My comic recommendations

Because I'm always trying to hunt these three posts down, I'm putting them here together with one single tag that should help me find them quickly.

• Comics for comic fans
• More adult comics
• Starting points for non-comic fans

Comic starters

This past week one of my students asked me for some comic recommendations. My thoughts...

• Watchmen - This is the pinnacle of the art form. It's the most complicated, most impressive, most intricate and brilliant graphic novel - and to call it less would be to sell it short - that's been published. With that being said, it's definitely a hard R or even an NC-17. I don't know that this is the one I would recommend as a starter for someone who hasn't been reading comics. On the other hand, it might be a heck of a gateway drug. The story wraps up tidily in twelve issues, and the conclusion will lead to lots of re-reading. More thoughts about the comic here and about the movie here.
• Locke & Key - This will be one of the few non-superhero comics on my list. It's an effect of my tastes that I tend to mostly read capes comics, so my recommendations tend to be in that milieu, as well. This, one, though is entirely devoid of capes and superpowers. That doesn't mean it's devoid of unreality, though. It's a story of three children trying to protect their world from an evil that has been making appearances in their New England town since - at least - the American Revolution. The artwork is stunningly gorgeous, and the story is so tightly and well written that it is at times a very tense read. It's also a finite series, so you can go in knowing that you'll be able to wrap up the story. At this point we have - supposedly - just one more collection to come. More thoughts and images here.
• Invincible - Mark Grayson's coming of age superhero story has been running for a hundred-plus issues now and is adding to that total by the month. That can be a bit of a drawback for starting readers: knowing that they'll have a whole lot of catching up to do. Mark's emotions are very well written and realistic as he sees friends die; love blossom, flourish, and fade; even his father turn evil. Along the way Mark becomes the greatest hero that Earth knows. The government comes to rely on him - and to betray him, and the federation of planets (or whatever it's called in this series), does as well. There is a bit of a repetitiveness to the fights with the Viltrumites, and things do get very graphic at times, but it's worth reading through the gruesomeness.
• Powers - This one's definitely not for the little kids. There are nudes and murders and cursing all over the place. It's another ongoing series with nearly eighty issues - though there have been a coupleof somewhat length hiatuses along the way - that may be a bit intimidating for newbies. (Let me recommend the hardcover collections.) Wonderful story of police procedurals in a superpowered world, one in which non-powers sometimes feel a bit intimidated. There's a lot of darkness around, but there's also one of the most fascinating characters in all of comics with Detective Christian Walker, a former power himself.
• Ultimate Spider-Man - Another long-running series with about 160 issues so far. Luckily the entirety of the run has been written by Brian Michael Bendis (same writer as Powers, curiously) which has lead to a very consistent and beautifully written tone through the whole run. The teen Peter Parker (and the the nearly pre-teen Miles Morales) was written with great understanding by Bendis, and the tie ins to the other teen heroes of the Ultimate Marvel universe - particularly Kitty Pryde and Johnny Storm - made this the keystone series of the Ultimate Marvel universe. It's also entirely teen-safe, so this might be my opener for a new teen reader.
• Spider-Man: Blue - There's a lot of heart here, and the artwork is spectacular, possibly Tim Sale's finest work yet. This one's very short - only six issues - and it's largely ground that's been covered in other volumes. Peter Parker was falling love with Gwen Stacey, and this volume does a marvelous job of retelling that time. Plus it's really, really pretty. More thoughts and images here.
• Fables - I was a little worried that all momentum in this series was being lost after the climax of the homeland war and then the defeat of Mr Dark by the North Wind, but the last volume (Cubs in Toyland) was emotionally brilliant. The first volume is a little weak, introductions being more important than story, but the long-form build-up and eventual execution of the return invasion of the Homelands is spectacular. The series has done a great job of telling multiple stories for more than 120 issues, and the artwork is so, so pretty.
