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By inksb
#138894
Started for all to converse about what they are reading, enjoying or just want to reminisce about.

I may have mentioned a few times that I'm a huge TMNT nerd. They are the only comics I collect regularly. I own about half of the original run (vol. 1) by Eastman & Laird. All of Vol. 2, issues 1-5 of Vol. 3 by Image, all of Vol. 4 (Turtles as adults by Laird) and all of Vol. 5 (currently running reboot on issue 115 by IDW). I didn't like the current reboot when it first started and took about 10 issues to pull me in and it's gone on some wild rides ever since. I absolutely love it. Funny thing about the original run which was 62 issues if my memory is serving me correct this evening, only about 35 of those are really any good. After issue 21, Eastman & Laird had to farm out the comic in order to keep it monthly and it suffered heavily for years, the final 15-16 issues they returned and ended the series on a great finale.

Outside of keeping up on TMNT I'm reading Dorohedoro as mentioned in the other thread, Berserk (on vol 33 or 34 right now), I recently finished Vol 7 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, one of my favorite manga's ever. I read over 25 years worth of JoJo manga over the course of the last year and half, that was quite the undertaking.
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By Hatter313
#138900
Yeah JoJo is another one I’ve been thinking about, but like Berserk there’s just SO much of it and I’m intimidated haha. Then again, when I finally fescues to do Hellboy et al. after only having reading the first few trades in college I read like a decade and a half’s worth in month so it’s definitely in my wheelhouse.

In terms of collecting, Dark horse is apparently not reissuing hardcovers for the 3 EC archive volumes that were published between their takeover and the original publishers demise (crypt vol 3, haunt 1, vault 2 were published by a third interim publisher, although some sources list them as dark horse titles even though the layouts on the covers are the old style) so I’m on the lookout for the original prints of those even though my OCD isn’t going to like it.
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By CrossedPete
#138905
Like you @inks I too have a Tmnt collection. I have all the Eastman and Laird vol 1 first editions except #1 of course. I tried the new series have about the first 12 or so then bailed. Kinda wished I kept going but oh well.

As a kid I was a huge Mad magazine fan and honestly collecting Mad was probably my first collection. This opened the door to EC comics and at that time it was all about the art for me. Artists like Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman to name a few. I kinda got away from comics in my late teens but fell back into them with comics like Preacher or The Walking Dead both of which I have complete runs. Lately I pick up stuff from writers I know have a decent track record. So I read stuff from people like Jonathan Hickman, Tom King, Donny Cates, Rick Remender. A couple modern comics/graphic novels I would recommend would be Mister Miracle by Tom King, God Country by Cates or Deadly Class by Remender. Heck even my name on here is taken from a comic. Has anyone read Crossed by Garth Ennis? It’s kinda messed up. A couple of my favourite artists working right now would be Esad Ribic and Jerome Opena.

When it comes to Manga I know very little. Honestly the only thing I’ve read and it’s been pretty recently is the Legend of Zelda books. My Son is way into Zelda so that’s our bedtime reading.
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By inksb
#138909
CrossedPete wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:47 pm Like you @inks I too have a Tmnt collection. I have all the Eastman and Laird vol 1 first editions except #1 of course. I tried the new series have about the first 12 or so then bailed. Kinda wished I kept going but oh well.
If you really like TMNT I highly recommend you continue reading. There are lots of nice trade collections now but if you don't want to commit to buying them I have 1-70 digitally I can share with you, they are in .cbz and .cbr formats. So if you have a tablet there are lots of readers you can use to read those files.

also super jealous of having first editions of 2-4. Those are not cheap. I have 4th printing of issue 1, 3rd of issue 2, 2nd of issue 3, 1st of issue 4 and 1st of the rest. My local shop has copies of 2 & 3 first editions but they are $200+ per issue, not interested in that. These generally sit in a box at my house.
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By inksb
#138910
Hatter313 wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:25 pm Yeah JoJo is another one I’ve been thinking about, but like Berserk there’s just SO much of it and I’m intimidated haha. Then again, when I finally fescues to do Hellboy et al. after only having reading the first few trades in college I read like a decade and a half’s worth in month so it’s definitely in my wheelhouse.

