read a comic book

My friend decided, it was time for my first comic book, and forced me to read X-Men. :)

I hang out at the local comic book store, but I’ve never read a comic book in my entire life!

I didn’t like comic books for ages – then I was feeling down because I hadn’t finished an actual novel in ages so I went down to the library and thought I’d read a comic so I could get the sense of completion/achievement. (yeah I know, pretty sad).

I read 1001 Nights of Bacchus and then picked up a title called 100 Bullets cos I noticed there were several volumes of it – I’m a sucker for continuing stories. It was everything I wanted from a comic and led to me now spending an embarassing amount of money each month on new comics…

If you’re put off by the whole superhero thing (I was at first and kinda still am) dive in Vertigo comics (owned by DC). They do 100 Bullets, Sandman, Preacher, Lucifer, Transmetropolitan, Hellblazer and are praised by the people who write book quotes for being thoughtful, funny and genre-challenging. Or something. I like them anyway.

This is definitely something that everyone should do. It’s a great way to immerse yourself into a different world. Plus, there are pictures to make is more like a movie experience.

Just re-read “The Death of the Green Lantern Corp” two weeks ago, and it just as brilliant now as it was when i first read it over 20 years ago.

I have read several comic books over the years. Mainly Marvel ones. All were enjoyable and fun :)

If you’re looking for outside-the-box type comics, try Cerebus, The Watchmen, Miracleman, or Sandman. If you’re looking for solid superhero action, check out The Dark Knight, The Killing Joke, The Teen Titans: Judas Contract and Terror of Trigon, JLI, John Byrne’s FF run, or Dreadstar. If you’re looking for zaniness, you can’t go wrong with Ambush Bug. :)

When I was a kid the path was clear. Now.. there are so many comics about so many things.. How do you find new stories to endear to? How do you get the signal to noise of quality?

I feel like the new way to read a comic series is by snapshots. A handful from this series a couple from that. It’s hard to just collect an entire one anymore. I wish online stores or the distributors themselves would do better at online sales/subscriptions/tracking. It needs to evolve. ;)

Probably my last year’s reading; the GI Joe vs Transformers & Transformers War Within series were well executed. I’ve started picking up Spawns irradically just because I still enjoy floating in the plot. X-Men confuse me. I’m lost in the past I so vividly remember and I can’t track the different splits or their rate of hitting the shelves. If I miss a few weeks well crap, I’ve broken the time line and my archiving. A short series was Kore which sold very fast and the intro story makes me wait for more. My wife consistantly reads Wonder Woman which has some real talent behind the pen.

I’ll keep wandering,

-C9