Lurker > Juhanor

The state of manga in America is nuts. Hokuto no Ken's original run was five years, Viz's translation 30 years later is likely to be in a similar time frame. Their One Piece translation still has errors and hasn't had any corrective reprintings for the sake of consistency--you know, if you make a mistake, it's better to double down than admit and fix it--while the French publisher, Glenat, went through three versions before settling on a more accurate translation. Absolutely nuts.

"Read" a book of portraits, subject: Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy)
https://i.vgy.me/BcUUcy.jpg
Lol ^ actually at a JC Penney's

https://i.vgy.me/8klJpx.jpg
He was so cool

Re-read Usagi Yojimbo - Senso and Yokai Hunter. The watercolors on Yokai Hunter are just gorgeous.
https://i.vgy.me/TQpyOK.jpg
Senso's ending is kinda a drag though...

cuh posted...

Omg this would give me anxietythis wasnt in the syllabus??

It was but to elaborate a little:
>typical course has "everything" up at once in module format, you just move through the modules of reading/discussion/paper as weeks progress
>professor for Presidency "unlocked" material week by week because he didn't want students to get too far ahead
(which would be fine except)
>I had to e-mail him three weeks into the course because he forgot to unlock said week's module (here's where I learned his unlocking system)
>another student had to e-mail him on the second to last module because he hadn't put that week's paper up
>two weeks before end of semester/last module of work goes up partially--no brief or page to upload final paper--and we're alerted that professor has taken a leave of absence
>I finish the discussion work/rest of my course work in the first week, basically think I'm done with semester
>four days before end of semester another professor takes over for our original prof, unlocks the final paper
>I happen to check on Friday and end up writing it yesterday
Long story short, basically the last paper was always intended, but the absent-minded handling of the course made it so I actually couldn't do it until the eleventh hour, so to speak.

I hope you feel better today!!

Had one more paper sprung on me at the second to last day of the semester so that was cool/s
Now I can start reading for fun again.

Happened upon the Usagi/Chibi Usagi crossover, it was hilarious.
https://i.vgy.me/gWMr3j.jpg

Just like Tarzan, first one is best.

My DC recs:

Fair warning, these are all from the original creators and might be difficult to track down in GN format.

Pre-1970s

Enemy Ace by Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert - solid Kubert artwork as usual, Kanigher is a bit melodramatic as a writer but it works. Plot is about a WWI German airplane pilot who is believed to be an unsympathetic killing machine by both his comrades and enemy combatants. Actually, he's not. Generally episodic/one-off stories, I believe a couple recurring. The GN I have is Showcase Presents: Enemy Ace, black + white newsprint.

Doom Patrol by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani - Again episodic/one-off stories, some recurring towards the end. Fun series where the female character is the heavy, and the typical manly hero faints and is pretty useless. Also there's a cool robot man and the ending is a punch in the gut. Great art and writing. It looks like you can get Archives, Showcase Presents or The Silver Age versions.

Plastic Man by Jack Cole - One of the best. He did have a few ghosts towards the end of the run, but it's generally easy to tell a Cole issue from say, a Kotzky (Kotzky IIRC draws Plas like a horror monster). Very fun and inventive comic, highly recommended. There are some out of print Archives versions.

Superman by Siegel + Shuster - I recommend the Daily Strips, the stories are tight and its possibly the purest vision of Superman you'll ever read (a chaotic good troll). Look for 1939-1942 to start off.

1970s

Do yourself a solid and read JACK KIRBY. Anything he did at DC in the 70s is pure gold: great artwork, basically unrestricted in his storytelling, did his own writing with IMPACT. My recommendations are:

Kamandi - after the Great Disaster, sentient humans are in short supply. Sentient animals, on the other hand...
Awesome story, great characters, #29 is my favorite. There's an Omnibus from 2018 that looks to be OOP, but it's worth it.

Fourth World - actually four titles (New Gods, Mister Miracle, Forever People, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen). Possibly his greatest work - the writing is mind blowing. I have the Absolute Edition but there's other options; Box Set and Omnibus. As a follow-up, Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. Whatever you do, do NOT read anything Fourth World that isn't written by Kirby. I've never seen a different writer understand the theme of the comic, Apokolips/New Genesis, or hell, even Darkseid.

The Demon - fairly short but otherwise fun; might be a gateway to Prince Valiant.

Post 70s

I'm only gonna give you one rec here
Hitman by Ennis and McCrea - Ennis with oversight is Ennis at his best. McCrea can handle panels and spreads with equal impact. You know how you read a comic and some dumb corporate mandated crossover breaks up the story? Doesn't happen with Hitman. The ending is beautiful--the writing is beautiful--the artwork is beautiful--the comic is a representation of the best in the worst of us. Read Hitman! There's some old OoP collections but the first Omnibus comes out in July.

