I need something to read . . .

[FigureFour]

I just finished Transmetropolitan, and am looking for something similarly angry and insane, but most importantly FANTASTICLY well written.

After reading Transmetropolitan, Preacher, Sandman and Swamp Thing, nothing else seems to hold up.
I started 100 Bullets, it's not bad and seems to be improving, but I'm not sure if it's worth finishing. Anyone else know?

Come on, someone throw out some suggestions.


But be warned, if I hear some sub par shit in your post, I will yell.
No DBZ, no Naruto, nothing below literary excillence.

[Alucard1515]

League of Extraordinary Gentleman 1 and 2- I know it's Alan Moore, so you've either already read it, or have heard of it. But, it's really great, so give it a shot if you haven't.

Dan Slott- Not a book, but a writer. I was given a trade for Christmas called Arkham Asylum: Living Hell (not that HORRIBLY overrated Arkham Asylum book by Morrison), and was pleasantly surprised. He also wrote She Hulk (and the upcoming "second season"), and is now writing the AWESOME GLA (Great Lakes Avengers).

Arkham Asylum is fun, but insane and has really dark humor. It's basically about this embezzeler who thinks he's hot shit. He's put on trial, but pleads insanity. Problem is, the judge knows he's just trying to save himself from jail time and turns his defense against him by sending him to Arkham. So the whole story is about this normal guy trying to not get killed and/or go insane in Arkham. Instead of becomming a prison bitch, the doctor suggests that he have a "super villain team up" to survive, and soon ends up being Two Face's coin flipper. Anyway, it's all about Arkham, and Batman hardly shows up, but it's a really awesome book.

She Hulk is not nearly as dark, but is a fun read especially if you know a lot about comic book history. It's not as much a superhero book, because it focuses on Jennifer Walters the lawyer, and not so much on She Hulk the super hero.

Great Lakes Avengers is only on issue 2 (he's doing this between working on She Hulk), but it's really great so far. Basically, it's about a bunch of wannabe Avengers that have really shitty powers. It's partially superhero book, and slightly dark (darker than She Hulk, not as much as Arkham Asylum) just because every issue someone dies.

Robert Kirkman is also very good:
WALKING DEAD. I don't know if you like zombies, but if you do, GET IT DAMNIT. Even if you don't, still get it. I got DN to read it, and he's not really into zombies, but he loves it. It's like a never ending Romero movie.
Invincible. I don't know if you'd be into it, because it's just a light hearted superhero book (for the most part), but it's a good read.

Brian K Vaugh:
Y The Last Man: You read Vertigo and haven't read this yet? What's wrong with you!?!
Ex Machina: You're into politics, so you should enjoy this. It's about a former superhero (has the power to control any machine) who gives that up and becomes mayor of New York.
Runawyas: Interesting read about a group of teenagers who find out their parents are supervillains. They... runaway, and try to figure out what's going on, and discover their own powers along the way. The first series was 18 issues, and the second series has just started (on issue 3 or 4 right now).

Supreme Power:
Justice League with an R rating... done by Marvel. Hyperion (Superman) is still discovered by a smal town couple, but the government steps in a takes him away, raising him as their own, controlling him and using him for their own purposes. All the major Justice League characters have analogues in this series.


...goddamn I love comics.

[FigureFour]

Oh yeah . . .
I should also have specified, I prefer finished collections not ongoing serieses. That's about all that's keeping me from reading Ex Machina.

Allready read League of Extrordinary Gentlemen (quality stuff) and Invincible (I also enjoyed it. Bi-plane is the best villan I have ever seen).


Also, I didn't know that DN WROTE zombie comics, I thought he just READ them . . .

Yeah, I guess I should be reading Y huh?

[Alucard1515]

Also, I didn't know that DN WROTE zombie comics, I thought he just READ them . . .
That's how good I am.

I should also have specified, I prefer finished collections not ongoing serieses. That's about all that's keeping me from reading Ex Machina.
Y, 100 Bullets, and Invincible are ongoing. :P
Anyway, give some of them a chance to get a few collections and then wait it out.

[FigureFour]

Well shit . . .

100 Bullets seems to at least be a collection of relativly independant stories that I can purchase in TPB form.

I just hate it when I have to wait a month for another issue that I read in like 10 minutes.

I don't like the monthly publishing format at all . . . I wish more comics were written like books.

Speaking of which . . . Have you read Blankets? If you like comics, you should read Blankets!

It's by Craig Thompson (did Goodbye Chunky Rice) and it's an autobiographical tale about first love and loosing your faith in god. It's a touching story of human emotion. It's ****ing beautiful.

And while I'm talking about awesome comics, have you read Top 10? It's Alan Moore, so I'll assume you have, but DAMN I love that book! Well, those two books.

