Stuff and things...

[lithera]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) announced today the extension of the hit "Stargate SG-1" franchise with two movies based on the popular series. Titled "Stargate: The Ark of Truth" and "Stargate: Continuum", the movies will both be made available to the television universe and home entertainment marketplace by MGM.

ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson said the net would run all 22 episodes of "Lost" straight through next year, perhaps starting in midseason (a la "24"). There is also talk of the show being only 7 seasons long (again).

And I'm sort of grumpy at DC right now. You had 52 going for... well... 52 weeks. A whole year. And you're going to tell a story of a WWIII in the last three? And supliment your story telling with other comics because you can't fit it all into those last three weeks? For the most part, I've enjoyed 52 but this seems... sloppy. It makes me think about the things mightygodking has been writing about comics and proffessionalism and how people should be able to put a freaking comic book out on time. I must admit that some of the comics that come out the least often are the ones that I like the most (Astonishing X-men, Planetary...) but in other cases, it is just freaking annoying. I like the current run of Green Lantern but I'm starting to get to the point where I don't know if I like it enough for the time it takes for it to come out. I like the Corps book more, to be honest.

In a time where I'm seriously thinking of dropping titles again... Well, it starts to make clear what I'm more likely to drop from what I read. There is a lot of it these days. If I'm picking up books and I'm not reading them in my first of second bunch of "MUST FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS", I'm likely just stuck in my 'but I have them all since the first one' pack rat mentality. I can probably cut a small ton of those. 5 or 6 at least. (And honestly, the new JLA is really likely to be on that list at the moment...)

Strangely enough, this makes me want to ask - for those of you who read comics out there, is there anything you think I should be reading that I might not be?

Comments

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

Considering the ambition of 52, I'm glad that it's turning out that there's too much story there rather than there being not enough.
There were surprisingly few filler issues.

Last week I picked up two weeks of comics due to Jam Cruise. It turned out the week that I missed was the week that every comic I had forgotten about due to falling behind schedule came out. I left with over 20 books. I was still reading on Saturday. Weird.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree. 52 has been generally an enjoyable read every week. I like it. That's not the complaint. The complaint is that this whole WWIII thing seems shoved in there. Just about no one has referenced it in any of the OYL titles. It is getting jameed into like two weeks of a weekly real time title. (A World War that takes three weeks?) and is being suplimented with four other titles.

I don't know. It just feels sloppy and poorly planned. Because it could have taken up the last two months... or the whole damned year, you know? If you needed 7 comics to tell it... you had more than enough of them. *shrugs*

[jeditigger.livejournal.com]

You know I don't read comics with any regularity - too much out there to choose from - but I always advocate anything Jeph Loeb wrote. There's a one-issue shot of Batman called The Spirit you should pick up.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Is that the really recent one? Because I have one of those waiting for me at home..... That I just haven't read yet.

[jameel.livejournal.com]

New Universal
Transformers: Infiltration TPB

[ex-mightygo.livejournal.com]

Jeph Loeb comics generally make me want to pull teeth, but Batman/Spirit is good. However, Darwyn Cooke's solo The Spirit is frankly even better, and that is an ongoing.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I think I picked up the Cooke ongoing. I don't know if I grabbed the Jeph Loeb one shot.

[shadowlongknife.livejournal.com]

Agree wholeheartedly with the newuniversal recommendation, yes indeed.

[theonlymegumegu.livejournal.com]

I like GL Corps better too, but that's mostly because I still think they shouldn't have brought Hal back =P But speaking of, did you read the most recent one? WTF! O_o

Hmm, comic suggestions.. I've been cutting back too. Do you mostly read superhero comics? Mostly DC/Marvel? What is likely you *aren't* reading? Or you could just list what you *are* reading and then I could tell you what I read that doesn't match your list ^_^

[ocicat.livejournal.com]

I don't know what you read. But I'm sure there is stuff you should be reading that you're not... Fables/Jack of Fables from Vertigo. For great historical Japanese sword action, Usagi Yojimbo (really, don't get turned off by the rabbityness).

Superhero wise, don't miss Wagner's Batman: Mad Monk and the previous series. Beautiful stuff.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I read a lot. It is mostly superhero stuff but I'm also reading Queen and Country, Fables and American Virigin, which I really like.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I've heard good things baout the whole Mad Monk think. I might well pick that up. Thanks!

[theonlymegumegu.livejournal.com]

Here's a few then:

Losers (the last TPB came out not too long ago)
Y the Last Man
Lucifer (I believe the last TPB is coming out soon)
The Walking Dead (best survival horror I've read)
Powers (superhero comics more about the detectives that deal w/ meta-crime)
Girls (you've never read survival horror done like this XD)
(I couldn't find links for the last 3 that weren't the wiki, and therefore full of spoilers)
The Goon (pulp crime/zombie comic. Awesome.)

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to picking up Y in trades soon. Powers is interesting. Tranquility started recently about a city where heroes go when they retire and it looks really promising from the first issue.

I'll look into the others.

[theonlymegumegu.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I just looked up Tranquility and it sounds pretty interesting. I might check it out.

[mbouloukoue.livejournal.com]

They were talking about World War III in the new JSA series. I assumed it was some thing a few years back that I missed.

Apparently not.

A few more I should mention

[theonlymegumegu.livejournal.com]

Was perusing my shelf for sleep aids and ran across Sleeper and DMZ. And really, anything by Brian Wood seems to be good, for that matter (though I've not read *everything* he's done., DMZ's probably my favorite).

And then while perusing Ed Brubaker's site, I was reminded of Fell. I haven't thought about that one in a while, because I think it's been a while since there's been an issue ^^;; But that link is the entirety of issue 1.

[candidgamera.livejournal.com]

World War III is stuck in a hard place in the DCU. The "realtime" conceit of the 52 series means that, unless they want to have a war that actually takes a month, they have to confine it to fewer than four issues. Expanding it laterally (to extra one-shots) is the only other workable option. From my POV, it's more of a good thing.

As for not mentioning it in OYL books - well, the plausability of that will depend on the form the war takes. It did get mentioned in the new JSA. And again, they couldn't just mention it right out of the gate, else they spoil their climax for 52 too soon.

Reading recommendations : Manhunter is awesome, but #30 has been solicited as the Final Issue, so it may be too late to save it. JSA is like Crack for me. JSA Classified is soooo much better than its JLA counterpart.

Tales of the Unexpected, if only for Dr. 13.