What's your favorite comic book and what's the last one you've read?

[Thraxster]

The last one I read was The Flash Omnibus vol.1

[Louis Tully]

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[saint]

Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, you guys weren't kidding about Fables. It's very well put together. Not at all what I was expecting. I'm almost finished with the first arc and it's safe to say, I'll be reading many, many more.


Thanks for the excellent recommendation. 

  Good to hear. The "Jack of Fables" spinoff is worth reading also.

[Rando]

Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, you guys weren't kidding about Fables. It's very well put together. Not at all what I was expecting. I'm almost finished with the first arc and it's safe to say, I'll be reading many, many more.


Thanks for the excellent recommendation. 

  Good to hear. The "Jack of Fables" spinoff is worth reading also.

Glad you liked it!

The Jack books are pretty good, I miss him in the regular book, but he did get a little too big for it.  Jack spins off after issue 35, if you want to wait until then so it makes sense.  If you like the first arc of Fables so far, have fun, cause that is the weakest section of the series.

AFTER you have read through a number of the books and have met more characters, encountered more of the "Adversary", and learned about the ongoing war, find/read "1001 Nights of Snowfall".  Somewhere after issue 22 would be good, just be sure to read this before you reach issue 60.  This is a standalone group of stores in the style of "One Thousand and One Arabian Nights" where the teller of the tales has to tell a new story each night in order to stay alive.  You get some good retellings of traditional fairy tales that you are familier with, with dark twists.  Most notably regarding Snow White and the Frog Prince.


Side note, NBC was Developing a TV series based on the comic, and it then moved to ABC, where is sat in limbo.  Then ABC announced a different show (Once Upon a Time) which seems VERY similar in concept, but is not Fables.  So if you see that and it sucks, don't hold it against Fables!!

[Louis Tully]

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[ark_ader]

I was in the library today, and I used to read comic books like 20 years ago my favourite was Judge Dread 2000AD, not the small books you used to get like 35 years ago  but the large full sized editions.  The art work that went into episodes such as Devlin Waugh was top notch. 



Anyway I was in the library (again) and I noticed starwars comics, but in novella form.  I was addicted, spent something like an hour standing there reading one after another.

Again the artwork is superb, so I'm looking for a good comics app for the hannspad tablet, so I can get my fix when I'm out and about.

[Well Fed Games]

I was in the library today

I picked up the V for Vendetta Graphic novel today at my library, thought it was an ok find. Occasionally they have something good comic-wise (I once found the collected Bone series, which made me happy).

[Ginsu Victim]

Yeah, my local library has a decent selection of manga, graphic novels, and trade editions. We check them out regularly.

[youngjohn12]

I really haven't gathered or study a comedian in a extensive while now. I just even got rid of the last of the comedian strips I gathered when I was youthful, but I stored only a few that I just had to keep.

The Black Dark night Dividends - first and second sequence, though I really like the first one better. So dark and gritty, and the graphics was awesome.

Havok and Wolverine: Predicament - very awesome plan, but the graphics was so fantastically different. Done with water color and ink, with very awesome styles. When I was a kid, I used to get myself just gazing extensive at each section.

[Louis Tully]

.

[eramsabe]

Cable - Stranded

[mzerba]

comics are what started me into games....I collect superman comics and related issues, currently have between 5000 and 6000 books several statues and other collectables. Had to have the 1979 atari superman pinball machine to add to the collection. Bought 2 broken one to build one good one. lots of fun so added another pinball, shuffle bowler, pool table, fooseball, and finally a mame machine.

[flashiv]

The Flash (Barry Allen), both for favorite and last read.
I also read the JLA (for Barry) 
The new stuff is good, but I always have a soft spot for the silver age stuff.

[kahlid74]

One of my favorites is still the Infinity Gauntlet but I'm done with Marvel/DC until they charge less for a digital comic versus a Physical.

So I've begun to read Manhwa's and holy shinikies!  In my top 5 of all time now rests "The Breaker" and "Veritas".  Both series are just flat out epic.

So yeah, I'm reading Breaker: New Waves right now.