• Starman - This one's a legacy title for DC, one that tied into the history of the DC universe as well as did just about any other DC title. James Robinson's writing showed that the entirety of the series had been planned from step one, and every step along the way seemed as inevitable as the tides. It's also another wonderfully-drawn series, too. The space arc is a bit off-topic, but the rest is marvelously cohesive. In the long run, this is a tale of family - family by blood, by legacy, by choice, and by accident.
• Sandman -This one's a family tale, too, but one of a family of the Infinite beings, and particularly of the one who chooses not to be Infinite any more. This is as perfect a seventy-five issues as could be written. The first arc is unpleasant and tied far more into the DC universe than is the rest of the run, but all of the arcs are important as the seeds of the end appear in the very beginning. It's also wonderful that there are many stand-alone issues that are among the series's finest. The artwork changes somewhat frequently because of the stand-alone issues. I find myself in tears every time I read the story's final arc. Wonderful series.
• DMZ - I can't vouch for the conclusion collections of this one since PLCH seems unwilling to purchase the last two. This adult-themed series sees Matty Roth, the newsman protagonist, dropped into a civil-war-torn Manhattan. In the process, Matty becomes the most (and then the least-) trusted person in the New York DMZ. He learns that every day is a balance of trust, love, honesty, an expediency. It's complicated, and the series does a great job of telling the story of the DMZ from a number of different viewpoints.
• Superman: Secret Identity - Maybe the most human of all the stories, this tale of a Clark Kent in, supposedly, the real world who finds that he actually has the powers of his famous and fictional namesake, is marvelous and tearful. Plus it's short enough to be read in a single sitting. Tears, man, tears every time. Coincidentally, an article about it appeared today.
• Planetary - Thirty-seven perfect issues and hundreds of superhero tropes...I can see this one going either way - experienced comic readers will recognize lots of those tropes, but newbies might want to do the work to read the older stories on which many of these are based. This is a brilliant distillation and synthesis of superhero comics into one brilliant story. Along the way it turns out to be all about family, too. There's darkness along the way, but there's light at the end of the tale.
• All-Star Superman - From the first page - possibly the most brilliant distillation of any superhero origin ever (parodied here) - to the last, this is a love story to Superman, a modern take on the ridiculous silver-age stories but with loads and loads of heart. I can't recommend most of Grant Morrison's writing, but this twelve-issue story is absolutely brilliant. This is one of the two best Superman stories ever, neither of which are in canon.
• Supreme: Story of the Year - This one's the other best Superman story ever, even though it's about a Superman analog, not the real deal. This one's less open to newbies than is All-Star and a bit nastier at times. The second half of the collection is more metafiction than I tend to enjoy, but it's very well done.
• Eternals - It took me a while to come around to John Romita Jr's artwork, but I'm now officially a fan. This one's Romita through and through with a story from Neil Gaiman after inspiration from Jack Kirby, can't get much stronger than that. There's a lot of background before this, but it's all either explained well enough in the story or can be glossed over in the reading. There's a massive, cosmic scope to this, something I tend not to enjoy as a rule in comics but that I absolutely love here. I do wish I could read a bit further, but Gaiman didn't continue beyond this first collection, so whatever.
• Wolverine: Enemy of the State - Another John Romita Jr bit of artwork here with a very dark story involving two heroes losing their souls and nearly destroying the Marvel universe. This one's brutal and bloody - though highly stylized. It's by far the most interesting Wolverine story that I've read. Tough to explain why this one's impressive, but it certainly is.
• Astonishing X-Men (the Joss Whedon run) - The X-Men's history is a mess. Dang near every character has been a hero and a villain at different times. Plus they've had dozens of different - often concurrently running - series (Astonishing, Uncanny, Ultimate, Classic, All-New, Giant-Sized, New) - so they're fairly well impossible to follow. Just forget about all that and enjoy this brilliant mixture of the originals (Cyclops, Beast), middle (Kitty Pryde, Colossus), and very new (Danger, Emma Stone) heroes. This one's all over the universe in scope and impressively emotional. The final arc - Unstoppable - is just spectacular, but only because of the steps that lead along the way.
