Reading Thread: Number Unknown

Yeah I dunno, finished volume 11 earlier and I'm kinda regretting my choice of reading material...

Dropped Kamuy and picked up/finished Gon in an evening. Really detailed and impressive art. I don't think it was star material, not compared to Samurai Daibouken , but Tanaka is one hell of an artist. The relatively peaceful narratives - largely focused on Gon eating, encountering various familiar creatures, and usually ending with him running into the sunset or taking a nap - were very pleasant to read.

First link is a highly detailed spread, second is a funny reaction image.
https://i.vgy.me/Z7CRKi.jpg
https://i.vgy.me/4Jcrne.jpg

cuh posted...

^that first spread is gorgeous, wow!

Indeed, the number of lines on page brings to mind a Lynd Ward woodcut almost more than a manga! I wonder how long it would take from start to finish.
Another great spread:
https://i.vgy.me/XIAneB.jpg

Forgot to post these checkout pics:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0aba7b89.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5f333325.jpg

^ I was thinking about picking up Thorn, always good to see more strip collections.

On a whim grabbed + finished 50 Things to do with a Penknife earlier, largely concerning whittling projects and techniques. Certainly informative, and I thought the section on cork was particularly creative. Cutting a flat section into a cork+then cutting a slot into the rounded part to make photo stands would, in particular, work really well for my polaroids...I need to lay hands on some crafting supply cork and see how well it works.

Also have been reading the Patlabor manga, currently on volume 7 I think? Its familiar to the animation but of course bears a lot of Yuki's "voice" as a manga artist, similar to Tetsuwan Birdy in some respects. One thing I appreciate is the relatively realistic feeling of the setting. For example, a robot-sized shotgun is stored separately from the other equipment under lock and key - because a robot-sized shotgun is realistically a huge combat upgrade and incredibly dangerous to be firing in populated areas, basically like a ship cannon loaded with grapeshot. I'm looking forward to reading more and seeing how it differs from the animated versions I've seen.

cuh posted...

I love you William Blake but Im not reading that
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/07d5be5f.jpg

LOL
The eyestrain is real

Finished Patlabor .

Positives: I enjoyed the "real" feeling of the setting. The robots frequently had to be repaired, corporate espionage was a constant concern, the main two cast members had personal troubles and had to work to overcome them, and the use of a child pilot wasn't hand-waved but treated seriously by the police (as in, this is wrong and the kid needs to be protected from the people who bought him and made him believe piloting a dangerous machine was just a game). As mentioned above, a robot-sized shotgun was actually treated as a serious upgrade. Art had some really nice shading, too.
https://i.vgy.me/e3YxAg.jpg

Negatives, I would say the action scenes were a bit difficult to parse at times, and the writing relied a bit too heavily on proverbs that didn't always translate well to English. Some of the elements were narrative dead-ends as well, for better or worse - firearms (like that shotgun) didn't see much use by the end.

Neutral: the initial plot also dominated most of the narrative. Not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but I do find police stories more enjoyable when the characters find themselves handling a wider variety of crimes. Perhaps more of a positive than a neutral feeling: some of the characters from the OVA that had strong depictions there, didn't stand out so much in the manga, and vice versa.

At any rate, a good, fairly consistent manga. I'm not sure what I'll read next.

Started reading Riki-Oh . Some similarity to Fist of the North Star, but I would say wastes a LOT less time in having stuff happen. Excellent art and in some cases, the plot is strangely predictive of our current reality (corporations and wealth have extreme influence over the government, the environment is at the mercy of those who want to take more and more resources, space is seen as a refuge or future place to exploit by the wealthy etc).

cuh posted...

(also I did mistake her as a boy at first!)

That's so funny, it happens all the time in the various story incarnations as well.

cuh posted...

I have been very near the Gates of Death & have returned very weak & an Old Man feeble & tottering, but not in Spirit & Life not in The Real Man The Imagination which Liveth for Ever.

If this isn't one of the most perfect descriptions of the human condition, I don't know what is. When your mind and soul are willing but your body still needs to heal..

Finished Riki-Oh , what a wild ride.

From Adventure Comics #461 (Though the two volume Justice Society trades moves it to the first volume and not with story it came with.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5bd2507b.jpg

So wrong. Time for exposition.

So when Action Comics #1 introduced Superman and was well received, more heroes followed. Batman, then The Flash/Jay Garrick, Green Lantern/Alan Scott (also of Gotham City as with Batman), Hawkman/Carter Hall and Atom/Al Pratt. More than I'm going to be able to list. Those four and others unlike Superman and Batman didn't have the success to warrant a second title of their own.

