Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with comics

Life Is Swell?

surenoproblem — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:23:48 -0800

Where can I read Matt Groening's comic strip Life in Hell (which has been retitled Life is Swell) online? Are there any regularly updated web pages featuring this strip? Any advice on how I can follow this strip would be appreciated!

What are some long-form comics (including webcomics) that explore religion?

homelystar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:18:18 -0800

What are some long-form comics (including webcomics) that explore religion and/or religious issues? I'm trying to educate myself about comics in general, but am especially interested in religious studies. Any religion is welcome. Skepticism or atheism as a theme is OK too. I can read only English and Spanish reliably, but would still like to know if you know of comics of this type in other languages. I'm less interested in explicitly "propaganda"-type cartoons--such as Jack Chick's for his brand of evangelical Christianity, or similar ones for Messianic Judaism or Richard Dawkins-style "New Atheism"--than in ones that tell a complex story. But propaganda is interesting too.

Already on my to-read list: Preacher; R. Crumb's "Genesis"; and maybe "Mystery Play" by Grant Morrison and Jon Muth. I've read Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Art Spiegelman's Maus and loved both. There must be a lot more I'm missing...right?

(I will also peruse the comics listed here, the list of Jewish comics characters here, and maybe "The Truth for Youth".)

Me Draw Pretty One Day

EatTheWeak — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:22:13 -0800

Hey artists and creative types! How do you get back at it when you've been out of the studio for a long time? This question relates directly to visual art, so that's my main interest in this, but I'd like to hear answers from writers and musicians and any other creative folks who might have some insight to share. Basically, I'm wondering how you get your muse to start returning your calls again.

My situation is that I'm heading into a quarter of school where I get to spend as much time as I please in the studio, working on my art (comics, in my case) - trouble is, I'm coming off a summer where I worked six nights most weeks and scarcely had a moment to draw, so I feel really rusty. When my comics matrix is firing on all cylinders, inspiration is never a problem - rather, keeping up with it is. But getting there takes awhile, and I'd like to jumpstart my return if at all possible.

So, that's the question, creative AskMe readers: when you've been away from your artistic practice for a long time, how do you get your head back in the game?

What are the exact dimensions of Captain America's shield?

XQUZYPHYR — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:16:35 -0800

I'm making a lightweight replica of Captain America's shield (the modern-day circular one), most likely with PVC in a laser router machine. The only dimensions I can secure online are that it's 30 inches in diameter, but I can't find any info on thickness and concave depth. Anyone know the missing dimensions I need? Bonus points if there exist specifics on the width of the color bars but I'm pretty sure that part I can eyeball during painting. Thanks!

Looking for some good sf pulp fiction

Ritchie — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:41:34 -0800

Looking for suggestions for stories, novels, or comics in the vein of Mervyn Peake and China Mieville. I read Peake's Gormenghast novels years ago, and loved them. I've also read Perdido Street Station, and am aiming to pick up The Scar and Iron Council by Mieville.

I guess I'm looking for stories which have that unique crossover of fantasy, technology, and maybe elements of grand guignol body horror.

I'm open to stories in any format, including graphic novels and comic books. I'm even interested in non-English stories.

Total Crud Face Universe and Galaxy

Juliet Banana — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:13:39 -0800

I am obsessed with artist&writer Lynda Barry, and don't believe she has any peer or equal in the world of comics. Prove me wrong; who else would I love? I like how the art is appealing but from a totally different planet than the enviable mechanical precision of, say, Chris Ware.

Her work represents how my youth actually was; instead of a bland suburban innocence that doesn't really exist, she depicts the bloody skinned knees and lack of parental supervision and messy school assignments and gnawing anxiety and fear and destructive crushes and cruel teachers and wild neighborhood dogs and bittersweet memories of childhood.

Reading her work is having the feeling "I had no idea anyone else felt like that!" over and over. She manages to be nostalgic without kitschiness or saccarine sugar overload.

The closest I've found is Rebecca Kraatz's House of Sugar. I know I'm totally slacking by not having read any Ariel Schrag. Your suggestions don't have to be female, or even comic book artists, if you feel the feeling fits.

