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Red Templar

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Oh, and Max, if I may ask, why do you despise Jeph Loeb so much?

I don't despise Jeph Loeb. I despise his work. Over the past decade, he's simply been awful. Although if you're in the mood for some so-bad-it's-terrible superheroics, go download Ultimatum.

That reminds me, Ultimates and Ultimates 2 as well as the Ellis run on The Authority (the very first thing that happens is scores of Superman analogues obliterate Moscow. Things only get more insane from there) would probably be great starting points. Although if you're simply interested in comics, not superhero comics in particular, the list of recommendations changes significantly.

And, it's loopy, but Lapham's Young Liars is amazing

God yes. Though I'd add that it can be extremely brutal.

I was a bit unsure about Crossed--The Boys does nothing for me--so I stole downloaded the #0. Liked it, am going to buy the eventual collection (it isn't out yet, right? *wanders off to check*)

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The spinoff is an interesting case. I actually thought Jack was alright in the main comic, but the spinoff made me detest him. Sometimes he gets what he deserves, sometimes he doesn't, but he's always an asshole trickster-hero, and is really, really funny. Seriously, it's worth checking out.

Ah maybe when I see a collection. What's it called, you know when it's a bunch of smaller single-issue comics all in a big book?

Gigei,

Bone started out as much more of a children's work. It became somewhat more mature (more like YA) as it progressed.

Finished series work you may like:

Y the Last Man, We3, Mouse Guard (really beautiful art), perhaps Cerebus before Dave Sim truly went off the deep end (up to Jaka's Story). You may find Alan Moore's Promethea of interest (it starts out seeming like a superhero yarn, but it's not really), and his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (far better than the travesty that was the movie "adaption" -- I use the word very loosely). Maybe Planetary, which is in some ways in a similar thematic vein to LoEG, and it's semi-sorta superheroic.

And All-Star Superman. Superhero, yes, but so colorful and full of ideas. And, for that matter, Kurt Busiek's Astro City, which is broken up into distinct stories that don't cross over into one another, so you can stop wherever you want.

I've heard about Y the Last Man, doesn't seem quite my thing but I'll try it if I can borrow a sample. I'll keep an eye out for the others. Astro City hmm I am already looking to acquire Busiek's Marvels miniseries, apparently it's well-liked by critics and such, plus it seems appealing to me.

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I've heard about Y the Last Man, doesn't seem quite my thing but I'll try it if I can borrow a sample. I'll keep an eye out for the others. Astro City hmm I am already looking to acquire Busiek's Marvels miniseries, apparently it's well-liked by critics and such, plus it seems appealing to me.

You also my want to try out Ex Machina or The Escapists by Brian K. Vaughan or House of Mystery which is co-written by Bill Willingham from Fables. One of my favorite series right now is Joe Hill's Locke & Key.

Ex Machina's first issue can be read from DC's website for free here

House of Mystery's first issue is also available to read here

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I just finished No Hero, a limited series by Warren Ellis. Great fun. Sort of his take on Ennis's The Boys. Enjoying Blackest Night. Just got caught up on Justice Society. (First time I've ever cared, and I loved it!)

All Star Superman up next.

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Yeah, No Hero was a more serious look at similar themes to The Boys. Have you tried his earlier miniseries, Black Summer? Yet another, bloody cautionary tale about supes-gone-bad.

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I just finished No Hero, a limited series by Warren Ellis. Great fun. Sort of his take on Ennis's The Boys.

If you haven't already, also read Ellis' Black Summer. Those two, along with the current ongoing Super god, form a sort of trilogy about different takes on superheroes.

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I just finished No Hero, a limited series by Warren Ellis. Great fun. Sort of his take on Ennis's The Boys. Enjoying Blackest Night. Just got caught up on Justice Society. (First time I've ever cared, and I loved it!)

All Star Superman up next.

As your attorney I'd highly advise you to read Supergod and Black Summer if you already haven't. Black Summer is the 1st, No Hero is the 2nd, and Supergod is the 3rd miniseries in Ellis's exploration of the idea of superheroes existing in the real world.

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Well isn't this a convenient thread. Just yesterday i started the marvel comic adaptation of Enders Game and Enders Shadow and its actually pretty good, as abonus the series is meant be finished this month too.

Oddly enough i like Enders Shadow more than i like Enders Game, but like i said, they are both really good.

Also people who are all in too deep advise me not to get into the comic culture, its expensive and the pay off is rarely ever worth it.

