Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Comic Books >

Tell Me What To Read

02:52 / 12.03.04

OK, I'll admit it, this thread is here mainly so I have something to read that doesn't involve the spoilers for NXM #154. I'm trying to keep myself pure for prom night.

So I've been out of touch with comics for a while, although they were my life and blood for several years (I came to college in NYC specifically in the hopes of working for one of the Big Two in a writing/editing capacity, though at some point that migrated over to music business and now that's in doubt but anyway). NXM was my only monthly comic for the last couple of years, but regular visits to the shop have had me picking up random things now and then, and now I'd like to put my whole foot back in the water instead of just my toes. What are your suggestions for the best comics currently running? I'm open to anything, really; monthly or rarely, any genre, blah blah blah. The other alternative is to just go around getting TPBs I want, and I've got a good idea of what I want in that sense, but I'd like the pleasure of following something regularly, at least for a short while. So? Point me at something and tell me why it's hot...

03:11 / 12.03.04

This old thread may be a good place to start.

03:41 / 12.03.04

Thanks, Bio -- I should stress I'm not a "newbie" in the traditional sense though, I've done most of my canonical reading already. I'm mainly curious to find out about series that have started in the last two or three years that I might not have gotten clued in to.

I am following OPTIC NERVE, BERLIN, and (ha) ATLAS when issues come out (Though I dunno if ATLAS counts, since there was only one issue and that was how many years ago? Fuggin' Horrocks), if that helps. Should I just be saving my money and going out to read all those LOVE & ROCKETS trades I haven't gone through, or is there modern stuff that's being continuously published that I should check out? That's mainly what I'm asking. I've heard people talk about series I know little about, like THE LOSERS, SLEEPER, etc., and it's just reminded me that any number of books worth looking at might have started up in my absence, and I didn't really know how to find out what they might be.

D Terminator XXXIII

03:54 / 12.03.04

Human Target. So surprisingly good that you'd be, erm, surprised too.

Ex Machina looks promising as well - and if you have a hard time getting convinced of that, then check out the first couple of tps from the Starman series. Essential, I fink.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

04:37 / 12.03.04

In an odd way, you might like "Gotham Central" which tells police procedural tales of the cops in Gotham City. It has great art, stories that read like 50's crime novels and got me all excited about the IDEA of Batman again by not having him show up in the comic much.

No, it's not like Morrison's X-Men, but what could be, really?

04:58 / 12.03.04

SLEEPER!!!

Spy thriller. It is a must read. Great characters, intriguing stories, fantastic art, and you never know what's going to happen next. I can't reccommend it more highly.

STRAY BULLETS

Defies genre, but crime drama fits best/most often. Any Morrison fan will love Amy Racecar. This one is brutal, hilarious, disturbing, exciting - what a ride. Talk about sublime. These days it comes out once a year, but most of it is collected and ready to be enjoyed, so do yourself a huge favor and pick it up.

Y: THE LAST MAN

Thriller/Sci-fi action/Drama. This one is loads of fun. Lots of twists and turns and entirely unpredictable.

FANTASTIC FOUR

Superhero funnybook. Mark Waid has been on a role with this title since Dr. Doom returned in "Unthinkable". It's great fun for when you really want some superhero fantasy adventure.

06:33 / 12.03.04

Another shout out for human target and stray bullets but if you get a chance check out paul grist's stuff - both his cop comic kane and his superhero comic jack staff have just been released through image and they are well worth the money...

Scrubb is on a downward spiral

07:34 / 12.03.04

Gotham Central seconded. Lovely lovely art and covers. There should be a new TBP of that out soon which would be a good starting point as the first issue sets it all up really well.

Two new F4 titles are proving to be pretty good: 4, where they lose their finances, buildings etc and have to survive beyond being professional superheros; and Ultimate Fantastic Four, which does what it says on the tin.

Have also heard good things of H-E-R-O but haven't had time yet to check it out.

Ooh, ooh, and Forlorn Funnies by Paul Hornschemeier (collected as Mother Come Home) is just beautiful.

foot long subbacultcha

07:43 / 12.03.04

I've gone off HERO, not as a premise, but because the writing on it makes very little sense to me. Shame.

I'll second Y the Last Man, Sleeper and Human Target. Human Target has been perfect so far.

I'll also second Gotham Central - great series.
I'll also also give a mention to Fallen Angel. Anyone else enjoying this one?

