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| Hosted by a Spiderman made out of ice. This probably never happened in the comics. But I don't know. Gods help me, I don't know. |
For all my love of things nerdy, I’ve never been a comic book fan. Not for lack of trying! As a kid I’d get my allowance, ride my bike down to the comic shop, and pick up an issue, and I’d love it. I’d read it about a dozen times and memorize every panel. But, well, comics were expensive and I didn’t get a lot of allowance and what I got was usually used for other things, so a lot of time would go by before I’d go get another one, and by that point the story was somewhere else entirely and I had to kind of guess at what happened in-between. And that was just X-Men! I didn’t even know where to start on Spiderman, Thor, The Hulk… and then new titles started coming out, and by the time I finally had time to catch up, there was just… there was just too much.
So there’s a whole chunk of my geek cred profile that’s just missing. It’s my secret shame.
I watch all the superhero movies and try to fill in the blanks that way, but it’s not the same. *sigh* It’s not the same.
Open thread! What’s your favorite comic book series/group/character? Do you like comics, hate ‘em, are indifferent, something else? What superpowers did/do you wish you had? What fandoms do you love being part of? What fandom are you not actually part of, even though you may have always kinda wanted to be, and why? If you could recommend just one comic book series for a total comics n00b, what would it be? Are there any new and nifty developments in the comic book world we should know about? Do you have something non-traditionally-geeky that you nevertheless “geek out” about? What IS traditionally geeky these days, anyway? Discuss!
~ Kristycat
Monday Reminder! While I have fun coming up with pretty pictures and/or interesting “prompt” questions for open threads, you aren’t limited to those! These threads are open - go wild, talk about whatever moves you! (Just remember that this is still a safe space, please!)
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I find it helpful to divide comics into ongoing and complete when working out what you want. Ongoing comics are most of Marvel's and DC's output (and others) and are more or less the nerd rival to the TV soap opera or Mills and Boon/Harlequin Romance; you know most of the beats of the story (if not the exact manifestation) before you've even opened the cover and it's simultaneously interesting and comfortable.
Completes are about telling a story in the graphic novel format. A format that, like all formats, has its strengths and weaknesses. In particular there are two sets of strengths. The first is that there is no medium I'm aware of that touches comics for playing with moments in time or space, whether snapshot (which is why pre-Seduction of the Innocent/Comics Code horror rather than superhero comics were dominant) or disjoint (hence Sandman - Neil Gaiman's magnum opus about, amongst other things, the nature of dreams that wouldn't work as well in any other medium). This can also be used to great effect with something like body language, making the Cassandra Cain Batgirl series (Cassandra Cain was dyslexic and couldn't talk for about the first dozen issues but could read body language like an open book) work incredibly well. The second (and explaining why superheroes were the second genre) is a special effects budget that's less limited than either the screen or, more crucially, the written/spoken world. On screen Sfx obviously cost money in a way they don't so much in comics. But if you've got a budget of words, special effects take time and a whole lot of words. Seriously, try to fit the visceral appeal and complexity of either the top or bottom image into words. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
So where would I recommend starting? Hard question. The massive standalone series on my bookshelf are Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan (when I get it back), Mike Carey's Lucifer, Alan Moore's Watchmen, and Alan Moore's Top Ten. All of which stand up to the very best books on my bookshelf or DVDs on my DVD shelf. And all except Watchmen (a deconstruction) and Lucifer (a sequel to Sandman) are good standalones if it's the medium used to its limits rather than the stories that are the interesting part. For the universes - DC has just had a (widely panned) reboot, and Marvel is, I believe, trying to bring its universe closer to the films. For both Marvel and DC I'd go for the TV animated universes as ways to get in; they tend to distil many of the better parts. Even if the Marvel animated series I remember are from the 90s.
I find it helpful to divide comics into ongoing and complete when working out what you want. Ongoing comics are most of Marvel's and DC's output (and others) and are more or less the nerd rival to the TV soap opera or Mills and Boon/Harlequin Romance; you know most of the beats of the story (if not the exact manifestation) before you've even opened the cover and it's simultaneously interesting and comfortable.
