Any other comic book fans

[Zander Willmore]

I was just wondering if there were any other comic book fans on this site. I love comics and read several a week. I have a pretty good comic collection. I love all things superhero. There are some pretty good fantasy comics and I can give recommendations for any one who is interested.

I even write superhero fanfics. That is how I got my start in writing. I wrote fanfics and moved onto more serious work.

So if you are a fan of comics post here. Let me know what you like to read and stuff like that.

Thanks for reading and have a good day.

 

[CupofJoe]

I used to be a bit of a fan, back in the 80s and 90s. Alan Moore and the like brought me a new dark and sometimes upsetting worldview to life.
Since then I haven't seen much that has grabbed my attention for long enough to get invested.
I'd be interesting in any you think are interesting and a bit different.
About the only comic I still read is Asterix, but that is mainly out of nostalgia.

 

[Zander Willmore]

couple different non superhero comics that are pretty good are. Something is killing the children. Good Horror comic. And a good fantasy comic is called Rat Queens about a group of female adventurers.

 

[Maker of Things Not Kings]

Comics are soooooo much better than when I was a kid though I still have a soft spot for a lot of my childhood faves. Rat Queens is one of my favorite comics of the last 10 years along with Mouse Guard, Copperhead, Descender, Wytches, Trees and Gail Simone's run writing Red Sonja.

 

[skip.knox]

I never read comics as a kid. For some reason, when I was about 24 or so, I bought a few Marvel comics from a stand in a 7-11. It was 1974. Jim Starlin was just starting Captain Marvel. Steve Englehart was writing the Avengers. Tomb of Dracula. Killraven with Craig Russell. Don McGregor's Black Panther. Steve Gerber soon after started Howard the Duck. Then came the re-birth of the X-Men. Very good memories.

I stopped buying around ten years later. But I just recently signed up for Marvel Unlimited (I've never been a DC guy) and I'm having a grand time reading all the back issues I could never afford back in the day.

 

[Insolent Lad]

I pretty much learned to read from comic books. As soon as I got Dick and Jane under my belt, I went through the collections of my older siblings, Donald Duck and Superman and Tarzan. By the summer between first and second grades, I had discovered Classics Illustrated and had read the comic book versions of Moby Dick, The Red Badge of Courage, King Solomon's Mines. But I didn't remain a comics fan as a kid and moved on.

Eventually I did dabble again, particularly the Conan comic books. Barry Smith's art work—that, if nothing else, pulled me in (as did Joe Kubert's Tarzan). I've always tended more to the fantasy titles than superheros. In the spring of 1993, a flood destroyed my entire collection, however, and I've rarely looked at comics since.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Groo the Wanderer! Otherwise, no, I just never got into comics. I just just never got into them. I liked some characters... Wolverine, Moon Knight... and GROO! Even then, I probably only owned a dozen issues. I tried to like them, like I tried to like comic-based movies, but there is something I just don’t care for. Nolan’s Batmans are about the only movies I see as stand outs, the rest are marginally entertaining.

Strange thing is, I feel like I should like them, but I just don’t.

 

[Yora]

I think Hellboy is fantastic. One of the best fantasy series in general. Same goes for BPRD.

I also really likes the Knights of the Old Republic comics that came out a couple of years ago. I think they are one of the best Star Wars series in any medium.

Here in Europe we have these paperback sized Donald Duck comics. They must have been around for over 40 years now and there's hundreds of them. We had piles of those when I was a kid, and they were by far the most common stuff I was reading back then.

 

[Insolent Lad]

I might add that although I haven't been a great comic book fan over the years, I was a huge fan of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant strip in the newspapers. I might even call it a formative influence.

 

[LadyErynn]

I didn't get into them until my 20s, but I love comic books now! Current favorites are Elektra and John Constantine: Hellblazer. I'm always open to trying new ones, though!

I also found this AMAZING site for reading free comic books. Check it out! ComicExtra.com

 

[Rogue]

When I was a boy, my father spent some time away from home while he was taking care of his sick mother. There were some other things going on, too that kept him away for a few years but at least he didn't ditch me on a cigarette run. When he came back, he brought with him a whole mess of comic books, mostly DC and Marvel. He loved Batman but I was instantly drawn to Spider-Man, or more accurately, Peter Parker. He was a dorky kid who had trouble relating to his peers. If he went to my school, we would have been best friends.

Despite this early love for the superhero genre, I never really followed comics and sort of just read random issues as I came across them. I always preferred novels over comics. If my stories were going to have pictures then I preferred that they be moving. Nowadays, I have more of an appreciation for comics but I find myself bored by the mainstream superheroes. I got restarted in comics when I picked up Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Descender by Jeff Lemire.

I still don't have a large library of comic books but some that I've really enjoyed include Velvet by Ed Brubaker, Deadly Class by Rick Remender, and Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn. There are a few titles out there whose art I enjoy far more than I do their story, especially as I have no artistic talent of my own. I also have my to-read list filled with a few other titles by those same writers such as Ex Machina (BKV), Scalped (Aaron), and The Fade Out (Brubaker). I just love how the artwork is just as important to storytelling as are the words.

I even have a couple of my own ideas for a comic book if I could find an artist/writer to collaborate with but ideas are a dime a dozen and I still have a lot to learn about the medium before giving that any serious consideration.

 

[Maker of Things Not Kings]

Despite this early love for the superhero genre, I never really followed comics and sort of just read random issues as I came across them. I got restarted in comics when I picked up Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Descender by Jeff Lemire.

I'll echo those sentiments about mainstream superheroes. As an adult, I find them hard to be excited about but. . . Gail Simone's run on Batgirl was the exception for me (anything she writes is the exception it seems and her writing for Red Sonja gave me a whole new appreciation for what I had seen as an outdated, one dimensional comic character.)

