The Gamer's Quarter

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/article/0,30583,1686204_1686244_1692006,00.html

Weird choices!
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Wait... are these just releases from this year?
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Yeah, I reckon.

i just realised something I really hate! When Journalists try and hammer square pegs into round holes! It's like there are stock ways of talking about unusual and underground comic strips and you have to make your description of the book fit this stock template, rather than tailor your review to the actual book you're fucking talking about. For example:

Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:48 pm Post subject:

Sensational(ized)!
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

What a silly list!
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I think they just typed in 'comic' into Google Image search and wrote down the first ten things that came up.

No one seriously reads Time Magazine though, right? Apparently they had an article on 'why French culture is dead' recently which was pretty shameful.

dhex · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:02 pm Post subject:

i've found it very hard to describe achewood, because i have no knowledge of the "genre" or whatever as a whole and partially because it's all surrealist claptrap laden with tender truth. it's also the greatest fucking thing ever, but that's neither here nor there.

or i just send them this:

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Pink Teddy Bear · . Joined: 24 Aug 2007 Posts: 180

Hmmm. Guess I don't have a sense of humor.

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I like Achewood, but I personally didn't laugh at that one. You have to read quite a few Achewoods in a row to really get the tone of the strip, but it's worth it.

dhex · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:41 pm Post subject:

time is a general interest magazine; their comics top ten would have as much of a chance of satisfying comics fans as their year in music roundup would pass my muster. wrong audience.

someone once politely, obliquely, but decidedly told me that i liked achewood so much because i had no real understanding of comics or graphic novels or whatever. they were a fan's fan, so i can appreciate that. i would also have accepted "random sense of humor" and "easily amused by references to mexican magical realism."
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Man, that fart techniques thing is invaluable. Live by it.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

daphaknee · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:33 am Post subject:

porkchops and applesauce? noooooooooo!
noooo!

noooo!

anyway half of these arent even graphic novels so shut up time

edit: and PEANUTS? thats just forced like when you ask a ROCKSTAR what 10 albums they would bring with them on a desert island one of them is ALWAYS the white album

they just feel obligated
man
shut up time

aderack · . Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Posts: 1105 Location: San Francisco

Weird point of reference here for a TIME article.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:11 am Post subject:

dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

In fairness to Chuck Schultz, you can't really get around Chuck Schultz.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

You can if you know Bill Waterson.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Bill Watterson isn't really comparable to Charles Schulz. I claim authority on this subject on the basis that I'm the only one who can actually spell the people's names.

dhex · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:43 am Post subject:

you can't libel the dead.

speaking of which i never really got why people have giant eight foot boners about calvin and hobbes.
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I loved it wholeheartedly when I was a kid, but now I think it's twee in some places and soap-boxy in others, which you could never say about Peanuts. Also, I think that right now it has that Fido Dido, Nirvana, Zombies Ate My Neighbours-style twang of early 90's datedness, but I'm sure that'll pass.

People have boners for it partly because Bill Watterson had staunch, angry, Bill Hicks-style principles and wouldn't merchandise his strip or allow the syndicate to continue Calvin and Hobbes without him, so he's kind of a cult hero to some people. But it's also because his strip is when at its best imaginative, funny, beautifully drawn and utterly charming. And it's also quite nuanced and layered. It's basically about a genius child who is completely unable to apply himself academically, so he retreats into his imagination. It's quite sad in a way, especially in that Calvin only has one friend and he's not real.

My favorite Calvin and Hobbes stuff is the full colour, multi-page comics Watterson did for the Anthologies! He really should have done more of those!

Swimmy · . Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA

boojiboy7 · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:40 pm Post subject:

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I just crack up every time I read 'she does a :( '

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

it took me about five minutes to realise what the hell it meant by "she does a Sad

"

i don't really dig achewood. some funny ones here and there but for the most part i think it's a bit meh.
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I stopped reading every day because I started to find it incredibly repetitive, but it seems to have picked up again. Kind of annoying. To use an analogy you'd understand, it's like when you're watching Neighbours on TV and nothing much is happening so you go to the dunny, and when you come back you find you've missed Bouncer getting eaten by a Dingo. Hope that helps.

