Fun Just... Comics

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
comics.jpg


A thread for discussing comics in general......


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Archie Comics - Still haven't gotten into the new Riverdale tales, but I will be since I'm finding the show to be a guilty pleasure.

Harvey Comics - Richie Rich, Casper, Hot Stuff, etc.

EC Comics - Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, etc.

Doctor Who - From the old comics from Marvel to the modern ones by IDW and Titan. Anything with The Doctor is okay!

Star Wars - I have a large number of the Dark Horse "Legends" comics, but need to get into the new canon books from Marvel.

Anything Horror Related - Original, movie related, manga, anything. So long as it's horror.

Sgt. Rock - Best war comic there was, with Unknown Soldier in a close second (I have a crossover book with them, which is awesome), and Haunted Tank in third place.

Alright, give me some suggestions. I'm always on the lookout for new books!
 
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filmfan95

Member: Rank 3
"The Hobbit" graphic novel. An extremely faithful adaptation of the book. There were some friends in middle school who didn't want to read The Hobbit, and asked me to help them do a book report on it, as I knew everything about it, and they didn't want the teacher to know that they hadn't read it. Instead, I directed them to the graphic novel, and told them that everything they needed to know was in that book.
 

High Plains Drifter

The Drifter
VIP
People in some of the Power Ranger groups I'm in go ape sh*t crazy over Boom Comics. The comics sell for alot on Ebay. The covers are nice, but I'm not liking the artwork too much. I'm wondering if I should invest in a few? I use to buy up like Vaults of Horrors, and some Kiss comics. I even have a Megadeth comis sealed, and has a leather cover on it.


So what I'm asking do I jump on this bandwagon or just say it's a fade and walk?
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
I would only say that if you're a Power Rangers fan, go ahead and buy them. I don't honestly know what the resale value is, and I don't buy comics for flipping. Nothing against anyone that does, but most of my collection isn't big price books, outside of some variant covers and a couple of grails. I pretty much buy for reading. I'd say it's most likely a fad, but given the staying power of everything else Power Rangers, it might end up making you some bank if you got a complete run and held on to them for a few years.
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
Outside of some Dredd stories, I really know nothing about 2000AD. I've been wanting to pick some up, just to check it out because I know other fans who really dig them. Any suggestions for purchasing?
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
Anyone else read any of the Highlander books that Dynamite put out? I picked up the first few issues when they started it up in the early 00s, but monetary constraints made me bow out. What I read was really good.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
2000AD Dan for me. You didn't mess with that incarnation.

He had been cryogenically frozen, had his face rebuilt, got his command back (unlike Ripley) and said Drokk!! a lot. He had fights with living axes and called his space fortress troops cowards causing them to mutiny and try to kill him. And he ended up with a cosmic claw.

Actually, now I think of it, he sounds a bit anti social and mad.

But he still gets my vote.....


 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
I also liked the later Grant Morrison Dare though.





Poignant, in a kind of bleak "Quatermass Conclusion" kind of way.....
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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This is one that I always remembered.

It seemed to be a load of black and white reprints of American comics, but I have never been sure.

I don't think it was E.C. comics, but it was certainly cut from the same cloth.

One story ended with a gang of old ladies who had been gossiping about a young woman and eventually driving her to suicide ending up with their severed heads on spikes!

I would have lapped all this up, being a Hammer/Universal/Amicus horror fan, but the genesis of these reprints remains a mystery.....

I know that there were something like three issues altogether, but this is the only one I ever read.

And never forgot....
 
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Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10


Action was a controversial weekly British anthology comic that was published by IPC Magazines, starting on 14 February 1976.

Concerns over the comic's violent content saw it withdrawn from sale on 16 October 1976. It reappeared the following month, in toned-down form, and continued publication until 12 November 1977, at which point it was merged with Battle Picture Weekly. Despite its short lifespan, Action was highly influential on the British comics scene, and was a direct forerunner of the long-running 2000 AD.

The comic was devised in 1975 by freelance writer/editor Pat Mills, at the request of publishing house IPC. It was intended to reflect the changing social and political times of the late 1970s, and to compete with DC Thomson's war-themed Warlord title. The comic was briefly to have been called Action 76, with the title incrementing each year, until it was named simply Action.

Many of the stories in Action were what Mills called "dead cribs", essentially rip-offs of popular films, books, and comic heroes.

