Prelude to several posts of comic geekery

[thehefner]

One reason I'm so poor after this trip is because Henchgirl and I tracked down a comic shop in pretty much every major city we went through, scouring through bargain and back issues for several things.

We have two personal crusades: mine is to find every single issue of the BATMAN ANIMATED SERIES comics, and hers is to get a complete run of the 90's CATWOMAN. But I found many more in the meantime. I'm gonna have to write multiple entries to showcase my acquisitions.

At a magnificent comic/used-book shop in Oklahoma City--it was called Second Chance Books, and really, how could a Two-Face fan like me resist?--they had a whole section dedicated to comic-themed novels. Very, very cool. But two stood out. One was this:





Henchgirl almost bought it, but held off to instead get more CATWOMAN back issues. Has anyone read this? Is it any good? It doesn't look that good, but hey, you never know where the gems turn up!

Me, I came away with this:





Okay, first of all, Richard Wenk? I'm wondering if that's the very same Richard Wenk who directed VAMP, the 80's-tastic original Vampire Strip Club movie starring Grace Jones, Gedde Watanabe, Dedee Pfeiffer, and Billy Drago? I don't know how many other Richard Wenks there are Wenking around.

But more importantly, this is a "Choose Your Own Adventure" Batman book! Did I mention how I'd love to write a "Choose Your Own Adventure" Two-Face story? It'd come with its own coin and everything.

I know, right? MUST NOT JEOPARDIZE EVERYTHING I'M WORKING ON RIGHT NOW TO WRITE THIS INSTEAD. When oh when will DC hire me so I can do this shit for actual money?!

Comments

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

> BATMAN ANIMATED SERIES comics

Really? Am I the only one to whom that seems wrong?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

In what sense?

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

Just the idea of a comic book... of an animated version... of a story that started in a comic book... it's just giving me a headache.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

It's a separate continuity, freed from the burdens of the regular comics muddled soap opera storylines and gritty overblown violence and bullshit. Kind of like comic spinoff stories taking place in THE DARK KNIGHT's storyline, it's a chance to have Batman without several decades of baggage.

That's why I love them: they're essentially the cure for comic-related headaches!

[thirdbase.livejournal.com]

I've read the Phule's series... I would hope that's not necessarily the exact genre -- sci-fi silly humor with action!

[thirdbase.livejournal.com]

BTW: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/story?page=bracket/heroesvillians

[skalja.livejournal.com]

I've never read a Batman book but I have a sad, sad love for Spider-Man tie-in novels, all the more tragic for living in Switzerland where such things are not easy to come by, even used. I will always be sad that Adam Troy-Castro never got to write the comics, because he really gets the characters. Alternately, I'd love to see Diane Duane get a run (after BND is fixed).

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Henchgirl turned me onto these collections of Batman and Joker short stories that were published around 1990, packed with stories of varying nature. Several are "eh," but when they're good, they're bloody amazing.

Similarly, she got me to read a HELLBOY novel that was the best HELLBOY story I've ever read.

I wish there'd be more of a market for stuff like that, as the form seems to entirely belong to fanfic these days (and we know how fanfic can sometimes be better than the actual canon stories in publication).

I have a copy of THE OCTOPUS AGENDA, but have never read it. Is it good? I do love me a good Otto.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Try as I might, I can't argue with their results. Well, I could, actually, if I could have a better understanding of which version of the characters, the setting, what they had for breakfast this morning, etc.

[skalja.livejournal.com]

So far as I'm concerned the only real difference between tie-in novels and comics, story-wise, is that the comics are considered canon and the novels aren't. But really, the comics are just as fanficcy as the novels.

I haven't read THE OCTOPUS AGENDA yet; the one I own is THE VENOM FACTOR, which is good fun. Adam Troy-Castro's books are the SINISTER SIX TRILOGY, of which I've read the second two but not the first. (It's really more like a duology and a loosely connected prequel, anyway.)

Jim Butcher of DRESDEN FILES fame also wrote a fairly good Spidey novel which I haven't read in detail yet -- I've skimmed bits of it.

[kingrockwell]

I've always considered tracking down Denny's Welcome to Helltown just so I could compare it to his Question comics. I have a friend who read it once and might still have it, he's prolly forgotten to try digging for it.

And that's about the extent of my knowledge of comics novels, other than that I've always been curious about the No Man's Land novel.
i once waited forever for Claremont's novelization of X2 from the library and never ended up reading it when i got it

[swimpenguin.livejournal.com]

I read the first two of those Diane Duane Spiderman novels back in the day (Venom Factor and Lizard something) but never picked up Octopus Agenda. I remember liking the first two (though I was also a huge Venom fan at the time and now he's yet another comic character I like the concept of better than any execution I've seen)

[superfan1.livejournal.com]

I would love to read the second image book. :)