Luís

I find it strange the old forgotten gods waited for the 21st century to wage war against the 'new' gods... I also have problems considering the new gods gods at all, but I guess that comes down to definitions.

I also find it strange the immigrants brought Odin and Osiris and that lot to the USA... so between the 16th century and the 19th century people still worshipped Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Nordic deities when they were coming to America? I guess they managed to ballance their 'pagan' beliefs with the 'official' Christianity? All the people in the Mayflower probably just wanted freedom to worship Odin, I guess; and all the Italians and Irish brought their fairies and nymphs too.

I don't know, I can see the plot making sense somewhere in the 10th century, in Europe and the Middle East, as the Western gods and the Eastern gods wage 'war' against Jesus/God and Allah, the ones responsible for their being forgotten in the first place. Honestly, credit cards and tv...

You can see I'm not a fan of the book

I think it'd be good if the subject matter in Hellblazer fluctuated between the two although i think All His Engines is probably the best Hellblazer story Mike Carey has ever written and is one of the all-time great Hellblazer stories and it was chock full of demons.

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I really hate the 'pub' issues...

They can't be the big alternative to Carey's stuff. I'm pretty comfortable with fantasy - horror and Sci-fi are fantasy, if you want to be meticulous about it - but Carey recycled one of the many corners of Sandman for Lucifer, which he then recycled for Hellblazer. It's the forgery of a forgery.

There's Lynch's fantasy, Lovecraft's fantasy, Calvino's fantasy, Borge's fantasy - all distinct and unique, and I love them all regardless. But this Judeo-Christian Hell's politics and hierarchies type of fantasy has dominated the series to the point of choking other creative venues. It's not that there isn't space for it, but there should be space for somethinge else too!

So what's the appeal for Carey, I'd like to understand? What's the appeal of copying himself and producing inferior work?

Delano had Nergal, but he also had nuclear-war-induced paranoia, serial killers, alternate realities. Ennis created the overexposed First Of The Fallen, but he also had vampire stories, ghosts, demonic possessions, Gemma dabbling in magic. Ellis' Haunted is pretty much taken from Alistair Crowley's life. Now Carey, ever since he gave us The Beast, he's been on a rigid path about Christiniaty - it's Eden, Hell, The First again, Nergal again, demon offsprings... and I couldn't care less anymore...

I can only say I'm eagerly waiting for Carey's replacement so I can get back on board, hoping there'll be a new direction for the series in the future.

Congratulations, Tim!

I've always loved your work, so I'm glad for the attention your art is getting

So can we conclude those are two days of your life you won't forget

Silver Age comics give me headaches! Pathetic dialogue, zero charaterisation, ugly, brute art; the language of comics was sterile - basic things like transitions from one panel to another were poorly done, panel layouts were just unimaginative, too much narration, not enough visual storytelling.

It's like The Spirit had never existed.

I'd say the early eighties up to the early nineties - all the pre-Vertigo and early Vertigo, Giffen's JLA, Claremont's X-Men, George Stern's and Peter David's Spiderman.

According to the internet, it was told in Web Of Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Amazing Spider-Man, going from October to November of 1987.

And people say say the '90's put out too many comics of the same character :lol:

Gwen Stacy and Uncle Ben also stayed dead.

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There's always the clone - that one haunted Spidey's books for years in some really horrible stories... and this was way before the Spider Clone Saga

...

Funny, I'd consider myself an 'old comic fan, collecting them for half my life now, that's ten years, and yet things like 50 cent comics and interior ads mean nothing to me. Here in Portugal we'd get comics through a Brazilian publisher, and when I got too late into the game thepublisher was already going bankrupt so I began getting them as backissues mostly and not as single issues I'd have to get every month.

So nostalgia to me is buying an 84-page comic that had two stories of X-Men, perhaps one of Rom and then perhaps a 'what if' in the end just for laughs. Spiderman was in the same comic as Fantastic Four, and I remember Daredevil and The Punisher sharing the same comic with Alpha Flight

It's going to flea markets to get 50 comics for the price of nothing, something I can't do with American comics nowadays.

It's getting crossovers in one huge edition instead of dozens of small individual issues - that was another thing, whereas for American readers Kraven's Last Hunt was just a story told in three different monthly Spiderman comics, for instance, here it instantly came out as a special edition; 'special editions' were everywhere and I loved them

And the comics had a different size. The American format was just for special editions. I only got into imported stuff a couple of years later when I pretty much ran out of Brazilian backissues to buy :wacko:

It was Uncle Scrooge, Donal Duck, Mickey Mouse, all that Disney stuff - far before I got into superheroes with X-Men and Spiderman. I loved that stuff! I fondly remember the re-imagination of the Seven Wonders of the the world as told by Uncle Scrooge to his nephews

Speaking of Borges, I've been reading a collection of conversations he had with the Argentinian poet Osvaldo Ferrari - those were originally aired on radio ans then Ferrari collected them - they talk about pretty much everything and anything. It's quite interesting to read Borges the man, as opposed to Borges the deliberate writer.

Never watched any horror movies when I was still young enough to be scared by them. The Shining is the only movie that genuinely disturbs me whenever I watch it, and I saw it when I was a bit too old.

I love The Exorcist, but that's because it's just a fucking, well-written, well-acted, well-directed movie!

but how come Rocky, who can barely stand after being K.O'd about six times and whose face looks like an abattoir floor is allowed to fight on?

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Drama, baby, drama :cool:

Rocky I is a wonderful cinematic experience that got damaged by the lesser sequels and Stallone's own lack of good career management.

