My christmas present from Mrs. Six just arrived yesterday, and it is truly outstanding. She apparently went to one of my favorite comic retailors on eBay and bought every single trade paperback set available there (as well as some of the hardback sets).
Assuming I haven’t read any of these, and that I have, oh, say 24 hours of reading time (while Mrs. Six is on two 12 hour shifts at the hospital), and intend to complete devour an entire set, which one of the following would read best all in one chunk:
Transmetropolitan
The Invisibles
Swamp Thing
Preacher
Hellboy
Sandman
Vote for one, or rank them in order. Whichever one gets the highest score will be read this weekend.
Can’t stand Preacher, Invisibles is incoherent (clever and fun, but gibberish) and Transmetropolitan is good, but gets stale part way through and is best in smaller doses. You can only take so much Spider Jeruselem in one dose.
Swamp Thing, the first couplea arcs are stunningly good but it dribbles off (during the interminable “American Gothic” thing–Alan Moore at his most pretentious and thuddingly obvious*), it picks up a bit at the very end of AG (Swampy invades Gotham) and the “Swampy in Space” arc sucks (Moore f*cked up Adam Strange so badly that he wasn’t usable for a decade).
Sandman is wonderful read in one sitting–you’ll get nuances that you wouldn’t get in smaller doses and it reads like a novel–introduction, rising action, conflict, higher action, resolution, denouncement (or however it goes).
Sandman would be my pick.
Fenris
*“Slavery and racism are BAD!”/“Woman should be treated as PEOPLE!” :rolleyes: Th’ whole American Gothic run felt like a series of bad public service announcements.
I just finished the Invisibles. It’s…alright, but far from Morrisons best. I know its not on your list, but track down The Filth TPB. It’s in a similar vein, but a lot better IMO.
I still think Transmetropolitans overrated. It’s good, but not brilliant.
Hellboys great, as is the middle part of Moores Swamp Thing run - the Heaven versus Hell bit etc. I think i’ll reread them at some point soon.
The Lucifer TPBs are also very good, as a spin off from Sandman.
Hellboy, Sandman as my second pick. They’re both great to read stright through, and your eyes and brain with both thank you. I put Hellboy first because I love the art.
Preacher is my favorite of those, and I read all nine books over the course of three nights. I can vouch for the fact that one marathon weekend reading session will be a mind-blowing experience.
After that, Hellboy is MUCH lighter reading, and Sandman is slower and more serious and ponderous. I LIKE Sandman, but I do not LOVE it like so many other readers did. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a great read, though.
In any case, you have great taste and a terrific wife. I’ve read all of those except Invisibles (no interest in Grant Morrison), and you’re in for some wonderful hours ahead.
When I saw the title of the thread, I thought ‘Sandman and Preacher had better be on this list…but if they are, which should be read first?’
So I don’t know which, but I’d definitely vote for Sandman or Preacher.
If you’re in the mood to read about a kickass guy and see violence and hear swearing, read Preacher. If you’re up for a more cerebral story, read Sandman, but you really can’t go wrong with either.
Sandman is the best of that lot (miles beyond everything but Invisibles). (Well, I haven’t read all of Swamp Thing yet.) I agree with Fenris that Sandman works great in a single sitting. You’ll both want and need to read it again and again (just yesterday I realized something that I should have seen years ago), but you can probably get through it once in a day.
One note – the Sandman collections aren’t exactly in order. Several one-off issues came between the longer “Season of Mists” and “A Game of You” arcs, then more one-offs between “Game” and “Brief Lives,” then another one-off (the fabulous “Ramadan”) before “Worlds’ End.” These were all collected in the “Fables & Reflections” TPB, but they’re jumbled up in that book and IMO they work better if they’re read in original publication order. The issue numbers are printed on the Table of Contents for each story and the Sandman Summer Special (“The Song of Orpheus”) goes between #31 and #32, which starts “A Game of You.”
I think Invisibles is fabulous, but unlike Sandman, it demands re-reads (instead of merely rewarding them). It’s also often very difficult to get the thread of what’s going on (tho’ never impossible), so trying to breeze through the whole set in a day will leave you totally confused.
I thought Preacher was generally pretty crappy except for the ending.
I wouldn’t read SANDMAN because that’s just too much of a good thing – 75 extremely well-written comics (plus the two Death mini series, the SANDMAN: Dream Hunters hardcover and SANDMAN: Endless Nights) in one 24 hour sitting. You need to allot time to savor what you’ve read.
Given your time constraints, I vote PREACHER or TRANSMETROPOLITAN. Either one would have far less convoluted backstories and tie-ins, and wrap up in the neatest packages when you’re done.
If quality is what you’re after and you absolutely want to get lost ina writer’s vision, start with either SANDMAN or SWAMP THING in approximately that order.
The INVISIBLES and HELLBOY, last.
/hijack/ Fenris. Wow. Profoundly disagree with you about Moore’s take on Rann society and Adam Strange being “unusable.” All he did was cast doubt on Sardeth’s “communication beam” transporting Adam Strange being the accident accident Sardeth always claimed, revealing Rann as a victim of atomic war, positioning Thanagarians as galactic badasses and getting Alanna pregnant. It was Richard Bruning’s ADAM STRANGE mini-series after that that did lots more damage: casting Rann in a civil war, killing off Alanna, removing the effects of the Zeta Beam, stranding Strange on Rann to raise his daughter alone and making Sardeth insane. Case in point: the next time Strange was seen, Mark Waid actively reversed everything damaging about Bruning’s mini-series and restored Adam Strange and Rannian society to what they were after Moore’s story.
I’ve been rereading Sandman this week, and have just the final volume to go. You should read it, too. Be like me! Peer pressure! All the cool kids are doing it…
Askia reminds me – when I say Sandman, I’m talking about volumes 1-10. Gaiman has done a few more Sandman volumes since then, including The Dream Hunters and Endless Nights, both of which are good (DH especially), but they’re not part of the main Sandman whole. Gaiman also did two miniseries about, um, one of the major supporting characters of Sandman which are worth checking out, but again, not really part of the Sandman core. DC has also published a million other Sandman spin-off stuff, some of which is good (Lucifer is great), some of which is not so good.
You have the entire sets of these? Holy crap! That’s awesome. I’m so jealous. I like to read things from worse to best, so here’s my order and my 2 cents:
The Invisibles - it’s difficult and it’s really good (though not great), not the worse of the bunch, but a good starting point
Hellboy - I never understood the allure of this character. The few things I have read have such slow plotting.
Swamp Thing - This is going to be a lot of reading, if you’re going back to Alan Moore. Great stuff.
Transmetropolitan - This is great. Efficient writing, great rants!
Preacher - This should be quick reading.
Sandman - Hands down, the best stuff in this lot. Give yourself a breather before reading this.
If you notice my order, I start out with the difficult (and/or slow) stuff, then press forward with the breezy, albeit deep writings. I end with the book that is both. Another alternative order that may build to a better (for lack of a better word) climax culminating in The Sandman would be:
My, what a generous gift! You really couldn’t go wrong with any of those series, but here’s my suggested reading order:
Transmetropolitan
Preacher
Hellboy
Swamp Thing
The Invisibles
Sandman
Transmet and Preacher can both be comfortably devoured in the amount of time you have, without much left over. Either Hellboy or Swamp Thing would leave you with time left over. Invisibles and Sandman would probably run you over your allotted time limit.