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Underground > Comic Books >

I believe in superheroes.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

14:48 / 24.01.04

Hello Barbelith. I'm very new here, and I'll try to do this without too much drooling fanboy hyperbole.

So I had to order it off eBay, but I finally own a complete set of my own personal Holy Grail, Flex Mentallo. I've read it a few (too many) times since it arrived and I am very. Pissed. Off. Yes, reading Flex really pissed me off. In four issues, Morrison and Quitely create both the perfect love letter to comic books and in my silly little opinion, the perfect comic book. And the only reason I had the oppurtunity to read it was an unhealthy obsession with all things Morrison and having a temporary surplus of disposable cash. (Though it was worth every bloody penny and then some.) But this should be in every damn bookstore in the world right next to Watchmen and Dark Knight, which are absolutely eclipsed by Flex in terms of quality, passion, and sheer and utter BRILLIANCE in every possible...

Sorry. I said I'd try to avoid drooling and whatnot. Anyway, this series touched me in a way I can't even begin to describe. Grant Morrison's marvelous headfuck ideas were in full force, more mindbending and spectacular than ever, but... I didn't cry when I read the Invisibles. I mean, I admit it, I was in tears by the end, and god damn it, I believed. I believed like I was a little kid again and I knew it was all true, we CAN be heroes! This is a beautiful work of art on every level, and the comics industry won't be worth a good goddamn until anyone can go buy this from their local comics shop in trade form for 14.99 (or whatever, less than I paid anyway)...

Once more, I ramble. And I haven't even mentioned the magnificent artwork, or the Hoaxer, greatest character to ever wear spandex ("That's right! Blam! You've been had, dad! Seeings not believing and no one hoaxes the hoaxer!" Ohh. Brilliant.) but anyone who's had the privelege of reading "Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery", please, respond. Talk to me, people.

februarysunrise

Matthew Fluxington

15:23 / 24.01.04

If you read our pre-existing Flex Mentallo thread, you'll note that there are a host of legal reasons which prevent that mini-series from ever being reprinted.

I totally agree with you in that it would be a great thing if it were released as a trade paperback, but it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

15:38 / 24.01.04

I am aware of the legal problems. Balls to the legal problems.

15:55 / 24.01.04

Charming. So, you’ve, like, seen the other thread then? Nobody’s particularly happy about this, including Grant it seems. So, what’s your problem? You’ve read Flex Mentallo, Flux has read Flex Mentallo, I’ve read Flex Mentallo, loads of other people here have read Flex Mentallo. What’s the big fucking deal about there being a trade?

Oh, and hello.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

17:49 / 24.01.04

I suppose it's not a big deal as you can technicallyread it. It's just one of those books I think should be shared with the rest of the world. And making it a bigfuck Oh my God deal was just me getting all ranty. Really, I just wanted to talk about the book itself.

feb

18:17 / 24.01.04

Sounds like a job for....feburarysunrise!!!.

Dude, when Flex Mentallo first came out it seemed as though I was the only one in existence who brought it all/appreciated its genius. Certainly I was the only one buying it in my town. In the course of spreading the word, I start lending out the set to all and sundry, and one day some sod just never gives them back. That’s okay, I think, I’m not precious about these things: I’ll go and get some more, no problem. Then someone else does the same thing, all four issues just vanish. I know who swiped them but he almost certainly sold them straight on, the skanky fuck. This time all I can find around is 3 and 4, and I think I’ll replace 1 and 2 at some future point, I’m not too fussed. And then without me noticing, the rest of the world wakes up: and now it’s like the most expensive, scarcest bloody comic around. These things happen. When I had the comics I must have introduced maybe 20-30 people to them, and I still think it was a good thing to have done. Because they’re bloody comics, not a commodity to be jealously hoarded. So, unless you’re actually counting on reselling your recent purchase, just get them out of their bags and start sharing with your friends.

Oh yeah, next time I get copies of 1 and 2, I’m planning to take my felt-tips to the covers and devalue them down to zero. I’d urge you to do the same.

22:56 / 24.01.04

I agree with february in that it's a fucking crime that these legal tanglements prevent this from being collected in trade, and thus, being appreciated and read by a larger public. I have heard rumors that maybe they might eventually be able to pubilsh a trade of this, but they could be just bollocks. There is an Italian version, in Italian of course, that comics gossip columnist Rich Johnston mentioned in a his column a few months ago. Sadly, unless you can read Italian, it's useless to us.