Completes are about telling a story in the graphic novel format. A format that, like all formats, has its strengths and weaknesses. In particular there are two sets of strengths. The first is that there is no medium I'm aware of that touches comics for playing with moments in time or space, whether snapshot (which is why pre-Seduction of the Innocent/Comics Code horror rather than superhero comics were dominant) or disjoint (hence Sandman - Neil Gaiman's magnum opus about, amongst other things, the nature of dreams that wouldn't work as well in any other medium). This can also be used to great effect with something like body language, making the Cassandra Cain Batgirl series (Cassandra Cain was dyslexic and couldn't talk for about the first dozen issues but could read body language like an open book) work incredibly well. The second (and explaining why superheroes were the second genre) is a special effects budget that's less limited than either the screen or, more crucially, the written/spoken world. On screen Sfx obviously cost money in a way they don't so much in comics. But if you've got a budget of words, special effects take time and a whole lot of words. Seriously, try to fit the visceral appeal and complexity of either the top or bottom image into words. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
So where would I recommend starting? Hard question. The massive standalone series on my bookshelf are Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan (when I get it back), Mike Carey's Lucifer, Alan Moore's Watchmen, and Alan Moore's Top Ten. All of which stand up to the very best books on my bookshelf or DVDs on my DVD shelf. And all except Watchmen (a deconstruction) and Lucifer (a sequel to Sandman) are good standalones if it's the medium used to its limits rather than the stories that are the interesting part. For the universes - DC has just had a (widely panned) reboot, and Marvel is, I believe, trying to bring its universe closer to the films. For both Marvel and DC I'd go for the TV animated universes as ways to get in; they tend to distil many of the better parts. Even if the Marvel animated series I remember are from the 90s.
In April, the new X-MEN #1 will have an all-woman team: Jubilee, Storm, Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde, and (my fave) Rachel Grey. All the women will wear uniforms that cover their legs. :)
Yeah, the charming dude who came up with that end-of-adventure reward just threw that in there with no thought to the world beyond the four-hour adventure.
I love worldbuilding and my homebrew world isn't based on generic feudalism. It's gender equal as a game system that includes the following would have to be. These features are included in the base game and published worlds.
1. No creation myths blaming women for all the misery in the world.
2. Magical healing in excess of modern medicine that guarantee your kids will all make it to adulthood. Safe childbirth, too.
3. No stigma on people who enjoy sex and no pressure to have sex.
4. A world full of monsters, meaning that wasting the talents of even one person could spell ruin.
5. No religions that forbid choosing the size of your family.
Huh - occasionally I worry that my games are a little too far to the opposite end of the spectrum in not including enough significant male characters. Most of my interesting (non-villainous) main NPCs are female; but then, I'm DMing for a group of 4 guys and I feel a little outnumbered sometimes.
Sex-related issues don't come up much, as my baby brother is one of the players and that's just squicky. :-p
Huh - occasionally I worry that my games are a little too far to the opposite end of the spectrum in not including enough significant male characters. Most of my interesting (non-villainous) main NPCs are female; but then, I'm DMing for a group of 4 guys and I feel a little outnumbered sometimes.
Sex-related issues don't come up much, as my baby brother is one of the players and that's just squicky. :-p
I love comics... I've even drawn a few and had a couple of stories published -- nothing you'd recognize, I'm fairly sure, since it's been in rather small independent anthologies and suchlike. Coming as I do from Scandinavia, to me comic books aren't really synonymous with superheroes... (I don't mind superheroes per say, but I often get a little frustrated with self-appointed comic book geeks who don't realize that there's plenty of life in comics outside superheroics.)
The biggest comics here are in fact Disney comics, more specifically Donald Duck -- and I've always had a huge soft spot for the old Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks (which later formed the basis for the DuckTales cartoon -- the comics are, on the whole, better than the cartoon, though).