So, those heroes would have additional stories in All-Star Comics. Well for #1-2, as it was decided that since these characters were all in the title, why not have them as a team, so All-Star Comics #3 sees them together as the Justice Society of America. As a meta nod to All-Star Comics' purpose, Superman and Batman are honorary members only as they have Action Comics and Detective Comics, plus their own title. They made at least one appearance with the team

Wonder Woman would also be introduced and even being the only of The Trinity (other two Superman and Batman) to be a regular JSA member, initially as a secretary. You also had More Fun Comics which introduced Aquaman, Green Arrow and Speedy. This era was ultimate called the Golden Age of Comics.

But superheroes fell out of fame save for The Trinity, also Aquaman who since his debut appeared in anthology comics. Unlike the surface dweller who was also Atlantean, Aquaman was a regular human who would gain the ability to survive underwater. His appearance was mostly the same until that detail came about aside from yellow to green gloves.

As the 50s was coming to a close a new Flash was introduced as the police scientist Barry Allen. His story being successful inspired other heroes to return with a newer identity. Test pilot Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern, space police from Thanagar Kantor Hol, and Ray Palmer as Atom. Most of them shared the same codename and power, though Al Pratt was a shorter guy who worked out to be stronger while Ray Palmer had his means of shrinking to as small as well an atom. Unintentionally you had Cliff Steele of a team known as Doom Patrol sharing his name Robotman with a Golden Age hero also known as Robert Crane

Barry kicked off the entire Silver Age, though Martian Manhunter who debuted first was accepted as part of it, as well as Superboy who was Superman as a kid/teen. The latter is such as Golden Age Superman was established to have never worn his costume until adulthood. Supes as well as Batman and Wonder Woman had some revisions to their origins by the Silver Age, though not drastically so compared to the four mentioned heroes.

There was an interest in bringing back the Golden Age heroes themselves, but Barry's origin clearly established Jay Garrick and by associated his contemporaries as characters in a comic book. This was remedied by a story where he was performing for an event and ended up in the city of his hero and figuring that The Flash writer Gardner Fox had ideas via events in Jay's career entering Mr. Fox through dreams. So Earth-1 comic writers basically didn't have ideas of their own.

The team ups between the two Flashes even lead to what would be yearly team ups with the Justice Society of America and Earth-1's Justice League of America. Continued up to Crisis On Infinite Earths which would streamline continuity as many Earths had been introduced in-between.

Before that, among the shared heroes of Earth-1 and Earth-2 was Green Arrow and Speedy, and contrary to the pic in the previous post Aquaman. Apparently people at DC didn't know or forgot that there was a Golden Age variant thus should be present on Earth-2.

Eventually that would be remedied in Roy Thomas' series set in the Golden Age, All-Star Squadron which to my knowledge had a flashback showing Aquaman's Earth-2 counterpart. Shortly after The Crisis you had a few more issues still set in Earth-2's past rather than the past of the singular Post-Crisis Earth.

Finally making his first appearance since the multiverse was established, Aquaman of Earth-2:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/fad5c002.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b91c9d92.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/fd6d5b6a.jpg

Last pic is from All-Star Squadron #60, where he made his only other appearance as by the story's end the effects from the Crisis On Infinite Earths finalizes seeing him and Earth-2's Superman, Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman vanishing to non-existence.

I can't shake the feeling that some writer up in Heaven just hated this version of Aquaman. I mean no amount of living underwater can heal that burn.

I don't think I posted it yet, but I read Dinosaurs by Design by Gish - it wasn't very good...though I do think Gish's (fire-breathing) Parasaur is interesting.

For something completely different from creationist paleontology, I then read After Man by Dougal Dixon - a book about speculative evolution. Tons of fascinating yet familiar animals packed in that relatively short text. The hypothesis is basically, how would the world evolve after the Age of Man? Dixon posits that without humans, most domesticated species reliant on us (cows, sheep, horses etc) would eventually die off; rabbits and rats would evolve to fill the niches of major herbivores/carnivores (rabbits taking on ungulate shapes, while rats become more dog-like and pack predators); various rodents become more specialized (some squirrels lengthen while others gain defensive traits like porcupine-esque tails); but the most "WOAH" moment for me was reading the page about the vortex.
https://i.vgy.me/iIDFIt.png
Penguins evolve to fill the whale niche, giving pseudo-live birth by carrying an egg internally before hatching it .
Fascinating stuff. I'll leave the rest unspoken, though - it's definitely worth a read. Up next I'll probably check out his The New Dinosaurs - the set-up is "what if the K-Pg extinction event hadn't happened and dinosaurs continued to dominate the Earth?"

Antiyonder posted...

I can't shake the feeling that some writer up in Heaven just hated this version of Aquaman. I mean no amount of living underwater can heal that burn.

For sure lol. Aquaman gets so much disrespect but he's cool in my view.

cuh posted...

Genji is such a creep omg

Genji.... He needs help, I don't know WHO could help him, but holy cow, does he need it...