On the indy front I discovered a little gem recently called Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom. It's a supernatural/family/school friends thing.

08:48 / 12.03.04

Sticking well into the mainstream...

The entire Wildstorm line (with the exception of the Authority):

Wildcats 3.0 - even when it's bad, it's good. When it's good, it's... something else entirely.
Sleeper - nasty as you want it to be.
Stormwatch: Team Achilles - at last, a comics writer who understands how the military works, and isn't afraid to get political.

Fables - consistently excellent.

Lucifer - difficult to jump on to, but buy the first couple of trades and you should get the picture. Again, consistently excellent, although it has gotten a bit too epic for its own good.

Supreme Power - sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow but good for you. Now is probably a good time to start picking it up.

Ah, there's a bunch of other stuff that I don't buy, but I would if I had a pocketful of cash. That's all folks.

The Natural Way

12:44 / 12.03.04

Listen to me: ALL the best people here love Stray Bullets.

But, otherwise, if yr not familiar with enough Clowes and Ware: pick 'em up. Errr....Joe Sacco....he's good. Jim Woodring's 'Frank'..... 'Blankets' - that's nice... Japanese horror stuff like 'Spiral' and 'Hellbaby' are quite cool (or so I hear, but I've yet to do nicking off Boboss or Celeb and can't confirm total goodness yet).

14:32 / 12.03.04

get THE FILTH trade and SEA GUY #1 [of 3], both due May from Vertigo. it's all Morrison and it's good. did you get the whole INVISIBLES series? it's all collected in trades now. you should get your hands on Milligan/Allred's X-FOECE/X-TATIX [Marvel]; it's still going and there are trades.

hm, get Ellis' GLOBAL FREQUENCY - WORLD ABLAZE TP [Wildstorm] as well, you might get a kick out of it. also CHANNEL ZERO and any other Brian Wood AiT/PlanetLar stuff [DEMO for another take on mutant kids etc] if you happen to like CZ.

14:44 / 12.03.04

No one can recommend Stray Bullets enough my friend.

I think it starts off pretty nicely and reads fine until the end of the first arc. After that it seemed that Lapham lost his mind and decided to do anything and everything in the book and try all sorts of narrative experiments and it was clear that he wasn't going to be kind to any of his characters.

He's the king of cruel endings. If initially it doesn't suck you in and you think that the comic is overhyped just hang on.

14:49 / 12.03.04

Strangehaven.

Collected as Book 1 "Arcadia" and Book 2 "Brotherhood" and three singles issues out since. Millidge seems to take somewhere between a year and two to put out an issue now but someday it will be collected into four books.

I've never seen Twin Peaks but it's described as Twin Peaks meets the Prisoner (which I've never seen either).

The story of a young man named Alex who after an accident finds himself in Strangehaven a lovely small English village where everyone has a secret and leaving may be impossible. I really don't want to spoil the plot but this one will have you by the throat very early on.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:56 / 12.03.04

Bendis & Maleev's ongoing run on Daredevil is out of control, if that reccommendation of Gotham Central strikes your fancy. It's also mad consistent, schedule-wise.

Also, 100 Bullets? So best. It sometimes gets a little veery, but then a storyline like the latest one ends, and ties so much together and hints at so much to come that you realize, OMFG, this comic is the best.

Also, there's nothing quite like THB out there.

Nowhere near monthly, but have you read Hellboy?

15:37 / 12.03.04

The Walking Dead is a relatively new series (number 4 or so) written by Robert Kirkman. The artist is Tony Moore and his black & white art is excellent. As the name suggests it is about a zombie apocalypse, but the author's say they are aiming for more of a survival horror game type feel than a splatterpunk zombie flck, though those aspects are of course there.
I also recommend Mark Waid's Fantastic Four title, he seems to be dealing with the characters in a really interesting way, with plenty of character development, and he seems to have got the essence of the Fantastic Four down pat.

16:07 / 12.03.04

I seriously forced myself to cut down to the essentials late last year...my list of must reads is fairly short one:

Supreme Power
Ultimate Spider-Man
Y The Last Man

Get in on these these are really good. Supreme Power just got TP of the first 6 issues. Get it!

If you never read Preacher start up on that! Good stuff.
and check out Bendis run of Daredevil. Get the TPS save yourself some money.

