One Winged Angel
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Post by One Winged Angel on Jul 5, 2013 18:29:39 GMT -5
Nevah! It's good to see you back. I don't think I could handle a Larfleeze book. Thank you! I've been in and out, but not really posting... mostly because I'm so busy with classes and work half the time. But I missed you guys and decided to try and make a point to be around a bit more. Plus someone's gotta keep this one in line, who thinks he's soooooo funny : Shes a filthy hobbitits and lurks, yes Precious.
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okcomputer
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Post by okcomputer on Jul 5, 2013 22:02:09 GMT -5
I got X-Files Season 10 #1 last week. It's good. It picks up a few years after the second movie, with Mulder and Scully living together under different names, and beginning to fear for William (their son from the last season of the show). The writer doesn't seem to have a handle on how to write Mulder quite right without overdoing the jokiness, but the artwork is good and the plot is appropriately eerie enough to make this first issue feel like the first half of an episode of the show.
It's not perfect, but I was such a huge fan of the show in the 90s that I'll take new Mulder & Scully stories however I can get them.
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NecroDragon
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"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 6, 2013 0:06:44 GMT -5
^ I thought the same exact thing. Mulder was too histrionic.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2013 12:08:18 GMT -5
Saw the comic for sale the other day, never knew they did it. It was one show I couldn't get into, preferred The Outer Limits or we had one called Psi Factor up here that was great too
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
THE CLEVERER OF THE CLEVEREST
"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 6, 2013 14:22:43 GMT -5
I could see how some people could never get into the show, but it's my favorite show of all time. Cryptozoology, UFOs, conspiracies, and paranormal activity were my bread and butter growing up.
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okcomputer
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Post by okcomputer on Jul 6, 2013 21:12:51 GMT -5
When I got back from the shop last week with a month's worth of comics, I realized I had something from almost every comics publisher. Marvel (Fury MAX), DC (Green Lantern, Batman Beyond), Dark Horse (Star Wars: Legacy), Image (Walking Dead, Jupiter's Legacy), Dynamite (Red Team), IDW (X-Files Season 10), and Avatar (Crossed, Ferals, Stitched). That has to be a first for me. If only I'd grabbed an issue of Archie I could added one more to the list.
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
THE CLEVERER OF THE CLEVEREST
"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
Posts: 1,010,189
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 6, 2013 22:21:22 GMT -5
That's pretty cool. I don't think I've ever bought anything from Dark Horse in single issue before. Most of my stuff is from Image, Marvel and IDW.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2013 14:16:54 GMT -5
Nevah! It's good to see you back. I don't think I could handle a Larfleeze book. Thank you! I've been in and out, but not really posting... mostly because I'm so busy with classes and work half the time. But I missed you guys and decided to try and make a point to be around a bit more. Plus someone's gotta keep this one in line, who thinks he's soooooo funny : Shes a filthy hobbitits and lurks, yes Precious. I'm golden, It is Known
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skullshine
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Post by skullshine on Jul 19, 2013 21:06:16 GMT -5
Anybody gonna read Infinity? I'm looking foward to it. I know there's a few fellow Thanos fans in here...
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
THE CLEVERER OF THE CLEVEREST
"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
Posts: 1,010,189
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 20, 2013 16:41:44 GMT -5
Helllls yeah. I keep forgetting to add it to my pull list.
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skullshine
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Post by skullshine on Jul 24, 2013 3:31:22 GMT -5
Borrowed the Fatale: Death Chases Me trade from a friend. Pretty good so far!
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
THE CLEVERER OF THE CLEVEREST
"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 24, 2013 14:23:45 GMT -5
Yeah, I love Brubaker/Philips. I just finished vols 2 and 3 the other day. Each volume takes place ina different time period. Pretty fun!
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
THE CLEVERER OF THE CLEVEREST
"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
Posts: 1,010,189
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 24, 2013 14:33:58 GMT -5
Fatale got me to realize just how insanely pervasive H. P. Lovecraft's influence is in today's fiction. I was trying to mentally list everything I know that is heavily influenced by his work and it's a pretty impressive list. Just off the top of my head:
Silent Hill Fatale Locke & Key Neonomicon Hellboy Pacific Rim Prometheus The Goon The Mist Doctor Strange John Dies At The End
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
THE CLEVERER OF THE CLEVEREST
"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
Posts: 1,010,189
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 25, 2013 20:08:18 GMT -5
Funny, as soon as I was finished typing that ^ I went to read Ultimate Fantastic Four vol 6, in which Doctor Doom uses a Lovecraft demon to infect Johnny.
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skullshine
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Post by skullshine on Jul 26, 2013 4:11:59 GMT -5
I liked that era of Ultimate FF (vols.4-6). Great artwork, and cool storylines....and the beginning of Marvel Zombies!