Still haven't picked up the next Dougal book, been working on The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague de Camp

Got the Batman Beyond Compendium which has all the BB comics from 1999-2001, save for the Return of the Joker adaptation.

Includes the 6 issue miniseries which starts with an adaptation of Rebirth Part 1 and 2, the 24 issues of the monthly series and Terry going to the then present day era in Superman Adventures #64.

Had a good number of issues which I gave away to a friend and her kids recently, but I went through them for some ads to take pictures from. I'll share some bit by bit, but a nice two page spread from the Superman issue where Terry gives Supes a teaser of the future:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3a9b1d76.jpg

Incidentally, the RotJ adaptation, was okay. Had the planned but unfinished scene where Bruce/Batman and Batgirl shakedown the Penguin to find Robin during the flashback portion.

Like the film way back in the day, they did have to redo the page of The Jokers death in the past to reflect the edited down version of the film. Courtesy of the World's Finest page:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b1726512.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9e89d20f.jpg

The only change made before release the comic. However, Bruce clarifying Joker's grudge states that Robin shot him.

So you could say it's an oversight, or that Barbara sugar-coated the event.

Or that residual damage from Zero Hour or Superboy-Prime's reality altering punches (Infinite Crisis) explains it.

Antiyonder posted... Those last two panels with the flag are honestly such a great visual gag.

Yep. Oh and some Batman Beyond ads:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/997ef61a.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/625e7500.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5a253f9b.jpg

Read The Will to Change by bell hooks on my sister's recommendation. It was quite good in handling a number of sensitive topics regarding masculinity and patriarchy. Also scarily accurate to much of how our society functions today, despite being published in 2004. Highly recommended.

cuh posted...

Love how diversely and widely read you are

I try! That Mark Twain piece about travel being fatal to narrow-mindedness and prejudice, I think it applies to literature as well. Spreading out one's interests makes for a more lovely "tree".

cuh posted...

What did he mean by this?

Blake is unfortunately a gap in my reading his paintings definitely have the dark Gothic edge compared to the idealized beauty a lot of Ancient Greek art has. I wonder if it was controversial opinion at the time?

cuh posted...

>_> is that true?

With a cursory search it does seem like there were only a few notable mathematicians during Ancient Rome compared to Ancient Greece. I haven't summoned anyone in awhile so lemme give it a try: @HannibalBarca3 , do you have any insight on the subject?

Some Turbografx 16 ads in comic form:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/71263226.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9ceed5e4.jpg

Antiyonder posted... Nice, loved that system. Great port of R-Type.

Re-read Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme . The concept boiled down is "Marvel's not!Justice League attempt to create a utopia, consequences follow"; interestingly, as a limited series with proxy characters, that didn't have to worry about stepping on any kind of enforced image...the majority of the characters kinda come off as jackasses, easily abusing their powers and having rude personalities, committing casual acts of sexual harassment and engaging in ableism without a second thought .

Did Gruenwald get the point across, that the ends don't justify the means? I'm not sure. The system that Nighthawk (the Batman proxy) claims is reliant on the Squadron's power (and questionable moral standing, with maybe three members acting fairly close to their more perfect Justice League counterparts) to function had largely transferred into the hands of the American public by the final issue. Job placement, food security, personal defense, non-lethal weaponry, even the choice of a potential "life after death" all appear to be preferable to unemployment, starvation, violent crime and lives cut short. The linchpin of the story is the use of a "brain modification device" to replace the naughty thoughts in imprisoned criminals with positive ones - without this infringement of free will, I don't think Nighthawk would have had much of an argument at all, and the story of course fails to take into account that not every criminal is a mustache twirling villain (your Jean Valjeans and Robin Hoods, for example) and that many would have no reason to be repeat offenders with proper job placement and food security...

Other than that, Gruenwald's writing was fine, if a bit too soap-opera-y at times. So many thought bubbles wondering about interpersonal relationships...does this character love me? Do they hate me? Was I being too harsh or too kind? Do I really have to ask myself these questions after every other interaction? Apparently so.

The art by Hall and Ryan was solid. I rather liked the Whizzer's (the Flash proxy's) look; shades and a flattop work well:
https://i.vgy.me/SA3cBd.jpg
https://i.vgy.me/DEStCc.jpg

Overall I think it was a solid attempt at telling a story "the other guys" couldn't tell, though even with twelve issues, still a bit rushed.

Also it's been quite a long time since I last read a comic. Not as neglected as European offerings on my reading list, but still...

Also just zipped through the follow up, Death of a Universe . Gruenwald's writing definitely improved; the art was solid all around, from Ryan's pencils, to the Al Williamson's masterful inks, and very pleasant colors by Paul Becton. The shock! gasp! of multiple characters dying quite nasty deaths was a bit tasteless IMO, but I did enjoy the universal threat bringing the various characters together. It was a good follow up to the limited series and in many ways, more tightly plotted and a better read than the main twelve issues.