I reject this alternative reading of your posts.

This wasn't appropriate in that other thread.



Unfortunately, like Supreme and Marvelman, there are few things I specifically recall about it other an overwhelming sense that I loved them.

Does DC basically own all of Moore's ABC characters?

DC owns Wildstorm and Wildstorm owns ABC, so I guess so. Right?

I don't believe Wildstorm owns ABC, they were just the publisher.

And all of this depends on whether Alan Moore read the contract.

Right. Everything except "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," since those characters are public domain.

Looking at my recent "Tom Strong" book, the copyright info mentions DC but nothing about Alan Moore or Chris Sprouse.

Also, Robots of Doom may not be up to Moore's standards (and is actually a compilation of sci-fi cliches and tropes using the old "Nazis use time travel to retroactively win the war" plot) but it's still a fun little romp. I've read about four chapters thus far.

Allen, I think this might be more to your liking that the Moore material... it's not nearly the "clever British writer" stuff you seem to dislike.

I have a couple of Tom Strong trades. Right up my alley!

I got around to reading the "Wolfpack" graphic novel by Larry Hama and Ron Wilson that I found a while back. It's one of Marvel's early GNs from the 1980s. It's sort of a poor-man's X-Men set in the South Bronx, except that the teen heroes have been schooled in some mysterious martial arts. Can't say I'm that surprised after reading it that it didn't really catch on.

Tom Strong in 30 minutes,



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Many of Marvel's original graphic novels around them seem like failed series pilots. Remember "Super Boxers"?

No, but I did notice that the "Wildpack" GN was clearly a compilation of three standard-length issues. They even still had the original page numbering! Apparently in that case they took a three-issue limited series--or maybe the first three issues of an intended ongoing--and put them together in a deluxe package as a "graphic novel."

For those of you not specifically following the "new DC" thread:

Today's reading was Earth 2 #1, Dial H for Hero #1, and G.I. Combat #1 . All are a complete thumbs up.

If there's any part of you that's open to a war comic, I encourage you give G.I. Combat a try, specifically for the Unknown Soldier story. It's by the All-Star Western team and they know how to do war comics right. It's fast-moving and hard-hitting.

I was at a book store a few days ago and noticed that they had "Bamboo Blade", the anime version of which I'm currently watching. Funny coincidence--I don't think I'd ever seen the manga on sale before. Anyway, I got a volume of that just to see how it compares to the anime. As with most screen adaptations they've changed things around, but it's recognizably the same story with the same characters and many of the same incidents. The manga comes across as slightly more serious than the anime. In particular Miya-miya--the girl who joined the kendo club because she secretly really likes hitting people--seems even more creepily two-faced in the manga.

The manga and its notes give a lot more detail about kendo. It seems that there are only a handful of possible allowable point-scoring strikes, each named for the part of the opponent's body armor that serves as a target. Combatants are supposed to call out the target of the strike as they are striking. Now I understand why the characters keep yelling certain Japanese words while fighting! Usually they're yelling men--the head guard. So in essence they are saying "head strike!" I think I'm also starting to understand now why the glimpses I've seen of battles in so many Japanese cartoons tend to have such a highly ritualized quality to them.

The new MAX series Nick Fury (by Garth Ennis) recently came out. I bought the first issue because it's set in 1954 Indochina, one of my favorite historical settings. They've got a nice little "Quiet American" thing going with his new fresh-scrubbed sidekick.

It was good -- some of the language was laughably vulgar and over-the-top (chalk that up to Ennis being Ennis), but I'm in for another issue or two.

If you like war comics at all, get this one -- he's got a former Nazi soldier working for the French. And he's apparently going to be a great soldier and a former genocider.

I just read Severed by Scott Snyder, Scott Tuft and Attila Futaki.

Very disturbing. If you like horror comics, you don't want to miss this.

A+.

Is the whole thing out? You read the trade?

Yep. Good stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1607065290/?tag=imwan-20

After reading Severed, American Vampire and Batman: the Black Mirror, Snyder has become my favorite current comics writer. The Black Mirror is the best Batman story since Year One, IMO.

Hardcover at a cheap price, too. I just ordered it.

I read the new Spider title (issue #1) from Dynamite. Not as good as the Shadow seems to be. But it was kind of good.

The main problem with it is the author is trying to shoe-horn in left-wing politics, and it seems inherently inconsistent with the Spider ( as a character and a tone). The Spider is sort of like the original Rorschach.