16:08 / 12.03.04

4, where they lose their finances, buildings etc and have to survive beyond being professional superheros

WHY?! Why do people always think this kind of shit is a good idea?

17:09 / 12.03.04

I just finished the first Losers trade--great stuff, and very reasonably priced to boot ($9.95, just a little over half the price of the six issues collected therein--first evidence of manga's success driving down the price of American comics? let's hope).

And yes, Hellboy, on the off chance you haven't picked that one up already. Not actually a monthly, it comes out as one-shots, miniseries, and short pieces in anthology books, all eventually collected in trade paperbacks. Cheap to try out at the moment, too: one of the better Hellboy short stories is coming out in a twenty-five cent edition within the next few weeks to drum up interest in the movie.

I'll also second No-Girl's Fantastic Four recommendation--first "superhero funnybook" I've gotten into in years (not counting New X-Men, which, you know). First two trades are already out, third on the way.

Hm, I'm recommending all trades? That wasn't the question, was it... I suppose I'm mainly a trade guy these days. NXM 154 will likely be my last monthly comic for quite some time, aside from Seaguy and the other upcoming Morrison minis.

17:18 / 12.03.04

"Rex Mundi". Good alternative world/conspiracy theory/pulp fiction/ murder mystery with a twist. The first trade, "Guardians of the Temple" is out and you should be able to find the most recent issues pretty easily (The trade covers #0-5, 6-8 are still around).

I'll add to the chorus of support for "Hellboy". Great great stuff. "The Chained Coffin & Others" (Vol.3) is a personal all-time favourite.

Warren Ellis' "Transmetropolitan" is also pretty damn good. The final trade (Vol.10) is coming out in May.

20:06 / 12.03.04

Y the last Man-get the last three issues pick up the stray tpb
Supreme Power-Catch up by reading the tpb
Wildcats 3.0-Corporate Superheroics. the wolverine analog is crippled, superman runs a corporation, and a fiesty female amazon is killing off all of the people she trained

03:33 / 13.03.04

Thanks guys. I've read all of INVISIBLES (my favorite comic evah, how could it not be once you read it?) and TRANSMET, a lot of Ware & Clowes, etc. etc. And of course I've read THE FILTH and am eagerly looking forward to SEAGUY. Like I said, I really am a hardcore comics fan, I've just gotten out of the slipstream; Morrison is the only writer I've consistently followed since 2001.

I will be giving Y: THE LAST MAN and STRAY BULLETS a poke (I read the first couple issues of STRAY BULLETS when they were first released, but haven't checked back since), and probably SLEEPER and THE LOSERS as well. I read an article about STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES and its cover art, so maybe I'll pick up an issue of that. And yeah, I got a HELLBOY trade from my boyfriend for Christmas and it rocked. ULTIMATE FF? Maybe when (can you speak his name here?) Ellis comes aboard; seems like a decent jump-on point.

Any more suggestions? Keep 'em coming, I'd like to do my part to reanimate the sluggish American economy. (Though maybe I should wait until after the prez gets kicked out?)

09:42 / 13.03.04

If you want to check out stormwatch team achilles you can read the scripts here.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

14:19 / 13.03.04

Stray Bullets is great, but read it in book form. I tried it when it first came out as individual issues and just could not get into it, but bought the hardcover when it came out and was hooked. The abrupt changes from issue to issue made a LOT more sense that way.

I like Fallen Angel as well, and am kind of shocked that Peter David had a story that good in him, without ruining it with inside jokes and dumb gags. He is a writer who could be a lot better if he had an editor to sit on him and keep him from futzing the 4th wall all the time.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

14:36 / 13.03.04

"4, where they lose their finances, buildings etc and have to survive beyond being professional superheros

WHY?! Why do people always think this kind of shit is a good idea? "

When I heard it, it struck me that someone was taking an old Lee/Kirby story and trying to make an entire SERIES out of it. Next thing you know, they will do a series out of the old, "This is the end of the Fantastic Four" breakup story that they also would get resolved in two issues now takes 2 years.

19:32 / 13.03.04

my 2 cents:

There's a few things no one's metioned so I will.
Ya gotta read Alan Moore's 'Promethea', easily the most experimental mainstream comic going. Only 3 issues left but trades are available and relativly inexpensive. Catch up with it, believe me, it will be worth it.

The best non-NXM superhero comics out there are Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's 'Planetary' and Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's 'The Ultimates'. Find them, buy them.

