Comic Book Crash Course: Suggestions
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
It is the dawn of a new age for Nick One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to at least try and get into comic books. And this weekend my Geekeasy cohost Will Ritchie will accompanying me to my first comic book store trip since like, 2003 I think. This is going to be an adventure. An odessy into geeky madness. And I can’t do it without your help. So,I’m turning to you guys for suggestions: What titles should I ask for? What do
you recommend for a potential comic book reader?
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Book of the Month
Y The Last Man Vol. 5In this final Deluxe Edition hardcover collecting Y #49-60, Yorick and Agent 355 prepare for their ultimate quest to reunite the last man with his lost love, while the person, people or thing behind the disaster that wiped out half of humanity is revealed. Then, Yorick Brown's long journey through an Earth populated only by women comes to its dramatic, unexpected conclusion.
INVINCIBLE. one thousand times over
Seconded.
Plus, Y the Last Man and Runaways.
I’m also a noob to comics.
Definitely Runaways
The Sword (Luna Brothers). It’s hard to find in invidual issues (sells out fast and is an indie title pretty much), but the there is one trade paperback out Volume 1: Fire and I think Volume 2: Water is going to be released sometime soon.
But check out Fire; it’s good and uncensored :)
I too agree that you should go out and buy every trade paperback of Invincible that there is. Best Independent comic I’ve ever read.
As for DC, I’d start with Identity Crisis and then Infinite Crisis if you want to get yourself aquainted within the current universe. For individual characters; I’d buy the two Hush volumes for Batman as well as Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale trilogy of books for him, the two For Tomorrow volumes for Superman, the two Sinestro Corps War volumes for Green Lantern, and the current trades of Justice League of America and Teen Titans if you want to follow team books.
For Marvel, I’d buy Civil War and Joss Whedon’s four volumes of Astonishing X-Men. Daredevil also has it’s moments, but other then those I’m not really that much of a Marvel guy.
I’m sorry but most of your DC suggestions are not the best place for a person that is not caught up on DC comics. Especially Sinestro Corp, JLA, and Teen Titans. Those are all good books to get into respectively, but he should really try to start at the beginning of those series, they don’t to many issues to catch up on.
Yeah, my friend is a huge DC nerd and he said even he doesn’t get a lot of what’s going on in the original crisis. I might end up reading the recent crisiseseses (Sp? *snort*) once I kinda get better acclimated, but for the right now I don’t feel at all lost not reading them.
Honestly, with DC what I did was I picked a character I knew something about and liked, and grabbed some of the titles that looked appealing and jumped in. DC: New Frontier was a great book that got me introduced to a lot of characters in a fun way.
It’ll snowball from there. I also suggest picking up as many of the old school Vertigo books as you can get ahold of. Sandman is an EXCELLENT way to get to know the magical and mystical universe of DC without any knowledge of regular DC. It’s also just one of the best and most accesable series out there with a finite start, a finite finish and all the trades in wide release, numbered and volumed out nicely.
Also, dammit, read Jeff Smith’s Bone series. As a kid, it was the first comic I ever read (printed in the old Disney Adventures magazine) and it holds the test of time. And bonus: they’re being reprinted in color right now and at 9.99 a pop really good price.
As for X-Men: I think this is one of the most easily accessible Marvel book. Just pick up an arc that sounds interesting to you and chances are you’ll probs be able to not be too lost. Avoid Age of Apocolypse though until you’re knee deep in- it bears no meaning on anything else.
Marvel: 1602 was a great book too, I whole heartedly recommend anything Gaiman writes.
Also, Wiki is your friend. If you are reading something, don’t know who someone is/what they’re relationship is/whatever- wiki it. It helped me a lot when I was trying to get into new things.
What exactly are you looking to get into- character or type of comic-wise? It might help in making suggestions Nick. :P
Most of my money, if I have any, will be spent towards Marvel comics as I am doing pretty good with Image right now(Loving the Sword as well MrPointy), so besides The Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-Man, or Secret invasion(because I already am planning on those) what other Marvels should i be looking for?