[yaksplat]

Groo the wanderer

[Mikezilla]

One of my favorites is still the Infinity Gauntlet but I'm done with Marvel/DC until they charge less for a digital comic versus a Physical.

So I've begun to read Manhwa's and holy shinikies!  In my top 5 of all time now rests "The Breaker" and "Veritas".  Both series are just flat out epic.

So yeah, I'm reading Breaker: New Waves right now.

I just re-read the Infinity Gauntlet cause my friend is going to dress up as Thanos for comic con. Such a great read. They just dont write comics like they used to. Well, not as often anyway. I just read Planet Hulk, and I thought it was a good read for a relatively "new" comic. Im going to pick up where it leaves off, with World War Hulk.

[garnerb350]

Im about the same also as for I havent read comics in a long time , but i do pick up the every once in a while graphic novels... I have a box of comics stored in my closet and its ones i didnt want to get rid of...

Spawn 1-5
Batman Killing Joke (Everybody should at least have a copy of this)
Batman & Dracula Trilogy (Holy water and garlic Batman!)

I read the The walking Dead and i seriously need to get the books to add to my colection

Kingdom Come
Infinity Gaunlet
Secret Wars ( but missing #6 Damn!)

EC Comics Archives ( I love the classic Tales from the Crypt comics and the spin-offs)

Ive got more, but cant name them off the top of my head

[Mikezilla]

Kingdom Come is AMAZING. Marvels is good too. They released the Secret Wars in one fat graphic novel, thats how I finally got to read the whole thing!

[wp34]

The Flash (Barry Allen), both for favorite and last read.
I also read the JLA (for Barry) 
The new stuff is good, but I always have a soft spot for the silver age stuff.

+1

[kahlid74]

One of my favorites is still the Infinity Gauntlet but I'm done with Marvel/DC until they charge less for a digital comic versus a Physical.

So I've begun to read Manhwa's and holy shinikies!  In my top 5 of all time now rests "The Breaker" and "Veritas".  Both series are just flat out epic.

So yeah, I'm reading Breaker: New Waves right now.

I just re-read the Infinity Gauntlet cause my friend is going to dress up as Thanos for comic con. Such a great read. They just dont write comics like they used to. Well, not as often anyway. I just read Planet Hulk, and I thought it was a good read for a relatively "new" comic. Im going to pick up where it leaves off, with World War Hulk.

Planet Hulk is fantastic, World War Hulk not so much.

[Rando]

Spawn 1-5

How come you stopped at 5 and didn't instead cutoff at 10?  I thought issue #10 was really a interesting book featuring Cerebus and a lot of other Comic characters, at least in theory.  Not necessarily an interesting SPAWN book mind you, and doesn't impact the overall story, but gives an interesting view of the industry and the beliefs held by Todd McFarlane and his cohorts that recently split from Marvel at the time. 

Not saying it's groundbreaking, but worth reading for a glimpse inside the creator(s) heads.

[Bootay]

I was a huge fan and collector in the 80s/90s. Haven't really read anything regularly since about 98. I did read all of The Walking Dead and Marvel Civil War recently. I enjoyed both. I think that the art and especially the stories have gone downhill for the most part in a lot of the regular series in both Marvel and DC. I stopped collecting regularly shortly after the Spider-Man Clone Saga. Now I strictly read the hardcover graphic novel collections. But I find myself buying the collections of old books more than current stuff. Like Marvel Masterworks and DC Archives.

I was mostly a Marvel guy but I did enjoy Batman and other occasional DC books. I still have all of my comics...about 6 long boxes full all of them bagged and backed too in great condition. I have been thinking about selling them because I really haven't even looked at them in 10 years. I have a crap ton of Spider-Man, X-Men, X-Factor, Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Spawn, Punisher, Captain America, Daredevil...the list goes on ..too many to name. Actually...I have a few from the Death of Superman era...I couldn't follow that story, it was kind of lame. And I remember everyone freaking out over that too saying it was going to be worth money. I knew it wouldn't be. The only ones worth any real money are the ones from WWII era and older. Ones from the 50s-80s can be worth something depending on what it is. But anything from the 90s on up aren't worth crap. Cover price usually. If you're lucky it might be worth $1-2 over cover price. I never collected them because they were worth something though. I liked the stories, and still do.