Outside Disney, I absolutely love Jeff Smith's BONE, which is kinda like "Bugs Bunny meets Lord of the Rings." Sandman by Neil Gaiman is also a classic, and I have a fondness for its semi-spinoff Books of Magic and its related titles Books of Faerie, Names of Magic and Hunter: The Age of Magic.
Also, I've been enjoying the My Little Pony: Friendship if Magic comic by Katie Cook and Andy Price; it's only three issues in, but it's hilarious.
And if we're going by superheroes... well, my favorite superheroes are probably the Fantastic Four, even though the book itself varies wildly in quality. The current run is interesting, but now I think I like its "sister" book FF a little better. And I used to like Batgirl before the infamous DC reboot (I loved the mentor/protege relationship that formed between Barbara Gordon and Stephanie Brown), but I've more or less given up on DC after the reboot, and the new Batgirl title was a disappointment, despite being written by the normally good Gail Simone.
I love comics... I've even drawn a few and had a couple of stories published -- nothing you'd recognize, I'm fairly sure, since it's been in rather small independent anthologies and suchlike. Coming as I do from Scandinavia, to me comic books aren't really synonymous with superheroes... (I don't mind superheroes per say, but I often get a little frustrated with self-appointed comic book geeks who don't realize that there's plenty of life in comics outside superheroics.)
The biggest comics here are in fact Disney comics, more specifically Donald Duck -- and I've always had a huge soft spot for the old Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks (which later formed the basis for the DuckTales cartoon -- the comics are, on the whole, better than the cartoon, though).
Outside Disney, I absolutely love Jeff Smith's BONE, which is kinda like "Bugs Bunny meets Lord of the Rings." Sandman by Neil Gaiman is also a classic, and I have a fondness for its semi-spinoff Books of Magic and its related titles Books of Faerie, Names of Magic and Hunter: The Age of Magic.
Also, I've been enjoying the My Little Pony: Friendship if Magic comic by Katie Cook and Andy Price; it's only three issues in, but it's hilarious.
And if we're going by superheroes... well, my favorite superheroes are probably the Fantastic Four, even though the book itself varies wildly in quality. The current run is interesting, but now I think I like its "sister" book FF a little better. And I used to like Batgirl before the infamous DC reboot (I loved the mentor/protege relationship that formed between Barbara Gordon and Stephanie Brown), but I've more or less given up on DC after the reboot, and the new Batgirl title was a disappointment, despite being written by the normally good Gail Simone.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Jaime Hernandez. His Locas stories are some of the best I've read. Maggie the Mechanic and her bestie Hopey age in somewhat real time (Maggie gains weight with age, but is always lovingly drawn and empathetically written), and so does their friendship/occasional romance. I love it both as a woman and as a Latina (since it shows a bunch of badass Latina women from SoCal generally being interesting, outrageous people. It started as a scifi comic and still has fantastical elements - think Latino Magical Realism - but it's grown into a more generally realistic comic with occasional moments of surreality. I just read The Return of the Ti-Girls, which is obviously much more on the side of fantast, but it's a great parody/homage to superheroines (not a male superhero in sight, or a male suprvillain, for that matter). But it's better if you start with Maggie the Mechanic (and then once you know the characters you can jump around in their lives - I read the first thick tome volume of Locas in my high school library, but I'm slowly collecting all the books, somewhat at random). Best part: Locas is still ongoing, in the Love and Rockets books Jaime publishes along with his brother Gilbert's work.
I understand Gilbert's work is good too in a more directly Garcia Marquez influenced way, but I have always found his art off-putting.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Jaime Hernandez. His Locas stories are some of the best I've read. Maggie the Mechanic and her bestie Hopey age in somewhat real time (Maggie gains weight with age, but is always lovingly drawn and empathetically written), and so does their friendship/occasional romance. I love it both as a woman and as a Latina (since it shows a bunch of badass Latina women from SoCal generally being interesting, outrageous people. It started as a scifi comic and still has fantastical elements - think Latino Magical Realism - but it's grown into a more generally realistic comic with occasional moments of surreality. I just read The Return of the Ti-Girls, which is obviously much more on the side of fantast, but it's a great parody/homage to superheroines (not a male superhero in sight, or a male suprvillain, for that matter). But it's better if you start with Maggie the Mechanic (and then once you know the characters you can jump around in their lives - I read the first thick tome volume of Locas in my high school library, but I'm slowly collecting all the books, somewhat at random). Best part: Locas is still ongoing, in the Love and Rockets books Jaime publishes along with his brother Gilbert's work.
