steriaca Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading While the novels themselves don't have a Dark Champions feel' date=' I always thought the premise of John D. MacDonald's "Travis McGee" books would be great in Dark Champions. Basically, if somebody takes what's yours (illegally or immorally) and you have no hope of getting it back you can hire Trav (or the PC in a DC campaign) and he'll try to recover the money/property/whatever, but he keeps 50% of anything he recovers (getting half back is better than getting nothing back, right?).[/quote'] Sounds a bit like the anime/manga series Get Backers, except the Get backers are minor level paranormals, and thay recover 100% of the thing lost...but you have to pay there fee first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading Early Jackie Chan films, especially his Police Story movies. Ignore the Hollywood crap he puts out; in his prime, his action films were incredible. Hong Kong Cinema in general. Humm...how would you rate City Hunter, both the Jackie Chan movie, and the anime/manga series, for Dark Champions? I would also recomend the manga/HK movie/anime movies Goglo 13. While wildly funny, I would also add Lupin The 3rd to the must read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading More Manga Mania... Banana Fish: It may be shojo, but it is twisted. Includes a gay american gainster as a hero. Eagle, The Makeing Of An American Presadent: A look on how the Japanies view american poloticts as a Japanies-American runs for the ovial office. Santuarie (forgive my mispeling): A storie about two war ophens from a war torn Cambodia, who were adopted by Japain, and strive to find there safe haven. One man becomes a Yakuza, while the other man becomes a Dietman (Japanies Congrusman). The Young Kin(something-or-other) Mysteries: Defently not Scoobie Doo. The grandson of one of Japan's top detectives solves murders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDU Neil Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading More Manga Mania... Banana Fish: It may be shojo, but it is twisted. Includes a gay american gainster as a hero. Eagle, The Makeing Of An American Presadent: A look on how the Japanies view american poloticts as a Japanies-American runs for the ovial office. Santuarie (forgive my mispeling): A storie about two war ophens from a war torn Cambodia, who were adopted by Japain, and strive to find there safe haven. One man becomes a Yakuza, while the other man becomes a Dietman (Japanies Congrusman). The Young Kin(something-or-other) Mysteries: Defently not Scoobie Doo. The grandson of one of Japan's top detectives solves murders. I read the first three GNs of Banana Fish and was like "Ok... nothing at all has happened..." and gave up. Greatest manga I've ever read... Sanctuary. Brilliant tale of two childhood friends who make a pact to grow up and change the underlying order of Japanese society. One goes into politics, the other goes into the Yakuza. Koizume, if I'm not mistaken. Much better than his Crying Freeman stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading Absolutely: Add 100 Bullets to the above list... then for realy Dark CHAMPIONS (gritty, but with superstuff)... the top of these are Sleeper and DC's Bloodhound. Both incredibly hardboiled and/or noir. DC's new Manhunter is also pretty good. In fact, these are the kind of comics I read, now. No more Bats and Supes and JLA... no more Avengers (since the awful destruction of them)... I'm looking at the stack of comics that just have ready to file away... and even the really Supers level stuff is dark. Supreme Power and Wanted... Planetary.. Check out Steve Gerber's Hard Time... for a crime comic with a real twist. Ooh... Gotham Central... cops in a supers world. Deadshot... exploration of a supervillain done REALLY well by new writer Gage. Bendis' Powers... again, cops in a supersworld. Truly the epitome of Dark Champions, IMO. (Anything without supers, I consider Danger International... 'cause I'm an old fogey!) How about Garth Ennis' 303? A military conspiracy comic from Avatar? Lots of good Dark Champions stuff out there... most of it a far cry for the god-awful '80s an '90s Punisher stuff. To me, Sleeper is the epitome of what Dark Champions is all about. Its also one of the best comics I've read, ever... A good deal of the other stuff being mentioned on this thread seems more thriller, or hard boiled detective to me. Also, a classic, the Punisher. The writing comes and goes, but this guy is a normal in a superhero world, taking the fight to anyone and everyone he deams a threat. Cloak and Dagger is another good one. Or, at least, it used to be. When I was younger, this comic always seemed darker then the others, dealing with themes of prostitution, drug abuse, runaways, etc. And lets not forget Powers, police dealing with supercriminals and Top Ten, superhero cops.... There was also a book I read that has always stuck with me, that really isn't very champions-ey, but very dark. I hesitate to recommend it because I read it so long ago, but it was called A Death of Honor. Involved the nifty idea of in the near future, the cops becoming so overworked that you had the right to investigate any crime you were accused of, and given access to some police powers!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantine Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading I also don't think anyone has mentioned the Watchman or, what was it called, V for Vendetta? Two excellent graphic novels, both, I believe, by Alan Moore... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuk Posted February 22, 2005 Report Share Posted February 22, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading I want to second the nominations of Dan Simmons' Joe Kurtz novels -- they're great. That guy can write ANYTHING -- cutting edge award-winning huge scale SF, modern day noir, "alternate" history (The Crook Factory rocked!), horror (his "Summer of Night" was the best book Stephen King never wrote), you name it. I'll also second the Repairman Jack novels from F. Paul Wilson. They do tend to have supernatural elements, but there's lots of other stuff in there, too. Plus they're just darn cool (I just started reading them this past summer). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Jim Posted February 23, 2005 Report Share Posted February 23, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading simon r. green's "nightside" books, 3 that i know of : something from the nightside agents of light and darkness nightingale's lament definately a mystic,dark champions (with high points) type of setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted February 23, 2005 Report Share Posted February 23, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading For "dark" plot elements, either street level like Dark Champions or further up the power levels, I tend to get inspiration from a few places: 1. Regular comics themselves(obviously) 2. Mythology - be that Norse, Celtic, or Greek there are a lot of stories with universal ideas/themes where the good guys don't win and where people often do things that simply work against society as a whole. Euripides is good for this. 3. Charles Dickens. I've blatantly ripped off Fagan(from Oliver Twist) among others. 4. Vonnegut - he's cynical enough to create some interesting "what ifs" and conspiracies - and logical enough to make them eerily plausible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted February 23, 2005 Report Share Posted February 23, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading For Mange/Anime: Golgo 13(someone already mentioned but it's REALLY good so worth repeating IMO) Angel Cop Bubblegum Crisis New Dominion Tank Police Some of it is a bit futuristic, but the basic plot elements work well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skaramine Posted February 23, 2005 Report Share Posted February 23, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading I was thinking the other day how much I enjoy Andrew Vachss's novels as Dark Champions inspiration, and I figured it might be helpful to start a thread about what y'all find inspirational for the genre. So, leaving aside the obvious (technothrillers by the likes of Clancy and Bond, spy thrillers by the likes of Fleming, LeCarre, and Ludlum, mysteries by all sorts of people), what sort of novels, short stories, etc. have y'all found good as Dark Champions inspiration or source material? Great series... but I'm hurt that you never mentioned the series that to me epitomizes the Dark Champion, even though he's gone over to be more of a James Bond/Jack Ryan government tool. 'Course, I might be biased because I write the guy and his pals. Mack Bolan, the Executioner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 Re: Inspirational Reading I also don't think anyone has mentioned the Watchman or' date=' what was it called, V for Vendetta? Two excellent graphic novels, both, I believe, by Alan Moore...[/quote'] I'm surprised nobody mentioned From Hell... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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