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Underground > Comic Books >

Planetary #16

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uncle retrospective

15:49 / 21.01.03

No really, it's solicited for April 2nd.
Wow, how long over due is that? God, this issue could be Watchmen and Dark Knight rolled into one and all it's going to get is people bitching that it wasn't wort the wait.
But Yea! anyway.

18:49 / 21.01.03

I was scrolling through the solicits, and my jaw practically dropped when I saw it. In the interval between 15 and the 16, I've read both trades, and the other three issues of the series, as well as the two specials, so I'll be psyched to have some new material.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

04:22 / 22.01.03

I remember when there was a 2 year wait between Neal Adams's "Ms Mystic" #1 and #2, back in the early 80's when Neal's return to comics was a HUGE deal. One review said, "Was it worth the wait? Of course not. Nothing could be."

I would imagine the same will hold true of this. It's been so long I barely remember the characters (other than Doc Savage) and have NO clue what the plot is.

06:32 / 22.01.03

My girlfriend and her sister are huge Buffy fans. These girls are exactly the kind of readers the comic industry should be catering to. I bought them some comics I thought they might enjoy and they both got hooked on Fray. An eight issue miniseries that still hasn't gotten past issue 6. Think either one of them is ever going to waste their money on monthly comics?

I really enjoyed Planetary but I would never recommend it to a new comic reader, its just a frustration waiting to happen.
I honesty think that books being this late (especially the few good books) are bad for the entire industry.

07:23 / 22.01.03

compare and contrast to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - 10 isues in 5 years.

People may moan a little about the lateness but people generally consider it worth the wait - with Planetary - yes its a great book when its around, but much of that effect is derrieved from its brevity - its meant to be the comics equivelent of a pop single - it was meant to be drawing a line under 20th century pop culture yet hear it is llingering on into the 21st century like a the bad smell of a rotting corpse.

Yes Planetary is a good, fun, series of short comics essays, which is why its an even greater shame that that it can't match the quickfire delivery of the form.

yawn - thing's buddy

09:08 / 22.01.03

exactly Sleaze.

exactly.

Quite frankly, Planetary is now an embarrassment.

he should tie it up with a 100 page graphic novel (to be published sometime in the next decade) or summat.

10:47 / 22.01.03

C'mon Yawn, and, ultimately, in the next decade or two, Planetary will be published as a 100 page graphic novel.

yawn - thing's buddy

12:05 / 22.01.03

See as Flyboy didn't start this thread I reckon its okay to slag off Ellis so I'll re-iterate a point I've made since I joined this forum.

Planetary is the most overated mainstream title in a looong while.

The dialogue is clunky and mannered.
The exposition is amateurish.
Its premise is dull.
It's homages patchy.
It's leads are a bore.

It just trys to damn hard.

But I'll still buy the fucker when it comes out.

12:41 / 22.01.03

You don't sound like you want to very much...

Mister Six, whom all the girls

12:41 / 22.01.03

To Hell with Planetary, check out the news item: GREEN LANTERN/ GREEN ARROW: "Black Circle, Urban Knights"!!

Just kidding.

I really get into this now because of Cassaday's art. I tried to get him to shit talk Ellis' writing as overrated, idea-heavy and infrequent, but he merelt made a suprised face and said Ellis was a nice guy to his knowledge. I had to feel awful. I doubt John could say a bad thing about anyone, really.

Is it worth the wait? Well, I kinda figured that it would never come out again, so frankly I'm suprised. The bigger question is will Ministry of Space #3 be worth the wait? Ellis is just so unreliable these days and... well, how come this kind of lateness is so prevailent now? In the 60's comics just came out. Come Hell or high water, Hulk smashed something and Batman made his ward wear panties outside. Suddenly writers get lung infections, mercury poisoning, diabetes, and their parents die. Talk about fiction suits!

As for attracting new readers: But I'd lend a friend the collections and just be casual about it. Act like there are no other issues so that when they do come out, it's like Christmas!

