Bran the Blessed

Read a bunch of old Ennis limited series from the 90s and early 2000s, as well as Grant Morrison's "Joe the Barbarian" and Keith Giffen's "Vext".

To go in order:

Ennis:

Pride and Joy is a bog standard thriller story of a father and his kids being pursued by a criminal from the dad's shady past. The bad guy is talked up to be this big creepy bastard but barely features in the book at all and none of the characters are anything but basic templates.

The Pro is a fun story of a prostitute getting superpowers and taking the piss out of the superhero genre...but it's a bit short and the parody is laid down a bit thick at times.

Goddess is the story of a girl randomly getting miracle performing superpowers (she separates Scotland from England by accident) and goes on a journey to find out what the hell is up with that. Kinda feels like it's a test run for the basic idea behind Preacher, which started publication the same year this came out (1995), including having the man character have godly powers and having a murderous bastard amass a giant military force to try and hunt them down. It's kinda more well handled than Preacher, because Garth didn't just give up on the premise immediately, like he did in Preacher, where Jesse and co never actually even try to find God after doing it once in the first trade, and then having Jesse say he could never have done it anyway in the final issue. Only problem here is the Constable character is quite over the top and feels unneeded, since he spends 90 % of the series playing catchup with the main cast and is doing his own thing somewhere else, and he's a different character trying to hunt down the main cast from the main CIA bad guy. Also, in order to get to Rio he robs a bank, kills everyone inside, hijacks a plane, murders the entire crew and all the passengers before deliberately crashing the plane into a beach, killing hundreds more...and I don't really get why. Also the ending is super offputting because the main female character joyously declares she will now abolish money and all goverments and will rule the Earth as an unstoppable dictator and everyone cheers her on and Garth seriously ends the book with framing this as a positive thing.

Now, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade is top notch Ennis of the time and if you want a zany, bloody, bizarre over the top adventure, then this is definitely recommended. Only issue I have is this first miniseries kinda plays most of the antagonists and even the mission kind of straight and doesn't do much over the top with it.

The sequel, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade - Operation Bollock, is even better, has more weird, bizarre shit taking place and the premise is hunting down Hitler's missing testicle to harness it's dark occult powers for the British Army. Definitely a more original plot than the last one !

Morrison:

Joe the Barbarian was a fairly okay story of a kid in hypoglycemic shock hallucinating his toys are alive and want him to go on an epic quest to defeat Death itself, which is a quest to turn on the light switch in the basement and get the kid some sugar before he dies. The secondary characters, like the inventor girl, don't get that much screentime, though, the huge dwarf does not much at all, really, and I was hoping for Morrison to kind of shake up expectations as to this other realm actually being real. In fact one issue ends in a way that implies that...but that turns out to be a red herring.

I also read two issues collecting his Doctor Who comics and I definitely think him mucking about with Mondas being secretly Marinus and having Jamie basically off himself for no good reason as kind of....not good writting. The story about the shape shifting thing he did was okay but kinda basic and the Sylvester McCoy story lacked much actual tension.

Also, I *just* gone done reading Vext, a DC series from 1999 by Keith Giffen

15 hours ago, Christian said:

Yes, fourth actually; it’s the book they love to cancel.

Gotta-The thing is, the sales on this version of JC were still higher than what Vertigo HB had gotten in many years. Not to mention that the DC Rebirth series got higher sales than the current iteration.
The DC Convergence series had relatively low sales, but that line didn’t appeal to fans the same way as other DCU reboots. 
I mean, the New 52’s sales are still the ones to beat (as far as contemporary versions of JC), but you could argue your point: It was bad, so fans dropped off. Still, fans eventually came back for the DC Rebirth series, but those sales still weren’t strong enough to keep the book from being canceled.

The comic market is just so deflated at this point, as you pointed out. The types of figures that HB was getting during the Ennis years are never going to be found again.

Really, the only way a new HB would not be canceled within about a year is if Bendis did take over the book. Fans will read anything Bendis is writing. I’d rather see HB stay dead than get watered down again like New 52, Convergence, or Rebirth.

At this stage, wouldn't it just be cheaper to keep the book running despite low sales and just let it slowly accumulate an audience, rather then keep cancelling it, which will just turn any potential readers of new series away, because they're gonna think "they're gonna cancel this in a year, why should I be invested ?"

1 hour ago, dogpoet said:

No, they've just cancelled the comic.

Again ?
What is this, the third relaunch they axed thus far ?

On 11/24/2020 at 6:43 PM, GottaGetAGrip said:

For all that this Hellblazer did in bringing us back to the "good old days," one thing it did feel short on was the sacrifices and losses for John that played a big part in the classic runs. Well, fret not - Spurrier saved the "best" for last!

A strong conclusion to this era of Spurrier Hellblazer that brings the thirteen issues of his run together, though it's severely bittersweet because you can tell Spurrier had much more story to tell - heck, he even just tweeted that his next planned arc would've taken John back to America!

Here's to hoping that the trades do well enough to warrant some form of continuation so Spurrier can actually explore the ramifications of the big reveal of this issue.

Oh for pete's sake they're rapidly switching creators again ?

