Comics I Loved in 2023
riteshbabu.net
riteshbabu.net
It can be hard to tell with the newer graphic novels which ones are more fun than being a work of serious literary fiction to elevate the medium, i.e. often they tend to be downers, at least for a good chunk of the story.
I do like the more serious ones myself, but my partner has a birthday coming up, she loves graphic novels, but she's much more into fun, escapist (but with interesting/strong characters) stories at the moment since her job's been pretty stressful. Does anyone have recommendations for those? This list doesn't seem like it has too many that would fit that.
I got her Nimona for Christmas, after we saw (and loved) the film adaptation for the first one on Netflix, for example.
As a dude I recommend stuff like, great teacher onizuka or Naruto or attack on titan or full metal alchemist... but that's stuff engineered for men.
For girls you'll have to Google but it's definitely a targeted genre as well with tons of long running mangas.
She hasn't expressed any interest in it, at least, where as soon as we finished Nimona she said "I want the graphic novel." And she doesn't own any manga, whereas she owns several dozen other graphic novels.
Though I will say manga does have it's cliche tropes the same way American comics do it with super heroes. If she picks the wrong book she can easily be turned off.
Feels like I need to branch out beyond One Punch Man
Also. When did digital downloads of comics become more the norm, not exception? Some of these don't seem to have physical copies available. I know digital has been around a long time, but it always seemed like the biggest hits would still have physical copies on sale.
Having physical copies of all the manga I read would be extremely cumbersome, it would take up a ton of space.
Edit: Another interesting data point, there were more than 14000 games released just on Steam last year [2]. So I think it's not crazy to assume there's also several thousands of comics.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_2023
2: https://gamerant.com/games-released-steam-2023-record-number...
barriers to entry are low and it's a rich, internationally thriving medium
Oh, buddy, you are in for a treat, here's some publishers just off the top of my head: https://drawnandquarterly.com https://www.topshelfcomix.com https://www.silversprocket.net https://www.fantagraphics.com and there's a lot more after that.
Traditional physical comics require a lot of hands. Often separate people do the writing, illustrating, lettering, and coloring. On top of that, you have to have an actual publishing press and ship the comics out to stores. Still, if you go to a comic shop you'll find at least a few dozen new comics a month.
Unlike film, though, where it's incredibly difficult for a single individual to do the writing, acting, filming, and editing, a talented artist can definitely create a comic start to finish without outside help. Webcomics have a thriving indie scene of staggering proportions. Most of these probably don't generate much money - people tend to read them for free and even ads are limited - but not everyone in the indie scene is treating them as a full-time job.
You're conflating a feature of a genre with a medium or format. The phenomenon that you're referring to (retconning) is a feature of a genre, one which enables the creation of rich and intricate stories that couldn't emerge any other way.
Batman is a particularly bad example to choose for this, because it's actually been exempted from several of DC's hard resets (see: New 52). Although DC in general does this less well than Marvel anyway.
If you don't like them, that's fine, but they're not the only comics around, even if you're only buying stuff from the Big Two. Dismissing comics as "toothless drivel" because you don't like the narrative vocabulary of one genre is like dismissing cinema because you don't like Avengers movies.
And I'm saying that's not even an accurate description of DC or Marvel.
If you don't like them, that's fine, but they're not the only comics around, even if you're only buying stuff from the Big Two. Dismissing comics as "toothless drivel"
That was my point. Superhero comics have created a mainstream perception that all comics are like that, that the entire medium is too lazy and greedy to commit to a narrative.
The problem is compounded by the fact that Americans see animation and comics as something for children while the US entertainment industry pumps out unsophisticated drivel. There are countless anime series and movies that are more emotionally and intellectually complex than most live action entertainment produced in the US.
Not to be thoroughly unproductive, but an opening sentence like this is a complete turn-off to the rest of the article.
The linked cookie policy is hosted on a different domain: https://automattic.com/cookies/, where riteshbabu.net is never mentioned again, and I am presented with a list of four websites (!) where I might be able to opt-out of tracking or whatever.
Not to single this website out specifically, but what a load of crap. It's all just so incredibly stupid and broken.
Am i the only one a bit bored by the « far left / marxist artist » cliché ?
What does that even mean? Are you excited about the old white man leaning right cliché instead?
Yes, there should be a bit more diversity in the type of stories/heroes/villains we're being presented with. The fact that US culture has two poles of thought makes for many unexplored avenues. Stories like Sandman or the Metabarons would have a hard time in being explored in modern US paradigms, since everything would need to be deformed to fit into boxes. At least that's my interpretation.
To me the adaptation felt worsened by modern ideology. John Constantine was change to Johanna Constantine, a worse written character, while at the same time the comic actually had a great storyline with a Johanna Constantine, one of his ancestors.
Honestly, I'm not sure if you're trying to understand why those like me see a decrease in quality and in idea diversity, or are simply arguing the opposite regardless of what we say.
According to the generally-agreed-upon historical record, Metabarons appeared in French a full decade before its US publication.
I'm not bored, not in the least.
For the sake of discussion, tell us more about what exactly bores you.
You needn't agree with the author of the post, but the author appears to take an interest in history and current events, and he loves art and cares about ideas.
Art and ideas are distinguishing facets of human existence. Art and ideas are everywhere. History does repeat itself, but events cannot be boring to those who face them.