The Comic Book Thread - What are you all Reading

[slasher13]

Okay well I just purchased the following after 4 years of not reading any comics.

Finished Reading:
Friday the 13th Bloodbath #1 (Gore Cover)
Friday the 13th Bloodbath #2 (Gore Cover)

Reading these comics, the artwork was really really good. The story is okay, Think of Hard Target Game in Camp Crystal Lake. . Oh course you got the sex and nudity as needed in a slasher film But overall, impressed by the Friday comics, I was expecting them to be really really bad

Currently Reading
Batman: Dark Knight Returns

OMG this is simply excellent, I have justed finished the first part, where Batman see Harvey Dent again after the helicopter fight and realises he is still evil
The artwork is really really good. Before when I glanced at it in Waterstones i thought it was rubbish, but now getting into it, it is really really good. I can see why alot of people say this is a good graphic novel. Now on the 2nd Part of it.... Can't wait.

Next Comics to Read, that I have brought
Superman: Birthright
Superman/Batman: Absolute Power

Wishlist - What I want to Get
Batman: Knightfall
The Death of Superman

So what is everyone else reading?

[Kurgan]

I'm reading The Walking Dead. Nicely done series of graphic novels set in the days and months after a Dawn of The Dead scenario occurs. It follows a straggling group of survivors trying to ake their way in the world after everything's gone to hell.
Also, I'll read Ranma 1/2 as and when the books are released. We're up to vol. 33 I believe. A shocking amount of money has been spent on those books

Oh, and I'm just finishing re-reading Green Arrow: Quiver, written by Kevin Smith.

[slasher13]

Lets resurrect this old thread ...

Read:
Superman: Birthright
A great retelling of how Superman came to be, Clark when he was young in Africa, seeing helpless people, why does he wear glasses (which actually makes sense), and his relationship with Lex Luthor. The artwork is just superb and the story is highly recommended

Superman/Batman: Absolute Power
Wow another great comic, what happens if the Superheroes, are not heroes but villians, they rule the Earth and if not one obeys them, then death. It really great, Green Arrow makes an appearence with a funny line, and finally we see a tortured superman at the end.. Great

Just finished reading The Killing Joke and it is really really good. Bit disturbing, how Joker takes pictures of a naked cripple Barbara and shows it to Gordon on a ghost train. Like someone mentioned on this forum, it is very very short, and you wish it had been continued for a bit longer

Online Comic:
I am reading the 1st chapter of MegaTokyo, and they are really really good. I quite like the following: http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=57, as it has the characters from Penny Arcade, which I also read sometimes.

[Yi-Long]

I've bought and partly read Humberto Ramos' Revelations, which is a graphic novel about a murder/suicide in the Vatican, and a british detective is brought in to find out what's going on. Havent finished it yet, but the artwork is pretty good.

[Shingster]

I recently read all 31 volumes of Berserk, only problem is I have to wait a month or more for each new chapter now. Kentarou Miura is not the fastest manga-ka out there!

Brilliant serial though, I was quite shocked by how much of the "Band of Hawks" arc had been left out by the anime! Would make continuing the series in the future very difficult. They'd probably be best doing a Hellsing and starting from scratch and doing an OVA series - particularly considering how violent the story gets.

[EvaUnit02]

About FUCKING time! Volume 10 of Evangelion is FINALLY available, and in English.

Sadamoto's interpretation of Anno's masterpiece has been pretty interesting, eg he's decided to focus more on Rei than Asuka. Also his handling of Touji's fate was far more effective I thought.

I dunno when vol. 11 will be done, 2009 probably.

[luckystars]

Started reading comics for the first time in over a decade .. 14 years I think!!

Can I regress any further you ask?


I'm loving the DC 'New 52' relaunch (or whatever it is..stupid renumbering anyway). Favourite titles are Batwoman, Detective Comics & Justice League Dark. I've tried others, Catwoman looked good but I got bored quickly ('mature' but unsurprising writing). Action Comics was a no brain read so I didn't go beyond issue 1. Batman: The Dark Knight had nice art but that was it.


