Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Spaceopoly The Know Your Legion Worlders Game - Round Six!

right. I'll go with e)...what. I got it right? Sorry. I'm just so used to rattling off guesses

I wasn't sure if you had mentioned Ice during JLIdol, but something rang a bell.

New question when I think of something...

she spent a lot of time on my #2 spot on the list. When ah outlasted Kimiyo she became #1.

Yeah, I thought it was that. That's where I remembered Dr Light from. Nice to see that paying attention pays off

Yes, your guessing quotient went up three sizes that day!

From 0 to 3 then

Aw, you were always at least at a 1 I don't think you ever ended up with only one possible choice left.

Christmas party coming up... performances all around... stress...

Time to practice, ugh! Getting to know yooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

well, I never liked the window frames to have panes anyway. New Q shortly, probably tomorrow...

Oh, it's working! Now if only my voice will hold out until the party. There's no way I can compete with the good singers, so window-breaking shall be my talent.

Oh Hi Dinah! And you must be Larry the lawyer. Yeah, he's over there...

I tripped across a tpb I quite fancy, even though I've read it before, while I was pressie hunting online. Was it...


a) Ghost in the Shell
b) Luther Arkwright
c) Maus
d) Zenith: Phase 1
e) Akira
f) V for Vendetta
g) Legion's Great Darkness saga
h) The Sandman (Volume 1): Preludes & Nocturnes
i) Sin City vol 4
j) Dark Knight Returns
k) Will Eisner's Spirit
l) X-Men Days of Future Past
m) Judge Dredd Apocalypse War
n) Kingdom Come
o) Wanted
p) Cerebus: Church & State
q) Final Crisis

j) Dark Knight Returns

I half expected you to get it on the first try, making a mockery of my longer list

The Dark Knight Returns had quite a buzz around it at the time of it's release. It was in the Sunday supplements here, and there was much talk about the maturity of the art form.

Considering the number of underground comics dealing with real issues, while this had grown men in spandex beating each other up, it was laughable even then.

What it was, was violent. What made it different from the million other violent spandex comics was that it was shown to impact the characters. The brutality was even more effective in the dark, gritty claustrophobic urban setting. There ere also some broad political brush strokes too, as miller pushed the readers buttons.

From a culture weaned on violent futuristic anti heroes, the setting and actions weren't the draw for me. Miller's pacing and art were the hook.

Unfortunately, nearly all the imitators went straight for the bloodshed, without spotting any of the commentary underlying it, as broad as it was.

I picked this up as individual issues a while after it's release. The quality printing of those means I've never been tempted to go with a TPB of it. Not j)

I may be lucky sometimes, but I'm not THAT lucky In any case, I do enjoy reading the stories behind your choices.


f) V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta takes a good number of British dualities, wraps them up in the Orwellian society we hold up as abhorrent with a little too much denial and teaches us about what it means to be free.

Not bad for a strip that started off in the Warrior anthology. In it's dark near future it shows a number of things we've been up to in the past and present. And we're some of the "good guys", which says a lot about world affairs. It's always assumed it's a reaction against the Conservatism of the 1980s, but it resonates with any number of political parties across the decades. There are things beneath the surface that connect us all.

By the time DC picked up and finished this one off, I'd already read some of the Warrior issues, and my own political thoughts were beyond being totally captivated by the romantic freedom of the work. After all, it doesn't exactly present a working alternative. But there are many cautionary moments in there, the tone is spot on for the times, and rendered all the more bleakly by David Lloyd's art.

I do highly recommend it, but I've never picked up anything beyond the individual issues. I did pay a bit for one of the V masks years ago. I was happy to have one, knowing that they wouldn't ever be too many of them around. Oh pants...


Not f) V for Vendetta

e) Akira, because you mentioned you were missing some issues.

And I still am. I think I warbled on about Akira before, so shall spare you the eye bleeding here. But, gosh, the entire world is so well defined and... >slap<

I'll hopefully be able to pick them up in the new year. It would seem like a waste to pick up the trades, when the set I have is almost complete and already takes up a bit of space.

not e) Akira

c) Maus, which I have heard many good things about.

Having not read the original RAW issues, this is one I picked up as a graphic novel in my late teens.

But, while a lot of the information wasn't new, the way it was depicted on such a human level wasn't nearly as common. Frankly, there's a need for regular reminders of the messages here. The choices made to depict the cast make viewing bearable, while still allowing the vital messages to be pushed through.

The story also has a parallel story of Art's relationship with his father. It's honest, open hearted approach is reminiscent of some of the best underground comix. It's relevance to the historical story makes is all the more touching.

Definitely recommended, but as I already have them, not c) Maus

K?

Eisner is a good story teller. The composition of his work is marvelous and I like the genre of the character. But when his sidekick turned up after a few pages, I just paused, put it down and I've never really gone back to it.

While I've read arguments about the more positive use of the Spirit's sidekick compared to other stereotypes, but it didn't really make any difference to me.

Not k) Will Eisner's Spirit

B?

Taking concepts from parallel world sci fi tales of the 1950s, and melding them Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion stories, Bryan Talbot created a comic book in the 1970s that's still ahead of practically anything else out there.

There's just so much texture and depth in the series. From mysticism, pulp action and revolution, to transcendence, psionics and tyranny of all types. Arkwright shows us alternate worlds where the Great Game of intrigue plays itself out against far greater conflict across universes.

The art remains stunning and, like the story, has many nods that are a treat to unearth.

I picked up my first installment of Luther in a magazine called Near Myths (an issue of which also had a very early Grant Morrison I think). Apart from the odd snippet here and there, it wasn't until I picked up some of the Valkyrie Press issues that I got to read substantial parts of it.

Then Dark Horse reprinted it. Now, it has been combined with the sequel Heart of Empire in one giant book.

The art in Heart of Empire shows Talbot's progress over the years, and it's lovely stuff. The story exists firmly in the framework of the first work, and so doesn't push the boundaries in the same way.

When Alan Moore took Captain Britain to parallel worlds that Claremont would later try to use; When Grant Morrison took Zenith across the Omnihedron and when Marv Wolfman thought of protagonists across Infinite Earth, they were all looking back to the same sources. But Luther Arkwright was the comic they could read it in, and hope to get close to.

Luther Arkwright: Integral is now out and was indeed the one I have my eye on. What's stopping me?

Well, I've read it before and the issues are usually handy. My first digital comic was the Luther Arkright DVD, containing high quality images of the run. I put them into a format my PC could more easily read.

The other small thing, is that there's no real extras in it that I can see (lots on the dvd). Just a fore and afterword, which I barely ever read anyway. Having each series in a separate hardback might have been a better option too, and I have to admit the cover of it doesn't exactly do much for me.

So, still swithering over it. While I was doing so I notice that d) is also out in a run of graphic novels. Since I've only the last phase of it in the original issues, I'm probably going to be picking that up too/ instead.

Over to you Ibbster!

Cool! And thanks as always for the insightful commentary and fun story behind the book, thothster (my what a mouthful).

New Q up soon!

tact prevents me from responding to that

Not adopting that as a nickname is already a very tactful way of saying what you think about it

I took Blaze out to a buffet lunch yesterday for his birthday. What did we not eat or drink?

1) Lobster miso soup
2) Roast turkey
3) Spinach seafood dumplings
4) Gorgonzola cheese
5) Carrot-pumpkin mash
6) Prawn salad
7) Singapore sling
8) Bavaria beer
9) Jacob's Creek Cabernet Sauvignon
10) Salmon sashimi
11) Bourbon-glazed chicken
12) Fried almond tofu