Final discussion forum: finished
Barring one potential surprise assignment, the semester is basically over for me.
I can finally read for enjoyment again...
After about a week of sleep LOL.

My friend has finally caught up with me on Bleach, I cannot remember a single thing from the last volume I read lol

cuh posted...

Btw, book companies should hire you for recommending such excellent books!! )

I'd take that job in a heartbeat lol
cuh posted...

Also why am I getting some homoerotic vibes from Pierre (the Tolstoy stand-in)?

Just based on the selection of text, I can see it too. It reads very intimately.

I'm kinda at a loss of what to read next...I've been looking at some old issues of Usagi Yojimbo and think I might check out Groo the Wanderer, at least the first batch under Pacific Comics.

cuh posted...

Oooh this looks great, thanks!! Downloaded the sample on my tablet :)

I hope its good, let me know how it goes.

Read Fences, it was pretty good.

cuh posted...

Similarly, there are a ton of companion books to Joyces Ulysses, so Im wondering if anyone knows of a good one for W&P

I did a quick search, maybe "Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War and Peace with Yiyun Li"?

Joined, my handle is j1duo on Discord.

Read the facsimile version of some of Basquiat's notebooks, his handwriting was really nice + had some interesting sentence construction as he did. I'm also 90% sure the guy that bought them back then and published em thanked everyone in the acknowledgements EXCEPT you know, Basquiat...

DoesntMatter posted... I'm glad to have you back!

spanky1 posted...

In light of the new CE rules, Duran will never posting in this topic again. WELP.

:(
Throwing it out there, we can always consider migrating the topic to a different board if not website. Gonna really hate to lose the ease of use and simplicity of GameFAQs posting interface though...

Alright last big reading of American Literature, while Fandom strikes out at CE. I get to pick one of three plays, anyone familiar with these works or can rec which one to pick?
Death of a Salesman
Fences
Long Day's Journey Into Night

cuh posted...

Just finished the entirety of Marcel Prousts In Search of Lost Time. Cheers!

Good job!

I've been continuing to collect reading materials for my upcoming break from college; currently have 2 of the 4 classes I took this semester done (History of US Navy and American Immigration). American Presidency and Literature from 1865 to Present remain...

I'm gonna read a LOT of comic strips...and that huge stack of books I took a photo of awhile ago...lol

I'm not sure anyone can quite match Herriman in terms of his word choice tbh

Had my last meeting with Navy history professor today, always a good time; signed up for courses in the fall, just have to figure out how to change my degree plan to reflect that.

Read about some cool sounding Italian comics today...but they're not TL'ed <_<

cuh posted... I'm so sorry; I can only say that she must have been a wonderful mother to have raised you all, and that she will surely live on in your hearts and memories.

Just working on papers today, I can't wait to be done with this semester!

cuh posted...

Where do you live, if you dont mind me asking? I hope your electricity is back on!

Central New York, I'm in the backwoods between Syracuse and Utica. The electricity did come back, I think it was out 28 hours total.

cuh posted... Oh my friend, I'm so sorry. I wish I could make it better for you.

Finished Sphinx quests RIP.
Not sure what I'll do next, are the Trickster and MA vocations in Battahl?

Lmao I saw Sonic the other day, creepy.

Currently doing the Sphinx quests, her design is neat. Love the eyes+feather hair

Finally got time to play more this past week, throwing feels a lot more smooth than DD1.
https://i.vgy.me/1mFyrr.jpg

Finished the second to last US Navy chapter today, last is Battle of Manila Bay.

https://i.vgy.me/jJ1JTK.jpg

The hits just keep on coming going on eighteen hours with no electricity. I did get a ton of work done for classes yesterday though. Currently building my collection up for post-semester reading and trying not to freeze.

Happy Easter everyone!
Almost done with this semester...the end of assigned readings in sight...
Ratchetrockon posted...

Been playing it on PC.

Me too!

Boxboy series from HAL Labs
Crimson Shroud

https://i.vgy.me/e7aDbv.jpg

Back from EEG and scrubbed up, that was pretty crazy. The tech blinked like...I'd say 8 or so patterns of lights at my closed eyes, first half seemed pretty normal, second half, hooo boy. I could "feel" my brain start to fire up and the room started spinning, but it went away pretty quickly. The tech was nice though and aside from those four patterns, not a bad test. Actually chatted with him about Naval History lololol.

cuh posted...

^^^Ahh I see, Ive seen that one online when looking for copies on the internet. The Taschen one I bought is huge, its about a foot wide, 17 inches tall, and over 14 pounds

https://www.taschen.com/en/books/comics/01173/george-herriman-s-krazy-kat-the-complete-color-sundays-1935-1944/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2c708dd6.jpg

Definitely a luxury book Ill carry this to my grave

I'll have to track down a copy, their BIG books are awesome!

Ratchetrockon posted...

