Comics

[carey]

Since I know we have at least once comics reader out there I thought I should start a thread for it.

I still go to a comic shop every Wednesday. Here are some of the things I'm currently reading.

Chew (Drawn by a local Louisiana guy Rob Guillory about a detective that is psychic when he eats things. To tell you more would spoil the fun but it's as weird as you'd think.)
Batman
The Dark Knight
Detective Comics
Batman & ** (Formerly Batman & Robin until Damian was killed off.)
Brother Lono (100 Bullets spinoff.)
Saga (Fantastic sci-fi fairy tale by Brian K. Vaughn who is a genius.)
Pretty Deadly (Fantastic Wild West fairy tale by Kelly Sue Deconnick.)
East West (4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse meet the Wild West.)
Locke & Key (Just recently ended. Written by Stephen King's son Joe Hill, best comic of the last half decade by a wide margin.)
Kick Ass 3 / Hit-Girl (Better than the movies.)
Manhattan Projects (What if sort of science book taking place around WWII.)
Invincible (Kirkman's best comic, sorry Walking Dead fans.)

I'd be happy to recommend stuff. I mostly read DC and Image. So I can't really recommend any Marvel stuff so no X-Men & Avengers bullcrap. I'm strictly a Batman guy when it comes to the big 2.

I'm also in a book club that meets once a month to discuss various graphic novels. Everything from Warren Ellis & Alan Moore to Brian K. Vaughn and Brian Michael Bendis.

[Wally_West]

Wow dude, I like your taste! Unfortunately due to my budget and my schedule, I don’t get to read as much comics as I would like too. I mostly read DC too but been trying to get on some Marvel and independent stuff as well but time always finds a way of screwing me over. Also Skyrim and GTA V fuck up my schedule too, lol.
The comics on my Pull list though are:
Batman (Scott Snyder is my shit!)
Wonder Woman
Action Comics, Superman Unchained
Green Lantern
Animal Man
Swamp Thing
Justice league
Walking Dead
A lot of these titles I am way behind on and I have many more stuff I have been collecting that I simply just haven’t gotten around too.

[carey]

I read Animal Man & Swamp Thing through the Rotworld stuff then dropped it when Snyder left the book.

[Charlie Smithy!]

I *just* got into comics pretty recently (always been a fan of the DCAU stuff) and am currently reading through The Long Halloween...now I know where Nolan got his ideas from!

[Wally_West]

The new writer on swamp thing has been doing a pretty awesome job. Animal Man has still been pretty good since after rotworld but apparently it is getting canceled after issue #29.
What are your thoughts on Batman’s Zero Year arc so far?

[carey]

I *just* got into comics pretty recently (always been a fan of the DCAU stuff) and am currently reading through The Long Halloween...now I know where Nolan got his ideas from!

The Long Halloween and the follow up Dark Victory are probably my two favorite Batman stories, they are right up their with Hush and The Killing Joke. You may like Broken City, it's buy the team that did 100 Bullets & is very Noir'ish.

[carey]

The new writer on swamp thing has been doing a pretty awesome job. Animal Man has still been pretty good since after rotworld but apparently it is getting canceled after issue #29.
What are your thoughts on Batman’s Zero Year arc so far?

It's been kind of a let down honestly. I don't know why they keep rehashing the same territory. Year One was essentially the ultimate take on it so I'm not sure why they'd want to go back to it, but hey, I'm not an editor at DC. This month's issue of Batman (#28) was weird. Dropped you mid-stream of a story that isn't going on yet and apparently won't start for 2 more months. Not sure why they just didn't finish the Zero Year stuff.

[Wally_West]

Long Halloween is literally the next graphic novel I'm planning on reading and I actually just bought dark victory on amazon a few days ago!!
Regarding Zero Year, I like it but it’s definitely step down from the two previous arcs which I loved. I also find the new costume and Batmobile just ugly to look at. For all the pitfalls of the story I’m still enjoying it though. Batman is probably one of the comics I still most look forward to every month. Greg Capullo’s art is just perfect for Batman.