I feel your passion at the injustice of the situation, february. Hopefully someday an English language FLEX trade can happen if the Charles Atlas people relent.

yawn - thing's buddy

23:16 / 24.01.04

Just buy the greasy version and cut the bubbles out yer comics and paste them in ya mentallists.

23:44 / 24.01.04

Anyone that hasn't read Flex Mentallo can try checking their favorite P2P program. Its easy to find complete runs of Flex, Doom Patrol, The New Adventures of Hitler, Kill Yr Boyfriend and just about anything else out there.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

13:50 / 25.01.04

Oh no, that's wrong like stealing. I would never do that.

Um, the complete run of DOOM PATROL? Really?

Where would I find this? All of it? Ooh. All I could find at my comick store was number 42. And just to taunt me, 18 and 64. Heh.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

14:54 / 25.01.04

I'm getting Doom Patrol off bittorent now. And it seems to have fucking frozen. Ah well.

16:37 / 25.01.04

I can't figure out BitTorrent.. It doesn't seem to work for me..

Matthew Fluxington

18:36 / 25.01.04

Fuck BitTorrent. Use Soulseek.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

02:32 / 26.01.04

That's a little unfair fluxy- the program's a little clunky, but it's a nice way to download if your ports are blocked and you can't use soulseek.

09:52 / 26.01.04

Direct Connect ++ is the best way to go for scans. That's how I had to get ahold of Flex and Doom Patrol. It comes with access to a ton of public hubs, then all you do is search for comic books on that list and that'll get you where you need to go. You might need to share a few gigs of files. Most of the sites don't care if they are movie files, mp3's or what not. So long as you don't just share your Programs folder you'll be fine.

23:26 / 26.01.04

See, this is why The 'lither known as Flux is the BarbeDiety he is.

FINALLY someone else who knows about Soulseek. Now it has even more applications!!! *geekgasm*

I'm just about done...

(What do they call you on slslk?)

02:24 / 27.01.04

Soulseek? It that one of those matchmaker sites?

You guys are pathetic.

08:03 / 27.01.04

hehehehehe

Yeah I'd call me ridiculous if I were you seeing me react like that about something called "soulseek" I didn't know anything about. It DOES sound like a matchmaker service.

S'not tho. You must not download music very much...

21:38 / 27.01.04

I only like to listen to rocks bounce around in a coffee can.

14:02 / 31.01.04

Flex Mentallo is one of the few comics to really screw with my head.
In issue three, a character mentions an old black and white comic called The Fleshless Ones which gave him nightmares.
As a very small child, after much greeting and pleading, an aunty bought me that comic, presumably a Tales From the Crypt-style reprint. It is the first comic I can remember reading ... and I must have been aged between four and six.
From what I can recall, it concerned skeletal figures covering themselves in the flesh of their victims and assuming their lives. The pay-off still haunts me, with the victim being surrounded by the Fleshless fiends, who tell him: “Soon you will be one of us...”
I too had nightmares. Great big screaming nightmares. Couldn’t sleep for a fortnight, woke up in tears, all the rest.
My parents - and I did harbour nasty suspicions for a few days that they, too, could be Fleshless Ones – finally found out what was causing the nightmares, took the comic away from me and burned it.
The exorcism must have worked eventually ... but I was hooked on comics.
When I finally read Flex Mentallo, I realised the same comic must have screwed with the head of a young Grant Morrison too... we’re about the same age.
Any other young Scots left mentally scarred by The Fleshless Ones?
One a slightly related note, I’ve downloaded the complete Morrison Doom Patrol run from the aforementioned Soulseek. Feel no guilty about “ripping off” DC comics as: 1. The bastards haven’t reprinted most of them and; 2. I bought them all at the time and lost them in a tragic and misguided “It’s that huge pile of comics or me” ultimatum from my partner.
And I can’t recommend Flex Mentallo highly enough ...

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

15:07 / 20.03.04

Um, I'm resurrecting this thread because I found something really cool.

Cut and paste, because I don't know how to make a link

http://www.extra.hu/flexmentallo01/
http://www.extra.hu/flexmentallo02/
http://www.extra.hu/flexmentallo04/

They don't have issue 3, I checked. But, you know. There it is.

-feb

15:55 / 20.03.04

Goddammit! Three's the only one I don't got!

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

16:04 / 20.03.04

Well, that's irony kicking you in the arse, eh? (Yeah, "arse", because that's what we say here in Colorado. I read too many comics, I use phrases like "great caesar's ghost" as well. People tend to look at me funny.)