Sometimes I miss Comic books - or - What collections should I be reading?

Cafe Society
1

I used to be a huge comic book fan. I would spend hundreds of dollars a month on comic and hours sorting and logging and boxing and organizing them. When I was a junior in college this changes. I ran out of money, space and time. It didn’t help that the girl I was living with had a low tollerance for having comics laying around the apartment so in around 2002 I started to lose track of what was going on in comics. I didn’t lose it altogether until about 2004, but those two years were casual at best. I can’t say with any certainty that I would remember what was going on in continuity then. I still pick up some indie stuff or an older sereies that I meant to read but didn’t when it was first out (I am halfway through both Preacher and the Alan Moore run on Swamp Thing) but for the most part I don’t read comics at all anymore.

But sometimes I miss them. There was some good stuff, there was some dreck, but on the whole they were a bit part of my life from the time that I was abou 8 until my early 20s. When I stopped reading regularly was about the time that the big push for putting everything into trade paperback was going strong. So I have to figure that a lot of what has been good about the last 7 years of comics or so has been collected.

So what should I get? What have I missed out on?

To give you a vague idea of my tastes back then this was (what I can remember of) my monthly order from my comic shop:

No Ultimates Titles
All Spiderman Books
All X-Men Books (If it has a mutant I want it)
Daredevil
Iron Man
Punisher
Powers
All Batman books
The Flash
Green Arrow
Green Lantern
Hellblazer
100 Bullits

Anything Hellboy
Anything Written by Sam Kieth
Anything Written by Matt Wagner
Anything Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Anything Written by Warren Ellis
Anything Written by Grant Morrison
Anything Written by Alan Moore
That is more or less what I ordered every month. It isn’t really what I am looking for now, just what I used to get. Right now I just want to know what you would recommend to a person who had been in a coma for seven years and who wanted to read some good comic collections from the years he missed.

So, what collections should I be reading?

2

I’d recommend “DC: The New Frontier” by Darwyn Cooke, especially if you don’t care about continuity. For some mutanty goodness, the “Astonishing X-Men” TPBs (2 of 'em) by Joss Whedon. If you like zombies, then “Walking Dead” (9 TPBs) is a fantastic read.

3

Did you ever read Transmetropolitan? How about Preacher?

4

I did read and love Transmet and I am a little more than halfway through Preacher. I have also read and loved the Invisibles and League of Extrodanary Gentelmen (since I suspect those will be recommended next).

Speaking of series I haven’t finished (i.e. Preacher), I also read Cerebus up to the end of Form and Void. Are Later Days and the Last Day worth reading? Did anyone else stick with Cerebus after Dave went nuts?

5

Mentioned in the OP.

6

The titles that immediately come to mind are Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men as well as Garth Ennis’ work on Punisher MAX (and the prequel-ish mini Punisher - Born). All are available in TPB.

7

Y: The Last Man - It isn’t a superhero story, but I cannot recommend this title strongly enough
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: Dark Victory
Superman: For All Seasons

8

3. “Gifted,” “Dangerous,” and “Torn.” Plus “Unstoppable” (Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1)

9

Bendis’ run on Daredevil was also excellent and worth checking out (long though, 10+ trades). It started in 2002 so you might have read the beginning.

Brubaker’s new Iron Fist series is also supposed to be great, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.

10

I’d recommend Cable & Deadpool. I’d also second Munch’s suggestion of Astonishing X-Men.

11

Thank you - I think I was thinking of the HCs.

12

I liked the first TPB of The Authority.

13

Seconded for Ennis’ Punisher and Ellis’ Authority. I’d also keep an eye out for 100 Bullets which is wrapping up in a month or so. I’m also enjoying DMZ and Ex Machina.

14

Fables. Can’t recommend it strongly enough. If you enjoy the first five books of Fables, then you’ll also want to get Jack of Fables and the original graphic novel “Fables: 1000 Nights of Snowfall.”

15

Oh yeah, ‘Y - The Last Man’ has been getting really good reviews. Haven’t read the whole story, but I liked what I did read.

16

Seconded (though more lukewarm for Jack of Fables.) Best comic book today.

17

Looking at your list Powers is still on-going and is still great.

For new stuff. Try the Hellboy spin-off B.P.R.D.

18

Try the DC Comics Archive Editions, for golden age goodness.

19

Y: The Last Man
The Walking Dead
Invincible
Ultimate Spider-Man

20

I mentioned something recently that I enjoyed quite a bit.

There’s been an embarrassment of riches in terms of omnibus collections recently. There’s a collection of Alan Moore’s Captain Britain work coming out in a few weeks, the above mentioned Walking Dead has another one that just came out, Brubaker’s Captain America and Iron Fist runs are getting them, and that doesn’t even get into the fun old stuff that Dark Horse and Fantagraphics have been printing. Yeah they cost more up front but those nice oversized hardcovers with a few thousand pages of story are worth it…