Comics thread-looking for suggestions... (1 Viewer)

[Chris Bardon]

Not sure how many among the HTF membership are comics readers, but a search turned up a few hits, so it's worth a shot. I've been collecting for about 12 years now, and I'm looking for something different to pick up. I'm up to about 20-25 series monthly, as well as a bunch of stuff that I've been picking up in trades. Problem is, I haven't been making it in to the comic store much in the past few years, and also haven't met many other collectors in the past little while, and thus might be missing out on some good stuff.

Anyhow, I'm looking for recommendations for series, trades-anything really. Recent finds have been the entire America's best line from Alan Moore, Transmetropolitan, and some of the Bendis trades. Already buying most of the X-men stuff (been a staple for so long it's hard to let go) all of the core Batman titles (consistently some of the best writing in comics) some of the Knights books (Punisher and Daredevil are both strong), as well as Stray Bullets (when it comes out) and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.

For the readers out there-what else is good right now? For the non-readers-you might be surprised at some of the quality stuff that's out there.

 

[Jason Seaver]

"Black Panther" by Christopher Priest. Consistently one of the most intelligently-written, action-packed, and flat-out funny books Marvel puts out. Also, go through the back-issue bins and find a series he did for Acclaim called "Quantum And Woody". May be the best comic of the 90s.

I'm very close to putting "anything Oni puts out" on my pull list. Aside from "Queen And Country" (an espionage book by Greg Rucka, wirter of "Detective Comics"), they've got a couple of good crime miniseries right now - "Shot Callerz" and "Skinwalker" - the trades of the funniest comic in a long time, Judd Winick's "Adventures Of Barry Ween, Boy Genius", trades of Rucka's "Whiteout" series, "Courtney Crumrin And The Night Things"... A lot of good comics.

"The Red Star" is absolutely gorgeous, but takes forever to come out. You might want to wait for the oversized collections rather than getting the monthly book.

The reason "Stray Bullets" went on hiatus is that David Lapham was doing a series called "Murder Me Dead". It's just as good, a single story now collected in both paperback and hardcover.

Anything by Brian Michael Bendis is good, but you probably know that. Still, "Ultimate Spider-Man" is the best Spider-book out there, and "Powers" is one of the most clever superhero comics in a long time. It also has the best letter column ever. I like "Alias", too.

I could go on for a loooooooooong time, but I'll stop here by saying that I'm enjoying the heck out of the "Transformers: Generation One" miniseries and I'm not afraid to let people know that.

 

[JonZ]

I will off course recommend older stuff.
X-Men - The Claremont/Bryne stuff was the best. I gave on the book after Paul Smith had left (around 86 I think)
Grendel - Matt Wagners great series. Read Devil By The Deed(the origianls are WAY too expensive) and Comicos series. I think it went up to number 70 or so. I havent read the newer stuff.
Avengers - This was a favorite of mine for a long time. I love the old classic issues. I gave up on this book with issue 212. John Byrne had a great run on this book!! George Perez was drawing it for awhile. But the old ones with the first 5 Ultrons were classic.The avengers were really special to me growing up.Definitely look up Avengers Annual 10 - first appearacne of Rogue from X-Men. Awesome issue.
Daredevil - The Frank Millers Issues are great. I also recommend the Miller/Mazuchelli issues from the late 80s.
Akira - You can get the collected volumes. Ive seen them at Media Play or try Bud Plants in California.
Watchmen - You need to read this. All of Moores stuff is just great. Also check out League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (what a great idea that book is)
Batman - Of course, get Killing Joke,Dark Knight Returns and Year One. I also recommend the Denny Oneal issues from the 70s and early 80s Detective Comics.
Moonshadow - A fairy Tale for Adults.12 Issues. I enjoyed it when I read it years ago.
Fantastic Four - John Brynes run in the 80s was really great before he ran out of things to do with them. After the She Hulk joined the book went downhill.
Spiderman - So many great issues. Of course I recommend the first issues done by Ditko, you can get the reprints.
Thor - Walt Simmonsons early 80s run.
Groo - Sergio Aragones great comic book, a parody of Conan. Full of laughs.
Cerebus - Everyone gave up on Dave Sims years ago, but this is the only comic book I still read(I want to see it through to the end). One guy does the book for the entire run up to 300 issues. Theres also collected volumes.You have to start at the beginning with this book. High Society and the beginning of Church & State are probally my favorite storylines in any comic book. My favorites really right there.
Sandman - Simply awesome. Neil Gaimans great series.
Mr X - A really cool comic book if you can find it.From the 80s when independent comics first started cropping up everywhere. I have to get these myself one day.
Cry For Dawn - Joe Linsners stuff has gotten really popular, but I prefer his older B&W work. Standout issues (Im not sure about the numbers)was 5(aids story),issues 6 (vampire story) and 8(musician story inspired by what happened to Claptons son)
Thats off the top of my head, id have to go home and look throught my collection to refresh my memory.
Actually, I really envy you reading some of the stuff above for the first time.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Some good stuff there. Jon-read a bunch of that already. Watchmen was what got me into Alan Moore, and Sandman was what got me into Vertigo.

