THE COMICS SHELF I've been reading and collecting comics since 1977. When I started, at age 8, comics were written for kids my age or a little older. At that time, there were two choices at the grocery store: Marvel Comics (Spider-Man, Captain America, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four) and DC Comics (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern). The late seventies are not generally looked on as a high point in American comics, and historically, most kids outgrew them by about age 15. But for the kids of my generation, an amazing thing happened throughout the 1980's: comics grew up with us. The causes of this were many, but the result is that today, readers of any age can find comics that are challenging, entertaining, and satisfying, in pretty much any genre imaginable (though super-heroes still dominate, of course.) In fact, most people would be suprised to learn that it's actually harder to find comics geared towards children, or even teenagers, now than it is to find those geared towards adults. RECOMMENDED READING (for fairly mature readers, teens & older, unless otherwise noted) Watchmen Published in 1986-87, this 12-issue series changed the landscape of the super-hero comic permanently. The reason to read it, though, is not for its historical importance. Read it because it's a brilliant story, a haunting, funny, shocking, moving, utterly engaging piece of entertainment. The only down side to reading this first is, it just might all be downhill from here. Luckily for you, it will forever be available, because the day DC lets it go out of print, the rights revert back to the creators, writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. I recommend the Absolute Watchmen, an oversized hardcover collection with new digital coloring by the original colorist, which also includes endpapers explaining the birth of the project and the evolution of the characters. Hopefully, at some point, the new coloring job will also be transferred to new printings in softcover as well. Planetary Probably the closest thing to Watchmen that is being published right now. The dialogue is crisp and witty, the characters are sharp and intriguing, and every issue provides the "sense of wonder" that is only found in the best science fiction. The setting is a world somewhat like an amalgamation of the DC and Marvel universes, but with one strange caveat : none of the superheroes seem to be around any more. Each month, the three members of "Planetary" investigate the remains of some strange locale or artifact, looking for clues and trying to piece the whole thing together. Each issue is written and drawn in a style that pays homage to whatever source material is being investigated, and the stories themselves are often metaphors for the changing circumstances of the comics industry. This does for super-hero comics what X-Files did for UFO's: it ties together all of the various related legends floating around, and then asks, "why aren't they here?" It's an outstanding read, and the more you know about comics, the better it gets. I recommend the Absolute Planetary collection of the first 12 issues in oversized hardcover. Or, as a sampler, pick up the Batman/Planetary: Night On Earth one-shot, by the same creative team -- an unusually good example of a "crossover" comic. X-Men (All-ages) The cast that is currently portrayed in the movies and that still dominates a large part of the comics market was introduced in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975). The oversized X-Men Omnibus starts with that issue, and reprints everything continuously up through Uncanny X-Men #131. This is the bulk of what is generally considered to be the finest run of X-Men comics (if not mainstream super-hero comics in general) ever produced. In fact, if the Omnibus contained just 12 more issues, it would have completely captured the amazing run by writer Chris Claremont and artists John Byrne and Terry Austin in its entirety. Most of the remaining issues can be found in the paperbacks X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga and X-Men: Days of Future Past, both of which are great stories in their own right. As for the best modern X-Men comics, look no further than Astonishing X-Men, the first twelve issues of which are collected in one hardback or two paperbacks. This title seems to be capturing a lot of the old Claremont/Byrne magic, but with more modern sensibilities: larger panels, extremely high production values in the paper and coloring, and more self-aware, irony-laden dialogue from Joss Whedon. Daredevil In the 1980's, Frank Miller (Sin City) launched himself and this character to superstardom with an amazing run of comics that he both wrote and drew. The stories blended crime-noir fiction and cinematic storytelling techniques to create comics that were truly ahead of their time. Some of them were also the basis for the Daredevil (and, to a lesser extent, Elektra) movies, but don't let that stop you. Miller's entire run is collected in an oversized, Daredevil Omnibus. Twenty years later, a new creative team was finally able to equal, and possibly even surpass, the heights that Miller reached on Daredevil. The stories written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Alex Maleev are collected in softcover, but I recommend the oversized hardcover collections Daredevil Volumes 2 - 6. Miracleman Before there was Watchmen, there was Miracleman. Growing up in England, writer Alan Moore had been exposed to the Captain Marvel myth (Shazam!) via a knock-off version of the character called Marvelman, who was transformed into his alter-ego by uttering the word "Kimota" (Atomic spelled backwards.) In the mid-1980's, Moore reinvented Marvelman for the modern world, stumbling through his ordinary life plagued by dreams of a half-remembered magic word and superhuman exploits in an age gone by. A situation occurs that forces him to remember the word, and after his transformation, the world is never the same. Moore wrote 16 issues, then handed it over to Neil Gaiman, who wrote another 8. Legal disputes have prevented any further printings of either the comics or the scarce paperback and hardback collections, and in fact, have even prevented Gaiman's story from being finished in print. So, if you're lucky enough to have a friend with Miracleman #1 - 24 in their collection, take advantage of the opportunity to borrow them (if you can!) Alias More recent crime noir in the Marvel super-hero world as written by Brian Michael Bendis. This now-defunct comic is unrelated to the now-defunct television show of the same name, though it does feature a female protagonist in investigative and sometimes combative situations. The entire series