I want to get into comics again. I dig the more grounded characters like Batman and Daredevil. I already own Watchmen so we can skip that one. Any good reads over the past decade? Again, not really into the superhuman characters. Or lead me in the direction of writers who do more reality based comics. Not that comics are reality based; you know what I mean. Thanks for the help in advance!

>I want to get into comics again. I dig the more grounded
>characters like Batman and Daredevil. I already own Watchmen
>so we can skip that one. Any good reads over the past decade?
>Again, not really into the superhuman characters. Or lead me
>in the direction of writers who do more reality based comics.
>Not that comics are reality based; you know what I mean.
>Thanks for the help in advance!


current batman with scott snyder. end of detective with scott snyder. american vampire by scott snyder. manhattan projects, revival, and walking dead are all great. invincible has great moments for a superhero. rachel rising, and mind the gap are both great too. thief of thieves is pretty good. gotta go, or i'd post more

>current batman with scott snyder. end of detective with scott
>snyder. american vampire by scott snyder. manhattan projects,
>revival, and walking dead are all great. invincible has great
>moments for a superhero. rachel rising, and mind the gap are
>both great too. thief of thieves is pretty good. gotta go, or
>i'd post more

This is a great start. Thanks! I was hitting the local comic spot today so now I have titles to search for. Appreciate it!

Manage your mind!!!!

1. Scalped

2. Northlander

3.unknown soldier

check these to get your feet wet again

Stumptown
Blankets

think the sopranos, but set on an indian reservation.

currently this is what im reading monthly


new 52
batman
swamp thing
animal man
aquaman


other junk

manhattan projects !!!!
mind mgmt !!!!
saucer country !!!!
saga
planetoid
chew
johnny the homicidal maniac
before watchmen

trades/collections i intend to pick up or have picked up
anything by neil gaimon (sand man)
xforce
batman (the killing joke, black mirror)
more NNY

Criminal, Fatale, Incognito, even his Captain America stuff.

Also, Darwyn Cooke's Parker series.

I love y the last man.

Keeping the realistic theme in mind I'd recommend:

Gotham Central
a series that centered around the day to day trials of detectives in Gotham City.

The Bluesman
a black guitar player in the 1920s on the run for the murder of a white man that he didn't commit.

The Other Side
Vietnam soldiers on both sides of the conflict slowly lose their minds

Punisher Max
The Garth Ennis and Jason Aaron series feature an ultra violent take on the Punisher.

Unknown Soldier
An injured Ugandan doctor wages war against the LRA

I think I'm lucky b/c my main library has like 5 different sections - the new rack, the Comics rack, the Young Adult Comics section, th Manga section (in Young Adults, but separate from the comics), and the CHildren's Library section. I've found dope shit in every one of those (though I don't spend much time browsing the manga) and hey, it's free.

If you haven't noticed, there's been a general trend among the PTP readers away from Big 2 material - we still read plenty of that (well, most of us - I've sorely slacked off), but Image, Vertigo and Dark Horse seem to be what's gotten most of us riled up lately.

Lots of good recommendations already in this thread. Personally my favorite subgenre that's been coming back the past few years is noir, and it's almost all due to Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Can't go wrong with their books.

A few worthwhile 'grounded' titles I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Nightly News - Jonathan Hickman's intro to the world, and dynamite. Transhuman, Pax Romana also worth a read, Red Wing too if you're feeling adventurous. Secret & Manhattan Projects currently ongoing from him.

Joe the Barbarian - ever wonder what a diabetic sees when he's going into insulin shock? I have no idea if this is an accurate portrayal, but it leaves us somewhere between 'grounded' and 'fantasy.'

Nate Edmondson's another writer I've been following - Who Is Jake Ellis? was top notch sci-fi intrigue, and his followups 'The Activity' and 'Dancer' have leaned more heavily on the intrigue side but are both highly enjoyable.

Aside from that, if you're interested, at least just browse the threads with COTW in the title and keep an eye out for anything we're talking about. Don't be scared of the posts - they may seem insular, but none of us actually know what Rennolds is talking about. (Except for naked croquet, but it seems the women may not have been naked. Which makes it much less exciting to experience vicariously.)

is they consistently don't have every GN you need. for instance, they'll have vol. 3,5,8,9,10. mine has a ton of GN's, but very very few are complete. i got lucky when they had the first two vols of American Vampire. not lucky when it came to pretty much everything else.

COTW is the bee's knees!

and we're still only 2 issues in.

Damn shame.

