h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there, my first foray into someones homepage! I can see that you are into manga in a big way. I tried Akira ( an obvious choice ) brought about 5 issues which I really enjoyed but did not have the dosh to get the rest of it..... £100 - £150?? tried Oh My Goddess, again half way through, find it a bit wimpy. A couple of years ago, Channel 4 showed some of the films which were fun but I never really caught the bug. It does'nt mean I'm a bad person though!!

I buy very little these days due to money being low at the moment, so I am being very selective. Cerebus (a love/hate affair), Hellboy, Eightball, Evil Eye,Comics Journal, Comic Book Artist, Looking forward to G. Morrison s "Filth", F. Millers DK2 .... Liked No. 1- No 2 iffy ..... have to wait until part 3 before I make my mind up!! + being a big '60s Marvel fan, am devouring the black and white reprints.

Hey! Glad you made it.
Can't chat much atm as am at work but will come back during lunch if i can, and definitely tonight.
yeah, I like manga, but it is a very odd medium, and i don't criticise ayone else for not liking it, or for finding Akira bl**dy expensive.

Hellboy is the best semi-regular series on the market. Mignola has worked a miracle with it.
Can't say i care a great deal for Sim's work, he is very arrogant and 'exclusive'. Miller has clearly lost his marbles but hey, it was good while it lasted and 300 alone will guarantee him a place in the history books, if Sin City doesn't.
Marvel's sixties stuff is *the* standard by which all other super-heroes must be judged, especially Lee and Kirby's Thor.
Of modern superheroes, I do have a sort of on-off love affair with the X Men, though it is mostly off these days. I've loved Adam Warren's Gen 13 and the new look Doom Patrol is great fun.
Can't wait for the re-launch of Leave it to Chance, either!

Too much to do!!
Have to reply in morning..... that's when I do most of my postings!

That's the beauty of H2G2, you can pick a conversation up after days or weeks if you want.
BTW, OMG! *is* a bit wimpy, but I love it nonetheless...

I did not get into Hellboy until a couple of years ago..... which was great because that meant I could read the entire collection over 1 month .For me there is so much to enjoy - the Lovecrafty stuff, nazi apes, early folklore, rasputin etc ... + the general lee/kirby feel I got reading it. I keep going back and re-reading stuff. talking about lee/kirby, thank the lord above for the marvel Black and white collections, I must of saved £1,000s. Want the F.F. run of Silver Surfer to Inhumans? Market price ooooh about one and a half grand? I'll have a reprint volume for £10.99 thank you very much. I dont care if it's not in the original form, I just want the story and art. The next Thor reprint book should be when it all starts getting cosmic and outer spacey - excellent! For years I have been slagging off Vince Colletta for his lazy, scratchy inking but re-reading the Thors, his style gave it an almost woodcut effect which suits it perfectly.

I've got to admit, I started to buy the x-men again when Morrison took over, but the constant artist roundabout got on my tits! Pretty interesting though.

Yep, Miller seems to have lost it. I really liked Ronin.... after Daredevil it seem really radical. As a manga fan, how did you like it?

I meant to ask, as a Damned fan, did you get the new album that came out 3 or 4 months ago? Apart from the fact that I never saw it in the shops, there did not appear any reviews/advertising for it.

I didn't care for Ronin at all. On the other hand I was reading it long before I was into manga, so I might have a totally different perspective on it now.
I didn't get Grave and Disorderly no. I toyed withe idea but frankly didn't want to pay £16 for it! I think the reason it crept out is becauseit was a US import. Very odd. I may buy a copy eventually but atm, I'm into other thuings, so we shall have to see.
On trhe other hand, I am toying with the idea of buying the new double cd compilation. Much better choice of tracks than Light at the End of the Tunnel.

Going back a bit, I got some of those Gen 13... nice! I have not got the Doom Patrol yet because I liked the last run so much, I don't want to be let down. I got the recent Swamp thing and could not belive the hash they made of it!

Have'nt read any Leave it to chance... liked the first 40 issues of Starman.

Leave it to Chance is much gentler stuff. Robinson deliberately aimed it at a juvenile age group-sort of 14-15 years old, and female. It's a brave experiment that really worked for me. paul Smith's artwork alone is a guarantee of quality.
Having said that I had to forego the pleasures of ordering issue 13 yesterday because of the spiralling cost of my monthly comics bill thanks to the cunning folks at TokyoPop.
Still, it'll be collected.
I really can't recommend Doom Patrol highly enough, it is excellent stuff. John Arcudi deserves much credit for the work he has done with a title that has happy memories for so many.

As I don't know anyone else who collects, its nice to get a recommendation. I'll probably get the Doom Patrol collection when it comes out.

Yes, Dave Sim seems a right s**t-head. I do still like the actual comic but have to seperate it from the long winded rants in the back! Anyway only 15 issues to go until the end. I don't know whether I'll be sad or happy. It's been a very long, demanding trip.

I'm getting ready to watch Akira again and realise I don't know which came first......comic or film.

Surely you should be working by now?

Sorry - last posting aimed at Superdogmonkey only!

Hello, Mrs the Wife, and yes, you are quite right, I should be working by now.

I must admit I avoided the last incarnation of Doom Patrol for exactly the same reason you've avoided this, as I had very fond memories of the original run (showing my age here...). Oh, that and the fact that I can't stand Grant Morrison.

The manga of Akira was completed before the fim was started. As is quite common, rather than being a staright adaptationj, it really a case of a creator having fun with a different medium. Ghost in the Shell bears no real resemblance to the manga, but is till an excellent piece for example.
The most notorious example is probably X, by Clamp. Having completed 11 volumes of the proposed 22 total, they made a film of the last volume, but nobody will give you odds that that is how the mange will end...

You seem to know your way around h2g2. I want to write my first guide entry. Its a music one and I want to know where it will end up. Does someone read it and try to put it along side other music related entries? Or will they look at the bands mentioned and put it in genres?

My best advice is stick it in Peer Review and see what happens-there is a very comprehensive guide to what happens to your article on the Peer Review page.
As far as I'm aware, the music stuff all ends up in one place, but you'd have to check that.
I am just always pleasantly surprised when one of my entires turns up on the front page. Actually knowing how the whole magical process works might spoil the fun...

Cheers, as soon as it's done I'll stick it in. The BBC manga World cup adverts are making me chuckle. If the actual games were as exciting as the trailers, viewing figures would go through the roof.

The World Cup adverts I like.
The World Cup-well, let's just say I plan on watching as much of it as I did of Wimbledon last year, that is to say, none at all...Oh, except Henman going out which I saw at a pub during the H2G2 summer meet-up.

I might watch some of it but won't cry if I don't. Some of the people at work are devising ways to injure themselves so they can watch all the games.

I've just read that The Watchman book is getting nearer to being made into film. Can it be done??? Should it be done??

They've been talking about a Watchmen movie for years.
Terry Gilliam gave up on the idea, so my guess is it *can't* be done properly so it *shouldn't* be done. That won't stop them, though.
I read with horror recently that Stepehn Norrington (director of the fist, bl**dy awful Blade movie) is in the seat for the live action Hollywood re-make of Akira. What a completely pointless enterprise that is...

I never saw Blade. W. Snipes did'nt have an afro, safari pants, there was no jive-talking, where did that sword come from?... the whole point was that Blade only used hand held stakes, barely winning, relying on speed, savvy and a burning hatred.

Despite myself, I am curious about the Spider-man movie. Unlike the X-Men, it appears to concentrate on the man behind the mask.