[kahlid74]

My problem with Marvel/DC today is two fold:

• It costs just as much on release for a digital copy as it does for a physical.  I understand you don't want to bite your bread and butter by undercutting them but this is the damn information age.  The entire cost of printing that book should not factor into my cost for it digitally.  While the price discrepancy is probably not huge we should be thinking green.  If a released comic is $3, the digital should be at most $2.
• If I want to follow a specific comic, X-Men for example, I have to follow the cross-overs too.  If I don't, things can change instantly when I go from issue 76 to 77 where in the middle, civil war bazillion killed off night crawler or something else ridiculous.  So then I follow the crossover but to truly know what's going on I have to buy every damn lead in/tie in.  So to know everything that happened in Cross Over X I have to spend $300+ on comics I don't give a crudmuffins about.  It's stupid ridiculous.  What happened to cross-overs that ONLY had one story line and one series.  I harken back to the Infinity Gauntlet because it did it right.

[Donkbaca]

My problem with Marvel/DC today is two fold:

• It costs just as much on release for a digital copy as it does for a physical.  I understand you don't want to bite your bread and butter by undercutting them but this is the damn information age.  The entire cost of printing that book should not factor into my cost for it digitally.  While the price discrepancy is probably not huge we should be thinking green.  If a released comic is $3, the digital should be at most $2.

Yeah, they are aware of this, its a tricky situation.  They don't want to kill the comic store, and lots of them are barely hanging on.  Last I heard they were kicking around some sort of deal where the digital copy entitles you to a variant cover hard copy, etc.  They are sort of complimentary goods in a way, since a lot of people like to keep their comics minty, so they would like to have a way to read the stories without getting their grubby, doritos encrusted hands on the actual comic.  But I agree, digital distribution would be a HUGE money grabber for them.  Imagine signing up for a subscription, say 15 bucks a year and a digital copy gets pushed to you every month and you have access to back issues for say 5 more bucks a year. 

• If I want to follow a specific comic, X-Men for example, I have to follow the cross-overs too.  If I don't, things can change instantly when I go from issue 76 to 77 where in the middle, civil war bazillion killed off night crawler or something else ridiculous.  So then I follow the crossover but to truly know what's going on I have to buy every damn lead in/tie in.  So to know everything that happened in Cross Over X I have to spend $300+ on comics I don't give a crudmuffins about.  It's stupid ridiculous.  What happened to cross-overs that ONLY had one story line and one series.  I harken back to the Infinity Gauntlet because it did it right.

That doesn't bug me that much, but I haven't read any of the newer crossovers. I think crossovers can be good, they bring continuity to the whole universe across books and are a good way to check out books I otherwise may have overlooked.

[kahlid74]

• If I want to follow a specific comic, X-Men for example, I have to follow the cross-overs too.  If I don't, things can change instantly when I go from issue 76 to 77 where in the middle, civil war bazillion killed off night crawler or something else ridiculous.  So then I follow the crossover but to truly know what's going on I have to buy every damn lead in/tie in.  So to know everything that happened in Cross Over X I have to spend $300+ on comics I don't give a crudmuffins about.  It's stupid ridiculous.  What happened to cross-overs that ONLY had one story line and one series.  I harken back to the Infinity Gauntlet because it did it right.

That doesn't bug me that much, but I haven't read any of the newer crossovers. I think crossovers can be good, they bring continuity to the whole universe across books and are a good way to check out books I otherwise may have overlooked.

I enjoy crossovers, my issue is with all the useless stuff.  Why is there a 5 part Runaways Civil War Crossover tie-in where a main character dies?  I couldn't care at all about the Runaways but now to see what happens I have to spend $15 bucks on characters they are trying to force down my throat.  These crossovers only purpose is cross brand contamination.  They try to get you hooked on other books you couldn't care less about because they think about money more than anything else.

[Mikezilla]

I was a huge fan and collector in the 80s/90s. Haven't really read anything regularly since about 98. I did read all of The Walking Dead and Marvel Civil War recently. I enjoyed both. I think that the art and especially the stories have gone downhill for the most part in a lot of the regular series in both Marvel and DC. I stopped collecting regularly shortly after the Spider-Man Clone Saga. Now I strictly read the hardcover graphic novel collections. But I find myself buying the collections of old books more than current stuff. Like Marvel Masterworks and DC Archives.

