Post by Slyngorm on Apr 24th, 2021 at 2:39pm
Some of my recommendations of comics from three different parts of the world
Murena by Philippe Delaby (artist) and Jean Dufaux (writer)
Follows an assortment of characters before and during the reign of Roman emperor Nero. All aspects of Rome and Roman society is touched upon and you experience both gladiator schools, chariot races, the Gallic wars, orgies, brothels, crucifixions, the Vestal Virgins, slums, Roman superstitions, poetry, villas, theatre and both the upper and lower class. The characters include both poisoners, warriors, freed slaves, powerful men falling in love with prostitutes, mothers and seductresses. The writing is (aside from a few divine elements) very realistic, EXTREMELY gritty and historically accurate with notes to historical facts throughout the series.
The art needs no introduction if you have seen a single page. Years go by between each new release and the series is still not finished. Growing up I saw this series at my local library and how the number of albums very slowly accumulated over the years. Never read it until recently because the covers scared me.
The original artist has since then passed away and the latest album was drawn by Theo Caneschi. But the art of Delaby was worth the waiting time. I would describe it as the closest you could get to photorealistic art without it actually being photorealistic.
BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei
One of the most original and terrifying stories ever put to paper it follows a lone wandering man. Earth has been overbuilt by an enormous, ever expanding city which has since then been all but emptied of life due to loss of communication with the city's operating system. Scattered groups of humans, mutants and robots ecks out a living throughout the city, each could warrant a comic series of their own.
The design of the robots and monsters is an astonishing blend of mechanical and biological machinery.
The city is portrayed as a maze of kilometres upon kilometres high buildings and abandoned, yet intricate, futuristic machinery.
Couple this with an unconventional, yet effective, writing style and you get one of the strangest comics I have ever read.
Its depiction of enormous, open spaces filled me with a vertigo I have never experienced before. The writing and whole portrayal of the city and its inhabitants leaves you with a feeling that an endless number of distinct amazing stories have taken place both before, during and after the story portrayed in BLAME! And that is a feeling few other pieces of media have left me with.
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Keno Don Hugo Rosa
If you ever catch me NOT saying this is the definitively best comic ever made then do me a favour and smack me across the face.
Scrooge McDuck is a character originally invented by legendary duck comic creator Carl Barks. While Scrooge was originally intended to be used only in a single comic his popularity end up becoming second only to Donald Duck himself. Barks never wrote long story arcs and never thoroughly examined Scrooge's childhood and early years. And this is where Don Rosa enters the picture. A huge fan of Barks, Rosa had made some comics beforehand and in 1987 he made his first Disney comic which was a huge success. Over the years he made several duck comics many of which served as sequels to Bark comics that he himself had never intended to be anything but one shots. These were good comics by the way. They were set at the same time in history as the Bark comics were published (the 50s) and, when possible, capitalized on intriguing historically accurate information.
And so in 1992 Rosa began his Magnus Opus, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. This project examined and systematized every bit of information that Barks had put to writing about Scrooge McDuck and portrayed his life from when he as a poor boy in Glasgow earned his first dime and then travelled round the Americas, to Africa, Australia, returning to America and becoming a millionaire, his continued search for wealth, his first time meeting Donald Duck, earning the title of the richest duck in the universe and finally a prelude to the first comic that Barks had made so many years earlier that first portrayed Scrooge McDuck.
Throughout the series he participates historic events such as the Klondike Gold Rush, the founding of the Anaconda Copper mine and the sinking of Titanic. And he meets historic characters such as Theodore Roosevelt and Wyatt Earp.
My enthusiasm may stem partly from having read duck comics all my life but even if you only have slight experience with Donald Duck this is worth the read.
Murena by Philippe Delaby (artist) and Jean Dufaux (writer)
Follows an assortment of characters before and during the reign of Roman emperor Nero. All aspects of Rome and Roman society is touched upon and you experience both gladiator schools, chariot races, the Gallic wars, orgies, brothels, crucifixions, the Vestal Virgins, slums, Roman superstitions, poetry, villas, theatre and both the upper and lower class. The characters include both poisoners, warriors, freed slaves, powerful men falling in love with prostitutes, mothers and seductresses. The writing is (aside from a few divine elements) very realistic, EXTREMELY gritty and historically accurate with notes to historical facts throughout the series.
The art needs no introduction if you have seen a single page. Years go by between each new release and the series is still not finished. Growing up I saw this series at my local library and how the number of albums very slowly accumulated over the years. Never read it until recently because the covers scared me.
The original artist has since then passed away and the latest album was drawn by Theo Caneschi. But the art of Delaby was worth the waiting time. I would describe it as the closest you could get to photorealistic art without it actually being photorealistic.
BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei
One of the most original and terrifying stories ever put to paper it follows a lone wandering man. Earth has been overbuilt by an enormous, ever expanding city which has since then been all but emptied of life due to loss of communication with the city's operating system. Scattered groups of humans, mutants and robots ecks out a living throughout the city, each could warrant a comic series of their own.
The design of the robots and monsters is an astonishing blend of mechanical and biological machinery.
The city is portrayed as a maze of kilometres upon kilometres high buildings and abandoned, yet intricate, futuristic machinery.
Couple this with an unconventional, yet effective, writing style and you get one of the strangest comics I have ever read.
Its depiction of enormous, open spaces filled me with a vertigo I have never experienced before. The writing and whole portrayal of the city and its inhabitants leaves you with a feeling that an endless number of distinct amazing stories have taken place both before, during and after the story portrayed in BLAME! And that is a feeling few other pieces of media have left me with.
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Keno Don Hugo Rosa
If you ever catch me NOT saying this is the definitively best comic ever made then do me a favour and smack me across the face.
Scrooge McDuck is a character originally invented by legendary duck comic creator Carl Barks. While Scrooge was originally intended to be used only in a single comic his popularity end up becoming second only to Donald Duck himself. Barks never wrote long story arcs and never thoroughly examined Scrooge's childhood and early years. And this is where Don Rosa enters the picture. A huge fan of Barks, Rosa had made some comics beforehand and in 1987 he made his first Disney comic which was a huge success. Over the years he made several duck comics many of which served as sequels to Bark comics that he himself had never intended to be anything but one shots. These were good comics by the way. They were set at the same time in history as the Bark comics were published (the 50s) and, when possible, capitalized on intriguing historically accurate information.
And so in 1992 Rosa began his Magnus Opus, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. This project examined and systematized every bit of information that Barks had put to writing about Scrooge McDuck and portrayed his life from when he as a poor boy in Glasgow earned his first dime and then travelled round the Americas, to Africa, Australia, returning to America and becoming a millionaire, his continued search for wealth, his first time meeting Donald Duck, earning the title of the richest duck in the universe and finally a prelude to the first comic that Barks had made so many years earlier that first portrayed Scrooge McDuck.
Throughout the series he participates historic events such as the Klondike Gold Rush, the founding of the Anaconda Copper mine and the sinking of Titanic. And he meets historic characters such as Theodore Roosevelt and Wyatt Earp.
My enthusiasm may stem partly from having read duck comics all my life but even if you only have slight experience with Donald Duck this is worth the read.
