pictures! and words!

[schmerica]

SO. COMICS, HUH? So that's what you've been talking about for the past, you know, five years!

...I mean.

Okay, so I read the complete run of Sandman and The Dark Knight Returns and a bunch of other random stuff a couple years back, but this last week I have read:

Age of Bronze: a Thousand Ships; Age of Bronze: Sacrifice; Green Arrow: Quiver; Y The Last Man: Unmanned and the first half of Alias Omnibus. And, uh, possibly more Y the Last Man is on the way. And Runaways. And a bunch of random individual comics, too. Um. *cries* Is this fandom supposed to be so expensive?

So I guess my question now is: what next? Tell me what I should read! Graphic novels are good, current series, past issues and excitingness. And what can anyone of you tell me about sharing or downloading issues? I am under the impression that torrents aren't incredibly useful?

...If I were smart, I would have gotten fascinated by comics at a time when I was up in Portland so I could make Livia and Zee dump everything to read in my lap in their apartment. Hmmph.

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE: I saw Superman Returns today with speshope, and it was ridiculously, shockingly visually glorious. However, I refer you all back to my requirements for fictional love triangles! To wit: please either have one leg of the triangle be uncompletely unsuited for each or make one of them a bastard, OR make all three of them easily smooshable into a nice OT3 scenario. Otherwise -- and this is the case in Superman Returns -- it is all MUCH TOO STRESSFUL.

Comments

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

SCOTT PILGRIM, baby!!!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

You know I cannot resist such enthusiastic punctuation!

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

Hee! What's funny is that I *totally* see the love triangle in SR as easily smooshable into OT3. Mmm.

Is this fandom supposed to be so expensive?

Oh, honey. *pets* I'm sorry. Did I, um, forget that this fandom is a giant money-suck? (On the bright side, most DC comics suck these days, so you don't need to spend much money on comics that are coming out right now.)

[karabou.livejournal.com]

(On the bright side, most DC comics suck these days, so you don't need to spend much money on comics that are coming out right now.)

God, I don't think I've read a Bat-related title since July. It's just too bad that DC's trades suck.

[karabou.livejournal.com]

...er, last July, I mean. ^^;

[sexonastick.livejournal.com]

For a super hero book: Invincible. In fact, everything Kirkman writes is ridiculously good -- including and especially The Walking Dead.

Um, it's not even remotely super heroish, but... Blankets. Everyone should read Blankets.

And Preacher. So good. Transmetropolitan is very good too, to the point that the volumes always feel way too short.

And even though I know really very little about the DCU in general, I've been loving every issue of 52.

I have no idea if this was even remotely helpful, but yes! Y and Runaways!

[smartlikejustin.livejournal.com]

The Invisibles, Powers, Queen and Country, the Greg Rucka run on Wonder Woman, All-Star Superman, definitely continue w/ Alias, Nightwing

...I'm sure there's more, but I will pause for now.

And yes, unfortunately, it's pretty much supposed to be that expensive. [sigh]

[gloss]

Love & Rockets. All of it. EVER.

*helps*

[karabou.livejournal.com]

Anything by Brian K. Vaughan because he is brilliant, which means more Y: The Last Man, and also Runaways and Ex Machina. Ultimate Spider-Man, because it is always fantastic. Elsinore. Young Avengers. Super F*ckers. Hard Time. Gotham Central. Fables (even if I hate Bill Willingham). Supreme Power... I tend to read a lot of general superhero stuff like various Batman / X-Men / whatever, so those too. :D

I'm probably missing a lot, but I'm not home to scan my trade paperback shelf :(

[karabou.livejournal.com]

Also: Batgirl. Those are in trades and Cass is awesome.

reposted for formatting issues

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Fables and Lucifer, babe. The former is a multiple-volume series (still going) about the Fable (read: fairytales) community in New York, and the latter is a spin-off from Sandman about, well, guess who. Keep reading Y, it only becomes more unbelievably awesome. The first Books of Magic (another Sandman spin-off) is good, because Neil wrote it, but avoid the rest. Also, Joss's Astonishing X-Men is naturally very good, and Gaiman's 1602 was pretty decent, and I hope you have read the graphic novel of Ghost World and if not you must read that FIRST. I can give you a bunch more single-indie-graphic-novel recs if you want.

Oh, and Watchmen. And League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Moore is kind of scary, but you have to read him.

