Official Comics Thread

[schild]

So I'm through a good bit of Watchmen. All I have to say is: Thank You. You fuckers have turned me back onto comics in a big way. I will now accept recommendations from any/all of you. Please be reasonable though:

1. Must be available in 1-4 VOLUMES (a la Bone). I refuse to buy flimsy  monthly editions. I hate waiting for releases.

2. I really, really like hardback stuff.

Oh, and I've finished Marvel 1602. Quite a fantastic story really. Not being a huge fan of Gaiman outside of Sandman, it caught me by surprise. Bring on the recommendations.

[Train Wreck]

It's out of print, but it's the only comic I've ever been a fanatic of.

[Merusk]

The last comic I enjoyed was the hardcover combo of "Batman: Year One" and "The Dark Knight Returns" I got back in the early 90's.  If you haven't read them I reccommend it.

  Other than that I'm just tagging this thread so I can review it later if anything interesting pops up.

[angry.bob]

Hrmmmm...

V for Vendetta
Any of the Sin City books
Most of the Preacher trade peperbacks
My Faith in Frankie should be in trade paperback by now
Supeman: Red Son should be too
Dark Knight Returns was good too, though I didn't care for Year One.
The Killing Joke was good, but short.
Wow, most of the really good stuff came out in the 80's...

Hmmm....

Almost any of the stuff Kyle Baker does/did is good if you can find it. Why I hate Saturn was funny in a fucked up sort of way, so was the Cowboy Wally Show.

Evan Dorkin is good too. Milk & Cheese probably isn't waht you're looking for, but the Pirate Corp$/Hectic planet stuff is good, though a bit early 20's angsty. Even though it's a flimsy one-shot, find do whatever it takes to find a copy of Figh-Man, it's worth it's weight in gold. Some goes for the short story he did for one of the Justice League annuals called "The O Squad". It's a really fucked up story about every villian in the DC universe who's name ends with an "o" form a group to destroy the Justice League, but then turn on each other over whether T.O Morrow belongs since his name ends with an "o" sound instead of an actual "o"

[schild]

Did anyone read any of the newer X-Men, like Runaways or Snikt? I loved the art direction, but heard nothing about them.

Edit: Had the name wrong. Runaways had promo photos that reminded me of Maxx.

[angry.bob]

Did anyone read any of the newer X-Men, like Runaways or Snikt? I loved the art direction, but heard nothing about them.

Sorry, haven't read an X-book since storm got a mohawk...

[Righ]

V for Vendetta

Batman: The Killing Joke

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright

Yuggoth Cultures

Sandman

[AOFanboi]

Marvels (Events in the old Marvel universe as seen by the public)

Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl?

Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes (just to see if you like it - then buy the rest when you find that you do)

[DarkDryad]

The Infinity Gauntlet story line that was bound into one big edition a while back was great. All your Marvel favorites trying to beat down a near god in the form of Draxx. Good stuff.

[Samwise]

The Tick

SPOON!

[Lanei]

Transmetropolitan.  by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson.  DC Vertigo.

http://transmetropolitan.com/gimme.html

Its done (60 issues), and available in trade paperback from the usual places.

[schild]

Transmetropolitan sounds superb.

Righ, I'll be picking up Arkwright if they have it locally.

I already love Sandman, that's on the list, just giving it some time since I read a good deal of it.

Batman: The Killing Joke - I meant to pick it up a LONG time ago. Completely forgot about it. Thanks.

The Tick is a no brainer :). But it deserves it's place in this thread.

AO, Marvels sounds great.

[Nebu]

I'm sure you'll laugh at this one, but one of my favorite post-silver age comics was Howard the Duck (early 1970's Marvel).  I collected these at a time when the sarcasm was lost on most collectors.  Recently, these books were rereleased (issues 1-27) in Essentials: Howard the Duck.  

The reviews were mostly positive (so I'm not a complete whack job) and an example can be found   here.

[Fargull]

The Astonishing X-men

Last comic I read that was as good, hell, the last I bought that was anywhere near as good was The Crow.

Aside from the fact I am a Josh Whedon fan, both the art and the writing make this comic a stand out.

[ahoythematey]

Well, if you don't turn your nose up at manga, Lone Wolf and Cub is fantastic.   It's quite a few volumes, though...

