the vynsane asylum

I got the first volume a few weeks ago, and finally had a chance to read it over the past couple of days. (I believe I mentioned that the art style is such that I can't read it in front of my daughter, since she thinks it's a kids' book.)

And, um.... I'm not entirely sure what to think. I'm not sure whether I like it or not. It's certainly not bad, but there's an awful lot of "hipper than thou" cultural references that stand out too much and get old. (The only one I found really clever was Stephen Stills and Young Neil.) Story's pretty good, but seems like something that should've been dished out in one volume. Art is usually pretty decent, but it's tough to keep some of the characters straight. And, at this point, I'm not sure whether all of the characters are necessary or not.

I'll get at least one more volume before making a judgment call, and they're so cheap I'll probably get all seven just to get the full story. But I'm not seeing the comparisons to Watchmen.

Books like this get a small, but very vocal fanbase that elevate it to cult status as the new cool and like to compare it to books like Watchmen so they can brag they were fans before it hit big.

Its like those douches that love Boondock Saints.

I doubt very much all those Scott Pilgrim loving tweeners have experienced the full spectrum of comics' rich history going back to the Golden Age, through the Eerie books of the 50s, the underground movement of the 60s and 70s, Kirby and Ditko's early stuff, up through Watchmen and Dark Knight and early Vertigo, and into today. Otherwise they would know its derivative and all been done before.

I dozed off twice or thrice watching the film adaptation in the theater this summer.

I just watched the film version. I'll talk about it more in the film section. But I justed wanted to say I don't think it's possible to cram 7 full length Graphic Novels into one film. I feel like what we got was a super condensed cliff notes version of the books.

I actually liked this movie quite a bit - going in I thought it was going to be a bust. Haven't read any of the comics yet, the art has no appeal to me whatsoever, and in fact the look of the books kinda turns me off.

jjreason wrote:I actually liked this movie quite a bit - going in I thought it was going to be a bust. Haven't read any of the comics yet, the art has no appeal to me whatsoever, and in fact the look of the books kinda turns me off.

The art looks like the PowerPuff kids all grew up. And it looked like it would be tough to keep all the characters straight because they all look alike.

Yeah, that's about right. I did like the concept of destroying all the wife/gf's previous love interests though, I think that story would appeal to most geeks who are in love with desirable ladies that have been around the block a few times with seemingly more "awesome" beaus.

Read a free preview of book 1 - I must say I'm way more thrilled with the b&w interiors than I am with the covers. The movie pretty much hit all of this chapter bang on, which would make sense. I'm not ready to spend money yet to keep reading, but I'm not that far off either.

I bet if you are patient, some guy who in a fervor went out and bought all the volumes upon seeing the film will eventually decide they don't need to be clogging his shelf anymore and auction the entire set on ebay for $1. Granted that could take a year or three, but like I said: patient.

Good idea.

I bought the first volume. I think it was like $3 or $4. (I may have put it in an earlier post.) The others, I've been getting from the library. And, unlike Fables, 100 Bullets, and Unknown Soldier, I won't be hunting for them at Comic-Con.