Comic Books & Graphic Novels - What are you reading?

[marurun]

I am in book 3 of Exiles and Volume 2 of The Age of Apocalypse, The Complete Epic. Exiles is OK. It is trying some new stuff, but it still strays too far into "why are the women always posing like that?" territory. The Age of Apocalypse stuff crossed so many different titles, that getting them collected all together is creating something of a confusing experience. Some titles are very good, and some kinda suck. It's interesting to tackle this content in this way, though.

I read Captain Marvel v.1 (Marvel Now) and Ms. Marvel v.1 recently and loved the crap out of them. G. Willow Wilson and Kelly Sue DeConnick rock the hizzouse. Really enjoyed the first couple volumes of Batwoman from DC as well.

I may have to do a top 10 or 15 here after I've read up a little more.

[SpaceBooger]

The Age of Apocalypse is my favorite X-Men story ever.

I am currently hooked on DC's weekly books: Batman Eternal and Futures End. Futures End seems to be setting up Convergence, which will result in DC going back to a diverse Multiverse where... gasp the old DCU, including Superman in his modesty briefs, still exist.

I have been trying to catch up on DC's Earth 2, it's a pretty cool take on an alternate DC Universe similar to The Age of Apocalypse.

[Gamerforlife]

I'm backlogged on a LOT of my comic book reading lately, but I mostly read Buffy, Angel & Faith, Fables, The Walking Dead and the various Bat books

Will soon be reading this too:



I don't really keep up with Marvel these days, hard enough keeping up with DC and my Dark Horse books. What I know of Marvel these days comes from TV and movies. However, as a wrestling fan I recently got this:



for the CM Punk story

[Sload Soap]

Read a few very early Legion of Superheroes issues where they basically spend their time trolling Superboy until he cries. XD It's no wonder he went crazy and tried to kill them all.

[Tanooki]

I just took down all of (1-10) Rosario + Vampire which was better than I expected. I do have next to go through that 200~pg manga for Final Fantasy Type-O as I got that box set as a gift.

[Nemoide]

I read a lot of comics and actually am planning on pairing down the list of titles I follow. But I'll list some of my favorite currently-running series:

Afterlife With Archie - ARCHIE + ZOMBIES I've always been a bit of a sucker for Archie comics. I'm pretty sure my first ever comic book was an Archie digest! I've also always been a fan of horror, so this series is EXTREMELY my jam. It's emphatically not for children, but I find each issue to be an absolute delight. The tone is super-serious but there is simultaneously a "ridiculousness" element that comes from the fact that it's Archie and the basic Archie-premise is still there. My only problem with the series is that there's too much space between issues! The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is another Archie-horror series I'm digging but only one issue is out so far...

ElfQuest: The Final Quest - I *love* ElfQuest. It's a series that follows Elves in their struggle for survival in a fantasy world. As the title implies The Final Quest is probably not the best jumping on point. But the "original quest" has all been collected into one volume and I'd highly recommend it. The series is very feminine and rooted in the emotions of the elves. It feels silly at some times but super-serious at others. I love it.

Nameless - Grant Morrison (The Invisibles, All-Star Superman) is back to being his Grant Morrisony self with this miniseries. I don't know how much this series appeals to folks who also aren't interested in "dark" occultism, but I'm totally enjoying it. I feel like the premise is too dense to write a good synopsis, but it's about a sort of mage-for-hire (we're talking real-style occultism, not Harry Potter) who is tasked with stopping a mysterious asteroid from hitting the earth. Meanwhile people are going insane and killing those around them and writing messages in Enochian in blood on walls...
I won't give it a full description but Annihilator is another dark still-running story by Grant Morrison I'd recommend.

Rachel Rising - A supernatural horror story by Terry Moore that starts off about a young woman who wakes up from the dead in a shallow grave with a rope tied around her neck. The story deserves to be read to be experienced because saying it's about witches and an ancient demon in a small midwestern town doesn't really do it justice. Also all of the main characters are women, which is something I like. THIS IS ONE SERIES I WISH MORE PEOPLE WERE READING.

