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Author Topic: The Manimal Talks About Comics  (Read 2054 times)

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Offline Manimal

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The Manimal Talks About Comics
« on: March 10, 2017, 07:46:50 AM »
Local Mike Caster's threads inspired me to just talk about the comics in which I read. I have a pile of over 30 issues to catch up on, as I get comics every week but don't read them every week so...we'll see. I'll talk about some stuff which is stuff and it will be all stuff like in a box of dreams and hopes which hang like hooks from crafting a store built from the ashes of shut up.

I also suck at talking about comics and reviewing stuff in general/looking at things on deeper levels so keep that in mind. I hope to burn through everything piled up so I may talk about what's new every week but we'll see. I like to take chances with older comics to. I'm not super into things, I love the comic stores and getting stuff but don't go asking me about Spider-Man Issue #345 where he fired a web with one finger or whatever 'cuz I donut.




(Some Of The) Series I Keep Up With
  • Star Wars
  • Harley Quinn
  • Archie
  • Josie And The Pussycats
  • KISS
« Last Edit: March 10, 2017, 08:19:28 AM by Manimal »

Offline Manimal

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Re: The Manimal Talks About Comics
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2017, 07:50:09 AM »
Josie And The Pussycats #1-5


Archie Comics have been doing rather well with the current take on those characters you see in the grocery store line-up in digest format. Now in the world of Riverdale characters there is Josie and the Pussycats. A trio of girls who are in a band, and also are a band, and dress up in leopard skin one pieces and cat ears. We start with our main heroine Josie who's just singing in a bar. Not much is going on for her until Josie's roomte Melody is like hey I guess we can make a band, then through a series of coincidences they end up at a vet's office where they come across Valerie, a fantastic singer. Josie is like hey I just meet you but wanna be in my band, Valerie is like K so the adventure begins.

The series goes over their band struggles as they rise to fame very quickly but have little issues to overcome, like learning to play as a group and dealing with people better then you. Aside from the three we have their manager Alan who's smooth talking and charismatic but also kind of a dink, but maybe not? There is also Josie's childhood friend turned rival, Alexandra, who decided putting a white streak in her hair was a good idea. I like her bangs.

Josie And The Pussycats is a fun series, it's packed with a lot of reference humor, maybe to the point where it gets a little much, but it keeps a good tone. There are decent issues for each character to face. It can get into silly territory like issue 3's jet-ski race and the time they casually stopped a bank robbery, but it keeps the comic enjoyable. The characters are quite likable, Melody stands out the most. She sort of acts like the typical dumb blonde but in such a charming and funny way that you know she's just having a great time. Valerie has trouble with her place in the band, and often wonders why she even joined, but she is always there to support her friends. Josie herself is also a solid lead.

The art is nice, great designs and overall style. It can get choppy like comics often are but it still is a good series to look at. Lots of dialogue! I particularly like the character's hair and dress in this series as well as Josie's amusing facial expressions. There is good development in the book, even if it makes fun of itself a lot of the time and has all the forth wall jokes to make the more predictable parts feel like there is a sense of awareness. In that regard I feel the writing is a bit bumpy, but there is still a solid dynamic between the cast and enough issues for them to overcome which makes it a good read.

Josie And The Pussycats is not quite as well written as the Archie comics, but I prefer the art and setting/tone of the story. I'm enjoying it so far and hope that it continues on well, it's a pretty solid book.

« Last Edit: March 10, 2017, 07:52:36 AM by Manimal »

Offline Manimal

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Re: The Manimal Talks About Comics
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2017, 04:18:45 PM »
Empress #1-7


I am always happy to see original series. In the never ending stream of the same old super heroes and old properties with new life, it's best to see a completely original book, even if it's nothing...overly original. Empress is the tale of Earth's first rulers, taking place 65 million years ago when Earth was all sci-fi. I guess something happened and Earth reset or...I dunno. There is King who's a pretty not nice dude. His wife Emporia has had enough and wants to leave with her kids to escape her not very nice husband. With the her trusted, white beard bodyguard, and kids, then Queen escapes and sci-fi adventures ensue.

In 7 issues Empress tells a fun sci-fi story of adventure and hi-jinks. They meet quirky characters, go to different worlds and try to escape trouble. Things move really fast and it's a series you can burn through at lightning speed. It's all paced like a good action movie. The storyline progresses in rather expected ways, the ending is not very surprising but Empress is a fun ride regardless.

The characters are okay. Not very memorable but they serve their purposes. The queen is cool dressed in her space suit the whole time, and the Obi-Wan bodyguard is always ready to shoot things. The king is a bid bad guy and there isn't really anytime to feel out any aspect of his character beyond, we must find them and they will die blah. The art is nice in this series. Penned by Mark Millar and drawn by Stuart Immonen, it's a good presentation. I really like the character designs and expressions, they are drawn very well. The backgrounds can be less then vivid at times but the pacing panel to panel is quick.

