Official Off-Topic Thread

[Helm]

Manara's drawn one woman in his whole life but that hasn't stopped him from doing some monumental comics like 'Indian Summer' with Pratt or "A dream? Perhaps..." I wouldn't know for the life of me where you'd find scans for that stuff, but if you ever do, you'll see what I mean.

Adrian Tomine: he puts out a fanzine named Optic Nerve through Fantagraphics. Get it. Craig P. Russell, you should get his adaptation of M.Moorecocks 'Stormbringer' for some of the best made comics I've ever seen.

Manga Artists: Yukito Kishiro of Battle Angel Alita fame is my dad. Inque Takehiko with Vagabond pulls off the 'historical comic that is worthwhile' thing we are discussing above with great flare and ease. Jiro Matsumoto's Freesia is very worthwhile. Naturally Shirow for his Appleseed/Dominion/Ghost in the Shell work. Kentarō Miura is the manga artist I have seen grow most in the smallest period of time with his work on Berzerk. Blah blah blah Blade of the Immortal blah blah blah. Jyoji "George" Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo  is the only sport manga I've ever read that made me cry. Hideo Yamamoto has on his name three of the comics that made me think the most: Ichi the Killer, Voyeurs Inc. and most recently the monumental 'Homunculus'. Izo Hashimoto makes studies of the human psyce and of breaking faces with fingers with Shamo. Kazuo Koike and the artist Goseki Kojima make Samurai Executioner and Lone Wolf And Cub very worthwhile. I guess that's enough for a while.

Cow your taste in comics is as wonderful as your taste in Heavy Metal. Blessed be 

[huZba]

Read most of those and own the ones that are available, except for Vagabond which is at finnish vol3 atm. Might check around if the full series is available in english. I think none of Hideo Yamamoto's works have been  released in english, so gotta go for scanlations. Been waiting for vol9 of homunculus for quite a while now. Shamo i haven't heard about....

For light-hearted otaku reading, genshiken is pretty good and Welcome to N.H.K. for less light hearted failing at life sort of thing.

[Helm]

I found Genshiken to be a very grating read, not because it's not well-done, just that this sort of otaku lifestyle is a self-entrapping cliche that I would like to be as far away from as possible.

[huZba]

I find there's certain honesty about it though. Otaku know what it is and they're fine with it, while there are a lot of people trapped in just as simple things and are completely oblivious about it. I wouldn't start living like that for sure, but i bet it would be fun for a day or two. Wasn't Genshiken a lot about how sad it really is to be otaku, and how a lot of their hardships are directly caused by otakuness? Some were ashamed of it, some were open and didn't care how stupid it was, some grew out of it and so on. I don't like obsession over things, but it's certainly interesting to follow a group of people who are shutting themself out for the sake of plastic gundam and eroge gods.

You can read it as otaku, or as someone who loathes otaku, or something in between. The manga itself doesn't take sides i think.

[Helm]

Yeah it's well-done and allows for various reads and it did make me laugh/hold my head combo at the pyo pyo sex bit, but I find obsession to be inherently pathologic, and attempts to self-realize through obsession doomed to failure (or just wishful thinking fantasies fulfillment in comic form) and are very sad for me to follow.

[huZba]

The general population does have a quest for happiness that ends up in various obsessions, be it over cars, toys, clothes, games or god. They're easy missions to follow, and the many levels of success they offer make people happy, which in turn makes questioning their happiness a very touchy subject. Doubting your happiness can lead to depression and even if you know well of the futility of your obsession, you will pursue it just to not be miserable. Obsession makes your world small and the ends of it are rigth there and visible. Being otaku lets you escape the whole "what on earth am i supposed to do with my life" question.
At the opposite extreme, not getting into anything, thinking critically of everything ends you up without answer, so it's easy to see why anyone would pick the easier path.

Welcome to N.H.K. shows the ultimate failure that can become of the instant gratification path.
All the easy entertainment in the world has made social rejects a big problem already.

[Helm]

Following god, for real, not just as a neurotic lawgiver, is probably not an easy mission to follow, but yes generally I see what you mean and I agree the overabundance of easy entertainment is creating a lot of interesting and troubling issues in modern consumerist society.

[ndchristie]

Religion is an external force telling you what to believe and when to believe it.  So is fandom.  So is belonging to a social setting.  These can never offer real happiness in any way, shape, or form.

Faith is an internal force that directs self-discovery.  So is expression/creative passtimes.  So is actual love and friendship.  These require that you make everything vulnerable, from material goods to the depths of your being, but in exchange you get the universe.

That all sounds very sappy, but don't make the mistake of thinking that diversions produce real happiness.  The happiest people in the world have no toys, no clothes, no cars, and, most of all, no obsessions.

[ptoing]

Also "The things you own own you" applies.

[JJ Naas]

At the opposite extreme, not getting into anything, thinking critically of everything ends you up without answer, so it's easy to see why anyone would pick the easier path.

I've know a couple of people who are critical of absolutely everything, to the extent that they get disconnected from the reality inside their own bubble of (un)certainty, feeling that their own thoughts are the only real thing, the world outside is fake. If you're gonna tear the world apart in search of truth and happiness and whatever, you better be sure you have means to put it back together again, otherwise you'll end up pretty messed up. Being able to find at least one aspect of the world more interesting than any other thing will give you a point of focus, around of which to build. But if you don't start extending your interests beyond that one chosen thing at some point, that leads to serious, damaging obsessiveness, like uber-otakuness.