I've been distracted by dragon's dogma 2 as of late lol

Aahh I played some over the weekend, I definitely want to play more today. What system do you have it on?

cuh posted...

(check out the Krazy Kat box in the background btw!)

!!!!
I'm 90% sure I saw that exact cover in one of the local bookstores...last summer maybe? I didn't pick it up because I already had an armful of books and was actually going to try and find the title to recommend to you cause I thought it might have been dailies. What a crazy (krazy) coincidence!

Ah OK, I was 90% sure but 100% wrong...the "night" sky is what I was remembering. This is the one I spotted in the wild last year:
https://i.vgy.me/Ma8aez.jpg

^Very nice, Geo.'s panel work is highly underrated IMO
I haven't given his color work a chance yet TBH, Krazy just looked so damn good in B+W....

Just read more Navy today; ironclads are kinda wearing me out. The author described the Civil War as the first industrialized war/setting the standard for future conflicts but holy cow they did NOT have the standards then. It reads like a comedy of errors at points.

Plague sounds scary <_<

Alucard188 posted...

T'was the last time I rested at an Inn, yeah. She's 13 now.

Nice, I'll rehire her once I play again

Akagami_Shanks posted...

was it worth 70 bucks?

Tentatively yes, the game is still pretty fun to play; exploring (especially at night) and plot are interesting. Keep in mind I'm somewhat curmudgeonly and love MT Framework era Capcom, if you've played+enjoyed any of the RE Engine games then I think this would be mindblowing.
I'm sincerely hoping they do gradual updates like the recent MH games and put extra vocations in, would go from tentative yes to resounding yes if so.

Alucard188 posted...

Someone should totally rent my pawn to see if it works. Add me on Steam if you haven't yet.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/Alucard188/

Hired last I played, she was level 11?

Akagami_Shanks posted...

how is the game

It's OK. IMO has gone a little too hard on the "wait a few days" type of quests, splitting strider into thief/archer kinda sucks especially with no advanced versions of either, some minor design choices that make me think "man I miss X from DD1..."
Not bad so far but not perfect.

Enclave posted...

Just cut their tails off and they're a joke.

DrizztLink posted...

Yeah, always attack them from behind.

Thank you! It makes sense they'd keep the tail cutting in, background on my circumstance:
Started as Thief, switched to Archer to help that elf guy met in Vermund...Glyndwyr or something?
My main pawn was also Archer (but it won't really be relevant...)
Hired a Mage and Fighter, helped the spoilers
Started heading back to the capital
Fighter got BRINE'd while we were fighting a Cyclops
Cyclops got BRINE'd...taking Main Pawn with him
Mage aggro's three saurians and I'm here without a dodge, half my party dead, no tail cutting ability...
I made it back to the capital and switched back to Thief immediately lol

Saurians are OP this time
If we're not friends on Steam add me and let's do some pawn trading
https://s.team/p/hhtn-kfkm/gqqwbgmp

Read some more Civil War Naval history today. Ironclads are cool.

Reading about the Union+Confederate Navies
DD2 tonight wooo

Read some Usagi today, I think I might start Groo next.

cuh posted...

^Glad to hear it!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/dbf7ecac.jpg

Id like to find a physical or digital book of Krazy Kat dailies. I know theres quite a few books of the Sundays on Amazon

Doctor said yep, they were seizures, 2x = epilepsy but the span of time between them being almost half a year was a good sign. Got more meds and he ordered some testing, MRI, EEG, sleep study etc. I have to go six months w/o one before I can drive again though, aiiiieee I love driving.
Oh well, it's all good for now.

Daily selection is definitely more sporadic; it looks like
"Kat Who Walked in Beauty: 1920" and 24/26/27/28 have been collected. Library of American Comics did at least one volume, 1934. Being a strip fan is suffering...LOL

cuh posted...

Oh my gosh Im so sorry, I hope you are doing better now. Im glad it was a pleasant visit

And I love how, despite all that, youre still thinking about how much youre reading each day. Im the same way <3

<3 All good for now, AFAIK it's only the second time it's happened and they've got me on a week of meds so we'll see what the doc says tomorrow.
Reading definitely makes for a nice constant, I legit think one of the first things I said to my fam after we were all together back home was "all the stuff that means something to me is starred on my reading list" LOL

Happened on some Hitman today, I'm looking forward to the first omnibus in...June IIRC

Ended up in the hospital myself yesterday, seeking further treatment on Monday at a neurologist. EMTs+doctors think I might be having early morning seizures <_< Everyone was really nice though, pleasant experience all things considered.

Anyway school work has been taking up most of my time, still haven't gotten much reading done.

Drunk_Cobra posted...

I don't know if this is unpopular, if it is at least I think it's an opinion that has been gaining steam.

Nice!

My unpopular opinion:
Kirby's work at Marvel would have been much better without Lee alliterating over every page; Kirby's work at DC onwards shows he could pull both duties and make comics with substance.