Passing Curiosity: Posts tagged comics https://passingcuriosity.com/tags/comics/comics.xml Thomas Sutton me@thomas-sutton.id.au 2005-10-26T00:00:00Z Manga https://passingcuriosity.com/2005/manga/ 2005-10-26T00:00:00Z 2005-10-26T00:00:00Z I’ve recently (i.e. since my last post on manga) purchased a whole bunch of new manga books. Today I got The One I Love by CLAMP (Tokyopop’s translation of わたし の すきなひと), which is a great little book.

I’ve also got a whole bunch of Viz Media books including Koko wa Greenwood (or Here is Greenwood in English), Maison Ikkoku books 1-5 (with 6-10 on order) and Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Viz, and everyone else, call it Hana-Kimi).

I’ve bought so many books whilst here in Canberra that I’m going to have to get them shipped when I leave (as opposed to taking them as checked luggage on my flight home).

It seems that Western comics in the manga style are becoming popular. So much so that Tokyopop are publishing an Australian artist’s book! I can’t wait to see if The Dreaming is as good as it looks.

PS: The Japanese input mode on Emacs (which I used to type the hiragana above) is shit-hot. Much easier than trying to use the Japanese Kana Palette or any other input method I’ve tried.

]]> Books (and Comics), Glorious Books (and Comics) https://passingcuriosity.com/2005/books-and-comics-glorious-books-and-comics/ 2005-04-25T00:00:00Z 2005-04-25T00:00:00Z I’ve just got back from Tasmania (visiting my family and friends). With me, I’ve bought the rest of my comics collection. The first 18 volumes of Lone Wolf and Cub have certainly helped fill up my book case. When you throw in the rest of my books (novels, texts, references and popular sciences) and my CD and DVD collection, I need more shelf space. The only problem is that there is nowhere to put a book case. I suppose I’ll just have to make do.

Returning to comics, I’ve just added 6 books to my list of things to order, which is both good (“New comics. Yay!”) and bad (“Where did that $100 go?!?”). Most of them are books by Andi Watson . Looks like I’ll soon have all of Watson’s releases, or at least the trade paperbacks of them.

On the books front, CTM (or more completely: Concepts, Techniques and Models of Computer Programming by Peter Van Roy and Seif Haridi) has come in. I’m going to pick it up tomorrow, but it’ll be a while before I can start reading it (what with the million and one things I have to do in the next week or so).

]]> A Comics Update https://passingcuriosity.com/2005/a-comics-update/ 2005-04-11T00:00:00Z 2005-04-11T00:00:00Z I’ve been busy recently, which has resulted in my neglecting this ’blog. In an attempt to make it up to all of you (on the off chance that this is actually read by someone) with this update on the comics situation.

The last time I posted on comics, I had just purchased the first volumes of Dead@17, Aria, and Remote. Since then, I’ve got the second Dead@17 (published by Viper Comics) book and volumes two and three of Aria (published by ADV Manga).

The Dead@17 book is great. It isn’t as dark as it could be, but sometimes you’re in the mood for non-gothic vampire/zombie/horror comics.

Aria is amazing. The last time I liked a cast of characters this much, I was reading about Alpha and Kokone in Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.

I’ve also taken a detour from manga to “goth-y” comics with a whole raft of books:

  • Nightmares & Fairy Tales (published by Slave Labor Graphics) written by Serena Valentino with art by FSc.

  • Gloom Cookie (volumes one, two and three, also from Slave Labor Graphics) written by Serena Valentino and a number of artists. I especially like Ted Naifeh’s art in volume one and the story of volume three.

  • Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics (volume two) and Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom (volume three) written and drawn by Ted Naifeh and published by Oni Press.

While Serena Valentino’s writing in Nightmares & Fairy Tales drew me in, it was Ted Naifeh’s art in Gloom Cookie One that reeled me in.

His art is truly amazing, and the stories for the Courtney Crumrin books are excellent.

I also happened across, I don’t normally look at monthly comics, the first issue of Death Jr. written by Gary Whitta with art by Ted Naifeh (published by Image). It has an interesting story with a new take of some old favourites such as Pandora (of Pandora’s Box fame) and the Grim Reaper and his family (with the son as the main character).

