Recommend your favorite TPBs

[bolen]

Marvels

all the Astro City

Watchmen

and I will third the Ultimates They also have the Ultimate Nightmare which has as incomplete crossover betwee the X-men and the Ultimates.

 

[John Crichton]

Then I'll second the recomend for the Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One and the two volumes of The Ultimates.

In some ways, The Ultimates is the darkest superhero book I've read, especially when you consider it contrasted to the Avengers, who are the basis of the characters. Bruce Banner and Betty Ross really creeped me out, and the Wasp/Giant relationship made me shudder.

DKR was great. I'll have to dig it out of my closet and read it again.

And considering just about everyone here has recommended The Ultimates that's probably my next purchase as it will dovetail nicely with my Ultimate Spidey/FF/X-men collection.

But keep 'em coming fellas - I want to have a nice library to choose from and the suggestions have been great so far as they have verified other things I have heard about many of the TPB's.

 

[John Crichton]

Marvels

all the Astro City

Watchmen

and I will third the Ultimates They also have the Ultimate Nightmare which has as incomplete crossover betwee the X-men and the Ultimates.

I've heard wonderful thing about Astro City.

Watchmen rocked.

See above for The Ultimates.

Ultimate Nightmare is something I'll have to consider after I pick up The Ultimates.

 

[John Crichton]

If you don't mind starting a series, you can get the two that I suggest to anyone with decent taste in comics: Preacher and Transmetropolitan. Just start with the first volume of either and go from there. You'll be glad you did, especially with Transmetropolitan. Brilliant stuff.

Transmetropolitan is something I should have been reading all along as I love Ellis' stuff...

And I've heard nothing but good things about Preacher. Is the whole series in TPB form?

 

[John Crichton]

Sandman: Brief Lives and A Game of You these two probably hold up the best of all the Sandman stuff I've read and you don't have to know much about Sandman to get into them.

A close friend has highly recommended Sandman as well. Looks like I've have to give it a look.

 

[John Crichton]

I really liked The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the first one, didn't like the second one much at all).

I have read LoEG. Good stuff.

 

[John Crichton]

Planetary Vols. 1, 2 and 3, by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. It's ACES!

I actually have the entire run of Planetary and it's my favorite title currently being produced. Wonderful stuff.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Astro City: Confessions
Astro City: The Tarnished Angel ( Confessions is still my favorite of the AS story arcs, but Tarnished Angel comes in second by a hair's breadth. It's that good, the story of an older supervillan released from prison who tries to keep his nose clean and his frustration with his own villianous reputation. Excellent.)

Sin City, Sin City: A dame to kill for and Sin City: That Yellow Bastard.

Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl?, Roleplay, Little Deaths Supergroup, Anarchy, THe Sellouts, Forever and Legend. While some of the actual stories end anti-climactically you realize with repeated readings that the stories are layering the characters and not the plot. It's like Homicide: Life on the Street meets Mamet...with superpowers.

Alias: Former Superhero who couldnt quite cut it as one and became a self-loathing prvate detective instead. People who have problems with interracial sex and relationships might want to avoid this one. But otherwise very good.

Black Panther & Black Panther: Enemy of the State By Christopher Priest. The best depiction of a Black superhero in the Marvel OR DC universes. Ever. Intelligently written, funny as well as action packed. Glorious.

Some upthread mentioned The Walking Dead. It's great but it's one of the few titles that is meant to be read in a monthly format. The pacing is brilliant and each issue ends on a cliffhanger. If you hate cliffhangers pick up the trades, if you dont mind pick up the trades and THEN start reading the monthlies.

Daredevil:Born Again. For my money THE BEST Daredevil story ever. The stakes are high here as The Kingpin discovers Daredevil's secret Id and makes Matt Murdock's life A LIVING HELL. Worth it for just to watch the complete and utter breakdown of Matt Murdock alone but watching him rise again. Probaly one of my favorite comic stories ever.

Fantastic Four: Unthinkable. I've always liked Doom. This arc actually made me hate him, in good way. He was never as EVIL as he is here. Before he even confronts the FF he does something so harsh that as I was reading it I thought "D*mn, if this is how he is, the FF are in TROUBLE." The follow-up Authoritative Action isnt as good, but it's still pretty good.

Sleeper. A deep undercover agent is working within a super criminal organization. The only man who knows of his operation is also the only man who cna bring him out. Unfortunately that man falls into a coma. Now the undercover agent not only has to keep his true intentions secret from his criminal employer, who is a super-intelligent artifical being who is also a master manipulator, but he also has to keep his former organization from killing him becasue they think he's a traitor. A tight well written series.

 

[Wombat]

I'll continue the shout for Sandman, especially Seasons in the Mist and A Game of You, but in general I loved the series. Sadly, I was less than thrilled with the follow-up Death series...

And if you are in the mood for something a bit sillier, I highly recommend the first 2-3 collections of The Tick by NEC (New England Comics) -- great fun stuff! Man Eating Cow (same company) is also quite fun.

 

[devilbat]

All of my favorites have been mentioned, but I'll second:

Kingdome Come
Marvels
Arkham Asylum
Batman: Year one
Preacher

And for all that is holy, don't let the wretched taint of Dark Knight Strikes Back touch your hands.