19 hours ago, Christian said:

They usually do that to milk the big anniversary issues.

Yeah, Thor #17, oh next month would have been Thor #750, so we have to have a double-sized $10 book for that! So, now it’s back to regular numbering, whoops. Time for another relaunch. It’s Thor vol. 9 issue #1, with a brand-new $6 first issue! Yay!

And people wonder why it's hard to attract newcomers to comic books.

15 hours ago, Christian said:

I thought that was what made the chasing Djinn for twelve entire issues plot so great. He looks, and he looks, and he looks, issue after issue....some issues involve him sitting at a table drinking coffee for an entire issue, some issues involve him chasing a flying shoe for an issue...you know, good use of time.

Then, at the end, he just admits that he can’t find the Djinn and gives up.

That’s one genius story!

I think the forum hated my suggestion so much it became sentient and ate my response.

So again: I wish they'd not cancel the series to revive it 8 months later each time the numbers tank, but just give the series over to someone else. If they're gonna keep the series around anyway, that's a really stupid tactic that will just scare away any potential readers of future series you will want to cancel.

I wonder how much money they'd have to launch at Gaiman to make him take over. At least that might draw in more readers. Or get Morrison hooked on whatever he was smoking in the 90s and just Animal Man/Doom Patrol it.

17 hours ago, Christian said:

This is just a mini-series running alongside the (soon to be canceled) main title.

Yeah, the “Black Label” series was the fourth relaunch of Hellblazer.

If DC didn’t end the original HB they would have never been able to introduce Nick Necro, make a series where John’s entire characterization is that he’s bi, and spend an entire year with John chasing the Djinn! All of which is far better than everything we had ever seen in the HB comic before.

The saddest part is that two of those three (and the third is a tie) books lasted longer than the one that is actually trying to continue on from the original series...

Geography is a big factor on why I didn't really try to keep following the series after it kept getting renewed, but the constant cancellations sure didn't help.
Thing is, Hellblazer has always been a series where an author takes over for a while and then someone else takes charge and takes it in a different direction, but there's not much they can do with a run that goes on for 24 issues max.

The saddest part is that those 12 issues spent on that Djinn plot end without us ever getting to see this mystical Djinn city because they had to pawn the book off to someone else. Honestly at that point, I'd be like "let someone else take over but actually finish" cause I remember the succeeding 12 issues were kinda forgettable.

DC would have saved itself so much trouble if they just...didn't cancel the original series.

Isn't this the 4th series since then ?

I tried to sign it but am unsure if I actually did ;>_>

.....Wow this thread hasn't been posted in for quite a while ;>>
Also while writting the review for The Ice King, I noticed Michael Scott Rohan, one of the authors, died 8 months after I read it, which is always a weird feeling.

I'm glad this is coming out for those interested, but I've a question: are there gaps from the one shot or short guest appearances of various writers which aren't collected in trades yet ? Because I think those are ultimately more novel than what one can expect from the Ennis run ^^; Garth has a few duds, plus he notoriously is not great with handling supernatural elements in his stories in an interesting or creative way. Preacher is a good example of that.

Not to shit on Garth buuuut people only hear about the good stuff from his run and they might be a bit disappointed if they pick this one up and read that one shot of Kit at a bar in Belfast (?) talking about topics from 1990s Ireland or those two kinda pointles issues about corpse theft. XD

1 hour ago, dogpoet said:

At least if Sanders manages to get the nomination this time it'll shut up all the halfwits who've spent the last four years whining like that Trump wouldn't have stood a chance against him.

(It's more likely, though, that he won't, and will take his supporters home in a snit for a second time, getting Trump re-elected.)

To be fair, you'd ideally want someone as President of the US who can still pee in under an hour and doesn't consist of at least 40 % replacement parts.
Ideally you'd want someone about 20 years younger than either of them.

11 hours ago, dogpoet said:

Abebooks is great, but has one of the same problems as Amazon: not the moral issues Amazon has spent a lot of time cultivating, but the fact that browsing online is very different to browsing in a bookshop and you're a lot less likely to find something unexpected while browsing.

Also Abebooks actually has sellers sell used books to us European plebs, because the users on Amazon, at least in America, don't really feel the need to. Whereas on Abebooks they usually do even if they are from the US.

Also it always annyoed me how Amazon considers being physically unable to send me my order to the country I live in a "minor error" that I can go back and correct. Quite how they expected me to do that is a bit beyond me.

I read a few older things recently:

The Judge Dredd and Lobo crossover. It was mostly just a simplistic Lobo story with Dredd showing up for a panel every couple of pages and barely interacting with Lobo at all, the antagonist is kind of forgettable and it felt like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Finally read all the Devlin Waugh shorts written by Smith. I definitely enjoyed "Mouthful of Dust" as an interesting little story, but Bite Fight was dreadful, it made Devlin into a snarling beast that got easily caught by the bad guys, used in cage fights and then easily knocked out by Dredd.

Hey guys. Been a while. To cut a long story short I am reading the third book in a row by Josef Šimánek, a Czech writer obsessed with writing fantasy centered around ancient Greece.

I want to doa  video review of the three books I've borrowed, maybe include the one I've read about two years ago as well.