[carey]

Long Halloween is literally the next graphic novel I'm planning on reading and I actually just bought dark victory on amazon a few days ago!!
Regarding Zero Year, I like it but it’s definitely step down from the two previous arcs which I loved. I also find the new costume and Batmobile just ugly to look at. For all the pitfalls of the story I’m still enjoying it though. Batman is probably one of the comics I still most look forward to every month. Greg Capullo’s art is just perfect for Batman.

Agreed. I kind of freaked out when I saw he didn't draw #28. I took to twitter and was like "What's up? Why did Greg not draw 28??" and he wrote me that he quit. Then wrote that he was joking a little bit later. Dude is weird. I met him in person a couple years ago and got my Batman #1 signed, dude is like a weight lifter which you'd not expect at all from an artist. Like seriously ripped.

[Wally_West]

Haha, yeah I've seen some interviews with him, he seems a little bit out there but cool kind of way I guess. What would you recommend in terms trades or graphic novels? I'm always trying to look at new things. I bought some volumes of Neil Gaiman's Sandman a few months ago and I really enjoyed it.

[carey]

Haha, yeah I've seen some interviews with him, he seems a little bit out there but cool kind of way I guess. What would you recommend in terms trades or graphic novels? I'm always trying to look at new things. I bought some volumes of Neil Gaiman's Sandman a few months ago and I really enjoyed it.

Sandman is great. I read all 10 volumes & the Death books last year. I'm sure you've read Watchmen. After that I would say Planetary by Ellis. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Moore. The Crow. Oh, all the Parker books by Darwin Cooke are great. I think there are 4 now. They made a really shitty movie out of it with Jason Statham recently but the books are way better. Scalped is good too it's like The Departed on an Indian Reservation. Fables is good.

[Wally_West]

Haha, yeah I've seen some interviews with him, he seems a little bit out there but cool kind of way I guess. What would you recommend in terms trades or graphic novels? I'm always trying to look at new things. I bought some volumes of Neil Gaiman's Sandman a few months ago and I really enjoyed it.

Sandman is great. I read all 10 volumes & the Death books last year. I'm sure you've read Watchmen. After that I would say Planetary by Ellis. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Moore. The Crow. Oh, all the Parker books by Darwin Cooke are great. I think there are 4 now. They made a really shitty movie out of it with Jason Statham recently but the books are way better. Scalped is good too it's like The Departed on an Indian Reservation. Fables is good.

Yep, read Watchmen already. I think that was one of the first graphic novels I read. I am definitely interested in Fables ever since The Wolf among us game came out. I’ll totally check out those other suggestions, Darwin Cooke is awesome. I think he is one of the most underrated writers out there.

[Phoenix219]

I used to be huge into comics, but I fell out of touch in the mid 2000s. I was a 90s comic kid (grew up in the 80s) and was *really* into Batman with the Knightfall line, and spread out into GL, Flash and a couple others. I was one of the actual fans of Hal Jordan going all Anakin Skywalker on the Corp - such a realistic and *human* thing to happen. I loved the Wally West Flash and can't stand the current state of affairs. I honestly have refused to read or buy a comic since the Nu52 reboot - RIP My DCU, 1985-2012.

[Ring_Wanted]

Never been a DC guy. I've always prefered the X-Men, but the last series I read was the Ultimates. It had some awesome arcs (and styles). For instance, the crossover with the Ultimate Avengers was outstanding, and many characters and relationships were smartly tweaked so it was quite fresh at the beginning, but in the end it became as boring and absurd as many other titles when you give them enough time.

[Phoenix219]

Never been a DC guy. I've always prefered the X-Men, but the last series I read was the Ultimates. It had some awesome arcs (and styles). For instance, the crossover with the Ultimate Avengers was outstanding, and many characters and relationships were smartly tweaked so it was quite fresh at the beginning, but in the end it became as boring and absurd as many other titles when you give them enough time.

