EPTAny good suggestions? Should I read recent releases or try to find classics? Would I be lost if I just started reading one of the new releases?
Thanks for your help/suggestions.
Comic Book Newbie
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rredtooth
5460 Posts
Any good suggestions? Should I read recent releases or try to find classics? Would I be lost if I just started reading one of the new releases? Thanks for your help/suggestions. | ||
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Slow Motion
United States6960 Posts
Y: The Last Man and The Watchmen are also good stand-alones. | ||
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ShaperofDreams
Canada2492 Posts
Also The Boys is a really good one. | ||
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plated.rawr
Norway1676 Posts
Hellblazer Sandman The Walking Dead Lone Wolf and Cub | ||
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ShaperofDreams
Canada2492 Posts
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Tadzio
3340 Posts
Eightball - Daniel Clowes (various short stories, some short gags, some longer narratives) Love and Rockets - Los Bros Hernandez (serial narratives concerning mostly latin american and chicano characters) Cerebus - Dave Sim (avoid the late-90s and early 2000s stuff if you're not interested in seeing a cartoonist's mental breakdown as he spirals into a madness of misogyny and religious fervor "High Society" and "Church and State" are my favorites-- it's a book about a medieval, hermaphroditic aardvark. What's not to like?) Safe Area Gorazde & Palestine - Joe Sacco (these are non-fiction comics covering the tragic situations in Bosnia and Palestine). Schizo - Ivan Brunetti (a mostly auto biographical book by, well, a quite crazy fellow. Brunetti is ill and he lays it out there) If you're interested in more mainstream comics... I dunno... go with classics. The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen or anything by Alan Moore, really. Sin City by Frank Miller. Um. Hellboy by Mike Mignola. If you can find them The Replacement God by Zander Cannon was immensely good as far as cute comics go, but a commercial failure. On May 10 2010 09:46 ShaperofDreams wrote: I'll vouch for Sandman as probably the best "intellectual" comic ever made. if by intellectual you mean pretentious and over-rated. I agree.  | ||
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KOFgokuon
United States14899 Posts
Personally I like ensemble casts and cosmic stuff so I read comics like Justice League of America (though the most recent series has sucked majorly), New Avengers, all of the green lanterns, nova, that sort of line. If you want to get into the JLA, then start reading from the JLA v3 reboot, where they introduced the big 7 lineup of superman, wonderwoman, batman, GL, flash, martian man hunter, and aquaman. that started around the mid 90's, and had high quality stores right up through the 100's, the last 2 storylines sucked major balls though Daredevil during frank miller's run was excellent, introduced a lot of very important characters that are still relevant today. Brian Michael Bendis' run in conjunction with Ed Brubaker's run on Daredevil was also awesome, and you don't need TOO too much pre-reading to know what's up. The most recent reset of Captain America by Ed Brubaker is also good, though they just re-changed the numbering. | ||
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lac29
United States1485 Posts
Y: The Last Man is a good one to start off with I think. | ||
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samachking
Bahrain4949 Posts
Monster PLANETES | ||
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StifSokSamurai
United States120 Posts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_(comics) | ||
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rredtooth
5460 Posts
On May 10 2010 11:46 lac29 wrote: well this interest started after i finished watching ironman. never watched xmen cartoons as a kid but was sort of interested in that too. but like someone said it might be hard for me to just jump in to the universe. i obtained sandman so i'll read that and get back on whether i enjoyed it. i want to be an intellectual haha.I think you might need to be a little more specific about what kind of comic you wanna read. There are just too many kinds and styles. Y: The Last Man is a good one to start off with I think. and to specify i was hoping to void the cutesy stuff. | ||
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Tadzio
3340 Posts
