BenjaminBirdie
Banned
Wonderful thread, Zombine!!
Just add Drifter and you're SET!
Just add Drifter and you're SET!
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The Comic Book Start Up Guide (The Big Thread of Comic Q&A)
- Thread starter Zombine
- Start date
- Status
Tyrant Rave
Banned
All of that Vertigo and no Doom Patrol...
Good list!
Are there any good collected editions for the Cass stuff? Or would Comixology be the best route?
Tragicomedy
Member
I don't even know what that is. To Google I go!
Those Cass Cain trades are likely way out of print. CMX has the whole run available in HD.
DUFFMCWALIN
Member
Just got the kindle 7 on that deal this week and I'm looking to start a digital collection. Awesome thread.
Great work Zombine! I know you're going to get hounded with people suggesting comics to add to the front page, but what the hell.
Stray Bullets is the most consistent, emotional, grounded, well-paced, satisfying comic I've had the pleasure of reading. Each issue is it's own arc that connects to a larger narrative as a whole. As the title implies, it's main concern is how violence has a rippling effect with dire consequences, many times to those who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The best part is you can get 41 issues in an awesome softcover collection for less than a dollar an issue.http://www.instocktrades.com/TP/Image/STRAY-BULLETS-UBER-ALLES-ED-TP-(MR)/JAN140530
Or just buy the first volume if you don't trust me. It's the most overlooked book on the shelves. I can't say it's underrated because I've yet to meet someone who has read it and doesn't love it. Enjoy!
Stray Bullets is the most consistent, emotional, grounded, well-paced, satisfying comic I've had the pleasure of reading. Each issue is it's own arc that connects to a larger narrative as a whole. As the title implies, it's main concern is how violence has a rippling effect with dire consequences, many times to those who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The best part is you can get 41 issues in an awesome softcover collection for less than a dollar an issue.http://www.instocktrades.com/TP/Image/STRAY-BULLETS-UBER-ALLES-ED-TP-(MR)/JAN140530
Or just buy the first volume if you don't trust me. It's the most overlooked book on the shelves. I can't say it's underrated because I've yet to meet someone who has read it and doesn't love it. Enjoy!
thanks, that sorted some of them, but not the issue i wanted to read - guess i'll finish the analogue version of that one then move to the digital. Maybe re-installing the app might help, it seems to be stuck in a constant "unable to download pages" error with that issue now :/
Stray will be added to the list. I love it.
Tyrant Rave
Banned
Morrison at his finest. It's fantastic.
Figures. Hopefully they run a sale for me.
I think this is the next series that the ComicsGAF Book Club will be doing. I think they're waiting for ViewtifulJC to get off his ban? Not sure what's going on with that.
bengraven
Member
Thanks a lot for the responses, guys! I have read the first two tpb of Snyder and Capullo's Batman, so I might just continue there, but I definitely want to read at least the new Batgirl (though now tempted to read the Cassandra Cain one mentioned earlier), the original, beautifully illustrated Batwoman issues, and probably Birds of Prey.
Is Catwoman worth it? I love the character and if DC had it's own Unlimited I think I'd just start years ago when she first took on the black suit and goggles and gave up the purple cat suit.
Is Catwoman worth it? I love the character and if DC had it's own Unlimited I think I'd just start years ago when she first took on the black suit and goggles and gave up the purple cat suit.
KoruptData
Member
For those that see the trailer for Batman v Superman and wonder why they are fighting and want to see where that originates from. Here are some recommendations to see how the two characters work together and not together.
JLA: Tower of Babel - see how big of a paranoid dick Batman is! I love him for it though.
Kingdom Come - Great Superman/Batman dynamic that is sure to be a subconscious influence on the movie.
New Frontier Deluxe Edition - Great Justice League formation story.
Probably the most heavily influenced book is of course Frank Millers Dark Knight Returns. This book is essential Batman reading. You may not like it but have to respect it.
Those are the one on the top of my head. Please add more if you can think of them.
