Getting into comics/graphic novels

[sevenarms]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I'm on volume 12 of 100 bullets now and have slowed down because of Amazon taking forever to ship and being caught up with Game of Thrones.

Have to agree on the covers by Johnson. Damn so many of those would make beautiful art prints to frame and hang on a wall.

I'm going to have to pick up Red Son and Planetary.

Has anyone read Astro City? How about any of the Moore books from his ABC line? Top 10, Tom Strong, there was one other one too I think.

Once I finish renovating my basement that's exactly what I plan to do. Already have a couple picked out and ready to frame. Dave Johnson did the covers for Red Son as well. He mixes his style with the style of Soviet Propaganda posters. Pretty awesome stuff.

Highly recommend Planetary. It pretty much got me back into comic books/graphic novels altogether.

[sevenarms]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I had a buddy text me last night that he just read Walking dead. He wanted a quick list of good stuff to read.

If he follows my list he's gonna be at least $500 poorer. But richer in that he'll get to read some awesome comics.

You should tell him to check out the library. It's a great start for getting into comics and they have the majority of the books listed in this thread. Read it from there and if it's a winner, buy it for the collection.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by sevenarms

Once I finish renovating my basement that's exactly what I plan to do. Already have a couple picked out and ready to frame. Dave Johnson did the covers for Red Son as well. He mixes his style with the style of Soviet Propaganda posters. Pretty awesome stuff.

Highly recommend Planetary. It pretty much got me back into comic books/graphic novels altogether.

Curious, where did you get the prints? Comic book stores? Order online? Some other method?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I'm half way thru Darwdevil:Born Again. All I can say is WOW!

One o my favorite graphic novels of all time is batman year one and this is right up there. Same creative team.

Absolute must read for any comic fan. 10/10 so far. Far superior to The Man Without Fear tpb IMO.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Oh and I just read that a new DD movie is in the works base on the Born Again storyline

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Time for my semi annual bump to this thread.

I read Y The Last Man and thought it was great. The ending seemed a tad...can't describe it right. Abrupt might be the best way word. It seemed to just end all of a sudden, although the epilogue was a nice touch. Overall though it was a fantastic series.

I mostly enjoyed the first book of Fables. The ending was downright stupid though, but that seems to be the common consensus on line and most agree it gets better as the series progresses. Only problem I have going forward is that it is ongoing. I prefer self contained stories, even if they are 100 issues long like 100 Bullets.

Speaking of which, I finally got around to finishing it. Man what a masterpiece. I really need to start from the beginning though. Get a better idea as to how the story lines developed. So many different characters with inter-connecting backgrounds and story lines etc.

[3 Justin 3]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Time for my semi annual bump to this thread.

I read Y The Last Man and thought it was great. The ending seemed a tad...can't describe it right. Abrupt might be the best way word. It seemed to just end all of a sudden, although the epilogue was a nice touch. Overall though it was a fantastic series.

I mostly enjoyed the first book of Fables. The ending was downright stupid though, but that seems to be the common consensus on line and most agree it gets better as the series progresses. Only problem I have going forward is that it is ongoing. I prefer self contained stories, even if they are 100 issues long like 100 Bullets.

Speaking of which, I finally got around to finishing it. Man what a masterpiece. I really need to start from the beginning though. Get a better idea as to how the story lines developed. So many different characters with inter-connecting backgrounds and story lines etc.

The first Fables book was good, but rather predictable. The series gets much better though. I've finished book 10 and every time I read one I have to get the next. I haven't been able to go further because my funds dried up, but now that I am getting out of debt again I will continue to finish the series.

I've heard Y the Last Man is really good, but again I had no money so I never got into it. Would like to read 100 Bullets as well.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Been a while since this has been updated. With it being almost a month since the Calgary Expo I've had a chance to go through some of the stuff I've bought.

