Sooo..... Comic books. Anyone else think most of them are kinda teribble?

[campofapproval]

I think it's because you're looking for comics, which are more child-orientated. Graphic Novels, on the other hand, are more aimed at the adult audience. So, you should look more along the lines of Watchmen. Try and get some of Alan Moore's stuff like V for Vendetta, Prometheus, Swamp Thing and the like. You could also try some of the Batman Graphic Novels like Batman: Return of the Dark Knight, Batman: The Killing Joke and Batman: Year One. Those are my personal favourites. Though, Killing Joke and Year One are quite short, they are still fantastic reads.

yeah, i just get annoyed when people have that "oh it's graphic novels! it's not like archie comics or whatever!" vibe and act like everything not watchmen or sandman or critically-acclaimed what-have-you is meaningless, especially when they're so many great ongoing titles (mature and otherwise) coming out on a monthly basis. it's confusing terminology at best, pretentious and oblivious at worst.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Superhero comics tend to be that way, which is why I avoid them like the fucking plague.

Unless a comic is a stand-alone product, I'm not touching it. This is probably the same reason why I feel the Avengers movie can fuck right off.

 

[campofapproval]

Do you count graphic novels because there are many good ones out.
I hardly even read comic books.

once again, what does that mean? does that mean you only read comics in trade paperback form? does that mean you only read limited series that can be collected in one trade/hardcover edition? are you saying you only read comics that have strong story arcs?

 

[Lono Shrugged]

I am going to say this just once:
Read The Walking Dead.

honestly for the average joe not-comics-fan i'd say something like y, sandman, criminal, fables over the walking dead, depending on his/her tastes. the walking dead is deep but the dialogue's a bit wonky, some of the characters a bit shrill, the zombie thing's super-saturated in the media right now. something like a mature take on fairy tales living in new york city is an interesting premise not used in other media and it's not so oppressively dark from the get-go like twd tends to be.

I agree totally. Walking dead is one of the ones that got me back into comics. But it is incredibly bleak and even hardcore fans admit that it hits several brick walls. It really is a soap opera quality human drama and most people don't expect that going in. I am also slightly annoyed at the fact that over christmas I could barely move around my local store because of the 5 or so people all reading issue 1 in the shop because of the (awesome) t.v. show. I think walking dead is a great series but it is not at all THE definitive comic.

Preacher is!

hellblazer and especially sandman would give preacher a run for its money in that regard. i would say it's funny that brits have written so many important comic series and storylines in recent history but they gotta have something in which they excel, considering, you know.

Oh totally. I was kidding with Preacher being the best. I only read a little Hellblazer and loved it and Sandman is a work of art. Thankfully with guys like Brubaker Jason Aaron and Brian Vaughn the Yanks are making a comeback

Going back to the Walking Dead. I got my girlfriend into it when I convinced her it was a soap opera but all the plane/car crashes, pubs burning down, inoperable brain tumors etc. were replaced by zombies.

The clincher? "and in this every character who dies comes back!" the ultimate soap cliche

 

[Ranma12569]

I rarely read comics from DC and Marvel cause i have a nasty habbit of accidently picking up a comic that is directly in the middle of something and if i'm lucky i'll know who at least one character is.

I used to read a lot of manga and there's just as much terrible stuff with manga as there are with superhero comics.

It's very rare that i find good ones of either.

 

[thylasos]

The vast majority when i go into a store don't appeal in any way, certainly. A quick flick through reveals either half-arsed art or awful, hackneyed writing.

 

[drummond13]

100 Bullets? Y the Last Man? Ex Machina? Sandman? Hellblazer?

Comics are like any other medium. Most suck, but the few that are great absolutely rock.

 

[Thaluikhain]

As a kid, comics only seemed as a boring "spin off media" for the cartoon-tv series. Besides living in Germany - that gives you a fair and equal trade for american, manga and european mainstream & "arty" comics - I never got into it.

Seeing reviews now, comics seem VERY weired or collapsing under their canon.

I agree. I don't mind alot of DC stuff, but when it's all more or less set in the same universe...this week Batman investigates a smuggling ring, next week he helps Superman fight aliens, the week before he helped Zatanna fight demons...any of those could be fine on their own, stick them all together, not so much.

Also, the "no killing, even when it's obviously the right theing to do" rule gets really tiresome.

On the other hand, lots of independant stuff. Believe it or not, Tarot wasn't always ranty porn drivel, there were some good stories wya back when, but now it seems to be little more than supernatural rape porn.