is collected in the giant Alias Omnibus, and it is a beautiful thing indeed. It looks like a lot of comics to chew through, but in fact, it goes by all too quickly. This is partly because comics today are "decompressed" compared to comics you may remember from your youth -- the panels are larger, dialogue more sparse, thought-balloons nonexistent, and narration minimized. "Show, don't tell" is the modern comics philosophy. It's also partly because you just can't put the damn thing down. Once Vicki started it, she devoured it in about two days. Batman Often mentioned in the same breath as Watchmen is Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Published in 1986, this story also had a tremendous impact on the comics industry and set the "grim and gritty" tone that would permeate super-hero comics for at least a decade. This is the story of an aging Bruce Wayne who has long given up being the Batman, but who is driven to return to crimefighting by his inner demons. The Batman depicted here is efficient, brutal, uncompromising, and extremely effective at banishing any remnants of the swingin' 60's television Batman that you may have lingering in your brain. Miller's depiction of Superman in this story is even more interesting -- he is so fast, so powerful, that he is essentially a force of nature that acts to change world events (or stop a crime on your streetcorner) without ever being directly seen by anybody. The inevitable conflict between Superman as the ultimate authority figure, and Batman as the ultimate anti-hero, makes for some truly great comics. Steer clear of the sequel, "DK2," at all costs. For some great Batman stories in a more classic style, as "the world's greatest detective," you can't go wrong with the hardcover series Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams (all-ages). I recommend the final Volume 3, which contains the legendary first meeting of Batman and his enemy Ra's Al Ghul, and is part of the source material for the Batman Begins movie. If you've never seen Neal Adams' art before, it is a revelation. Neal once remarked that, "if super-heroes existed in the real world, they would look the way I draw them." Nobody has ever argued with this. His photorealistic command of anatomy, perspective, facial expressions, and real-world artifacts like cars and buildings, combined with his dynamic page layouts and effective storytelling, invigorated every title that he worked on. If you grew up in the 1970's, the picture in your head of any of DC's heroes is probably from a Neal Adams drawing that was stamped onto a calendar or lunch box.  His work on Batman represents a creative peak for both the character and the artist. Spider-Man (All-ages) Sure, I read a few Spider-Man comics as a kid, but I just never cared that much about the character. In 2000, Marvel launched a new line of comics aimed at younger readers, children who had not grown up with 40 years of comics continuity in their heads. The flagship title of this new "Ultimate"' line of comics was a re-imagining of Spider-Man that borrowed heavily from the original 1960's stories, but also diverges from it in interesting ways. To everyone's surprise, it turned out to be so good that it seems to have surpassed the "mainstream" version of the character in popularity. If you like the Spider-Man movies, or ever liked this character as a kid, or just want to read some amazingly fun super-hero comics, check out Ultimate Spider-Man Volumes 1-9 in oversized hardback, or volumes 1 - 16 in paperback. Invincible (All-ages) And if you end up liking Ultimate Spidey as much as I do, you'll love Invincible for many of the same reasons. Neither a Marvel or a DC comic, this is an example of an "independent" title that offers many fresh insights on the super-hero genre. Let's say that your father is, basically, Superman: an alien sent to earth from a dying world, with powers far beyond those of mortal men. Let's say that you're a teenager, wondering to yourself if you'll end up with super powers of your own. And then, one day... well, that would be telling! The dialogue in this book is very natural-sounding, even in the context of some pretty incredible situations that occur. But even more commendable is how unpredictable, yet satisfying, the stories are.  You can't go wrong with Invincible Volumes 1-3 in hardcover. The Walking Dead By the same writer as Invincible, it's a zombie story that begins where most zombie movies end, and just keeps getting more and more engrossing. If you liked the films "28 Days Later" or "Children of Men," you'll love this black-and-white independent comic that seems to be gaining more readers with each passing month. Unexpected twists and shocking, sometimes gruesome moments, are intertwined with small, personal moments that make the characters seem so real you could touch them. I hope that the people in this comic that I've come to know will survive the next fifty issues. But I fear that they may not. The first 36 issues are collected in The Walking Dead Volumes 1 - 3 oversized hardcovers, but many prefer the smaller trade paperbacks that collect six issues at a time, and come out more often. Pax Romana What if the Catholic Church discovered time travel? Welcome to a comic book that is so dense with ideas that it rivals any science fiction novel I've read, in terms of "moments of awe and wonder" per page. Only one issue has come out so far as I write this (beginning of 2008) but it has rocketed to the top of my list. Four issues are scheduled, and it will inevitably be collected in softcover. MY FIRST COMICS The first super-hero I remember liking was The Batman. On the Super-Friends cartoon, Batman had all the best gadgets, and it fascinated me that he had an entire fleet of vehicles -- a car, a boat, a helicopter, a plane, a rocket, a motorcycle -- all housed in a cave, with the unifying bat insignia on them. But in three panels of the very first Batman comic I ever owned (Detective Comics #462, August 1976), a new character captured my interest like no other: "Who... Is... THAT?" I remember asking. That guy was so cool! The red costume, the yellow boots, the lightning bolts... and look at how fast he could run! Everybody else was standing still in those panels, but the Flash had movement, excitement, and all those neat powers. He stole the show! I was hooked. I started getting Flash comics with number 248 (April 1977) and never stopped. Every issue, the Flash would figure out a new way to use his speed to defeat some menace. He used his brain, and often, his knowledge of science, to solve problems. It was awesome. I'll have more to say about the Flash, so stay tuned! I hope you've enjoyed browsing my Comics Shelf. Thanks for visiting!  --Dave