In terms of collecting, Dark horse is apparently not reissuing hardcovers for the 3 EC archive volumes that were published between their takeover and the original publishers demise (crypt vol 3, haunt 1, vault 2 were published by a third interim publisher, although some sources list them as dark horse titles even though the layouts on the covers are the old style) so I’m on the lookout for the original prints of those even though my OCD isn’t going to like it.
There is so much more of JoJo than Berserk, unlike Miura, Araki has consistently released manga for the last 30 years. I think overall Berserk is a better story but JoJo is a very close second to for me. All of the Eng translated scans are out there very easily accessible, if you ever want to dive into it I can direct you to where they are. It's broken into 8 parts. 1-6 are all standalone stories but rely heavily on the parts prior from a story telling perspective. So while you can read part 3 and enjoy it, there will be things you don't quite get and connections you'll miss with out reading 1&2, this compounds as the series goes on. Part 7 is a standalone reboot, part 8 is a standalone reboot.

Part 1 I thought was kind of boring to get through (I had watched the anime prior to reading, it stays pretty close), part 2 is where is starts to get really interesting and sets itself apart from other manga and by part 3 there is nothing else like it out there imo.

Hellboy I read the first few trades and loved them probably over a decade ago. Mike's art is just so fascinating. I still need to go back check out more of it eventually.
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By Hatter313
#138914
Hellboy and assorted series are fantastic and sweeping in scope once they get going. theres a pretty complex reading order but its extremely rewarding.

I watched the first season of the current JoJo show so I know the essentials of i guess the first arc or so. I enjoyed it a lot.
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By CrossedPete
#138918
inksb wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 6:12 pm
CrossedPete wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:47 pm Like you @inks I too have a Tmnt collection. I have all the Eastman and Laird vol 1 first editions except #1 of course. I tried the new series have about the first 12 or so then bailed. Kinda wished I kept going but oh well.
If you really like TMNT I highly recommend you continue reading. There are lots of nice trade collections now but if you don't want to commit to buying them I have 1-70 digitally I can share with you, they are in .cbz and .cbr formats. So if you have a tablet there are lots of readers you can use to read those files.

also super jealous of having first editions of 2-4. Those are not cheap. I have 4th printing of issue 1, 3rd of issue 2, 2nd of issue 3, 1st of issue 4 and 1st of the rest. My local shop has copies of 2 & 3 first editions but they are $200+ per issue, not interested in that. These generally sit in a box at my house.
I have a buddy who is still reading it so I kinda know what’s going on but yeah I might take you up on that. Are you reading The Last Ronin?

Noticed you didn’t mention the 5 one shots. Do you have those? The Raphael comic has such an awesome cover
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By inksb
#138921
CrossedPete wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:13 pm
inksb wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 6:12 pm
CrossedPete wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 2:47 pm Like you @inks I too have a Tmnt collection. I have all the Eastman and Laird vol 1 first editions except #1 of course. I tried the new series have about the first 12 or so then bailed. Kinda wished I kept going but oh well.
If you really like TMNT I highly recommend you continue reading. There are lots of nice trade collections now but if you don't want to commit to buying them I have 1-70 digitally I can share with you, they are in .cbz and .cbr formats. So if you have a tablet there are lots of readers you can use to read those files.

also super jealous of having first editions of 2-4. Those are not cheap. I have 4th printing of issue 1, 3rd of issue 2, 2nd of issue 3, 1st of issue 4 and 1st of the rest. My local shop has copies of 2 & 3 first editions but they are $200+ per issue, not interested in that. These generally sit in a box at my house.
I have a buddy who is still reading it so I kinda know what’s going on but yeah I might take you up on that. Are you reading The Last Ronin?

Noticed you didn’t mention the 5 one shots. Do you have those? The Raphael comic has such an awesome cover
I do have all of the micro series from the original run, I unfortunately have a 2nd print of Raphael which was the only one in the oversized version. My brother has that though. I've hinted to him many times that it would be nicer in my collection, he hasn't taken the bait though lol

I am reading The Last Ronin, enjoying it so far, not sure where it's going. I'll be honest the whole situation surrounding it kind of pisses me off. It was originally advertised as the a new project from Eastman & Laird, my excitement was through the roof. Then shortly before the first issue was supposed to come out they actually gave us details and it turns out to just be a story idea that Peter & Kevin came up with decades ago, completely written by new writers based off of that idea and overseen by Kevin and Tom Waltz (the head of the new IDW run). Then the delays around the artist who didn't want to or couldn't keep up with the timeline who was removed and Ben Bishop was brought in to try and salvage it. Issues 1 & 2 have art from 3-4 different artists and I believe 3 onwards should be done mostly by Ben Bishop. There is a nice little section in issue two that Kevin fully illustrated. Overall it's an interesting mini series but kind of disposable and before it even began it left a sour taste in my mouth.
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By Mateo Sanboval
#138932
Hatter313 wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:58 pm Hellboy and assorted series are fantastic and sweeping in scope once they get going. theres a pretty complex reading order but its extremely rewarding.

