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cdaveIt looks like the DFC may have to shut down.
I've managed to find RSS feeding blogs for all but one of my favourite strips creators, so hopefully I'll be kept informed of their future work, but it won't be the same. No other comics anthology I've ever picked up (okay that's probably less than 30) stands up to an issue of the DFC in my eyes.
I'll try and track down and post something about all of them soonish.
Oh, and this weeks reading list.
*) The DFC.
*) Dead of Night: Devil Slayer issues 1 - 4
Catching up on a backlog of regular comics, so expect more *s in my reading list.
This showed a lot of potential. The first issue follows the first few hours of a soldier returning to his third tour of Iraq. Ending in a ambush, with the final page being the first revelation that this is something more fantastic than a simple war story.
However from then on it descends into cliché. He is the descendent of a line of Slayers. The only ones who can stand against the demons.
The last of the line of masters have just been killed, so hes not going to get any training. Nevertheless the magic sword he is given gives him the power to weild it like a pro.
Finally the it turns out that this was a set up. The angel Gabriel has been working with the daemons to bring about Armageddon, as both sides think they will win.
10) Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McCloud.
As he says in the intro to this collection, these days he is better known as the author of "Understanding Comics". A brilliant textbook of the comic form, in the form of a comic. Actually many of you will know him from the Google Chrome Comic.
I'm very much a fan of good black and white line art, and Scott's stuff in particular.
This book covers his comics from 1987 to 1991. It very much changes in tone as the book progresses. It starts as a visually arresting superhero story, with his only powers essentially being flight (artificial), dexterity, and boundless optimism. With the plot being driven by the villain of that ark. By the end is instead a compelling tale about the lives* of group of fairly geeky American high school students.
*Well sexual awakening is probably the correct term. There's a whole issue devoted to too of them in a bedroom discussing if the time is right for them.
Every few issues, there's a page or two of directors commentary from Scott, that gives some fascinating insights into where the character's came from and what he was trying to do.
I'll definitely re-read all 575 pages of this one at some point soon.
11) Umbrella Academy story by Gerard Way Art by Gabrial Ba.
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raven_mocara.
The art reminds me is a slightly tighter version of the graffiti style I particularly like in Jim Mafood.
The first page is picture of a wrestler doing an elbow drop onto a space squid. For no real reason that has anything to do with the plot. Brilliant!
Most of the humour in this comes from the same sense of the surreal.
However for all these silly asides, this is actually a fairly dark tale. The hero's have been raised together, but been separated for some time, before being called back. Each has their own power, but also their own neuroses.
I can't quite decide if this is too silly for a serious story, or too serious for a silly story. Either was something doesn't quite sit right. I've spotted it's still going at the comic shops, so I may track down the second volume to see if it improves.
I've managed to find RSS feeding blogs for all but one of my favourite strips creators, so hopefully I'll be kept informed of their future work, but it won't be the same. No other comics anthology I've ever picked up (okay that's probably less than 30) stands up to an issue of the DFC in my eyes.
I'll try and track down and post something about all of them soonish.
Oh, and this weeks reading list.
*) The DFC.
*) Dead of Night: Devil Slayer issues 1 - 4
Catching up on a backlog of regular comics, so expect more *s in my reading list.
This showed a lot of potential. The first issue follows the first few hours of a soldier returning to his third tour of Iraq. Ending in a ambush, with the final page being the first revelation that this is something more fantastic than a simple war story.
However from then on it descends into cliché. He is the descendent of a line of Slayers. The only ones who can stand against the demons.
The last of the line of masters have just been killed, so hes not going to get any training. Nevertheless the magic sword he is given gives him the power to weild it like a pro.
Finally the it turns out that this was a set up. The angel Gabriel has been working with the daemons to bring about Armageddon, as both sides think they will win.
10) Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McCloud.
As he says in the intro to this collection, these days he is better known as the author of "Understanding Comics". A brilliant textbook of the comic form, in the form of a comic. Actually many of you will know him from the Google Chrome Comic.
I'm very much a fan of good black and white line art, and Scott's stuff in particular.
This book covers his comics from 1987 to 1991. It very much changes in tone as the book progresses. It starts as a visually arresting superhero story, with his only powers essentially being flight (artificial), dexterity, and boundless optimism. With the plot being driven by the villain of that ark. By the end is instead a compelling tale about the lives* of group of fairly geeky American high school students.
*Well sexual awakening is probably the correct term. There's a whole issue devoted to too of them in a bedroom discussing if the time is right for them.
Every few issues, there's a page or two of directors commentary from Scott, that gives some fascinating insights into where the character's came from and what he was trying to do.
I'll definitely re-read all 575 pages of this one at some point soon.
11) Umbrella Academy story by Gerard Way Art by Gabrial Ba.
Lent to me by
raven_mocara.The art reminds me is a slightly tighter version of the graffiti style I particularly like in Jim Mafood.
The first page is picture of a wrestler doing an elbow drop onto a space squid. For no real reason that has anything to do with the plot. Brilliant!
Most of the humour in this comes from the same sense of the surreal.
However for all these silly asides, this is actually a fairly dark tale. The hero's have been raised together, but been separated for some time, before being called back. Each has their own power, but also their own neuroses.
I can't quite decide if this is too silly for a serious story, or too serious for a silly story. Either was something doesn't quite sit right. I've spotted it's still going at the comic shops, so I may track down the second volume to see if it improves.