I would also have to recommend Sandman, although its not really in any continuity really, and some don’t like it, but its one of my personal favorites, and its worth it to at least check out the first trade
Ha. Didn’t realize you recommended it too. :P
yeah most definately, its a great book, I’ve only even read a few of the volumes… Volume nine was the first one I read… I wasn’t even all that confused. Spoiled though haha
Secret Invasion was a big build up to a small bit of intrigue… meh
I am really enjoying Invincible Iron Man right now, its only on issue 9 so its would be easy to get into, I’ve never been huge into Iron Man, but this series has really grabbed me.
Captain America is a must, however this is another book a would suggest starting from the beginning on, and that’s no small task. However Brubaker is doing amazing things with that book right now.
If you like the Ultimates, and you should, then you definitely need to check out Millar’s run on Fantastic Four. It started in issue #554. Also another Millar book you need to be reading is KICK-ASS!
And lastly New Avengers, this is the must read book in Marvel in my opinion. Unlike JLA it actually matters in the Universe. If you don’t want to go back all the way to the beginning than at least pick it up after Secret Invasion, because it looks to be getting better from that point on.
Mike alred’s Madman is really what got me into comics. Some of the most beautiful color work in pop-art comics. Also Spidey is gonna start getting good again…. John Romita Jr is coming back to the series.
Thanks so friggin’ much for all the suggestions you guys. @Sunshineyness, Bone is actually one of my favorite books peroid.
Awesome. :) I actually got one of my friend’s who teaches special ed middle school to use Bone to help the kid’s read and she said they love it. Scholastic’s comic devision (Graphix) is really impressive, I have to say. They did Amulet, Captain Underpants, the new Baby-Sitter’s Club graphic novels (shut up- it’s nostalgia for me and actually very well drawn.) and have really managed to grab a lot of kid’s into comics.
I got to meet Jeff Smith at ComicCon the other year and he signed my Bone trade and drew me a little doodle of Phone Bone! Total cool dude I have to say. :)
oh man bone… now THERE is a great book. Smith’s take on Shazam was really something special as well.
ps. i have a phoney bone star teeshirt that i wear all the time.
Y The Last Man, one of the best things I’ve ever read.
Any thoughts on Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow: Quiver (Book 1) and The Sounds of Violence (Vol. 2)?
I’ve never read a Green Arrow comic before, just love Kevin Smith (and like the character on JLA: Unlimited)
Kevin Smith’s run on Green Arrow is awesome. It’s the first thing from the character I ever read, and also works really well as a DCU crash course of sorts. EVERYBODY has a cameo in that thing.
His current Batman mini is horrible tho..
I would also wholeheartedly recommend his run on Daredevil (Guardian Devil) as well as the mini series Spider-Man and Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do. Both are awesome.
I just finished reading Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow and I couldn’t believe how awesome it was. A great introduction to the character I felt if you’d never read Arrow before, and a great mix of drama, action, and comedy IMHO.
I don’t know how a lot of people on here feel about Silver Age- but I read the Green Lantern/Green Arrow book for a pop culture class once and, even though it’s REALLY dated, loved it none-the-less and not terribly riddled with continuity stuff. Also recommended if you’re interested in Silver Age: Alan Moore’s DC Universe collection. Worth it alone for “The Killing Joke” “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” “Night Olympics” and “For the Man Who Has Everything.”
Going to second (err, third?) Sandman.
If it were me, I’d just start out with Absolute Sandman #1, but I realize that people unfamiliar with the series would be unlikely to invest that much in something they aren’t sure they’d like (it’s probably still considerably cheaper on amazon, however), so the regular trades might be a better introduction.
Maybe try Green Lantern: Secret Origin. (Geoff Johns)
Awesome book
If you like zombie stories, The Walking Dead is an excellent series. Like all good zombie stories, it’s a metaphor for the loss of control in our modern day to day life and how various humans adapt to stress.
Of course, Y the Last Man and Runaways are must reads. The Freshman series created by Seth Green is a fun jaunt into absurd superheroes.
For standard fare, The Long Halloween Batman graphic novel is great.
Thanks to the Two Geeks, I am really into Y, the last Man and Ex Machina (X-Machina really is just like a superhero ‘West Wing’). So, I’d definitely recommend these as good reads – Bryan K Vaughan (the writer) is amazing at plot, character and dialogue. Enjoy whatever you start with!