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Blackest Night is somewhat accessible for new readers, but starting with Green Lantern Rebirth is a much better idea. Of course, you're still in for a big bunch of trades to get through Rebirth, Sinestro Corps War and the intervening issues to get to Blackest Night.

Let me make a different recommendation... Secret Six. Starts with a couple freestanding miniseries (Villains United) before and after one of the big DC crossovers, Infinite Crisis. But it's very independent of the "event". The rest of the series is just fantastic characterization, and focuses on the bad guys.

The gray area between bad guy and worse guys is fun. The interplay between the Six themselves (Deadshot, Ragdoll, Catman, Scandal plus two more that have included Mad Hatter, a Darkseid Parademon, Bane, Cheshire, and others) is fantastic. I can't give it enough praise.

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GL: Rebirth made me cheer out loud. But then, I've always been the green side of the Batman/GL rivalry.

I just finished reading Wanted. The changes they made for the movie.....wtf? Black Summer is up next.

Sheep, this may be unpopular, but I got back into comics by way of electronic download (i.e. piracy). However, I have chosen to spend a lot of money since then in special editions, signed slipcased graphic novels and bloody expensive absolute editions. You can get a lot for free, and you can spend a lot of money, too.

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Sheep, this may be unpopular, but I got back into comics by way of electronic download (i.e. piracy). However, I have chosen to spend a lot of money since then in special editions, signed slipcased graphic novels and bloody expensive absolute editions. You can get a lot for free, and you can spend a lot of money, too.

Yeah i know, but since i heard that scans damn near killed the comic book industry its one of the few things i feet guilty about downloading.

Also i don't want to pick up an addiction that will inevitably end in retcons and a clusterfuck of a plot. It will feel like i regressed and went back to malazan.

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No idea but other forums i frequent stopped posting scans for this reason. And it wasn't even the mods that did this but devout comic fans.

I think scans hurt the industry but are nowhere near the main reason they're in trouble now.

Comic prices have doubled in the last ten years, up from an average of $1.99 to an average of $3.99. Gasoline hasn't even gone up that much. And given the current trend toward decompressed storytelling, the price to get a full story has gone up even more. Where it used to take 2-3 issues to tell a complete story, creators are now using 6-9 issues to tell the same story in a slower manner.

And we're slowly but surely headed back to the late 80s/early 90s "event" comics and crossovers. Blackest Night has been mentioned a few times in the thread. If you look at the official checklist for it, it's 49 comics in total. At $4 a shot, you're looking at almost $200 to get a complete story. And that's not even counting the Preludes, Sinestro Corps War and other tie-ins that set up the story beforehand. Add them all together, plus the inevitable epilogues, and you're looking at $400. Even with a good subscription service, it's still going to run you $260. When you look at the totals you really start wondering if it's worth it.

That's for one big story. You're also looking at things like Final Crisis, New Krypton, Batman R.I.P. and on the other side of the street you've got Civil War, Secret Invasion, Utopia, World War Hulk and Siege. How many of these are we expected to buy into?

I've been taking a really close look at my comic buying habits ove rthe last few days and realized there's a lot of stuff I'm buying just because I've always been buying it. I don't enjoy it as much as I used to, but it's become, well, a habit. I'm going to be cutting my pull list in half, at least. Not because I can get them from scans, but because they cost way too much for the amount of enjoyment I'm getting out of them. That, more than anything, is killing the comic industry.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my box o'comics came today and I need to go get caught up. :)

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Interesting. I've seen Rich Johnston cover the matter of comic book piracy, and never had the impression that it was that huge a thing. That said, I could see how it could be particularly harmful to the indie comics, and the smaller labels within bigger publishers (by which I mean, basically, Wildstorm and Vertigo). Marvel and DC are more like IP generators these days, and most of the money is in licensing.

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That said, I could see how it could be particularly harmful to the indie comics, and the smaller labels within bigger publishers (by which I mean, basically, Wildstorm and Vertigo).

Wildstorm possibly (those sales figures are anemic), but not Vertigo. The money is in the collections, there; you get Brian Wood saying he sells maybe 10k of DMZ in floppies and then another 40k of the tpb of those issues. It's a money generator, and a pretty reliable one at that.

And we're slowly but surely headed back to the late 80s/early 90s "event" comics and crossovers

We've been there for a while. Disassembled -> House of M -> Civil War -> WWHulk -> Secret Invasion -> Dark Reign -> The Siege/WWHulks. And that's not mentioning the X-titles various more or less contained events.

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