Comic books anyone?
 

I'm sure this has already been mentioned here as most of you people are complete toolbags, but who here enjoys reading comic books? I have by no means been a lifelong fan, but I used to read them back in the day. I was never a fan of the super hero genre, but I own all of the Shogun Warrior comics, and a lot of Transformers and 80's GI Joe comics as well. (With some Spider Ham thrown in for good measure)

Now recently I was talking with this nerd at work and he got me to reading Y: The Last Man. He told me that "comics have really matured" and "It's not just some kiddy crap, you'll like it!" I didn't believe him buhh.... Some really entertaining and worthwhile stuff here!

Then I asked him about more stuff and he turned me on to Fables, Powers, Black Hole and Watchmen. Then I heard about Maus (not really a comic, but a graphic novel) and loved that as well. Now, most of the titles I've mentioned are for mature audiences and they're not for the kiddies (especially Black Hole! No more penis pictures please!!) But I've gotten so crazy about this newer stuff that I even bought my daughter the first book of Bone, which contains the first year or so of the comics and she really loves it. (Cmon, I'm a good dad. It's nothing like it sounds. Back off HA) In fact, most of the comics have complete episodes available in graphic novel format.

I'd have to say that out of all of them, I'm completely addicted to Powers. Not only is it one of the best comics I've ever read, but it's one of the greatest stories in written media that I've had the pleasure of experiencing.

Here are some synopsis (synopSEES?) of some of the ones I've mentioned above:

Powers - Tells the story of a detective who investigates murders involving those people in his city who have super powers. He just happens to have been a superhero previously himself. Very creative and very original writing. Witty dialogue and a great story! If you read no other "new" comics, read this one!

Fables - Fairy tale characters come to life in modern day NYC after being driven out of their homeland. Snow White is the mayor and the Big Bad Wolf is the sherriff. (I can't even spell the word correctly anymore, thanks a LOT Darkiller...) Lots of funny and interesting stuff.

Maus - A Jewish son interviews his father about the Nazi oppression and his time in Auschwitz during WWII. The Jews are portrayed by mice, the Germans by cats, the polish by pigs and the Americans by dogs. A classic graphic novel and from what I hear one of the most renowned.

Black Hole - Teenagers become infected by an STD which causes them physical deformities of various and a sometimes brutal nature. Very graphic but a good read.

Y: The Last Man - A disease kills every man on earth except for one guy and his monkey. Seriously. Not all is fun and games as you'd think for the guy, though, and it explores gender issues I wouldn't touch. Loved it.

These are just some of the comics that I've been enjoying lately, but I hope to find more. I never knew being a geek could be so much fun! (well.... yes I did....)

Anyone else have anything to recommend?

Get yourself a copy of "Squadron Supreme" too. Read that before you pick up on any of the "Supreme Power" TPBs.

I PM'd you a couple more other series and writers (Brian K Vaughn, Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, etc), but I'd also suggest "The Walking Dead".

I was about to suggest Supreme Power as well. Good stuff.

Along with Walking Dead, another good comic by the same author is "Invincible", which is worth picking up the hardcover -- it's on sale right now on Amazon.

EDIT: for those that are interested, backissues can be read of Powers for free:

http://comics.newsarama.com/powers/

I reckon the list below was covered by the PM, but I'll share for everyone.

I've been going through a bit of comic book renaissance over the past few years. I was really big into them when I was in highschool. I collected for about 4 years or so (88-92) and then stopped for the most part. About 4-5 years ago I started re-discovering comics, mainly through TPBs and the like. I don't have the time (or money) to collect single issues anymore, so I sort of sit back and wait for the interesting stuff to come out. I'm always interested in hearing what else of quality is out there. So...

I'd second (or perhaps third) the Squadron Supreme and Supreme Powers books. Both are quite good. I also liked this guy's Rising Stars. Well, at least the first TPB. It lost quite a bit of steam in the second and third came out years later and I haven't read it yet.

I also enjoy Walking Dead quite a bit as well. I loves me some zombies.

Other good series include:

Preacher by Garth Ennis. It's definitely for mature readers as it's pretty over-the-top in pretty much every way shape or form. If certain folks were upset by the "Divinci Code", they'd flip their fucking lids if they read "Preacher." Seriously. It has good characters. It looses its way a bit in the middle, but the it's worth reading the entire series. The entire run is available in TPB.

Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis. It's about a journalist, Spider Jerusalem, in a dystopian future (that has surprising parallels to our present). Spider is an amazing character and it's a great run. The city and surroundings he's in are incredibly vibrant and you can spend minutes studying each frame to see what's going on. It's a little less "mature" than Preacher, but has its fair share of violence, etc. The entire run is available on TPB.

Hellblazer by various. This series is what that mediocare Keanu Reeves movie "Constantine" was based on. The comics are much, much better. There are tons of TPBs available. It's an on-going series with various authors and artists doing work so the quality varies. Garth Ennis has had a few runs, all of which are great. Constantine is a great character and a lot of the stories are interesting. I'd reccommend most of them.

Top Ten by Alan Moore. While this is techincally a superhero book, it's wildly different than your typical fare. It's sort of a "Hill Street Blues" set in a massive city full of superheros, aliens, robots, gods, etc. The book focuses on the cops in this city where, after WW II, all countries "banished" their superheroes et al. too. Sadly it was a short run with only 12 (I think) issues printed. All issues are contained in two TPBs. It's really some of the best stuff I've read in a while.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore. Both books are great. The movie is an abomination. They are fantastic reads and well worth picking up. I wont mention Watchmen here because it's pretty much a given that it should (must) be read. Obviously the other Moore stuff, such as V For Vendetta and From Hell are worth a read.

The Light Brigade by ??. This isn't a series, but sort of a "one shot" (perhaps originally a mini-series) if you will. It's a bout a squad of American soldiers in WW II who get tangled up in this struggle with Angels and devils and such. It's a decent read. Some very cool characters and it builds a decent mythos. A nice, climatic finish as well.

That's all I can think of at the moment...

I'll add in a few faves as well as echoing the fans of Powers, Hellblazer, Preacher, Bone, and Y.

Other great books, more or less outside the "capes and tights" mainstream, include (in no particular order):

Current ongoing series:

100 Bullets: Currently my favorite book out there, it is best read in the trade formats. Starts with a mysterious older man in a black suit who offers a briefcase filled with an untraceable gun, 100 untraceable bullets, and evidence implicating the person that ruined your life. From this revenge fantasy beginning, the story has grown into an excellent modern noir with heavy conspiracy elements. Great art, great dialogue, and an amazing mystery with clues placed throughout the story. Issue 75 (of a planned 100) is out now, and new trades come out fairly regularly.

Ex Machina: By the same writer who does Y, this follows the political career of independent New York Mayor Mitchell Hundred, who also happens to be the former superhero "The Great Machine." Amazing art by Tony Harris, and the writing is every bit as strong as that in Y.

Older books (the run is already finished on these):

Sandman: Neil Gaiman's masterpiece, a 75 issue tragedy (in the Shakespearian/classic sense) telling the story of the living embodiment of dreams and his ageless family. Horror, fantasy, and all-around great storytelling. Easily in my top 5 of all-time series. All the books have been collected for ease of reading.

Sleeper: By Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Follows the story of a deep undercover agent; the agent is so deep under, in fact, that only one person knows he isn't a criminal - and that person happens to be in a coma. Collected in 4 trade paperbacks (Season I and Season II, two volumes each), the story is really excellent, and IMO better than even the fine work Brubaker has turned in for the big two companies on the superhero books.

Starman: My favorite superhero title, bar none. The run by James Robinson, with art chores originally handled by current Ex Machina artist Tony Harris, this tracks the career of reluctant hero Jack Knight, son of DC's original Golden Age Starman. Great art, and an amazing story about fathers and sons and what it really means to be a hero. Jack Knight is easily my favorite character in the DCU. Most of the series has been collected, and while there are issues missing, you can get the best part of the story from the various collections.

I'm sure I'll think of others later, but these are definitely at the top of my list.

3rd volume of Rising Stars was...interesting. I wouldn't say it had the impact the first couple of volumes, but if it's closure you're looking for, I'm pretty sure Volume 3 would provide it.

On a side note, since we're on Straczynski, another pickup to look into would be Midnight Nation.

I found that book to be quite enjoyable.

Funny this comes up. I have just decided that I need to read a regular comic. I dont know why I have decided this, but I have. Being newly arrived in the land of its creation, I have picked up a couple of progs of 2000 AD. Loving it.

I am the law.

