409 replies to this topic

[Red Templar]

I went out this weekend and did some damage to my bank account.  Here's what I've gotten so far:

World War Hulk.
Several recent issues of Fables and 100 Bullets.
All 7 issues of The Boys.
The Sworn Sword.

I'm still looking for Artesia and Transmetropolitan.  I may have to order some of those online.

The only one I've read so far is Sworn Sword (halfway through).  I tried to read The Boys #1, but my 3 year old daughter started looking over my shoulder so I had to stop.  It was a bit intense and definitely not for children's eyes.  I'll have to pick it back up some night when she's asleep.

I greatly appreciate all the recommendations and advice - it has been very useful.  Please feel free to add more advice if you have it to give.  I plan on spending some more money later this week.

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

Get the Luna Brothers' Girls, published by Image.

Not really sure how to describe it, so i'll go with 'frickin' cool'

[Ran]

Oooh .... Starting with recent issues of 100 Bullets may not work very well. I'm not sure... There's a lot of layers, you see. It's really like one, gigantic episodic graphic novel. But the recent arc was indeed quite good, and it did mostly follow a relatively new character, so maybe that'll work.

And yeah, The Boys ... it's Garth Ennis at his grossest in some senses,but I've found the story to be strangely compelling (mainly because Wee Hughie is a great everyman, and Scottish to boot, which multiplies the amusement factor  ;). Definitely not for kids, in any case (suffice it to say, neither is Ennis's Chronicles of Wormwood or his current Punisher run ... or his Barracuda miniseries, or.... you know, he basically never writes comics for kids).

[Robert's Last Bastard]

Red Templar, on Jun 28 2007, 11.34, said:

What has changed over the last 18 years?
Anything I need to be wary of?

I think a lot of you left something important out, but unfortunately I don't know much about the topic myself.  The CGC phenomenon was something I ran into as I was recently completing my Wolverine collection after about a 10 year layoff.  It seems like there is quite a bit of controversy regarding what should and shouldn't be CGC'd, and what, if any of todays books should receive this type of treatment.  I never really got a good answer...

[nutinhoney]

Robert, on Jul 2 2007, 13.16, said:

I think a lot of you left something important out, but unfortunately I don't know much about the topic myself.  The CGC phenomenon was something I ran into as I was recently completing my Wolverine collection after about a 10 year layoff.  It seems like there is quite a bit of controversy regarding what should and shouldn't be CGC'd, and what, if any of todays books should receive this type of treatment.  I never really got a good answer...

Bothers me too.  I think I've settled on the realization that I read comic books because I like them - I don't need to pretend that they're an investment.  There's no competing anyways - issues of high demand comics are being sent direct from the printing press to be CGC'd and sealed.  It's no longer about me being particular about which copy I get from the local store, and of how careful I am of reading them and storing them.  I'll continue to protect and store my comics, because I want to keep them and read them in the future.

A lot has happened industry-wise in the last 18 years...   the boom in the early 90's (spurred by people buying comics as an investment rather than a love of comics and greed of the publishers), and the bust in the mid-90's when EVERY title was on the chopping block.  The last 5 years, the industry has experienced a bit of a mini-boom, in part due to the success of the all those comic book movies and better stories and art.  I'm a little concerned about the current trend of annual "events" that span across every title (DC and Marvel anyways).  It'd suck to be a writer at either company - you can get about 2 or 3 issues of an arc in a year before your title is hijacked by the latest Civil War or World War Hulk or Infinite Crisis...  and because they're trying to make the events meaningful, things change and your original premise is drastically altered (e.g. New Avengers started out pretty good - a bit of an odd team slapped together to chase dozens of supervilains that escaped from The Vault...  totally changed now - they're chasing each other around).

One thing to be wary of...  schedules are meaningless these days.  18 years ago, it was incredibly unusual to have a title ship late.  I used to know exactly what week in every month every title shipped.  These days - it seems so random.  When I restarted a few years ago, I thought it was just the flaky store I frequented...  but even when I visited other cities, it was the same thing.  One of the worst offenders is All-Star Batman.


nih

[Red Templar]

Ran, on Jul 2 2007, 14.55, said:

Oooh .... Starting with recent issues of 100 Bullets may not work very well. I'm not sure... There's a lot of layers, you see. It's really like one, gigantic episodic graphic novel. But the recent arc was indeed quite good, and it did mostly follow a relatively new character, so maybe that'll work.

