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Comics.
May 2, 2013 10:33:27 GMT -5
Post by Steve Crespo on May 2, 2013 10:33:27 GMT -5
I grew up reading comics. I loved 'em- the smell, the touch. Everything.
Living in the fantastic was a great release for me, and I identified with all the costumed characters living in my head. Their tales of daring really resonated within me.
As I got older I moved away from comics, and moved to the more imaginative ends of literary fiction. (Edgar Rice Burroughs being a favorite.) But now that I'm older still I find myself moving back to comics, not so much as a reader as much as a creator.
But, I'm curious... what are your views of the comic medium as a way of storytelling?
Works like "Maus" and "The Watchmen" have given comics a better standing in the cultural mind, but again, I'm curious what your take on it is.
And would you ever consider writing a graphic novel a go?
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Comics.
May 2, 2013 22:28:13 GMT -5
Post by Ranger Varon on May 2, 2013 22:28:13 GMT -5
I actually have two graphic novels simmering in my brain on low right now.
I really like comics, and love to read them. They're fully capable of supporting a complex story just like a novel. That's all I can really say.
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Post by fluke on May 6, 2013 9:30:58 GMT -5
I've taken a similar route from comics to more "serious" works I have been reading webcomics lately and enjoying them. There are some fantastic stories being told. I read Order of the Stick, Antiheroes, Knights of the Dinner Table, Weregeek, and Rusty and Co.. And I must not forget Darths and Droids (my stars! I have no words to describe the genius therein). If I were approached to write a graphic novel, I'd do it. I think that one of the series I'm working on right now would be excellent illustrated.
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rjj7
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Today I'm a drake
Posts: 202
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Comics.
May 13, 2013 23:37:31 GMT -5
Post by rjj7 on May 13, 2013 23:37:31 GMT -5
I have never seen the prequel Star Wars Trilogy, and so gave Darths and Droids a pass when I came across it several years ago. I note that it has since started in on the original trilogy. Is it a brand new beginning, or will some of the humor/story flow be lost if one starts reading at that point? Also, if you liked Darths and Droids, perhaps you will like its older sibling, DM of the Rings. For my part, I view comic books as a perfectly valid medium for storytelling. I think they suffer a little from having a lower minimum standard than books. No matter how bad the book, it still lies completely in the mental world, and demands a certain level of mental involvement. Comic books, with the visual element, don't have the same minimum level of engagement (which is where the stereotypical "they turn your brain to mush" idea comes from, I think). But a good comic book can be just as good (in an entirely different way) as a good book.
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Comics.
May 14, 2013 10:09:36 GMT -5
Post by Ranger Varon on May 14, 2013 10:09:36 GMT -5
The backstory of the character relationships will be lost if you pick up at the beginning of IV, and their personalities and how they've gotten where they are will be rather confusing. I read DM of the Rings for a time, things got beyond my ability to stomach eventually. At least, I think it was that one.
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rjj7
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Today I'm a drake
Posts: 202
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Comics.
May 14, 2013 20:04:08 GMT -5
Post by rjj7 on May 14, 2013 20:04:08 GMT -5
Not to drag this thread off-topic, but could you possibly clarify what aspect of DM of the Rings turned your stomach? (assuming that it is the one you're thinking of)
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Comics.
May 14, 2013 22:50:14 GMT -5
Post by fluke on May 14, 2013 22:50:14 GMT -5
I read a little of DM of the Rings a few months ago. I didn't enjoy the railroading the DM forced them into. And there was at least one player who kept asking if they could go to a brothel.
Ranger is correct about what you will miss if you start with IV. The players have matured as they played (esp. Sally and Jim). I've heard several people say that they like Darths better than George Lucas's prequels. Honestly, I do too. The screen captures all come from the movie but the story line becomes very different from the movies.
Where DMotR was the DM forcing the players to follow the story he had planned, D&D takes the opposite approach. The GM believes that the game should be fun for all involved. Many aspects of the story came about because he had to improvise as the players went in an unexpected direction. "Okay, we call it good for tonight. I've got some mapping to do unless you want to explore a blank grid." Some of the things that I thought the stupidest in the movies are kept in D&D as players improv and that becomes canon to the story (midichlorians are the result of one such improv).
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rjj7
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Today I'm a drake
Posts: 202
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Comics.
May 14, 2013 23:21:58 GMT -5
Post by rjj7 on May 14, 2013 23:21:58 GMT -5
*coughs* Considering you linked to Order of the Stick, which has one character running around naked (censored), extended innuendos, and multiple 'good' main characters engaging in premarital sex, I didn't think a single character complaining that he can't go to a brothel and verbally harassing Legolas would bother you. DM of the Rings wasn't originally intended to be more than the first page, and it takes him a bit to get his humor really up and rolling. But once you start into the Two Towers, it may be one of the funniest comics I've ever read. The DM railroading everything is the point of a lot of the humor. It occasionally devolves into outright warfare between the players and the DM. But to each his own. Perhaps I'll read Darths and Droids without watching the films then. I don't plan on watching them any time in the foreseeable future anyway.
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May 15, 2013 11:34:24 GMT -5
Post by fluke on May 15, 2013 11:34:24 GMT -5
That is something of a contradiction in me. Very well, I am vast. I contain multitudes. I don't think I even made it to Legolas joining up. I'll consider giving it another go.
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rjj7
Full Member
Today I'm a drake
Posts: 202
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Comics.
May 15, 2013 11:52:21 GMT -5
Post by rjj7 on May 15, 2013 11:52:21 GMT -5
Yeah, but I have to admit I was pretty snarky about it. Sorry. It was late, and I didn't give it a thought. But reading it again now, I'm glad you took my post with such equanimity.
I guess this thread has mostly devolved into discussion of webcomics that people like. Ah well. Someone will come in and reroute it eventually. I already said my bit about the medium as a whole.
Out of curiosity, what are people's views on art style? How likely is it that a comic's art will interest you/kill your interest in a comic?
For me, the art essentially acts as a shift from neutral. If I'm interested in a comic after 10 pages or so, the art is largely irrelevant. Same if I don't like it at about that point. But if I'm neutral on the comic, the artwork will determine whether I stick it out a bit longer to see how it develops or if I drop it.
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Comics.
May 16, 2013 12:59:01 GMT -5
Post by Ranger Varon on May 16, 2013 12:59:01 GMT -5
There was a lot more cussing and seemingly unnecessary innuendo and gay jokes and stuff in DMoftR, I think.
For art style, I'm really pretty much neutral. The only real difference I can tell between styles is traditional American superhero style and anime. I can notice some differences within the American style, like between Batman: Year One and Wanted: Hal Jordan, but that's about it.
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