JLA: Tower of Babel - see how big of a paranoid dick Batman is! I love him for it though.
Kingdom Come - Great Superman/Batman dynamic that is sure to be a subconscious influence on the movie.
New Frontier Deluxe Edition - Great Justice League formation story.
Probably the most heavily influenced book is of course Frank Millers Dark Knight Returns. This book is essential Batman reading. You may not like it but have to respect it.
Those are the one on the top of my head. Please add more if you can think of them.
I'm going to a local store that has prices equivalent to instocktrades today, and I wanted to ask you guys what you thought of my shopping list before I got them. I may not be able to get them all today, but I don't know what order I should go in.
-Watchmen
-The Manhattan Projects
-The Dark Knight Returns
-Saga
-The Wicked + the Divine
-Court of Owls
I can probably only get 2-3 books today, so which should I start with?
-Watchmen
-The Manhattan Projects
-The Dark Knight Returns
-Saga
-The Wicked + the Divine
-Court of Owls
I can probably only get 2-3 books today, so which should I start with?
The Cretan
Member
I liked Ultimate Spider-Man and Invicible. Is there any comic book like these but without the superhero element? I mean something with a young adult protagonist, kinda light-hearted and dealing with young adult problems.
Now there's a trend I fully support.
I'm just speculating on sales, but New 52 started out with a bang and then as soon as they started with the crossovers sales dropped significantly.
Marvel should follow suit but they won't. Marvel crossovers constantly get dumped on for being lousy, but they keep going from event to event because they sell. If a crossover is crappy, STOP BUYING IT !!!!.
Friggin' industry sometimes!
OK. I'm alright now. I just need to breathe.
Tyrant Rave
Banned
I'm the one person who hasn't read Saga, but it gets so much love that it seems like the obvious choice.
After that I'd say TDKR just because it is a rather iconic book that is worth reading eventually. From there, you can go with whatever you want. WicDiv seems like a safe bet since it's its own thing and Snyder's Batman gets a ton of love so it's worth checking out too. I love Watchmen but I don't think it's something you really have to read, especially if you're still getting into the medium.
Awesome, thanks! That's about the order I was thinking. I'll grab the first volume of Saga, TDKR and the first volume of WicDiv. I may grab the first Manhattan Projects book too, since the concept sounds fascinating.
I'll get Court of Owls once I finish those and I guess I'll save Watchmen for a bit later (I know I'll read it eventually, but I'm not in any rush).
Manhattan Projects! It's so good and so criminally underappreciated.
My love letter to the series from last year -
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=102731324
DUFFMCWALIN
Member
I was looking at transmetropolitan on comixology and it was $3 more for the first volume than on Amazon. Why would I not just buy straight from Amazon? Ya its nice having it organized in the app but it isn't that big of a deal.
Secret Wars is gonna be written by Hickman though....it can't possibly be worse than Axis, which is the worst event I have ever read.
Amazon's stuff isn't as high resolution as CMX. The CMX HD stuff isn't just a gimmick, their comics are incredible looking.
More_Badass
Member
I find that sometimes it's cheaper to buy individual issues than buying a volume on Comixology. For example, Black Science Volume 2 is $14.99. Issues #7 through #11, the ones in that volume, come out to $9.95.
Image vol1's are almost always $9.99 and vol2's are $14.99.
The secret is the price drops on the individual Image issues - after a month, they drop in price by a dollar.
DUFFMCWALIN
Member
Ok thanks everyone. I guess I'll probably just stick with CMX unless there is a huge price difference.
If you're gonna check out modern Batman, replace Night of the Owls with Court of Owls and City of Owls.
Night of the Owls captures just one snippet of that story as it spreads throughout all the Bat-books, but it doesn't cover the whole arc in the actual Batman solo series.
No, there are other cool ones. Gotham by Midnight is neat. Batman and Robin has been cool. Batwoman was great under J.H. Williams (then it went to shit after he left). Gail Simone's Batgirl was interesting (the new creative team have done some interesting work despite a pretty egregious misstep). Grayson has been neat. Batman Eternal has been an interesting broader reaching Bat-Family book, which eventually leads into the reinvented Catwoman by Genevieve Valentine.
