Topic: What books/comics have you been reading lately?

[Ratty]

Just like the title says, a general "What are you reading now?" thread.

I just finished Masamune Shirow's "Ghost in the Shell" manga.

Better known in the US for the 1995 animated movie* and early oughts TV anime Ghost in the Shell is considered a classic among Otaku.
I have seen neither the film or TV series however, as I heard in the 90s the movie was just a boob fest and, having not seen the movie, didn't want to watch the TV show. Plus I just generally like manga better than anime.

I was surprised at the philosophical depth added to what is essentially just a cyberpunk action story, but I don't get all the complaints about it being psychobabbl-y or hard to grasp. The nature of life and consciousness are discussed for several pages but it never gets much more complicated than that. No, the great flaw in the book is that it feels disjointed. The more philosophical scenes read almost like they're from a different manga than the whizz-bang action and ever-present humor of the rest of the story. The characters, even Major Kusanagi, don't seem to develop much throughout. Ironically the only one who truly seems to grow is a minor character who goes from being the rookie of the team to bossing around the new rookies.

One feels like they're just seeing small snippets of these characters rather than getting a rounded picture. An example is that at the start of one chapter Major Kusanagi is being very intimate with 2 other women (for profit via a not-so-legal software manipulation we're told in the appendix) a few chapters later it's nearly a year in the future and she's had a boyfriend for months, also a government agent, who we'd never heard of, never seen before and never see again after the single chapter in which he plays a crucial part. That's just not good storytelling no matter how you slice it. The story overall at least is decent-to-very good, if preachy in points.

A good read for cyberpunk fans, if you can somehow find the uncensored edition (which contains the above mentioned 3 page color scene of Kusanagi and 2 other women, nice if not "plot essential") for under $20 it's worth a look. But, once again, Berserk remains unchallenged in my eyes as the greatest manga ever written.

*Which loudly trumpeted James Cameron's endorsement on it's initial English releases, and deals with electronic consciousness transferal like Avatar. Though at the time of his GitS endorsement he was best known for "Titanic".

[uzo]

Arsene Lupin - The Teeth of the Tiger
by Maurice Le Blanc

Casual reading. About half way through now.

[Ratty]

Arsene Lupin - The Teeth of the Tiger
by Maurice Le Blanc

Casual reading. About half way through now.

Arsene Lupin? Ah I read the first book in that series some years ago, was good fun but (probably because of the translation) didn't enjoy it as much as the Sherlock Holmes stories. Love the one-upmanship element to the character though. "If England has the greatest detective in fiction France will have the greatest thief!" I wonder what Conan Doyle must have thought of LeBlanc avoiding copyright claims by calling his character "Herlock Sholmes" for the English editions lol.

[crisis]

Knightfall

[Abnormal Freak]

I've got two copies of GITS, though I have yet to dive into it. Found one of the big-sized copies from the mid '90s, brought it home, found out it was censored, and then immediately ordered a more recent, uncensored copy for pretty cheap, but it's smaller in size. That's one thing I don't like about manga: the digest-sized collections can suck my wang, I'd rather have the art larger.

Off and on I've been reading various comics. Just finished up a re-read of Kevin Eastman's Roninbebop. Great collection of really good one-offs. One thing I adore about Eastman's comics is he has a way of layouting that's very cinematic; it's like you're viewing everything through the eye of a very dynamic cinematographer, and the action flows as if it were actually moving and not just still images. He's always been very good at that.

Been slowly going through Preacher and Jack Kirby's Fourth World. Haven't picked those up in a while, though.

Recently read Holy Terror. Thought it was great, don't really get why people think Miller's lost it. His art still catches my eye and the storytelling's fun.

[Gunlord]

This may not count, but I've been re-reading the printed out copy of my fanfiction to hunt down all the errors and stuff I can find. T_T

[Fofa]

I finished reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer a while back, just to see how bad it was. Trust me, it did not disappoint. Now I'm hoping that The Hunchback of Notre Dame will be much better.

[Johnny Alucard]

I've recently finished Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Amazing book, I literally could not put it down.  Edgar really has a way of making adventure seem so exciting.

I'm now reading his The Land That Time Forgot and it's really quite good with the suspense and keeping you on edge with what's going to happen next. 

[Nail_Bombed]

Comics wise, have been reading my way through Hellblazer, DMZ, Crossed, some Warren Ellis stuff like Supergod/Black Summer/Doktor Sleepless, a ton of Marvel stuff both Ultimate and 616 universe and some of DC The New 52. Praise the lord for comic scans. I do mostly buy graphic novels of titles I read anyway, so those comic monoliths are still getting my money.

[uzo]

Arsene Lupin? Ah I read the first book in that series some years ago, was good fun but (probably because of the translation) didn't enjoy it as much as the Sherlock Holmes stories. Love the one-upmanship element to the character though. "If England has the greatest detective in fiction France will have the greatest thief!" I wonder what Conan Doyle must have thought of LeBlanc avoiding copyright claims by calling his character "Herlock Sholmes" for the English editions lol.

LeBlanc actually went and tried to publish with the Holmes name, but was forced to change it.

I'm a really big Lupin fan, but sadly a lot of the books seem to be yet translated. However since LeBlanc's copyright expired in France as of 2012, all his stuff is public domain now. I presume people will be translating the rest of them in the coming years.