I was mostly a Marvel guy but I did enjoy Batman and other occasional DC books. I still have all of my comics...about 6 long boxes full all of them bagged and backed too in great condition. I have been thinking about selling them because I really haven't even looked at them in 10 years. I have a crap ton of Spider-Man, X-Men, X-Factor, Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Spawn, Punisher, Captain America, Daredevil...the list goes on ..too many to name. Actually...I have a few from the Death of Superman era...I couldn't follow that story, it was kind of lame. And I remember everyone freaking out over that too saying it was going to be worth money. I knew it wouldn't be. The only ones worth any real money are the ones from WWII era and older. Ones from the 50s-80s can be worth something depending on what it is. But anything from the 90s on up aren't worth crap. Cover price usually. If you're lucky it might be worth $1-2 over cover price. I never collected them because they were worth something though. I liked the stories, and still do.

Haha holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- Bootay, thats EXACTLY how I felt, and I have the same books, same everything. Thats awesome! 

I hope they NEVER go an all digital route, that would be stupid. "Hey check out my comic collection, its on this flash drive". There will always be a comic book, there has to be. I want something tangible in my hand, I like to read print, and visit comic shops to peruse the books, and talk to people about the comics. I dont like the way the world is heading... 

[Donkbaca]

I hope they NEVER go an all digital route, that would be stupid. "Hey check out my comic collection, its on this flash drive". There will always be a comic book, there has to be. I want something tangible in my hand, I like to read print, and visit comic shops to peruse the books, and talk to people about the comics. I dont like the way the world is heading... 

They said the same thing about record stores....

[Rando]

I hope they NEVER go an all digital route, that would be stupid. "Hey check out my comic collection, its on this flash drive". There will always be a comic book, there has to be. I want something tangible in my hand, I like to read print, and visit comic shops to peruse the books, and talk to people about the comics. I dont like the way the world is heading... 

They said the same thing about record stores....

A) I have no problems with comics being available digitally, but I join the hope that they don't go 100%.  I've read some comics digitally, and it's alright, but much rather prefer in issue/graphic novel format.

B) Record stores aren't dead, and neither is vinyl: http://jasonkeath.com/vinyl-album-sales-are-up-25-in-2011/

I just got a new record player this chrismas, which happily features a cassette player as well.  Woot!

[Bootay]

I also prefer reading the real books, but reading digitally isn't too bad if you have an iPad or something. I read all of The Walking Dead on a tablet and I thought it was alright. I still prefer to hold a book though...and I must confess, I like the smell of comic books.  No idea why.

[Donkbaca]

I prefer reading on a tablet, its just so much more convenient, and if I go on a trip, I can load up my iPad with a bunch of books to read, whereas if I brought like 20 comics with me I would feel like a tool.  People see a guy in his early 30's that is dressed business casual, messing with an iPad and they think he is doing something important.  They say a guy in his early 30's reading a stack of comics, well...

[Mikezilla]

I hope they NEVER go an all digital route, that would be stupid. "Hey check out my comic collection, its on this flash drive". There will always be a comic book, there has to be. I want something tangible in my hand, I like to read print, and visit comic shops to peruse the books, and talk to people about the comics. I dont like the way the world is heading... 

They said the same thing about record stores....

We still have a lot of record stores, you just have to know where to find em. I know what you mean though. Honestly, the times we live in kinda suck. Either that or I was born in the wrong time.

@ Rando: See, my eyes get a little wonky if I read on a tablet. I read some stuff on a friends tablet and I didnt like it. I stare at a screen all day, the last thing I want to do is stare at one when I feel like reading. I just dont like the medium I guess.

Haha bootay I like the smell too. The older the better.

Are you in high school donk? Who the hell cares?! 