Still haven't read the Smax spinnoff though.

[Alucard1515]

Haven't read that yet. I collect so much monthly and in trade format, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. It is on my todo list though.

I just hate it when I have to wait a month for another issue that I read in like 10 minutes.
Man... I read over 30 books a month. I don't even remember what the hell is going on by the next month half the time.

[FigureFour]

That's kind of sad.

I don't read as much as you do, but every comic I read has touched my heart in ways nothing else can.

[Alucard1515]

I'm exaggerating. :P

I like most of the books I read, but there's only a handful I'd gladly recommend, mostly depending on what they're into. It's just that if you read so much AND have to wait a month in between stories, it get's kind of hard to keep up with what's going on, it's not because I'm uninterested.

[FigureFour]

I didn't think you were uninterested. I just wouldn't bother to go through that much hassle for most books out there. If it's really that good, it'll be published as a TPB sooner or later and I can read it in bigger easier chunks.

I'm really hoping that the format catches on and more books are written as larger volumes. I think it would do WONDERS for the comic industry.

[Alucard1515]

AGH! My computer locked up and I lost most of this message...

Well, most books ARE collected nowadays, even monthly books that they have no intention of ever ending. And the problem with focusing on collections is that you'd have to wait even longer to get those stories, even though you'd be getting more content.

Also, some writers don't really work in the story arch format. Some books have continuous stories, without any clear cut story breaks.

I do love collected trades, just because you get everything at once, especially if the series is already over, or almost complete. I just think the wait would be just as bad if they released them every 6 months, instead of monthly.

[FigureFour]

Yeah, I know there's downsides, and the wait is a huge one, but there are enough FANTASTIC comics allready collected that I at least have something to do while I'm waiting.

And I have a special beef for monthly books that they have no intention of ever ending. I love to see a story come to a conclusion, even if it makes me sad that there isn't going to be any more, I hate that less then when something I love get's canceled half way through or changes writers and/or declines in quality to the point where I hate a series I used to love.

I get really attached to these stories. I like to know that they will be ended properly and with dignity.

[Alucard1515]

Yeah, I know there's downsides, and the wait is a huge one, but there are enough FANTASTIC comics allready collected that I at least have something to do while I'm waiting.
But it's the same with books that are monthly.

And I have a special beef for monthly books that they have no intention of ever ending.
It depends on what it is. It doesn't really bother me that a lot of the major companys' super hero books never end, because they're not really the same thing. They just pass hands, and you get to see different takes on those characters. Sometimes that sucks, sometimes you get something really interesting. It also builds this huge history that you can draw from that you can't really do in a book that's self contained, with a planned ending. Not that I don't love those too, they're just different.

[FigureFour]

Oh, I've enjoyed my fair share of super hero romps, but I'm a huge fan of storytelling. And while I get a kick out of Wolverine, nothing he's ever been in has been half as cool as Sandman.

And reading a bunch of monthly books at once kind of bothers me. I like to sit down and go through one series, then progress to another.

I'm never really reading more then two comics at a time.

[Alucard1515]

I'd go crazy if I had to wait to finish one series before moving to another. When doing trades, though, I do like to focus on one or two series at a time.

And even the superhero books are starting to move towards the trade format. A lot of them are focusing more on 6 or 12 issue runs with a set creative team. They'll tell a few stories (or one large one) that's basically self contained (though it is obviously interconnected with the other books in the same universe), and you've got a collection right there. I'm not saying it's Sandman level material, but a lot of it's good, and more of a cohesive story. Some of it's good, some of it's not.

[FigureFour]

Yeah. I just can't be bothered to seperate the good stuff from the not so good stuff.
I'm not really interested in reading the not so good stuff.

On a slightly unrelated note, have you read Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential art?
If you love comics as much as I do (and it seems you do) and want to have a good understanding of comics as an artistic medium, it is an AMASING read. No one knew comics like Eisner.

[Alucard1515]

No, I haven't. I haven't read a lot of books about comics, or any really. I'll probably check it out.

[FigureFour]

It's pretty intense, it's aimed more at comic creators then comic readers, but it's not a how to traw book.

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is actually pretty good as well.


I started reading Y The Last Man (Damn, I work fast!) and so far I'm enjoying it. Just read the bit about the "monument turned into an ad hoc memorial for all the men".

Couldn't help but get a chuckle out of what monument it was. It's bloody obvious.

[DN]

If you're looking for collected stuff that's not running anymore, you could try:

Alias: NOTHING to do with the tv series. It's written by Brian Micheal Bendis and it's about a pretty insecure superhero named Jessica Jones. There's only 28 issues, and then they cancelled it and moved her character over to the Pulse. Still, the stories are separate enough that you could read them.