And yeah, The Boys ... it's Garth Ennis at his grossest in some senses,but I've found the story to be strangely compelling (mainly because Wee Hughie is a great everyman, and Scottish to boot, which multiplies the amusement factor  ;). Definitely not for kids, in any case (suffice it to say, neither is Ennis's Chronicles of Wormwood or his current Punisher run ... or his Barracuda miniseries, or.... you know, he basically never writes comics for kids).

Yeah, I started with 100 Bullets #69, I think, and it was a bit hard to follow.  I had to read it a few times and flip the pages back and forth a bit to get a grasp of everything.  Overall, it was worth it, though.  I enjoyed what I understood, and the rest I'm curious to learn about.  I'll be looking for the earlier issues in novel form to get me caught up.

I've read the first 3 issues of The Boys now, and it's awsome!  Great art, great characters, the Supes make (especially The Seven) make my skin crawl even moreso than the standard ultra-evil supervillan.  Great stuff!

Edited by Red Templar, 03 July 2007 - 09:51 AM.

[Red Templar]

Mister Manticore, on Jul 3 2007, 10.55, said:

I think that has to do with it being Frank Miller more than anything else.

LOL!!!

So what is the general opinion on Frank Miller these days?  I remember from my collecting days that I could care less for him.  His recent forays into the movies have been less than spectacular for me as well.  The look (I'm thinking Sin City and 300 here) was OK at best, and perhaps a little to cartooney for me.  Maybe that was the intent, but it didn't work.  And the storyline seemed... simplistic, possibly clinging to old stereotypes too much?  Granted, I'm no longer an educated viewer, so I may have missed the point entirely.

[Ran]

Miller is having great fun with All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, but not a lot of readers actually are. He's really just having a big laugh, I think. He's also long talked about his Batman vs. Al-Qaeda comic (which he admits would be intended as propaganda), but that will likely not see the light of day any time soon, what with his being involved in Hollywood now (adapting a ... I think it's a Dashiel Hammet novel to screen -- some noirish private detective thing, anyways -- and involved in a Spirit adaptation, and there's always talk of Sin City 2, though that seems to be on the backburner ATM).

I don't think he's really done anything truly worthwhile since Martha Washington Saves the World or maybe Sin City: Hell and Back. His best work, story-wise, was in the 80's and 90's. The 21st century doesn't really to be working to well for him, artistically, other than the Hollywood side of things.

Sin City is a terrific exercise in atmosphere, and I've enjoyed it. But he's become a very simplistic fellow. I do believe a new Martha Wasington miniseries (the last, supposedly) is due out sometime this year. Perhaps he'll recapture some of the old magic.

[Red Templar]

What did Miller do in the 80's (when I was collecting)?  I'm straining my brain to try to remember anything by him that I may own.  I can vaugely recall some Daredevil, Elektra, and possibly Batman?  I didn't collect any of these, but not sure if any of my other titles may have some Miller in them.

[Ran]

That's about it -- Daredevil, Elektra (who just had a major turn of events happen regarding her in New Avengers, if you know Miller's history with the character and Marvel), and Batman's  Year One (which is really excellent)  and The Dark Knight Returns. He also did Ronin (which, IIRC, is another of his creations that's been optioned for translation to the big screen).

Those, plus Sin City, made him the name he is today. But if you look at his output in the last 10 years, he's actually been pretty weak and uninspired. Possibly he's just moved past comics to other pursuits, and doesn't have the interest (or maybe the knack) that he once had.

[Ealdorman Halasahr]

I recommend - but that goes without saying (so why do I say it?) - George R.R. Martin's Hedge Knight-comics.
Furthermore, I recommend a classic: Camelot 3000, from 1982-1985.

[Calibandar]

Just bought:

All-Star Superman Vol. 1 and vol.2 by Morrison and Quitely, just released.

