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And my mom surprised me by ordering Building Stories for my birthday. It showed up today. It's HUGE. Around a foot and a half tall and nearly a foot wide. It looks like there isn't a suggested order to read things in, but man is it a gorgeous piece of work. I'm going to start it up after I finish this Theodore Roosevelt biography that I'm reading right now.
So I've basically become obsessed with comics overnight. I'm taking this Graphic Novel class for school and we're in the middle of reading Watchmen, which I'm loving.
I also downloaded all of Preacher (as per recommendation in this thread and other places); I'm through the first 7 books/chapters. So fucking badass. Excited to keep reading.
Seriously though, I just read #470-476 of Detective Comics from the late 70s and I couldn't stop. I'm drastically ignorant when it comes to superhero comics... born in '91, my only exposure to these characters was through animated series, etc. I loved the shows but never picked up a single comic.
So now I'm backtracking hard. I want to read Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, but even before that I'd really like to read a few more runs of Detective Comics and Batman and get some more background. I started reading DKR and within the first few pages I felt like I didn't have the knowledge I needed. Do we have a resident Batman enthusiast who can point me to the essential runs? I don't remember who turned me on to 470-476 of DC but it was fucking awesome. Joker, Penguin, beautiful artwork and pretty compelling plotlines as well. Should I just keep going from 476 on DC? I'd almost rather jump around if there are important highlights to hit. And also, the original Batman comic, if you have any recommendations. After I read some older Batman, I'll read DKR, then Batman : Year One, and continue down the timeline from there.
Tl;dr: Watchmen kills, Preacher kills, give me Batman recommendations. I'm embarking on a whole new frontier of geekdom.
This page from #475 was awesome.
http://www.rocketllama.com/blog-it/w...tentoffice.jpg
since DKR is set in an alternate future, it's not THAT important to be super familiar with specific history. Though there are definitely references to different things. A Death In The Family could definitely be helpful since there are major references to Jason Todd. And you could certainly read Year One beforehand, since that was Miller's take on Batman's origin. And you want another really good read, The Long Halloween is Jeph Loeb's kind of revisionist Two-face origin that that takes place almost directly after Y1 and would be a nice primer before DKR. The Killing Joke is also great, but might be a bit stange without tons of knowledge on Barbara Gordon beforehand.
Nice, thanks Drinkey! looks like I'll dive into Y1 and Long Halloween pretty soon.
But for real i've become obsessed. Comicbt is having a freeleech right now and I've gone completely crazy, getting everything I'll read for the next year.
Anyone into Green Arrow? I read a single issue out of the Grell run from the eighties that my professor gave me and now I'm hooked. Reading Longbow Hunters right now before I get into the entire Grell run.
Read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, it is amazing
K, definitely grabbing. I'd love more recs like that.
I saw someone mention Grant Morrison's run of Animal Man a few pages back? I wanna read Miller's run of Daredevil... etc. Trying to get into it all
I second this. Also check out Hellblazer which is tied in with swamp thing. It's actually wrapping up after 25 years and no reset until now.Quote:
Originally Posted by stinkbutt
Yes, the original 25ish issue run of Animal Man is an astounding read, totally mind-bending.Quote:
Originally Posted by ods..
ods, some great recommendations already, but I will also add Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. My overall personal favorite title.
On DKR, that is what pulled me back into comics. I actually read it in a Humanities class on pop culture, and it blew me away. I then started to seek out other titles, and that lead me to Sandman, Hellblazer, Shade The Changing Man, among others.
Some other fun older Frank Miller recommendations are two mature audiences Elektra books published by Epic - The Elektra: Assassin mini-series written by Miller and illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz and the Elekrtra Lives Again oversized graphic novel, written and drawn by Miller, and gorgeously painted by Lynn Varley.
Also, the first two big Alex Ross projects are great jumping in points to the big two universes - Marvels, written by Kurt Busiek for Marvel, and Kingdom Come, written by Mark Wade for DC. Both are spectacular to look at and marvelously written.
Also, an absolute favorite series of mine is Alan Moore's Top 10 - a wonderfully gritty and awesomely hilarious take on the police procedural set inside a city where everybody is a superhero.
And Mike Allred (who created Madman, which I also highly recommend) did this great 7-part mini-series called Red Rocket 7, which follows a an alien who is a rock band and his epic journey through the history of rock and roll. It's an epic sci fi story that also present a really cool revisionist history of rock music.
Yes! Awesome recs, guys. Definitely going to check out Marvels... I really know nothing about Marvel universe at all.
Nerd Spoiler here, but The Dark Knight Returns was published 3 years before A Death In The Family.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drinkey McDrinkerstein
Marvels is a good primer for a Marvel newbie, as it gives the reader a loose impression of the major events in silver age Marvel comics without getting lost in exact details. Marvels had a follow up a few years ago called Marvels: Eye of the Camera, which gets more into bronze age of Marvel. That series wasn't nearly as great, but still worth reading.Quote:
Originally Posted by ods..
