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OKay. Fine. Fine. I give!
Hey, comic people on my friendslist? Anyone want to give a girl some pointers on how to get into this fandom? You know what kind of thing I like, I'm assuming, and I've sporadically read X-Men in the past, so I at least know who the players are, there. Well, sort of.
ETA: If it helps, from reading ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
scans_daily, I seem to be developing an odd affection for this Bart fellow. Hm.
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But there's Marvel fandom and DC fandom. And each of those is broken up into a variety of subfandoms, but that separation is pretty heavy.
So that's what you have to decide first -- if you're into the Superman/Batman/Justice League blah blah blah that everyone and their dawg seems to be in now, or if you're into the X-men/Spiderman/Fantastic Four that people were in big when the X-Men movie came out, but have died back down to a nice mellow way.
If you're leaning to X-men, the first rule is this:
You will never understand the canon.
You can't. It's a mess. Characters are dead and then come back and then oh, there's an AU that has the characters alive, and oh, evil clones and mirror universe and time travel and YOUR HEAD WILL EXPLODE.
But a good place to start, if you're gonna read the comics, is the latest Astonishing X-Men (Joss Whedon writes mutant snark. We are in love.) and the Grant Morrison New X-Men graphic novels (superstarstruck glamoristas). Those are the ultimate in mutant cool. For comedy, pick up the jumbo black-and-white early X-Men compendiums, especially for Uncanny X-Men (the first, written in the early 60s, and boy howdy, does it show).
And then, if you're gonna read fic, head straight to Comicfic.net and fall in love.
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and a lot of people are into teen titans right now, which i believe is what bart is from? but i know nothing of it, alas, as even i must limit my weekly monthly comic intake to six or seven series. <3
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And I last saw this when I was 16 or something, gasp *13 years ago* and I remembered the title so I could google for it.
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Doh
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BitTorrent, if you can get it to work, is a good idea and saves you a lot of money (Get the CDisplay Comic Book Reader on your computer if you don't already have it) on back issues.
Suggested DCU reading:
Young Justice
Impulse (Bart's solo title)
New Teen Titans v1 & v2
The Titans
Outsiders v2 (current run)
Teen Titans v3 (current run)
Make good use of your LJ and available forums to discover things about certain characters. Stuff like the Justice League titles, Green Lantern and Batman is often entrenched in decades of canon and can be hard to start off in.
Avoid anything by Chuck Austen, Bill Willingham, and Ron Marz like a thing what is avoided.
Read lots of fanfic. suggested is the stuff at http://www.teland.com.
LJ communities worth looking at:
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Anything by Judd Winick. He wrote a really good run or so in Green Lantern v3 (#128 or so to somewhere in the #150s), and is currently writing Outsiders and Green Arrow. He's a pretty gay & women friendly comic writer. He tackles social issues.
Anything by Mark Waid. He mostly writes in the Flash continuity, so I don't real a whole lot of his stuff, but aside from some of this early Justice League Task Force stuff, it's all good.
The Ultimate continuity is a good place to start in Marvel because it is made up of re-writes of old storylines. Essentially a decrackified Marvel continuity. Ultimate Fantastic Four is good, and I'm awfully fond of The Ultimates. I hear Ultimate Spiderman is good.
Mark Millar is usually a dependable writer, as is Brian Michael Bendis (though I hear that his run on Avengers is crap) if you're looking for Marvelly stuff.
Anything written before about 1996 is by definition crack. Or at lest ridiculously melodramatic. Some of it is still really good. New Teen Titans is enjoyable in a soap opera sorta way. JLA v2 is occasionally hilarious and touching all at once. And in spite of the awkward dialogue, Green Arrow/Green Lantern issues from the seventies are actually pretty good.
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Accept that if you are not a feminist when you start reading comics, you will be in a month.