For me, Astro City by Kurt Busiek is my favorite currently running series. He's created a city and a history around it with the addition of superheroes/villains. The stories aren't just straight superhero fare, you learn about the people behind the masks more than see them in action. And with each arc you learn a little more about the city and its history. The art, by Brent Anderson is really good as well, adding to the quality of the series overall.

The problem with Astro City has been its intermittent publishing schedule due to Busiek's other committments and (I believe) health problems at one point. Most if not all of the earlier stories have been collected in graphic novel form though, and probably can be read out of order without much confusion.

Busiek's doing a good run on the Conan books. :)

I'd echo the sentiments about:

Y: The Last Man. It's a great read and the TPBs are reasonably cheap. I picked up volume 7 (?) while I was in KC but I left it in my motel room when I checked out yesterday.

Preacher. Anything by Garth Ennis is gold. I like him far better than any other writer out there. The Punisher under Marvel's Max line is great.

The Walking Dead. This is a pretty good series, but it comes out pretty sporadically. There was a huge pause after issue 24.

Astonishing X-Men. Forget Ultimate, Uncanny, or any other X-comic. This is written by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) and is a great book.

Identity Crisis was good as a self-contained read while Infinite Crisis was not. Civil War is somewhat blah.

reviving an old thread here...

I follow and enjoy NBC's Heroes very much but I have never read any comics in my youth, at least no "American" superheros comics. My youth was filled with more European comics, the likes of Asterix, Tintin, and Spirou et Fantasio because, well, I learned English later in life. My first Tintins were actually hand me downs from my dad and uncles that I had found in the basement of my grandmother's house. :)

Now, seeing the link from Heroes to Watchmen (yeah, I'd never heard of Watchmen before, I live in a cave ;)), I got curious and found this thread here. Watchmen is now definitely in my "to buy" list but I just read the first 25 pages or so of Powers and wow, that's nice reading. Thanks for the link WVUFAN!

I had already spotted Rising Stars and Y: The Last Man as possible buys but this thread has simply confirmed this.

Thanks for all the ideas, if you have others, I'm listening.

FM

Try Fables, it's very very well written and there are 8 TPB's out that I'm aware of.

Deus Ex Machina is quite good as well.

From what my buddy tells me, there's a Watchmen movie that's going to be in the works.

As for TPBs, lately I've been grabbing Seven Soldiers of Victory (3 volumes so far? Not sure if they're continuing) as well as Garth Ennis' Punisher runs (at 6 volumes right now).

I only subscribe to 2 issues - Runaways and Young Avengers, while everything else I grab up via TPB.

I actually have a HUGE stack of Asterix books somewhere in my parents house from back when we lived in Germany. There are also at least a couple of Tintin books in there as well.

Man, the roast boar always looked so damn good, I always wanted to try one...

Jeebs, you never cease to amaze me. From drinking Unibroue beer to reading Asterix and Tintin, you're one cool dude. :) You been in Europe in your youth if I remember corrrectly, right? Must be where you got those Asterix from.

Asterix is my favorite from my youth, no contest. Funny thing is I never owned one, was always borrowing them from my uncles' and dad's old collection. A couple years ago, I started buying a few here and there and made it known I'd like to have the whole collection someday. I think I have like 10 or so in a box. I think I'll get back to maybe buying one a month or something like that...

And yeah, the roast boar just look so tasty... :D

FM

edit: doh, read afterwards about Germany, thought I'd dreamed it up :)

I heard somewhere that Captain America was killed by a sniper. Is that true?

Yup, I lived in Germany when I was a kid... :)

Man, after reading over the Wiki entry I really need to find those books and read them again. There's probably tons of humor that I missed or just plain didn't get as a kid. Hell, I never even caught "Getafix" back then. I need to see if I can find the books at my parents house, or else go and see if I can pick up some old issues...

Do you mean Ex Machina, by Brian K. Vaughan?

I think 100 Bullets is pretty good as well.

Hrm, someone recommended that to me just the other day (fellow FOFCer...). Someone else recommended Fables, and I'm a couple chapters into the first TPB.

Ex Machina is very much on my radar screen, seems very interesting.

FM

I'd missed Kurtism's snippet about it and after reading it and other reviews out there, I agree that it looks interesting. One more on the list. I won't buy all of them up front, but I'm keeping a list of what seems interesting so I can be on the lookout. :)

FM

I don't read anything regularly, but i'm looking forward to the Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 stuff (continues where the TV show left off). Yes, Im a fan of Buffy. deal with it.