Still haven't found my way to Southern Bastards yet, but both the story and art of Descender (and the new Lemire follow up, Ascender) is one of my favorites of all time. Paper Girls is very good as well.

The art is definitely what attracts me in most cases with comics and those that do are the only print comics I end up buying, preferring digital for the rest. Isola, Coda, Wytches, Monstress and Grasskings are a few where the art stood out for me over the last few years. And I have a real soft spot for all of the Henson's Storyteller series comics as well.

 

[Rogue]

I'll echo those sentiments about mainstream superheroes. As an adult, I find them hard to be excited about but. . . Gail Simone's run on Batgirl was the exception for me (anything she writes is the exception it seems and her writing for Red Sonja gave me a whole new appreciation for what I had seen as an outdated, one dimensional comic character.)

My problem is less with the characters and more with the stories. Take Batman, for example. You'll read his comics for what? A year? Two? And then the universe will go through some sort of reboot. The characters don't seem to grow. Sure, they change but there's no growth. At least nothing permanent. But when Batman is rebooted, you can be sure that a few classic stories will remain a part of the character's history. Things like the death of Jason Todd, the assault of Barbara Gordon, Knightfall, or at least parts of it such as the famous 'breaking of the Bat', are always recycled or revised in some way,

I get that these characters are constantly being re-adapted for new readers and especially new generations, but it alienates people like me who want to see characters grow and eventually move on. At this point, to me it feels more like a soap opera with a recurring cast of characters. But I guess that's what happens when you tell stories about the same character for three-quarters of a century.

That's not to say that I don't think there are any good stories to be had. I'm sure there are those out there that I would thoroughly enjoy but I just can't bring myself to care about them anymore. I want a story with a beginning, middle, and eventual end and I just can't get that with Marvel and DC characters.

However, I have considered picking up some of the Conan the Barbarian comics, either by Dark Horse or Marvel. I considered Red Sonja among them, too. I can't really think of too many fantasy-oriented comic books that I've read or even heard of over the years. Most comics that I read tend to fall more in line with contemporary or science fiction. I could use a little more sword and sorcery in my life, even though I practically grew up on the stuff.

Still haven't found my way to Southern Bastards yet, but both the story and art of Descender (and the new Lemire follow up, Ascender) is one of my favorites of all time. Paper Girls is very good as well.

The art is definitely what attracts me in most cases with comics and those that do are the only print comics I end up buying, preferring digital for the rest. Isola, Coda, Wytches, Monstress and Grasskings are a few where the art stood out for me over the last few years. And I have a real soft spot for all of the Henson's Storyteller series comics as well.

I haven't gotten to Ascender, yet and I don't think I've even finished Descender. I seriously love Paper Girls, though and not just because it starts out in my native Ohio. I'll have to look into the other titles you mentioned.

If you're interested in some stellar art, I would recommend checking out Seven to Eternity. I haven't gotten into the story very much but just going through the books has me floored by the art I've seen so far,

 

[Zander Willmore]

Rouge I get what you are saying about DC being rebooted every few years. It is very off putting and they are doing another reboot in the near future.

While I love Marvel and Dc Superhero comics I have been reading more and more non superhero comics. Am reading a Horror comic right now called Something is Killing the Children. I am also getting more and more into manga. Found a website that has thousands of Manga to read for free if anyone is interested in that.

 

[Maker of Things Not Kings]

If you're interested in some stellar art, I would recommend checking out Seven to Eternity. I haven't gotten into the story very much but just going through the books has me floored by the art I've seen so far,

I will check that one out for sure!

I get what you're saying about the reboots. I think it was good they did the big ones a few years back but it does seem they are still trying to get it up to speed with the current generation and the industry itself. The thing is, good writers now a days, with the bigger market in comic publishing and many more options for self publishing digitally, are not as easy to come by and they come in with their own ides which is a far cry from the days when it was all done by just a few people working under the guiding hands in the Marvel and DC houses. Image, Boom, Dark Horse and others offer writers a chance to be as creative as they'd like and, while most writers still dream of writing one of their childhood favorites, it seems they realize that they have a bit more name recognition today that allows them to take those characters in a different direction and Marvel / DC wants the writers name attached to their brand so they give them that leeway.

I suppose the younger generation cares less about that continuity since the old style/stories in comics don't really appeal to them as much and they are the new comic buyers of today. Like if a kid is a fan of, say, the New York Yankees baseball team. and he or she is twelve, well, they may know there's a long history of the franchise and a winning tradition but those great older teams, they're not that kid's Yankees. He doesn't want to watch old black and white images of Ruth or Mantle or DiMaggio. Nor does he want the game to be played like it was then either. He's grown up on the slick product and the ever changing roster of today. lol

But like Zander above, it was the improved art and a number of non-superhero comics that brought me back around 2006, they were, if I can recall, The Stuff of Legend, Fables, Mouse Guard, Fell, American Vampire and a few others. Then it was Kabuki: The Alchemy, in 2009 that changed my view of what comics could/should be. I can't think of too many novels I've read with a more intriguing storyline than that particular Kabuki series. The art, using digital construction as much as it does illustration, is still among my all time favorites.

Speaking of sci-fi and great art though, have you checked out either Low or Black Science? Both written by Rick Remender, soooo. . .

I didn't get into them until my 20s, but I love comic books now! Current favorites are Elektra and John Constantine: Hellblazer. I'm always open to trying new ones, though!

Comics are so well crafted these days with far better storylines, balanced and inclusive casts of characters and they're more imaginative than ever. Is there a particular run of Elektra that you've liked best?