I understand Gilbert's work is good too in a more directly Garcia Marquez influenced way, but I have always found his art off-putting.
Yeah. That kind of cluelessness is why we need to keep on keeping on. I saw this in my local game store and mentioned it to a friend (also a RPGer) and she didn't quite get why I found it as offensive as I did. But then she never gamed at cons and she never played with anyone other than friends in a gender-balanced gaming group.
Most convention game masters are very good about presenting an interesting adventure in a four-hour time slot, but there are the memorable ones who have no idea how to worldbuild. Entire villages with no women. Pregenerated eight-player adventuring parties with seven male characters with cool backstories, interesting role-playing hooks, and fun victory conditions. Only one female character with no backstory (she's a mercenary), generic victory conditions (survive the encounter with the dragon), and one role-playing hook (she's female). Female NPCs being given as rewards for completing the quest (the king has just enough daughters for the entire adventuring party to marry one). The ubiquitous whining about not being able to play a female character but having no trouble at all playing a dwarf. I had fun at the various gaming conventions, but I don't miss them that much. For one thing, my D&D campaign has been going on for nearly a decade.
Yeah. That kind of cluelessness is why we need to keep on keeping on. I saw this in my local game store and mentioned it to a friend (also a RPGer) and she didn't quite get why I found it as offensive as I did. But then she never gamed at cons and she never played with anyone other than friends in a gender-balanced gaming group.
Most convention game masters are very good about presenting an interesting adventure in a four-hour time slot, but there are the memorable ones who have no idea how to worldbuild. Entire villages with no women. Pregenerated eight-player adventuring parties with seven male characters with cool backstories, interesting role-playing hooks, and fun victory conditions. Only one female character with no backstory (she's a mercenary), generic victory conditions (survive the encounter with the dragon), and one role-playing hook (she's female). Female NPCs being given as rewards for completing the quest (the king has just enough daughters for the entire adventuring party to marry one). The ubiquitous whining about not being able to play a female character but having no trouble at all playing a dwarf. I had fun at the various gaming conventions, but I don't miss them that much. For one thing, my D&D campaign has been going on for nearly a decade.
I don't really read comics anymore, but when I did, I really loved Strangers in Paradise and still have all the books. I also liked Sandman and Preacher, and still have those as well. And the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which Alison Bechdel (originator of the Bechdel Test!) is unfortunately no longer drawing, though her memoirs are also excellent.
I'm not a comic-book reader (webcomics are a different matter...). In the graphic-novel territory, I do have 2 volumes of The Absolute Sandman sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. And I keep intending to read them, but they're such gorgeous books that I feel almost as though I should save them for a special occasion. Does anyone else here approach really beautiful books in that way?
Also, a bit of randomness for the thread: have a picture about cat-calling that showed up in my Facebook news feed today. I found it both amusing and adorable.
(P.S. Hi! I'm the rather sporadic commenter formerly known as "Anna", having finally got round to getting myself a Disqus account.)
Yes! I do that too, with books that I save up for special occasions, or art supplies or whatever. I pick up beautiful yarn and it just sits there for a year or more while I work with crappy Bernat and Red Heart because I'm convinced that I can't possibly "waste" the yarn on anything less than the perfect project.
I've been working my way through the Sandman books (got them for Christmas) very slowly, and only in the living room with good lighting and cozy furniture. I can't possibly take it into the bathroom or anything like that! Haha, most other books I take wherever, crammed into my bag, read while eating, etc. Not these! Too pretty!