After spending most of the last year or two focusing on Fables, 100 Bullets and Y the Last Man, I've once again resumed my interest in superhero comics. It always seems to swing like a pendulum going back and forth between superhero and other stuff (usually Vertigo).

Although I'm partial to Marvel my goal over the last decade or so has been to collect and read all of the classics, Marvel or DC. Dark Phx Saga, Days of Future Past, Batman Year One, Death of Gwen Stacy all that kind of stuff. I kind of got away from that and focused on more recent stuff like All-Star Superman, Ultimates, Old Man Logan etc. I really looked at what kind of classic stories I could go for, stuff from the 70s-90s. I ended up buying some new stuff too but as you'll see it is almost all Marvel, superheroes and from pre-2000.

And with all the focus on the Avengers recently I noticed that I had very little in the way of Avengers, Cap, Thor, FF, Iron Man.

Well in the last month I kinda went off the deep end when it comes to buying. Luckily most of it was purchased for $15 or less because there were some great deals at the Expo. Really trying to go for superhero stuff with solid reviews, new or old, but trying to fill in some of the gaps of the all time classic storylines at the same time.

Anyway, here is a pretty damn big list of stuff I've bought recently and what I think of what I've read so far. All of my letter grades are based on value and by that I mean enjoyability vs cost.

Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? - This is often referred to as one of the all time great Supes stories and I thought it was good but nothing spectacular. Superman for All Seasons blows this outta the water. I'd say A-/B+.

Spiderman Back in Black (Collecting Amazing Spider-Man #539-543, and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #17-23 and Annual #1) - Big ol' meh for this one. Despite most of this being written by J. Michael Straczynski and Peter David, I thought the stories were only so-so. I'd give it a C and even then that's considering it was rather inexpensive. Lots of reading but very little in the way of page turning interest.

Peter Parker, Spiderman: Back in Black (Collecting Sensational Spider-Man #35-40 and Annual #1, Spider-Man Family #1-2, Spider-Man: Back in Black Handbook and Marvel Spotlight: Spider-Man Back in Black) - Most interesting thing here is that it should have been the other volume that was good and instead it was this one. Absolutely loved the Eddie Brock story in this one. Haven't read a whole ton of Venom stories but this one was by far the best of the bunch. And the crazy thing is that there is hardly any action. The back up stories are alright. Absolutely loved the art in SM Family. Complaints online that this book is padded by stupid Marvel Handbook crap are accurate. Don't pay $30 for this. I'm fairly certain I paid about $15 for it at the Comic Expo. B+, If I'd paid the $30 or whatever it costs normally I'd cay C- but that's because there is so much filler.

Fantastic Four: Best of the FF Vol 1 - this was another discount book from the Expo. Figured it was worth the $5 or $10 I paid for it considering I have exactly zero FF in my collection. Has a bunch of single issue stories from FF #1 all the way to some very recent stuff. It made me realize that I have virtually no Stan Lee written stuff in my collection. It also made me realize why. He's a legend but if FF #1 is any indication his writing was not very strong. I know it isn't fair to judge his whole career on one issue, I'm just saying that's how I feel based on that single issue. Interesting and creative but not the kind of thing I'd want to drop big bucks on. B-. Some good stories, a few outright classics and some filler. Nice find for the right price as an intro.

New Avengers: Breakout - This is the first run by Bendis and Finch. Love the artwork, don't mind the roster, pretty typical superhero stuff. Enjoyed it but wouldn't necessarily recommend it. B- Not fantastic, not crap.


There are a bunch more but I don't have time. That'll do for now.

[Bertuzzied]

DMZ by Vertigo.

[Coys1882]

Please - everyone - try out Saga. The artist is a local gal named Fiona Staples and her art is fantastic. Brian K Vaughn is the writer and the story is excellent!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saga_(comics)

Currently at issue #3 so it's easy to get caught up.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

DMZ by Vertigo.

great shout! really good book.

