comics- extracts and discussions

Mainly for Eldo, but also for anyone else who wants a nosey- Judgement on Gotham- to avoid any copyright issues (I know how you fret about these things Eldo) this is just the opening from it and in roughly 24hours I will delete the post before the next.

Did you read this Eldo? If so I will take it down and put the next bit up in its place.

that looks like the Mouth of Sauron

Oddly enough when I saw the Mouth in PJ's I thought "that looks like Judge Death!"

In the spirit of Orwell randomly reviving long dead threads I thought Id stir some life into this one, well at least for this post!

Just a bunch of my favourite panels-

Batman- Arkham Asylum













Batman- The Killing Joke







Chopper- Song of the Surfer





Hewligan's Haircut





Judge Anderson- Shamballa





Judge Anderson- Triad









Slaine- The Horned God

















V for Vendetta

Neat comic, petty  

Which one RA?!

Arkham Asylum.

Yeah one of my favourites with a story by one of my favourite comic writers- Grant Morrison.
The artwork is by Dave McKean.

I've always liked the juxtaposition between the Joker and Batman's character.

Yeah, me too. The underlying idea behind Asylum is a simple, but effective one, on which side of the asylum walls does Batman really belong?

Pettytyrant101 wrote:An extract for your reading pleasure (grab a buckie or make a cuppa) from Judgement on Gotham. A Dredd/Batman crossover story with Simon Bisley on the art.
Little background. Judge Death (evil super villian) and psychotic head butting villian Mean Machine steal a dimensional jump, Death uses it and ends up in Gotham where he encounters Batman. Death's body is destroyed by fire and he is temporarily made incarnate. Batman finds the dimensional jump and accidently activating it finds himself in Mega City One where he is swiftly arrested. Here is Batman coming face to face with Mega City Law.

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And as an added bonus, and because the idea makes me giggle every time, here is Death looking for a new corpse to inhabit and encountering Scarecrow.

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I think I still have this comic. Haven't noticed anything lately by the Bisley, though I've not been paying a lot of attention in some time.

And all the image urls disappeared for some reason   

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Yeah, me too. The underlying idea behind Asylum is a simple, but effective one, on which side of the asylum walls does Batman really belong?

Batman may be obsessed, but he's not insane   

I think Bisley mainly moved to covers and one off pieces these days- he never was good with deadlines, part of the reasons a lot of panels in Gotham are pencil sketches is he never got them finished in time.

Batman dresses up as a giant bat and beats people up, its not exactly normal either.  

Pettytyrant101 wrote:In an attempt to (probably vainly) spark some interest in comics here is the opening of I think one of the finest UK comics ever. V for Vendetta. Significiantly different from the film it easily stands on its own.
If people like I will put up the next part.

I had this comic, but I think I hocked it and I don't recall much of it. I remember the movie a bit more.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Batman dresses up as a giant bat and beats people up, its not exactly normal either.  

As long as it's the right people, I'm all for it

In all seriousness, I can't say I've ever really been a fan of the character. At some points I thought I was, but I never read many of the comics and the execution never really grabbed me that much. I guess I like the concept more than the execution. Don't really care for any of the movies, either, though Batman Begins had its moments.

I would also like to add that I do like the Bruce Timm designed cartoon version and the voice of Kevin Conroy is the definitive one for Batman, imo.

Not sure I trust a rich white corporate bloke to make that call! He always seem to pick on the poor criminals- you never see him go after the CEO of Walmart or something and beat them to a pulp.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Not sure I trust a rich white corporate bloke to make that call! He always seem to pick on the poor criminals- you never see him go after the CEO of Walmart or something and beat them to a pulp.

I think he's probably done that at various points, sometimes against people in his own company—though probably not nearly as much as he should. The white collar crooks are definitely the worst   

But he's also had to deal with a lot of costumed kooks that probably divert him from dealing with the suits

Love this- Karl Urban reading the opening monologue from the brilliant Dredd comic America-

Only watched the opening but seems a pretty accurate use of original illustrations and dialogue from the comic, sort of animated- a classic- Watchmen-

Anyone a fan of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja? It's not particularly well-drawn, and is utterly ridiculous, but it's also completely awesome.

http://drmcninja.com/issues/

{{Really enjoyed this. A Dredd animated film.
Its not quite adapted from the comics, its more an amalgamation of stories starting with the brilliant 'Childhood of a Super Fiend' Judge Death's (Dredd's main nemesis) origin story and then combining later elements from different stories to make a whole.
Not perfect but it gets better than either film the comics wit and humour and over the top violence as satire.
Well worth a watch. Also I really enjoyed a lot of the animation for its own sake, so if you like animation its enjoyable on that level too}}}

Looking back through those comics, one does have to admit it's a high art form. Didn't use to be that way decades ago, but for some of those plates there's simply no denying it.