Mister Six, whom all the girls

12:42 / 22.01.03

Oh, and I once heard a very dodgy analysis that the leads in Planetary were suposed to be Morrison, Ellis and Alan Moore... Anyone want to back this?

13:10 / 22.01.03

I'll verify it - it was in the letters page. The editor had a laugh: "the real question is, is Warren Ellis Jakita Wagner?"

Our Lady of The Two Towers

15:55 / 22.01.03

I've read the first two trades and enjoyed them, like a fractal or The Invisibles every time an issue focused on people or an event it got more complex. I just hope that Warren is building to something spectacular (it's only supposed to be 24 issues right?) and doesn't bottle it.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

16:03 / 22.01.03

compare and contrast to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - 10 isues in 5 years

Yes, but they are mini-series, and the first 6 issues came out within a year...and the latest have come out pretty much on schedule. If Ellis were doing it as a series of mini-series (ala Hellboy) I don't think anyone would feel like I do with a near 2 year gap between issues.

09:08 / 24.01.03

ellis is just the best image writer. stories that always emphasise dramatic visual, letting the splash pages actually become the plot and characters, not just excuses for people to flex in their pants. with a good artist, ellis' work is infrequently very good.

so cassady and weston, bring ye on!

planetary used to be so cool, but we'd all be so much happier if it came out every week...

09:13 / 24.01.03

just read the preview. forget that. sounds bollocks.

The Natural Way

09:45 / 24.01.03

My feelings exactly, yawn. Exactly. Spot on.

But I WON'T buy the fucker.

10:44 / 24.01.03

Originally posted by yawn...
Planetary is the most overated mainstream title in a looong while.

The dialogue is clunky and mannered.
The exposition is amateurish.
Its premise is dull.
It's homages patchy.
It's leads are a bore.

It just trys to damn hard.

But I'll still buy the fucker when it comes out.

While I agree with what you are saying I don't think Planetary is written to be read the same as most other comics. Its less of an ongoing series, more of a forum in which Ellis delivers expository essays on 20th century pop culture in the form of a superhero comic. Its a metafiction.

I don't think this invalidates the criticisms that yawn outlines above but I think the origin of many of them lies in Ellis adoption of this particular form to tell these stories.

13:49 / 26.01.03

Fuck metafiction, while I love and agree with the idea.

We all are the Fourth Man.

yawn - thing's buddy

20:29 / 26.01.03

yawn.

(no offence sebastian)

nah - i wont buy the fucker either runce.

there's just no point anymore.

I'm kinda hoping Pop London is the new direction for trash comics. Stories with traces of meta-commentary rather than meta-commentary with traces of story.

To be honest, i could do without the meta-commentary n all - even tho I love all that stuff (most fictions I've created are laced with said stuff)

12:22 / 30.01.03

personally i really dont care about how long its been. I never have. if you do, stop bitching and dont buy anything except collected editions. 15 years ago people complained about watchmen and dark knight (and miracleman, v for vendetta, the list goes on) being late, now those arent even issues, those works stand on their own.

The Natural Way

12:24 / 30.01.03

Yeah, because Planetary is just as good. Only not. At all.

See yawn's post. I think he gets down just about everything.

23:20 / 14.02.03

This just in: the book's been delayed.

DC suits have decided that the best way to bring PLANETARY back from its hiatus is with the PLANETARY/BATMAN crossover, which comes out in June. PLANETARY itself will return in August.

01:35 / 15.02.03

I saw that, much to my... how can I put it?, nauseating astonishment?

I simply can't stop wondering whatever Batman and Planetary have to do together, even beyond the marketing facts.

02:21 / 15.02.03

Oh, for fuck's sake.

I ordered Planetary/Batman in Summer 2000.

Assboss.

09:45 / 15.02.03

I thought that the whole series had been delayed because John Cassiday had been ill, or had had some family problems. At least that's what I heard.