[Vigo]

Although I haven't collected comics in years, I have pride over my small collection. I pull them out from time to time, read them, look up the values, yes-smell them. Even if I don't give a crap about the comic, like some valuable old richie rich comics I have. About the dumbest comic imaginable, but I still wouldn't part with them without feeling bad. I plan on parting my original X-men comics to my kid someday as a friggin' heirloom. You just can't have pride over digital comics, and no amount a special edition flash drives or dlc is gonna change that. With that said, I do begrudgingly read comics on my tablet.

I will not buy digital music....I still get CD's. yeah, I have to shop online for them most the time, but I have an extremely hard time buying something without a tangible medium.

I'm with mike. I should have been born in the 60's or something. I get more excited about finding a good vinyl record for my collection than take any real interest in any apps or facebook or texting.

[Donkbaca]

I like comics because the art is fun and the stories are compelling, not because of the smell, or the clutter they create.

FYI Vigo, a CD is digital music, somebody has just burned it on a cd for you and inserted a snazzy little boolet for an obscenely high processing fee.

I think its awesome that I can get whatever I want from the comfort of my living room.  The times we live in are the BEST, I can get whatever I want for a price I feel comfortable with instead of being at the mercy of the a-hole who used to run our local comic shop.

[Howard_Casto]

I like comics because the art is fun and the stories are compelling, not because of the smell, or the clutter they create.

FYI Vigo, a CD is digital music, somebody has just burned it on a cd for you and inserted a snazzy little boolet for an obscenely high processing fee.

I think its awesome that I can get whatever I want from the comfort of my living room.  The times we live in are the BEST, I can get whatever I want for a price I feel comfortable with instead of being at the mercy of the a-hole who used to run our local comic shop.

Correction.... a CD is uncompressed digital music.  What you buy via download is compressed digital.  So the only way to get a prefect copy is to buy the cd. That is until itunes allows you to download wav files.    You'll also find that a physical cd costs the same, sometimes less than buying every song via download.  I get the feeling you haven't been in a music store in a long time. The average price for a cd is 12-15 dollars.  And a typical song is around a dollar right?  In general a cd has 12-15 tracks.... like I said they are about the same.

Just as an example I looked up LMAO online.  It costs around 10-12 dollars in cd form and it has 14 tracks.    The mp3 download version of the whole album also costs 12 dollars so you can actually save money by buying the cd version.  Even if you don't you get more with the cd version (nice case, liner notes, ect).

Brining cds into a comic book argument doesn't really make any sense though.  A full color, full resolution scan is the same thing regardless of if you prefer to hold the printed pages in your hand or look at them on a screen.

Personally I prefer digital comics because comics lost all collectable value in the 90's, they are fragile, and they take up a lot of room.  I do have some old comics stored in a box somewhere, but I don't read them... if you read them then they get damaged and it ruins the value, so if you are into actually reading comics as opposed to collecting them, digital makes much more sense.

It's kind of like collecting video games.  It used to be fun, but then again games used to be in cart form, and they came with really cool boxes, manuals and extra stuff like maps, ect...  Now all games come in the same dvd case, the disc is usually mono colored to save money and the manual is a single page with a URL to where the online manual is.  Comics just aren't the same, sadly.

[Drnick]

Favourite comic books,  Secret Wars 1 (2 not so much) & Batman Dark Knight Returns.  Recently read through JLA Year one. (Not the best, but definitely not the worst).

[kahlid74]

For me it's space more than anything.  I pay $3.00 for a brand new comic on release day and unless it's super special or a complete set, it's value literally plummets over time to cents.  So now I have a box of my favorite comics that is worth $15 bucks total and takes up the same space as my SAN that holds 15 TB of comics/movies/music.  Digitally I can read it anywhere, even on my phone albeit a pain in the ass.

Now comes the useability.  When the wife sees me with a laptop or a tablet reading a comic it doesn't anger her nearly as much as a physical copy.  Don't ask me why, but digitally she's okay with it.  It's almost like she doesn't have a grip on it costing something where as physically she can attribute a good to a cost.

So I save space, I save money, I save wife wrath/angst and I get to read anything I want.  All I want is to pay for digital comics on a comparable rate to what it should cost.  Digital comics shouldn't toe along the cost of printing physical.  If someone wants physical then you have to pay for it and if less people want physical then you should have to pay more as the demand goes down but the cost of maintaining the printing presses stays fixed/decreases slightly.  I'm not against physical but if I only want digital I shouldn't have to pay for someone else's printing press.

