Comic fans unite!

[jchrisobrien]

I've slowly been delving back in the world of comic books. I've picked up Ultimate X-Men and New X-Men. I've read Planetary, Transmetropolitan, the Authority, and Storm Watch (Warren Ellis kick, anyone?) I've picked up the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. These are all beginning to give me ideas.

Which leads me to a question for the comic minded among you. What three things are overdone to the point of being clichés in comics? Back in the 90's it was Image and all the testosterone ladened comics for REALLY LOUD TWELVE YEAR OLDS. If you were going to think about a medium to explore, what three concepts would you avoid.

In a similar vein, what has the potential for untapped gold? Mr_Sarcasm was reading a title set in Victorian England, which had a Sherlock Holmes type protagonist, and woman with magical/Faerie gifts. I think that superhero-esque tales in Days Gone By can be very interesting, but then there's the problem of jumping on the LXG bandwagon. (Can one movie/comic book be considered a bandwagon?) Steam punk could be an interesting venue, or the America West.

So, those of you who've been following the comics scene in the past 10 years (which is about the time that I haven't been reading). What's been done? What's worth doing?

Comments

[mr-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

The thing with comics is that everything has been done and nothing has been done.

Personally, I'm liking titles such as "The Ultimates", "Ultimate X-Men", "Ultimate Spiderman", and "Sidekicks" who treat people with powers as people and try to make things a bit more grounded in today's sensibilities.

-sarcy
PS. That idea you attributed to me was an idea I had for a game not a book that I read.

Re:

[silas7.livejournal.com]

No there was definitely a book that either you had, or I saw it at UncleTang's house. "Holmes" was fighting someone on a roof top and fell through the glass. In the end, a ship was on fire, and the woman with magical powers saw another power "witch" in the flames... I just can't think of the title...

I think it's better to have a familiar theme written really well, than to bend over backwards making something "unique" that is really just crap.

[cris.livejournal.com]

I was talking to mishak last week about Gaiman's new Marvel 1602 project and saying, "you know, as much as I like all of the reinterpretations going around, like LXG and Ultimate Marvel and Planetary, it's still just a matter of someone taking a pop cultural icon and saying, 'hey, let's remix this with some updated sensibility and aesthetic.' and, I don't know it's cool and interesting and clever and all, but how about something original for once?"

that said, I'm still going to be a sucka and pickup 1602 just to see what it's like.

so, I guess the first cliche is the temptation to re-tell old stories with a modern sensibility or a dash of meta-irony (cf. Planetary, LXG, Tom Strong, Ultimate series, Powers, etc.) Not a bad thing as most of those stories are told well, but still frequently done. Unfortunately, that runs against your Superheros in Days Gone By Idea, but I'm just saying that it's been a rather common idea as of late.

second cliche is to combine western and eastern comics styles. Lots of companies jumped on the manga bandwagon in recent years, but aside from bits of assorted cleverness ("Speed Lines in TIE fighter dogfights!", "Iron Man = Mecha!") it's hardly been impressive.

I don't have a third cliche, but if I were to explore doing comics, I think the last thing that I'd want to do is a superhero comic.

[alonewiththemoon]

this thread prompts me to ask you if you know of the online comic/graphic novel Diliman. It's about modern day urban Filipino shamans/magicians/demonhunters, or Salamangkero as I gather they are called. Unfortunately demand often exceeds Geocities' allotted access allowance so reading it can be slow going but it's very good, I think. Not at all work safe if other people can see your computer.