I know bonus questions are frowned upon, but how many Ask theads about Lynda Barry can I possibly start? I want to know how many more Lynda Barry books I need to buy before I have a reasonably complete collection of all the Marlys-Maybonne-Freddy-Arna-Arnold stories. I currently own Down the Street, It's So Magic, The Freddy Stories, and The Best of Marlys (which collects a lot of the strips, but not all). I still need My Perfect Life, Come Over Come Over, and The Fun House, I know. Do any of her other books contain Marlys-Maybonne-Freddy-Arna-Arnold stories?

What's the best Webcomic Reader for iPhone?

Nameless — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:48:05 -0800

What's the best way to read webcomics on my iPhone? I just Googled around for 10 minutes or so and the best I could come up with was an app called Kapow, which was underwhelming at best.

Features I'd like to see:
- Smart fetching of popular comics, probably using some kind of scraping presets for each comic.
- List of favorites with other comics pushed to the bottom.
- Pre-fetching the next strip so that I don't have to wait for it to load.
- Even better, offline reading.
- Decent resizing/navigation interface.
- Remembers the last strip I read for each comic.

No problem with paying.

Superpowerdown

sio42 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:07:35 -0800

ComicsFilter: I like Harvey Birdman and recently picked up Incognito. I think it's a neat question to ponder what superheroes/villains do when they have to pretend to be normal. What else can you recommend in this genre? I'm looking for stuff about beings with superpowers that have to be mundane or retire and their struggles with doing so. Any kind of media is fine. Movies, cartoons, comics, graphic novels, regular novels.... It just occurred to me the Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul was kinda like what I'm looking for as well. The gods kinda didn't really lose their powers but sort of went into retirement.

It can be funny and silly like Harvey Birdman or more serious.

Please feel free to ask me questions about what I'm looking for in case I haven't been clear. I'm not really sure what to call what I'm looking for.

A pop-up comic using fold-in technology

Shepherd — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:03:01 -0800

How can I fold a comic book page to make a story more interesting and still legible when unfolded? I'm working on an idea for a comic book -- pitched pretty young -- that focuses on parts of the comic where the reader interacts with the comic to move the story forward. (Totally unrelated to this comic book project, still in development).

As a f'rinstance: characters have to cross a bridge over a chasm, but the bridge has collapsed in the middle. A character implores the reader to fold the page, Jaffee style, to eliminate the gap in the bridge. The reader can then turn the page, the characters are on the other side of the bridge, and the story continues. If the second page (the crossed-the-bridge page) is then unfolded, the gap in the bridge is still there, or maybe another character has figured out a way to cross (using yarn or a tree branch) in the middle of the page.

I'm trying to think of other ways to engage young readers by manipulating the comic itself. Reversed text and holding it up to a mirror is a possibility, so is folding over the last third of a nine-panel grid page (with another nine-panel grid on the back) to alter a story in progress.

Paul Grist does brilliant fourth-wall stuff with Jack Staff, but this is going to be for a much younger audience, so I can't get too clever. I also don't want to do anything destructive (so no cutting, tearing, or punching holes). Gatefold pages and die cuts might be a possibility, but I don't know if the publisher would be enthused about the additional expense.

In essence, I'm trying to cheapjack a pop-up book in comic-book format: something that will give children that fun, hands-on interactive quality, but only using folds and trickery (turn the book upside down, look at it in a mirror, fold a corner, etc.). I've got a few ideas, but I'd like to see what the hive mind has up its sleeve, especially since I know we have a lot of smart papercrafters in here that will have better ideas than me on this.

have you ever got the notion that he's just a bat with wings?

NoraReed — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:10:43 -0800

MixTapeFilter: I'm looking for songs about fictional characters, particularly ones from geeky fandoms (comic books, video games, etc.) Examples: Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle by the Mountain Goats and Kaki King, Aquaman's Lament by Mark Aaron James. Preferably ones that are not just funny-- I know about that "Link is come to town!" one; I'm not a huge fan of it.