I think Eco excells at essay writing - when he's talking about literature, modern culture, art, he's really brilliant! Which is why his novels' best moments are those when his characters are engaged in lenghty discussions about books and symbols and history... but I honestly find his fiction lacking in the characterisation department. I think Eco writes elegant intellectual fiction, but he lacks an ear for dialogue and needs to spend more time with emotions - his characters are pretty cold guys!

But he shares my love for the great Jorge Luís Borges, and reading his stuff is sometimes going through a Borgesian wonderland.

Yup, although the title was sliding by the end of Ann Nocenti's run, it was definitely Chichester that made the whole thing an unreadable mess of gobbledegook. Utter rubbish.

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I love Ann Nocenti's run! She picked the series right after Miller's Born Again arc and did wonderful things with the character - Murdock losing his license, having to work with pro-bono organisations, the whole Typhoid Mary relationship (and didn't Nocenti invent her?), Murdock's growing frustration towards the law... it was all so sweet, and then she fucked everything up with Daredevil going to Hell, meeting Mephisto and Blackheart

However her last big arc, with Murdock losing his memory, Bulls's Eye stealing the DD suit, almost ruining his reputation, only for Murdock to snap out of it and beat his arch-enemy to a fucking pulp was beautiful! I constantly re-read this arc, probably more than I do Born Again :unsure:

Chichester's run was shit, yeah...

The Death Of Jean DeWolf trade is a cracking thriller, but not necessarily all that similar to the films - still well worth reading, though, as it's one of the better Spidey books I've read.

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It's great, isn't it? I was having a look at my old comics collection the other day and came up with those issues... and I've also had the luck of reading DeWolf's first appearence, complete with Iron Man and Dr. Strange helping Spidey defeating her sick brother, the villain known as Apparition.

Has anyone ever read the second Sin-Eater story? I think it's just as great as the first!

To appreciate Spiderman better, it could help reading Amazing Spider-Man #121-122, it's the classic arc detailing Gwen Stacy's death as she falls from a bridge and Spiedy failing to save her - sort of how Green Goblin tries to kill Mary Jane in the movie - and then GG's death, which is the same as in the movie - his glider stabs him in the chest!

In the second movie Harry discovers his daddy's legacy; probably he'll become the new GG - just like in Amazing Spider-Man #136-137

But I'm personally hoping he becomes the Hobgoblin, a far better villain :cool:

I'm sure Dan Didio confirmed back when Vertigo was cellebrating its 10th anniversary, that Morrison's completeDoom Patrol was getting traded... maybe I misread it, but I think we can just relax

Ah but I mean a live Corto Maltese movie... the animated version just didn't live up to my expectations.

I had a teacher who walked around everywhere with a tpb of Dark Knight Returns and said he was in the hundredth time reading it. He was pissed at the idea of Batman Begins and always said they should do Dark Knight with Clint eastwood as Batman.

Interestingly enough, Hollywood producers did address Clint Eastwood to direct and star in a Dark Knight Return movie once, but the project failed to materialise. It could have been the greatest Batman movie ever!

I'd like to see Maus, The Invisibles, Doom Patrol and Corto Maltese turned into movies... I just like to dream big I guess :wacko:

And Shade back-issues are pretty hard to get in Portugal

I was really expecting Milligan to finally be recognised with New X-Men: that was the top-selling comic that was going to change everything; take him from semi-obscurity, make him famous, talked about on the net, possibly successful enough to convince DC to publish some more Shade and his other Vertigo stuff....

But last I checked, his X-Men run hasn't met expectations and is disappointing most readers. All my dreams are being shattered

If Ennis handles it much like he did The Demon with just a pinch of his HB/Preacher schtick, I'll be happy.

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Or perhaps his villains will all just secretly have tits :rolleyes:

Yep, nanites :cool:

Doom 2099 was my introduction to weird, mind-blowing sci-fi shit! As I read more and more stuff, I began to see where Ellis was coming from, but I can't deny my initial excitement at reading the series.

Doom conquers America...GLORIOUS!

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I think it might just be my favourite arc ever! It's especially brilliant when that fake Captain America shows up and Herod uses the forbidden weapons to destroy Doom... just remembering those giant flying spiders blowing up the White House with him inside leaves me crazy! Doom's revenge was also fantastic...

Sandman Mystery Theatre, from what I heard and read, was great! It's what I loved in old Vertigo - picking up old DC characters and breathing new, interesting life in them. The trades are on my to-buy list.

But is it really necessary to return to this character? Sandy Hawkins, a.ka. 'Sand' from JSA has already inherited Wesley's gas mask and pistol. Last I checked, he was a pretty cool character too.

So what's the point of a new update? I hardly trust Rieber with a mainstream comic... I'm afraid of seeing what he'll do with a 'mature' comic... most writers don't know what to do with Vertigo's potential, and I have no reason to give him the benefit of the doubt. The story sounds generic and like an excuse to go to the Middle East, because you know, that's what's hot now

Come on, he's not Matt Wagner, he's not Steven Seagle, quality-wise anyway.

You know, I honestly can't see Garth Ennis doing Ghost Rider... I've always loved this character exactly because he takes himself wayyyyyy too seriously! The '80's revival was dark and tense, the villains were wonderfully sick and menacing, and Ghost Rider was a pretty inflexible, unstoppable spirit of vengeance!

Ennis is just going to mock all that with his bathroom humor

1) Batman

2) Green Goblin

3) Crazy Jane

4) Dr. Doom (2099 version)

I was hoping for more news on Vertigo from Wizard Con... if an update on an old character is all we're getting, it's going to be a boring year at Vertigo :glare:

Right now, I'm more interested in collecting the pre-Vertigo stuff in trades: Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Shade. The recent stuff isn't interesting me at all.