Empress is good for a quick and enjoyable sci-fi blast. Reading it all at once is recommended, broken up things will lose their flow. This thing progresses like a film, it's fast and while the ending is expected and it throws few surprises, it's just a straight sci-fi adventure. Enjoyable run.


Offline Manimal

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Re: The Manimal Talks About Comics
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2017, 09:22:57 AM »
I'll update with how some series are going.

KISS

Dynamite's KISS series has been very bumpy. It's the tale of 4 teens, and doesn't even feature KISS at all. Rather the band are some sort of old Gods or something. There's a world torn Earth, space cities or...I don't really know to be honest it's not the best story. It's an attempt to that KISS' Elder album and something with it, but it ends up sort of confused and lacking the fun a KISS book should hold.

The last issue, #9, did something interesting for once where the characters board a ship only to find a J-Rock trio. I figured it was a reference to MomoClo who KISS collabed with in 2015, but they where a fiction group. It was an odd feature but somehow fit in a KISS book, even if the group literally spoke in kanji that went untranslated. Which was...an odd choice. But it was an amusing issue.

The KISS series isn't great but the KISS Vampirella spin off had a good start with a fun issue. It's set in the 70's and features KISS as a band, which is best. In 1978 KISS did the cheesy made for TV movie Phantom of the Park where they played superheroes. This is how I feel KISS would go over best in a comic for some campy fun! and the Vampirella comic seems to want to do this so it should be fun. Vampy is often dull in comics, as classic as her design is I find her books to be bland mostly.

But the KISS/Vampy team-up seems to be effective and is certainly more interesting then the main series and the melodramatic Gene spin off.


Star Wars (Main Series + Doctor Aphra)

The Star Wars comic just finished the Screaming Citadel story which also went into the Doctor Aphra comic so you have to follow both to get it all. I do like the Aphra series actually, she is one of the Marvel series original characters, and with her evil droids she is a good addition to the crew, as well as Sana, a rebel with Han Solo in her history.

The story is basically Luke and Alphra going to some planet ruled by a Queen, there's like some mind control stuff and things happen. I don't know but I like the adventures the cast gets up to in the Star Wars comics. I feel Marvel does very well capturing the fun and adventure aspect of the franchise, so we get to see a lot of planets and new characters. I do like the series a lot and feel it's overall very worthwhile to keep up with the main series and spin-offs.

Archie

The new Archie series is a perfect fresh version of the old series. The art is updated and it takes place in today's world, but it manages to keep all the themes and traits of the characters in tack. It is rather fun as well. The latest issues have this dramatic story where Archie has to race the sort of mean dude character and in the mist Betty ends up in the hospital. The latest issue makes it off like she's dying or something, I was like wtf, this is Archie. It says like next issue things change forever! I'm like...um, what are you doing? We'll see.

The Josie and the Pussycat series which I've talked about above is still doing great, I quite like that one.


RE-READ

All Hail Megatron

This series from 2008-2009 was something I loved at the time and kept up with it every month, but I never made it to the last issue. Recently I finally got issue 12 and re-read the whole series.

All Hail Megatron is an easy access story for those unfamiliar with the IDW cannon, basically the Decepticons have completely wrecked the Autobots and banished them to Cybertron, Optimus is on death's door and in general moral is low. Meanwhile Megatron and the gang go to earth to smash things up and set up a space bridge, basically to begin world conquest or something? I don't know whatever Decepticons do, get energon and be bad. The series focuses on earth with the Decepticons and humans trying to stop them. It's a real threat for humanity and the series starts with a hopeless feeling for everyone as they terrorize New York and then, the world.

The series uses the G1 characters, up to early season 2 with the triple changers. On Cybertron it's more all over with Kup, Springer, Blurr, Hot Rod and the new character Drift. There are the classic themes present, like the Decepticons being a giant mess where Starscream is always making plans to overthrow Megatron. At this point Devastator has recently been created, there is a lot of tension in the faction with the Insecticons and Seekers as well. The narrative is very straight forward and predicable.

There is a traitor in the series, who is telegraphed quite obviously, and it connects with the IDW story with the headmaster Sunstreaker stuff that, I don't understand. The series gets more into that as it goes on, and it also gets worse. It starts off just fine but I feel it gets a little dull at the end and the final confrontation is very lame and underwhelming. The human characters are never exciting and sure enough they are bland here. It is neat to see how the humans try to defeat an impossible threat though. But really, you read Transformers for Transformers, you want cool robots not boring military people.

The art is amazing in this series with great detail, the characters look much like the toys from the time, basically updated versions of their G1 selves. Some like Megatron never transform, so there is no classic cheesy, watch as the big tall leader becomes a tiny gun that someone else has to fire. Which is actually like one of the funniest things about G1. I like the use of Reflector in this series, a forgotten character, and even Thundercracker does something for once.

All Hail Megatron does some neat things with the fractured Autobots but you know how it will go, there are no real surprises. It's an alright series overall but I felt underwhelmed at the finale that's for sure.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2017, 09:25:06 AM by Manimal »