Oh yeah duh - he's the one who recommended it to me. I missed it up there too. :D

I'm actually reading that now (picked it up today). Good stuff. You can definitely tell it's Whedon doing the writing on it.

There's a test image done by Zach Snider for the upcoming Watchmen movie hidden in the R-Rated 300 trailer:

speaking of Ex Machina, I just downloaded issue #1 from the comic's page on dccomics:
http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=2500

FM

okay, I thought I had seen a comic books section to my local bookstores but a trip there last evening reminded me of one thing: it really sucks to be into things in English in French speaking Quebec... sigh.

They had just about NOTHING! Or at least nothing of interest to me. Tons of manga stuff, tons of european stuff, all in French... I saw three copies of the Marvel Encyclopedia, so not really a comic book per se, and 3-4 copies of three different Playboy comic books. Playboy? oh well :D

Anyway, snowed in and unable to go to karate this morning, I went online shopping and was very surprised to see that indigo.ca had a bunch of the ones I was interested in, all shipping in 24 hours and all at reasonable prices with free shipping when over 39$cdn. (MikeVic, you should check them out, chapters.indigo.ca).

Anyway, after much mulling over which one to get without spending like $450, I went with two separate orders. First, from indigo I'll be getting Watchmen and the first hardcover collection of Powers (issues 1-24). Both are already sowing "awaiting shipment" in the order status page.

I then went to amazon.ca and ordered the Rising Stars hardcover that has the whole series, including the preludes. That one is supposed to ship only in 5-8 weeks though, but I'll take it when it gets to me. :)

Thanks for the input guys, as always FOFC is there when you need info. :)

FM

I read a bit about Runaways, how is it? I assume it's good since you subscribe to it but I'd be interested in hearing about it...

FM

Now I'm not quite so sure how much validity this statement I'll type up has, but when I first heard about BKV's Runaways, some of the locals at the comic shops here in San Diego were telling me that "...reading the Runaways will show you why California, or the west coast in general, isn't really mentioned much in the Marvel universe in general!".

Naturally, I was a bit curious, so I ended up picking up the miniature TPBs of the first release of the Runaways, which was only a certain amount of issues. It's a simple story of a bunch of kids, whose parents are pretty much supervillains who've ruled California with an iron fist.

I always liked the underdog heroes (the 'C' rated heroes, so to speak) getting some good representation, kind of like how Fabian Nicieza always showed the 'background' heroes and villains some love in his books, and when Cloak & Dagger did an impromptu appearance, I just kept on reading.

Also, BKV used to frequent a comic book shop here in San Diego - Comickaze, off Balboa, and signed off a bunch of his TPBs there. I caught him in passing on the way out, and had to pause for a moment before figuring it out. Apparently, his girlfriend was going to grad school either at UCSD or USD from what I was told. The funny thing about it, is that further down the street was another comic shop that my buddy and I went off towards, and for a moment we had thought BKV was following us around from shop to shop.

I'm personally still waiting for a sequel to The Hood! :D

Thanks FM! I want to stop buying so many monthlies, so this looks like a viable option.

yeah, while they are still a generalish bookstore, I'm impressed by the many TPB they carry in stock. Since I've got much catching up to do, I'll probably only buy TPBs anyway.

If you don't mind me asking, where do you currently get your comics from, a local shop or somewhere online?

FM

Local shop for me. I should switch to getting more TPBs myself.

Dola: hxxp://www.bigmonkeycomics.com

finished reading that first issue yesterday and it's definitely the kind of thing I'll want more of in the future. Very interesting, even if the pdf format is definitely not the best when they keep going back and forth with flashbacks and such.

My copies of Watchmen and the first Powers HC have left the store and should get to me within a week or about.

Since my last order of Rising Stars, I've also placed an order for the Hellblazer Original Sins TPB. Sue me but I actually liked the Keanu Reaves movie, probably way more for the back story than for the acting. Never guessed until I started reading this thread that it was based on a comic series.

Another one I've not seen mentionned here and that I've found on my own is a manga called Blade of the Immortal. I'm not very much into manga but I love me some martial arts action and that one's got my curiosity piqued. Here's the description from indigo.ca: " To end his eternal suffering, he must slay one thousand enemies! Manji, a ronin warrior of feudal Japan, has been cursed with immortality. To rid himself of this curse and end his life of misery, he must slay one thousand evil men! His quest begins when a young girl seeks his help in taking revenge on her parents' killers...and his quest won't end until the blood of a thousand has been spilled.".