For some great older Marvel stuff, you can't go wrong with:
Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga
Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Past (just two issues)
Daredevil: Born Again
That's just a few, but I myself just got back into comics a few years ago, so I am still working at picking up a few collected trades here and there... any other recommendations, mighty Marvel fans? Excelsior!
Also, for Allred fans, this new run of FF is getting off to a good start...
Is anyone reading Chew, Saga, Dan The Unharmable, or The Goon? To me, these are some of the most consistently amazing and amusing books out there. Seems to be mostly Marvel and DC all up in here. And yes, I realize that things other than the Big 2 have been discussed here and that they are by far the most popular comic companies.
So an update on my newfound comics-obsession: I'm 15 issues into Animal Man, absolutely loving it. So fucking funny and weird. Grant Morrison is definitely my style.
Read thru Batman: Year One, The Man Who Laughs, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum, and I'm in the middle of the Long Halloween right now. Digging it. Found a couple chronology things online that are helping me choose. Gonna keep reading and slowly dig into Morrison's batman run and read up to the current stuff. Excited.
The Long Halloween is one of my favorite comics mini series.I still haven't read Dark Victory or Catwoman - When in Rome.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drinkey McDrinkerstein
Yeah I'm enjoying it. Beautiful art and for once a batman story arc that actually feels like a true mystery.
If you like MOrrison, his Doom Patrol and Invisbles runs are nothing less than perfect to me. His take on JLA was pretty good too, but lots of Vertigo titles from that era are great. Preacher, Sandman, The Dreaming, Lucifer, Sandman Mystery Theater, Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man, House of Secrets were all great reads. Newer vertigo titles i liked are House of Mystery, Y The Last Man, Fables, 100 Bullets, Northlanders and I Vampire. Almost all these runs are available in TPBs and deluxe editions.Quote:
Originally Posted by ods..
I'm rereading a lot of classic 90s x-men (in the middle of the Inferno omnibus, the Jim Lee omnibus is next) and when i'm finally done with that, going to reread Hellboy beginning to end.
I have read Chew and The Goon in the past. They're both really entertaining.Quote:
Originally Posted by fastmusicfan
The Chris Claremont Uncanny X-men stuff from the late '80s/early '90s were some of my favorite comics back in the day. incredibly convoluted, needlessly complicated, and thoroughly weird for mainstream comics, but entirely enjoyable. And Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio did some great work at that time. not sure how much i'd love that stuff now, but i'm looking forward to re-reading a lot of that stuff now that i have my comics back.
So pretty much my favorite comic book ever is Gold Digger, a manga style comic written and drawn by an American named Fred Perry, published by small press publisher Antarctic Press. The basic premise revolves around Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider style archaeological adventures, but the series delves into very hard science fiction and fantasy. There are a lot of nods to specific RPGs and sci fi/fnatasy novel as well as a lot of anime. The book has a lot of comedy as well as a lot of action, and some of the stories are freakin epic in scope. There is also a lot of T&A and other fan service.
To celebrate the impending 200th issue, Fred just made the first 199 issues available for free on the AP site, each issue downloadable as a pdf. So check it out if you guys like! I have been reading this book since 1994, I think. I recently reread everything I had and have been catching up on the last 6 years worth of releases, and it's still super enjoyable.
http://www.antarcticpresslibrary.com/
So I listened to this interview with Grant Morrison today and wanted to read some of his comics do you guys think Doom Patrol or his Batman stuff is better to get into first?
I haven't really read much Grant Morrison Batman. But The Invisibles, Doom Patrol, his huge New X-men run, All-Star Superman, We3, and Animal Man are all terrific.
All the above. Pretty much anything he touches is gold. Although, I really hate anything Superman related. Except what Frank Miller did to him.
anyone read any new x-men comics? At work and just saw a quick headline about an alternate universe Wolverine being a gay. Must track down this issue.
As someone who's been obsessed with Grant Morrison comics for the last few weeks, do yourself a favor and pick up Animal Man and Doom Patrol. Neither take much background to pick up. Maybe read a bit of background on Doom Patrol to understand the characters and the vibe, but seriously he takes both of these comics to such crazy fucking places. If you're into literature/art references you'll love Doom Patrol.Quote:
Originally Posted by getbetter
I'm also digging his Action Comics run from the New 52. I've never read any Superman stuff before and I'm finding his run to be easy as fuck to get into and understand. Reimagining the origins of Superman kind of. I've still yet to read his huge Batman or X-men runs, but will soon.
I've started to delve into the New 52... loving it so far. Animal Man and Swamp Thing are fucking awesome. Justice League, Aquaman, Batman, Batman - DK, Detective Comics are great as well. Probably will pick up a few more in a bit.
Anyone check out the new JLA spin off? I'm tempted...
Maybe you are refering to Wolverine's son, Daken, who is bi, and has, at this moment, a slight case of death.Quote:
Originally Posted by JorgeC
Ok, how did i miss this thread before? duh. anyways....