[Coys1882]

Anyone read PIGS? I've read a couple and didn't mind it.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

DMZ by Vertigo.

Well at least I know what my next big Vertigo interest will be. In time. I've got about 15 tpb's to burnt through first.

Coys I read the wiki page on Saga and the premise sounds cool. Sadly I can't be bothered to buy individual issues but I may break down and buy a few issues. Definitely worth a look.

[Bertuzzied]

Northlanders by Vertigo is really good too. It's more of a collection of short stories about vikings though. Still pretty awesome read.

[mac_82]

Recently picked up a few books. Batman Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, some Star Wars Legacy, Marvel Siege, and Ultimate Avengers. Also re-reading Scott Pilgrim.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Coys I read the wiki page on Saga and the premise sounds cool. Sadly I can't be bothered to buy individual issues but I may break down and buy a few issues. Definitely worth a look.

Saga #1 just went for a 5th printing which is pretty good news considering it isn't a DC/Marvel print.

I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[Coys1882]

I read some previews of a new book called Hardcore which I found really interesting. I checked out the first issue and really enjoyed it. Maybe it will interest some of you?

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...eview&id=12408

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Few new updates.

I got about halfway done the FF best of and found that I was not lost, but interested in filling in some of the gaps so I ended up buying one of the FF Masterworks Lee and Kirby which is FF vol 1 41-50 and contains the original appearance of the Silver Surfer, Galactus and (I'm pretty sure) the Inhumans.

Then I picked up FF vol 1 241-250 which is all by John Byrne and contains probably the 2nd most famous Galactus story.

So although I've already graded FF Best Of above I won't do a full review again but I'll say that it was just alright and noticed that pretty much every story save one (I'll get to that in a second) was really more about the Thing than the entire group. All the best ones were about him being a tragic figure than about the whole group.

The other major thing that I've already touched on is that I just don't think Stan Lee is a very good writer. Well that's not fair, let me rephrase, I love the characters he created and his ideas but I found his writing to be somewhat tedious to get through because it was so elementary. It's just really cheesy. I know, I know it was written in the late 60s early 70s but still I just couldn't really get into it.

John Byrne's stuff was better but not that much better. His stories weren't as cheesily written but he's still a bit too wordy for me.

Special shout out to FF 267 (? I think) called One Small Loss (again I'm going off of memory). The one with the major tragedy for the FF. What a great story. Even though its probably 30 years old I won't spoil it in case anyone picks it up but it has a great twist ending that I didn't see coming. I thought it was going to be a typical superhero story and then bam they hit you with it.

I'd give the FF 41-50 a B-/C+ and that is mostly just because of all the classic characters introduced. I'd give the John Byrne run of 241-250 a B/B-.

I also read the Infinity Gauntlet. I was a bit of a letdown because I'd heard good things about it. The major problem I had with it is that Thanos is almost too powerful in the story that they didn't know how to handle him. He ends up being so powerful that there isn't a lot of meaningful battle because he can basically just snap his fingers. Then the plot device they use to make it more interesting is a little bit silly.

I actually liked the ending which helped explain better why Thanos didn't easily wipe the floor with them.

Infinity Gauntlet gets a B-.

I've now got another dozen or so Marvel superhero comics ranging from 90s Cap by Waid/Garney to some relatively new Thor stuff. I'll post reviews of those books as I get through them.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Update!

Finished the mark waid Ron garney cap run. Man without a Country and the story before that. 446-454 or something like that. It was ok. Typical comic book fare.

Then I got onto Avengers Assemble. The post heroes reborn Busiek and Perez start to their run it was good but not amazing. Preferred Avengers Forever.


So I was good with superhero comics for a bit and decided to continue Fables. I picked up Vol 8- which I think I bought at the expo from Bertuzzied - it's called Wolves.

Goddamn was it good. Swear to god I just teared up. Issue 50 was beyond what I can say. So good.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Using tapatalk. Sorry about the ####ty grammar.