Larry C.

Ok the title says it all. I don't know anything about comics. I'm actually quite confused by comics series. There are so many spinoffs and different volumes it gets hard to keep up.

I wish they would have say Xmen 1-1000 and just keep adding but no they have to make a whole bunch of different Xmen hybrids.

Well he wants to get into something that has just started. That way we can get all the issues and it won't be hard to find.

And no he doesn't want to start with the volume HC's. Just plan old actual comics.

Can anyone recommend a really good new series that is not your traditional superhero stuff?

He likes darker stuff like Walking Dead but its too hard and expensive to go back and collect from issue #1.

Lastdaysofrain

There's a lot of great 80s series and runs that are cheap and easy to collect, most comics shops have them in the 25 cent bins and he could pick up a bunch all at once.

Alpha Flight, New Mutants, Excaliber, etc are pretty easy to get from issue one for cheap money and they are good reads.

Obi-Wanma

Go to your local comic shop and browse. Ask them what you just asked us. They should be able to help you out.

And I'm not trying to be difficult, I just really think they can help you out, and that way you'd actually get some comics in your hand and be able to look thru them before comitting. I actually stopped collecting comics last year due to it being too cost prohibitive in addition to the everyday cost of my growing family (3 kids under age 3), so I can't offer any advice, but if I was interested in picking up a new series or two, I would absolutely ask my retailer.

Also, if there's some titles you decide you want to start getting every month, they can put you on a subscription service where they pull your comics for you, have them ready when you come in, and you get them at a discounted rate.

madcougar

How old is your son? I would hope he's at least 12 if he's watching Walking Dead!

Larry C.

Thanks for the info. In talking to him he wanted to start with something new and fresh not an older series. I guess he thinks if he picks a good one it could be more valuable later.

Groucho

Tell him he can collect one per year, on free comic day.

kodave

I think the DC New 52 is your answer. Everything was rebooted to issue #1 back in September I believe. So it shouldn't be hard at all to grab the handful of issues he's already missed, then collect the new ones from here on out. Some continuities of characters/series were changed, some weren't, but overall its supposed to be super accessible for new readers, hence why they did it to try and draw people back and new readers with the lure of new #1s. If you're not looking for traditional superheroes, DC has some of that too in the New 52.

There's their "The Edge" family of books. These are war, science fiction, western, or crime comics:

Stormwatch, written by Paul Cornell and drawn by Miguel Sepulveda.
Grifter, written by Nathan Edmondson and drawn by CAFU.
Deathstroke, written by Kyle Higgins and drawn by Joe Bennett.
Suicide Squad, written by Adam Glass and drawn by Marco Rudy.
OMAC, written by Dan DiDio and drawn by Keith Giffen.
Blackhawks, written by Mike Costa and drawn by Ken Lashley.
Men of War, written by Ivan Brandon and drawn by Tom Derrenick.
Voodoo, written by Ron Marz and drawn by Sami Basri.
All-Star Western (third series), written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and drawn by Moritat.

There is also their "The Dark" family of titles. This is the billing given to the more supernatural comics:

Justice League Dark, written by Peter Milligan and drawn by Mikel Janin.
Swamp Thing, written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Yanick Paquette.
Animal Man, written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Travel Foreman and Dan Green.
Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E., written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Alberto Ponticelli.
I, Vampire, written by Joshua Hale Fialkov and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino.
Resurrection Man, written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and drawn by Fernando Dagnino.
Demon Knights, written by Paul Cornell and drawn by Diogenes Neves.

Larry C.

I didn't know the moral police was on duty today. He's 15 so settle down Beavis.

cleaver

Among DC52 series I'm hearing the most positive buzz around Animal Man and Batwoman and they're just a few issues in.

Larry C.

You are correct!!!

Thanks. We are going with Swamp Thing and maybe Aquaman.

Lastdaysofrain

Ah, I'd try and steer him away from that path. No post 1980 comic is ever going to be of any value, especially stuff that's been published in the last 10 years. It's not really an investment for anything other than the enjoyment of reading it, especially modern comics.

If he just likes newer stuff better for reading, that's cool, but if he's looking at it as a money making investment he'll learn some good lessons about the economic downturn.

madcougar

Oh. I thought this was a cute thread about a little boy who wanted to start collecting comics.

Nevermind.

Larry C.

That's cool I was just having fun.

TheBigDave

I figured this was where it might be heading when you said he didn't want the volume HC's. If he really wants to enjoy reading comics, he should be happy with the TPB collections. It's a great way to get into established series. And it's much more affordable.

+1

There's no money in collecting comics. You won't even get back what you spent on them. Just tell him to read what he enjoys. And if he's looking for an investment, he should find something else.

Larry C.

I don't think he thinks he will make money. He just wants something that is unique and might be harder to find as time goes by.

I was able to get him Swamp Thing #1 1st print. Let's see if he gets into it or not.

Thanks for all the help guys!

davidh777

The Walking Dead was reissued in floppy form last year as The Walking Dead Weekly, which could be a good way to start from the beginning. Your LCS might have back issues.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=29085

starman9000

I know you said he wants floppies, but maybe check out Invincible too. It's still coming out, it's pretty self contained, and he can get caught up in cheap trade paperbacks, or even a big compendium that is very affordable. (same with Walking dead).

Larry C.

Yeah we have The Walking Dead books. He really liked the Swamp Thing which is cool because I love the Swamp Thing since I was a kid.

