Comics!

[CiG]

I liked that it was anti-Reagan from more than one angle.

 

[no country for old wainds]

WATCHMEN is a little too cute in places, too many overcalculated ironies for my liking, but it's also kinda masterful the way it sweeps you into these flowing rhythms and moods while jumping all over the place temporally. it's never gonna be a top tier favourite of mine, but i don't dispute its classic status. i think it's pretty open-minded for something so overtly political, like CiG says it approaches its themes from multiple angles and never really fully shows its hand aside from a kind of overarching cynicism.

i'd like recommendations of any comics/graphic novels with a really strong emotional undercurrent, bleak atmosphere, etc. any genre. don't assume i've read obvious shit either, i'm a layman.

 

[Vilden]

Watchmen is definitely a classic, but Dave Gibbons and John Higgins art and colors are just as much reason for it, setting the whole foreboding, apocalyptic world ending tone.

@no country for old wainds : One of the more emotional comics I've read is probably Nausicaä: of the Valley of the Wind. As you like anime (the story of the manga is vastly different from the anime tho) you probably know it already though, post apocalyptic fantasy with great art, great story, great characters, etc. Definitely both bleak and emotional.

Another great, also japanese, comic is Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths it's a half biography half fiction about a soldier in the japanese army in WWII, participating in the pacific war against the allies. It really pictures the culture at the time with the no surrender attitude, miserable conditions, etc.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

I'm not denying Watchmen was great, it was. I just find injecting your own personal political biases into a comic book pretty tasteless. I despise Reagan, but I simply think it's contrived and stupid to masturbate to how much you don't like him in something like a comic book.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

You want bleak and blatantly classic? Go straight for The Killing Joke, amazing stuff.

 

[Vilden]

Alan Moore is pretty tasteless when it comes to alot of stuff. He is VERY pushy about his ideas about politics, sexuality, magic, religion, etc. For example, V for Vendetta, Promethea, and later stories like Neonomicon. But this can be said about alot of comic book writers, like the earlier mentioned Frank Miller or Jamie Delano.

I actually think Watchmen is one of his better works and the political viewpoint works very will there imo. The atmosphere and tone in the whole book is great.

Speaking of comics that infuses political views, @no country for old wainds : Read Jamie Delanos Hellblazer-run (I know I've talked about it alot in this thread but w/e). It paints a really bleak picture of 80s-90s Britain combining demons and dark rituals with drugs, yuppies, failing political leaders, angry youth culture, working class problems, etc. Topped with a great anti-hero as protagonist. One of my absolut favorite american comics.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

I don't deny Moore's pushiness at all when it comes to that stuff. It's one of the the things that made V For Vendetta a little tough to read at times for me.

 

[CiG]

I'm not denying Watchmen was great, it was. I just find injecting your own personal political biases into a comic book pretty tasteless. I despise Reagan, but I simply think it's contrived and stupid to masturbate to how much you don't like him in something like a comic book.

Yeah no, I think you're either miss-remembering Watchmen or certain things went over your head.

You're making it seem as if the book was a left-wing critique of Ronald Reagan. That might be insufferable as a concept, but it also contained right-wing criticism of the man. It was quite well-rounded and actually I think the whole Reagan thing you're referring to is overstated itself.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

I didn't care which side of the isle it was coming from, I just think it was dumb to shoehorn the anti-Reagan stuff in there. It is overstated, I agree, but it was plain enough.

 

[CiG]

It fit in perfectly with the overall context and plot of the book.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

If a polished turd fits inside the museum because it's under the same golden plaque as the jewel encrusted crown, it's still a polished freaking turd.

 

[CiG]

That makes no sense. I'm seeing that's a trend with your opinions.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

It makes perfect sense. If they do something shite within something good and it blends in, it's still shite.

 

[CiG]

No.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

Yep.

 

[CiG]

Which parts were specifically preachy or layered on thick to you?

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

The Killing Joke along with The Dark Knight Returns are both overrated
Both are good, but holy shit. People need to calm the hell down

 

[CiG]

They're pretty fucking great.

 

[Vilden]

The Killing Joke is great, DKR is hit or miss for me. The art is great, and the general story is interesting, my biggest problem is that Batman often just seems like a Don Quixote lashing out at the world around him angry at everything. Pretty much every character in the book is unlikeable, which probably is the point but I think it makes for a worse reading experience.

The Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Grant Morrison's Batman run leading up to The New 52 is probably my all time favs.

 

[CiG]

New 52 in general has been an amazing project.