Georgius the Peasant

Comics a-buying

Thursday, November 23, 2006 12:14:50 PM

DC Comics, expectations, always-wanted-to-do-that

I'm going to buy some comics at one point in the near future. Here are my alternatives:

- Lucifer, volume 1-2
I've been planning on and meaning to buy this entire series (ten volumes) for years, but seeing as I've read the eight first ones before, it's difficult spending this much money on them. Still, they're an option.

- 300
Seriously, have you SEEN the trailer to the movie? Not too big a fan of the art, but it's certainly not bad, either. What annoys me is they charge 299 for it. If they're to price it out the window like that, they could have made it an even 300 just for symbolism.

- Fables, volume 1-2
Only a vague idea about what this series is, but I really want to give it a chance.

- The Fountain
I want to read the story, but the artwork is putting me off, it's too much of a series of paintings. I need a certain sense of realism in the art of my comics. Still, I'm seriously considering this.

- Catwoman: When in Rome
I'm just placing that one here for show, I've looked through the local comic shop, they don't have it.

Those are the ones I'm at the moment most strongly inclined towards buying. I'm going to buy one or two of them (the "volume 1-2"-things counts as two) next week, and another one or two when I've finished my exams.

Any thoughts, suggestions or helpful advice?

Going through the motions, by OlafI'm ajour!

Comments

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 3:26:49 PM

Ole writes: Well, you know the quality of Lucifer... And it's eleven volumes, the eleventh (an epilouge) haven't been compiled yet.

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 3:44:20 PM

Beate writes: Jeg kjøpte Luciferserien for noen måneder siden - tilbudspakke på Outland, kanskje har de noe slikt fremdeles? De hadde også fabler dengangen, men jeg tok meg bare råd til en "pakke". Ellers går fabler på norsk i Nemi for tiden.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 3:48:42 PM

There's an epilogue?

This is news!

"tilbudspakke på Outland, kanskje har de noe slikt fremdeles"

Såg den på Outland i Oslo i sommer, ja, men av ein eller annan absurd grunn kjøpte eg den ikkje. Outland Bergen har ikkje noko slikt tilbod.

Jepp, veit Fabler går i Nemi, men eg kjøper ikkje Nemi, så... det hjelp meg lite.

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:44:41 PM

Ole writes: Beate: Ørjan - Wistful sier: *lurer på kven denne mystiske beate som kommenterer i vloggen min er* I tilfelle du ikke skjønte det, er Ørjan Loke. Loke er Ørjan. Og Ørjan syntes du er "mystisk". Så gi deg til kjenne.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:45:39 PM

...mystikk treng då ikkje vere eit vonde ein må kvitte seg med?

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:46:42 PM

Ole writes: Ovenfor en diktator som deg? Hvis man vil beholde neglene sine: Som regel. Som regel. Og det skader ikke å være på den sikre siden.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:47:33 PM

*thumbs up* Though I'm only a dictator in the sense of the level-headed Cincinnatus-style.

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:54:36 PM

Ole writes: Yes. One who only stops working at his farm to kill people.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:55:59 PM

Exactament.

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:58:37 PM

Anonymous writes: Y'know, you almost struck me as that kind of guy. That kind of guy who became a dictator only when there was a threat to his City, and resigned as soon as the threat was vanquished to try to feed his family again. The family who had probably starved when he was away, because he was to kind to allow his City to give anything back to him. ... This is one of them "NOT!"-jokes, in case you didn't understand.

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:59:47 PM

Ole writes: And yes. That was me. Ole. Olé!

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:00:32 PM

The lack of a "NOT!" in the end kind of threw me off, clever.

And I don't think Cincinnatus' family starved. He was probably loaded like you wouldn't believe.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:01:31 PM

It was? It was. Olé!

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:02:43 PM

Ole writes: Maybe. Maybe not. His idea of a battle was to build a wall, you never know with them carpenter-types. Some of them think they're Messias, and come back from the dead on the third day. Other never bother to show up at all.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:04:09 PM

Did he at the very least get to marry Freya after he built the thing?

