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bjj hero

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Hey peeps, I'm here to get some suggestions.

I've never been a big comic book fan. Its not that I dont like comics, I love super heroes and all that but times were tough growing up and there was not much disposable income so I missed out. I had an uncle who supplied me with 2000AD through the 90s so I followed that but I only saw Marvel and DC in video games and on TV.

So the other week I got a voucher as a gift and used it on the "civil war" graphic novel. I really, really, enjoyed it. The premise was good, it worked on multiple levels, it had superheroes throwing down and I liked the writing and art.

So any suggestions what to get next? If it helps I like the the more gritty art style favoured in 2000AD etc, not so keen on anything with huge eyes or overly cartoon-esque.

Thanks in advance.
 

Axolotl

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The guy who wrote Civil War has done several other great series. Firstly The Ultimates 1+2 (there was an ultimates 3 but it's by different people and it's awful) which was taking the Avengers and then updating them both to avoid the mountains of old continuity and to modernise in.

He also did a superhero series called The Authority which was great in either Mark Millar's or Warren Ellis' runs, they can be hard to track down but they're worth it.

He's also done a ton of his own series including Wanted, Kick-Ass and Nemesis which I personally like but alot of people hate.

Also read Watchmen, it's by two of the best people to ever work for 2000 AD and it's widely considered the best superhero comic ever.

Beyond those there's alot more but you haven't given much indication of what you like so I'll start with great stuff by 2000AD writters

Nemesis the Warlock, The Ballad of Halos Jones and Future Shocks. These three all ran in 2000 AD and are the best of it's early stuff, they've all been collected (look out especially for Alan Moore's Future Shocks) Nemesis kinda goes downhill in the second volume but the first is great.

Now the best 2000AD writer is Alan Moore, aside from Watchmen he's done V for Vendetta which is great as well as Miracleman which is even better. V is easy to get and has some of the best art of any comic ever. Miracleman's art conversely hasn't aged well and due to copyright issues it's almost impossible to get without spending silly money, you have to torrent it which obviously I can't condone due to forum rules. He's also done The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (with an artist from 2000AD)now the first two volumes are must reads but the later stuff (Black Dossier and Century) move away from te Victorian stuff and contain much more sex and weirdness some like them some don't. He also did From Hell which is a weird and brilliant tale of Jack The Ripper, the art isn't great but it might be worth checking out. He's also done Supreme and Top Ten which are both good but not must-reads, if you like his other stuff check them out. Oh and he did Neonomicon, you can ignore that.

Neil Gaiman who wrote for 2000AD has to my knowledge only done one major comic series which is Sandman. Now Sandman is possibly the best comic series ever. There are 10 volumes plus a couple of extras all of the are worth checking out, the art is less than great for some of them but the writing is always superb.

Grant Morrison did Zenith for 2000AD but I've never read it so I can't say if it's any good. What I can say is good are Animal Man, Doom Patrol, The Invisibles and The Filth. Now these are all very weird and sometimes very disturbing, he heavily uses crugs, postmodernism, dadaism, litterary refrences and just general weirdness. Some people find his work pretentious and incomprehensible but I think they're great. Invisibles is probably the best but the others are also good. He's also done Flex Mentallo which is just a giant pile of WTF (but with good art) and Arkham Asylum which is him applying oldshcool psychoanalysis to Batman, this has brilliant art but is really hard to understand, worth reading if you find the idea of scenes symbolizing Batman's repressed homosexuality entertaining.

And last but by no means least Garth Ennis, he's written some of the best runs on Judge Dredd and The Punisher, both of which are easy to find. He's also done a ton of smaller series including Hitman, Crossed, various World War 2 conmics and a ton of other stuff. His best series however are Preacher, which is about a Texas preist going out to find God, it's very good but to just give you an idea of the tone of the series there's a major character in it called Arseface. His other best series is The Boys which is superheros series done by someone who hates superheros, it's very good with great art (mostly) but it does have alot of moments where when reading I just stopped and thought "Why would anybody ever write that?". So it's good but just make sure you can handle some really messed up stuff.
 

