Headhunter

Welcome! [img]smilies/wave.gif[/img]

X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga is a good jumping on point, if a little continuity driven as a starting point.

Why'd you give up on American comics? Personally, I've found that manga is a lot more formulaic and offering less genres than the American scene (at least, on the indie/imprint side). Vertigo, Oni Press, IDW Publishing, AiT-PlanetLar and many others offer a lot of diverse, original titles that completely go against the grain of mainstream comics.

obsessed with television

thank you for the welcome....some people are rude.

ps-i am a BIG kevin smith fan.
i would love a clerks comic.

[ 03-28-2004: Message edited obsessed with television ]

Bruxinha

Hi... I got into comics when i was just a little girl!! The only comics i read then where Disney - my dad collected them! But, last year, while talking to a friend i found out that he is a major comic fan and buyer! He's 37 and has been collecting since he was 16. He loves his books and keeps then in proper storage - they are in wonderfull condition. He's been lending me his books ever since... and today i'm officialy hooked!! Because i'm still reading his books, i've only bought Buffy's comics, Crimson and the first two TBP of Y: The Last Man. I have many more in my pc that i get of the internet.

Some of my favourite so far are:
- Crimson and Out There - i'm a Humberto Ramos fan
- Aria - because i love Jay Anacleto's art
- Buffy and Angel series - just because i always loved the shows...
- Fables
- Batgirl
- The Hellfire Club
- Emma Frost series
- a few x-men, like Children of The Atom , The Hidden Years, The Dark Phoenix saga, and others...
- Red Star - the art is too much, and the story isn't bad
- Y: The Last Man - i'm just loving it... i got every issue on my pc, but i'm still buying the TBP.
- The Authority and the stand alone series os The Adventures of Jenny Sparks
- I loved the Midnight Nation - story and art... i need to get that TBP
- I like Elektra too...
- And the series of Alias

I know i'm forgeting some important ones... must of all, i'm loving almost everything that comes out of Vertigo and Wildstorm. I'm curious about Lucifer that i'm earing so much about, and the new Witching.

That' all for now...
Juliana [img]smilies/hippie.gif[/img]

[ 03-28-2004: Message edited Bruxinha ]

Headhunter

Unfortunately, yes. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

Did you check out the limited Clerks television series? Think only a few aired on ABC, though a DVD set should be about with the entire run of roughly a half-dozen episodes.

Headhunter

Bruxinha, welcome! [img]smilies/wave.gif[/img]

It's nice that you have a parent who's into reading (comics or otherwise); literacy/literature aren't given the respect that it used to get.

If you're looking for a local comic store, you can try out The Master List.

Jay Anacleto is also doing pencils for Athena Inc, which should be in a trade from Image by now. There are new trades for Fables/Authority just out or releasing soon, as well.

Check out some of the other threads such as the Vertigo one, a lot of your interests are being discussed elsewhere on the Comics forum. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

obsessed with television

I'm from Australia and we didn't get the Clerks television series...i might buy the dvd when it comes out.
In my city there is only ONE good comic book store...that is so sad. [img]smilies/violin.gif[/img]

Headhunter

Read somewhere that there's only about 3 comic stores in all of Australia... [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

obsessed with television

[img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] i don't think so.

I was reading a list a couple of weeks back and there is about 25 comic book stores in Australia but i have no idea if any of them are good.
[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[ 03-28-2004: Message edited obsessed with television ]

P Y R O

I started out with Archie Comics as a kid. When I discovered the X-Men cartoons, I tried grabbing the comics, but they completely lost me. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

The next time I was drawn into comics was when Buffy came into comics form. I bought it every time it was out, and I was also drawn to other comics such as Withcblade (coz it was rather Buffy-esque), The Darkness, and... one other comic. I forget which. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

Then I went broke. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img]

The most recent reinvigoration of my love for comics was when X2 came out. I was really impressed and I really enjoyed it. So I went out and purchased Uncanny X-Men, especially since it was cheap (it was their 25-cent issue). It got me hooked, and I started following so many series.

And now I'm broke again, so I've cut down the number of series I follow religiously to three: New Mutants (soon to be New X-Men: Academy X), Exiles, and Runaways. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Headhunter

Maybe the quote was 3 large ones, heh.

Headhunter

The comics still don't make much sense, unless you got for clean starts like the Ultimate or (the now cancelled) Evolution series. X2 was good, though I felt it was basically a really long, very well done episode of the television series. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

I don't even understand the Buffy ones, to be honest.

Being broke sucks, I've cut mine down to about...hmm, 8? I do get the occasional trade/manga digest though.

BTW, nice to see you posting again. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

The Crow

First of all, welcome to the board. Glad to have you here. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

It's cool that you found someone who was willing to let you read their collection. I got into comics from reading my dad's old comics...of course his were stuck off in a barrel, not bagged and boarded...

I read alot of the comics you listed as well. I haven't read any of Jay Anacleto's books, but I think that his artwork is amazing. Same with Red Star. I haven't read very many comics, but I love the art. One of these days I'll pick up the trades, if only to stare at the pretty pictures.

Alan
[img]smilies/crazy.gif[/img]

stellvia

I found a lot more variety in manga. I actually find American comics to be far more formulaic and unsatisfying. Though I know there are occassionally really good stories, for the most part I find them depressingly bad.

In manga you find as many story genres as you find in novels here in the states. There are far more stories that focus on everyday life. Stories of kids in school, about the relationships between friends, students and teachers, families, about people trying to succeed at a particular profession, about trying to get threw the death of a loved one, etc. And that's just part of one genre.

You have to understand, Japan releases at least 100 times more manga than the US does comics. There are about 700 new tankoubon (a volume of manga chapters about 180 pages long)released each month. And not everything that appears in manga magazines is collected and released.

With manga there is just much more to choose from. I like having that incredible variety.

Headhunter

The Red Star is pretty good; I still haven't read the 2nd trade, which has been sitting in a box for nearly 2 years... [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

Most entertainment, regardless of media, is depressingly bad. That said, with American comics, I see the kind of experimentation and creativity that goes beyond anything I've seen in manga. Again, this is really limited (mostly with imprints), but it's out there.

Manga does do a consistently better job of focusing with human relations, though I don't think it does a better job of dealing with them. A lot of the relationships in titles I've read are superficial; flavour-of-the-week guest star, forced interaction...not every title, but enough that it turns me off.

The inherent problem with releasing so much more manga than "comics" is that a hypothetical situation where the ratio of quality/quantity is roughly the same would still result in a greater quantity of what I feel are subpar titles. Unfortunately, these are the ones that are commonly brought over (translated).

The variety is a huge boon, but then filtering out the undesirable titles becomes an issue. What's the best way to go about it?

With North American comics, I can use insightful commentary from places like ArtBomb as a quality based filter. With manga it's much harder (though ArtBomb does cover some). I'm not big on wild experimentation; most of us are more willing to try something out if we at least have some rough guidelines giving us insight into what it's about, what it involves, and if it suites our tastes. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Lady_Amabel

I first got into comics when i was five years old and i was at the local fair. My mother had just bought me a showbag and in it was an Archie comic, when i read those first pages i fell in love. now i read everything from manga to x-men