In particular I love stuff that takes a deeper look at two-dimensional characters, particularly throwaway villains in videogames (goombas, etc.).

Wizard Rock is okay but please recommend individual songs, not bands.

All Comics Big And Small And Dangly.

The Whelk — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:40:55 -0800

Where The New Comics At?: In addition to my many other hats I may be getting a job reviewing new erotica/sexuality/explicit etc comics in the future. I'd get my pick of any comic/graphic novel to review as long as it includes some element or discussion of sex or sexuality or whatever. The problem is that I have no idea what the new releases are and I can't seem to find a centralized list of upcoming titles with enough description. Where should I be looking for new and upcoming titles from big and small publishers, ideally with some description so I can tell what the hell it is?

Are there any alt comix artists on Twitter?

Josh Coe — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:36:53 -0800

Are there any alt comix artists on Twitter? Some of my favorite web comic artists are on Twitter, like John Campbell (pictures for sad children - @itsjohncampbell), Kate Beaton (Hark, a vagrant - @beatonna), and Ryan North (quantz - @ryanqnorth).

But what about print alt comix artists? Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes.. Is anyone on Twitter?

cartoon hero names A-Z suitable for monkeys

miagaille — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:24:25 -0800

I work in a lab with rhesus monkeys. They need names. For reasons of historical precedent and notational convenience, lab animals are usually named alphabetically, from A ("Abe") until you run out of monkeys. For reasons of awesomeness, we're naming our monkeys after spunky cartoon characters. So, please help me come up with the best comic/cartoon/superhero names for each letter of the alphabet. We currently have two monkeys: Zim and Yogi (we started from the end of the alphabet). Eight new monkeys are arriving next week, and probably more in the months and years to come. The names should be short (no more than two syllables) or have shortened forms. Both male and female names would be great. We're especially in need of the rare letters (X?); we could skip them, but that would be less awesome.

Note: no monkeys were harmed in the preparation of this AskMe, and no monkeys are maimed/killed/dissected in our lab, either. They live long, healthy lives, which is why we need good names from the start. Thanks!

My comics are cluttering up my house.

Faint of Butt — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:12:35 -0800

Casual comics readers: What do you do with your old issues? I'm trying to clean my damn house, and I keep running into piles of old comics. I don't read many monthly titles, but they accumulate over the years. I'm a pack rat, and am loath to throw them away, on the grounds that I may want or need to read them at some point in the indefinable future (yes, this is a psychological matter, but right now I'm concerned with the practical). Cutting them up for art projects also strikes me as horrible. On the other hand, though, I don't need to preserve them for investment purposes. I just want to keep them without letting them take over my house and infuriate my wife.

So what do you do with your old comic books? The whole bag-and-board thing? Stick them in any old box and put them in the basement? Do you just *choke* throw them in the garbage? Give me some good ideas, please.

"Heroes" writing: Stupid or Stylized?

Alabaster — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:42:12 -0800

Cheesy writing in "Heroes" -- is it stupid or is it stylized? **** I'VE WORDED THE QUESTION VAGUELY ENOUGH TO AVOID SPOILERS, BUT OBVIOUSLY I CAN'T VOUCH FOR THE ANSWERS WHICH MIGHT COME LATER ON THIS PAGE ***

I just finished watching Season 1 of "Heroes" (haven't seen any more yet, so please no spoilers).

I've enjoyed the show but I've had my share of cringes at the writing.

I'd be willing to entertain the notion that some/most/all of the "bad" writing was crafted this way intentionally to mimic a comic-book style -- but I've never been into comic books so I can't back this up.