Kahunaburger

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Watchmen, Sandman, Nausicaa, Hellboy, Persepolis. I don't even like comic books that much and I really liked these.
 

bjj hero

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Axolotl said:
Beyond those there's alot more but you haven't given much indication of what you like so I'll start with great stuff by 2000AD writters
Oops, reading it back Ive given no indication at all. A lot of my view of 2000AD is from the 90s and heavily tainted my nostalgia I imagine. There is no saying I'd enjoy a re read the same way. You would hope my tastes have matured since I was a teenager but taste is relative. Having said that, here goes:

I loved Sinister Dexter. I liked the take on hyper-macho, super violent bromance, about 15 years before it was cool to laugh at it. I also liked that they were both different from your standard white male American marine protagonist.

Slain was fantastic but my favourite was Finn the white witch, I think it was written by Mills but it was quite short lived.

I also found Nikolai Dante and the short lived Cannon Fodder far too cool. I dont really remember who the writers were and I also liked the staples like Judge Dread. I can remember thinking the Batman/Judge Dread cross over my friend had was the coolest thing ever. Just the idea of JD arresting Batman as a vigilante seemed pure genius to me.

Thank you for your suggestions, Ill gradually creep through them starting with your must read examples. Its interesting you mention The Punisher. I always felt I could get into The Punisher but have no idea where to start.

Is 32 too young for a midlife crisis?
 

bjj hero

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Programmed_For_Damage said:
bjj hero said:
Is 32 too young for a midlife crisis?
Nope. I had one at 30.

Watchmen is what turned me on to graphic novels, so much so I'm working on my own with my brother.
Sweet, thats a big undertaking. Best of luck.

To be fair I had my first midlife crisis at 17 so anything can happen.
 

Elementary - Dear Watson

RIP Eleuthera, I will miss you
Nov 9, 2010
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bjj hero said:
Thank you for your suggestions, Ill gradually creep through them starting with your must read examples. Its interesting you mention The Punisher. I always felt I could get into The Punisher but have no idea where to start.
I love Marvel Heroes Vs The Punnisher for a short one off tale! See how you get on with him!

Similar to him, on the Top Cow label is The Darkness and Witchblade... both are awesome, and they interwine a lot! Both series have 2 very good compendiums, all in colour with very good art... Very dark stuff in there too... there are also some stand alone Darkness stuff that is good!

I heard of a Darkness vs Wolverine and Darkness Vs Batman too... I am desperately trying to find out if they actually exist...! :/
 
Aug 25, 2009
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I suppose the classics are always worth a mention: V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Batman: Year One (or Dark Knight Returns if you like that sort of thing), Sin City should cover all your gritty bases, then Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, All Star Superman, DC: The New Frontier, Justice, Kingdom Come for the more upbeat (and beautifully drawn) comics.

As for regular everyday reading... I'm very much enjoying parts of the DC reboot, mostly the Batman/Batman and & Robin stuff, and I've heard people say good things about the Avengers recently (I don't read Marvel so I can't really help you there)

What exactly are you after? When I got back into comics I was focusing on classic DC, particularly Batman, so I bought all the stuff like The Killing Joke, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Knightfall and No Man's Land, and I enjoy those a lot, but if you're looking for independents I'd have a look at Image (The Walking Dead, Invincible) or some of Alan Moore's more recent work (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Tom Strong, Lost Girls)

And are you looking for dark and gritty or light and classic superhero stories. Tom Strong is one of the best comic books I've read in the last four years, but if you're not after a reconstruction of the classic golden age superhero then don't bother. On the other side most of the grim and gritty I've actually liked (that aren't parodies or too over the top) would be the ones mentioned above from the early 90s.
 
Mar 26, 2008
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bjj hero said:
Programmed_For_Damage said:
bjj hero said:
Is 32 too young for a midlife crisis?
Nope. I had one at 30.

Watchmen is what turned me on to graphic novels, so much so I'm working on my own with my brother.
Sweet, thats a big undertaking. Best of luck.

To be fair I had my first midlife crisis at 17 so anything can happen.
Thank you. It is a big undertaking when I have currently written 40 pages of dialogue and layout and he has drawn one page ;-)
 

Vault101

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Sep 26, 2010
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I just started "Morning glories" the other day...it was awsome...