The one thing I geek out over is the Royal Navy, circa 1805-1812, and anything to do with ships in general; the Titanic has fascinated me since I was eight. :D Also, The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger is a great book.
~Lily~
Oh, interesting point, Jane Carnall. I'm extremely text-oriented in many senses, but I feel comics appeal to on the level quite a bit. And I have always loved illustrations. I guess my ideal books are really illustrated, with pages or maybe two panels per page. Which explains why I adore childrens's books and also why I found the first two volumes of Hereville so immensely appealing. I also have fond memories of Calvin and Hobbes.
Commenting without reading the other comments yet, because this strikes a nerve.
I have become a pretty big Marvel fan based on the movies only (well, and the associated fandom.) I am becoming a graphic novel and comic person slowly, starting with Hereville. Because comics cost money I am only interested in paying for totally damn awesome ones. Which aren't going to be anything mainstream... of course I can't think of any other examples at the moment...
I never really read comics growing up; I think the facts that they're far more expensive per word than books and facial expressions and body language don't give me much information might have contributed to that. What I have read is almost entirely manga. As mentioned above, Sailor Moon is a good classic manga series (currently being retranslated and re-released in North America). Seeing one of the other recommendations above, I would like to mention that Madoka (rot13) vf n engure qnex, qrpbafgehpgvba fbeg bs frevrf, fbzrgvzrf pbafvqrerq n zntvpny-tvey Rinatryvba.
Also, I get quite a few of my manga recommendations recently from Okazu (okazu.blogspot.com), for... reasons. Not really sure what to say about that, really.
Honestly, if you want to get up to date with superhero comics, you could do a lot worse than watch the various animated series that have been made. Spectacular Spider-Man is probably my favourite interpretation of the character ever done, and it's tight, well-written, faithful to the source material without being slavish, and includes a number of the better arcs from the comics (like the Green Goblin storyline, the Sinister Six and the Venom saga).
Also worth watching are Batman: the Animated Series and its spinoffs (which is still _the_ Batman, as far as I'm concerned), the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited series, and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
As for superpowers: flight. Telekinesis if I can get it, because done right that's flight plus other perks, but... I want to _fly_.
Honestly, if you want to get up to date with superhero comics, you could do a lot worse than watch the various animated series that have been made. Spectacular Spider-Man is probably my favourite interpretation of the character ever done, and it's tight, well-written, faithful to the source material without being slavish, and includes a number of the better arcs from the comics (like the Green Goblin storyline, the Sinister Six and the Venom saga).
Also worth watching are Batman: the Animated Series and its spinoffs (which is still _the_ Batman, as far as I'm concerned), the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited series, and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
As for superpowers: flight. Telekinesis if I can get it, because done right that's flight plus other perks, but... I want to _fly_.
The man in the steel suit's name is John Henry Irons, so presumably he was named after the famous steel-driver in-universe.
Pretty much everyone with an opinion on the matter agrees that Spider-Man selling his marriage to a devil was stupid for a variety of different reasons. The only exceptions I know of are Joe Quesada (who commanded that it should be done) and Mephisto (the devil in question).
I was a comics fan for a brief while. back in the 80's or so, there were more comics (and comics companies) than one could count, with a wide range of subject matter, artistic style, and talent. I loved "Critters", "Boz Chronicles", "Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children" (even DC had it's own creator-controlled arm, Pirhanna Press), and others. Very few of these titles remain -- I think "Fables" is still going, "Usagi Yojimbo", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and one or two more.
The collapse was pretty sudden -- a combination of over-reaching, greed on several entities parts, and a LOT of stupidity. It's too bad -- we're all a little poorer for being back in the grip of the the big Two and a Half (Dark Horse got their start during this period).
The man in the steel suit's name is John Henry Irons, so presumably he was named after the famous steel-driver in-universe.
Pretty much everyone with an opinion on the matter agrees that Spider-Man selling his marriage to a devil was stupid for a variety of different reasons. The only exceptions I know of are Joe Quesada (who commanded that it should be done) and Mephisto (the devil in question).