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Impulse, since you like Bart, wasn't so hard to pick up from the beginning, but it wasn't all right out there either. I'd say Young Justice is pretty good, because it's primarily a comedy series, and its storylines are mostly internalized. (Mostly.)
Batverse, I'd say start when Dixon was writing everything. I'm not sure when that is in Batman or Detective Comics, but it will be issue 1 for Birds of Prey, Robin, and Nightwing.
Starting from the beginning is generally a bad idea because the sixties stuff? Is terrible and boring.
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You know, The Titans (1998) is a good place to start also, for a lot of these characters. There's a lot of backstory, but you don't need it to understand what's going on.
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(I am a n00b!)
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I am fond of American comics in a way for two reasons:
1) It's kind of like fanfic, in a way. A bunch of different writers working with characters they most likely didn't create. It's interesting.
2) While the intertwining plots is a bitch to read because you have to buy so many different issues, it's also fun because the whole universe is so entwined.
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DC reset its comics twice in the past few decades. First in the early eighties with Crisis on Infinite Earths, in which all the DC timelines pared down to one main timeline, causing the deaths of not a few characters (most notably Barry Allen, the original Flash, and Bart's grandpa). The second was Zero Hour in the early nineties in which then Green Lantern, Hal Jordan went crazy, became Parallax, became all-powerful, and attempted to end and restart the universe in order to fix all the things that were wrong with the world. Or something. Marz wrote a lot of it, so I haven't read that much of it.
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I also *much* prefer reading hard copy to onscreen. But even though I've downloaded about 20 GB of comics so far? I've *also* spent almost $1500 on new issues, back issues, and trade paperbacks since the end of February. So, I mean, would I LIKE to read all of Starman while curled up in my bed, turning pages? I certainly would. I would also like to not live in a bag on the street. It's kind of a necessary evil, or at least a necessary crankiness.
Now, granted, I'm obsessive and bought many MANY trades, and I also insisted on buying them new from the comicshop. If you buy used off Amazon, you'd spend about half what I did; I just feel that since I can afford to support my comic shop, I should. But, you know, I do that 'cause most people can't because good GOD, this is an expensive hobby.
Okay, that aside...well, actually, another problem with reading in trades, is that while Marvel puts out basically *everything* in trade within 2 or 3 months, DC only does particular notable storylines, and takes much longer. They're changing a little, just lately, but you can't just buy a bunch of trades instead of hunting down back issues, the way you can with Marvel.
Okay really truly that aside. Eventually you will most likely start following characters and families from book to book, as the superhero 'clans' are distinct units independent of any individual title. But that is complex and to start with you pretty much just want books that are good.
In terms of stuff you can buy in trade, I recommend:
(Batstuff first, 'cause it's what I KNOW)
Arkham Asylum (A Serious House on Serious Earth) -- this is illustrated by Dave McKean and is thus very...arty. Which is good! I love this book wildly! But in both appearance and in writing(Grant Morrison), it's much more like a 'mainstream', indie graphic novel. Even if you end up not caring for the Batverse, you will like this book, because it is beautiful.
No Man's Land, volumes 1-5 -- this is huge, and sprawling, and plotty, and a lot of it will be terribly confusing the first time round. It was to me, and I was already somewhat acquainted with the characters. But it's *really* *good,* features a bunch of different writers and artists so you can get a feel for names you like, and it's the book that I think *feels* most like the current state of the Batverse. Emotionally/artistically this is the current status quo, more or less.
Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive -- Fugitive is somewhat weaker, but still good, and you *will* need to know what happens after cliffhanger. And Murderer is just the absolute best symphony of batfamily ANGST that ever was. Everybody's issues (and there are A LOT) are out on the table here.
Other stuff:
Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds -- Gail Simone is just *fantastic.* The art is beautiful, although occasionally enraging to one's feminism, but...well. That's a constant danger, unfortunately. And the writing is so good. This stars Barbara Gordon from the Bats, so if you've any interest in her you *must* have this.
