Everything I Ever Learned About DMing I Learned From Comic Books

[MythandLore]

Talk about iconics, though. You don't get much more iconic than Contact's list, though Batman and Superman could be added as well.

They are all good icon heroes

 

[Horacio]

I kinda cringed when I read the title, but actually I very much agree, although I guess we all have different reference sources, and I guess I view super hero comics in a different light Actually, I probably haven't read the "good" superhero comics, and having been "schooled" in European Bande Dessinée, what I expect of a comic is now auite different...

Ah, vous les français, toujours avec vos bandes dessinees chic et classees...

But yes, I agree, European (specially French) comics are different, and while they are (at least) as good inspiration source for a DM, the inspiration (and the ideas and adventures you can take from them) is rather different...

 

[MythandLore]

Ah, vous les français, toujours avec vos bandes dessinees chic et classees...

But yes, I agree, European (specially French) comics are different, and while they are (at least) as good inspiration source for a DM, the inspiration (and the ideas and adventures you can take from them) is rather different...

I have a few French comic books, "Troll" is the one I like the best.
It's neat how a lot of the European books seem to be thin hard covers, most American ones are thin soft covers.
Do they make in soft cover too over there? Or are they all hard cover for the most part?

 

[omedon]

This post has made me wish I hadn't left my collection at my parents house. I sure wish I had a big old stack to sift through right now so I could generate plenty of nifty ideas.

Unfortuneately even if I did have my collection right now I only collected for about 4 years so I don't have any of those large sweeping 100 issue plot threads to follow.

Oh well; I might just have to nab that X-Men anthology I have been putting off purchasing.

 

[Sammael99]

I have a few French comic books, "Troll" is the one I like the best.
It's neat how a lot of the European books seem to be thin hard covers, most American ones are thin soft covers.
Do they make in soft cover too over there? Or are they all hard cover for the most part?

French comics are 95% hardcover and large format (A4 or thereabouts) compared to american comics. The only soft covers to be found are usually promotional (as in the bonus comic given to you in a petrol station when you buy a few hundred gallons )

Troll. Is it Troll by Sfar and Boiscommun ? It's a nice series and one of the less "standard" fantasy comics in France...

FWIW, French comics are exclusively in Graphic Novel format and almost never serialised although there is a little bit of an american comic scene, but they're all translations...

 

[Sammael99]

Ah, vous les français, toujours avec vos bandes dessinees chic et classees...

But yes, I agree, European (specially French) comics are different, and while they are (at least) as good inspiration source for a DM, the inspiration (and the ideas and adventures you can take from them) is rather different...

They are. I'm a big fan of some american comics (some "classics" like Sandman, Usagi Yojimbo, Bone, Thieves and Kings and some more "underground" like the works of Scott Morse, Andi Watson, etc.) but I've never dug the super-hero genre. Which does kind of shift one's focus when looking at the US production.

But even with this focus in mind, what you say is true, Horacio, I think the narration styles are very different in Europe and in the US even when the themes are similar.

BTW Horacio, I'd appreciate seeing that photo of you and the lil' one bigger. You wanna e-mail it over ?

 

[MythandLore]

French comics are 95% hardcover and large format (A4 or thereabouts) compared to american comics. The only soft covers to be found are usually promotional (as in the bonus comic given to you in a petrol station when you buy a few hundred gallons )

Troll. Is it Troll by Sfar and Boiscommun ? It's a nice series and one of the less "standard" fantasy comics in France...

FWIW, French comics are exclusively in Graphic Novel format and almost never serialised although there is a little bit of an american comic scene, but they're all translations...

Yeah by Morvan, Safar and Boiscommun.
I have the first 2, I like it becuase it is diffrent then most stuff.
As far as American stuff goes, I like most stuff drawn by Vess or Ross, the Maxx was good back in the day too.

BTW are there anyonline stores that sell French comics?

 

[Horacio]

BTW Horacio, I'd appreciate seeing that photo of you and the lil' one bigger. You wanna e-mail it over ?

I'm going to scan some ones and put it on her site, drop me an e-mail tomorrow and I will send you the URL.

(BTW, its here!
But all the photos now there are two month old, and that's a lot for an almost three months baby )

 

[Fade]

Hey, Sagiro's Story Hour is a perfect example of this (whether he knows it or not). I was trying to figure out what about this story hour was so great t ome and then I realized - the heroes in his group remind me of the Avengers! They have a headquarters, a butler, a patron, they fly around the world saving people - they have characters that remind me Scartlett Witch and the Beast. It is great stuff!

But did the Avengers have a butler who's eyes had been schlucked out by sentient rocks to deliver a cryptic prophercy concerning the very future of two worlds?

 

[Psion]

Everything from epic stories (LSH vs. Darkseid, anyone?),

Funny you should mention that. That is my favorite issue sequence ever.

to long twisted plots that plant clues years ahead of time (was it Hama's G.I. Joe that had a visual clue in the first dozen issues to a plot point that wasn't fully resolved til after issue 100?), to just about everything else.

Sadly, it seems like few comics have that level of continuity.

At any rate, I was a comics fan in my junior high, high school and early college years (70s-80s). They "mid" Xmen (when phoenix wasn't dark) and LSH were my faves. So many good ideas. (Not to mention that there is a race in my games that look surprisingly like Starfire of the Teen Titans.)

I remember my first DM was a big fan of Thor and New Gods. And I think it really paid off that he had those as early influences vice the dungeon crawls of the day. When people were raving about the advent of storytelling and I was already doing story-centric games, I was like "what the hell is the big deal?"