So, good shit of the past ten years. Not obvious, and not necessarily superheroes.
Word.
Bullet-points, from general rules of thumb to specific titles, then cheat-sheet style advice. I'll be sure to mention if the book has finished its run. I'll recommend stuff I've enjoyed, not just "stuff I've heard others say they like" (I hate those kinds of lists). I'm also gonna ignore the "standard recommendations" (Preacher, Sandman, etc). This is going to be a long post. Do yourself a favor and just copy-past it into a word document. You got no excuse for not knowing what to read after this list.
I do it for the people.

GENERAL RULES OF THUMB
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if it's been published by VERTIGO, an imprint of DC Comics, it's good.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if Brian Michael Bendis wrote it, it's good.
*General rule of thumb for the past five or so years: if it's a crime comic, it's good.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if Terry Moore did it, it's either great or you hate it, but will feature the best drawn women in comics.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if Jae Lee drew it, who cares what it's about it, it's good.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if it's a major superhero crossover NOT called Civil War, Darkest Night, Secret Invasion, or Avengers vs. X-Men, ignore it.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if Ed Brubaker's name is on it, it's very good and probably the best book of that year.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if Grant Morrison wrote it, it's either good or "the one bad one he wrote" (opinions vary on which one is his "one bad one he wrote").
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if it's a comic about/prominently features women, it hasn't been good. It has not been a terribly great decade for women in comics. Just STUMPTOWN, BATWOMAN and WONDER WOMAN.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if it's a comic about/prominently features black characters, it's bad. It's been a REALLY bad decade for black characters. Luke Cage (AVENGERS) is lucky he's Brian Michael Bendis' favorite Marvel character. Even the good books starring black characters (BROTHER VOODOO, INCOGNEGRO) disappear with little fanfare.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if it's a comic that features, mentions or refers to Batman, it's good. There's been an amazing streak of high quality Bat-material this past decade.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if it's about Spider-Man, it's been either good or great. Every year there seems to be a great Spidey book, out of nowhere.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if it was published by AMERICA'S BEST COMICS, a subprint of Wildstorm Comics - itself a subprint of DC Comics - it's either great or boring.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: the rest of Wildstorm's catalog isn't worth the ink.
*General rule of thumb for the past decade: if it features the X-Men, it probably sucks. They've been the San Diego Padres of comics this millennium. Even vampires, the most ubiquitous pop culture phenomenon of the past decade, couldn't make the mutants interesting.

WORDMAN RECOMMENDATIONS
*Y The Last Man - great premise. Read it before they make it a TV show and ruin it. The series is finished, available in a couple TPB editions.
*DAYTRIPPER - best comic of 2011. Only about six issues long. So much better than its logline, absolutely wonderful. The word I'd use to describe it is transcendent.
*UNWRITTEN - best ongoing series for the past 3 years now (#39 came out last week). Think of the following statement like directions from an old hillbilly: "Get through the Harry Potter-ness of the first story arch. When you get to the whale, you'll get it." They've been collecting each arch in TPBs very quickly, so they should be easy to find. You're not reading great comics today unless you're reading UNWRITTEN.
*HOUSE OF MYSTERY - Vertigo does the best premise-based comics since '60s Marvel. The "inner story" idea is used beautifully. The plot gets a little janky (you're familiar with that word, right? You're from down South, right?) about 2/3rds of the way through, but it closes strong. This series is finished, I believe the whole thing is available in trades now.
*100 BULLETS - I'm hard pressed to call it the best crime comic of the past decade (there's been A LOT of great crime comics), but I can't think of anything better. Series is finished and is collected in TPB.
*WONDER WOMAN - the new Wonder Woman series, only 11 issues in (I think), is arguably the best DC superhero book out now. Basically, after 70 YEARS, DC finally created a good WW comic.
*JASON - my favorite cat doing it right now. Very left of center, brilliant stuff. He's published a series of TPB through Fantagraphics. Start with LOW MOON.
*SCALPED - ongoing series from Vertigo. Has arguably the most fully developed characters of any series going. The TPBs of this series are quite inexpensive, read 'em and get on board.
*CHEW - The most fun ongoing series of the past decade. This book is so much fun! Also, the best premise of any book in the past decade. The first three TPBs I think are only $5 (!). You gotta read this, it's so much fun.
*BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS - I know I mentioned him previously, but seriously, his name shows up on more comics I've bought in the past 10 years than any other. All the AVENGERS stuff, DAREDEVIL, AVX. He's been the guy driving Marvel the past decade, and he's done a good job with the keys.
*POWERS, THE AUTHORITY, TOP TEN - The "cops in a superhero-filled universe" subgenre has been a pretty good one. POWERS is probably the most fun of the three. It's ongoing and in TPB, the other two are already finished.
*BLACKSAD - Recipient of two of the coolest compliments I've heard a comic get this past decade. "It's like Devil In A Blue Dress with animals" and "This is the kind of shit Disney would make into a movie if Disney still had BALLS." The first TPB came out a year or two ago (a little on the pricey side, but worth it). The second TPB came out two weeks ago.
*INCOGNEGRO - Very well done, did not think it was going to be as much fun as it was (considering its theme).