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
THE CLEVERER OF THE CLEVEREST
"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
Posts: 1,010,189
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 27, 2013 2:29:33 GMT -5
I actually preferred Warren Ellis' stuff in vols. 2 and 3 to the next few vols. I don't really dig Greg Land's art. His figures look so static, since he relies way too heavily on his reference pictures. Using reference is the way to go, but he doesn't seem to use enough of his imagination to make his stuff pop. Also, it takes me out of the comic when I recognize Paul Walker as Ben Grimm and etc. I did like the Jae Lee art and the Mike Carey/Mark Millar writing. I had to skip volume 5 because none of the libraries here had it.
Speaking of libraries, I went on a crazy library pilgrimage a few days ago and got like, 15 different graphic novels to read. Right now I'm reading Wolverine and The X-men vol 4. Just finished the other 3. I didn't really like vol 2 much. Seemed like Jason Aaron was just pumping out filler until AVX dropped. But by the time AVX came around, it got really good. I really like Jason Aaron, thanks to Scalped, so vol 2 was REALLY disappointing.
I also read Annihilation book 1, which was just fantastic. Ironically, and quite fortunately, I had been looking to buy the TPB online, to continue my personal Thanos reading quest, but it turns out the first book is out of print, for some reason, and is highly expensive, so I had to postpone getting it - until I came across it at one of the libraries in my pilgrimage. It's very cool to see how Thanos' story progresses after all these years left wondering after finishing his series back in 03. Now that I've read it, I can go and get the inexpensive books 2 and 3.
The other books I've finished reading so far are Ultimate Comics X-men vol 1 by Nick Spencer, which was very good - VERY good - although, I've heard that it goes downhill after that volume and Ultimate Iron Man by Orson Scott Card, which was good in the first half, but then got pretty boring in the second half. I also realized while I was reading it that I had read it before.
The books I have yet to read still are Uncanny X-men vols 1, 2, and 3 by Kieran Gillen, Scarlet Spider vol 1, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1910, 1969, and 2009, The Death Of Superman (which I've read before), Indestructible Hulk vol. 1, and Hoax Hunters vol. 1.
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skullshine
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Post by skullshine on Jul 29, 2013 10:50:18 GMT -5
I actually preferred Warren Ellis' stuff in vols. 2 and 3 to the next few vols. I don't really dig Greg Land's art. His figures look so static, since he relies way too heavily on his reference pictures. Using reference is the way to go, but he doesn't seem to use enough of his imagination to make his stuff pop. Also, it takes me out of the comic when I recognize Paul Walker as Ben Grimm and etc. I did like the Jae Lee art and the Mike Carey/Mark Millar writing. I had to skip volume 5 because none of the libraries here had it. Speaking of libraries, I went on a crazy library pilgrimage a few days ago and got like, 15 different graphic novels to read. Right now I'm reading Wolverine and The X-men vol 4. Just finished the other 3. I didn't really like vol 2 much. Seemed like Jason Aaron was just pumping out filler until AVX dropped. But by the time AVX came around, it got really good. I really like Jason Aaron, thanks to Scalped, so vol 2 was REALLY disappointing. I also read Annihilation book 1, which was just fantastic. Ironically, and quite fortunately, I had been looking to buy the TPB online, to continue my personal Thanos reading quest, but it turns out the first book is out of print, for some reason, and is highly expensive, so I had to postpone getting it - until I came across it at one of the libraries in my pilgrimage. It's very cool to see how Thanos' story progresses after all these years left wondering after finishing his series back in 03. Now that I've read it, I can go and get the inexpensive books 2 and 3. The other books I've finished reading so far are Ultimate Comics X-men vol 1 by Nick Spencer, which was very good - VERY good - although, I've heard that it goes downhill after that volume and Ultimate Iron Man by Orson Scott Card, which was good in the first half, but then got pretty boring in the second half. I also realized while I was reading it that I had read it before. The books I have yet to read still are Uncanny X-men vols 1, 2, and 3 by Kieran Gillen, Scarlet Spider vol 1, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1910, 1969, and 2009, The Death Of Superman (which I've read before), Indestructible Hulk vol. 1, and Hoax Hunters vol. 1. Annihilation trades (especially volume 1) are indeed pricey. Been wanting to get the trades because I'm tired of trying to track down the whole story issue by issue.
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okcomputer
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Post by okcomputer on Jul 29, 2013 10:52:24 GMT -5
The library got all 4 Before Watchmen books, and I checked em out. I finished the Cooke and Azzarello books, and I'm halfway through the JMS book. This whole thing is pretty much exactly what I expected; sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes fucking terrible, and 100% unnecessary.
Some more thoughts...