Snyder's Batman is still the best of the bunch and you can stick with just that, but these are worth investigating if you're interested.
Axis was done by Remender. Thats another writer around Hickman level.
Tyrant Rave
Banned
I think that guide is a little too event-focused personally. Personally, I think most Marvel events are kind of bland.
My best advice to check out some new series from Marvel NOW. It takes place just after Avengers Vs X-Men and serves as a starting point for new readers. Basically every big series (Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, etc.) relaunches there with issue #1 and are very newbie friendly.
For general books to check out, my go-to main three for anyone are Hawkeye by Matt Fraction, Superior Foes of Spider-Man by Steve Lieber, and Daredevil by Mark Waid. All feature great writing and awesome artwork. They're all self-contained as well.
I wouldn't say so, no... I mean that's insanely helpful if you really wanna dive deep into every single big story and crazy continuity or whatever, but I wouldn't call that a starting point.
I would say start with afew characters/solo books that are well regarded and go from there, transition into bigger team books and crossovers after.
Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, the current Ms. Marvel, Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist, Ed Brubaker's Captain America, Silk, Ant-Man by Nick Spencer...
Tragicomedy
Member
No, it is not. Marvel events almost always end up being cheap cash grabs with zero lasting impact. For every five major events, one will be decent. For every ten, one will be legitimately good. The only events I can universally recommend involve cosmic Marvel...start with Annihilation.
You are far better off finding characters you enjoy and hitting it from that angle. In my case, my favorite Marvel characters are Daredevil, the Punisher, and Iron Fist. I'm a sucker for the street level vigilante types. From there, you find certain runs that are universally recommended and check them out. You'll get a feel for which authors you like and dislike, and that makes it easy to narrow down your focus. In Daredevil's case, basically everything post-Frank Miller is amazing (with the exception of Diggle and the terrible Shadowland event). For Frank Castle, Garth Ennis is your man. For Iron Fist, the Matt Fraction/Ed Brubaker run is the bee's knees.
Megatron
Member
I would call everything after daredevil 300 til Karl Kessel's run average at best, personally. I wish Nocenti and kessel's runs would be collected
Tragicomedy
Member
I just saw the Nocenti stuff added on Marvel Unlimited. Hell, the first comic I ever read was a Nocenti book.
I'm so happy right now.
OP should add Scribd and Comicsfix as other subscription-based digital comics providers. Scribd has a great selection of Valiant, IDW, and Dynamite if anybody is interested into alternate shared super-universes or licensed comics. I only wish Image could be on one of these sites as well, or offer their own service.
Glad someone mentioned Annihilation. I started reading this on Marvel Unlimited, and it reads like Starship Troopers in the cosmic Marvel universe. I don't see anything at all wrong with that.
Tragicomedy
Member
Completely different era Nocenti we're talking about. 1980s Nocenti was very good. Modern day Nocenti is hot garbage. Even Catwoman stans (*ahem*Messi*ahem) had to dump her book.
Gentle Rodriguez
Member
Can someone help me out? I read the entire OT but maybe some of you can help me narrow down what I should start out on. Ever since Marvel started pumping out these movies(CA, IM, etc) I've gotten the urge to get into comic books as there's a lot of interesting stuff that I don't get to see in the movies, also movies don't allow you a lot of time to get to know a character as well as a comic because they're only 1.5-2.5 hours long. Obviously, it's pretty scary to get into comics as there's just so many of them, that's where I need you guys. Only thing I can do is give a list of characters I like(or find interesting) and hope someone can point me in the right direction. I have a strong preference for Marvel, and I'm a huge sucker for origin stories(especially if I'm unfamiliar with a character).