{{I don't think there is any argument left against comics being capable of reaching 'art' level, not just in the visuals but in the story telling.

Bunch of great Dredd stuff for you. Grud I love Dredd! Violence, humour and satire its a heady mix!

This is the Judge Death origin story Childhood of a Superfiend. I found slowing the vid speed to 0.5 was fine, though you will probably have to pause it occasionally for dialogue heavy panels.
As comic origin stories go I really cant recommend this one highly enough.



Big Finish once did Dredd audio plays too, The news broadcast stuff at the start is a bit annoying but once you are past that there is good stuff in there and a classic Judge Death story.



And there is the very well done fan film Judge Minty, also worth a watch with a visual style that is closer to the comics than Urbans or Stallones Dredd.



Talking of the films you have two to pick from- Stallones version and Urbans take on it- they take different ends of the comics extremes- the Stallone version is camp, over the top and has a lot of the humour of the comic absent form the Urban version, small things like the recycle robots "Eat recycled food. Its good for the environment and ok for you.' Or street and block names 'Incident on the corner of Abbot and Castello' which could be straight out the comic- in fact the Stallone versions opening sequence gets a lot of the comics crazier side, bringing in Block Wars (where huge housing blocks declare war on one other, mainly to elevate the boredom and stress and poverty) and the like. But Stallone is terribly miscast, the film never really finds a it tone, the secondary characters are annoying, and Dredd spends most of the film with no helmet on- which ruins the entire point of him as a symbol of the Law.

The Urban version comes form the dark gritty side of the comics, its ultra violent, the humour is reduced to a few things in the background for eagle eyed fans to spot, like the dead fattie in the mall (being fat is a competitive sport, people eat themselves to death at the championships) or signs and posters.
But it does nail the character of Dredd which the Stallone version, really, really, doesn't and the support cast by way of Judge Anderson and the main villain Mau Mau are really excellent.
But megacity is smaller, less futuristic, the uniforms are less comic and iconic but more pratical and realistic ect.

The perfect Dredd would be to somehow get a belndof the tones of both films in one film.

Heres some examples for comparison.

Here's the two version delivering Dredd's quotable line, 'I am the Law!'



An example of how the tone is different even when dong basically the same thing- demonstrating the Lawgivers (a judges gun) different uses.

Stallone- taking out the Block War gang.

(from 1.00)

rban

Urban- Dredd is facing off against a bunch of corrupt Judges out to gun him down-




How they both open and introduce Mega-City one is also interesting and demonstrates the difference in tone- yet both are resonable depictions, depending which sort of Dredd story you might be reading.

Stallone- Couldnt find just the opening this is actually the whole film but you want to watch up to 4 minutes in.) Cant say I recommend the whole film, well it is sort of fun in a so over the top, camp, overblown performance sort of a way if your drunk enough can be fun to watch.



And the Urban opening-



Interesting to see two such different take son the same material. Neither of them quite manages the comics mix of both styles in one though. That the BF audio version and the Superfiend animation probably gets closest as they are adapted from the comics. }}}

{{This is an excellent article on the magical battle and rivalry that has been going on for decades now between two of the most renowned comic writers of the era- Grant Morrison (chaos magic) on one side and Alan Moore (traditionalist magician) on the other- I was lucky enough to be reading Invisibles as they were released, it really is an astonishing piece of work on multiple levels- but feared it may never see it conclusion as it was in danger of losing its publisher- Morrison asked in an issue for his readers to perform a magical ceremony involving masturbation to save the comic. For whatever reason, the comic did indeed reach its end as planned without losing its publisher. }}}

http://www.break.com/article/alan-moore-and-grant-morrison-occult-war-for-25-years-3080666