Bob's comments (member since Jun 23, 2008)

Bob's comments from the On Reading Graphic Novels group.

Personally with Grant Morrison i feel the man is a wonderful ideas factory, which allows him to write some truly wonderfuly crazy comics. However i do feel sometimes he might want to pull back on producing ideas constantly and focus more on a coherant narrative. Animal and We3 i think are the best examples of where his ideas have lifted the story, wereas some of the recent Batman stuff appears to be slightly floundering in a sea of mad thinking.
Oh and as for Garth Ennis i personally really enjoy his work, the wonderful relationships his chracters have seem so real and grounded which juxaposes nicely with the ultraviolence and general craziness. Also like Ennis I come from Northern Ireland so i relate to a lot of his issues with the control others try to exert over your life. I realise Giacomo probably wasn't saying Ennis was English, but i feel i should say in case anyone is confused that he is not English, he's Irish

grant morrisons animal man is amazing, along with we3, arkham asylum... really in my eyes the man can do no wrong.

ghost world, i read it when i was a teenager and it really meant a lot to me

i think i go with graphics

kate beaton's history comics are not only amusing me greatly but also making me want to learn about history
http://katebeaton.com/Site/Welcome.html

Warren Ellis Freakangels is addicative
http://www.freakangels.com/

and last but not least octopus pie
http://www.octopuspie.com/

regardless of superheros or not as long as its a well written well drawn engaging story it doesnt matter if its captain america or jimmy corrigan. if you really love superheros support good writers and artists rather than characters.

I generally go with amazon or something like that, the only two places to get grahpic novel in coleraine are waterstones (big book shop like it dont need help) and this little comics shop which i occasionally buy one shots and intersting issues from but the add at least a tenner to the price which is just ridiculous. The next nearest is fobbiden planet in belfast who are a bigish company and i occasionally get stuff there as they have an amazing selection.

As much as I love Alan Moore I thought Arkham Asylum was a lot better than killing joke. Apart from Dave Mckeans wonderful art its was a great look at mind of Batman and a wonderfully distubing journey. The killing joke on the other hand in my eyes only added one thing to the Batman universe and that was starting Barbra Gordon on the path to becoming oracle. I didn't really feel the joker's 'origin' was all that interesting and more to the point and didn't feel he needed one. The fact that he cant be explained makes him all the more terrifying.

The Black Dossier is not the league volume three, its actually more of an overveiw of the leauge universe. The third volume will be starting this year and will consist of three double sized books which will chart the progress of the leauge until the current day. Apparently one of the major theme will be what Alan Moore discribes as 'the death of imagination' that he feels has been slowly happening over the last century and into this one.

Perhaps being from the UK does mean it resonates more with me. I was really excited to see Bond teaming up with Emma Knight (Emma Peel as she's known in the avengers), the Famous Five being the Key players in the Ingsoc government and of course one of M's alias' being Harry Lime.

I cant wait for the third volume though as hopefully we'll get more of the French and German leuages.

Batamn the Animated series had some of the best characterisation i've seen for Batamn in any medium. Also Mark Hamil as the Joker is inspired.

Actually for that same reason I'm planning to get some time to work on some short stories i've been plotting in my head about Irish myth and turning it into a 30's, 40's pulp adventure type thing (i could think of a better word than thing but i couldn't spell it).

To be honest I cant beleive that Egyptian mythology hasn't been exploited more for comics. Its so rich and has only really been referenced at this point. Good luck.

Batman year one is a great comic but I feel with all origin stories it has the problem of working towards a status quo. This means that you feel at the end you haven't got to the meat of the story and while I understand this is the reason it exists to show you, I personally find that hard to get past.

I personally enjoyed Strikes Again, i thought it was a wonderful companion to Returns. Where as the first showed how comics could again be gritty the second subverts that by revelling in the outlandish surrealism the first sought to rebel against. I think with both comics Miller is showing us that superhero comics dont have to be either grim or outlandish but that both should be celebrated and can exist alongside each other even in the same comic. I'm just very sad the All Star Batman and Robin its so over the top grim that it almost taints what has come before it.

Oh and i have a lead on the scarecrow story, it might be collected in a best ever screcrow stories that was released to showcase the character before begins came out.

I think that the Dark Knight Returns is one of the most important books in the Batman cannon because of how its influenced the modern direction of Batman.

However for me my favourite Batamn comic will always be the issue where Scarecrow instead of making people afraid removes their fear so they become cocky and hurt themselves. Its quite disturbing when he bets a man he cant survie a jump out of a window and the man says bet I can and jumps out. I had it when i was a kid but cant find it now so if anyone knows where its collected please let me know

The Dossier is I beleive the most important graphic release this year. And i was wondering what everyone thought of this new addition to the leauge cannon.

Personally I loved it, finding little references to comics, movies and tv shows I've loved over the years. Most of all though the literary replicas (thanks to my girlfriend for giving me those words), my favourite being the Fanny Hill section. I have now dedicated myself to reading the original at some point, possibly while standing in a bucket of ice.

My only criticism is the beat poet section obviously inspired by Jack Kerouac. Its almost inpenitrable though to be fair i tried to read On the Road and gave up due to lack of interest.

Oh and any thoughts on the slightly contreversal character at the end of the book?