The first issue was published on 7 February 1976, with a cover date of 14 February 1976. The comic was instantly popular, particularly for its gritty tone and graphic gore.

Within weeks the media had picked up on the title's violent content. The London Evening Standard and The Sun ran major articles on the comic, with the latter echoing the Victorian "penny dreadful" by dubbing Action "the sevenpenny nightmare" (the cover price was 7p).

Over the next few months Action was the centre of a campaign led by Mary Whitehouse, of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, to censor or ban the comic. IPC eventually started to moderate strips to forestall possible boycotts by newsagent chains such as W.H. Smith.

In September 1976 John Sanders appeared on the television programme Nationwide, where he tried to defend the comic from a vigorous attack by interviewer Frank Bough.

Pressure within IPC's higher management, and alleged worries that the two major newsagent chains, W.H. Smith and John Menzies, would refuse to stock not just Action, but all of IPC's line, led to the 23 October issue being pulped.

The title returned on 27 November (cover date 4 December), but the violence was toned down, and the previous sense of anarchism was replaced by a safer, blander feel.

Sales dropped drastically, and the last issue before merging with Battle was published on 5 November 1977 – dated 11 November.


Major stories
  • Hook Jaw was created by Mills as a Jaws cash-in and the flagship title of the comic. The strip was scripted by Ken Armstrong and drawn by Ramon Sola. Hook Jaw is a Great White Shark and the hero of the series, even though he spends most of his time eating most of the human cast of characters. The name Hook Jaw comes from the gaff hook stuck in the shark's jaw after some fisherman tried to catch the creature shortly before being eaten by it. Mills gave the strip an environmental edge by having Hook Jaw eat corrupt humans, or criminals, seeking to exploit the seas, as well as anyone else unlucky enough to get near him. Hook Jaw appeared in three stories before the ban. The first was set on an oil rig, the second was set on an island resort in the Caribbean, and the third was set just off the south coast of England. Hook Jaw returned after the ban, but no longer ate as many people and if he did it was off panel. The strip also lost the environmental themes Mills had placed in it.
  • BlackJack was created by John Wagner, with art by Trigo. It told the story of Jack Barron, a boxer who fights to help poor kids knowing that he runs the risk of going blind. The strip was accused of being racist even though it was one of the first times a black character was the hero of a British Comic strip
  • Death Game 1999 was written by Tom Tully. The series was a cash-in on the success of Rollerball and dealt with a lethal future sport played by condemned prisoners. Art was provided by Costa, Ian Gibson (2 pages) and Massimo Bellardinelli among others (John Stokes). The strip was almost as popular as Hook Jaw. After the relaunch Death Game 1999 became Spinball, and turned into a formulaic adventure strip without the ambiguities which featured in the original.
  • Kids Rule OK was written by Jack Adrian with art by Mike White; this series drew most criticism. London, 1986: A plague has wiped out the adult population, with the result that violent gangs of children run riot. The strip was instantly controversial with its heavy anti-authoritarian tone and extreme violence. The strip never survived the ban; two episodes were destroyed by IPC entirely, whilst those that did survive were heavily edited. A full version of the story, with a text insert to cover the missing episodes, can be found in Action – The Story of a Violent Comic.
  • Hellman of Hammer Force, written by Gerry Finley-Day, was the story of a German Panzer major. It established a pattern followed by 2000 AD for having unconventional or unsympathetic characters as the hero. The strip returned after the ban, but stripped of its politics became a conventional war adventure story.
  • Dredger was a tough Dirty Harry–type agent. The strip was popular due to its increasingly bizarre and violent action scenes. The strip survived the ban, but like the others became a conventional adventure strip.
  • Look Out For Lefty was an unconventional football strip based on the adventures of Kenny Lampton, a working-class teenager whose powerful left foot gave him the nickname of "Lefty". It was unlike any other football strips in British boys' comics at the time because the strip would include football hooliganism, as well as Lefty's not always being a clean-cut hero. The violence on display in the strip mirrored the real-life football violence taking place at the time, most notably during a game between Aston Villa and Rangers. After the ban, the strip became a conventional Roy of the Rovers–type strip and removed any hint of controversy.

 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10



Garth was a comic strip in the British newspaper Daily Mirror from July 24, 1943, to March 22, 1997. The strip belonged to the action-adventure genre and recounted the exploits of the title character, an immensely strong hero who battled various villains throughout the world and many different chronological eras.[1] Garth was widely syndicated throughout English-speaking countries during its long run. The 1960s Australian fast bowler Garth McKenzie was nicknamed after the comic strip hero.