Saga - It's a family drama in a space opera. It's a pretty wild sci-fi story in that it doesn't even care about crafting a scientifically believable world and instead uses the space opera tropes and imagery to tell an emotionally-driven story about a few characters. I think it has pretty broad appeal: I liken the setting to Star Wars but I think it's way better than Star Wars could ever be. Whenever someone asks me what comic they should try, this is what I typically recommend.

Sex - The premise is basically a Batman-type superhero retires and doesn't know how to live a "normal" CEO-type life. The series kind of trades capes & fights for sex & kink in a way I find pretty interesting. This probably won't appeal to everyone but if the idea examining characters who have had their sexual identity and superhero identity tied together sounds interesting, I'd recommend it.

Sex Criminals - TOTALLY UNRELATED TO THE ABOVE COMIC. But oh man, I really like this. The story mostly follows two young lovers who have the ability to stop the flow of time in the world around them when they have orgasms. Sexual politics, psychological hang-ups, and wacky hijinks ensue! After Saga, this is the title I'm most likely to recommend people who are looking for new series to read. Who doesn't find sex interesting? And the letters pages in each issue are *PURE GOLD* - I think it's even included in the newish hardcover collection. Words can't even describe how hard I laugh during those letters pages... but they're poignant too! It's a special combination.

Tuki: Save the Humans - The latest comic by Jeff Smith of Bone fame. It's only three issues in but Smith never disappoints me. It tells the story of the first human (homo erectus) to leave Africa. He hasn't left yet, but he has encountered a number of other hominid species which makes it already pretty interesting.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl - I swore off buying new Marvel comics years and years ago... Squirrel Girl won me back. It's written by Ryan North who writes a webcomic called Dinosaur Comics and has previously written the main Adventure Time comic as well as a limited series called The Midas Flesh. His sense of humor aligns PERFECTLY with mine, so each issue is a delight. I also really like how the main character isn't a sexpot but is instead a pretty awesome dorky kind of lady. I feel like the title "Unbeatable Squirrel Girl" should be enough to pique the curiosity of anyone whose ally this might be up.

(...yes, there are still more comics I follow. Yes, I know I have a problem with too many comics.)

[marurun]

I confess I haven't been enjoying much of the post-New 52 DC stuff. And it makes me sad. Marvel's been giving me much more variety, especially lately. Both companies concern me in regard to how much of their output is dominated by a few authors, Johns and Lemire, for example. And Bendis on the Marvel side. Forgot him.

[Nemoide]

DC has always kind of baffled me. I followed Batman when Grant Morrison was writing it because I love Grant Morrison, but I couldn't understand a lick of things like Infinite Crisis or Final Crisis. (I haven't read Crisis on Infinite Earths... do I *really* need to track down comics from before I was born? Apparently?) When I found out that the New 52 was coming and would reboot all of the continuity I was working so hard to figure out, I decided to just jump ship again. Knowing DC they wouldn't be able to keep that New 52 "new" for long... and it seems they've already brought back their confusing multiverse, Earth 2, etc.
I feel like DC expects readers to follow *every* DC comic for years and years. I can't handle that!

I do have a pretty decent collection of DC's Archive Editions, since those are pretty easy to find at affordable prices. I have a strange fascination with the really early/primitive stuff. Shazam/Captain Marvel is probably my favorite Golden Age comic, not counting The Spirit which is only KIND OF a comic book (it was its own section of newspapers - halfway between comic book and newspaper comic).

[Metal Jesus]

The new Darth Vader comic is pretty bad-ass. Really enjoying its new take on the events after the destruction of the original Death Star and Vader's shame because of it.

[isiolia]

New Elric graphic novel arrived yesterday. I've been buying the Fables, Lazarus, and Saga collections regularly. Will likely pick up the next Pretty Deadly one too, since the first was fun.

I don't really make much of a habit of reading superhero books though.

Possibly a stupid question, is there are reasonable way to read European comics stateside? Some of the Jodorowsky books (via watching the Dune documentary) looked interesting, or Moebius and such...but a lot of the US releases were expensive to start with, and not reprinted.