• Pride of Baghdad - One of the very few non-superhero comics here, this tale of a pride of lions released from the Baghdad zoo during the American invasion is possibly the most heart-wrenching story I've ever read. It's also self-contained, so new readers neadent worry about feeling out of the loop. This one should be required reading for anyone who says comics are for kids - or are stupid - or are juvenile.
• Batman:  Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader - It's based on a Superman tale, similarly meant to clear the bilges for one of many periodic rewrites, but this one's far more welcoming to new readers than is that Superman version. I feel like a broken record, but I was in tears by the end of this two-issue collection. This hardback collection actually has the two issues in the tale (brilliant) and a couple more issues that aren't related but are just there to flech out the hardback. Read the first two and set the others aside, though.
• Scott Pilgrim - No superheroes here, just awkward Canadians trying to find love in a video game world. Great exploration of the college-age years trying to move beyond childish things and find your way in the world. It's six black and white volumes (though they're releasing colorized versions), so there's hope for an ending. Plus it's been made into a good movie - great, great source materials, though. More thoughts here.
• Runaways - Another teen topic here...six teens (a mixed bag racially, motivationally, and perspectivationally) find out that their parents are the worst of the worst villains, and they have to decide what path to take. Sure it's a bit more dramatic than most teens' choices, but it feels very much typical teen. They don't know what adults to trust, and they don't always know which of each other they can trust. Wonderful entree for teen readers - with science fiction, magic, dinosaurs, capes and superheroes, great good and bad.
• Batgirl: Year One - Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, painted scenery in this retelling of the Batgirl origins. This might be a good one to recommend for teen, female first timers. There aren't nearly enough superhero comics with strong female protagonists, but this is one of them. Batgirl's a brilliant character in so many of her incarnations (Barbara Gordon in this one).
• The Dark Knight Returns - Dark, adult, vile, violent, a rough. This one's a futuristic, non-canon (though it's been brought into canon somewhat since) story that colored Batman interpretations for the three decades since it was published. It's a nice, tidy four issues, but it's filled with violence and dirty things, I warn you. Not for the junior readers
• Superman: Red Son - DC has done a number of Elseworlds titles in which they explore stories that aren't remotely in canon. This one sees Kal-El (Superbaby) landing in Communist Russia and Superman being raised for truth, justice, and the communist way. Great exploration of Superman with that one twist. Speaking of twists, the one at the end left me stunned, mouth agape.
• Batman: Year One - This retelling of Batman's first year - his successes and far too frequent screw-ups - is told alongside Jim Gordon's first year in Gotham, making for wonderful parallels between two men finding their ways and purposes. This is the polar opposite to Dark Knight Returns, the hopeful but fitful beginning of the story rather than the dark ending. Marvelously human in both men's tales.
• Batman: The Long Halloween - Set a couple of years further along as the supervillains (Ivy, Penguin, Joker, Riddler, etc) begin to take Gotham over from the gangsters who were the villains in Year One. Every one of the great villains in the greatest rogue's gallery in comic history. This one's another pretty, pretty volume - with twelve tight issues - from Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb, two of the modern masters of comics.
• Astro City - This one's another series - a bunch of mini-series, really - that takes the usual superhero cliches and tropes and makes them fresh again. They're wonderfully human because many of the stories see the non-superhero denizens of the world and their reactions to the heroes who dominate their world. All of the mini-series can be read individually, but as an entirety they make for a brilliant exploration of what it would be like to see the world populated by people far more powerful than themselves.
• Justice League (Giffen/DeMatteis run) - Rarely do non-comic readers think of comics as being funny, but this is the most well-written, funny take on the biggest superhero team ever. Instead of having them fight massive, planetary-scale baddies, the writers made them into a United Nations team trying to keep the peace while getting to know each other. It's a light-hearted bit of team building that turned expectations entirely on their heads.