X Men were the only Marvel books I was collecting back then.... I still have every single piece of the Age of Apocolypse event, and a good chunk of Onslaught, somewhere. I'm very out of touch with current comics, on all fronts, however. I've kept up with the Animated shows (GL, fantastic! Beware the Batman, cancelled on a cliffhanger! A great Avengers cartoon, cancelled and replaced by a shitty one! Transformers Prime, cancelled, uh, to not show up the shitty movies anymore? Hehe.

[Ring_Wanted]

Age of (the)Apocalipse is the absolute apex of the X-Men to me. Absolutely everything was off the charts, form the argument to the drawing, the dark style, etc. I still have X-Men Alpha, all Weapon X and X-Men Omega custom stapled in a big comic book that I read every now and then. I'm telling you, that's the best mutant arc ever.

[carey]

My favorite X-Men storyline (and as I said I don't read Marvel much) is the one Whedon wrote about the Cure that they kind of bastardized for X3.

I haven't read Age of Apocalypse yet, but I know they are setting Apocalypse up as the big bad for the X-Men universe going forward with DoFP.

[Wally_West]

I used to be huge into comics, but I fell out of touch in the mid 2000s. I was a 90s comic kid (grew up in the 80s) and was *really* into Batman with the Knightfall line, and spread out into GL, Flash and a couple others. I was one of the actual fans of Hal Jordan going all Anakin Skywalker on the Corp - such a realistic and *human* thing to happen. I loved the Wally West Flash and can't stand the current state of affairs. I honestly have refused to read or buy a comic since the Nu52 reboot - RIP My DCU, 1985-2012.

There are some really great books in the new 52 but there are also some really bad ones unfortunately. I'm most sad with the state of superman, only because he my favorite DC character and many of his titles have been pretty horrible. Things are looking better now in recent months with new writing teams coming aboard but with Man of Steel coming out last year I can't help but feel they missed a huge opportunity to get new readers because how shitty most of his comics have been basically since the start of the new 52.

[Wally_West]

X-Men are probably my favorite part of the Marvel Universe. I was huge fan of the animated show in 90's growing up. I'm a big fan of the golden age and silver age comics and my brother and I have some good classic Marvel stuff from that time. I remember when I was in middle school my brother got me the hulk issue where Wolverine made his first appearance, that was my prized possession. It ended getting stolen by one of my piece of shit friends, till this day when thinking about it gets me pissed, lol.

[Phoenix219]

I used to be huge into comics, but I fell out of touch in the mid 2000s. I was a 90s comic kid (grew up in the 80s) and was *really* into Batman with the Knightfall line, and spread out into GL, Flash and a couple others. I was one of the actual fans of Hal Jordan going all Anakin Skywalker on the Corp - such a realistic and *human* thing to happen. I loved the Wally West Flash and can't stand the current state of affairs. I honestly have refused to read or buy a comic since the Nu52 reboot - RIP My DCU, 1985-2012.

There are some really great books in the new 52 but there are also some really bad ones unfortunately. I'm most sad with the state of superman, only because he my favorite DC character and many of his titles have been pretty horrible. Things are looking better now in recent months with new writing teams coming aboard but with Man of Steel coming out last year I can't help but feel they missed a huge opportunity to get new readers because how shitty most of his comics have been basically since the start of the new 52.

Everything that I've read about Nu52 disgusts me. What they've done to the Bat books (Jokers face?), already killing Damien, somehow shoehorning the entire history of Batman into a few years but somehow allowing all the Robins to still exist (except, Tim was never Robin now), bringing back Batgirl, restoring Barry but getting rid of Wally, the complete character destruction of Alan Scott, the removal of all the history and legacy of the entire universe... I can't fathom it, can't stomach it, and sure as hell can't read it. I loved the Superman books in the 90s (when they were coming out weekly and serialized, regardless of what "title" it was) but it definitely feels like they have lost their way with just about all their marquee characters.