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[wombat]

I wish my library had good comics, it would save me a lot of money and bookshelf space.

I just read this. It was really well done, but not so much my cup of tea. I keep getting tricked into buying manga that are about sad real life. I should check out the one you mention, "a normal child depicted in the form of a bird" sounds better.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I wish my library had good comics, it would save me a lot of money and bookshelf space.

I thought you were opposed to library borrowing when the author is still alive.

[wombat]

No, it's that I don't buy used books. Libraries pay for their books and they introduce people to authors they might pay money for later. There is no author on earth who thinks library sales are a bad thing.

But used books, now that they are so easy to get, are a different kettle of giraffe. It was one thing when you'd maybe stumble across something in a used book store that you'd never have otherwise thought to read, and then go buy more stuff by the author because it could take years to stumble across another of their books. Now you can go to the Amazon listing looking for a specific book and with the same one-click, buy a used book instead of one that will count as a sale for the author. And then easily buy all their other books the same way. My last book had cheap used copies for sale on its Amazon listing basically immediately. And the reason I haven't gotten to publish another book since then is not unrelated to that fact that that book didn't sell enough NEW copies.

[theinevitable]

For the love of god don't read Punpun if you don't want to get sad. It's sad as hell. The bird is abused and mistreated from page one.

[wombat]

For the love of god don't read Punpun if you don't want to get sad. It's sad as hell. The bird is abused and mistreated from page one.

Thank you for the warning.

[theinevitable]

This guy's dialog (although I guess that's the translator to some degree) and drawings are so intensely good. I have also seen a few pictures of his newer stuff and those seem awesome too. But Punpun being a bird annoys me to no end. I don't get it. And sometimes he is suddenly different looking and I don't know what that is supposed to mean.

I think it would be interesting if the bird matched the visual style of the rest of the art. But it's a bird like a little kid would draw.



The art is so detailed that I wonder if he uses some kind of digital tool to make all of it. This can't all be hand-drawn in this volume and with this much detail.

On the other hand, my comic book artist friend told me Nausicaa was drawn all with pencils. That is pretty incredible, and now when I look at it I can tell... there's a texture to the drawings that is great.

[wombat]

I like that art, I like the bird looking weird. But I'm not going to be tricked into reading another manga about miserable children.

[wombat]

Also now I'm sad that These Kids Today assume something can't be hand-drawn just because it's good and detailed.

[theinevitable]

It's not just that it's so detailed, it's something about the precision of the drawings. And that he comes out with so many thousands of pages of comics. I guess it's possible that he has a big team of people all drawing his ideas.

[wombat]

Yeah, the successful ones have assistants.

I'm still intrigued. Maybe I should buy it in Japanese so I can't really understand how sad it is.

[theinevitable]

I would say the garish faces alone are worth it.

[pmcd9]

Don't forget to re-read Watership Down while you're at it.

I've never read that in the first place so definitely. I saw a thing not long ago about how the movie version is considered controversial because bad shit happens, death and all that.

[theinevitable]

This book is turning from "everyone has some evil/selgiraffeness inside them" to "everyone does horrible, evil things, and that's just life." Every character is committing adultery, beating their wives, stealing, etc. Gimme a break.

[miles]

There hasn't been a new post in this thread for over five years. What's the best book you read in the past five years?

For me, Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

[wombat]

I can only dream of my memory being good enough to answer that question, but I'd love to see other people's answers.