Must-read comics

[Scott Harris]

Dark pheonix saga, infinity guantlet, civil war, secret invasion, Flashpoint. Enjoy.

Personally, Dark Phoenix is the only one of these I would consider a must-read, with most of the others being a must-avoid.

But the only way to determine for yourself what you like is to read them, and there are certainly plenty of other fans who enjoyed those comics. I'll be curious to hear what the original poster has to say about these various suggestions once he has read them.

[Mormel]

Personally, Dark Phoenix is the only one of these I would consider a must-read, with most of the others being a must-avoid.

But the only way to determine for yourself what you like is to read them, and there are certainly plenty of other fans who enjoyed those comics. I'll be curious to hear what the original poster has to say about these various suggestions once he has read them.

I haven't yet read Infinity Gauntlet, but I've seen many people here on CBR, including the Classics forum, giving it high praise.

I think when suggesting one of those classic storylines or runs, it might help to not only mention the title of the storyline, but to also give a brief synopsis so that the OP can determine if this is something he or she could get into.

[Scott Harris]

Infinity Gauntlet is cool for what it is. I enjoyed it when it came out, but I can't say i personally feel much of a need to re-read it.

Civil War and Secret Invasion, on the other hand, are in my opinion two of the worst piles of claptrap ever foisted on the Marvel universe. But again, this is just my opinion; plenty of people like them a lot, so the OP will just have to read and decide for himself. Flashpoint I only browsed through and it seemed to be a confusing mess. To each his own however.

[passer-by]

Maus (Art Spiegelman)

The Tale of One Bad Rat (Bryan Talbot)

Jimmy Corrigan (Chris Ware)

Asterios Polyp (David Mazzucchelli)

Blankets (Craig Thompson)

Daytripper (Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba)

Calvin & Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Promethea (Alan Moore, J.H.Williams III)

V for Vendetta (Alan Moore, David Lloyd)

Top 10 (Alan Moore, Zander Cannon, Gene Ha)

Criminal (Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips)

Scene of the Crime (Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark)

Metronome (Veronique Tanaka)

Runaways (Brian Vaughan, Adrian Alphona)






Not adding Watchmen, since you've already read it. (Haven't bought Chris Ware's Building Stories yet, but I strongly suspect it'll make the list as well.)

From the new ongoings I'd suggest two Image titles - Morning Glories (Nick Spencer, Joe Eisma) and Saga (Brian Vaughan, Fiona Staples).

Another Image title I'm looking forward to (starts Spring 2013) - Lazarus (Greg Rucka, Michael Lark).

[davidgrantlloyd]

There have been some great suggestions here already, but I'll chip in and offer some:

* Anything by Will Eisner is worth checking out
* Ditto Robert Crumb
* Ditto Harvey Pekar
* If it's classic Marvel you're after, you can't go wrong with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's run on Fantastic Four (reprinted under the logo: Marvel Masterworks)
* The Sin City chronicles by Frank Miller are very cool
* Maus by Art Spiegelman
* Kingdom Come by Alex Ross and Mark Waid (one of the best DC graphic novels ever published)
* Love & Rockets by the Hernandez Bros
* The Walking Dead
* All of the Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks are definitely masterpieces (collected in a variety of compilation formats)

[rafamayu]

Thanks to everyone, I'll probably get Stan Lee & Jack Kirby's Fantastic 4 next. Still, lots of comics to read, so great. I just finished Marvels and The Dark Knight Returns. I want to check some of the new comics out (like The Walking Dead and some New 52s) but I usually prefer buying volumes instead of single issues, so I'll wait.

[Polar Bear]

Daytripper (Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba)

Didn't know about this one. Just added it to my want list. Thank you!

[Slam_Bradley]

Atomic Robo is pure joy and fun.

[dupont2005]

Lots of good suggestions. One I like to recommend is called Fade From Blue. It was a ten issue series published by Second2Some. Great story, some of the best character illustration I've seen in comics. The series can be picked up dirt cheap too. It's definitely worth the $10 or so that it goes for on eBay.

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

Hitman
Punisher MAX (by Garth Ennis)
Swamp Thing (by Alan Moore)
Concrete
From Hell
Top Ten/Smax
All-Star Superman
Planetary

[Shellhead]

I haven't yet read Infinity Gauntlet, but I've seen many people here on CBR, including the Classics forum, giving it high praise.

I think when suggesting one of those classic storylines or runs, it might help to not only mention the title of the storyline, but to also give a brief synopsis so that the OP can determine if this is something he or she could get into.

Good suggestion. I'm a fan of Jim Starlin's work, but I thought that Infinity Gauntlet was a little disappointing, and the two sequels dropped in quality again and again. The prologue, Thanos Quest, is much better. This two-issue story shows how Thanos acquired the Infinity Gems from the extremely powerful entities that previously owned each one.

[tolworthy]

When I read the topic title, in my head I hear it as "Must--uh--Read--urgh--Commmics--whuff." And given some of the loooonnnnnnnggggg runs on these lists, that must be what if feels like. I haven't read a lot of these comics--I haven't read War & Peace, Moby Dick, or One Hundred Years of Solitude, either--I should probably read them before I die, but it will probably take a Herculean effort to do so.

Totally with you there. Reminds me of Tony Isabella's "1000 comics you must read before you die" Is that some kind of threat? It is wrong on so many levels:

1. Nobody has the expertise to say that objectively
2. My experience of reading "must read" comics is not good.
3. As a comic obsessive I bow to nobody, but even I have a life outside of comics.
4. As far as I can tell, the book only contains American comics! I will charitably assume that he is an expert on every genre and every format and every era and every obscure print, but just one nation? Really?

But regarding War and Peace, it's one of my favorite novels (read it on holiday). So I can confidently say that most people would hate it. With the exception of Snoopy of course.

[tolworthy]

Subnormality - it's free so worth a try. I love it, others may not.

Eagle: despite its title this is not the best of the Eagle annual, but it's a good introduction. Maybe it's too British and too stuck in the 1950s, but Eagle was a national institution. (Anybody here read Nigel Molesworth? "You canot cach me this is is a TREEN ship" - ah happy times)

Any Judge Dredd. If you like it then there are vast case files to explore. I gather that Dredd never took off in the states - too much like real life or something - YMMV

[davidgrantlloyd]

Just remembered some more I thought were worth mentioning:

* Black Hole by Charles Burns
* Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes
* Black Kiss by Howard Chaykin (Warning: this book is brilliant but very, very extreme)