Favourite comics at the moment would probably be Transmetropolitan and Secret Six (which is irritatingly difficult to get at present), but I first got into comics with the tie-in to Batman the Animated Series and subsequently watched bits of probably every nineties Marvel superhero cartoon in the UK - Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, the first season of Iron Man, and Silver Surfer (which convinced me that space opera isn't good enough unless space is full of titans and demigods and I'm still annoyed that it never got a second season).
Favourite comics at the moment would probably be Transmetropolitan and Secret Six (which is irritatingly difficult to get at present), but I first got into comics with the tie-in to Batman the Animated Series and subsequently watched bits of probably every nineties Marvel superhero cartoon in the UK - Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, the first season of Iron Man, and Silver Surfer (which convinced me that space opera isn't good enough unless space is full of titans and demigods and I'm still annoyed that it never got a second season).
Ohh, I have such a back catalogue of posts to read...
Stupid home computer not loading the pages for some reason.
I recently came across a conversation surrounding a Kickstarter for a roleplaying game called "Busty Barbarian Bimbos".
There was a fair amount of talk surrounding the issue of whether the basically offensive qualities were outweighed by the satiric merit.
You can imagine my surprise when I finally got to look at the page, and saw a summary for something that thinks it's being really clever by presenting a system and setting whereby the cheesecake depictions of women in much fantasy artwork are the main characters, and it's all about "a world that is dominated not by bearded wizards and savage swordsmen, but by the values of aesthetic beauty, fashion, and social standing."
And don't forget constantly hammering home the idea that it's a math-light game system (hur hur).
I look at that and I think... is the world -mocking- me? Is this some kind of devious joke that some Loki-esque figure is pulling on me and others? To show that this can still fly?
I suppose if I can take nothing else from this, I at least have something I can point to and say "this is a thing that exists in 2013" the next time somebody says feminism isn't needed anymore.
My favorites:
Death Note, by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. A brilliant, bored high schooler finds a notebook that lets him kill anyone, if he knows their name and face. He decides to use it to rid the world of criminals, giving hundreds of them heart attacks in just a few days. Soon, the world's greatest detective, who can command the support of every police agency on earth, figures out that someone is killing criminals and vows to track down the culprit. An epic battle of wits commences. 12 volumes, completed.
Bakuman, by the same. Two young students decide to enter the world of manga. The series follows their trials and tribulations. This series makes the art of creating manga seem incredibly interesting, and I really enjoy the various twists and turns. 20 volumes, completed in Japan, 17 released in America.
Monster, by Naoki Urasawa. A brilliant surgeon named Kenzo Tenma saves the life of a young orphan who arrived at his hospital first, rather than the more prestigious, less-critical patient that he was ordered to save. As such, his career is destroyed, but he thinks he did the right thing. Several years later, he learns that the orphan has become an incredibly effective, charismatic, and completely evil serial killer. He must race to stop the boy, Johan, from completing his plans of slaughter. This story is great, not only for the awesome duality between Tenma (who values human life above all else) and Johan (who doesn't value it at all), but for all the side characters -- Johan's sister Anna, who also wants to stop him, the unstoppable Detective Lunge, who is convinced that Tenma is behind Johan's killing spree, Dieter, a young orphan being raised in a similar (terrible) way as Johan whom Tenma tries to help, and so on. Epic in scope, the story moves all across Europe, and Tenma and Johan must both tangle with a variety of criminal elements, including remnants of the Czech Stasi (secret police) and a neo-nazi group bent on using Johan for their own ends. 18 volumes, completed, won the Shogukukan Manga Award.
Pluto, by the same. Something is killing the world's 7 greatest robots, as well as all the humans involved in a mysterious operation in the MidEast. This is based on a short story by Tezuka, and it expands on it in a variety of ways. Gesicht, the detective robot protagonist, is very well done, and the story does a good job of exploring the 'what does it mean to be a robot that is so much like a human that it's near-impossible to tell them apart' question. 8 volumes, completed.
