terrycloth

ok so my only history in comic books was being able to pick up random issues as a kid in the early 90s at the local grocery store and up until recently I have only kept somewhat up to date on the Walking Dead. I recently was told about Extinction Parade and picked it up (due to my love of Max Brooks)

I decided to look around my local comic book store and randomly picked up a few titles and really enjoyed it. A month later I now have a pull list.

My Pull List includes
Extinction Parade (anyone know the deal on this?)
Sheltered
Trillium
Collider
Ghosted
6 Gun Gorilla
Hunger
Infinity
Watson and Holmes
The Wake
Lazarus
Army of Darkness vs. Hack/Ash

I also recently read and enjoyed Watchmen and Preacher vol 1-3

Today I picked up
Batman The Long Halloween
Sandman Preludes b Nocturnes
Dc Universe Stories of Alan Moore
Hitman
The Infinity Gauntlet/Crusade 1/&/War
The Punisher Army of one
based on recommendations from a friend

Im looking for suggestions on current series that are out and worth checking out and any old trades worth reading as I dont have much exposure to the universes.

The DC thread helped alot as I have no knowledge of DC at all..I atleast know the marvel characters.

and any sites worthy of checking out for news? ordering?

taffer

Some good websites for comic news are www.newsarama.com and www.comicbookresources.com.

Websites for ordering back issues are www.mycomicshop.com and www.milehighcomics.com. www.instocktrades.com is the best place for trade paperbacks. I recently made the switch to trades after over 20 years of collecting single issues because I just can't justify the price of singles anymore. $3-$4 per single is just ridiculous, especially when instocktrades sells trades for $8-$10.

DC just did a reboot of their comics back in September 2011 so its easy to get caught up with them.

As for current comics that are worth picking up, Batman by Scott Snyder has been one of my favorites the past few years. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, and Green Lantern are also good. Superman unfortunately hasn't been good in forever. Lesser known DC titles that are really good are Swamp Thing and Animal Man. All Star Western is pretty good too featuring Jonah Hex in the 1800s Gotham. The main Justice League title has been very hit or miss, but Justice League Dark has been consistently good.

I can't really recommend anything outside DC since that's all I read nowadays. I don't read any indie comics, and I dropped Marvel in the 90s because they pissed me off so much back then and everything I have read about them in recent years doesn't make me regret that decision one bit. Its actually a bit funny because I absolutely love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I have lost all interest in their comics after the 90s.

greekboy

I got back into comics last year after picking up a few of the Marvel Silver Age Omnibus. Tried some of the modern Marvel books, but they did nothing for me. I tried a few Image trade paperbacks and now I'm hooked. Currently on my pull list and I can't recommend enough:

Chew
Saga
Six Gun Gorilla
Invincible and Invincible Universe
Still waiting to tear into my Walking Dead Omnibus collections.

Also recommend the Daredevil Bendis and Brubaker runs.

terrycloth

thnx for the links will be checking them out.

Im just the opposite. Even tho I was never hardcore into Marvel those were the superheros i grew up on and get frustrated at alot of the movies based on them (up until recently however) but never read anything DC so I always enjoyed DC movies for what they were (even enjoyed green latern movie that i know is hated) I do really enjoy the animated titles I have seen thru Netflix and def interested me in characters I never had any interest in like green lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, Etc...

Swamp Thing I have heard good things about and I looked up Animal Man seems to get a lot of praise will def check into that.

Thanks for your suggestions...I don't know anyone into comics except my brother in law and bringing up comics to him gives him a hard on and while he tries to help and offer suggestions he goes into too much details and just loses me.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

One of my favorite stories recently (and by that I mean in the last 3 years or so) was Scott Snyder and Jocks work on Batman. Specifically "The Black Mirror" Super awesome stuff going on in that trade. About the only 2 things you need to know going in is that Batman is Dick Grayson (the OG Robin all grown up) and that in Frank Miller's Year One story (another to pick up along with Dark Knight Returns IMO) Jim Gordon has an infant son that Batman saves. Its fantastic, creepy as hell and focus' a lot on Gordon and his family.

John Pannozzi

I'd recommend Savage Dragon, plus the TMNT stuff IDW is putting out if you like the Turtles at all. Invincible is worth checking out, probably the best way is to get the Ultimate Collection hardcovers.

About the only Marvel books that currently sound appealing are Captain America and the all-female version of X-Men.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

New Hawkeye isnt bad.

fujishig

Whatever happened to the Savage Dragon omnibus's that were supposed to come out, anyway? I've been waiting for that forever.

Also, All Star Superman hasn't been mentioned yet, but should've. Avoid All Star Batman like the plague.

On the Vertigo side, Fables is pretty good, though I haven't been keeping up. Y The Last Man was great. American Vampire too.

Marvel has had some terrific creator-driven runs that they've collected in omnibus form: Bendis on Daredevil, Brubaker on Daredeveil, Brubaker on Captain America, and that's only semi-recent stuff... they've also released large volumes of Simonson's Thor, Byrne's Fantastic Four, Claremont and Lee on X-men, Liefeld's X-force (hey, I bought it), Allred and Milligan on a completely different X-Force...

Alan Moore's ABC (America's Best Comics) line is full of good stuff, like Tom Strong, Top Ten, and Promethea.

Warren Ellis's Planetary, Warren Ellis on Stormwatch and then the Authority, Kurt Busiek's Astro City (still eking out miniseries); Wildstorm was really pumping out some quality stuff.