If you like modern literature the first three books I recommended might be up your alley. If you want pulp intellectualism, Alan Moore's stuff would be more your speed. If you want Sci-fi/horror/noir stuff, Dark Horse Comics produces comics that might interest you. Cerebus was a Conan spoof before the artist realized it was profitable and decided to produce 300 issues of it, at which point it became a mix of comedy and a reflection on society... then the artist got divorced, decided to believe in God, and spent the remainder of the 300 issues developing a fiction where fat, ugly feminists ruled the world and the main character discovered something very similar to the judeo-christian religions. Joe Sacco's work is interesting in the same way political science books are interesting, but if you don't care about current affairs in foreign countries you might wanna steer clear. Brunetti is quite an innovator as far as visuals go, and he's disturbed... probably best to read him if you're into the more weird blogs out there (the ones that link to gross-out pics and write about having sex with aborted fetuses, etc). If you're into wannabe-Shakespeare goth/emo stuff, stick with Sandman. If you're willing to venture outside the realm of mainstream superheroes, there's a wide range of material out there. From experimental art-comix to formulaic children's books. From non-fiction history lessons and research projects to hentai and hardcore porn. Its a pretty rich if marginalized medium. If you look for it, I'm sure you can find something you'll absolutely love. | ||
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rredtooth
5460 Posts
On May 10 2010 17:04 Tadzio wrote: with all that said what would you recommend for a newbie? i appreciate good literature but i'm not TOO versed in it. my favorite book would be Slaughterhouse Five though i love all of Vonnegut's stuff. but i'm looking to read these to kill time, not to change my life. i'll look into some of the ones you pointed out but are mainstream superhero comic books not cool or not fun?Just to specify what sort of interests the books I suggested satisfy: If you like modern literature the first three books I recommended might be up your alley. If you want pulp intellectualism, Alan Moore's stuff would be more your speed. If you want Sci-fi/horror/noir stuff, Dark Horse Comics produces comics that might interest you. Cerebus was a Conan spoof before the artist realized it was profitable and decided to produce 300 issues of it, at which point it became a mix of comedy and a reflection on society... then the artist got divorced, decided to believe in God, and spent the remainder of the 300 issues developing a fiction where fat, ugly feminists ruled the world and the main character discovered something very similar to the judeo-christian religions. Joe Sacco's work is interesting in the same way political science books are interesting, but if you don't care about current affairs in foreign countries you might wanna steer clear. Brunetti is quite an innovator as far as visuals go, and he's disturbed... probably best to read him if you're into the more weird blogs out there (the ones that link to gross-out pics and write about having sex with aborted fetuses, etc). If you're into wannabe-Shakespeare goth/emo stuff, stick with Sandman. If you're willing to venture outside the realm of mainstream superheroes, there's a wide range of material out there. From experimental art-comix to formulaic children's books. From non-fiction history lessons and research projects to hentai and hardcore porn. Its a pretty rich if marginalized medium. If you look for it, I'm sure you can find something you'll absolutely love. thanks a lot btw. you're a big help. | ||
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Tadzio
3340 Posts
Maus by Art Spiegelman is the closest thing I can think of to a "Slaughterhouse Five" of comics (at least as far as subject matter goes). It won a nobel prize in 1992 and is a biography of the artist's father, who survived Aushwitz (a famous german WW2 death camp). As far as stuff for a "newbie" ... walk into a comics shop and look at their selection of graphic novels for something that appeals to you. "Graphic novel" is just a fancy word for a collection of issues. Because they're larger, they're not as episodic as monthly issue and so you won't be as lost about wtf is going on. | ||
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ShaperofDreams
Canada2492 Posts
 Do you really read all that old school hippy stuff? I've always avoided it but now it seems interesting. | ||
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NobleDog
United States65 Posts
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emperorchampion
Canada9496 Posts
I believe that Alan Moore has been brought up, ya he's pretty good. Of course Watchmen, V for Vendetta (personal fav) are essential. Also by Alan Moore is The League of Extrodianry Gentlemen, which is a pretty good series (I still need to read vol.3, which isn't available in Canada  ). I will also vouch for Sin City, which is a very gritty black and white series by Frank Miller; which I happen to love (the last book has the most epic chapter ever). Superheros, hmmm, well I've read a bit of Batman and that's about it. I guess I would suggest Hush vol. 1+2, and the Dark Knight Returns (stay away from the Dark Knight Strikes Again, I only read the first chapter... ). As for some other stuff superhero related I would go for Brat Pack by Rick Veitch (not for the faint of heart, but good for the lols), and Sam and Max: Surfin' the Highway (ok, not superhero but really awesome). I believe that Bone was also brought up, it's a good all age series- read it. Jumping to a totally different genre, From