Runaways: I don't remember if Vaughn wrote the first series also, but this is about a bunch of teenagers who find out their parents are really a super secret crime organization. This one also stopped after about 20 issues, but then restarted recently since it was popular.

We3:: Only 3 issues, so you really have no excuse. It's about some lab animals that run wild by Grant Morrison.

Automatic Kafka: I would try to explain the story to you, but I haven't finished it yet and am still a little confused. I was drawn to it though since I like Ashley Wood and he's the artist. It's a pretty twisted comic though.

I'll need to think of others. None of these are probably up on the same level as some of the ones you've already read, but I still like them.

And yeah, I realize it's hard sometimes reading a continuing story, but you do need to read Walking Dead, Y, and Invincible, at least. Those 3 are all excellent and probably the main reasons I started collecting again (damn Al).

[edit]Oh, and Al, I read the first 2 issues of GLA last night and they were funny. It says it's only going to be 4 issues.

[FigureFour]

Well, I've allready read Alias, but I'll take the other's into consideration.

Bendis is a pretty ****ing awesome writer, especially in Alias, since it's more his then any other books of his that I've read.

As I said, reading Y now, and allready read a big chunk of Invincible (all that was printed at the time, but that was months ago, so I'd imagine there's a few newer issues). I guess I'll have to read Walking Dead too.

And as a side not about Y and continuing stories, so far, I'm not really counting it as continuing, seeing as it seems to have a plotline that, while it may still be running now, seems likely to have an end out there somewhere.

[DN]

Oh, I forgot Powers, since that was Bendis also. You mentioned Alias, and Powers was also exclusively his book since it was printed independently up until recently when they got picked up by Marvel. It's split up though because of it and the first volume has about 35 issues.

And yeah, Vaughn has said that he expects Y to end somewhere around 70 issues if I remember correctly.

[Alucard1515]

Vaughn wrote all of Runaways.

I can't believe I forgot Alias. I guess I did just because I haven't read it for a while.

If you like Bendis, read his work on Daredevil. It's coming to an end soon, so while the book is still an ongoing, his stuff is going to be done. The whole Marvel Knights DD is good stuff. Keven Smith wrote the first book (first half in the hardcover), which was also good, but very different. There was one other story line which fills the second book (or second half of the hardcover), and the rest is Bendis. He uses the same artist that worked on Alias, so it has that really unique look to it, and it's less about superhero stuff than it is about the character of Matt Murdock. He still goes out and kicks ass, but it's mostly dealing with how his life changes once his identity is outed to the press. He denies it, of course, so it's not that everyone knows and believes that he is DD, but it's out there, and it makes for an interesting read. I only have the first 3 hardcovers, and I'll probably wait for them to release that way. They're also released in softcover, and it goes up to 11 right now. I think the next collection is going to be his last.

And since Vaughn has come up a few times, you might like his Ultimate X-Men stuff. Even if you were to catch up on the whole series, there's not a ton of books. You should still be able to get the gist of everything just reading his stories if you prefer. The story he did with Longshot was really interesting, and he did a self contained story just recently with Steve Dillon (Preacher) doing pencils.

[FigureFour]

I read the first collected volume of Ultimate X-Men, and I enjoyed it ok, but I really haven't liked the Ultimate line that much. Most of it is (of course) just a retelling of stories I allready know, and I find that kind of boring.

I of course make an exception for The Ultimates, because that seemed more of a parody of The Avengers then anything else.

I might look into this Daredevil thing, as Bendis is definatly a good writer, and I used to like Daredevil, way back when I actually read it.


OH MY GOD! Yorick has a "**** Comunism" lighter! I love this comic more and more!

[Alucard1515]

I read the first collected volume of Ultimate X-Men, and I enjoyed it ok, but I really haven't liked the Ultimate line that much. Most of it is (of course) just a retelling of stories I allready know, and I find that kind of boring.
I've heard that before, but I don't really get where it's coming from. Ultimate X-Men is NOTHING like the regular X-Men. There are definitely parallels, but they don't follow things that closely. I love it exactly because I do know the old stories, and it's fun to see them take those ideas and completely reinterpret them. The origins and the basics are usually the same, but the stories don't play out anything like the original stories.

OH MY GOD! Yorick has a "**** Comunism" lighter! I love this comic more and more!
Ha, oh yeah, I forgot about that.

[FigureFour]

I'm thinking more about Ultimate Spiderman then Ultimate X-Men. X-Men was pretty good, but not as good as I had hoped.

I didn't really like Ultimate Spiderman that much, although I've found it's great for reference pics of people in stupid crazy poses. Spiderman is always good for that.