+1

1000 pages in color of a new superhero series that is self-contained and from the creator of The Walking Dead. All for $40

http://www.amazon.com/Invincible-Compendium-TP-Robert-Kirkman/dp/1607064111/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325986976&sr=1-1

There are also many ways to sample comics before buying them, to see which titles interest your son. Tell him to check the torrents where thousands of comics are available. After he gets a sense of what he likes, you can go on eBay and get complete runs of titles relatively cheaply.

Invincible is also a bit graphic (though if he can handle Walking Dead...). I don't know why Kirkman likes guts so much, but he does. No wonder his stint at Marvel didn't go over as well as his own stuff...

3 superhero comics are maybe 20 minutes of reading tops.

And I can't believe there was a torrent suggestion here. I mean sure, everyone was thinking it, but...

Ok this is where the buck stops

1. Swamp Thing New 52
2. Aquaman New 52
3. Rachel Rising (Good Suggestion BobO'Link)
4. The New Punisher by GREG RUCKA
5. Animal Man

I was able to get all the copies up to date 1st prints. I'm DONE!!!!

Thanks to all!

Probably not what you want to hear, but as a 40-year old who's read comics for most of his life, if I could, I would go back in time and tell my 8-year old self to put down those copies of Avengers 172* & X-men 112* and never pick one up again!


*(my first 2 superhero floppies ever, though I had read some Tin Tin before that)

I remember buying UX 121 off the racks at my nearby 7-11, and actually bought the back issues from 111-120 from a Canadian comic book shop that advertised in the comics themselves. It was my first experience with doing mail-order (before it was so much easier with online ordering, as you had to mail your request and the money without knowing if the items/issues were still in stock, maybe I opted to risk it as I didn't want to ring up long distance charges).

Please.

Have you even read Walking Dead? It's one of the grossest, most explicitly violent and quite frankly, rather vile mainstream books ever published, and I'm not a prude. It's not like Preacher where Ennis started shoving in as many gay sex, shit and puke jokes because the book was selling so well and he wanted to thumb his nose at DC management, but it is a bit over the top.

I'd have serious reservations about letting a 12 year old read it or Invincible.

^Relax Cynthia. A 15 year old should have no problems with Invincible or Walking Dead. And if you think Ennis shoved in "gay sex, shit, and puke jokes" just to "piss off DC management", you're out of your fucking mind.

I really wish you would have responded faster. I let him read it and he went insane. He started digging up buried corpses just to make sure they wouldn't come back to life.

Seeing as he is on the record in one of the later letter columns in Preacher as saying just that, I am perfectly sane. Ennis had started with the piss and shit and puke crap in the very first script he submitted, but DC made him re-write it, and it was only after the title took off sales wise that his editors gave him pretty much free reign, so he said screw the limits and threw everything into the comic. Which is why the quality in terms of storytelling was crap over the last third of the comic.

Yeah, sorry, but Ennis has gone on record (letter columns and interviews), stating that he's "pushed the envelope" more than he would've if he wasn't trying to piss off DC brass. It stemmed from them not letting him use the word "****", so he pushed back in his own way, though not at the expense of the story he wanted to tell.

I stand collated. But I maintain Preacher pushed the envelope before the entire ****-fiasco, and afterward it just became a standard trope.

Morning Glories is about 24 issues in and is currently my favorite comic. It shouldn't be hard/pricey to track down the prior issues, and it's edgy enough (it carries a mature rating, but it's not as graphic as Walking Dead) that your son should enjoy it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Glories

I started reading Morning Glories based on the above post and I thought it was awful. Silly, over the top, and obvious.

Darnit, I just ordered the hardcover too...

Maybe it was just me. It has gotten a lot of acclaim but I cannot fathom why.

I like it a lot. Did you hate LOST too? That may be why.

i f'ing warned you that it wasn't age appropriate on the first page and you didn't listen! You didn't listen!!!! This is on you man!

I did hate Lost. Is this series from a writer on Lost or something?

No, but the storyline has been compared to LOST's.

Batwoman sounds like it would be to Larry's son's liking because the antagonists so far have been part of a supernatural cult-type organization with a ghost woman kidnapping and drowning kids and whatnot. It's also been a frustrating book to read because it's wildly inconsistent. If he's new to comics, he may be even more sensitive to the frequently inexplicable plot changes (I don't wish to validate them by calling them "plot twists"). Then again, he may just take it for granted that's how comics are told and not be bothered at all.

He might also enjoy old school Spawn, 30 Days of Night or some of the Vertigo classics like Sandman if he's as into thoughtful supernatural as he is into the monsters and gore side.

I would also suggest the following Batman stories, as they have a heavy emphasis on the dark/supernatural:

Batman: Haunted Knight (collects Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Special #1-3)

Batman: Gothic

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Also, I would highly recommend the New 52's Detective Comics, at the very least, issues #1-4. The opening arc, "Dollmaker," plays like Batman in a Saw movie. There'll soon be a hardcover collected edition of the first seven issues, so you might want to just go for that.

I read the first trade and thought it was OK, but lacked enough payoff. Does the second trade answer any of the questions raised in the first, or is it just more smoke monsters and mysterious number sequences?