Hell, by Alan Moore, is a fairly decent horrorish book that follows Jack the Reaper and gives some, uhh... "lessons (?)" on the Masons. Queen and Country is a fairly decent espionage comic, in which everyone seems to die. I think Tadzio meant to say Jimmy Corrigan: The smartest Kid on Earth, instead of ACME (I could be mistaken) which to be honest is a really boring story, however Chris Ware is an exceptionally talented artist, and there are a lot of cool things about the book. I'm just ripping off and expanding on Tadzio once again here, Maus 1&2 was Art Speiglman's Pulitzer Prize winner I think (not Nobel?). Very closely related to this is Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi- which is an autobiography of her growing up in revolutionary Iran, this is also very good. As for some different stuff, Understanding Comics by (drawing a complete blank) might be a decent place to start, and Making Comics by the same author- he also created Zot! (teenage superhero series), which is a decent first effort, but not really worth read. Louis Reil, by Chester Brown, is a Canadian book that may interest you if you are interested in Canadian history (Louis Reil was a Metis revolutionary). Also Canadian is Essex County, which is a bunch of related stories placed in Ontario (very Canadian); I really enjoyed these. Burma (can't remember authour), is a travellouge of his travels to Burma- this is pretty good, plus a look at a different culture with a twist of humour. Last, but not least, I will say you must read American Splendor by Harvey Pekar, just do it.Sorry I just kinda spewed all that out, there are some really good books in there. I would say just go and explore different genres, artist and authours. Once again, it's cool (in a nerdy way) to have a comic collection and they are way better on paper than on a screen- I highly encourage you not to pirate any novels. Cheers  Edit: Another thread http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=110116¤tpage=4 | ||
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M155_G33k
United States470 Posts
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dani_caliKorea
730 Posts
Sin City is a good read, simple yet fun | ||
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Tadzio
3340 Posts
Yea, Pulitzer prize is what Maus won. I'm retarded. I grew up on comics and wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up. It didn't really work out that way for many reasons, but I still do little strips for myself when the erge hits me. When I was a kid I read Spiderman, Superman, X-Men, X-Factor, Asterix, and a smattering of other books here and there. By the time I was in highschool I'd decided I wanted to be a cartoonist and I started to expand my horizons. I started off with Darkhorse comics for their Aliens books, because I liked those movies. Then, because one of my friends was really into it, I read a buncha Vertigo comics including Sandman, which I never liked, and Preacher, which I did like, but my parents found and blew a gasket over. Sin City and Hellboy were also around this time. Then I got into some of the black&white indie stuff like The Tick, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Dork, and then I found some backissues of Cerebus and got hooked on that until issue 260something where I finally got sick of Sim's misogyny (he's by now finished the 300 issue series and I still can't bring myself to finish reading it). In my sophomore year of college I designed a course of study around comics as an American artform (and got one of the professors to sign off on it) and this REALLY opened my eyes. Superheroes are the commercial success, but as far as quality and experimentation is concerned, Superheroes are a really small part of what comics can offer. Of course, Understanding Comics was part of my studies (by Scott McCloud, btw). This is when I got into Fantagraphics, Top Shelf Comics, and the truly bizarre self-published work (like Mike Diana's crazy stuff). Some of the stuff Fantagraphics publishes is definitely hippy... Robert Crumb, Sophie Crumb, Peter Bagge, et al, but none of the stuff I mentioned qualifies imo. Anyway, I read a lot of stuff during this period: Bone, Scud: the Disposable Assassin, From Hell, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The Replacement God, Maus, Stuck Rubber Baby, Frank, Eightball, ACME Novelty Library (which was primarily about Quimby the Mouse and Jimmy Corrigan, and this strange lonely robot at the time), Love and Rockets, Schizo, Goodbye Chunky Rice, Hicksville, The Spirit, Minimum Wage, Naughty Bits, Battle Angel Alita, Weasel, Dan and Larry, Knights of the Dinner Table, Spawn, The Savage Dragon (speaking of superhero comics I'd wholeheartedly endorse, TSD is one of them), and even Elfquest (some hawt chick in college suggested it to me.. it's awful btw). Dozens of other titles. I haven't bought a new comic in several years. When I decided to stop buying them it was because I thought if I read them less I'd draw them more, but it doesn't seem to have worked that way. BW got in the way. lol. oh wellz. | ||
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