The Comic Book Thread

[salty99]

I've been an "on again, off again" comic reader since I was a young 'un, but never die-hard since they were expensive to collect and I always chose to spend my money on video games rather than comics growing up. High-school through college I got a bit more into them, really only reading graphic novels instead of single issue comics because I preferred the format. With the ease of access for digital comics and the ability to read them on my tablet and phone, I've been reading them more often.

I start this thread for 2 reasons:

Reason 1: I wanted to start a place where TPG comic nuts can discuss our favorite comics, heroes, stories, etc.,

Reason 2: I need some recommendations for some good books!

I've read every book in the series The Ultimates, I've read several Batman Books (The Long Halloween, The Killing Joke, Batman: Year One, Batman: All Star, The Dark Knight Returns, and The Dark Knight Strikes Again), I've read Marvel Civil War (just the main marvel event, none of the individual books), all 3 books in Death of Captain America (actually finishing the last one now), one or two volumes of Ultimate Spiderman, and all of the Astonishing X-Men books that were written by Joss Whedon (he wrote the first few, and I read a few after that).

Other than those big titles, I've not really read anything (It seems that way, given how nebulous the world of comics seems to be). I've never read any Superman, Thor, Deadpool, Flash, Aquaman, Iron-Man, Green-Lantern, Avengers, Justice League, Punisher, Daredevil, Spiderman, Dr. Strange, The Hulk, Suicide Squad, X-Men (aside from the Joss Whedon ones), Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. etc. etc.

I got the comiXology app on my tablet and made a short wishlist of books I plan to read when when I finish Death of Captain America book 3 (nearly finished).

- Watchmen (Apparently I'm a terrible person for not having read it or having seen the movie yet)
- Daredevil vol 1, 2 (Frank Miller)
- Daredevil: The Man Without Fear (Frank Miller)
- All-Star Superman
- DC Blackest Night/Brightest Day (Pretty lengthy from what I understand)

These seem like some pretty big "Must Read" titles from what I've gathered. Can any of you comic aficionados recommend any good books/arcs? I'm going to be traveling for work a bunch next week and will have like 14 hours worth of flight time to kill, and I'd love to read a few solid comics/graphic novels. I've heard people talking about Marvel's Secret Wars, something about Convergence in the DC world, a war over some infinity stones (what Marvel movies are building up to?), The House of M (X-Men?). Worth checking out? Yea, Nay?

Also, what are you guys reading these days? Anyone reading anything interesting?

[Guyver]

I had Spawn #1 and #2 and Spawn vs. Batman.

Spawn Batman
Spawn/Batman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I still have this, though:
The Amazing Spider-Man #365 Super Sized Hologram Cover 30th Anniversary Issue: David Michelinie, Peter David, Tom DeFalco, Stan Lee, Peter Sanderson: Amazon.com: Books

[salty99]

Nice! Did the sale of digital comics kill the prices/markets for these original print edition comics? Or are they still worth a butt-load? Could it be equated with music and vinyl? You can sell a zillion copies of a song on iTunes, but the hardcore fans own the original record.

[Guyver]

Most of my comics were given to me so ....as for vinyl, my collection is worth considerably more than what I paid for it.

[shatter99]

I was an avid collector in my teens and early 20's and have about 12 long boxes going back to the 70's, I have not collected or read much in the past 20 years, but my sons is an avid collector now and I read some of his recommendations from his collection:

Here are some of my favorites from when I was collecting:

Batman: Death in the Family
Amazon.com: Batman: A Death in the Family (9780930289447): Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo: Books

X-Men: Phoenix Tragedy
If you can get TPB.. go tor it.. if not here are the key issues from the original Uncanny X-Men: 101-108, 129-138.

Spiderman: Kraven's Last Hunt - TPB is probably your only option.

Amazing Spiderman: 121 and 122. Death of Gwen Stacy/Green Goblin

Original Daredevil - Death of Elektra - original series #181

V for Vendetta

Iron Man #120-128 - original series - Demon in a bottle storyline/arc.




My favorites from my sons collection:

Civil War

Walking Dead (Ron Kirkman)
Invincible (Ron Kirkman) *** I like it better than Walking Dead.
Irredeemable

This is a few off the top of my heads.

[Kanati]

I wouldn't bother with Convergence with DC unless you understand the whole multiverse DC has.


So I would do

Crisis on Infinite Earths
Emerald Twilight
Zero Hour - Crisis in Time (book runs in reverse order; issue 4 to 0.)
The Final Night
Identity Crisis (not really a continuity thing but a really good story)
Green Lantern Rebirth
Infinite Crisis
52 (weekly series that ran for a year dealing with the fallout of Infinite Crisis)
Flashpoint (nothing more important to the DC universe(s) than Flashpoint. It rewrote the entire continuity which is what is now getting revised with Convergence)

THEN you can read some of the New 52 books to see how flashpoint changed everything and then read Convergence.