Another two recent purchases are Emily & the Intergalactic Lemonade Stand (Ian Smith and Tyson Smith, published by AmazeInk, a division of Slave Labor Graphics) and Daisy Kutter: The Last Train (Kazu Kibuishi, published by Viper Comics). The former is a rather cute story about a girl, her robot, her quest to make enough money for a pony and the opposition they face. Though a little childish in places (probably by design), it has some genuinely funny moments. The latter is a brilliant western-with-robots.

I also made the mistake of buying the first volume of Hopeless Savages (by Jen van Meter, Christine Norrie and Chynna Clugston-Major, published by Oni Press). I felt let down by what could have been a great book. The story seemed contrived, and the dialogue seemed to be a fairly obvious attempt at imbibing the book with “punk”. One of the children used a lot of made up words which grated tremendously. Overall, the concept was nice, the story was O.K., the art was quite nice, but the book seemed censored and perhaps a little “dumbed-down”.

On the whole, I’m really happy with the books I’ve bought, which is a good thing considering how much money I’ve spent on comics lately (more than $350 in the last couple of months).

]]> Megatokyo https://passingcuriosity.com/2005/megatokyo/ 2005-03-08T00:00:00Z 2005-03-08T00:00:00Z Megatokyo: 683 Crazy Talk

I’ve just caught up with Megatokyo (I’m between bank cards, so I’ve not been able to put any money on my ’Net account at home) and, for some reason, the last two or three strips have me left me feeling a bit weird. For one, I didn’t realise that Largo and Erika were “together” although I suppose playing games together a while back was a bit of a hint. For two, it seems to me (and I’ll be way out, due to my social ineptitude) the Largo is being a prick, which makes me sad for Erika.

PS: I’ve ordered books two and three from the local comic shop, book two is in (and waiting only for me to have access to money) and I hope book three won’t be too long.

]]> Rush Limbaugh Eats Everything https://passingcuriosity.com/2005/rush-limbaugh-eats-everything/ 2005-03-05T00:00:00Z 2005-03-05T00:00:00Z Rush Limbaugh Eats Everything

For all the fact that this is funny, I can’t help but feel that it is more truth than fiction. I know people who accept and make arguments just like those made by Rush in this comic. It scares me that there are human beings in industrialised, progressive nations with access to some of the best education systems the Earth has ever seen (to our knowledge) that still cannot understand the simplest of arguments.

That there are people like Rush and his fellow neocons (or whatever they call themselves) is, in my opinion, just as much evidence of humanities origins as the fossil records and emerging genomic data.

]]> The Seikai Trilogy https://passingcuriosity.com/2005/the-seikai-trilogy/ 2005-02-02T00:00:00Z 2005-02-02T00:00:00Z I made the mistake of going into Impact Comics on the way back to school today, and came out the owner of all three volumes of the Seikai Trilogy manga released in English by Tokyopop: Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars, and Banner of the Stars II.

What I’ve seen of the anime (Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars and some of Banner of the Stars II) based on the original novels is brilliant. It is fascinating watching the characters and their relationships grow and develop over the course of however many years.

Whilst in the shop, I noticed that they have most of Lone and Cub (forgive the lack of a link, but I can’t find the Dark Horse site for the series anymore), which I’ll have to finish off as I bought the first 19 volumes whilst I was in England a few years ago.

They also have a lot of stuff that just looks interesting. I can feel my fluid fiscal state evaporating as I think about it.

]]> More on the Seikai Trilogy https://passingcuriosity.com/2005/more-on-the-seikai-trilogy/ 2005-02-02T00:00:00Z 2005-02-02T00:00:00Z I’ve just read/skimmed Crest of the Stars and Banner of Stars I and started Banner of Stars II and I have to say, I’m not all that impressed with the production quality. I love the art, especially in the first two books, but the editing is not too impressive (with text placed awkwardly in the “bubbles”) and the glossaries of Abh words seem to have been quite rushed as they are missing some terms that appear in the text (Though I haven’t looked in the other books yet for terms I’ve encountered in one) and one of the definitions has been run into the previous, without the appropriate bolding and italicisation.

In short, I get the impression that these particular books didn’t have very stringent proof-reading, etc before they went to press. Perhaps they were rushed out due to the US release of the anime? If anyone knows what happened (my previous Tokyopop books have been pretty good), I’d be interested to know.

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