Comic books for comic fans

Last week we went all mature. This week we're totally immature...for a change...'cause I'm always ever so mature...let's be honest, I practically walk around quoting from Proust all day long and wearing tweed jackets

For the DC readers in the crowd...

• Superman/Batman: Absolute Power - this one's totally for the hardcore DC fans out there. Jeph Loeb goes on an entertaining tour of the various what-ifs in the DC universe, taking Clark and Bruce through dozens of possible paths as supervillians from the future drop back and spin history a little differently. If you haven't been reading DC for a while now, you probably don't want to start here. If you have been, though, run straight for this as the artwork is marvelous and the story spectacular.
• Batgirl: Year One - Absolutely beautiful, one of the prettiest trades to come out in a decade, wonderful coloring underlying the retelling of some of Babs's earliest adventures. We've had Barbara Gordon paralyzed so long that it's almost hard to remember her as the original Batgirl, swinging around with Pointy Ears and Pixie Boots and bringing a bit of levity to the Bat world. This volume is all about the fun and excitement of being a new crime-fighter, and it comes through in absolute spades. Wonderful read.
• Superman: Secret Identity - There are tons of comics that can only be read by comic book fans. There have been thousands of issues of Superman smacking down bad guys and saving the girl. Not a single one of them could possibly hold a candle to the beauty and humanity and universal understanding that Immonen and Busiek have imbued these four collected issues with. This volume brings me to tears every time I read it, and it's the one that I recommend for anybody who says that comics can't be read and enjoyed by everybody. You could hand this one to your mom, and she would instantly fall in love. You could hand it to anybody with a pulse, and they would change their tune about comics being for geeks. This is the perfect gateway drug to something harder like Watchmen. I can't possibly praise this trade highly enough. Honestly, it shouldn't be on this list because to say that it's for DC readers is to sell it vastly too short, but anybody who's been reading Superman comics for a while should take a moment and wander this way. It's not even remotely part of the continuity, but it's easily the best of the canon.
• Supreme: Story of the Year - on the other hand, only hardcore Superman geeks should apply to this journey. Alan Moore goofs on every comic book cliche - from the double initials of Superman sidekicks and villians to the continuous retconning of Superman's origins and the shifts in tone and artistic style over the past decades. In the process, he tells us more about comics than most of us could have realized. It's a good story made so great if you get all the jokes. I'd like to think that I got most of them, down to the references to Captain Carrot in the Citadel Supreme.
• Justice League and Justice League Unlimited from cartoon network - they aren't graphic novels at all, rather cartoons in the Dini/Timm style, evolved right out of Batman: TAS, Batman Beyond, and Superman. The last two seasons - with the Cadmus and Legion of Doom story arcs - are the finest, but you kind of need to see the work that leads up to them. Rarely have there been better adaptations of a written work as so many comic fans/geeks were there to make sure everything was taken in perfectly - even down to the nods to the non-comic Super Friends who become the Ultimen. Non-DC-geeks will probably enjoy the show. DC geeks will love it.
• The Dark Knight Returns - comics had gone jokey, having endured the '60s of camp and POW!, the seventies where Bats's ears kept growing and growing, and then along came Frank Miller's hardest shot ever. TDKR was like a shot of cold water, throwing down the darkest, oldest, baddest Batman we'd ever seen. He wasn't cruel or sadistic, but he was clearly hardened by a world that had turned from the heroic ideal, where Superman is turned into a Ronnie Raygun Repbulican lapdog, where the only way to tame the gangs was to kick the crap out them and then take them under his wing. It's a classic of the genre, and it brought in way too much darkness, too much sadism, too much sickness in its wake, to be sure, but it has to be read and digested. And the sequel is to be avoided at all costs.
• Action Comics #775 - the best single issue ever written...I'll lay my blog on it. Superman gets his backside handed to him by the new, sick, evil good guys who aren't afraid of lobotomizing the villians in a hearbeat instead of dragging them to the cops. And he takes it, eventually beating them a dozen ways to Sunday without breaking his oath to be the good guy, and he narrates it in the end as he smacks down the bad-good guys with a wink and a nod. Classic...marvelous...wonderful... And available in the Justice League Elite trade.
• Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow - Alan Moore back in the hizzouse. The Silver Age was a time of goofs and imaginary stories, people gaining and losing superpowers with the wind and an an innocence rarely seen since, and this was its swan song. Another one where only the diehard Superman fans need apply for entry because every panel has a nod to some quasi-obscure character that we haven't seen for decades, but Moore gives the old guy a sendoff like no other hero got before or since. And it makes the earlier Absolute Power ending absolutely note perfect.
• Superman: Red Son - An Elseworlds tale of what if has Superman landing not in Kansas but in Soviet Russia. From there, much of the tales are twists on the DC universe we know, but the recasting of Lex Luthor as genius, science hero of a revitalized United States raises the stakes from neat pastiche to classic, and the ending is marvelous, cycling back on itself for a perfect finish. To say more would be cheating, but this one's better than most every other Elseworlds that we've seen.
• Batman: The Long Halloween - great artwork, surprising mystery, another aspect to the shift of Gotham from gangland to freak central...this maxi-series has it all. The sequel, again, falls short as so many of them do. It's a big work, and it includes nearly every important Batman villain of the next portion of his career, but it's seminal to so much of what has come after this tale was told, that it needs to be read.
• Superman: American Alien - (added after the fact) - The collection touts that this isn't a Superman story, and it's not really. It's a story of how Clark Kent became Superman, how he explored and was terrified by his powers as a child in a Smallville where everybody kind of knows that Clark is a special kid. It's a story of how he learns of Krypton. It's a story of how he first meets - not in canon - Lex and Bruce and even Oliver. It's a great story of a young man finding his way with some pretty awesome skills.

I feel odd not including anything other than Superman and Batman tales, but so much of the DC Universe is those guys, those twin titans of the realm, that I couldn't find much in the way of other things to recommend. Sure, Rucka's run on Wonder Woman was excellent, but to read one trade without the others wouldn't do it justice...the Flash runs by Messner-Loebs and Geoff Johns are outstanding, but again, no single volume would tell the tale...Crisis on infinite Earths is great, but I don't know that it can be read without so many other interconnectors...Kingdom Come just missed out for me even though it was right on the cut line - don't quite know why it did, but it's on the outside looking in...Batman: Year One also just outside, but I enjoy all the Batman stories I listed above even more...DC: New Frontier fell apart in the second volume - the first would've made the cut, though...