CHEAT-SHEET
*A lot of great work of the past decade is collected in trade paperback/graphic novel format, making it MUCH easier to read.
*A lot of these great books can be found at the library. You know, that place where you can read stuff FOR FREE.
*You know how you have that one mechanic friend who fixes your car for free? That one computer geek who fixes your laptop for free? Yeah, time to get a comic friend.
*A lot of great comics are being republished in second and third editions in graphic novel format. That means there's a growing secondary market of OOP editions.
*Both of the big companies have done a good job of reprinting relevant TPBs. There's not much in DC's or Marvel's back catalog that you'd need that you can't find.
*It's getting a lot easier to find stuff online. So get your comic-napster on to catch up.



"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

>*General rule of thumb for the past decade: the rest of Wildstorm's catalog isn't worth the ink.

There are, of course, exceptions.

Warren Ellis' Planetary being the first to come to mind.

>*DAYTRIPPER - best comic of 2011. Only about six issues long. So much better than its logline, absolutely wonderful. The word I'd use to describe it is transcendent.

I don't know how I forgot about this. Most definite cosign.

they just seemed to go by so effortlessly, we can forgive Wordman for not recalling that.

I'm proud as shit of my full run on that title and I can tell you exactly how many issues it was lol

I did that whole post off memory - no Google - and couldn't remember how many issues it was, thanks for clarifying.
Such a great book. I bought all the issues when they came out, a TPB for myself. I've since bought 3 additional copies of the TPB to give to friends. Absolutely amazing.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

>>*General rule of thumb for the past decade: the rest of
>Wildstorm's catalog isn't worth the ink.
>
>There are, of course, exceptions.
>
>Warren Ellis' Planetary being the first to come to mind.

That's what I forgot!
I knew there was something Warren Ellis, but couldn't remember the title.
Yeah, correction to previous statement: PLANETARY is the best thing to come out of Wildstorm. GREAT read.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

the art in that series, tho.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

If, Bendis wrote it and it is not BLACK SPIDER-MAN? 80% CHANCE OF PURE HOT GARBAGE.
Fact.

And thanks for the list fam.

The last thing the world needs is another person reading the wrong comics.
I'm just glad to do my part.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

Also, HUGE co-sign on Whiteout's recommendation. Planetary is one of the best series ever published, let alone in the past decade.

Bendis' work is a big source of controversy in the COTW realm. I think he's responsible for a lot of classic material in the past ten years, but he's also had his share of stinkers.

A good rule of thumb for Bendis is to stick to the indy and non-crossover stuff like POWERS, Alias, Moon Night, Ms. Marvel, etc. IMO he's consistently written the best Spidey book on the stands for over a decade now in Ultimate Spider-Man. He also wrote the best Daredevil run of the last 25 years (although the current run by Mark Waid is REALLY good, too).

Bendis run on Avengers is hit or miss. Really continuity heavy, decompressed, and at times anti-climactic. Only fux w/ his Avengers stuff if you REEEEALLY feel the other stuff listed above.

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He's written more than any other comic writer this past decade.
That's not to justify bad material, but if his batting average is just as good as any other comic writer with TWICE as many at bats...
I think his Marvel stuff is good/great. Obviously there's gonna be some duds in there, but his AVENGERS stuff has been great, his DAREDEVIL run is arguably the best since MILLER, he made MOON KNIGHT work (trust, that is a lot harder than it looks). He helped shaped the current world of Marvel and for the most part did it really well.
All of that coincides with how great his indie stuff's been.
I think cats get mad because his SPIDER-MAN stuff wasn't good; that, and like every other comic cat when they're "driving the car," fans get very familiar with his style and start basing their views on that, as opposed to the material.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

this helped me out a lot!

**********
"naive as the dry leaves on the ground looking past the trees to the blue sky asking 'why me?'" -Blu

nm

that was excellent. powers was great before it left image. Okay since then.

but Rucka books in general have been given props in this post

the fact that Whiteout is actually his comics debut makes it kinda crazier.

Grounded a little, but it's entertaining as hell, and written by Alan Moore.

Volumes 1 and 2 are where to go, and if you like old literature, and eventually, all fiction, is all tied together here.

.

Warren Ellis is on point and Robertson's detailed cityscapes are amazing. Not a superhero book, and the lead character totes a bowel disruptor gun most of the series.