I gave a talk at Interesting 2007 about three weeks ago now. The day was great and though I wasn’t able to stay for all of it, I really enjoyed myself, and the few talks I did catch were very absorbing. So well done to Russell for sorting all that out.
I gave a talk on comics and while there are some images of me talking about them on Flickr, some people have asked for a list of the comics I discussed. Below is the list and brief descriptions. I’ve also transcribed my talk and put the slides online: Comics and Pictures.
Though I read lots of different comics, I only really follow four authors: Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, Alan Moore and Garth Ennis. Really, you can’t go that wrong reading stuff by these guys, they are awesome, although many people find Ennis a bit heavy. Here is the list in the order that I discussed them:
- The Kingdom by Mark Waid and drawn by Ariel Olivetti and Mike Zeck. Wikipedia has a good description of Hypertime, so no need to hunt down this comic if you are just curious.
- Sea of Red by Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer and Salgood Sam. This is the one about vampire pirates.
- New Universal by Warren Ellis and Salvador Larroca. This is the comic I discussed where all the characters are derived from film stars.
- Planetary by Warren Ellis. This is really good, everyone should read it. There are four main books, all are good. I specifically discussed Planetary Crossing Worlds which includes the Batman story.
- The Filth by Grant Morrison. This is the best comic that there is, everybody should read this. It is the one with the guy who speaks with thought bubbles.
- Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis and J.H. Williams III. I’ve mentioned this before. It is a great read, and drawn with deft elegance, really nice work.
- I spoke about Madman. Very weird but good.
- I also mentioned a cover from The Flash who can run really fast, and that’s about it.
I’m enjoying a couple of American authors at the moment: Ed Brubaker‘s Criminal, and Joss Whedon‘s Astonishing X-men is good too.
That is the list of comics I mentioned. They stock them at my favourite comic shops: Orbital and Gosh, both nicely located in central London.
5 Comments and Trackbacks
1. Michael Buckbee said on 10 July 2007...
I’d highly recommend Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn as another great series in a similar vein to the others you mentioned.
– Mike
2. Tom Siebert said on 10 July 2007...
“Queen & Country,” by Greg Rucka, is tremendous, though the output has trickled to only a couple issues inthe last year. Still, you can get the first 30 issues or so in trade paperback. Fantastic espionage stories, very realistic, no capes/masks.
“The Losers,” an amped up reboot of the old DC military series, is complex and full of subplots and features a ton of great action sequences.
Finally, the BEST thing I’ve read in the past year is Paul Pope’s “Batman: Year 100,” which is genuinely thrilling and full of top notch action sequences. Mysterious, exciting, this is the way comics made me feel when I was a kid.
3. Matt said on 10 July 2007...
I second the recommendation of “The Losers” – it’s made me want to read Green Arrow Year One by the same team (Andy Diggle & Jock)
I think Jock is a hell of an artist.
4. Shajith said on 14 July 2007...
Great presentation, agreed vehemently with every bit of what you said. I’ve sampled some of the stuff you mentioned, and they’re all good:)
One possibly OT thing: The slides you’ve put up, are they low resolution or something? I couldn’t make out some of the panels in the links. Is there some way to see the full resolution slides? Thanks!
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