I like comics but I get very tried of "superhero bullshit"..which is why I love "The Boys" because it bashes that over the head with a club :p

I also started "Irredeemable" which has a few similar Ideas to "the boys"
 

Sprogus

The Lord of Dreams
Jan 8, 2009
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As others have mentioned Watchmen and Sandman are a good place to start.

I recommend Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan. It's about a virus that that kills very male mammal except a boy and his monkey.

Also checkout Johnny the homicidal maniac, Squee! and I Feel Sick by Jhonen Vasquez (creator of invader zim) if you are looking for something with dark humour.
 

neonsword13-ops

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Mar 28, 2011
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Does Scott Pilgrim count?

Because I say Scott Pilgrim. Very funny and isn't hindered by Michael Cera's dull performance.

I don't read many graphics novels. >.>
 

Boggelz

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neonsword13-ops said:
Does Scott Pilgrim count?

Because I say Scott Pilgrim. Very funny and isn't hindered by Michael Cera's dull performance.

I don't read many graphics novels. >.>
I was hoping I was the going to be the first to say that, but yes. I have been able to re-read Scott Pilgrim so many times and still seems fresh.

I also loved the Bone series by Jeff Smith, though I haven't read them in a few years, not too sure if will still seem as good as I've gotten a little older. But it was a cool and fun series.
 

Existentialistme

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neonsword13-ops said:
Does Scott Pilgrim count?

Because I say Scott Pilgrim. Very funny and isn't hindered by Michael Cera's dull performance.

I don't read many graphics novels. >.>
Scott Pilgrim counts. It's excellent. It might be because I started reading them when I was 15, but I love Ultimate Spider-Man roughly up until Carnage unnecessarily makes an appearance. I lost track after that, though I heard Bendis actually pulled off the clone saga rather well. One good thing to do is just to pick a superhero or group of superheroes you like and then Google "10 Best *insert superhero/heroes here* Story Arcs" That should give you some good insight into what's highly thought of.
 

octafish

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Apr 23, 2010
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Axolotl said:
snip
Also read Watchmen, it's by two of the best people to ever work for 2000 AD and it's widely considered the best superhero comic ever.
I think The Dark Knight Returns is better, particularly with the art, but also the better understanding of media and story telling traditions. People say it caused a dark age of comic books, but standing alone it is pretty spectacular. Certainly the only think by Frank Miller I'd ever recommend.

Axolotl said:
Now the best 2000AD writer is Alan Moore, aside from Watchmen he's done V for Vendetta which is great as well as Miracleman which is even better. snip He also did From Hell which is a weird and brilliant tale of Jack The Ripper, the art isn't great but it might be worth checking out.
From Hell is Moore's best work, but The Killing Joke is good too.

Axolotl said:
Neil Gaiman who wrote for 2000AD has to my knowledge only done one major comic series which is Sandman.
Eh. Read his novels, skip the comics.

Axolotl said:
Grant Morrison did Zenith for 2000AD but I've never read it so I can't say if it's any good. What I can say is good are Animal Man, Doom Patrol, The Invisibles and The Filth. Now these are all very weird and sometimes very disturbing, he heavily uses crugs, postmodernism, dadaism, litterary refrences and just general weirdness. Some people find his work pretentious and incomprehensible but I think they're great. EDIT Invisibles Doom Patrol /EDIT is probably the best but the others are also good. He's also done Flex Mentallo which is just a giant pile of WTF. snip
Prepare to be fictional! I can't recommend Flex Mentallo to newbies as it is basically a critique/love note to Silver Age comics, and you do need a passing knowledge of this era for it to make sense.

Axolotl said:
And last but by no means least Garth Ennis, he's written some of the best runs on Judge Dredd and The Punisher, both of which are easy to find. He's also done a ton of smaller series including Hitman, Crossed, various World War 2 conmics and a ton of other stuff. His best series however are Preacher, which is about a Texas preist going out to find God, it's very good but to just give you an idea of the tone of the series there's a major character in it called Arseface. snip
Hitman is better, Preacher is a bit of a unfocused rant at religion. Hitman is more measured. Like with TDKR and Miller, Hitman is the only thing I would recommend from Ennis...plus it has Dogwelder.

You need to read Maus: A Survivors Tale though. The most important comic ever written.

