Is Sage a comic book character or a Saga typo?
A typo. /15char
This will only make sense for a few days but read that strip and keep hitting next until today (it’s maybe 10 strips)
It’s a short little ark that starts innocently enough. His character is a 100% Mary Sue (and a fairly big narcissist), and basically seems to be the writer’s dream-self living his dream life, hence the punchline. The punchline, and the character growth – for him to be perfect he has to understand this stuff. You should too.
I finally went ahead and bought the entire series of A Silent Voice. I saw the movie last year but wanted to actually read the thing as well, and boy, that manga destroyed my soul today when I read basically the last 3 volumes in one sitting. I am glad I didn’t read it on the bus where I usually read manga these days. Absolutely heartwrenching.
So I think I should maybe check out Cosmic Ghost Rider? Frank Castle a.k.a The Punisher former herald of Galactus becomes a Ghost Rider after being sent to hell. Sent back to the past to kill baby Thanos decides to raise Thanos instead. It seems like Marvel’s goofy spin on the famous Lone Wolf and Cub manga series.
Has anyone read The Wicked and the Divine?
I’ve heard nothing but great things about this series, but I’ve never read it. Now that it’s officially reaching it’s conclusion, I’m interested in checking it out.
I read a few pages and dropped it out of ambivalence. I only started it grudgingly after Amazon kept recommending it so I may not have given it a fair shake.
I’ve been reading it, the Rochester library has had the collected volumes.
I’ve been enjoying it. The series has a long, drawn-out secret of space that I’ve still not seen the full shape of yet. But I’ve seen enough that I can follow along but still have questions.
I’m following another series he’s writing called Die. It’s a bit Chronicles of Narnia by way of It.
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I’m a big fan of Kieron Gillen so I’m probably going to check this out. I’ll also keep my eyes out for Die. Thanks for the tip!
Yotsuba&! is of course a fantastic manga, but for some reason I haven’t kept up with it due to its odd release schedule. So now I’m catching up and I can’t believe how much I’ve missed just the pure enjoyment the series gives me.
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I’ve had a lot of time to get through the unread comics and manga on my shelf lately. I read all of Lone Wolf and Cub, March, and Devilman. What next…
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So I binged Dorohedoro. I really enjoyed it. It’s a hectic story, so my thoughts are going to be somewhat disjointed.
I really loved the characters. The two main friendships; Kaiman/Nikaido and Shin/Noi are wonderfully written. They demonstrate such a real feeling of camaraderie and it’s made all the more precious that in this horrible world. It’s an ultraviolent world, but we see all of the characters when they are violent and when they are not. It shows us that these people are not inherently sociopathic, it is their material conditions that drive them to violence. And devoid of a need to be violent, they easily coexist.
Dorohedoro is (probably not intentionally) about the hellscape of neoliberalism. It tells the story of a stateless world that nevertheless has organized itself into a roughly similar tech level to our society. It is a world in which violence and the exercise of power is how one survives. It is a world where the politics of society have organized themselves such that they are invisible, and thus allow for the endless propagation of oppression and misery.
Society is organized into castes, although they are never explicitly described that way. Within each caste are additional subdivisions that create further struggles for power and obscures the big picture. At the top are demons. Chidaruma, the only true demon, is the embodiment of neoliberal oppression. He constantly comments on how he " does not interfere" in mortal matters, despite the fact that he is the one who created the system. Despite the fact that patronizes the most powerful sorcerers. He controls society by inaction; allowing individuals to usurp and gain power only in ways that assert the hierarchy he has created. He is a brilliant villain in that he never once acts against the protagonists. He has created the system that hurts them, and his defeat offers nothing more than the hope that he becomes a more empathetic being willing to dismantle the hierarchy he has created.
Final aside, Q Hayashida sure does like showing the female cast naked. It’s easy to say it’s a trope of manga, but I am genuinely curious (and unable to research properly) if this is a subversion. While I find the female leads attractive, they are definitely nontraditional (by Japanese standards); Noi is a brickhouse and Nikaido is independant and headstrong. Knowing how neurotic Otaku are about their waifus I would love to see some kind of breakdown on if they find these characters attractive or were repulsed by the constant exposure to nonstandard femininity. My only lead being that on of the side characters, Ebisu, fits much closer to the model of the moe archetype, gets her face bit off in the first volume and then spends the entire run mentally incompetent.
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If you want something in the same vein as March, check out They Called Us Enemy, an autobiographical memoir by George Takei about his childhood growing up in the Japanese internment/concentration camps during WWII.
Chainsaw man brought out the full WTF today.
Skeleton Soldier can’t protect the dungeon has been getting updates a lot recently. Enjoying the secret of space there.
Started the Gunnerkrigg webcomic and I’m really enjoying it. Fun art and characters and secret of space. I think it’ll be my main webcomic now that Schlock Mercenary is done.
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I’m glad! Tom has a great way to build up story, some of the reveals from the last few updates have been in the works for 15 years!
On top of Gunnerkrigg my favorite comic nowadays is Kill Six Billion Demons, who has such an amazing worldbuilding and fantastic characters once it hits its stride. It’s about a normal girl, Alison, that suddenly is given the power of a long dead god and thrust into a planetscape like hub world between all universes. She has to learn to control herself and find out why she was given this power and what it means for both herself and the world. The author (another Tom) is just wrapping up the second to last book and the climax thus far has literally made me jump out of my chair in amazement. Highly highly recommend it, and since it’s a webcomic it’s free and easily accesible. Reach Heaven Through VIolence!
If my recommendation doesn’t do it then this single page might.
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The artist has made a mecha RPG called Lancer. The art in the rulebook is lush, the rules are sufficiently crunchy, and the setting is great fun.
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Lancer is so good, I have a campaign running where I play a hacker and it really itches all of my mecha urges. I really wish Abaddon would make a Lancer comic after KSBD is over.
There’s also a KSBD rpg called Broken Worlds, I haven’t played it but I have the rulebook and it has some great lore for the setting.
Edit: just after posting this an interview was published where Tom went up and all but confirmed he’s making a lancer comic after KSBD, thanks serendipity.
I tried this too 
You are full of good recommendations. I think Gunnergrigg is more my speed right now, Devils starts out pretty grim and uggly and I really could use a cheerier world. Also, the art in Devils is so dense, it’s REALLY not designed to be read on my phone!