Some examples (vague enough to avoid spoilers):

-Sappy, melodramatic scenes which don't "work" because the relationships don't support them
-Sudden, implausible changes of heart from many characters
-Scenes that may as well have a flashing neon sign that says "Exposition"
-Cliche after cliche along the lines of "what's in your heart is what counts" and trite "can destiny be changed or is it written in stone" fluff
-Powerful arch-villains with poorly explained motives/backgrounds (in a way that seems superficial, not intriguing in the tip-of-the-iceberg I-can't-wait-to-find-out-more way).
-Plot threads abruptly/too-neatly tied up or left dangling (not in an intriguing way, but seemingly careless or rushed)
-Dialogue discrepancies between a scene and its recap (this happened enough that I'm sure it was intentional)
-Deus ex Machina ad nauseum

The final episode was the worst offender -- someone randomly shows up just in time with no explanation for how they knew where to go, someone conveniently gets a shoulder injury and can't lift a gun, someone reveals their first name and *gasp* it's from the Bible and makes his whole story seem somewhat allegorical if you don't think too hard about it, someone gets called away from a crucial fight to sit and watch from the sidelines with family, someone with godlike powers stops using them for a few minutes in order to get beaten up by a few punches and kicks, etc....

Anyone care to weigh in? How much of this is cleverly stylized cheesiness that I'm too comic-ignorant to recognize? How much is simply poor writing?

I'm most interested in finding a convincing explanation from someone in-the-know, but I'd also welcome personal theories, opinions, and rants.

(also: should I watch seasons 2 and 3? Do they deepen/thicken the plot in an interesting way? I'm a huge "Lost" fan, no matter how weird it gets, but I'm not convinced yet that Heroes is quite so multi-layered).

Some Marvel-ous gems?

np312 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:49:38 -0800

Please recommend some off-the-beaten-path Marvel comics titles that are really good, and that don't involve any of the big name superheroes (like X-Men, Spidey, etc.) (Due to a connection through which I can get Marvel books for free, I'm only interested in Marvel-owned properties.)

I just read Runaways and really enjoyed it. I am interested in some (possibly more obscure) Marvel titles that are whole storylines unto themselves-- i.e. I won't need to be super familiar with each character's past exploits in order to understand the story and enjoy it. Bonus points for origin stories or stories where it's not just superheroes fighting each other with lightning bolts.

I liked Runaways especially because it was set in present day earth and I got to see how all the characters originated, and it just seemed more fresh and original than a lot of other 'kids with powers' storylines. No footnotes needed to understand who was fighting who and why.

I am also interested in any dark, psychological Marvel comic books or storylines that are a bit offbeat and quirky.

Thanks!

Nerd-tastic Philadelphia

Edelweiss — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:44:09 -0800

Nerdfilter: Where are the biggest and best nerd stores in Philadelphia? Specifically, I'm looking for Games Workshops and other purveyors of Warhammer paraphernalia. I know there are a couple of GW stores; which is the better of them, though? And are any of the "independent retailers" of GW products better than the official store? Finally, what of local comic shops? I'll be going to the Philadelphia Comic Convention, but are there any stores that qualify as must-sees for a nerd-tastic trip?

TIA

Too many comics!

JoanArkham — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:19:43 -0800

What should I do with old comics and magazines (that may not be school/retirement home friendly)? I have a ton of old indie comics and magazines I want to get rid of, but it seems a shame to toss them out. I know the usual advice is to give them to a school for crafts or a retirement home, but they aren't really appropriate for those venues. (Adult, but not porny enough to leave in the woods.)

I don't really have the time or space to do anything crafty with them myself.

Behind the scenes in the comic industry?

John Kenneth Fisher — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:34:28 -0800

Are there any good comic book industry tell-alls, or behind-the-scenes books? Not so much interested in the Wertham-era fun with congress, but more who was a dick, what arguments were had over story arcs between writers and editors, what happened at story meetings that led to major events, etc. etc.

The type of thing you see all the time by high-level campaign staff after presidential elections. Just, you know, about people in capes.

Feel free to point me to blogs or columns if you have them too, but actual books are my main interest.

Magic Ring vs. Space Skeleton in the Battle for Sigma 5 or whatnot

Shepherd — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:40:06 -0800

Geek Lantern Filter: a half-remembered GL comic from my youth, some sort of mega-event from the era before mega-events. I am trying to recall what story arc or villain in Green Lantern, probably from the early to mid-'80s, involved a giant decaying skeleton with a freaky huge pelvis and eyeballs coming out of a tear in space and slaughtering vast swaths of the Green Lantern Corps. It was some sort of epic story where the Corps got wiped out, and eventually they force the skeleton into... another dimension or something.

