Lucifer is awesome, in some ways better than Sandman. It’s not complete yet – Carey figures he’s got a year and a half or so left on the monthly series, and the TPB collections are about a volume or two behind that.
–Cliffy
Just go into a bookstore like Barnes and Noble, pray they have it, sit down and read it.
I wandered into the local comic book store, which I visit about every four months or so, and on a whim, bought the first Preacher collection.
The next day, I went back and bought the next two.
Two days later, I bought two more.
Eventually, I had all the TPBs, bought two at a time. Man, for addictive. I dunno why I didn’t just bite the bullet and buy them all at once. “I can quit any time; I don’t need these things.”
Oh, I see that no one has mentioned Hellboy yet, so let me recommend that one. But seriously, folks, it is as good as everyone says. I think its the only title (aside from Sin City) of which I have yet to miss an installment. I’d also recommend buying them soon, before the only options are printings with all the “Now a Major Motion Picture!” bs attached. I’ve mentioned in this forum before that I live in morbid fear of the upcoming movie both sucking and blowing, and then I’ll have to get rid of my Hellboy pin and my BPRD t-shirt (which, I realize, I’m wearing even as I type).
Apparently Big Bad Voodoo Lou is my old roommate, since s/he has listed pretty much the entire collection that turned me on to contemporary comics. Watchmen and From Hell, along with (to a lesser degree, IMHO) League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, are must-have Allan Moore works. My girlfriend even enjoyed them.
And Kyle Baker’s best work is an utter joy. The Cowboy Wally Show had me in tears, and it hasn’t lost any of its charm over the years. Hell, I think I’ll re-read it tonight. You Are Here was a little disappointing, though.
Cerebus and Love and Rockets are also both excellent, although I’d avoid anything after the third or fourth installent of Sims’ magnum opus. Its also been discussed on this board in some detail, and rather recently. Now, a question for Love and Rockets fans: what is a good intro to the series? I’ve bought a few TPBs here and there, mostly based on what’s been cheap, but I’ve always felt that I was just skimming the surface of a very deep well.
Finally, are any San Francisco-area comic book fans going to APE this weekend? I’ve never been, and I’m more than a little curious…
That is one of the greatest honors anyone has ever paid me on the SDMB, calling me an old roommate! 
Seriously, thank you. I wasn’t always reading such good comics, but I like to think that I seek out all the good stuff now.
Have you–or anyone else–tried writer/artist Alex Robinson’s Box Office Poison? It’s another modern classic, a “slice of life” story about normal people and their relationships and problems, very funny and touching and ultimately very powerful, because we all probably know people like the characters. It’s almost like a Kevin Smith story done right.
For lighter fare, you can’t go wrong with Kyle Baker, but I also love the classic run of Justice League International (truly a superhero sitcom), written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis. I’m also probably the biggest Blue Beetle fan on the SDMB, but don’t hold it against me. More comics that deliver the ha-ha: Ben Edlund’s original 12 issues of The Tick (available in two TPBs), and J. Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl, for sexy, campy, tongue-in-cheek action that only a child of the '80s could come up with.
I forgot all about Kyle Baker. I like The Cowboy Wally Show well enough, but my real favorite is Why I Hate Saturn. There are some great characters and great writing. I agree that You Are Here was a disappointment. King David is pretty good, and I’d recommend it to anybody who’s a fan.
Baker’s best stuff, IMO, was on the tail end of The Shadow series written by Andy Helfer. Great writing and fantastic art that went together perfectly; I wish they had done more stuff together. I don’t think that’s ever been released in TPB format, which is a shame because it was a remarkable (albeit very short-lived) series.
A quick question about Hellboy: I read the first two TPB, and was pretty underwhelmed. Didn’t suck by any means, but also didn’t seem like anything special. If it hasn’t clicked for me by that point, should I give it up as something that’s just not for me, or does it radically improve in subsequent volumes?
The Shadow will never be collected as a TPB either, because owner Conde Nast Publications took the license to use their character back from DC after the way Helfer and Baker treated the Shadow in that series. Maybe it was the fact that the Shadow’s head got cut off and put on a robot body, or maybe it was just all the over-the-top comic violence. I don’t think the last issue was ever published either, so the series ended on a cliffhanger.
Interestingly, when asked about his work on The Shadow, Baker has shrugged it off as mere “work for hire” that he doesn’t really care about or hold any connection or sentimental value to.