Josh-da-man

I think Astro City is now an ongoing monthly series under the Vertigo imprint.

PhantomStranger

Astro City is an excellent comic.

Josh-da-man

CURRENTLY RUNNING SERIES:
Locke & Key
Hellboy/BRPD
Saga
Fatale
Morning Glories
Optic Nerve

COLLECTED EDITIONS
Promethea (DC)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen v1 and v2
All-Star Superman
From Hell
Umbrella Academy
Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol and Animal Man
The Invisibles
We3
Love and Rockets
the works of Dan Clowes (Eightball, Ghost World, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, David Boring, etc)
Planetary
Warren Ellis' Stormwatch/Authority
Transmetropolitan
V for Vendetta
Alan Moore's Swamp Thing
Garth Ennis' The Boys
Garth Ennis' Chronicles of Wormwood
James Robinson's Starman
Grant Morrison's New X-Men
Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men
Grendel (complete series is currently being released by Dark Horse as omnibus paperbacks)

Crocker Jarmen

As a huge Sandman fan, I always feel compelled to warn people that it took about 10 issues to get its sea legs, thus Preludes and Nocturnes is in no way representative of how intricate, exciting, funny and awe inspiring Sandman is.

Even if it isn't up to your taste I would encourage you to check out one of the later graphic novels (A Game of You or Breif Lives are excellent starting points). Since the Sandman timeline jumps around a lot there isn't a problem reading the first half of the series out of the order it was published.

If you are into humour or non-fantasy comics, I highly reccomend checking out Peter Bagge's hilarious Hate series. The superior latter half of the series is collected in a handy volume called Buddy Does Jersey.



I also can't recomend highly enough Chester Brown's Ed The Happy Clown, a hilarious, disgusting, surreal tale about inter-dimensional portals in dead men's ansus, vampires, and the eponymous Ed who winds up with an angry President Regan on the head of his penis. Just republished in a brand new edition.

Trevor

Lots of good suggestions here. I'll second Grendel for now and may add more later.

Do you have a tablet, or are you willing to read comics on a computer? I'd recommend getting a free Comixology account and trying all the free samples.

davidh777

The only current series I'm following (via TPB, so the wait can be painful) are Invincible and The Walking Dead.

fujishig

Ha, I follow them via Hardcover, which is like once a year if I'm lucky.

PhantomStranger

I'd first start with independent and self-contained comics. DC and Marvel have thousands of great issues, but it requires a sort of institutional knowledge of both universes to fully enjoy them at this point.

Planetary by Warren Ellis is one such series. It is soon coming out in an omnibus.

davidh777

I was reading Invincible in HC, but I got too antsy when one of the volumes was inextricably delayed. Now I read the TPBs, but also buy the HCs because they're so readable. I know, I need to dump the TPBs once I'm done with them and have the HCs.

I just got the new TPB, but also received the preceding HC so I think I'll try to read that to refresh myself--it takes a while when I read on such a scattered schedule.

taffer

That's not really true with DC since they did the New 52 reboot in September 2011. You can easily jump into the New 52 without any prior knowledge of DC whatsoever. The only thing that would confuse a new reader would be Morrison's Batman Inc comic, but heck that's Morrison. His Batman run can be confusing even for readers who have been reading for decades.

PhantomStranger

I wouldn't really suggest the New 52 DCU as a starting point for a new reader looking for great comics.

Almost all of Marvel and DC require huge investments in time and money these days if you really want to maximize your enjoyment. Let a new reader get hooked on superhero comics through a more limited universe, like Astro City or Planetary. After a while the training wheels can be taken off, if said reader wants to dip into a full-blown universe like DC.

taffer

I just don't get why you don't think the New 52 is new reader friendly. The entire purpose of a reboot is to be new reader friendly. Other than Morrison's Batman Inc comic, what other New 52 comic requires any prior DC knowledge?

I guess you may be sarcastic when saying that the New 52 aren't great comics. Its true that much of it does suck (like for example what they did to Tim Drake and giving Phantom Stranger a canon origin) but there are still plenty of good comics too.

Trevor

Terry, I envy your semi- fresh start and hope you continue to enjoy these books. Still curious about my tablet/Comixology question. They have a lot of freebies to check-out, and 99 cent sales to let you sample books before you plunge much $ into them. The local library is also a great resource sometimes.

John Pannozzi

They ran into trouble with the digital files being in obsolete formats. Hopefully they'll come out some day.

PhantomStranger

The New 52 Universe is friendly to new readers that have already drunk the Kool-Aid and know the deal about modern comics (company-wide crossovers every year, random marketing gimmicks like Villains Month, etc.). Almost all of the "new" readers it attracted were lapsed middle-aged adults that had prior experience with comics during the boom years of the '90s.

Someone basically fresh to comics, as the original poster sounds like in his statement, needs a smaller universe to start from if you want to build a long-term customer of comics. That is not DC or Marvel unless you have existing knowledge of their structure and history. Many newcomers to comics get fed up with it and give up.

terrycloth

Sorry havent been online much, but am continueing on my comic venture and reading thru what I have picked up so far.

I have access to a kindle thats been in my closet for awhile ill have to look into that. I prefer physical copies but wouldnt mind the idea of sales and previews of titles before dropping money

Im reading thru this post and appreciate everyones suggestions and will def let you know what i pick up and thoughts as i go alont.