Also I got him the new Aquaman.

kgrogers1979

Modern comics won't be hard to find. That's really why they aren't going to worth anything.

The original Action Comics #1 from 1939 is worth a million dollars precisely because there are less than a hundred copies estimated to still exist, and only a handful of them are in good condition. Golden and Silver Age comics are valuable precisely because they are rare and hard to find because back then nobody had the collector mentality and didn't take care of their comics. Back then you read a comic and then discarded it like you would a newspaper.

Today everyone bags and boards and takes good care of their comics. So because of that today's comics are never going to be rare. The new Action Comics #1 from last year's reboot sold over 400,000 copies and the vast majority of them will still be in good condition many many years from now, so it will never be worth anything. The collector mentality started in the 80s, and you can really tell it because you can look on ebay and find many auctions for large lots of 80s, 90s and 2000s comics that sell for dirt cheap prices because they are just too common to ever be worth anything.

But anyway, as for recent comic series to get into, other than DC's recent reboot, Ultimate Marvel is pretty good and it also recently had a reboot of sorts with Ultimatum killing off much of the universe and starting over.

kodave

You might also want to collect Animal Man in addition to Swamp Thing. I haven't read either title, but from the bits I've read, there is going to be some crossover between the two in the future. Animal Man is also getting good reviews like Swamp Thing.

But I've also read Animal Man is pretty violent/graphic so you might want to check it out for your son first, depending on his age.

resinrats

It doesn't help when comic companies play around with issue #'s. Marvel has a bad habit of restarting series then integrating the new series into the old numbering system. For example, Fantastic Four got up to #588 (or something) when Human Torch died. They stoppe there and started FF with #1. Well last month when Torch returned, it was issue #600. FF was up to #12. So they took that 12 issues and counted it towards Fantastic Four's issue count. But wait, there is now FF #13 and Fantastic Four #601 so they counted the 12 but still going on with it that will probably be worked into the number count at some point. WTF

How confusing will it be in a few years for someone to be collecting Fantastic Four and they can't find issues #589-599? How will they know those don't exist but are disguised as a different book? Several other Marvel series did this and some books have super high numbers but that is due to several series issues contributing to it.

I know DC rebooted all their numbers but Action Comics and Detective were pretty close to #900 or so. I get the feeling DC will go back to the old numbering system, leading to confusion in the future over.

Larry C.

Dammit I read the 1st issues of Swamp Thing and Aquaman and I think I'm hooked. I couldn't believe I wanted more. The reason being I never read or collected comics as a kid or ever cared about them. Now I may have to hunt down Animal Man.

Please no more suggestions 3 comics series is enough

kgrogers1979

Both companies screw with the numbering alot. Superman is pretty bad on the DC side.

Back with Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986, Superman volume 1 ended with #423. Superman volume 2 started with a new #1 and volume 1 was renamed to Adventures of Superman and continued on with the old numbering so the first issue was #424. Then when Infinite Crisis came in 2005, Superman volume 2 ended with #226. Adventures of Superman ended with #649 and was renamed back to Superman volume 1 with #650. Then with the Flashpoint reboot last year, Superman volume 1 ended with #714 and Superman volume 3 started with a new #1.

You practically need a PhD in comics to keep all this straight.

And yes, Action Comics was at #904 before the Flashpoint reboot. The second volume just released #5, which would be #909 in old numbering. So Action Comics is 91 issues away from the magical #1000 landmark. Assuming it keeps a consistent monthly schedule it will be there in 7 years and 7 months. It will definitely go back to original numbering either then or sometime before then, because there is not a snowball's chance in hell that DC will miss out on that monumental cash cow of an event.

BobO'Link

3 comics series *per week* might be enough... but not "just 3"...

While I like several of DC's "New 52" (especially Aquaman) I'd suggest going with indies for some titles. An especially good one is Terry Moore's Rachel Rising. It's currently on issue #4. Back issues are still available although issue #1 is in second print. Rachel is a woman who wakes up one morning in the woods and realizes that she's sitting on a freshly dug shallow grave. She freaks out, digs up some of the dirt and realizes the person in the grave is her. Yes, it's somewhat of a horror story, but is *not* a "zombie" story. Should be right up his alley.

Another good one from Moore, that finished last year, is Echo, a sci-fi series about atomic power and two women who share the same body (not in a kinky way - kind of "fused" by a experimental product). It's available in TPB as volumes or a inexpensive single book edition. As it's ended and not easily available in floppies so your son may not want it, but it's a very good story. Both books are B/W.

Another indie project he may enjoy is Valen the Outcast. #2 just came out and #1 is a dollar book which should still be available (BOOM studios). It's about a valiant king who was adored both as a great king and mighty warrior and was killed in battle by a Necromancer. Now he's been returned to life as a slave for the necromancer. There's no zombie shambling around calling for brains, but he is bound to the man who has returned him to a semblance of life. Valen has found a way to temporarily escape the necromancer’s control and is now on a quest to return to his kingdom of Oakhaven, find the Necromancer who took his soul and made him a walking dead man, and completely break his hold. If you happen upon the more cheesecake cover for #1, ignore it and just read the book.

All three of these books have great artwork to go along with compelling stories.

Obi-Wanma

Yeah, 3 comics a month is nothing. That's maybe a half hour of reading per month. My pull list was probably 30-40 deep when I had to quit.