Comics You Should Be Reading

crasskris · Post by **crasskris** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:06 pm

Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Roudrigez.

After the death of the father, a small family moves into his old ancestral home, and discoveres that it is littered with magic keys - and an undead serial killer trying to gather them all.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 2:49 pm

Undead serial killer automatically gains my interest.

It's one reason I like Dark Souls. Undead Doing Stuff.

crasskris · Post by **crasskris** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:36 pm

To be accurate, it is actually a sort of ghostly sociopath with little qualms about killing, the kind that is really good at gaining your trust and getting under your skin.

So you don't build up false expectations.

crasskris · Post by **crasskris** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:47 pm

Also, how got this thread to page 2 without mentioning Transmetropolitan, but Preacher two times already? (I love Preacher, but honestly)

It's about a misanthropic journalist returning to a cyberpunked metropolis locked in fast forward, due to old contracts. He is then drawn into the presidential campaign, and it's aftermath.

The art style and creativity can be a little much, although it might be befitting for a hyper-accelerated society. The dialogue, however, is an over-the-top celebration of investigative journalism as the fourth column of democracy, and while it can get a little preachy, it seldom fails to amuse.

Wesley Street · Post by **Wesley Street** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:11 pm

Having read through Transmet two or three times, I think it's a bit overrated. Jamie Delano's 2020 Visions (recommended) covered a lot of the same scary-future-is-today-plus-old-man territory without the obvious Hunter S. Thompson riffs. I prefer the manga Eagle (also recommended) for my journalist covering a presidential election fix.

If I were to recommend an Ellis series I'd go with Global Frequency, Red, Ministry of Space, Strange Kiss/Gravel, Scars, or Fell.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 2:47 am

Irredeemable.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 3:44 am

So I'd been aware of a comic called Rat Queens for a while, and had torrented it based on what I'd seen that looked awesome. I finally got around to reading it the other night, and it holds up.

Rat Queens is a fantasy pastiche obviously influenced by D&D (one of the "next times" mentions initiative penalties, another refers to attack bonuses).

However, rather than Order of the Stick's "Lets make fun of D&D oddities but otherwise do a pretty straight fantasy story" or, well, straight fantasy or the like, it centers on a party, the eponymous Rat Queens, of four female adventurers of roughly college age and personality with foul mouths who sleep around and such. Hell, the party wizard has an on again off again series of poor decision one night stands with the town guard.

Oh, and the dwarf fighter is a hipster ("I know my sword is designer, I'm using it ironically.")

It's a very "RAH FEMINISM" in the higher end "RAH FUCK YOU WOMEN CAN BE INDEPENDENT AND KICK ASS TOO" variety.

It also has a cleric whose parents are cultists, who seems to be a cleric of her parents' god, who doesn't believe in said god.

It's quite good, and even the background adventurers are pretty interesting, like The Four Daves (four adventurers literally all named Dave. When they need to differentiate, they add the individual Dave's race in front. Orc Dave is some manner of healer with a big bushy black beard, in which blue birds appear whenever he heals someone).

The Rat Queens

Instead of Halflings or Gnomes, this world has Smidgens. Betty is a Smidgen rogue, who is a complete shroom-head and basically acts like an almost annoying, but ultimately lovable freshman. Seriously, when she packed the party's lunch for a quest, it was entirely candy and mushrooms.
Dee is the aforementioned atheist cultist cleric. Her parents worship a flying squid, as the picture shows. Notably, her spells don't use tentacles, and the comic in fact comments on the male fascination with tentacle spells.
Hannah is the party wizard. Complete with wands and staves, though apparently in that world staves can be fueled with hit points or something, as she uses a depleted staff when her party is in grave danger.
Violet is the dwarf fighter. Fighters in this world don't suck, because people are pretty accepting of mighty thews when they're reading. I don't know why they are less accepting of them when playing. Dwarf women in this world do have beards, she shaves hers as a statement, but it's become a "thing" with young dwarfs, causing her to spout hipster lines.

The Four Daves. The main races in the world seem to be Human, Elf, Dwarf, Smidgen and Orc. There are also trolls, who seem to be on par with humans int-wise, but much more towards the high end of Large. Also maybe-monogamous, as the town is attacked by a troll because she thinks the Rat Queens killed her boyfriend.

The comic is big on humour, gore, violence and profanity. Hence why I like it. It also has some very sweet moments, as Hannah and Betty interact much like sisters, and while there's lots of inter-party fighting, the Rat Queens are all pretty damned dedicated to one another.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sat Oct 04, 2014 8:34 pm

I finally got around to reading the new Ms. Marvel. She's a Pakastani-American Muslim teenager living in New Jersey who writes Avengers/My Little Pony fanfics, hangs out at a convenience store that looks like it came out of the View Askewniverse, and whose nemesis is a half-cocaktiel cyborg clone of Thomas Edison.

And to top it all off she's probably one of the best and most realistically written characters I've read in comics in a long time. Even the obligitory Wolverine teamup was good.

Wiseman · Post by **Wiseman** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 5:06 pm

I'd recommend Marvel 1602. An interesting re-imagining of the marvel verse taking place in 1602.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 5:19 pm

Death Vigil.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 10:01 pm

Ditto Death Vigil.

Also, Rat Queens.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 11:20 pm

I just read through the first 18 issues and annual of Matt Fraction's Hawkeye. It's pretty damned good (even if the part where Kate moves to LA drags a bit).

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Oct 06, 2014 11:25 pm

Pizza Dog is one of the great dogs.