Lone Wolf and Cub, by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. The shogun's executioner, Ogami Itto, is framed for treason. Rather than commit suicide as expected, he takes the 'path of the demon' and becomes an assassin for hire. In addition to killing his targets, he must also fight the treacherous Yagyu clan, a powerful family who practically runs the shogunate and has thousands of agents all over the nation. The shogun's only companion is his 3 year old son, Ogami Daigoro, and together, the two must take on the nation. 28 volumes, completed. Also has a 10 volume spin-off focusing on one enemy of the week, the shogun's sword tester Kubikiri Asaemon. It's good, though not as good as LWaC.
Buddha, by Osamu Tezuka. A chronicle of the life of Buddha. Done with the usual Tezuka flair, and won an Eisner Award. 8 volumes, completed.
Phoenix, by the same. Tezuka's magnum opus and considered by many to be his greatest work. A bunch of loosely connected stories about people dealing with immortality, the search for it, and what they do with their mortal lives. The stories are connected only by the eponymous phoenix, an immortal bird that watches over events, and the perpetually doomed Saruta, who once committed a grave crime and must forever reincarnate and suffer for it. 12 volumes, completed.
American made comics? I really did not have access to these. My town doesn't even have a coffee shop so there is no way we had a comic book shop. However my cousin was a big Sonic fan so I think he got some sonic issues delivered to his house and of course we made our own comics all the time. Then there were a few issues of pokemon manga that were purchased and read until they fell apart. Next I found issues of Sailor Moon (the floppies before they were published in the pocket manga size). I was lucky enough to babysit and work when I was young so I had more pocket money than some other kids and I ordered a TON of manga. And 10+ years later I don't have a majority of the manga but I am buying the new Sailor Moon and the MLP:FiM comics as they come out.
Another thing that exists in the world is this: http://www.geeknative.com/379/the-slayers-guide-to-female-gamers/
It claims to parody male gamers more than female gamers, but the premise seems to be
1. female gamers aren't real gamers.
2. female people are SOOOOOOO HAAAAAAAARD to understand.
3. all female gamers are the same.
Having run games at GenCon when it was still in Milwaukee, the demographic breakdown was 90/10 male to female. I belonged to a gaming organization in the early 90s that got together for one weekend a month and had a discussion, break for a 4 hour game session, dinner break, back to gaming (4 hour session). I'd usually run D&D one time slot and play someone else's game the other slot. There have been several occasions in which the discussion at the beginning was on how to attract more female gamers.
Despite this group being extremely female gamer friendly, I have a funny story.
I'm setting up to run my game. I paint miniatures and have enough painted minis to populate a small town. I'm big on using miniatures, props, cardstock buildings, the whole works. I was setting up my village in which a chase sequence was planned, and was putting out the miniatures. I had 100 painted figures, in demographically-correct ratios. 50 male, 50 female, of those, there were a few elves and dwarves, both male and female.
Someone wanders by, sees the elaborate setup, and says: That's an awful lot of females.
My response: 50% just like the real world. I counted.
Another thing that exists in the world is this: http://www.geeknative.com/379/the-slayers-guide-to-female-gamers/
It claims to parody male gamers more than female gamers, but the premise seems to be
1. female gamers aren't real gamers.
2. female people are SOOOOOOO HAAAAAAAARD to understand.
3. all female gamers are the same.
Having run games at GenCon when it was still in Milwaukee, the demographic breakdown was 90/10 male to female. I belonged to a gaming organization in the early 90s that got together for one weekend a month and had a discussion, break for a 4 hour game session, dinner break, back to gaming (4 hour session). I'd usually run D&D one time slot and play someone else's game the other slot. There have been several occasions in which the discussion at the beginning was on how to attract more female gamers.
Despite this group being extremely female gamer friendly, I have a funny story.
