The Losers

[Jumbie]

First off, thanks and props to Irish Cowboy/ Ninja/ Wannabe/ Whatever-the-fuck-he-is-these-days for loading up my new comp with comics in general and 'The Losers' in particular.

 

Lemme tell you about the scene where I knew I loved The Losers: It's in the CIA offices and two agents are sitting around talking about their careers. They're not thinking about their future at the Agency. They're not talking about accomplishing missions. They're talking about what political contacts they've made recently that can advance their careers and how they can make money in the private sector once they cash in their pensions.

 

That scene works on so many levels. It feels realistic as hell and reminds me of the way govt agents were portrayed in Grosse Point Blank and the early (good) Tom Clancy novels. With the recent revelations of how FBI agents were overcharging the govt for time spent in Iraq, it seems even more believable now. That also shows how Diggle excels as a writer. He makes these agents come alive with dialogue which is something he does for all his characters. He's as good as Tarantino at this shit. And he's as good as Tarantino because the character building dialogue we get early on often ends up developing into plot points later on. The language just pings off the readers ear just right too. It sounds like people talking, the way people talk. That's something I often get upset about in stories more than ever now. Even good dialogue writers like Kevin Smith have moments where you think: "That doesn't sound spontaneous. That's Smith's words forced into his mouth." It never happens with Diggle.

 

I love the team that Diggle creates. The characters work and the capers are excellent and the way the small capers are all part of the bigger plot is excellent. I don't buy into the whole, 'people who control the world' conspiracy and There's some issues I have with Diggle's obvious political beliefs, but they're minor.

 

I read this book and I felt like I'd experienced everything right along with the characters and I really cared about what happened to each character. Not that I wanted every character to come out OK. WHat I mean is I wanted to know how things turned out for everyone right up til the end. Which I suppose falls under the heading o building suspense, so we can give credit to Diggle for that.

 

I'm going on about Diggle and his writing because I do think that that's what makes this book superior for me, but the art is tops too. I don't have a good vocabulary for describing comic art, but I know that the style matched the overall tone of the story perfectly and it changed tempo with the story as well, depending on what was happening in the story on that particular page.

 

 

Final Word: This is the best comic produced in the last 5 years as far as what I've read.

[The NZA]

huh. and youre the one who pushed Hellblazer & Preacher on me in the day.

 

this thread makes me feel bad, not just for skimming it, but because your brother pushed this book in the day as well, didnt say it was the best but that it was very worth reading. wasnt crimsonfire a big fan too, or am i thinking of someone else? anyway, lotta high recommendations, so its getting bumped back into the queue...which means uh, more likely to be read inside of the next year then the next 5.

[Jables]

Kinda curious to see what Jumbie thought of the movie...

[Mr. Hakujin]

I loved the flick. Haven't read the book though, but it's in the queue...

[Jables]

Yeah I loved the hell out of the movie and bought the first volume(because my bookshelf isn't made up of enough first volumes of Vertigo books), have yet to make it through. I tend to doze off when it comes to CIA stuff, at least the movie had the decency to be punchy about it.