The Old School Otaku Lounge

It's a great era for reprints. There are very few old comic books now that haven't been reprinted lately in some form or another.

Old comic strips, though...we still have some catching up to do there.

llj wrote:It's a great era for reprints. There are very few old comic books now that haven't been reprinted lately in some form or another.

Old comic strips, though...we still have some catching up to do there.

Truth. If it's not a comic strip that's INSANELY popular with the mainstream market, people don't really seem interested in reprinting them. :/

One of the few new American titles I've been reading lately is the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic from IDW. It's surprisingly good, even if I have a few qualms about it (like how no one in NYC seems surprised or startles at the sight of four mutant turtles) but it's easily better than most of the earlier TMNT comic runs, even the original. Also, it's more enjoyable than the recent TMNT film/abomination.

I can't get into reading the current Marvel or DC line-up, especially the New 52, which I hear is a mess. I did recently pick up a Captain America trade paperback that reprints some of the early '80s issues. I've always enjoyed that era of artwork/coloring & storytelling over the stuff today.

And lastly, I've been re-reading one of my favorite comic mini-series of all time, Marvel's Secret Wars from the '80s. That mini-series may have been created to sell toys, but for me it'll always be the gold-standard of superhero comics and crossovers.

Char Aznable wrote:And lastly, I've been re-reading one of my favorite comic mini-series of all time, Marvel's Secret Wars from the '80s. That mini-series may have been created to sell toys, but for me it'll always be the gold-standard of superhero comics and crossovers.

Did you buy Secret Wars as an omnibus TPB in color, or are you reading the ones you've had since the '80s? I should check on Amazon for that sort of thing when I am at home.

greg wrote:Did you buy Secret Wars as an omnibus TPB in color, or are you reading the ones you've had since the '80s? I should check on Amazon for that sort of thing when I am at home.

I'm currently reading Secret Wars in the color TPB format. I do have most of the original comics too, but I think I'm still missing a few issues. One of the reasons I picked up the TPB, aside from collecting the entire 12-issue run, is because it comes with some extra prologue pages culled from other titles that led into the mini-series, and there was a great introduction written by writer Jim Shooter, and some other bonuses.

Here's a link to Amazon for the current TPB: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Wars-Jim-S ... rs+omnibus

Mine's an older edition than the one linked to here, so I'm not sure if this new one comes with more or less, as far as extras are concerned. But--at least with the edition I have--Marvel didn't re-color any of the art, which is fantastic. I loath the fact that so many current TPB's from both DC and Marvel are re-coloring the artwork to make it look more modern.

I was big on Marvel back in the day, but in 4th grade, I also read the Crow and Mask comics when the movies came out and loved them

I was definitely more of a Marvel fan when I was a kid. DC at the time always felt too bland, aside from Batman. I've got a few reprint collections of Silver Age DC stuff now, but mostly for the artwork.

llj wrote:I was definitely more of a Marvel fan when I was a kid. DC at the time always felt too bland, aside from Batman. I've got a few reprint collections of Silver Age DC stuff now, but mostly for the artwork.

Same here. When it came to the comics, Marvel always seemed to have more interesting characters. Batman was the only DC title I would buy, but that came to an end after the Knightfall arc wrapped up. I still collect some of the '70s Batman comics, especially the Neal Adams ones. As a kid, and even still till today, my DC fix mostly comes from the Christopher Reeve Superman and Michael Keaton Batman films. To me, those movies always eclipsed whatever I read on the comic page.

Char Aznable wrote:Mine's an older edition than the one linked to here, so I'm not sure if this new one comes with more or less, as far as extras are concerned. But--at least with the edition I have--Marvel didn't re-color any of the art, which is fantastic. I loath the fact that so many current TPB's from both DC and Marvel are re-coloring the artwork to make it look more modern.

I'll have to buy that TPB someday. I am the same way about recoloring. I look at modern-day comics and they don't feel like comics to me. Even stuff from 15 years ago looks better than the newer stuff. I bought the Enders Game comics from a few years ago and I didn't like how the art looked. I miss how I could look real closely and see the pigment polka-dot patterns in the old comics.

My bud just got a nice book on Italian Fumetti cover art. Great stuff. Wish I could remember the name though...

Found it:

Sex and Horror: The Art of Emanuele Taglietti Korero Press


http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Horror-Art-Em ... s=Tagletti