Comic Book Fans....

[Laettner32]

I just saw Sin City (ya..a little late) and I loved it. With the new X men movie around the corner, I was wondering was there anything good to read in the comic book world. I havent read one since around the 7th grade ( Im 34 now ). Just curious, kinda feel like reading one again. Are the X Men comics still good? Thanks for any help.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

The Sin City graphic novels are great. I love the art-work. I have a couple Batman TPB which are really good. Hush 1 & 2 is great. If you enjoyed Batman Begins, you should look into the Batman: Year One TPB.

[Laettner32]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

What does TPB mean?

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

Trade Paper Back.

[Laettner32]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

Sorry to keep bothering you tendrils...but what is the difference between a comic book and a TPB?

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

No problem. A comic book is, at least the way I refer to it, is a single issue of a graphic novel, whereas TPBs are several issues collected together, depending on the story-arc.

[DrJones]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

Sorry to keep bothering you tendrils...but what is the difference between a comic book and a TPB?

Trade paperbacks have become a big trend in comics over the past 5-10 years. A lot of Marvel and DC monthly comics now feature 6-12 issue storylines so that they can be packaged as a TPB. Unfortunately, this means most monthly comics are paced with TPB's in mind, so they contain a lot of setup and filler. The average comic from the mid-80's probably featured 3 or 4 times the action and plot advancement than today's do.

[Misfit]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

TPB's on average will save you a couple of bucks.

I've been buying up each installment of the Age of Apocalypse: The Complete Epic as they come out. Pricey but a good, long read and one of my all-time favorite X-Men plots. If you are unfamiliar with the AoA plotline, basically its an alternate reality in which Xavier was killed in an attempt on Magneto's life by the time traveling Legion long before forming the X-Men. Magneto, moved by his friend's sacrifice, decided to carry on in Xavier's place and ends up forming the X-Men while Apocalypse concurs the United States. They currently have the first 3 books available with the last one still to come (probably end of summer or fall). One book will cost you around 30 bucks though, but they contain 10+ comics per installment (I have Book 3 in front of me and it has 14 comics in it). There is another AoA TPB out called The New Age of Apocalypse but it sucks.

DC just released the first book of their 52 series, a sort-off 24 for comics. A new issue will be released each week for 52 weeks. It was set-up by releasing an issue(s) that shows how the DC universe will be at the end of this storyline and now we get to find out what events lead to this happening. It's too much for me to keep up with and I'm not too familiar with DC but it definitly sounds cool.

The X-Men are kind of so-so right now but its getting interesting. The Deadly Genesis saga just concluded and it had some "startling" revelations revealed at the end. You can pick up the last issue in it now and get a feel for where the X-Men are heading.

I'd also recommend the Books of Doom mini series which tells the origin of Dr. Doom. I believe they have released 4 issues now and its a 6 part mini series. I hear it is excellent but I'm waitng for the TPB.

IGN Comics is a pretty good resource as they review the big issues each week and it may help you catch onto something current. Good luck and happy hunting.

[SPTO]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

I'm reading Batman and Superman these days. I can't wait for Paul Dini's sceduled run on Batman sometime this summer. If you don't know he's the guy that was in charge of the great Batman cartoon series in the '90s.

[aukevin]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

Buy single issues of comics that you think you will like. By waiting for them to hopefully be collected in a trade brings down the sales for the single issues and can lead to a title being cancelled. You don't really have to worry about that with the big titles like Superman, Spidey, etc, but smaller titles need the single issue support. If they aren't bought as single issues, they might not make it to a trade.

Anyway, off the soapbox ....

If you are interested in the Marvel comics, they are just now starting their Civil War crossover. You probably need to get started on it now before it gets going too much. I'm not sure of the details of it because I don't read Marvel much but from what I've heard is that the Marvel universe of superheroes are split over an issue of superhuman registration. I think Captain America and Iron Man are leading up opposite sides. Someone else more familiar with it might explain it more.

The world I'm more connected to is the DC comics world. They just wrapped up a major storyline called Infinite Crisis where the an alternate Luthor and alternate Superboy tried to reform the Earth into a better version. They just wrapped up that story which has now jumped all titles one year into the future and you are left wondering what has happened. For instance Superman has no powers, Batman has been gone for a year and has just returned and other stuff. The one year later titles have been great IMO. Kicking off last week was an issue called 52. This comic comes out weekly for the next year to fill in what happens between the final issue of Infinite Crisis and the One Year Later jump.

The Wildstorm Universe of comics is relaunching some of thier big titles this fall like Wildcats, Gen 13, Authority, Wetworks, etc. I'm really excited about these.

Anyway, that's some of the stuff going on in "superhero" type comics right now. There's plenty other stuff as well, but that's the DC and Marvel headlines.

[SPTO]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

Hey Aukevin just how many miniseries were connected to IC? It seemed to me that if one were to collect the issues (not TPB) you'd have close to 100 comics alone! (that might be an exaggeration but still)

Oh and I never thought i'd see such a dumb concept as Orca return in DC.

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

Hey Aukevin just how many miniseries were connected to IC? It seemed to me that if one were to collect the issues (not TPB) you'd have close to 100 comics alone! (that might be an exaggeration but still)

Oh and I never thought i'd see such a dumb concept as Orca return in DC.

I don't really follow comics at all... but I've been trying to get into it anyways... well I was reading about this whole IC thing way before it took place on IGN... and from what I understood, the IC affected every single series of DC comics there was... so if the comic is set in the DC univerise I believe it was shot forward a year... when you think about it, that is a ton of comics coming out weekly for the next year.

Ok guys I think I'm going to start getting into comics... but I want something exciting, that's not so mainstream... I mean Marvel or DC is fine... but I don't want to read about Spiderman, Superman or X-Men... what else is out there? Is there anything like about cops, or zombies, or vampires or some other crazy concept... random stuff like that? I assume GI Joe's are still around but I'm really into that... So what do you guys think I should look into?


BTW for all you graphic novel fans HALO is about to release a HALO GN on July 12....It's here on IGN http://comics.ign.com/articles/708/708355p1.html


Here's a pic from the Graphic Novel

[Streets]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

I was just talkin to a friend of mine about getting back into comics. I used to be a fan of the big marvel titles as a kid: X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic 4, etc. Daredevil was my favorite, I especially liked the 4 or 5 part mini-series that chronicled his origin.

I was wondering if anyone was into Iron Man? Is that generally revered as a good comic? He's one that I never got into, but listening to some old Ghostface CD's had me thinking about it, and he seems like an interesting character. Like Marvels version of batman. Does he have anything new coming out or any TPB's? (man I learned alot just from the few comic fans in this thread)

EDIT:

Wow, I just learned alot about Ironman on wikipedia. Ultimate Ironman seems like an especially interesting character. It's funny that Ghostface is what made me think of him, but whats funnier is that hes mentioned on wikipedia under the heading "popular culture".

The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has also adopted the nickname Tony Starks (cq) as one of his numerous alter-egos, and the title of his 2004 release The Pretty Toney Album is believed to come from a stylization of this.

[Jabisco]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

I never read comics but I watched all the Marvel/DC cartoons when I was a kid. I just recently bought Astonishing X-Men because i'm a big Joss Whedon fan. It's a Hardcover with 12 issues and I loving it so far.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Comic Book Fans....

Superstar, Sin City is a great series to get into if you're not looking for the typical good guy vs bad guy stuff.