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

Preacher is!

Amen(heh) to that! Jesse Custer is my all-time favourite comic book character.

 

[SoulIsTheGoal]

I know it's technically "A melodrama in 16 parts" but have you tried From Hell? That's got fantastic writing and artwork.
On my shelf currently I have Killing Joke and I can back up everyone else's claims that it's fantastic. I've not YET read a bad Alan Moore story, although I'm sure someone will flag one up!

I agree that 90% of them are terrible, like almost everyone else has, but if you buy the good ones maybe it will get people writing more of the good stuff?

 

[GothmogII]

I tend to follow the rule of 'Read for the Author over the Character'. Sure, you say: I like Batman. And that's perfectly fine, but don't be indiscriminate and simply pick up every title with Batman's name in it, do some research, find out the writers and creators that have done good work with the character and stories, read reviews, get opinions.

Comic reviews aren't so different from book or movie reviews, especially if you're just going after the trades (collected trade paperbacks) so you don't have any excuse really if you get saddled with The Dark Knight Strikes Again over the Dark Knight Returns. (The latter generally agreed to be one of Frank Miller's gems, the former one of Frank Miller's steaming piles.)

 

[campofapproval]

I am going to say this just once:
Read The Walking Dead.

honestly for the average joe not-comics-fan i'd say something like y, sandman, criminal, fables over the walking dead, depending on his/her tastes. the walking dead is deep but the dialogue's a bit wonky, some of the characters a bit shrill, the zombie thing's super-saturated in the media right now. something like a mature take on fairy tales living in new york city is an interesting premise not used in other media and it's not so oppressively dark from the get-go like twd tends to be.

I agree totally. Walking dead is one of the ones that got me back into comics. But it is incredibly bleak and even hardcore fans admit that it hits several brick walls. It really is a soap opera quality human drama and most people don't expect that going in. I am also slightly annoyed at the fact that over christmas I could barely move around my local store because of the 5 or so people all reading issue 1 in the shop because of the (awesome) t.v. show. I think walking dead is a great series but it is not at all THE definitive comic.

Preacher is!

hellblazer and especially sandman would give preacher a run for its money in that regard. i would say it's funny that brits have written so many important comic series and storylines in recent history but they gotta have something in which they excel, considering, you know.

Oh totally. I was kidding with Preacher being the best. I only read a little Hellblazer and loved it and Sandman is a work of art. Thankfully with guys like Brubaker Jason Aaron and Brian Vaughn the Yanks are making a comeback

Going back to the Walking Dead. I got my girlfriend into it when I convinced her it was a soap opera but all the plane/car crashes, pubs burning down, inoperable brain tumors etc. were replaced by zombies.

The clincher? "and in this every character who dies comes back!" the ultimate soap cliche

yeah, i'm especially excited to see what brubaker does with incognito and the next criminal story arc. is he still writing secret avengers? i sort of tuned out on that one cause of this and that.
yeah, the show's got some appeal to non-zombie movie fans, darabont showrunning and all. andrea touching moment with zombie amy was a nice bit of weepy business, not to mention the lori's-pregnant-with-shane's-baby-probably thing that seemed soap opera-ish when i first read it. wait, spoiler?

 

[hotacidbath]

No, not really. While Marvel and DC may be guilty of super-convoluted plots, there are plenty of other amazing comics that do not focus on super-heroes or impenetrable continuity dependent plots. Here are some easy to get into but still excellent series that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone:

Fables (and spin-off)
Hellboy (and spin-off)
Transmetropolitan
Y: The last man
The Umbrella Academy

You just took away half of my list.

I also enjoy Joe the Barbarian, The Boys (and it's spin-offs), Walking Dead, DMZ, Crossed, Incorruptible, Irredeemable, and almost anything by Grant Morrison or Warren Ellis (check out Freakangels). I personally tend to stay away from superhero comics, just because I feel that I'd have trouble jumping into the plot (though Planet Hulk, Arkham Asylum, and a few other Batman stories were phenomenal). Just browse around and find something new, don't feel that you have to read Superman or X-Men to read comics. There are plenty of non-super comics out there.

I tend to follow the rule of 'Read for the Author over the Character'.

Agreed. I could have my favorite character ever with every comic this character has been in and a poster on my wall of this character, but the second Rob Liefeld picked up the art and the story I would be out of there. Sometimes there are just bad authors/artists who don't do justice to good characters.

