Thanks for that Robio. I keep reading about this 90s comics speculator boom? Is that when lots of people invested in new comics expecting comics to become more popular?
I remember image at the time, I bought a few of their comics, I don't know I was expecting but I only picked up one comic in each series to see what they were like. The art seemed much better than DC and Marvel at the time, well, glossier and more in your face.
I'm very much a fan of classic comic book art like the Eternals art I posted on page one, or Ron Lim's Silver Surfer, George Perez, that kind of thing.
Do you think they made DC's Steel look more like Thor with the cape and colour palette?
Have you read any of the Ultimates BTW? Any good?
Yep, the 90's comics boom was a speculator driven market. The idea of which was, buy this book now for $2.99 and in a year it'll be worth $50 because it's a first issue or a new character debuts. The result was some of the worst comics and worst new characters ever created because the publishers knew exactly what was going on. But to put it in perspective to show you how inflated it was, the top selling comics on a monthly basis would typically sell around 500K to 600K copies. Then special comics like the Death of Superman and X-Men #1 would break 1 million. Once the bubble burst the top selling comics maybe would sell 150K to 200K. Today most don't even break 100K copies.
And some of the Ultimate books are great, at least they were when they first started. Ultimates 1 and Ultimates 2 are some of the best books I've ever read. The series went to hell after that. Ultimate Spider-Man was good for almost its entire run. Ultimate X-man started good but deteriorated over time. The rest were pretty hit or miss, but usually misses.
Damn, I bought X-Men 1 at the time and it hasn't gone up in price at all 
Also, Spiderman 1 Todd McFarlane.
I saw the Ultimate Avengers 1 and 2 movies which I hear were based on the comics. I didn't really like them that much. I did like seeing Captain America in the past so I picked up Reborn and Two America's.
Ultimate Avengers 2 was based on nothing related to the comics. Ultimate Avengers 1 was loosely based around Ultimates 1, but they left out so much. It was a very dumbed down version.
robio said:Ultimate Avengers 2 was based on nothing related to the comics. Ultimate Avengers 1 was loosely based around Ultimates 1, but they left out so much. It was a very dumbed down version.
The second film was much better. There was a mini-documentary on the Ultimates comics, some of the art is great, very glossy. I will try it someday,
BATMAN: YEAR ONE News! Voice Casting! Rating! Pics!
We reported last week in our DARK KNIGHT RETURNS article that BATMAN: YEAR ONE was being made by DC Animation for release later in the year. Well, Hollywood Reporter has exclusive additional information on the project, and right now it's sounding more and more impressive.
According to HR, we're getting a pretty terrific cast for the animated film - Bryan Cranston (BREAKING BAD) for Gordon, Ben McKenzie (SOUTHLAND) as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Eliza Dushku (BUFFY: THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) as Catwoman, and Katee Sackhoff (BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA) as Detective Sarah Essen.
Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's YEAR ONE is considered pretty much the definitive Batman origin story, and you can see its influences all over Christopher Nolan's films as well as the other animated Batman shows. It's beloved by Batman fans the world over, and considered one of Miller's best works. Bruce Timm, who executive produced, said, "The source material is surprisingly cinematic; it's a pretty straight forward literal retelling. Mazzucchelli's artwork is beautifully composed and we were able to refer to the comic for about 80 percent of the camera setups." So it's sounding like a very loyal interpretation of the source material, which should make fans very happy.
Something else that should make fans happy - it'll be PG-13, and it looks like it will be premiering at ComicCon in July before being released on DVD and Blu-Ray this fall. I'd imagine those tickets will be hot property this year.
gamingeek said:Lastly from things I have read in the past I would like to recommend a few titles from the Silver Surfer.
I own nearly every Silver surfer issue ever made and lots of Thanos stuff too. They are my two favourite characters.
THE HERALD ORDEAL ISSUES 70 - 75
Galactus hungers once again. Nova returns to the ship and tells Galactus that there are no suitable planets nearby. But Galactus has been watching her and knows she is lying. He tells her that her insolence will stop now, and encases her in energy. He travels to the nearby planet, populated with millions to teach her a lesson.
Galactus is met by the local executioner Morg. He has no fear of Galactus and claims he does not care what he does to the planet, only his survival matters to him. Galactus spares him and consumes the planet's energy. He tells Nova she is free to go and never to bother him again. She cannot believe she is being replaced with a madman. He warns her to leave before he deals with her harshly.
Morg agrees to serve as his herald without question. He uses his Power Cosmic and creates his newest herald, Morg. He grants him power to rival the Silver Surfer.Then Morg augments his powers and the past heralds of Galactus put aside their differences to kick his ass..
I would like to withdraw my reccomendation for the Herald Ordeal. I re-read it recentely and it's nice to see the heralds together but the story is fairly... eh.
Anyway read the Mageddon JLA storyline in JLA Deluxe vol 4.
Quite good in the end. It beings a little scattershot but it ends on a high note. The story is that an ancient god weapon the anti-sun heads for Earth. All hell breaks loose and the JLA and every other superhero on earth must stop it.
Also started reading JLA Earth 2 which is also included in JLA deluxe 4 hardcover.
Art style is great, very classical, less gaudy than some of the other JLA stuff.
I was already familiar with the story through the DC animated movie, Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Great movie BTW.
Anyway so far the writing is better than any other JLA stuff I have read and the art helps a lot. The story is about the JLA going to another earth to fight their evil world rivals the crime syndicate.