Steve Dowling and Gordon Boshell were the originators of the Garth character. Dowling wanted to create a British adventure comic strip, and took inspiration from the American comic strips Superman,[2] Flash Gordon and Terry and the Pirates.[3] Dowling and Boshell took on 15-year-old John Allard to work on Garth, who stayed with the strip for its entire lifetime. After 59 adventures Dowling retired and handed Garth over to Allard, which he carried on until 1971 when Eagle comics' Dan Dare artist, Frank Bellamy, took over the art with Allard writing the scripts.[1] Garth's longevity had been established by Don Freeman, who created almost every basic Garth plot on which the saga was built. Peter O'Donnell, Jim Edgar and Angus Allan also wrote extensively for the strip during its decades-long existence. Philip Harbottle is a leading Garth expert and collector of the strips, and he wrote several of the stories during the 1990s. Martin Asbury became Garth's artist after Frank Bellamy's death in 1976, drawing the strip and writing many of the stories until its final episode in 1997.

In 1993, Bill Storrie produced perhaps a dozen or so 60-page photocopied magazines titled The Gopherville Argus Special Edition No. 1 featuring Garth as a tribute to the writers and artists who had been involved with the strip. Most if not all Garth strips are now owned by Mirror.

As of Wednesday 13 August 2008, "Garth" has reappeared on the website of the Daily Mirror, drawn by the artist Huw J. Davies. ( aka HuwJ & currently HuwJ Matsumura )[4]

The Online Strip, was a Successful re- Visiting / Re-Imagineering of the character, Taking him back to the Pre-Steve Dowling Origins and Establishing him in a Historical Setting.

Having successfully worked in the Media Entertainment industry and Printed Media for over 3 decades ( Including Periods at Disney Warner and Fox ) Huw J believed that the Re Imagined version could easily cross from the Digital, back to the Printed medium, and Ultimately licensing to other media. This was Discussed and the future of the character in print was agreed upon. with a new ongoing Daily strip in print being Planned to run at the end of the 2nd Online story arc, King of New York. ( which also established the reasons behind the Characters Dislike for Guns)

However, due to an untimely accident involving Long standing cartoon editor Ken Layson, with who the agreement had been made things became muddied and internal politics with the Mirrorpix licensing arm of the newspaper created issues that delayed and inevitably halted this decision.

HuwJ decided to honor the characters History, and under the terms of his License re-branded the character tipping the hat to Don Freeman longtime writer of the strip by Giving Garth a Surname, the Graphic Novel Titled Captain Garth Freeman of the Armed Services and in 2010 was launched initially under British Publisher Markosia, and was a success! Selling out both at Specialist Comic Stores and Conventions, as well as Online. it was re-Published in 2013 By Pummie Productions ink, At first in its usual format and (also in 2013) with a New Cover by Spider-Man Artist and Stan Lee Collaborator Andy Tong it was repackaged with the Garth Title in Honor of the 70th Anniversary of the character with all proceeds going to Help for Heroes.

In 2015, Published again by Pummie Productions ink, the character Starred Alongside Sexton Blake, in the 1st of what is promised to be a series of Comic books, under the Captain Garth Freeman of the Armed Services title. this again sold out and if the team continues to publish the Comic it will be collected in a bumper edition after the 5th book.

HuwJ Believes that the online revamp of the character was the catalyst that got the longtime fans of the character to push for a return of the hero and what ultimately led the Newspaper and its Licensing arm to re-color the old strips and re launch them in the paper[5]

Garth started a run of reprints in the Daily Mirror coloured by Martin Baines in the issue dated Monday 21 February 2011. and continues at present, the strip and the character are a testament to the longevity of good solid storytelling and characters with robust ideals. and looks to still have a promising future

Characters and story[edit]
Garth's time-travelling adventures lasted for over 50 years and covered 165 stories (plus two additional stories published in the Daily Mirror Book for Boys, 1970–71). In the backstory, Garth washed ashore in Shetland and was adopted by an elderly couple.[1] Garth developed almost superhuman strength and eventually became a naval captain and all-round military genius.[3] Garth travelled through many eras and confronted villains such as Madame Voss and Apollo. His true love was the ancient goddess-like figure, Astra. Garth's sidekick and mentor was Professor Lumiere, who psychoanalyzed the hero and recovered memories of his previous experiences.


 
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