Explain Comics to me.

[mhacdebhandia]

I would recommend forgetting completely about collecting comics series in single issues. Instead, hunt around the Net - here and elsewhere - for reviews and recommendations of series which have come out in trade paperback collections.

For instance, I read Ultimate Spiderman, but I don't even look at the single-issue shelves in my comics store. Instead, I'm collecting the series as I might a series of novels - whenever I have the spare cash and the whim, I buy one or two of the trades.

90% of the series out there worth reading are being collected in trades, so . . .

 

[The Human Target]

Everyone alreay gave you excellent answers, so my current monthly reads are...

Hellblazer
100 Bullets
Supreme Power
Y the Last Man
Fables
Daredevil
Powers
Ex Machina
Knights of the Dinner Table
Runaways
All Seven Soldiers Minseries
Sea of Red
The Walking Dead
Lucifer
Young Avengers
Elk's Run
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel
Trigger
Western Tales of Terror
Small Gods
Girls
Blade of the Immortal
Desolation Jones
The Ultimates
The Atheist
The Pulse

 

[Gentlegamer]

Geez, how did I list comics recommendations and leave off Knights of the Dinner Table?!?!

 

[Furtive Noise]

I'll second whoever suggested getting paperback 'graphic novel' collections. They're usually a fairly self contained story arc so you get some closure and have somewhat of a rising and falling plot that you won't be jumping into midstream.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I agree that the Trades are the way to go, IMO.

Especially for newbies.

75% of all my comic buying is in trades. I only follow a few series in monthlies (all DC because their TPB schedule isn't as reliable as Marvel's) because I gave up on waiting
for the trade (which might not come, anyway).

 

[ddvmor]

Yup. Trades is the way to go. And you don't even have to go to a comic shop... just take a look at Amazon and the reviews. Almost everything is available these days!

 

[Zulithe]

Well as a huge comic fan I wish I had replied first, but all the ground has been covered. If you follow the advice and heed the information in this thread, you'll do very well.

I just want to add that alternate covers are just a useless gimmic. Just pick up whichever cover appeals the most to you and don't buy the others. DO NOT get into comics hoping to make money by collecting all the alternate covers or purchasing every since issue #1 you see on the shelf hoping to recoup later on. Get into comics for the storytelling.

Comics is a struggling industry right now, and whenever that happens to an industry, you will see great levels of innovation. That is exactly what is happening in comics now and it is a great time to jump in.

 

[Space monkey]

I only have one thing to add. Authors and ilustrators not just characters

Comics like hell-blazer and sandman or the colections of such are incredible, Spiderman might make you laugh. but Neil Gaimon will make your jaw drop open in awe.

 

[John Crichton]

Trade paperbacks are great. Below is a very recent (and hopefully ongoing) thread of many ENworlder suggestions -

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=138054

 

[Henry]

...I wandered into a comic shop a week ago, was stuck by how beautiful some of them were, but was kind of over-awed by the complexity of the whole enterprise...Is it possible to jump in to a series half way through, or would you just be totally lost?

One suggestion I have is to see if the comics store minds you leafing through some of the titles. My local Books-a-Million Chain Store has a "browsing" policy, you can look through the books to see which interest you, and if you're a fast reader you can read most of the title to see if you can pick up on the story. When you find a few titles that interest you, pick up on them and continue with them. Most comic stores even have a "pull list" you can subscribe to, where you agree to buy what you write down on the pull list, and they'll make sure they save you a copy as soon as they come in.

One piece of advice: ONLY follow a few titles, and don't worry about cross-continuity, or collecting all of a series. That is the path to bankruptcy. You can also find numerous comic-book discussion forums online where you can keep up with the general story of a title you DON'T collect, so you don't miss any cross-references. In fact, I'm pretty sure some of the comics gurus replying to this thread can point you to the top-notch discussion forums out there.