Minutemen (A-): The only series so far that has any real merit beyond the artwork. Aside from Hollis and Sally, because these characters were never really explored in Watchmen this is the only series that feels worthwhile and like it isn't a pale shadow of what Moore and Gibbons did. Aside from a few confusing panels the artwork is impeccable, and the 1930s-40s setting is perfect for Darwyn Cooke's writing and art style. Good series.
Silk Spectre (B+): This one is saved by Amanda Connor. Her animated style works well with the vibe of the story of Laurie's first real outing as a superhero, but the plot itself is a little stale. 60's San Francisco, hippies, hallucinogenics, evil drug dealers, good and bad acid trips... it's all kinda predictable, but it looks really nice.
Comedian (D): Ugh, Azzarello, why? You wrote 100 Bullets, one of the greatest masterpieces in comics in the last 20 years! How could you do this? This is just so bad! This depiction of Eddie Blake as noble-yet-misguided patriot doesn't match at all with the remorseless sociopath in Watchmen, or even the character Darwyn Cooke wrote in his two series. It doesn't even really work as Oliver Stone-style CIA/Vietnam story. It's just plain bad.
Rorschach (C-): A little better, but still kinda lousy. Azzarello basically rewrites "Taxi Driver" (Travis Bickle even has a cameo) with Rorschach going up against street filth and a serial killer in 1970s New York. He gets the character right for the most part, but the whole thing is just completely pointless. Lee Bermejo even mimics Dave Gibbons' "cover art as first panel" device, but with none of the subtle poetry of the original. It comes across as more clumsy than anything else.
Nite Owl (F): Terrible. Completely awful in every way possible. It's so bad it made me angry. I'll admit the idea of Joe & Andy Kubert working together on a story about two generations of heroes is cool in theory, that's not what this story is. I don't know what the fuck this story is supposed to be. Everything about it seems wrong. Rorschach working in a church for some reason. Dan Dreiberg shacking up with a dominatrix madame (with some of the absolute worst "sexy" dialogue I've ever read... seriously, you have to read it because it's just so fucking terrible), just... ugh. I guess the only good thing I can say about this one is at least JMS finished rather than quitting halfway through (as he is wont to do), but he probably should have. The fact that this series is the last thing a legend like Joe Kubert worked on before he died is just a travesty.
And that's all I've read so far. I'll read the Dr. Manhattan series tonight, but after the four-issue shitfest that was JMS' other Before Watchmen contribution my hopes are not high. There's also the two-issue Moloch series in the same book, with art by the incomparable Eduardo Risso. Looking forward to that one, with expectations lowered to their appropriate "JMS wrote this" levels.
To be continued.
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NecroDragon
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"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
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Post by NecroDragon on Jul 29, 2013 14:31:26 GMT -5
I agree with you almost entirely, but I thought there were SOME good parts about Nite Owl. That story is the backstory behind the framed autographed picture he has of her, and towards the end, it syncs up with Minutemen in a cool way. Also, The Kuberts' art is awesome. Other than that, yes it was garbage. Everything you said about all the other books is exactly the way I felt about them. That being said, you'll probably have the same opinion as me about Moloch, which is that it was also unnecessary and come to think of it very forgettable. I really don't remember anything about it other than a semi-clever way that it explained how Ozymandias manipulated events. The actual Ozymandias book is surprisingly good, though. Doctor Manhattan was meh. It got a little better towards the end, after starting out pretty shaky, but overall was nothing special. The one saving grace of that book is that the nature of Doctor Manhattan made it possible for JMS to do something original with the plot, something that didn't hinge entirely on the already established mythos.
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okcomputer
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Post by okcomputer on Jul 30, 2013 9:38:20 GMT -5
I haven't read Watchmen since right before the movie came out, so a little over 4 years. I didn't remember the significance of the signed picture of the Twilight Lady in the Nite Owl story. I guess that does change things somewhat, so I'll raise the grade to an F+. It's still a really bad comic.
And I read the first two chapters of Dr. Manhattan last night. I was going to read the whole thing but I was dead tired and had to sleep. It was surprisingly good, and a pleasant surprise after Nite Owl. This sort of high-concept sci-fi story is much closer to JMS' specialty than a grim & gritty street-level story, and using the Schroedinger's Cat theory to frame the whole thing is interesting. The artwork is really nice too. I've only ever seen Adam Hughes' stuff on covers, but his interiors are really good. I'll finish it later today along with the Moloch series.
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okcomputer
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Post by okcomputer on Jul 31, 2013 12:17:24 GMT -5
"Before Watchmen" micro-reviews, Part The Second.