I'll admit to a blindess toward the new, and that's something I'm aware of. If anybody has any suggestions, please make 'em because I'd like to know what I missed.

For reference, may I suggest the DC Canon series over at Sequart?

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Admittedly, I'm a little stumped as I'd like to finish this off with a group of recommendation for Marvel readers. I'm way less experienced and knowledgable of Marvel, however, so I'm looking for suggestions in advance. Here's what I've got so far...

• Daredevil - Bendis run
Marvel Zombies

Marvels

Ultimate Fantastic Four

Wolverine: Enemy of the State

Astonishing X-Men - Wheedon run

And I know there have to be more. Don't bring me the Dark Phoenix saga, however, as that's been retold and untold so many friggin times that I'm tired of it. I officially hate the old X-Men stuff at this point.

Comics that match the theme of the blog

Ok, at the questioning of a regular reader & newish poster...

My recommendations for comic books to read...from various perspectives and broken into various categories...

Adult comics (for non-comic fans)

• The Sandman series - TL's already familiar with this one, having even gone so far as to have met Gaiman himself...this might be the most phenomenal work of comic book totality...with just the barest glimpses into the DC universe, Gaiman has created a full mythos and entire universe that has brought me to tears, taken me to the edge of revulsion, and impressed me to no end
• The Fables series - I've reviewed them recently, and I'm only halfway through the series so far...more goodness should be to come
• Pride of Baghdad - wonderful, amazing single-volume graphic novel...beautiful artwork, moving storyline...an amazingly emotional tale told almost entirely without human characters
• Watchmen - Time named it one of the greatest novels of the last century...I've been desperate to own it...it's widely considered the single greatest graphic novel of all time...amazing whether you get the DC/Charlton references or not...the ending is one of the most phenomenal surprises of all time
• The Ex Machina series - still ongoing, rooted in a nearly real world...excellent politcal commentary from the first super-powered mayor of NYC...the politics can be a bit over-whelming at times, but it's an interesting read to see what a true political independent, willing to follow his beliefs instead of any possible polls, is able to do in a fantasy world
• Astro City - Busiek has created an entire super hero universe that is as familiar as possible to DC and Marvel readers without ever using specific characters from either...filled with archetyes and amazingly human characters...Busiek's world is a better commentary on the human condition than anything that DC or Marvel has made
• Superman: Secret Identity - I take back what I just wrote...this is the most impressive human story that I've ever read in a comic book...impressionistic artowrk over top of a what-if storyline of a young man in our world who finds that he's suddenly got Superman's powers - after having read about Superman for his whole life...short enough to be read in an hour or so but rich enough for me to own and find something new in everytime I read it
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - no need to ever consider the movie that was made based on this series...it stunk like rotten eggs...and if you're gonna read it, you should probably sheck out the annotations...it's like an English teacher's dream come true...but with rather adult scenes thrown in just to make it even better
• V for Vendetta - it's not Moore's greatest work...it's a little too strong and overt for me, but as a comment on freedom and our relationship to the government, it's impressive...a reminder of just how far our protests need to go sometime...sort of like a 1984 in graphic novel form
• Maus - A Survivor's Tale - Spiegelman's memoir of his father's time in a concentration camp won the Pullizer prize and is the only book to consistently challenge Watchmen for the top prize in graphic novels...I've only read it once, but I can still see so many of the scenes in my mind, they were so memorable...it's not an easy read, as you could probably guess based on the subject
• DMZ - the newest of the works on this list...the series has a long way to go before it's firmly here, but I'm taking a guess based on the first volume that I've read...fascinating story of an accidental journalist in Manhattan after the Northeast withdraws from the United States
• Jimmy Corrigan - Smartest Kid on Earth - it's hard to describe this novel as it doesn't at all play like a comic book or any sort of non-graphic novel I've ever read...the use of repeated, small panels to show the monotony of Jimmy Corrigan's life...this tale of a manchild unhappy with his lot is alternatively heartbreaking and redemptive

That turned out to be a lot longer than I'd expected, so I'll save the true comic book geek titles for another day. Any other suggestions from anybody out there?

Here are a couple of resources that I used to compile this list...

• Wizard's 100 Greatest Graphic Novels
• A response to Wizard
• Time's top ten list