You liked Civil War, but that is a huge story. I'll throw out the Spiderman story Kraven's Last Hunt. It is my favorite Marvel story of all time. Also if you see it in a shop pick up and read Moon Knight Volume 6. Don't buy unless you dig it. That one divides people they either like it or they don't. Iffy art at times, and there aren't a lot of Bendis fans out there, but it is the darkest mainstream superhero comic I've read that fits in with the wider continuity.

If you feel like searching e-Bay you might be able to pick up the a collection of John Ostrander's run on Suicide Squad for about $300 or so plus shipping. Worth every penny. The best long form story in comic books, tragically never collected in TPB. Second tier Super Villains used as a Dirty Dozen style hit squad by US covert agents. Words cannot describe the awesomeness of Suicide Squad.

EDIT: The Tick is available in collected form too. He's nigh invulnerable.
 

smearyllama

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I am going to recommend you AKIRA. Yeah, it's sorta manga, but the presentation is more of a graphic novel, due to the large size of the volumes (definitely check the local libraries for this one- it can be expensive to buy all the books) and the left-to-right format. The plot is generally more serious, and is possibly one of the best-written works out there. Also, there's motorcycle battles between rival gangs in the streets of Neo-Tokyo, involving one clown-themed gang, as well as super-powered teens on psychoactive drugs wreaking havoc, and about thirty pages of explosions and tidal waves halfway through the series.

EDIT: The Walking Dead, too, if it counts. I only really got the collected volumes until I was up-to-date. It's possibly the best tale of survival during the zombie apocalypse, mostly because it balances human drama (which the show delves too much into) with the day-to-day struggles of living in a zombie world, as well as not being over-reliant on just slaughtering hordes of zombies for the lulz.
 

Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
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Axolotl said:
And last but by no means least Garth Ennis, he's written some of the best runs on Judge Dredd and The Punisher, both of which are easy to find. He's also done a ton of smaller series including Hitman, Crossed, various World War 2 conmics and a ton of other stuff. His best series however are Preacher, which is about a Texas preist going out to find God, it's very good but to just give you an idea of the tone of the series there's a major character in it called Arseface. His other best series is The Boys which is superheros series done by someone who hates superheros, it's very good with great art (mostly) but it does have alot of moments where when reading I just stopped and thought "Why would anybody ever write that?". So it's good but just make sure you can handle some really messed up stuff.
Hitman isnt based on the videogame is it? (I know..dumb question) whats it like?

I think The Boys almost rivals Preacher as my favorite...though preacher was an absolute riot

[quote/]it's very good with great art (mostly)[/quote] <- Darrick Robertson is awsome..

as much as I love Preacher and The Boys (they don't really bother me in terms of graphic content) I don't know about Crossed...seems a bit much for me (for similar reasons why I havnt given Y the last man and Walking dead a look)

octafish said:
Hitman is better, Preacher is a bit of a unfocused rant at religion. Hitman is more measured. Like with TDKR and Miller, Hitman is the only thing I would recommend from Ennis...plus it has Dogwelder.
I don't mean to come across as a Fanboy idiot (ok I probably will but anyway) while its fine to dislike/like different works I don't see why you'd "not recomend" things (not geniunly bad works, but well liked stuff you don't like) based purely on your own personal taste....

because I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from checking out somthing they mgiht geniunly enjoy...even if I don't

or mabye you were just pointing that out for discussion reasons...
 

Neonbob

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Dec 22, 2008
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Warren Ellis! He is amazing. Transmetropolitan never fails to make me smile when I read it.
Eric Powell is another great writer/artist. The Goon is a fantastic series, and I highly suggest it to anyone who is even somewhat interested in comics.
Someone else already mentioned it, but Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is quite a fun read.
 

Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
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Neonbob said:
Warren Ellis! He is amazing. Transmetropolitan never fails to make me smile when I read it.
Eric Powell is another great writer/artist. The Goon is a fantastic series, and I highly suggest it to anyone who is even somewhat interested in comics.
Someone else already mentioned it, but Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is quite a fun read.
have you read Planetary?

I got the first trade paperback to give it a look...but it really pissed me off how it seemed to jump all over the palce...(I guess I havnt got that far though)