Green Arrow: Archer's Quest -- my favorite trade of all time. OF. ALL. TIME. Brad Meltzer is BRILLIANT, and even if you don't know anything about these people, you will fall utterly in love with them. And then when you come back to it later and do know stuff, you will just be in *awe.*
JLA: Obsidian Age -- You will not understand the plot. I've read it seven or eight times, and *I* don't understand the plot. It does not matter. This is a superhero romp, with surprisingly touching moments but always, you know, a ROMP. Wonderful fun with a huge cast. Joe Kelly is one of my favorite writers, so if you like this I have more recommendations.
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Gotham Central: In the Line of Duty -- if you liked Homicide, you will adore this madly. It's police procedural with occasional superhero cameos, and for sheer artistic quality it's probably the best mainstream-DC book out right now. I personally liked the later arcs even better than the one collected in this book, but it's still REALLY good.
There's a *ton* of other stuff that I loved like crazy, but these are the books I would (and generally did) love even before falling hard for the people involved. So if you read and like any of them, you can note the characters and writers and go searching for more.
Individual issues are a much greater effort/money commitment, so I'd hold off on buying those until you have a rough feeling of what you want. However, if you end up liking the Bats, I have MANY non-trade recommendations. And in terms of torrents to download, if you see full runs of any of these I'd advise at least trying them out:
Impulse, Robin, Nightwing(gets much much better when Devin Grayson arrives on issue 71, but Dixon's run is entertaining), Gotham Knights 1-32(Devin Grayson again--this is the best Bat-book out there. Consistently brilliant), Gotham Adventures(it is a toon, and it will BREAK YOUR HEART), Legends of the Dark Knight, Superman/Batman(pre-slashed for your convenience!!), Batgirl...
Again, hugely incomplete, but my brain is starting to bleed, so. *g* And this is superhero stuff only--there's a bunch of brilliant and lovely non-hero (or non-mainstream-hero, like Starman, which is highly amazing and available in trade! so check it out!) books that are not part of 'fandom,' exactly, but if you're interested in those too I can rec some.
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as for NON-superhero stuff...
to start: i have no idea if there is a fandom for this, outside of the people who go to my local comic shop. i know there must be, but i feel no need to search it out.
to continue: this is an excellent excellent comic. it tells the story of what could happen if all the male creatures on earth die except for two: Yorick and his pet monkey. There are all sorts of fantastic women characters; in fact, since nearly every character is female, the range of persons shown is even more awesome. there are soldiers and mothers and psychopaths and actors and yeah, it's fuckin' ROCK.
and also, i think that you, being a person who desires women characters who are awesome, would like it. plus the trades aren't that expensive and you can get them from amazon.co.uk, which is the link above. it's a nice respite from the marvel and dc universes, too, which are so sprawling that it's both fun and terrifying at the same time.
other series that are not dc or marvel and thus i have no idea of the actual fandom:
hopeless savages: punk rock family! this is just fun. <3 the first two books (hopeless savages and too much hopeless savages) are better than the third, in my opinion. they follow the hopeless-savage family, the parental units being middle-aged punk rock stars and their kids all have names like Twitch and Rat and Zero. <333
...and that's really all i'm gonna recommend ya', as you have a pretty awesome reading list already and the other stuff will keep you busy for, oh, the rest of your life. <3 i mean, you could check out Kabuki: Circle of Blood, which i like because it has such an awesome cinematic feeling to it, sci-fi and destiny and yeah, or Maus, which is this classic, classic world war two story wherein the artist (a character) shows nazis as cat-faced-people and jews and, well, mice.
oh! and league of extraordinary gentlemen is fantastic, too. and hellboy. and sin city. and the sandman. and i'll stop now.
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2. Strangers in Paradise. Just trust me on this one. You'll never get the individual issues for the early episodes, but there are trade paperback collections.
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*is not helpful*
*but is pretty*
*also is on some comms that are good*
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