I must also cast votes for 'Lucifer' and 'The Losers' from Vertigo.

I hope this was in some way helpful, if not, well . . . whatever.

09:30 / 17.03.04

"Ya gotta read Alan Moore's 'Promethea', easily the most experimental mainstream "
I'll second that. Promethea is a must read. I personally consider it Alan Moores finest contribution to the superhero genre, certainly its amongst the best books being published at the moment
Love Richard.

12:57 / 17.03.04

As I read this thread, I thought 'I bet doyoufeelloved would love Promethea.'

If you can forgive Moore's occasional clunkiness, and you love The Invisibles, I think you'd be down.

Keith, like a scientist

14:26 / 17.03.04

this is my sometimes embarrassing current pull list at the comic store (i need to cut some of this crap out of there):

ONGOING
Supreme Power - yeah, it's great.
Powers - will be sad to see this go, as it has been consistently amazing.
The Pulse - I loved Bendis' ALIAS series...such good writing and plotting. This is the tamer follow up.
Rising Stars - who knows if this other series by JMS (Supreme Power) will ever finish, but it's his magnum opus superhero tale...exceedingly good.
X-Statix - you just gotta read this. it's superheros on drugs.
Wildcats - yeah, like the poster said above, even when it's bad, it's good. i always feel completely fulfilled comics-wise after reading this.
Abadazad - no book from crossgen, but it seems like it will be cool. i love that fantasy stuff.
Sojourn - sucker for this dragons, arrows, swords fantasy story...
Captain America - sometimes bad, but mostly it's enjoyable. bachalo is currently drawing it and it's pretty nice looking.
Ultimates - yeah, totally.
Ultimate Fantastic Four - yeah, totally.
The Path - samurai thing. dunno...it's not really going anywhere. thinking of dropping this.
Fables - probably best book out there. always satisfying. a truely fantastic book.
Planetary - comic poems to old superhero themes. best way i can describe it.

LIMITED
Secret War - new big painted crossover series. OK. so far.
1602 - there is a whole thread about this book. sometimes embarrassingly silly, but sort of interesting in a big mainstream way.
Smax - love this mini series by Moore! So damn good.
TF/GI Joe (Dreamwave series) - almost over, but the best iteration of the big 80s revival. art by Jae Lee. YAY.
Global Frequency - consistently good series from ellis.
Wanted - so evil it's good.
Chosen - hahha. nice and creepy tale of the second coming.
Ministry of Space - who knows if it will ever finish.
Seaboy (forthcoming)
Vimanarma (forthcoming)
We3 (forthcoming)

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:57 / 17.03.04

Yeah, after reading 511 today, I'll third or fourth or whatever that Waid Fantastic Four reccomendo. Absolutely great stuff.

20:15 / 17.03.04

Hey all --

Just as an update: I hopped aboard Milligan's HUMAN TARGET with #7 today and loved the hell out of it. (I'd read Milligan's HT mini, and oh-man-it-rocks ENIGMA, but not the HT ongoing.) Am still grabbing issues of most of these suggestions as I see them.

I used to read PROMETHEA back when it first started, but I dropped it around #13 due to (a.) my retreat from comics as a whole and (b.) the extremely repetitive nature of the issues around that time -- Promethea gets long-winded lecture on some element of magic while a poster for a rock show at the Fillmore comes alive around her; meanwhile, the plot moves glacially. With the series ending, though, I'll probably pick up the trades, both to replace the issues I do have and to continue the story... it was good stuff, it just didn't work for me in a monthly format.

I've also been going through my comics collection to trim out stuff I no longer want, and am finding all kinds of lost gems, so I'll probably be checking out whatever the creators of the good stuff I've found are doing now -- for example, Keith Giffen. I found VEXT in one of my long-boxes and honestly, it was the first time I've laughed out loud reading a comic in over a year...

17:47 / 18.03.04

Smax - love this mini series by Moore! So damn good.

You know, Smax would've been on my list if only I could remember the last time it came out--it started what, last July? and issue 5 (5!) is nowhere in sight. It's really been the final straw for me when it comes to buying miniseries by the month--the (seemingly inevitable) increasing time between issues as any given miniseries continues just kills the momentum of the story for me, and thereby much of my enjoyment of same. While I do plan to get the upcoming Morrison minis (at three issues each, how late could they really get?), aside from those it's going to be "wait for the trade" for all miniseries from here on out.