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:07:41 PM

Ole writes: ... No. He was already married. Did the Romans support polygamy? I would've thought that undermined the whole purpose of marriage, to make political alliances.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:09:49 PM

They supported having more than one wife, as long as you kept them neatly ordered chronologically and remembered to divorce between switches. Cato pulled a nice one with divorcing his wife so his rich but stinking old BFF could marry her, and then when his BFF died and his ex-wife inherited him, Cato re-married her. It's all in the timing.

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:11:18 PM

Ole writes: I am impressed. Cato must've been a real bastard to treat his wife like that, though, so I'm also dissapointed.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:12:06 PM

Actually, I think Cato's parents were married and everything.

And his wife probably didn't mind, she got money, too.

Unregistered user # Thursday, November 23, 2006 11:07:23 PM

Terje writes: Which Cato was that? The Elder one? Anyway, of the comics you've listed here, I'd buy Lucifer (if I hadn't already, that is :P), seeing as I haven't really read any of the others. 300 and The Fountain... well, I haven't even heard iof those. Enlightenment? (Oh, and I think I might know who Beate is -- or at least where she's coming from -- as I posted a link here in the comment I made at tordenbloggen.sonitus.no when I voted for my own blog there. After all, this one is the blog after which I model my own, so... Anyway, I seem to remember someone called "Beate" from over there...)

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Thursday, November 23, 2006 11:38:39 PM

No, the younger.

Both 300 and The Fountain are graphic novels being made into movies these days. "300" is by Frank Miller ("Dark Knight Returns", "Sin City", "Batman: Year One") and is about the battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans fought off the Persians invading Greece in one of two decisive battles which more or less changed history. I highly, highly recommend the teaser-trailer for the movie, which has been out for quite some time, it brings new levels of meanings to "butch".
"The Fountain" I know less about, but the two trailers to the movie seems interesting to say the least. Roughly, it seems to be three parallell stories, about a man who we see in three points in time - the 1500s, our time, and the 2500s. In the beginning he is a Spanish conquestador in the 1500s, who drinks from the fountain of youth or somesuch. There's also a woman he loves going through all stories. The writer apparently originally wanted to make a movie, didn't get a contract on it, so he made a comic book instead, like, the ultimate director's cut of a movie that never was. And then he got to make the movie anyway, so now there'll be both. Hugh Jackman is starring as the main character, by the way.

Unregistered user # Friday, November 24, 2006 12:38:05 AM

Terje writes: Ah, [i]those[/i] 300. ;) "Wanderer, tell the People of Sparta that here we rest, faithful to her laws." That sounds pretty fucking amazing. Yeah. I'll watch that. I might even buy the comic. And The Fountain... wow, that sounds just as cool, perhaps even more so. I think I'll check around for that one, as well. After Christmas, that is, when I have money again. :P But this isn't supposed to be about me; it's supposed to be about you. And based on what you're saying, I think you should go for either The Fountain or 300. I mean, you've already read Lucifer, right? And I've read some Fables (the plot-arc printed in Nemi), and it didn't quite convince me. And Catwoman... well, er,.. they didn't have that one, anyway, right? However, if I may be so bold, I'd rather recommend Preacher to you. I think you said once that you weren't crazy about the art, but you get used to that. And the dialogue and the characters more than makes up for it, and while the plot develops in something of an unexpected way after "War in the Sun", it's still one of the best fucking comics I've read. I'd rate it just behind Sandman, and just before Lucifer. But I seem to remember you saying once that you prefer Lucifer to Sandman, so... (Fuck it, this anti-spambot security system is the most annoying thing I've encountered in quite some time.)

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Friday, November 24, 2006 1:40:36 AM

"I mean, you've already read Lucifer, right?"
Up until the Wolf and the Tree, yes.

