![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
Mostly a shout-out to Kristie, thanks for recommending "Runaways". I got the first collection yesterday (ish 1-6), and I'll need to buy the second one today...it's awesome. The last teen-supergroup comic I read was Gen13, and this is so much better. Considering how popular a trope it is in comics, it's nice to see one that does a good job of portraying fairly accurate teens. The only thing that bugged me was the sudden "let's all use pseudonyms" in the last few pages. Frankly, that was the one thing Gen13 did a great job with...of the 5 kids in that, 2 didn't even use pseudonyms (only their surnames, which sounded superheroish enough), and they mostly called each other by their first names (hell, even Grunge--which was his nickname before he got powers--mostly got called Eddie after a while...maybe after they realized Grunge is a really stupid name).
Anyway, suffice to say, Runaways is cool, and I'm hoping it stays good. I particularly liked a quote from Gert's parents: "Capitalism may be the unequal distribution of wealth, but socialism is the equal distribution of poverty". I love Gert's folks, even if they are evil time travellers.
Speaking of cool phrases, Casey laughed her head off at something I said this morning. I remarked how the last time I talked to my brother Jim, he was a lot more reasonable and we actually agreed on some points (amazing, considering what a raving liberal he is). Casey said that it's probably because NOW he's married to a conservative. Struck with an epiphany, I said, "so just being around her is making him more reasonable. OMG, it's like conservatives leak sanity out of their pores...sanity is contagious". We shared a good laugh.
(Keep in mind, this is tongue in cheek...I don't really believe all liberals are crazy. More likely, it's simply that Jim's wife Sarah is a reasonable person, and in talking with her, he's been forced to realize that his idiotic positions don't hold water...so he's becoming a reasonable liberal. That's my goal...not the elimination of liberalism, but the reformation.)
Anyway, I'm posting this from work, so I should probably just shut up now.
P.S. Heather, you know that AR-15 you got a chance to shoot? I own one now. :)
November 4 2007, 01:34:42 UTC 4 years ago
Anyway! I am seriously happy to hear you liked it! Gen13 - maybe we should check that one out. Also sort of cool is that Joss Whedon has some hand in Runaways and Jason and I are _huge_ Whedon fans...
Ok I'm off to take advantage of the freedom a soundly sleeping baby, and a husband abroad, provides :)
~ K
November 5 2007, 20:32:02 UTC 4 years ago
Is that for a trade paperback-size? Because I bought volume one in this little digest-sized paperback (pretty much the same size as a manga collection), for 7.99.
What sucks (for me) is that Bosco's doesn't have vol. 2 (at either location), and neither does Barnes & Noble (who I felt sure would have it)...I could buy it online, but I hate doing that unless I'm caught up to present and want to read the story as quick as I can. :)
As for Gen13...uh, no, don't bother. It wasn't bad (one of the better things to come out of Image in the 90's) but it certainly wasn't good. It's mostly a "a gang of zany superpowered teens, 3 of whom are really hot chicks who hang around without a lot of clothes...oh, and one of those is a lesbian. y'know, cause lesbians are HOTTT". Some of the plotlines are all right (the over-arching plot was actually fairly decent), but most of the subplots pretty much sucked.
The best things about it were a.) the art (he's a sexist, but damn, he's a fine artist...and not just on the girls) and b.) John Lynch. Lynch is the coolest mofo to come out of Image, cooler than Cole Cash by at least a couple degrees. But if you want to get the coolness of John "Jack" Lynch without the suck of Gen13, read "Team 7", or else "Sleeper" (Sleeper is one of those books I keep meaning to catch up on).
I read it at first because I was just getting back into comics, and didn't know what was good and what was bad. I kept with it for a bit after I got better taste, simply because they switched artists/writers, and the new people had better taste (the art was more realistic, and the writing much better...well, at least it made more sense). Then, they committed the unforgivable sin...they took Lynch out of the series (the dastards!). After that, I gave it up. I mean, they brought in Alex Fairchild, who's hella cool, don't get me wrong, but he's not a replacement Lynch.
(besides, Lynch is one of the only characters who didn't look better with the new art...the old artists drew him as almost skeletally lean, which suited him, and made his scar look better. The new artists gave him a fuller build--which I don't like--and minimized the scar--which took away a lot from his distinctive look.)
But yeah, gotta get new collection. And Casey might read it (yay!)...I love it when she enjoys comics too, but she isn't really into most of what I read. She did like a sort of "period fantasy" book called "Ruse", which I also enjoyed. And of course, she likes Manga...
Anyway, great to hear from you (I think this reply is longer than the original post...) :)
November 6 2007, 03:57:07 UTC 4 years ago
I guess I'm not using the proper terminology. So - this is what we bought when we began reading Runaways (http://www.amazon.com/Runaways-Vol-1-B
So - when I said I think I had bought some issues...I think those were the 7.99 ones. My assumption - was that the volumes were made up of the issues...? So that if I have indeed bought at least 1 or 2 of them - then spending the 18 bucks for vol 2 (http://www.amazon.com/Runaways-Vol-1-B
Hm, is it a hardcover/softcover thing?
Thank you for the recommendations also - I may have Jason pick the next series :P He refused to read Sandman - though I read them all. We'll see :)
Oh, and art is important to me. I will even take a ..little bit of a lesser quality storyline if the art absolutely kicks ass.
November 6 2007, 21:01:42 UTC 4 years ago
Okay, here's how it breaks down:
There are single issues of comics...these are what most people think of as "comic books", the really thin folio-style pamphlets.
Then there are collections...which are done various ways. The most common way is in what they call a "trade paperback" or TPB, which is about the same size as a comic, but thicker, and softbound. It usually collects between 5-7 issues at a time.
Runaways appears to have printed their softcover collections in a little digest-size paperback instead...the one I bought was "Pride & Joy", issues 1-6.
But THEN, they collected the collections! :) The one you bought apparently collects the first 4 (I think...it lists only 3 named collections--Pride & Joy, Teenage Wasteland, and The Good Die Young--but the next one says it collects vol. 5-7, so I'd guess this is vol. 1-4) softcover collections...I'd guess maybe 24 issues in all.
So in that sense...you got a much better deal then me. :) Generally, the more you buy in one volume, the better your price. If you buy all the comics, you're paying at least 3 bucks an ish, usually. If you buy the softcover, you're usually getting it for about the same, really...most TPBs go for 18-20 bucks, for around 6 issues...you might save a few bucks.
But that hardbound...man, that's actually a steal. At around 25 bucks for (I'm guessing) 24 issues, you're getting a much better price per ish...AND you're getting it in a prettier, durable package, with no ads (if you buy by the single ish, usually 1/3 to 1/2 of the comic book is advertisements).
Crap...I should have bought the hardback. Maybe I still will... :)
Art has become gradually less important to me...my two faves, Watchmen and Powers, both have only mediocre art (though Oeming's is more "stylized" than "poorly drawn"), but I forgive them because I'm reading for the story, not the awesome visuals.
Want good art and good story? I have a new recommend: Identity Crisis. I've only been getting into DC comics fairly recently, but that one was superb...definitely best I've read from DC. And if you buy the hardback collection (as I did), you get some really nice extras in the back, including artist and writer commentary.
December 14 2007, 11:38:20 UTC 4 years ago
As to your "reformation of liberalism" goal...what if conservativism happens to get reformed at the same time? Like chemistry, the old Carl Jung saying that if there is any reaction [between two people] both are transformed? Personally, I tend to think elimination of conservativism (conservatives?) would be easier, but then, I'm a raving, crazy liberal.