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

harveyjams i thought you would be above stereotyping Evil or Very Mad

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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I'm sorry ; _ ;

Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:10 pm Post subject:

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

harveyjams you just made enemies with every australian on this board

and that's like half the population

you will rue this day, harveyjams.
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daphaknee · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:15 pm Post subject:

Wait but i can get around peanuts because it was never funny i never liked it i always avoided it but i read the hell out of calvin and hobbes and garfield

Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:15 pm Post subject:

Has Garfield ever been funny at all?
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I don't think it's been funny since the 80's. I enjoyed it back then but it was always very hit or miss. I still love Peanuts, though.
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daphaknee · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:44 pm Post subject:

GUYS do you think garfield is the reason america is so fat

Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:54 pm Post subject:

No I think America is the reason that Garfield is so fat. Okay, maybe not just Americans but it's easier to use them as an example because they are so fat.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

The early Peanuts is actually kind of wry and amusing. The art is better too, which is kind of weird.

And then there's Peanuts by Bukowski.

The Great Unwashed · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:19 pm Post subject:

Garfield used to be totally great. I loved the early strips. I have a fairly dogged copy of the first Garfield collection. I forget what it's called, it has a red cover (that is now half-hanging off). Nowadays I read the Garfield strips and choke on my cornflakes. I can't believe what it has become. I think this is partly the reason for my raging boner still about Calvin and Hobbes, that Watterson remained pure the whole way through and quit while he was ahead. Recently I picked up The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, as well as The Complete Far Side. They're both gorgeous collections, in huge hardcover, I'd wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone.

Also, as an Australian, I am offended by Harveyjams insinuation that anybody would actually watch Neighbours.
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aderack · . Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Posts: 1105 Location: San Francisco

The Great Unwashed · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:30 am Post subject:

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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:33 am Post subject:

captaincabinets · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:18 am Post subject:

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Too right, mate!
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

yes everyone listen to harvey, he studied this stuff at uni after all guys
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

They don't teach us this shit at uni, they just told us how to work the cameras and showed us a bunch of French new wave films.

Hey I noticed that above post is kind of arrogant. Please don't anyone take this personally, I just feel very passionately about this stuff.

The Great Unwashed · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:50 am Post subject:

Harvey I totally agree with your kind of arrogant post, but saying that "once you fully appreciate Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes really looks like the work of a minor artist" is something I'd take issue with. Having some sort of "full appreciation" of Peanuts is a pretty abstract judgement to make and it doesn't exactly confer some mystical ability on the appreciator. Calvin and Hobbes stands pretty damn strong on its own merits and just because Peanuts was a clear inspiration for Watterson doesn't take away from what he's achieved.
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The Great Unwashed · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:58 am Post subject:

Why has nobody talked about Garfield randomised! It's so awesome.

Also, from somewhere on the internut:

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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

I still like the earlier art more, although yeah, that's probably due to my main experiences with the strip being the collection of the first strips*, compared to what appeared in newspapers when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s, i.e. shake city. It's the heads, I like the horizontally elongated heads and the heavier brush strokes.

On the other hand, how many of you blockheads have been to the Charles Schulz museum? That's right, punks.

* - This one.

parkbench · . Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 145

Yah TIME magazine is kind of a joke.

I agree that Peanuts is brill. But nay-sayers of Calvin and Hobbes, if you'd like to retain your genitalia and other valuable organs, I suggest you go back and read some. Bill Waterson was...struggling every step of the way with himself as an artist and his readers and his publishers and merchandising and all that stuff, and it shows in the strip in a beautiful, creative way. He simultaneously deals with human depravity, pretentious art philosophies, even pretentious life philosophies all at once, and all through the lens of a mischievous Bart-like little kid, who I'd say most boys at the very least could identify with.

Also, on garfield (the few times I will link this site in my life): garfield sucks.

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227