"But I seem to remember you saying once that you prefer Lucifer to Sandman, so..."
I do. I'm weird that way, I prefer the flashy action-filled series to the high-quality, artful, moody intelligent one. (Not that Lucifer isn't high-quality or intelligent, but you get my meaning)

Preacher, yeah, it's on constant consideration, but I tend to forget about it, so thanks for the reminder. Definetely another strong option for consideration.

As for the trailer for "300"... they have a fracking rhino running around on a battlefield. They have the butchest line ever. ("Our arrows will blot out the sun!" Ice cold reply: "Then we will fight in the shade.") EVER! And... they have this:

"This is blasphemy. This is madness!"
"Madness...?! THIS. IS. SPARTA!"

And then he kicks the guy into this gigantic hole which just seems to be there for no apparent reason, like the fenceless bridges in Star Wars.

You can't beat that.

You just can't fracking beat that.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Friday, November 24, 2006 1:43:13 AM

I'm all giddy just from thinking about that trailer. I think I need to watch it again.

And again.

And again.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Friday, November 24, 2006 1:53:09 AM

I just rewatched it. It's too good. It's too fracking good.

"This is where we fight. This is where they die."

"Before this is over, all will know that few stood against many."

Madness? THIS. IS. SPARTA!

Unregistered user # Friday, November 24, 2006 3:16:53 AM

Terje writes: "Up until the Wolf and the Tree, yes." Then why not get "Crux" and "Morningstar", so that you can read the entire series once more? I know I had to, before starting off on "Morningstar", as it's a very complex plot and stuff, as I'm sure you're aware. "I prefer the flashy action-filled series to the high-quality, artful, moody intelligent one. (Not that Lucifer isn't high-quality or intelligent, but you get my meaning)" Well, I too absolutely adore Lucifer, but to me the whole thing came off as too similar to the main plot of Sandman. There's the exile theme (although it doesn't last for as long in Sandman as in Lucifer), there's the ancient problem coming back to haunt both Sandman and Lucifer, and... well, I thought of more stuff after finishing "Morningstar", but it's been a couple of months. And that last point (the similarities in plot/intrigue) is actually rather huge. Another similarity is of course the form; both Sandman and Lucifer are put together by smaller pieces of story, in which they are just as likely to be side characters as to be the main ones, just as often leaving centre stage open for some human or other as taking it themselves. So because of their many similarities, I end up prefering Sandman, because I felt that Morpheus evolved more than Lucifer did during the series. Morpheus was, in "Preludes..." an arrogant and uncaring bastard, while he in "The Kindly Ones" was more emphatic and thus also sympathic (and you know how I love sympathic characters :P), whereas Lucifer pretty much was an arrogant bastard in both "Devil in the Gateway" and "Morningstar". Oh, and Mike Dringenberg>Gross/Kelly/whomever. Because Dringenberg=

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Friday, November 24, 2006 12:31:22 PM

"Then why not get "Crux" and "Morningstar", so that you can read the entire series once more? I know I had to, before starting off on "Morningstar", as it's a very complex plot and stuff, as I'm sure you're aware."
Because I'm obsessive compulsive and can't by volume nine of something I don't already own one through eight of.

As for the similarities between Sandman and Lucifer, I agree, only I like the way its done in Lucifer better on the whole. As for the arrogant bastard-thing, dude, there's nothing I like less than cool people growing boring.

So "whereas Lucifer pretty much was an arrogant bastard in both "Devil in the Gateway" and "Morningstar"." best news yet today.

"A rhino? In Greece? WTF, man?"
I KNOW! WATCH THE FRACKING TRAILER!

"By the way, they didn't seem to care about subtleness in carrying their message did they? I mean, "before this is over, all will know that few stood against many" is like being hit repeatedly on the head with some kind of blunt object. Perhaps a bowling cone, a mace, or even a wooden club, like the ones you see toted by cartoon Neaderthals."
That's the ENTIRE POINT, you dolt. It's not silly-overly-done-stupid-action like your standard Hollywood flick. It's beyond that, it makes the same things that make other movies bad into art. It's like Sin City, only in Greece, 2500 years ago instead of in the US in the not-too-distant future. It's overdone, it's overly dramatic, it's masculine way beyond the point of silly and stupid.
It's too bloody awesome, is what it is.
I looked through the comic yesterday while at Outland, and it's just the same way. With the extremely overly dramatic butch repeating itself.
One page, only text-box:

We march.