There is a little confusion on which books are which, since the English translation of the book simply titled "Arsene Lupin" I believe is not the first, just the first English adapted one. This is the one with Sonia and the Duke. It was the first I've also read. Unless you know French, there doesn't seem to be any real way to read them in actual order sadly.

Since then, I've read The Crystal Stopper, and The Confessions of Arsene Lupin, which are both great. The Tooth of the Tiger is actually probably my favorite so far, even though I've not finished it yet. Confessions is a really fun read, being a bunch of short stories, but there are a few links between them where you can't help but laugh at what Lupin does to set some of this stuff up. You can see LeBlanc's writing improving over the books.

So yeah, big Lupin fan here.

[Ratty]

I've recently finished Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Amazing book, I literally could not put it down.  Edgar really has a way of making adventure seem so exciting.

I'm now reading his The Land That Time Forgot and it's really quite good with the suspense and keeping you on edge with what's going to happen next.

I was really surprised by the quality of Tarzan the first time I read it to. You gotta love old pulp stories, something about them that can't be duplicated. The second book in the series is also good and kind of closes off some of the loose threads. I've bought most of the 20 some books in the series (about $1 apiece at the flea market) and read the first 3, it really becomes a slough with "The Beasts of Tarzan" though, as Burroughs was starting to lose interest in the character. A year or two ago I started reading "John Carter of Mars" but got distracted and never finished it. Thinking I might try "The Land of Hidden Men" next.

If you like pulp style you should check out some of the great crime drama and detective stories from the period. The novels of Dashiell Hammett would be a good place to start there. On the more fantastic side of things, Edgar Rice Burroughs (creator of Conan) is another well-known adventure/fantasy pulp author who dabbled in many settings and genres. Though like his friend and fellow pulp author HP Lovecraft his output was unfortunately not nearly as large as Burroughs due to an overly short lifespan.

LeBlanc actually went and tried to publish with the Holmes name, but was forced to change it.

I'm a really big Lupin fan, but sadly a lot of the books seem to be yet translated. However since LeBlanc's copyright expired in France as of 2012, all his stuff is public domain now. I presume people will be translating the rest of them in the coming years.

There is a little confusion on which books are which, since the English translation of the book simply titled "Arsene Lupin" I believe is not the first, just the first English adapted one. This is the one with Sonia and the Duke. It was the first I've also read. Unless you know French, there doesn't seem to be any real way to read them in actual order sadly.

Since then, I've read The Crystal Stopper, and The Confessions of Arsene Lupin, which are both great. The Tooth of the Tiger is actually probably my favorite so far, even though I've not finished it yet. Confessions is a really fun read, being a bunch of short stories, but there are a few links between them where you can't help but laugh at what Lupin does to set some of this stuff up. You can see LeBlanc's writing improving over the books.

So yeah, big Lupin fan here.

Sounds pretty great, I'll have to remember to keep an eye out for future translations. (Here's hoping they come to archive.org or project gutenberg) In the meantime though this reminds me that a friend sent me the first volume of the Lupin the 3rd manga and I still have 3 or four stories in that to read.

[uzo]

Lupin the Third has a special place in my heart. It is of course the reason I went to seek out it's inspiration, the old novels of Arsene Lupin. I have to admit I've not read any of the manga though. I hear it's really not the same as the shows, movies, and others. Monkey Punch was really hands off with the adaptations, not really caring how they did it, as long as it was "good".

I've seen all of series 1, most of series 2 (can't find good translations past a certain point), not much of series 3 (didn't really look good imo), about 60% of the movies/TV specials, and just recently followed and finished A Woman Named Mine Fujiko.

I'm trying to ration the remaining movies and TV specials, for fear of running out too quickly. They're good movie night movies with friends, so I try and keep it limited to that.

[Gunlord]

Hahahaha, gotta love Lupin the Third! I love the music for that series, especially the opening theme. Sooooo classy:

THEME FROM LUPIN III

[Abnormal Freak]

I think they're talking about the French character Arsene Lupin, not the manga character inspired by him. :o

[Ratty]

I think they're talking about the French character Arsene Lupin, not the manga character inspired by him.

We're talking about both. actually :0)

Lupin the Third has a special place in my heart. It is of course the reason I went to seek out it's inspiration, the old novels of Arsene Lupin. I have to admit I've not read any of the manga though. I hear it's really not the same as the shows, movies, and others. Monkey Punch was really hands off with the adaptations, not really caring how they did it, as long as it was "good".

I've seen all of series 1, most of series 2 (can't find good translations past a certain point), not much of series 3 (didn't really look good imo), about 60% of the movies/TV specials, and just recently followed and finished A Woman Named Mine Fujiko.

I'm trying to ration the remaining movies and TV specials, for fear of running out too quickly. They're good movie night movies with friends, so I try and keep it limited to that.

It's been about a year since I read the little of the manga I have read, but the friend who sent it to me described the main difference being the likability of the character of Lupin himself. (Basically they made him more likable as a character for the TV shows and movies, his unlikeability being part of the original mad-magazine influenced joke.) Said friend is a huge fan of Lupin, even fan-translating one of the video games. I've liked what I've seen of the anime, enough to make me seek out the first Arsene Lupin book, and the manga was entertaining. But whenever I think of Lupin I just remember that old Lupin/Reel Big Fish amv lol.