Characters that I like(I'll put a * next to characters I have limited knowledge of but seem interesting considering their backstories and premise):
Spider-Man
Storm(X-Men)*
Doctor Doom*(there was the F4 movie but honestly that made me want to never check out anything F4 more than anything)
Black Panther*
Thanos
Jean Grey*
Deathstroke*
Batman
Deadpool*(I have no idea what to expect from this though, might be a little too clowny for me)
I think that's it? That's less than I thought, but keep in mind I omitted several characters that seem cool but I know literally nothing about, examples being Spider Woman, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel.
Other general stuff I like:
Origin stories
Strong female leads
Dark/depressing stuff(though I don't mind the opposite)
So that's about it, any suggestions? Also, just because a character isn't on my list doesn't mean I don't want to read about them, I don't have any strong dislikes, I have zero knowledge about a huge amount of characters. Thanks in advance.
Characters that I like(I'll put a * next to characters I have limited knowledge of but seem interesting considering their backstories and premise):
Spider-Man
Storm(X-Men)*
Doctor Doom*(there was the F4 movie but honestly that made me want to never check out anything F4 more than anything)
Black Panther*
Thanos
Jean Grey*
Deathstroke*
Batman
Deadpool*(I have no idea what to expect from this though, might be a little too clowny for me)
I think that's it? That's less than I thought, but keep in mind I omitted several characters that seem cool but I know literally nothing about, examples being Spider Woman, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel.
Other general stuff I like:
Origin stories
Strong female leads
Dark/depressing stuff(though I don't mind the opposite)
So that's about it, any suggestions? Also, just because a character isn't on my list doesn't mean I don't want to read about them, I don't have any strong dislikes, I have zero knowledge about a huge amount of characters. Thanks in advance.
Early Spider-Man stuff is the best, early Stan Lee or the black suit era. Tons of classic stories from that time. Everything after 1993 pretty much sucks though...just all nonsense.
For Deathstroke you can check out The Judas Contract and Trial of the Terminator, all are Teen Titans books, but Deathstroke is in them. Also Deathstroke #1 by Marv Wolfman offers his origin there, it's lame though, just a ripoff of Captain America (they probably retconned it though)
Spider-Woman and Ms.Marvel's comics are for the most part are really terrible. I'm talking about Spider-Woman's first series and Brian Reed's run of Ms.Marvel, both are quite horrendous (both are 50 issues long). Just my opinion. The new Captain Marvel series (starring Carol Danvers) seems a little better, but I read the first few issues and they kinda sucked too.
The muslim Ms.Marvel is really good, that's a no-brainer. The John Bryne She-Hulk is just lame, and she's really annoying. Haven't read her newer stuff.
The best female-led comics to me is Batgirl and Birds of Prey easily. Peter David and Loeb's Supergirl are also retardedly entertaining, I recommend those as well.
Schweinehund
Member
Deathstroke's current ongoing is moving into some interesting territory.
Besides Judas Contract and a cameo in Identity Crisis I can't think of any stories I've read where he's been a big deal.
Besides Judas Contract and a cameo in Identity Crisis I can't think of any stories I've read where he's been a big deal.
Tyrant Rave
Banned
If you like Hawkeye try Immortal Iron Fist, Superior Foes of Spider-Man, and Daredevil by Mark Waid.
The Silver
Member
There's one thing I hated about comics when I started on Marvel Unlimited was how some events spanned multiple books.
Damn it pissed me off reading some X-Men event or whatever spread across 4 titles with different art and writers and I'd have to go search for the books and blah. Just a dumb unnecessary barrier.
thank god they seemed to have stopped doing that.
Damn it pissed me off reading some X-Men event or whatever spread across 4 titles with different art and writers and I'd have to go search for the books and blah. Just a dumb unnecessary barrier.
thank god they seemed to have stopped doing that.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
Yeah, these are all great.
Not the quoted poster, but thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking about getting into some Iron Fist and Daredevil.
Calcium
Banned
You bought some excellent books there. Enjoy!
Good fucking job. Holy crap. I would feel the same way.
Good shit. You can really start with any of those.
- Status