Now the CD argument is different.  Digitally downloaded songs have less quality and fidelity.  I would however argue that you can't hear a significant difference between MP3 and CD on a regular sound system.  You need a high quality sound system to really hear a difference in fidelity.

[Donkbaca]

^^^ Agree with everything this man says

But price isn't just based on cost, its based on what the market will bear, all companies must find the sweet spot to maximize profits, they figure people pay three bucks a comic now, so 3 bucks is how they have pegged their digital copies.  From a cost perspective, assuming the same sales, prices would be much less expensive to maintain the same margins because the marginal cost of printing a digital comic is basically zero.

[Mikezilla]

Although I haven't collected comics in years, I have pride over my small collection. I pull them out from time to time, read them, look up the values, yes-smell them. Even if I don't give a crap about the comic, like some valuable old richie rich comics I have. About the dumbest comic imaginable, but I still wouldn't part with them without feeling bad. I plan on parting my original X-men comics to my kid someday as a friggin' heirloom. You just can't have pride over digital comics, and no amount a special edition flash drives or dlc is gonna change that. With that said, I do begrudgingly read comics on my tablet.

I will not buy digital music....I still get CD's. yeah, I have to shop online for them most the time, but I have an extremely hard time buying something without a tangible medium.

I'm with mike. I should have been born in the 60's or something. I get more excited about finding a good vinyl record for my collection than take any real interest in any apps or facebook or texting.

  Hell yeah on the CD's, I do the same thing. Same exact thing, I have the same phobia of buying access to something. My friend just recently had to borrow a ton of my CD's cause his Ipod with ALL this music crapped out. Something was wrong with itunes, so he couldnt get all the stuff back.

Its funny that you mention that Vigo, I was thinking of starting a vinly collection. I was at the swap meet this weekend (got sunburned to hell) and was talking to an old metal dude, and he had some awesome records.

Whats the big deal about space regarding the comics?! I have a couple long boxes and they dont take up that much space, granted I have a house, but doesnt mostly everyone here? 90 percent of you guys are in the midwest and land out there is cheap.  The wife getting mad at you reading an actual comic book is a little weird to me, no offense.

I dunno, I like having collections of things. Like Vigo stated, when I pay money, I like to have something in return that someone cant take away. Unless I decide to sell it of course. 

[Howard_Casto]

Well for me, I like digital comics for the same reason I like physical cds... durability. 

I don't like digital music downloads because it's already cruddily compressed and it's easy for the file to become corrupted over time where as a cd will last a long time assuming I don't scratch it.  Heck usually what I do is buy a cd, immediately rip it on my computer and shelf it for archival purposes.  It isn't like I have any cd players anymore.   

I agree that the difference is negligable btw... but it's the principal of the thing.  Let's say you were in a fruniture store and there were two drawers for the same price but one had a scratch on it.  Why the heck would you buy the scratched one? If digital music cost significantly less than physical music (lets say 50 cents a track) then I wouldn't feel ripped-off but as-is it's kind of a scam imho.   

Comics are the other way around.  Your physical book can be damaged just by looking through it  (the spine breaks).  In order to keep it looking nice you have to store it in a safe place, make sure your hands are dry and clean when you read it, ect...  The digital copy is indestructable compared to the real comic.  Now I could by a physical comic and "rip" it via a scanner, but scanning things is cumbersome and takes a long time and the comic's spine would be virtually destroyed by the time I was done.  I agree that digital comics need to lower in price though, I think a dollar a book would be good.

Here's the solution and this is a free idea to DC, Marvel or anybody that listens.  You know how blu-ray discs contain a code for a free digital copy of the film?  Do the same thing with comics!  Then I could buy a comic, open it to the code page, and shelf it.

[Mikezilla]

Here's the solution and this is a free idea to DC, Marvel or anybody that listens.  You know how blu-ray discs contain a code for a free digital copy of the film?  Do the same thing with comics!  Then I could buy a comic, open it to the code page, and shelf it.

Damn. Thats a great idea.