Robio do you know what order Shadowland should be read in? With all the miniseries and one shots?
Frankly Shadowland shouldn't be read at all. It was terrible. Easily the worst mini-series I've read in years. Real shame too because the general idea was fantastic. The execution was completely and utterly piss poor however.
If you must though you can pretty much just read the Daredevil collection and the main Shadowland book and you'll get the gist of it. Most of the side stories were worthless. I can't give you the exact order, as I don't actually own most of the series (though I did read it). I'd recommend this:
Must Read:
- Shadowland
- Shadowland: Daredevil
Consider Reading:
- Shadowland: Daughters of the Dragon (this was actually good, though it had little or no bearing the main storyline)
- Shadowland: Electra
- Shadowland: Ghost Rider
Skip:
- Shadowland: Powerman
- Shadowland: Blood on the Streets
- Shadowland: Thunderbolts
- Shadowland: Moon Knight
- Shadowland: Spider-Man
I don't read comics but I was tempted these days when I was seeing "The Walking Dead" books in places like HMV etc. But there's like 12 or 13 of them and each one costs £8 or so I decided against that.
___
Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
Thanks Robio. I have them all so I might as well read them someday.
Heads up , I saw the Planet Hulk omnibus in a book store the other day, the frigging thing is tremendous value it's 374 pages of actual comic plus a hundred more of background stuff. And it's really cheap too, about $15 so I think you guys should check it out.
For some reason it's impossible to find Cosmic Powers issues 2 and 3 in the UK.
I could import from the US easily but the postage costs are a rip off.
Okay finished reading The Eternals Volume 1 by Jack Kirby.
Very good but it didn't lead anywhere in the end, I think maybe the series was cancelled before he could finish it as it was only like 16 issues. Lots of great concepts and writing, sadly not given the room to flesh itself out. You have this hovering threat and intrigue about the Celestials but no kind of payoff in the end. Maybe in Volume 2 part of the Thor comic book like he explains it further.
Also read Prometheus 1 which was a lead in to a JLA story and honestly it wasn't worth the money I paid for it.
Currently reading the 1974 Kree Skrull war Avengers. I want to see Thor, Cap America and Iron Man, Hulk too. Instead I get the Vision, Scarlett Witch, Goliath and Quicksilver as the main team. But a few issues in and the big guys are back and it shows lots of ant man and wasp which is cool.
If you liked the Eternals try to track down the 2006 Eternals mini-series written by Neil Gaimen. Real good book though it does start off slowly. Once it gets going though it's brilliant... like everything Neil Gaimen writes.
robio said:If you liked the Eternals try to track down the 2006 Eternals mini-series written by Neil Gaimen. Real good book though it does start off slowly. Once it gets going though it's brilliant... like everything Neil Gaimen writes.
I bought that by mistake thinking it was the Kirby one. I am trying to read everything in order so it will be a while before I get to it.
I'm reading Captain America and the Falcon Secret Empire from the 70s, two issues in - too early to call whether its good or not.
I forgot to mention that I read Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet which is the prologue and Maximum Security 1-3
The story is about a galactic counsel that thinks earth is nothing but trouble so makes it a massive jail of the cosmos. Dangerous planet is pretty good, it has Ego going crazy and destroying worlds. But then Maximum Security is pretty meh, mostly because between a couple of issues they skip foward and assume you have read all these other tie in issues of X-men and spiderman.
When I buy 1-3 in a series or whatever I expect the story to be reasonably told in that limited series. Here it is not.
Oh and Robio, why did you not tell me a new 2011 Silver Surfer 5 part series was out?
Preview pages:
gamingeek said:Oh and Robio, why did you not tell me a new 2011 Silver Surfer 5 part series was out?
It's awful. I read the first issue and couldn't read anymore. If you want to read a good Silver Sufer story go for the TPB for Silver Surfer Requim. But don't mess with this turd.
robio said:It's awful. I read the first issue and couldn't read anymore. If you want to read a good Silver Sufer story go for the TPB for Silver Surfer Requim. But don't mess with this turd.
I think I read Requim. Is that the one where they are in the deep south and there are telepathic kids or something and some aliens who are trying to keep them safe while the world ends or something?
IF it is
I fucking hated it. It was not Silver Surfer, it was baffling, disjointed and hard to read.
No. I have no idea what they hell you're referring to. Requiem is the story of the Silver Surfer's death, and is generally considered one of the best stories Marvel has written in the last decade. I won't tell you anything more about it because it's just too good to even spoil a tiny bit. But I can assure you it will be one of your favorite stories you'll ever read.
Cyberforce was never good. It was however a pretty good summation of everything that was wrong with 90's comics. Spawn was good for the first year or two, but over time as a MacFarlane became less interested in comics and as his attention turned to toys and other things the book suffered. The one exception is the brief period of time that Neil Gaiman wrote the book. HOwever once he left the next writer (I think it was MacFarlane again) pretty much started copying his idea immediatly. Eventually it became as repetitious as the Spidey comics of the Silver era. Gen13 was better for longer, it's a VERY 90's comic. It doesn't hold up great over time. Not sure about Wildcats though. Never picked it up.
Frankly the Image books are all kind of like that. They were popular at the time because they gave fans exactly what they wanted, but they're hardly timeless books (except for some early Spawn). As far as Spawn goes, you're better off with the animated series that HBO did for it in the late 90's.