I took a break from comics and am working my way through collected editions too.
Right now, I’m on **Fables **and Ultimate Spider-Man. I’m at about book seven of each series.
I think that the first couple books of Fables are better than the first couple books of Sandman (an obvious comparison), so I’m looking forward to seeing if it gets even better.
I’m not sure if I’d recommend Ultimate Spider-Man to an adult. Peter is an angsty teenager, so if you don’t have much patience for those… I thought it was a bold choice to have a chapter take place almost entirely within Aunt May’s therapist’s office.
I finished Promethea last year. It had some good moments, but I thought it got bogged down in gimmicks and “educating” the readers instead of telling an interesting story.
The five Dan Slott books of **She-Hulk **are a lot of fun. I wasn’t as impressed with the Peter David book.
If you haven’t read **Bone **yet (or even if you read it in black & white), check out the newly-colored editions. It doesn’t sound like you would have considered it, but you might be surprised by how action-packed it becomes in the middle of the story. There’s still one book that isn’t out yet.
Oh, and if you haven’t read Ellis’ Planetary, the last issue should be out sometime this year.
I really enjoy what’s been going on with Green Lantern, starting with the GL : Rebirth miniseries and springing out from there. I believe a lot of it is collected.
Really? I freaking loved Planetary, but the one issue every two months (maybe if we were really lucky) schedule drove me nuts. That’s good to know, I will make sure to check that out when it gets collected.
Also, I know from my list that my taste seems to run really mainstream superhero stuff, but it really wasn’t. I just have a love of superhero stuff and that was what I would get monthly. I read stuff like Bone and the Sandman in tpb’s and it’s harder to quanitfy those. But I have read all of that.
And I really did hate the whole Ultimate line. I know everyone loved Ultimate Spiderman, but it really didn’t work for me at all.
There do seem to be some themes
Y: The Last Man
Whedon’s X-Men Run
The Walking Dead
Fables
Good stuff. I will probably pick up the a Green Lantern Trade or two also and some of the Bendis Daredevil run (I read the start of it, Daredevil and Batman were the last two books I gave up. I followed Daredevil all the way up until Matt’s trial were he was exposed as Daredevil, I think? My memory of those gets sort of fuzzy.) The She-Hulk recommendation sounds interesting too. I will look into that one.
Any Batman stuff worth reading in that period? I read the start of the Jim Lee/ Jeff Loeb run but only the first 5 or 6 issues. How about other stuff out of the mainstream arena?
Paul Dini’s run on Detective (started in 2006) is probably the best Bat stuff of the last few years. But I wouldn’t rate it as “must read” stuff.
I would add Bendis’ Powers to your list, as DeptfordX suggested. Really good.
And did Cerebus finish? It was supposed to have a definite end planned and I was going to wait until it was over to buy it. What can I say, it’s been awhile. I lost track.
It ended with issue 300, apparently.
Well, it looks like I am going to finish Cerebus just to be able say that I am the only person who actually did it.
What a shame about that one, the fist half was so very very good. I am not quite sure when exactly it lost it’s way, sometime after Jaka’s story I think. Maybe in the middle of Jaka’s Story.
OK - it’s officially on the to do list. Not high on the to do list, but I’ll probably get to it in a year or so.
Then I would keep an eye out for All-Star Superman, which just finished an excellent 13 issue arc, and should be collected soon in trade. I really enjoyed “Superman: Red Son”, also out of continuity. (And someone recommended “Superman: A Man For All Seasons” upthread, which I’ll second.)
Batman: Black & White was just collected in trade recently, and is an excellent collection.
Have you kept up on Sam Kieth? He’s done a lot of great work (semi-)recently. Zero Girl, Zero Girl: Full Circle, Four Women, Scratch. There’s also My Inner Bimbo, but I haven’t read it yet, so I can’t say it’s great, though I’m sure it is.
(huge Kieth fan here)
I was a huge Kieth fan (I was part of an email group and everything for a while) and I kept up through Four Women. I remember hearing about Scratch vaguely and didn’t know about My Inner Bimbo at all. Good things too look out for, thanks.
If you do get this. I should point out for the record that All-Star Superman should, and can only be read;With *awesome * Metal playing in the background. Kiss’s ‘God Gave Rock and Roll To You’ or equivalent. Turned up to 11.
heheh… so was I… We probably know each other, at least by name. (I used my real name on there, not this handle).
I forgot to mention Ojo, that’s another recent one by Kieth, and he also did a 5-issue batman book called Secrets. (Batman makes an extended cameo in Scratch, probably just to make it marketable from DC’s perspective, but Batman: Secrets is a full-on Bats and Joker story.) Wikipedia tells me he did something called Batman/Lobo: Deadly serious, too. I’ll have to pick it up.
Oh! Darwyn Cooke had a fantastic run resurrecting “The Spirit” (can you resurrect a resurrected character?). It’s collected in a very nice HC right now (and might be in trade as well).
If you end up liking Walking Dead, give Wasteland from Oni Press a try. Pretty terrific stuff.
Oh, what about Rising Stars by J Michael Straczinski? Or Joss Whedon’s Runaways?
We might, though if you don’t recognize NAF1138 you might not remember me. It was part of the email address I used back then. But I may well remember you. 
I did make a point of going out and getting Ojo, but I will also have to look for his Batman stuff. I loved the way he drew Batman.
I don’t know Runaways, but I remember hearing about Rising Stars. I remember it was a big deal when it started but…I don’t remember why I never looked into it. Did it have trouble coming out on a regular schedule?
Speaking of Whedon, is anyone reading his Buffy continuation comics? Are they any good?
Also thanks to everyone for putting up with this thread becoming sort of free form.
Joss Whedon’s Runaways lasted all of 6 issues. I would however highly recommend Brian Vaughn’s Runaways. It an interesting and fairly self containing story (Kids learn their parents are Eeeeeeeeevil). They reference other Marvel characters and have the occasional guest appearance, but you don’t need to have any comic knowledge to follow along. It the only thing I ever got my girlfriend to read. They are also available fairly cheaply in mini book form (Like $8 per 6 issues), which are much easier to store than comics or trade paperbacks.
Buffy Season Eight is solid, and I enjoy it.