I've seen many manag now publish in the unflopped right-to-left version and would not be able to read that way. From wikipedia, it appears that Blade of the Immortal is the one of the last to still be published flopped with some cut and pasting of panels...

FM

I currently get mine at a local shop... called Comics America. I want to start buying more TPBs online though.

I am very lame and no little to nothing about TPBs. Can I expect most books to make it to a TPB or only the real popular ones? I would like to thin out my subscription list and move to TPBs for a lot of them.

for the last week, my source of information for just about anything comics has been this site:
http://www.comicbookdb.com/

Pretty much an IMDB for comic books. Pretty expansive... They will list you all the TPBs and usually what they collect...

FM

Finished the first volume of Fables last night, give it the thumbs up. I'll be getting more in the series.

Also, I'm pleased to find out that 52 has two volumes out soon - I didn't know it would be available this quickly. I'll probably look to pick those up too.

edit: jumped the gun a little on '52'

Hmmm I thought 52 wasn't supposed to have TPB's out until the series was finished? Guess they changed their minds.

I am way behind on entering my stuff (probably 100 issues or more), but I have all my comics listed there. http://comicbookdb.com/collection.php?ID=2554


I have all of the 52s thus far.


52 is done very soon. :) So I assume "two volumes out soon" probably means "when the series is complete". They're somewhere between 48-50.. I can't remember exactly what number.

Looks like May/July for the first two (I mistakenly thought they were out already as they were on their site, Thomkal might have read my pre-edit post). I guess that's going to be right after it (on 46 now?). But it's much better than the year or so I'd heard speculated (by Mali at the least).

Ah thanks for the explanations. I was expecting them to come out soon after the series was over from what was said when the series first started, so May/June seems right. Yes I did read your pre-editted post cuervo. Get it right the first time will ya? :)

yeah, I figured you pretty much knew about the site ;)
Still probably the best place to check if you wanna know if a series has TPBs out or not. No clue how the "industry" works it as far as what warrants a TPB or not though

Pretty impressive collection too :eek: I plan on entering what little stuff I get whenever it gets to me :)

FM

FWIW, the Hellblazer movie was so loosely based on the comic that it might make your eyes bleed - and the comics is tons better than the movie. Constantine is a great character, but he has always been a Brit, and blonde, and is nothing like Keanu Reeves. That said, read the trades - consistently entertaining, scary, and well-done.

Oh, and another couple of strong online vendors:

www.impulsecreations.net has a great subscription service and good prices, and www.milehighcomics.com has some of the best prices on trades and such, usually with discount codewords if you are on their mailing list. finally, i've found good prices on trades at both amazon and overstock.

As I said, I got Original Sins coming, which I think is the first TPB. I'll read that one and will probably add more. I'm pretty sure it'll be interesting, but thanks for pointing the difference with the movie. :)

I knew about the impulsecreations site and also thought they had good prices. My fear is with both shipping fees to Canada and then the damn custom duties. I just hate them and when you take them into account, the indigo.ca site has very similar prices. Thanks for the info though, I'm sure some other FOFCers might use it.

FM

Wow, Mile High has tons of stuff.

The other thing I've read which I kinda like is the series Preacher. It's violent, it's probably a R-rating, but it's got an interesting premise (essentially a priest who can control minds due to the fact that he has a spirit living in him --> offspring of a union between a devil and an angel).

Stopped by the comic shop on the way home. I'm going to give both Justice Society of America and The Spirit a try, as well as Green Lantern (starting with the next issue, which looks like it starts a new storyline). Read the first issue of JSA...looks like good stuff. Just opened Spirit #1 a second ago, and the opening panels are screens from a news network. One of the crawlers (which are all fairly funny/absurd) reads:

"ifteen year old accused of having sex with his teacher gets"

:D :D

bought a couple of spider-man t-shirts (and even a cool looking buttoned shirt) for my four year old a couple days ago and among the copyright tags, there was one claiming you could get 3 free comics.

Here'S a link to the offer:
www.marvel.com/3free

Bascially a 3 issue subscription for Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man, or Ultimate X-Men, that will not renew itself, where you only pay shipping charges, $3 ($5 for canadians).

You can also subscribe to 12 issues of some of their series for $18.97 ($28.97 for canadians) which seems to be a bit lower than their regular fee.

FM