I'm setting up to run my game. I paint miniatures and have enough painted minis to populate a small town. I'm big on using miniatures, props, cardstock buildings, the whole works. I was setting up my village in which a chase sequence was planned, and was putting out the miniatures. I had 100 painted figures, in demographically-correct ratios. 50 male, 50 female, of those, there were a few elves and dwarves, both male and female.
Someone wanders by, sees the elaborate setup, and says: That's an awful lot of females.
My response: 50% just like the real world. I counted.
I <3 comics. My favourite of all time is Watchmen, and I was involved in its fandom for awhile. I don't recommend reading it first if you're a comics n00b, though; what's great about it is greater with an understanding of what makes comics work as an art/storytelling form.
In general, I like indie/non-traditional stuff over mainstream stuff (though I have a soft spot for superhero comics) and Western over manga.
The first comic I ever read, when I was 14, was "Season of Mists," the fourth volume in the Sandman series. In a way it was the perfect introduction—while it's mid-series, it's mostly a self-contained story, it's beautifully written and illustrated, and thematically, it was a world away from everything I was led to believe comics were (i.e., shallow, action-focused, and just for boys). I would still maybe recommend Sandman as a gateway drug to comics—it doesn't blow me away quite as much as it used to, but it's quite brilliant, especially for the time, and accessible if you're not familiar with All the Comics Tropes and Backstory.
Other comics I really love, in descending order from over-the-top fantastical to realistic:
Miracleman: Alan Moore did this right before Watchmen, and was playing around with many of the same concepts in terms of deconstructing superhero tropes. It's more sprawling and less well-structured as a story, but in some senses takes even more risks and ventures into some truly weird and excellent territory.
The Authority: I was sucked in because a) anarchist superheroes, b) Warren Ellis, and c) gay Batman and Superman, but what sticks with me is the awesomeness that is Jenny Sparks. Foul-mouthed, sexually liberated, badass, and unlike most heroines in mainstream comics, has a "uniform" that actually allows for ass-kicking rather than hinders it. Warren Ellis in general rules.
The Red Star: This is a weird one. It's the first comic I've seen that's digital or mostly digital that I've actually enjoyed aesthetically. The storyline works best if you just relax and go with it. Also it has a genderswapped Trotsky, which is most excellent.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: The manga, not the anime. The austere, powerful, evil lady opposing our innocent protagonist becomes an actual sympathetic protagonist in her own right. Freaky-ass giant spiders? Noble, gentle creatures in need of love and protection. It's environmentalist without being pedantic and has all the whimsy that makes Studio Ghibli so appealing.
Tank Girl: I think this was the second comic series that I fell in love with, after Sandman. It makes no sense and is completely hilarious and has a variety of rad female protagonists who, while strong and female, are very far from the Strong Female Character model.
Transmetropolitan: I think the art is kind of bad, but the story makes up for it by being Just So Great. Spider Jerusalem is one of my favourite characters in all of comics. No superpowers, just copious quantities of snark, a general lack of shits given, and a deeply repressed but nevertheless powerful sense of humanity. And the Chair Leg of Truth.
DMZ: Intensely cinematic and gripping, and you don't need to read it in order, really. It's got a believable premise and characters and some brilliant moral complexities.
Berlin: By my favourite contemporary comic artist, Jason Lutes (check out "Jar of Fools"; it's amazing). An intensely vivid portrait of Weimar-era Berlin just as everything is getting horrible.
Augh there are probably more; I could go on about this all day.
When I was a kid, I never could understand how anyone without a huge amount of pocket-money ever became a comics fan. Each issue of a comic cost not much less than a paperback book, and had far less reading material in it. I bought 2000 AD and Warlord and Bunty and Misty, the sort of comics that cost pocket-money, but never regularly.
The comic books I got introduced to as an adult were Watchmen and Swamp Thing, From Eroica With Love (the first manga I ever read) and of course The Sandman. Having read Samuel R. Delany on comics, I do now get why some people liked comics and I didn't: I'm a very text-orientated person. So I don't think I'm ever going to be a comics fan, even though there are comics I really love.
The superpower I always wanted was to be able to fly.
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