Astonishing X-men vol. 3 and 4

[AverageGuy]

Watchmen 2

More or less.  Using the old Charlton characters with their Watchmen personalities.  Currently the third story down.

Quote

instead of the black and white, right and wrong viewpoint of Rorschach, Morrison described his Question as someone who's Randian viewpoint had been "shattered through the prisms of his experiences as a crimefighter so that he sees the world through the multicolored lens of Spiral Dynamics."

[Papirolle]

This thread needs more Preacher! 9 TPB:s full of awesome. Ennis at his best. If you liked The Boys then Preacher is for you!

My recommendations:
Preacher (by Ennis and Dillon)
The Sandman (by Gaiman)
Planetary (by Warren Ellis)
Transmetropolitan (by Warren Ellis)
Hellblazer (especially Ennis' old run)

[Ran]

So, 100 Bullets wrapped up recently. A brilliant, bloody finale, with a great sense of inevitability to it. I admit that somewhere along the way, I lost track of the story -- there are so many players, so many double-dealings, a lot of subtle allusions, that it becomes positively labyrinthine. It's a work that deserves close reading, and maybe I'll tackle a re-read this summer.

Also, David Lapham's amazing, wild Young Liars for DC's Vertigo line is getting cancelled with issue 18. I really recommend people check out the trades, because it's an example of the kind of storytelling that sequential art excels at. I hope some day he can get back to Stray Bullets, but Young Liars is one of the best things he's ever done.

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

Got the sixth and--temporarily--final Fallen Angel trade (it's getting relaunched sometime. This year, I think? Apparently the relaunch is going to feature Illyria, from Angel. Which I'm hoping is not a spoiler for the fourth Angel: After the Fall collection). God's awesome. The ending is pretty much perfect. Dude, there's now an omnibus that collects the first 21 issues for, like $16 if you get it via Amazon. Go read the series already.

And yeah, Young Liars is definitely on my TBR pile.

Edited by Max the Mostly Mediocre, 05 May 2009 - 07:42 AM.

[red snow]

It all depends on what you want to read.

I'd probably direct you towards some of the vertigo trades. 100 bullets, Y the last man, Preacher, Fables - all are worth a look. I think trades are definitely the best way to ease yourself in.

If it's old fashioned superheroes, I'd reccomend anything by Geoff Johns; such as Green Lantern or his Action comics run. The batman books have a good jump on point coming up but I can't vouch for the quality of these books yet.
The problem with DC and marvel is that they are very "event driven" meaning it is very hard to find self-contained titles as everything is always being interupted by an event. I hear that captain america and Daredevil are both relatively self-contained and great reads too.

Image, Dark horse and IDW are good ports of call for self contained comics as well as some good tie-in comics such as Buffy.

You are a brave person to try and get back in, as they are rocketing in price when most people need to save a few pennies. I'll be cutting back my collection next time I'm back home to my LCS. Speaking of which Marvel has an online comic collection now. A lot of it is free - so that's a chea way of checking out some of their books.

[Kallichore]

I'm just getting back into comics too - I went from X-Men to a few other bits and bobs and then stalled when I ran out of money.  Back into X-Men and a bit bewildered but loved Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men and really, really appalled at the mess Grant Morrison made at the end of his New X-Men stint (I am still WTFing about it).  Also found my dad's Eagle comics he used to read as a child.  Damn fine.

This has been a great thread for tips on where else I can go from X-Men, thanks all!

[Liffguard]

I finally finished all of the Sandman volumes recently, including all the additional ones like the Dream Hunters, Endless Nights, the High Cost of Living and Time of Your Life. I'm looking into getting the large bound collections (Absolute Sandman?) but they're damn pricey. Has anyone else got them and are they worth it?

[Jaxom 1974]

Doing a re-read of Planetary right now.  And seeing that Ellis recently announced that after two years the final, epilogue issue will be coming out sometime this year...and then I have hope of hopes that this Amazon solicitation is accurate...  

Oh sure, I have all the individual issues, but there's something about having them all collected in hardcover too...