^ We share a lot of same taste.
My daughter is now reading and drawing from Elfquest. It's one of those books that, for me when I read it...I remember it like it was a movie or a TV special as a kid. Special places in my heart for that series.
That is BADASS that your daughter is aware of ElfQuest. Way to pass quality down to the next gen. I def think that Elfquest is timeless. Part of me is kind of glad that the cartoon never happened. Elfquest remains one of those things unmolested by popular culture. Bone, ElfQuest, Finder, A Distant Soil... all of those indy gems...
John Bryne quote someone else once and said 'That Marvel has been coasting on their first 20 years of success.' For me personally, the X-Men stopped right after Xtinction Agenda...everything else after that is nonsense and never took place. That's why I have a kick out of reading Marvel's 'Forever' because since it's not 616 I know they are going to make the characters progress. I wonder if they will allow Bryne to do FF Forever...
Man, that's tough for me. I was the BIGGEST Claremont Cheerleader in the world and waited for the dude's return to X-Men like a masterless puppy. As far as I was concerned, X-Men died the minute he left the book at issue 3 of the new series (with Jim Lee). By the time he'd come back, he'd lost a lot of what I personally liked about his writing, and it wasn't for another few years before I realized that Claremont works best collaboratively with his co-plotter/artist. Seems that too often when the legendary dudes make a comeback, it's underwhelming. I've tried to read a few issues of X-Men Forever, X-Men: The End, and Extreme X-Men, and I just couldn't connect anymore. My X-men years was finally appeased and ended with that second X-Men movie. It was like a Claremont book come to life. Other than, perhaps, the very short run Brubaker had on the book, I haven't even had an INKLING of a desire to try it out again. Marvel, in general, is a universe of strangers to me now.
Anyway, to the point: as much as I'd love to romanticize a John Byrne FF Forever, or Walt Simonson Thor, there's something to be said for the fire and perspective of youth. Would a revisit appeal to a fanbase? Absolutely. I'm just not sure that i could read it.
I do a lot of search online for digital comics and read the free stuff some other guys put out. Some of it really groundbreaking but since they have no company attached to it...very few people will know about it...which makes it even more and more of a awesome thing to find on your own.
I'm down for any and all recommendations. The only convention i get a kick out of going to anymore is Small Press Expo/APE due to the amazing underground indy spirit that throbs through the place like a pulse. There are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many amazing comics that come out self-published or via more adventurous retailers, that its heartbreaking that many of them won't ever develop a financial fan base. If you know of some quality books, I'll gladly read them. I'll admit that I'm a snob, however. Although I'm not the biggest stickler on art (I'm more of a story guy), Sometimes crude art is an automatic 3 strikes for me. Hell, sometimes awesome art might make me push through a mediocre story. And by crude, I mean, "Dude has a lot of heart telling this story...BUT is that a sock or a leg?" Yeah. Read too many of those.
Kirkman - to me at least - has not lost STEAM but I think he is stretching himself thin by working on so many books + a TV show. TWD is too popular for me right now. Like too many people are into it and now it's a dead book because selling it back is no longer happening. Also, him reissuing the back issues in this TWD Weekly shit...pissed me off.
Kirkman is awesome, this is true. When i do get a jones for a superhero book, Invincible is pretty much all one can ask for. It's totally uncomplicated by the demands of some extended universe and editorial mandate, which I love. Kirkman oversees all, not unlike the way the old X-Men crew had the breathing room to expand their universe in the 80's (or The Ultimate Line did in the beginning). I would LOVE to be wrong about Walking Dead, though. It's pretty much the only TPB that I consistently COLLECT. I'd given up monthlies years ago, and it's nice to have at least ONE reason to go to the funnybook store every 4 months or so....
Pretty damn good so far.
