the same way vampires have rules about sunlight, ect. Very interested here, so if you can point me to the rules of shape-shifters, various takes and versions, I'd greatly appreciate your help. If not, thanks for pointing the way so far. I will start with wikipedia, of course.
     
  13. irvine

    irvine Member

    Nov 24, 1998
    S. Portland, ME
    Picked up Greek Street #1 today. Love Peter Milligan. Also I got the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century: 1910, and v.1 of Umbrella Academy.
     
  14. TheSlipperyOne

    TheSlipperyOne Member+

    Feb 29, 2000
    Denver
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    I liked Greek Street and think it has a lot of potential. Hopefully it will get a following.

    I have the LOEG1910 but just haven't sat down to read it yet.

    Umbrella Academy is okay but I think it gets much better in volume 2.

    Currently reading Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus and just loving it.
     
  15. Dante

    Dante Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 19, 1998
    Upstate NY
    Club:
    Juventus FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I really liked Greek Street, reminds me a bit of Fables crossed with 100 Bullets. I love Gianfelice's artwork too. Met him at NYCC and he was super nice, even managed to get a cool Northlanders sketch out of him.

    Speaking of Northlanders, I love Wood's newest arc in it. Word is that he's also going to announce a new series at SDCC.
     
  16. irvine

    irvine Member

    Nov 24, 1998
    S. Portland, ME
    Greek Street is cool. I'll be picking it up. League: 1910 is a hoot especially if you're a fan of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht.

    DD Noir #4, the last one, also came out this past week. Look for the trade in a couple of months if you missed the issues.
     
  17. Iceblink

    Iceblink Member

    Oct 11, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Ipswich Town FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As many of you know, I'm working on a monsters unit. I also wanted to include some graphic novels, etc. There are a couple that I'm thinking of including... but I wanted to ask about a couple that I am not 100% familiar with... well, kind of.

    1. From Hell. This one is about Jack the Ripper.... correct? I don't think this whole book would fit, as there is some particularly graphic stuff... nudity, and I don't trust parents not to go crazy. I'd like to include excerpts, if possible. Is anyone particularly familiar with this?


    2. Swamp Thing. Same author... I saw a video recently... a documentary on Alan Moore... quite odd, some of it... he interviews himself! Anyway, he read aloud some of the text... descriptive stuff and narration. Beautiful writing. I would really like to include some of this as well...

    Anyone else have any ideas? Things that focus on fear of things that are different... that'd work. Outcasts... that kind of thing... or people who do brutal things... but it'd have to be stuff I can pare down and use excerpts if it's too graphic.
     
  18. Dr. Know

    Dr. Know Member+

    Dec 5, 2005
    Macondo
    It's a great book but not one that's really easy to get into. It touches on a lot of topics besides Jack the Ripper. It includes long passages on London architecture/history, free mansonry, among other things. It's been a while since I read it though maybe someone else who read it recently can add more.


    Yeah, Moore's work on Swap Thing is great. Most of Moore's work in general is great.
     
  19. tcmahoney

    tcmahoney New Member

    Feb 14, 1999
    Metronatural
    I can hardly wait for the Mickey / Spidey crossover!

    You may commence wailing and gnashing of teeth in 3, 2, 1 ...

    OK. As long as I'm here, I'm going to state some heresy. Before I do that, I'm going to take a bow in irvine's direction and say none of this is directed at him.

    I have not obsessed over each issue that Marvel's put out -- in fact, most of what I'm picking up has been gleaned from spending too long at the comic book rack at Fred Meyers (Pacific Northwest, owned by Krogers) and spelunking on Wikipedia. So everything here should be preceded by "IMVHO", and feel free to tee off on my for being uninformed as long as you inform me in the process.

    I think the whole Marvel 616 universe has become a joke, and the Marvel Ultimate universe is rapidly joining it. Is Jean Grey alive/dead/alive/dead/eating brains this week? And what about that whole "Brand New Day" thing with Spidey -- which they now seem to be backtracking on? And don't get me started that whole Ultimatum thing.

    Frankly, if I were going to be buying -- and I don't have the money for that right now -- I think I'd get more value from the Marvel Kids single-shots. The stories there absolutely fail at exploring the angst between Scott Summers and Emma Frost, but that's not what I'm interested in. The stories are inventive and well-written in themselves, and they feature the heroes being heroes. (That's also what I liked about what I've seen of X-Men Noir -- they put the characters in a different situation, but they still came through.)

    Now, if you want to accuse me of being an old fogey, I'll cheefully plead guilty to that right now. If you want to say I shouldn't bitch about the cooking if I'm not sitting at the restaurant, I'll cheerfully plead guility to that as well. I'll go buy all of Daredevil Noir as penance. :)

    Again, this is all IMVHO.
     
  20. Smurfquake

    Smurfquake Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 8, 2000
    San Carlos, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I didn't even think about how this was going to impact the comic books themselves. I assumed that Disney's interest is in the movies and TV shows. Marvel had a long drought where there were no good movies being made of their properties -- pretty much everything before the recent Spider-Man and X-Men movie series -- and even since then they've had some dogs (e.g. Fantastic Four). There have also been a bunch of really dire animated TV series -- while DC was producing a very good set of shows ranging from Batman: The Animated Series through Justice League Unlimited, Marvel had a couple of mediocre shows and a bunch of dogs.

    But imagining a Disney/Pixar computer animated Doctor Strange or any of dozens of other characters...
     
  21. irvine

    irvine Member

    Nov 24, 1998
    S. Portland, ME
    Yeah, my take would be that Disney's in this for the potential movie properties. I'm not sure they care about the comics much (although we'll find out). Agreed that "event"-based storylines don't always pay off, and that continuity is devilishly tricky. But surely Daredevil Noir, being neither an event nor within continuity, would be pleasure rather than penance...? :D
     
  22. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I started this last night. Damn good.

    [​IMG]

    It's basically a graphic novel about Bertrand Russell, the history of logic, and the search for meaning in the 19th and 20th century mathematics. Great cameos by Frege, Poincare, Godol, Alfred North Whitehead, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and several of Russell's mistresses.
     
  23. FitzCoffee

    FitzCoffee New Member

    Oct 9, 2007
    Colorado
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I just read, A History of Violence. Unfortunately I made the mistake of watching the movie before I read the graphic novel (got the movie in Netflix before I could get the graphic novel from the library).

    At first I wasn't sure about the black and white illustrations, but I got used to them, and actually found it interesting how Vince Locke would at times make one object in a scene really stand out with texture (I found he did this often when there were close-ups of guns in scenes). The end really hit me (I won't go into detail for those who have never read it). I remember reading in the introduction that Vince Locke would terrify with his work toward the end. I must admit, it got to me.

    Wouldn't say this was one of my favorites, but it was an entertaining read. I wonder how I would feel about it if I had not seen the movie first. Who knows.

    All I know is I'm now waiting to get, Batman: Hush, from the library, I hear it's a good one. I'm also looking into the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Anyone have opinions on these? Worth reading?
     
  24. Dr. Know

    Dr. Know Member+

    Dec 5, 2005
    Macondo
    Both are pretty good. Don't watch The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie.
     
  25. FitzCoffee

    FitzCoffee New Member

    Oct 9, 2007
    Colorado
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Okay, thanks for the warning. I have never seen the film before so I will be sure to steer clear.
     

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