Right now I'm currently in the process of reading Edena's World by the late Jean "Moebius" Giraud, which apparently started out as a commission by Citroën as an extended advertisement but eventually turned into his own re-writing of Genesis... in the process also spelling out his opinions on humanity's relation to technology, proper nutrition and gender roles.

It looks like Edena's World is not as famous as neither The Incal or The Hermetic Garage, perhaps because it started with a collaboration with an automobile manufacturer rather than Alejandro Jodorowsky or Michael Moorcock, but I find it just as interesting philosophically as well as being one of Moebius' most visually inventive works.

As a matter of fact, it might be more subversive because, as I said, it started out as a car commercial... but then quickly turned into perhaps Moebius' most critical work regarding the entire project of modern civilization. (if one that I don't think fits easily into ideological boxes so far)

Eläkeläinen muistelee!

Time to resurrect this very thread again!

Right now I'm re-reading Daniel Clowes' Ghost World, which I think I "get" much more than first time. Maybe it helps that I'm now more familiar with the entire 1980s/early-1990s indie rock culture whose frame of reference and overall attitude the whole thing reflects. I mean, the very first page has one of the protagonists complain about normal people listening to Sonic Youth.

Also probably doesn't hurt that I right now know a lot of women who probably were exactly like Enid and Rebecca back in high school.

It is indeed.

Has Diefenbach been translated into any other languages yet? The art style certainly looks interesting, like it's inspired by the author's late countryman Zdzislaw "The H. R. Giger of Eastern Europe" Beksinski.

I'm reading a bunch of Frank Miller's Sin City stuff, which I think I understand better now that I'm more familiar with pulp crime fiction and film noir of which that series is a pastiche. It's still style-above-substance, but the stories actually owe as much to old horror and 1970s action films as to classic noir perhaps being better appreciated in that light since it abandons the customary realism of that stuff for grotesque expressionism set in some kind of nightmare world. (sometimes with a capital E thanks to the art style)

I love Jiro Taniguchi's graphic novels.

Dutchman Dick Matena is pretty good too, making graphic novels out of world/Dutch literature. Great style, good taste.

i like Will Eisner too, and Hugo Pratt.

CPicard wrote: This thread is so rarely activated that I thought it was a thread about Prog Archives Comics - end of the sentence. It reminds me that I've started to read Civil Wars (volume 3 of the French edition, the death of Captain America). I'm not sure I really enjoy it (at least, it's better that these horrible Ultimatum things). Anyway, I'm about to start Fables (volume 20 of the French edition - volume 17 in the USA, the "Inherit the Wind" arc, running from issue 108 to 113).

I have the entire series...waiting for the newest 'collected issues' to come out. I have really enjoyed that one. Currently starting Hellblazer; vol1;  Constantine (read a later series about this a while back),  ....since the series is coming on American television soon. Thought the movie was just ok with Keanu Reeves but they changed so much of the original story it didn't embody much of the same feel.

Edited by dr wu23 - September 30 2014 at 09:20

Thread resurrection time!

I've been reading Dear Billy and now War Stories Volume 2 by Garth Ennis. Gotta say I find the man's WW2 historical stuff is way, way better than things like The Boys and Preacher that he's more famous for, because having to stick to real historical events bring out his strengths as a writer while keeping the trademark goofy shock humour I often find unnecessary or even downright distracting to a minimum. Here he's good at humanizing people who have either been rendered rather unpleasant or even monstrous by either their circumstances or their ideological convictions if not a combination of both, in the process of exploring the hows and whys of man's inhumanity to man.

Both volumes balance good storytelling and complex characterization with some absolutely painstaking research into history, showcasing quite a few underhanded or morally questionable things done by non-USSR Allies. Then there's Dear Billy also impressing me quite a bit by being probably the first Garth Ennis comic I've read that's written entirely from a female point of view, something I hadn't expected him to pull of anywhere this well because of the "rated R for manly" sensibility he writes from most of the time.

I kind of wish the WS would have included more about the Pacific War which I've been reading a lot about recently, like Dear Billy does focus on, but it does compensate for that by having a story about the Spanish Civil War. Technically not WW2, but certainly a prelude to the conflict as it saw future Allied and Axis powers clash.