I think one of the things that makes Warren's books come out irregular is his insistence on consistent artists in his books. Which, after seeing some shitful artists filling in on otherwise brilliant comics (thinking recent Lucifers and the whole Invisibles vol. 3 shebang), makes a lot of sense to me.

m.

14:17 / 15.02.03

No, it's Warren who spent much of the last two years ill and dealing with parental deaths. During the hiatus John commetted to CAPTAIN AMERICA (and Chris Weston committed to THE FILTH, thereby scuttling MINISTRY OF SPACE for the moment), an by the time Warren recovred sufficiently to start churning out scripts again, he was too tied up to start on them immediately. Can't blame John (or Chris), really—he's gotta put food on the table, after all—and everybody's been gentlemanly about it.

And really, these are books built for collected editions, books with shelf-lives: Who's gonna care, ten years own the line, that there was a two-year gap in publication of the serial?

15:04 / 15.02.03

I'm buying it, like the characters, love the art and so far I'm interested in the story. It's a pisser it's been this long between issues but hey I can live with that because I read Strangehaven and Sleave Castle (which will now never finish because the writer gave up

). So I'm prepared to cut him a bit of slack, what with parental death and illness and all.

22:31 / 15.02.03

ah, well that explains it.

I'm also on the "who gives a fuck if it's late?" boat - planetary is a nicely thoughtful comic and I'm prepared to wait however long it takes for the books to come out. The whole "why didn't it come out this month" thingy, while it may be relevant to an extent for a continuing series, to me, seems to be a hangover from the pamphlet days.

m.

02:30 / 16.02.03

But I want my continuing action fiction yesterday! It's a backhanded compliment how annoyed people are with the perpetual delays on this title, really.

15:27 / 28.08.03

So had anyone else read it?

Art was FAB!!!!

Some of the BEST Hong Kong style Widescreen action!!!

Plus a bit more on ms. Hark and the return of Jamie Wilder...

I hope the next issue actually comes out this year as well..

16:00 / 28.08.03

Bought it. Read it. Loved it. Ellis is setting us up in this issue for a major story arc and I can't wait to dive in. I agree, the art was very well done and I liked the "Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon" intro.

That being said, I really want to see more in the way of back story insofar as Hark's father (and the rest of Axel Brass's crew) is concerned and what he was doing with a Planetary Guide in his possession, not to mention what Jamie Wilder has been up to since his transformation.

22:00 / 28.08.03

Yes, I really liked this issue as well. But it always seems so little. You read the issue in about 10 seconds and are left with that horrible feeling... will I have to wait another 2 years for the next issue!!!

23:25 / 28.08.03

I really liked it. I was totally drawn into the whole thing and it wasn't until the second read-through that I realised I'd been sucked in so totally by a comic that was predominantly two people talking in a dark office. Nicely done. And the reunion sequence between Hark and Wilder was so sweet in its mundanity.

still like this one. anyone know if it's gonna be a bit more regular now? covers for the next three have been passed around, i understand, though that's not indication of anything, really.

m.

14:28 / 29.08.03

I'm on Ellis's "Bad Signal" mailing list and from that I've gotten the impression that this is a "re-start" for Planetary and that it's going to be pretty regular now. AFAIK, Cassaday is off Captain America now and is working full-time on Planetary issues, and Ellis claims he's got the next 6 or so in the can. Can't remember if it's supposed to be monthly or bi-monthly here, so we'll have to see.

Anyway, I thought #16 was pretty good. Not mind-boggling. Certainly not "worth the wait". But I read a lot of indy stuff and I'm used to waiting a year for a new Black Hole, 6 months for another Thieves & Kings, who knows how long for Peepshow. Nothing is really "worth" that long of a wait, but I tend to feel that if at the end of the day you can read all the issues in a row and think, yeah, this is pretty good, then the book's basically done its job.

Mind you, I once tried collecting 'Big Numbers' and 'Hepcats'. Since then, everything's been comparatively satisfying....

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