Currently reading some Jean Lorrain, specifically his "The Soul Drinker" which Snuggly books came out with. It's certainly very decant and fin de siecle so far.

Also apologies for my lengthy absence, I was busy with work, school and my channel.

Finished Leon Bloy's "Disagreeable Tales". It was a little less shocking and raw than "Sweating Blood", but it had good stories gruesome enough to be worth the price.

And now a year later, they've just stopped advertising their forthcoming books at all.

I feel very sad here : /

On 12/30/2018 at 8:56 PM, Christian said:

I am reading Alan Moore's huge novel currently, but I posted about it in the Alan Moore thread of the comic section, because it is about Alan Moore.

The last book I finished was T. Lobsang Rampa's second book, The Cave of the Ancients, from 1963. If you're not familiar, Rampa's books are occult, supposedly non-fiction, books; written by a guy from England, who claimed that he was channeling the spirit of a Tibetan lama.

Unfortunately, this book was written before the introduction of Miss Fifi Greywhiskers. That was Rampa's cat who, purportedly, wrote one of Rampa's books for him.

I believe that this particular Rampa book was a partial influence on Mike Mignola.

Whenever I hear the world "channeling" I'm reminded of the seven story high car pileup that is Spirit Science XD

Is no one reading here anymore ?

Just finished Franz Spunda's Baphomet, der Geheime Gott der Templer, I already went through a month and a half long martyrium by having it get lost in the mail and having to go through the refund process which resulted in me getting back less money than I send due to the obnoxious nature of changing money.

The novel starts out with this inheritance from an old Marques who was also an adept, and the machinations of the secret order of the Templars, including several murders. But then the novel starts starts endlessly waffling about the protagonist and his love interest finding reasons for not coming together, and endless disputations about astral fire and astorlogical signs and planets etc. The novel is building up a confrontation with the Templars, but the man who murderer the Marques and tried to murder the protagonist leaves and comes back no longer being an antagonist., but it the builds him going up against Baphomet in the flesh to perish....and he just doesn't go. Worse, the protagonist choses not to go the Templer Council going on in the same city like he said he would to confront and disarm Baphomet, so the only one who ends up going is a tertiary character.

In the end said character comes back and tells us how the main antagonist and one of the Templar leaders got killed at said Council, offscreen.

Yes, Spunda actually has the antagonist of the entire novel killed offscreen, only witnessed by a tertiary character, who even refuses to say what happened because he's bound by an oath of secrecy to the Pope.

This took so long to read and largely derailed all my holiday reading plans.

1 hour ago, Christian said:

This should get you in the Christmas spirit.

Nothing says Christmas like an UFO killing cows in Ireland on Christmas Day during a blizzard!

My hope is that this is the type of happiness that the magic of Christmas can bring to every one of you on here too.

http://thecid.com/ufo/uf00/uf3/003284.htm

Your saying words but all I hear is crazy.

On 11/23/2018 at 5:23 PM, dogpoet said:

Presumably Blackburn set up the Russians as a red herring to divert the readers from the old farts of nazis were the real villains?

No, it is a massive red herring that takes up too much time but there aren't any Nazis here.

I just finished John Blackburn's Broken Boy. I'm a bit disappointed to be honest. Yes, I knew there were thriller elements here from the get go, and yet the problem with the book was it's rather not as good as I'd hoped. It may be unfair to compare it to a work Blackburn wrote ten years later, yet I am very much forced to compare it to Bury Him Darkly and find it lacking. Where the latter is steeped in gothic atmosphere, while a great and bewildering mystery, very much shown to be sinister and quite unnatural, builds up to a truly fantastic and destructive climax, Broken Boy takes halfway through the book to even start dropping the red herring bog standard murder detection idea, and even then most of the rest of the book is just characters going back and forth, looking up house plans and expert opinions at museums, only to culminate in a murder conspiracy slash satanic cult.

Sadly the cult is bereft of any real grandeur and all the potential nastiness of this sort of idea is mostly swept away since all this cult ever does is drive a woman insane to be their pawn and then worry about time tables and set ups to kill people and make false alibis. Nothing supernatural of any sort ever happens in it, and the cult itself is a bit mundane beyond the first previously mentioned point.

The most interesting part of the book is the very brief attention given to the real life story of Queen Ranavalona and I honestly would have preffered the novel to be about that instead of watching a general from the foreign office (who seems to think Bantu people are all "bow legged" because they "haven't been  walking on their legs very long") ride on trains and spend a good third of the book going on about the red herring that is them damn Ruskis.

2 hours ago, dogpoet said:

Sorry, Dave, I should have used the spoiler things.

: P
 

I just can't imagine this going well.

17 hours ago, dogpoet said:

I'm a bit underwhelmed by the second issue of Spurrier's Dreaming. Setting up Merv Pumpkinhead as the sort of self obessed inverted snob who can be conned into supporting alt right pondlife works, but everything else in this feels like a retread of stuff from the original series, only not as good. There's even a hint that Dora's genderfluid rather than biologically female, though hopefully she won't turn out to be Echo in a cunning disguise...

First time I head about this and yet I already dread reading it.