I watched the first season of the current JoJo show so I know the essentials of i guess the first arc or so. I enjoyed it a lot.
Do you have what you'd consider a proper reading order, Hatter? I'll be damned if I've ever found a good one.
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By CrossedPete
#138936
inksb wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:38 pm
CrossedPete wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 9:13 pm
inksb wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 6:12 pm

If you really like TMNT I highly recommend you continue reading. There are lots of nice trade collections now but if you don't want to commit to buying them I have 1-70 digitally I can share with you, they are in .cbz and .cbr formats. So if you have a tablet there are lots of readers you can use to read those files.

also super jealous of having first editions of 2-4. Those are not cheap. I have 4th printing of issue 1, 3rd of issue 2, 2nd of issue 3, 1st of issue 4 and 1st of the rest. My local shop has copies of 2 & 3 first editions but they are $200+ per issue, not interested in that. These generally sit in a box at my house.
I have a buddy who is still reading it so I kinda know what’s going on but yeah I might take you up on that. Are you reading The Last Ronin?

Noticed you didn’t mention the 5 one shots. Do you have those? The Raphael comic has such an awesome cover
I do have all of the micro series from the original run, I unfortunately have a 2nd print of Raphael which was the only one in the oversized version. My brother has that though. I've hinted to him many times that it would be nicer in my collection, he hasn't taken the bait though lol

I am reading The Last Ronin, enjoying it so far, not sure where it's going. I'll be honest the whole situation surrounding it kind of pisses me off. It was originally advertised as the a new project from Eastman & Laird, my excitement was through the roof. Then shortly before the first issue was supposed to come out they actually gave us details and it turns out to just be a story idea that Peter & Kevin came up with decades ago, completely written by new writers based off of that idea and overseen by Kevin and Tom Waltz (the head of the new IDW run). Then the delays around the artist who didn't want to or couldn't keep up with the timeline who was removed and Ben Bishop was brought in to try and salvage it. Issues 1 & 2 have art from 3-4 different artists and I believe 3 onwards should be done mostly by Ben Bishop. There is a nice little section in issue two that Kevin fully illustrated. Overall it's an interesting mini series but kind of disposable and before it even began it left a sour taste in my mouth.
You know I thought they promoted it being a Eastman & Laird thing, I was so excited when I heard this news I went to my local comic store as pre ordered it then I ignored any info about it as I wanted to be surprised. And surprised I was to learn Laird wasn’t really involved. Also didn’t know about all the artist changes. All this said I’m not minding the story. Curious to know where it’s going though.
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By CrossedPete
#138937
@hatter curious you said you like Swamp Thing. What’s the newest run you have read? I really like the Alan Moore run its a real classic. For more modern stuff Scott Snyder’s run a couple years ago wasn’t too bad. Jeff Lemire did a run of Animal Man at the same time that complemented it and the stories even tied into each other. Also Tom King did a one shot stand alone story three years ago that was really good as well.
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By Hatter313
#138938
CrossedPete wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:38 am @hatter curious you said you like Swamp Thing. What’s the newest run you have read? I really like the Alan Moore run its a real classic. For more modern stuff Scott Snyder’s run a couple years ago wasn’t too bad. Jeff Lemire did a run of Animal Man at the same time that complemented it and the stories even tied into each other. Also Tom King did a one shot stand alone story three years ago that was really good as well.
I read the first few arcs of the Scott Snyder run and really liked it, but i fell off after a while because I usually wait for trades rather than keep up with issues. I’ve seen the Tom king and meant to grab it but haven’t gotten around to it yet
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By Hatter313
#138939
Mateo Sanboval wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:41 pm
Hatter313 wrote: Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:58 pm Hellboy and assorted series are fantastic and sweeping in scope once they get going. theres a pretty complex reading order but its extremely rewarding.