Just caught up on the first 4 issues of Batwoman. Really solid read, sumptuous artwork & layouts... and beautifully inked! Highly recommended. The first 3 issues were a solid 8/10..and the 4th was an enjoyable 7.5/10 (I hope the writing keeps up the high standard of the first few issues though. the 4th was basically an 'action' issue..in more ways than one!).

Also last week I picked up the first issue of Avengers 1959 (written and illustrated by veteran Howard Chaykin). It was an enjoyable read and had some lovely visual storytelling, but possibly as I'm not familiar with the characters I didn't find myself that enamoured with it (artwork aside!).



EDIT: Also wanted to say theres a fantastic free iPhone app for previewing 'this weeks comics' and getting back issues etc. from DC. I won't be giving up paper comics (who would?) but its a great way to keep up on whats out, and delving into titles you might otherwise miss!

[saltysam]

i used to read comics,mainly Batman titles until about 6 years ago.Found the prices were getting ridiculous and wasn't enjoying them as much.only comic reading i do now is the occasional purchase of a Batman Archives book.

[Yi-Long]

The prices for stand-alone comics are obviously just stupid. If you just cherrypick the great books and go for TPB's, hardcovers, omnibusses or whatever, it's quite affordable.

Just received Batman The Long Halloween today (12 pounds), and All Star Superman, and Naruto 53.

I'll order Batman No Man's Land once amazon.co.uk gets it back in stock. (It's a collection of 400-500 pages or something, for about 15 pounds, so not that expensive. The Black Mirror and Noel and some other Batman stuff is supposedly good as well.

Last 'comic' I read was Blacksad I believe. It's in hardcover and collects the first 3 albums. GORGEOUS artwork, and they're 3 stand-alone stories. Well worth checking out.

About the new reboot DC is doing. I'm kinda against the whole idea of fucking around with it all, and IF you're going to do a reboot, then make it a proper one that does it completely right, instead of just trying stuff out, doing shit halfway, etc etc. That said, some of the new series (Batman, Batgirl) are supposedly very very good, so once they get available in TPB, I'll probably check them out.

[saltysam]

only comic reading i do these days is via sporadic download to read on my tablet.

[Shingster]

I can't be arsed to take up Western comics in general because half the the time it's a minefield figuring out where to start or which order to follow once you've started. I took up Hellboy a few years back and it's brilliant, but I got so far and couldn't figure out which volume I was supposed to read next once up the different spin-offs started to branch out. One thing to say about sticking to manga, at least it's usually nice and simple: One author, one plotline, done.

[Killer Meteor]

I'm reading Les Daniel's excellent history on Superman, which contains some vintage stories.

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

I was thinking about collection Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Anyone familiar with this? I'll probably get it anyway because of the Kung Fu association, but I was wondering if anyone here has read it.

[saltysam]

I was thinking about collection Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Anyone familiar with this? I'll probably get it anyway because of the Kung Fu association, but I was wondering if anyone here has read it.

Shanghai,Master Of Kung Fu started life as a BL rip off but eventually evolved into a proper rounded comic book character. Seek out thr fantastic Marvel B&W comic/magazine Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu

[Yi-Long]

I can't be arsed to take up Western comics in general because half the the time it's a minefield figuring out where to start or which order to follow once you've started. I took up Hellboy a few years back and it's brilliant, but I got so far and couldn't figure out which volume I was supposed to read next once up the different spin-offs started to branch out. One thing to say about sticking to manga, at least it's usually nice and simple: One author, one plotline, done.

Agreed. The writing for comics these days is worse that for soap-operas, always going for shock-value, rewriting history, characters, etc etc. That said, you can still go for the occasional stand-alone story TPB/HC and enjoy a good story.

But yeah, manga are wayyy more consistent. With anime, you usually have fillers which stray away from the main story a bit and are usually a bit pointless, but with manga you usually just have the pure story.

If you haven't read Blacksad yet (European), you should probably check that out. It's excellent.

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

I was thinking about collection Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Anyone familiar with this? I'll probably get it anyway because of the Kung Fu association, but I was wondering if anyone here has read it.

Shanghai,Master Of Kung Fu started life as a BL rip off but eventually evolved into a proper rounded comic book character. Seek out thr fantastic Marvel B&W comic/magazine Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu

Thanks. I'm going to go looking for any copy of this series including the one you mentioned.