Something similar, Blade of the Immortal, is also very good, and unless I am mistaken each volume is essentially a self contained story.

As others have mentioned, pretty much everything Frank Miller was involved with is a good bet, with the standouts being the Batman stuff.

[murdoc]

I'm just starting to read some comics again (Co-worker keeps bringing them so I of course have to read them).

Two Batman trades I really liked were:

Batman: Dark Victory

and

Gotham Central: In the Line of Duty

I really like Gotham Central as Batman just has cameo appearances. It's basically the story of the Gotham PD and how much they hate relying on Batman to get the "big baddies", especially when said baddie brutally murders one of their own.

[stray]

I'm of the opinion that Preacher is one of the greatest things written in the last 10 years. Comics or otherwise. 10 (?) volumes though, but well worth it.

[Velorath]

Top Ten Book 1 and Book 2  by Alan Moore.

Dark Horse's Conan reprints of the old Marvel series.

The Astro City series by Kurt Busiek, especially Confession.

The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman.

Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt by by J.M. Dematteis.

I can come up with a lot more but that's a start.

[Margalis]

Batman: Digital Justice is pretty cool for computer people to look at - not great by any means, but pretty interesting. (The first major comic book to be all computer created artwork)

[stray]

The Astro City series by Kurt Busiek, especially Confession.

I took up your suggestion on Astro City a while back, and thought it great as well. Though after that, I picked up Busiek's Marvels and found it better, by virtue of being set in the Marvel universe. I just thought the idea worked better with more familiar characters. Too bad that's all he wrote for it.

[Johny Cee]

I'm of the opinion that Preacher is one of the greatest things written in the last 10 years. Comics or otherwise. 10 (?) volumes though, but well worth it.

I read most of the Preacher stuff....  it really kind of wore on me after a while.  Ennis seems to like to recycle his own stuff a fair amount too.  Basically,  it was good but didn't tie things up quickly enough.

That being said....  I read most of Ennis' new take on the Punisher.  Definitely check out Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank.  The Punisher does some bad, bad things to Daredevil and Spider-man....  and he turns Wolverine into a running joke.  Heh, my big comic book phase was late 80s/early 90s,  so seeing Wolverine get abused is nice come-uppance for having to deal with the 8 million series he appeared in.

Gaiman's Sandman is excellent.  Hell,  Gaiman's novels are pretty damn good.

Check out the League of Extra-ordinary Gentlemen 1 & 2....  unlike the movie,  damn good stuff.

Overall,  the graphic novels are a new favorite of mine to browse for 15 or 20 minutes while on lunch break.

[MuffinMan]

I got back big into comics about a year ago now. Few really good books I've read are Superman : Secret Identity and the Y: The Last Man trade paperbacks, 4 of them out so far so now I'm up to reading the individual issues.

I would say too, if you stopped reading X-Books to pick up some of the Astonishing issues, great stuff.

Lastly, even though he is kind of oversaturated in Marvel's books, Wolverine's solo book right now is alot of fun. Lots of action from a brainwashed Wolverine. Should be out in graphic novel soon.

[schild]

For the sake of keeping this organized, here's the list you all have created (things with a *, I've already bought or read):

Groo The Wanderer
Batman: Year One
The Dark Knight Returns
V for Vendetta
Sin City
Pracher
My Faith in Frankie
Superman: Red Son
Dark Knight Returns
Batman: Killing Joke*
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (1)
Yuggoth Cultures
Sandman*
Marvels
Powers; Who Killed Retro Girl
The Tick
Transmetropolitan
Howard the Duck
Astonishing X-Men
Batman: Dark Victory
Gotham Central: In the Line of Duty
Top Ten (Book 1)
Top Ten (Book 2)
Conan
The Astro City: Confession
The Walking Dead
SpiderMan: Kraven's Last Hunt
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Superman: Secret Identity
Y: The Last Man
Bone

1. Luther Arkwright apparently came out as a trade. It's near impossible to find. The local comic book shop is looking into special orders. Anyone know better than those people?

2. Ahoy, already read Lone Wolf and Cub. I've pretty much read every Manga up until 2003. I worked in an anime shop and blew threw about 3-4 books a day.

Almost done with Watchmen now. It's absolutely genius. Marvel 1602 has been finished, and it's genuinely interesting. Turned me back onto the X-Men at least. Killing Joke was as good as I remembered.