Next page, three text-boxes:

From [beloved somewhere].
To [fearsome somewhere else].
We march.

Seriously. It brings whole new levels to the concept of butch. With the exception of "The Dark Knight" I don't think there's any movie coming up I'm quite this psyched about.

Unregistered user # Friday, November 24, 2006 8:56:09 PM

Anonymous writes: "Ørjan - Wistful sier: *lurer på kven denne mystiske beate som kommenterer i vloggen min er*" Hvor lurer Wistful på det? Jeg er ikke operablogger, så adressen kom vel ikke frem. Men jeg er å finne her: http://beatesrasteplass.wordpress.com/ Kom vel hit via Tordenboggen, skulle jeg tro. Ellers kjøpte jeg Lucifer over nett. http://www.outland.no/ Det ligger ingen tilbud på forsiden nå.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Friday, November 24, 2006 10:12:18 PM

"Ørjan - Wistful" er meg, det. ;-)

Takk for linken, skal sjekke den ut. ^^

Unregistered user # Saturday, November 25, 2006 5:16:23 AM

Sarah writes: Terje, The whole plot of 300 from what I understand is very similar to the ending of the Big Fat Kill story in Sin City (the one with all the hookers, Dwight and Jackie Boy). It's about how choosing WHERE to fight can sometimes be the determining factor in the outcome of a fight. Despite the odds. Just a small little thing that has such a huge impact. So yeah, I think people sort of should be hit over the head with it. It's pretty damn facinating when you think about it.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Saturday, November 25, 2006 10:49:14 AM

Yay, so my going-out-on-a-limb-Sin City-comparison wasn't way off despite my never having read any of Sin City!

Unregistered user # Saturday, November 25, 2006 3:22:43 PM

Ole writes: "Let the enemy come to you"/"Fight where you want to fight" is the most basic military maxim since EVER (or at least since Sun Tzu). Just look at Lebanon now recently, Vietnam, Agincourt, Thermopylae, and to a lesser degree Russia in both WWII and the Napoleon war. The choice of battleground can be just as critical as the equipment of your soldiers, it is in no way a "small thing". In the modern west we don't think much about it, but for people like the Mongols avoiding a fight with even odds until the terrain favored them was basic knowledge.

Unregistered user # Sunday, November 26, 2006 10:18:44 PM

Ole writes: And by the way, "100 Bullets" is written by the guy who wrote "Lex Luthor: Man of Steel", just so you know.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Sunday, November 26, 2006 10:27:36 PM

Sigh, dammit, I'll almost have to read'em, then, won't I? XD

Unregistered user # Tuesday, November 28, 2006 6:01:32 PM

Terje writes: You like "100 Bullets", Ole? I've only read the one or two of storylines they had in the Norwegian "Inferno" or whatever it was called, and it didn't convince me much... :\ I hear people saying its good, but I just can't make myself buy and read it, but considering that I didn't like the little I've read...

Unregistered user # Saturday, December 9, 2006 10:09:27 PM

Beate writes: Nå er det salg på outland igjen, også på fables: http://www.outland.no/

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Sunday, December 10, 2006 1:07:27 AM

Takktakk. Skal vurdere det, trass i min knipne pengepung.

Unregistered user # Wednesday, December 13, 2006 8:45:03 PM

Anonymous writes: Det er snart jul! Man må sette mødre på slikt! Eventuelt få penger til å handle for! På forskudd.

Georgius the PeasantLoki Aesir # Wednesday, December 13, 2006 8:46:31 PM

Er ikkje alle som har rike foreldre.