I watched the first season of the current JoJo show so I know the essentials of i guess the first arc or so. I enjoyed it a lot.
Do you have what you'd consider a proper reading order, Hatter? I'll be damned if I've ever found a good one.
I used these guys

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/annot ... rder-2020/

They update it every year which was helpful. I used the 2017 one I think when I decided to do it all and then after that it was easy to just read the trades as they were published. It was so near the end at the point where weren’t a lot mistakes. They’ve been leaning on the omnibus style lately, which may make you sort of think a little harder if you’ve got trades instead. Like I have trades for everything except plague of frogs, for that I have the 4 omnibuses because that was easier to get in paperback when I made the commitment, but then for the res of BPRD and everything else I just have the trades.

Edit: they have a column for “trade readers” as well so there you go!
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By Mateo Sanboval
#138940
Wicked, blood. Mad props.
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By Hatter313
#138941
I kind of want to do it again. I didn’t realize “devil you know” would only be three trades long and also be the end so when it came I wasn’t prepared for it, I thought “oh how will this impact everything” and then as the third one came out it slowly dawned on my while reading that this was it.
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By zuko
#138948
By serendipitous timing I too have just started the Mignolaverse again. I had read most of Hellboy and the first BPRD series a few years ago, but lost momentum. To be honest I'm having as much fun tracking down and filling the gaps in my trades as I am reading them – definitely a record collector thing!

I'm following the reading order from (and listening along to) the Hellboy Book Club Podcast: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... Yczfb5Hg84

It's a good way of pacing myself and the podcast gives a good view of the overall themes of the series and a deeper dive into the folklore without spoiling anything further down the line.
Last edited by zuko on Fri Mar 26, 2021 4:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Mateo Sanboval
#138955
Very interesting, Zuko. Thanks for sharing. I may give this a listen.
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By Jimmy_Mike
#139164
About to start this. I'm a noob re: comics, so I'll let you guys know how I like this and maybe you can guide me on to my next read.

Image
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By Hatter313
#139165
Jimmy_Mike wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:32 pm About to start this. I'm a noob re: comics, so I'll let you guys know how I like this and maybe you can guide me on to my next read.

Image
I read the first few when i was in high school, loved it, forgot about it, and literally got the first big deluxe volume form my sister a few weeks ago, so i'm excited to start them again.
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By inksb
#139166
Jimmy_Mike wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:32 pm About to start this. I'm a noob re: comics, so I'll let you guys know how I like this and maybe you can guide me on to my next read.

Image
good choice. you should enjoy that quite a bit
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By CrossedPete
#140573
Not sure if anyone else picks up new comics but this one I highly recommend. I probably wouldn’t start with this issue as it is #45 but it is the start of a new arc so honestly you probably could. I’ve really enjoyed this comic from day one and as much as I liked the show the book is far superior. It’s written by Rick Remender and Wes Craig does the art. For those who aren’t familiar with the series the general synopsis of the book I took from wiki is : Deadly Class is set primarily in the 1980s and follows students enrolled at King's Dominion Atelier of the Deadly Arts, a secret boarding school in San Francisco, as they train to become the next generation of top assassins for crime families across the globe. I think this issue is the start of vol. 10. And there was a time jump to 1991.
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By inksb
#140575
Interesting, I've never heard of that one. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation
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By deafmetal
#140915
Hatter313 wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:35 pm
Jimmy_Mike wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 2:32 pm About to start this. I'm a noob re: comics, so I'll let you guys know how I like this and maybe you can guide me on to my next read.

Image
I read the first few when i was in high school, loved it, forgot about it, and literally got the first big deluxe volume form my sister a few weeks ago, so i'm excited to start them again.
Excellent, one of my favorite artists and series. The detailed depictions of action/motion are very unique. Add in the brutal gore and interesting weaponry and I was hooked from the start.
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By Jimmy_Mike
#140916
I finished this a couple weeks ago. Loved it. Agree with the depictions of kinetics, very cool. The knife storm stuff is great too.
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By inksb
#142315
I took a break from Dorohedoro and started Chainsaw Man due to two friends pressuring me to read it. It's very fun, the writing is terrible but the story is really fun and the artwork is nuts. Really great character design. After finishing that up I finally started reading Fist of the North Star/Hokuto No Ken, I'm on the third volume already (chapter 23) and really enjoying. The story can be a bit dijointed at times but the artwork is stellar.