Dr. Manhattan (B+): JMS seems to annoy me more often than not, with his annoying habit of abandoning series before finishing his story and his generally douchey attitude in interviews, but when he's good he can be very good indeed. This is one of those times. It's tricky to tell a prequel story about a character who exists outside of the regular flow of time, but what he pulls off here is pretty impressive. Rather than tell a straight-forward story of Dr. Manhattan's exploits in the 60s and 70s like the other Before Watchmen stories have done, he has the character focus on a single moment in time and expands outward from there. We get some additional (unnecessary) information about Jon Osterman's early life before his accident, as well as glimpses of alternate timelines and realities that seem to result from his powers. This series could've been called "Before, During, and Immediately After Watchmen" with all the playing around with timelines that go on. It doesn't come off as too high-minded, but more of a solid sci-fi story from the perspective of a god-like being. JMS has a solid grasp of what makes the character tick, and therefore is MUCH better at writing Dr. Manhattan than he was with Nite Owl and Rorschach.
Also, there's one scene that shares a pivotal moment with the Nite Owl series, shown from a different character's perspective. I can't remember if the bit with Silk Spectre's ID card was in the original series or not, but including the scene here sheds new light on the same scene that didn't make much sense in Nite Owl. I'll have to go back and read that one again when I'm in a more forgiving mood.
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skullshine
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Post by skullshine on Aug 7, 2013 19:01:22 GMT -5
Got the final issues of Dial H and The Dark Tower today.
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okcomputer
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Post by okcomputer on Aug 27, 2013 13:51:19 GMT -5
I realized I never finished sharing my thoughts on Before Watchmen. Allow me to do that now:
Before Watchmen sucked a fat one. Minutemen was pretty good, Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre had their moments, but everything else was complete shit.
The end.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2013 22:44:11 GMT -5
Borrowed the first trade of Caligula off a buddy, holy shitballs its sick and twisted. Kind of exaggerates on his history, and his demon horse is just a wtf? Thats horrible and awesome at the same time.
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okcomputer
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Post by okcomputer on Aug 28, 2013 8:26:57 GMT -5
^ Is that the Avatar series? Because they do sick and twisted better than anyone else. I don't think they put any editorial restrictions on their writers at all. Ever read Crossed? Or Neonomicon? That's some dark, twisted shit.
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
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"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
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Post by NecroDragon on Aug 28, 2013 15:32:12 GMT -5
I still need to read Crossed. But yeah, Neonomicon was some seriously nightmarish shit.
Btw, OKC, did you read Ozymandias? I thought that one was alright, too. Otherwise, I agree with you about BW.
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skullshine
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Post by skullshine on Aug 28, 2013 19:48:35 GMT -5
Crossed is half past fucked up. Seriously. I liked Alan Moore's take on Ryleh in Neonomicon. Thought that was a cool idea.
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okcomputer
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Post by okcomputer on Aug 28, 2013 20:57:03 GMT -5
I still need to read Crossed. But yeah, Neonomicon was some seriously nightmarish shit. Btw, OKC, did you read Ozymandias? I thought that one was alright, too. Otherwise, I agree with you about BW. By the time I got to Ozymandias my mind was made up on the whole thing. I've read far worse comics, but not very many that were so completely pointless. And remember how in Watchmen, the interspersed Black Freighter story mirrored the main story in a really clever way? It turns out Len Wein forgot why that stuff was in there, because his Crimson Corsair story had nothing to do with anything and went absolutely nowhere. From a technical standpoint it was cool the way every other page had a cliffhanger (since it was printed in 2-page chapters in all the BW comics), but unlike the pirate story in the original it did nothing to shed an interesting light on the main plot. I should've listened to my instincts when they first announced the project. Watchmen is one of the greatest comics ever created, and trying to follow up on it is a fool's errand. And yeah, check out the first Crossed trade. It's some SERIOUSLY fucked-up stuff, but one of the best horror comics I've ever read. Several scenes are genuinely unnerving. I've recommended it to friends but I always warn them beforehand that it's EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY violent and disturbing. They say "But it's just a comic book, how bad could it really be?" It's NC-17 level material. The later volumes ratchet up the grossness and seriously creepy sexual violence, but the first story started it all and it's a helluva good survival horror yarn.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2013 21:49:03 GMT -5
^ Is that the Avatar series? Because they do sick and twisted better than anyone else. I don't think they put any editorial restrictions on their writers at all. Ever read Crossed? Or Neonomicon? That's some dark, twisted shit. You betcha it is Avatar bud! I've read Crossed it was seriously messed up, I couldn't read it all
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NecroDragon
Knight of Burnie
THE CLEVERER OF THE CLEVEREST
"Stupid science bitches couldn't even make I more smarter!"
Posts: 1,010,189
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Post by NecroDragon on Aug 29, 2013 1:09:46 GMT -5
I actually bought Crossed vol 1 for my brother for his birthday a while back and expected to read it after him, but I dunno what happened to it or if he even read it.
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