If I missed anything, ya know, inform me. Also, keep the recommendations coming. I read quickly and a lot of this stuff isn't that costly.

[stray]

If you liked Watchmen (and it looks like you've got a few Alan Moore titles on that list already), then try From Hell too.

It's not the quickest read, and even if you've seen the film already, it's well worth it. As far as comics go, it's an absolute masterpiece.

[Margalis]

You missed Batman:Digital Justice. Arkham Asylum is similar - both books you can buy mostly for the art. (Digital Justic is just plain cheesy and Arkham doesn't cover any new ground but the artwork on both is historic)

You can get a bound copy called Frank Miller's Complete Batman that has Year One and The Dark Knight returns in it, as well as a really bad other story. (Sadly, the "complete" is no longer complete)

Also, if you are going to be buying graphic novels, you should buy The Death of Captain Marvel.

[Lum]

Another vote for Red Son.

[schild]

Just finished Watchmen.

Thank you.

 Edit: In return, my gift back to you.

[Signe]

I just looked at the prices of some comic books.  Holey Moley!  They're expensive!  Even the mundane looking Marvel ones.  Comics aren't for kids, anymore, are they?

[Luxor]

Stuff i've enjoyed recently, most available in Trades/HC :-

Powers
Fables
Ultimates V1

Depends how highbrow you want to be but I would recommend the Ultimate Spider-man HC available from Barnes & Noble, 30 of your yankee dollars. Includes the first 50 issues but as its written by Bendis then thats just long enough for 2 characters to have a conversation :)

[Ironwood]

While it's really short and arguably not worth the money, I recently picked up Powerless.  I liked what it had to say.

[LordDax]

Since you are looking for the collected/anthology bound books I highly recommend this storyline...

Earth X

The premise is innovative. What would the Marvel universe be like if a failed experiment made everyone on Earth a mutant. The series starts in the book "Earth X" and continues for I believe 5 more novels. I highly recommend it to all Marvel and comics fans alike. Not only is it a great read, but you get alot of insight on the nature of the characters. A++[/url]

[HaemishM]

DC's Kingdom Come (better than Marvels IMO)
Grant Morrison's Invisibles - I don't think this one is available as one big book, but it's goddamn great.
Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men - Shittons better than most stuff Claremont ever thought of doing on X-Men, especially if you consider Claremont's new stuff, which is godawful
Astonishing X-Men - Whedon's stuff is the only good X-Men book being done these days
Robert Kirkman's Invincible - Ongoing series right now, with 18 or 19 issues in the can, I think it's been collected in 2 or 3 books so far

Don't let anyone convince you to read Identity Crisis... god that book started so well, was so well written right up to the big reveal. Turned the whole series to complete shit. Also, the latest Avengers reboot is fucking atrocious; Bendis should be ashamed.

Bendis's Jinx and AKA: Goldfish are both awesome film noir type black and white books worth reading.

If you can find any issues of Rubber Blanket, by David Mazzuchelli, you'd like it. But finding it may be difficult. He only put out 1 issue every year for a few years, and I'm not sure he's even working in comics anymore.

Frank Miller's 300 is good. Also, "Through the Habittrails" is a great little indy thing that may be out of print.

But seriously, after Watchmen, most of it will be a let down.

[SirBruce]

Your forgot to include Normalman on the list, which I heartily recommend.

Most of the other good trade paperbacks I can think of are collections of stories from specific team books like Legion of Super-Heroes, which aren't nearly as enjoyable if you aren't steeped in the mythos.

Secret Wars was the first mega-crossover series (not counting Contest of Champions, which was only a 3-issue mini), and still one of the best, although it's been a long time since I've read it.  Many of the annual JLA-JSA crossover multiparts had their moments, and I think there's a series of books that collect those tales as well.

Oh, I suppose it is worth mentioning Camelot 3000, which was the first 12-issue "maxi-series".  I did not particularly like the story, but it is famous for having the first lesbian sex scene in mainstream comic book history.

Bruce

[Velorath]

Some more good stuff:

Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan.

X-Force Volume 1: New Beginning by Peter Milligan (not to be confused with the original X-Force).

Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and Squee by Jhonen Vasquez

[schild]

Ah, a Runaways recommendation. I was waiting for someone who had read it to comment.