For some reason I've never been a huge Grendel fan. I got Devil by the Deed, and it didn't really inspire me to read more of it-just wasn't all that compelling.

Jason-yeah, I got MMD, and actually enjoyed it more than Stray Bullets-probably because I actually sat down and read the whole thing in one shot rather than 2-3 months between issues.

Actually, this brings up another hiatus question-what happened to Astro City? I know that Kurt Busiek had some personal problems (health?) but is the series ever coming back?

Let's see, what else was mentioned-I agree that TF gen 1 has been great-I love the way it continues from the cartoon. I wasn't all that impressed with Queen & Country though (I got the FCBD one)-just seemed pretty averave. I've been meaning to pick up the trade of Whiteout though-I've heard good things about that one.

"The Red Star"-any more info on it? Never even seen this one. Who Publishes it?

Again, going on a while, but just thought of another unexplained Hiatus. Jhonen Velasquez (sp) of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac seems to have just dropped off the face of the earth. I read his whole JTHM and Squee run, and then he just sort of stopped making comics? Is there anything new from him?

 

[Jason Seaver]

"The Red Star"-any more info on it? Never even seen this one. Who Publishes it?

It's the fall of the Soviet Union told as a sci-fi/fantasy adventure. Image published the first 9 or 10 issues, but Team Red Star is going to move to self-publishing soon (as Archangel Publishing, I think). The writing is good but it's the art that's amazing - it's less like traditional comic art than a modern animated movie, with hand-drawn characters but CGI objects and CGI/painted backgrounds, all blended together very well. It really must be seen to be believed, and I've been sorely tempted to pick up the first trade (which is at least 11x17) even though I own all the comics.

Another interesting one running now is "Fused", but part 1 of a 4-part series is all that's come out; I think the rest are running late. It's from Image, a guy trapped in a robot suit. Looks amazing, with very human and witty writing.

I feel remiss not mentioning CrossGen; it seems like everything they put out is top-drawer in the production values category but I just wasn't interested in their initial titles. I like "Ruse" a lot (though how long that'll last with Mark Waid leaving the book, I don't know), as well as "Way Of The Rat" and "The Negation", and I'm looking forward to "Route 666". These are, not-so-coincidentally, the books which are the least tied-in to the central "CrossGen Universe" mythology.

 

[Chris Bardon]

I don't know-I'm still a little wary about Image-They left a bad taste in my mouth from their launch. I've come back to some of their trades, and I gather that this means that the company has changed a lot over the last few years.

