Yesterday as I was out shopping, I wandered into this comic book store out of sheer curiosity. I know that you guys in New England talk about this Newbury Comics that also sells records, so I guess I was curious as to whether this place sold them too. They didn't, but I found myself browsing boxes and boxes of old comic books, not really knowing what I was looking at.

I used to buy X-Men in the mid nineties when my mom used to teach and therefore had summers off to take me and my friend comic book shopping every Tuesday, so I looked for those titles again. Some covers seemed vaguely familiar, but after looking at a lot of them, they all started looking the same.

Should I pursue this hobby too or stick to records? IF I start collecting comic books, what should I look for?

it really depends. comics have changed a lot since you have probably last collected them. much more adult oriented ie a bit more violent than ho hum

im a fan of Green Lantern, avengers, xmen and Justice League of America and Justice Society of America

if you are looking for a great read that weaves a wonderful story, i suggest picking up the four volumes of 52

four volumes=four issues? I might try that. I think I can afford to spend the time+money involved in reading four issues of something and not feel bad if I find that I'm over it.

Probably a Fleshlight.

well done, platypus.

no, 52 was a weekly comic DC put out. 13 issues per volume. it follows on the heels of infinite crisis where DCs big three, batman, wonderwoman and superman all retire for a year and how the rest of the heroes deal with it

So wait, would i have to be familiar with all of these other superhero sagas?

the only one youd have to know is the elongated man. his wife was killed and hes having a problem dealing with it

Actually, that story sounds interesting enough on it's own.

its a hard cover or trade paper, its called Identity Crisis, highly recommended

What's the original Superman series called? I may just buy that.

Washing Machine, if you don't want to go the spandex superhero route, there are tons of great comics out there that don't take place in the Marvel/DC universes, and are self-contained stories so you don't have to worry about continuity or catching up.

Y: The Last Man
Preacher
Hellboy
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From Hell
The Walking Dead
Bone
Sandman

Also, don't "collect" comics. Read and enjoy them.

The spandex/superhero route is exactly where I want to go, though.

some batman collections/one shots i highly recommend

the long halloween (year long mystery based on a pattern of a holiday killer; also, really interesting look at harvey dent)
the dark knight returns (old batman comes out of retirement in the midst of societal decay and is a bad ass)
the killing joke (short in length, but huge in impact; focus on the Joker)
year one (batman's beginnings; large focus on jim gordon as well)

one i haven't read, but i've heard praised and you might like, is called Venom (batman battles addiction)

and then one of the most important superhero books of all time, but less a cliche superhero-type book, is Watchmen. still, everyone loves it.

i'm missing a lot on that batman list, but those few are a good start.

see, i think some of the best batman is when he interacts with the other heroes, so i stick with JLA for it. ive read the one where his son comes to him (damien i think is his name) and found it meh

i do have the long halloween and killing joke as well as arkhum asylum but while good, they dont knock my socks off

The Long Halloween looks pretty good to me. If it's a year long, that doesn't sound like that much of a commitment either. I may give a couple of those a try. Thanks Pat.

i've never read any 'son of batman' stories, but i don't like the idea in the first place, so i think i'll continue to avoid it, esp. given poor reviews (i heard recently it was un-retconned; not a fan of that move). arkham asylum is one of the few major stories i've never gotten around to, even though it's been on my wishlist for a while.



no prob. i will say the long halloween is one of the longer ones, as it's comprised of 13 parts, and each one is ~50-60 pages i think (though i might be off on that). however, it's a comic book, so it's not a massive undertaking, and it's engrossing enough that i think you'll keep coming back. definite page turner.

I do this:

http://marvel.com/digitalcomics/

I've read those and they are good some really good.

Sandman was so awesome.

I like x-men a lot too and have been reading some of the newer ones. Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men as pretty good.