 

[asaen]

the only problem that I have with comic books is that for a graphic novel they have a crap lot of words, most of which are unnecessary.

Maybe if they shortened their dialog i could focus on what was actually happening in the story but in most comics i find myself confused midway then i just give up reading it

 

[campofapproval]

As a kid, comics only seemed as a boring "spin off media" for the cartoon-tv series. Besides living in Germany - that gives you a fair and equal trade for american, manga and european mainstream & "arty" comics - I never got into it.

Seeing reviews now, comics seem VERY weired or collapsing under their canon.

I agree. I don't mind alot of DC stuff, but when it's all more or less set in the same universe...this week Batman investigates a smuggling ring, next week he helps Superman fight aliens, the week before he helped Zatanna fight demons...any of those could be fine on their own, stick them all together, not so much.

Also, the "no killing, even when it's obviously the right theing to do" rule gets really tiresome.

On the other hand, lots of independant stuff. Believe it or not, Tarot wasn't always ranty porn drivel, there were some good stories wya back when, but now it seems to be little more than supernatural rape porn.

that's one thing with dc main continuity characters that gets old fast. i realize it would get ridiculous if every other guy in a costume acted like magog but when writing has to get ridiculous to make sure so-and-so villain doesn't die so the next writer of the series can set him free later, it's almost too much.

 

[campofapproval]

the only problem that I have with comic books is that for a graphic novel they have a crap lot of words, most of which are unnecessary.

Maybe if they shortened their dialog i could focus on what was actually happening in the story but in most comics i find myself confused midway then i just give up reading it

it really depends on the author's style. some series (particularly fantasy series) go the route of hellblazer and have gallons of text, while, say, noir-ish crime stories tend to be pretty sparse when it comes to dialogue and the ruminations of the hard-boiled protagonists. you might enjoy the parker series, recently given "graphic novel" treatment.

 

[OneOfTheMichael's]

Do you count graphic novels because there are many good ones out.
I hardly even read comic books.

once again, what does that mean? does that mean you only read comics in trade paperback form? does that mean you only read limited series that can be collected in one trade/hardcover edition? are you saying you only read comics that have strong story arcs?

Yes i enjoy 'graphic novels' that have a reasonably good story line. Graphic novels aren't exactly the same as comic books, graphic novels tend to act like a normal novel with a strong stroy, but illustrated. Comic books usually are filled with more action and movement, so that it needs to be illustrated to show the plot and what is happening. Paperbacks have nothing to do with the main stem of comic books or graphic novel.
They could both be collected if so chosen but then again, collection has nothing to do with it. But my main point is that i choose the book more 'advanced' (i.e. graphic novels), in my opinion.

BTW: From my previous statement i meant to say that i prefer story more than picture.

 

[Joepow]

I have to disagree. Sure, there´s a lot of crap ou there, but to say that most are terrible isnt accurate. If you read Vertigo, Dark Horse and Image books you´ll find plenty of variety outside the mainstream spandex superheroes. A few examples:

...
-The Dark Tower
...

Does it have anything to do with Steven King's The Dark Tower novels?

 

[Joepow]

What you might want to try:

100 Bullets
Y: The Last Man (already mentioned)
DMZ

edit: also, you might want to listen to what KuwaSanjuro mentioned: there are some brilliant Batman comics around

I find it funny that you don't recommend Watchmen while having Rorschach as an avatar.
(Sorry about the double post, I don't know how to quote manually yet.Any hinds would be apreciated )

 

[Nautical Honors Society]

Wait!!!!!! Don't flame just yet! Let me say my opinion first.
I don't hate the medium of comic books. I like the format of comic books just not the content. I like plenty of comic books. Scott pilgrim, Watchmen and that halo graphic novel was cool (elites are awesome). But the majority of comics are about super heroes which in and of it self isn't a bad thing. But the story's they get up to and the things they do is just this jumbled mess of barely related events that they just string together with barely relevant time travel and inter dimensional sub plots. Dc is particularly guilty of this.
I don't hate comic but I rarely find any that I like. Does anyone share a similar opinion? Could someone recommend me a series?

Based on what you have said you seem to like graphic novels over comic book, and in my experience they are usually better usually because more thought and time is put into their development. Also because they don't usually turn into 50 year serials.

But comics are cool too, you will just find a bunch of bad eggs in such a huge medium.