Growing up I read a lot of comic books. I especially loved the X-Men in the mid 90s. I also read Spiderman, Batman, occasionally Superman and other random books I got my hands on. I would never say I was more of a Marvel kid or a DC kid growing up, though I'm sure I bought more Marvel. During that phase I stopped collecting in the very late 90s.
Years later, my good friend and I got back into it full force. At that point I was collecting everything DC and a small amount of Marvel. If Batman was involved, so were we! This was a fun phase in my life, as I finally discovered that comics had reached a new level. In the 90s you had little word bubbles explaining what was obvious in the pictures and the dialogue. They got rid of that, thank the heavens. For me it is almost hard to read the old stuff seriously, with a few exceptions. What I found was a world of comics that had come closer to legitimate great story telling that no longer relied on good guys fighting bad guys, cause that's what they do. Though the older stuff is still great, it evolved with me, as comics tend to do.
Eventually I stopped reading but not before reading a beautiful book called Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis. It had a great character driven story about Tony Stark a real man with a guilty conscience, who sometimes is Iron Man. Adi Granov's art was also tremendously expressive, though Stark was clearly Tom Cruise. When I stopped due to financial reasons I made sure to finish up the 6 issue arch and was tremendously satisfied. Like that it was gone.
Five years later I was sitting and reflecting on how great Iron Man: Extremis was. I wanted to read it again, so I decided to order a nice hardcover of the collected story to keep it in nice shape. After reading it, I remembered not only why I loved that story, and Iron Man, but comic books in general. After that, I found myself mostly ignoring current storylines and the comic book format itself and only collecting trade paperbacks or sexy ass hardcovers. Since this move, I find it easy to believe I can semi collect comics forever.
Iron Man: Extremis was a gateway drug to me. It showed me how a comic can be mature and how badass superheroes can be. The maturity side lead me to amazing stories that everyone should read like:
Fell- also by Warren Ellis, the story of a detective moving into a really bad part if town to try to earn a quick promotion. Seriously, what's up with that nun?
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen- by Alan Moore which couldn't be any less like the movie...thankfully.
Sandman- by Neil Gaiman which is insanely good. It's not so much a story as it is a beautiful mythology.
Preacher- by Garth Ennis which is also extremely good, given the reader has the guts for it, which I do cause I'm mad hardcore.
Jonah Hex- by Palmiotti and Gray, has some of the best straight up western stories I've seen. Pick up any issue. It's made for that.
Maus- by Art Spiegelman, a true holocaust tale framed through the eyes of the son of a survivor. If you want to just pick something special up, grab these two volumes. Anyone would enjoy this.
Planetary- once again by Warren Ellis. I just finished this about ten minutes before writing this. It starts out like chaos, but by the end it all becomes so clear.
Granted there are many more books that I've read these are the ones that have left the best impression on me, though I have enjoyed a few great Iron Man and Batman stories and Joss Whedon's brilliant Astonishing X-Men run followed by, yet again, Warren Ellis. If it seems like I'm a fan, I am. The man writes the most naturally flowing comics I've seen. I also strongly recommend Scott Pilgrim, wherever that fits, it is a masterpiece.
So if you still have that feeling of wanting to get into comics, there are many options. Amazon is well priced and comic shops are happy to recommend something that you will enjoy. It's still a great medium and as long as they are on paper, they'll always be there for you.
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