Re: reposted for formatting issues

[ladyclio16.livejournal.com]

I second the recommedation for Fables. When I saw this post that was the first thing I was going to come in and recommend. That's just about the only comic I read anymore. I pick it up graphic novel form. I'm just in love with it. It's fairy tales for grown ups. What happens after happily ever after... when it's just not so happy any more. Any comic where Snow White has a litter of babies with the Big Bad Wolf (calls himself Bigby Wolf in the comic) and it not only works in the story, but you route for them as a couple. Now that's a comic you gotta love.

I'll second the 1602 rec too. If you want to have any hope of knowing what is going on in Marvel these days you probably need to check out The House of M and the comics surrounding that storyline too.

[digitalwave]

Young Avengers, New Avengers, Daredevil, Captain America, Nightwing, Teen Titans, Catwoman, Birds of Prey, the Bat titles. It comes in handy having a long-time friend who manages a comics store since I can't really afford the books I love any more.

And, I'm really enjoying each issue of 52.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Alan Moore is The Man. I highly recommend the following:

• V for Vendetta, which was made into a really cool movie.

• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the first volume of which was made into a really stupid movie that Moore disclaimed. Volume two uses elements from War of the Worlds, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom books, and The Island of Doctor Moreau to amazing effect.

• The trade paperback collecting the Moore–penned issues of Image Comics’ Supreme, in which he takes some of the more bizarre elements of Superman canon from the forties and fifties, places them in a modern context, and makes them work. (I especially love what he does with the superpowered dog.)

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Whoops! Also meant to include:

• From Hell, which is a much, much bigger story than the film version could convey — Moore gets into history, mysticism, and the sheer wonkiness of human nature. The art by collaborator Eddie Campbell is particularly fine, and involved an insane amount of research. One warning: the story contains graphic violence, as one would expect in an exploration of the Jack the Ripper case; during some of the later chapters I was extremely glad that the book was in black-and-white.

[mutecornett.livejournal.com]

Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth is my favorite graphic novel, ever. If you get nothing else, get this. It really is that good. I keep trying to describe a scene for you but I can't tell the story in words. Half the power is in the pictures.

Oh, I also loved Jessica Abel's La Perdida. I mean, I'm really failing to describe how much I loved this, but there's this girl looking for her Mexican roots who idolizes Frida Kahlo and goes to Mexico and then becomes a completely different person there. Um. It's really good, I swear. :(

Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix series, especially Vol 4: Karma. The whole series is delicately interconnected but you can read them as stand-alones, no problem. And um, you have to try to ignore his odd and sometimes inappropriately timed sense of humor, but honestly these are fantastic.

Hey, Wait, by Jason. No last name, apparently. I'm recommending this with reservations because I loved it but my friends didn't like it very much, but I'm really fond of the clarity of his stories.

Charles Burns's Black Hole is gorgeous and disturbing.

Also, I'm totally seconding Invincible and Scott Pilgrim.

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

Um, in addition to everything above, I cannot believe nobody has recced Ellis-era The Authority yet (available in trades). Seconding Batgirl trades. Outsiders. *thinks* I like the first Mystique and She-Hulk trades. Birds of Prey is a comfort read. (Wow, I really like girls.)

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

PS, send me a snailmail address? Once I'm through finals, I will send you things.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I LOVE things!!!

Just dropping by on my eternal search for new fic

[exeterlinden.livejournal.com]

If you're into X-men: Weapon X, Children of the Atom, Origin

Also, Hernandez' Love & Rockets, especially Locas (the Maggie and Hopey stories) are a lovely read.

Anything by Ralph Koenig - this stuff is hilarious! - I was particularly fond of the Konrad and Paul series.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

I'd add Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise (http://strangersinparadise.com/), which is mostly out in trades. And I don't know about anyone else, but I really love comic torrents. I still buy my main titles monthly, but I read a lot of stuff I would never buy, but I'm kind of intrigued by, through torrents. And especially with longterm, ongoing titles like the main Bat titles or XM titles, which you could never put together in hard copy.... Also, then you can make ICONS. *kof*

And if you like horror and magic and snarky, competent, trickstery men, Vertigo's Hellblazer rocks -- I like it more than Lucifer, myself. And I like the full Books of Magic, although a lot of people don't.

If you like fairy tale type things, I second Fables, and add Castle Waiting. The full previous run just came out as a hardback book, and the title is starting publication again through Dark Horse.

If you like the Gotham universe at all, early Gotham Knights and Gotham Central (about the GPD) are good.