Definitely modern era Hal Jordan Space Cops stuff. It scared the fucking fuck out of me as a child. I've been catching up on this Geoff Johns Prismatic Lanterns stuff recently and thinking it was pretty weak sauce, but can't recall enough about this old GL arc to look it up.

Which comic strip character told me that dragonflies sew lips shut?

IvyMike — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:00:12 -0800

There's an old wives tale that dragonflies can sew your lips shut. My question is: which comic character told me about this? I know I read about the dragonfly-lip thing in a comic strip somewhere. In fact, I would guess it was Linus van Pelt. But I can't find any evidence of this on the internet. Can you either vouch for me, or correct my memory?

"Based on a story by my pal Shecky"

TheSecretDecoderRing — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:02:38 -0800

How often are the stories of a comic, novel, play, TV series, movie, or song conceived by the writer's friend, relative, acquaintance, neighbor, mailman, dog, etc? Writers get all the credit for their works (except in movies, where the director often ends up with a lot; and TV is often collaborative), but just how often is a given story entirely their own idea?

I remember some old anecdote about how Charles Schulz refused to accept story ideas from fans. And for legal reasons it's probably a smart choice for professional writers. But like a lot of people, IANAPW, but still harbor ambitions of coming up with the concept for the Great American Movie. (A lot of people in America, anyway.)

Not that I plan on hounding my friendly neighborhood screenwriter, but out of sheer curiosity, do you know of any instances where the premise behind a well-known show, movie, book, etc was conceived of in detail by someone other than the credited writer/creator... just an ordinary "civilian"?

A close example would be "Lost," which was roughly conceived by a then-exec at ABC, before being fleshed out by JJ Abrams and company. Now, if the general story arc of the entire series had originally been pitched to JJ by, say, his optician... that'd be even better.

Who's doing neat stuff with the web and comics?

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:57:34 -0800

Most comics on the web seem to be just scanned in print comics or the equivalent of same. Can you point me to any web comics that are making use of web/internet technology to make the comics reading experience different from print comics? No need to mention Scott McCloud. For instance, all the web comics I've seen are essentially just one gif or jpeg per page. Are there any web comics that are putting each panel of a page in a div and layering them via css for dramatic effect? Are any using selectable web text in their word balloons instead of hand or computer done lettering that is just part of the art? Stuff like this, which incorporate aspects of the web to make comics, is what I'm looking for.

Where else have I encountered this plot line from The Invisibles?

Lentrohamsanin — Sun, 24 May 2009 06:47:56 -0800

I've been re-reading The Invisibles and a very specific plot line came up that I know I've encountered elsewhere. Can you help me remember? In volume three, one of the members of Division X (Flint) is deprogrammed and stripped of his current identity, because that identity is "scheduled to die from cardiac arrest" in a few days, and if he doesn't come out of the identity and assume either an earlier self or a new one he will actually die. I know I've encountered almost exactly this same concept in a novel or a film I read/saw in the last few years but I can't remember where. A Philip K. Dick book maybe?

What French-language comics would you recommend?

Grinder — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:53:29 -0800

What French-language comics would you recommend? I will be in Paris shortly and hope to spend some time in the comic shops there. I am aware of the bande dessinée phenomenon but don't know much about specific titles or authors. I can read French relatively well, and would like to pick up something different while I'm away.

In English, I like most "mainstream" graphic novels: Sandman, Watchmen, Y, Blade of the Immortal. If I had a preference for a particular genre, I suppose it would be science-fiction. I'm looking for tips on a few particularly good, current titles to check out. (I'm not looking for a guide to the classics: I just want to sample the best of now rather than get an education!) Suggestions for good, friendly shops in Paris would be a bonus.

So, what's particularly exciting in the BD world at the moment?