Actually, the dilemma I'm in right now is trades vs monthly issues. Since some of the trades seem to be coming out at a snails' pace, I'm tempted to just go on a back issue buying spree and get the stuff I'm missing from Tom Strong, Promethea, Top 10, Powers and Transmetropolitan and just start getting the books monthly. I know that vol.2 of top 10, tom strong and Promethea are out in HC, but those are WAY too expensive (especially in Canada). Transmet is probably the worst offender, with the upcoming vol.6 covering up to number 34 I believe, when the series is well over 50? Might have to try to make a deal for a BIG pile of back issues next time I'm in the store...

Glad to hear that Astro City is coming back-loved this book.

 

[Jason Seaver]

IIRC, the only thing left of Image from the early years is Erik (not Steve) Larsen, still doing "Savage Dragon". They've really re-invented themselves since Liefeld self-destructed (well, two self-destructions ago) and Jim Lee moved Wildstorm to DC, with much less of a "house look" and a much more varied line. Not exactly Oni-hip (but who is?), they're still doing some neat things.

 

[Jefferson]

My friend Jason Brightman just launched his cool comic called Frayed Ends.

Dawn Brown has done some awesome artwork in the new Vampirella series.

 

[JohnAD]

I would suggest the 'Lone Wolf and Cub' series from Dark Horse...good story, and at 10$ a pop, it's like eating candy
John.

 

[Edwin-S]

Try Chaykin's American Century . It is set in the '50's and looks at the "good old days" from another angle.
Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo is a consistently well done book. The use of anthropomorphic characters is strange at first but the writing is really quite good.
War Story written by Garth Ennis. It is a four issue mini series which kind of hearkens back to the old "Two Fisted Tales" of EC fame. The language is harsher and the violence more explicit but the "feel" is the same....telling stories of men at war without really glorifying the experience or becoming overly "jingoistic". Kurtzman and company's Korean war stories from "Two Fisted Tales impress me for their unromantic look at war, especially when you take into account the political landscape of the period they were written in.
There was an Enemy Ace graphic novel done a few years back that was pretty well done. The title is escaping me at the moment.
Don't laugh but there is a four volume set of Wind in The Willows adapted by a French artist, Michel Plessix, and published by NBM, which I was quite impressed by.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Jason, I think you meant "Erik Larsen" (I was like going "Who the hell is Steve Larsen?")
You might want to check out the J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5 creator) comics: Amazing Spider-Man, Midnight Nation (just wrapped up its 12-issue run I think), and Rising Stars.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Yea verily, I did mean Erik, and shall edit the message forthwith.

Of course, I'd argue that Straczynski's "Amazing Spider-Man" is actually the least impressive of the regular Spider-books. The Bendis/Bagley "Ultimate" is hard to beat, of course, but I think Jenkins is doing better stories in "Peter Parker".

And wait on trades for "Midnight Nation" and "Rising Stars". Reading "Midnight Nation" piecemeal was somewhat frustrating.

The trade vs. individual issues thing is starting to be a tough question. It seems like a given that every major Marvel/Dark Horse/Oni mini-series or story arc will get a collection fairly quickly, but it's not quite, leaving us with a catch-22: If everyone waits for the trade, will the publishers see that as the series being unpopular and thus not publish one?

For example, I look at the stuff Bendis crams his trades with (if they were DVDs, they'd be two-disc special editions), and I wonder if I wouldn't be better off just skipping the individual issues? Of course, I've got no patience, so I don't, but does anyone else dither like this?

 

[GabrielleG]

Hi there, I too read most of Bendis's work so i'm not sure if I can offer anything new if you already read Alias and Powers. I also like Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise and Ultimate marvel team up.

Gab

 

[Jeff Kleist]

You could always give the Cerebus phonebooks a shot. Order them from Dave tho, because every US retailer charges $25-30 US for them when it's supposed to be Canadian. MAJOR savings going through Aardvark Vaneheim
Read the first ones, you'll know if you want to go farther then High Society is the best overall, Jaka's Story is unbelieveable, and Church and State is an amazing epic
After Jaka, it gets....weird