Must Read Comics

[mrc1214]

Hey everyone I was browsing Tony Isabellas book 1000 comics you must read, and I thought it would be fun to start a thread here with what people consider must read comics. It could be single issues, runs, complete series anything. I'll start
Amazing Spider-Man-Lee/Ditko
Fantastic Four-Lee/Kirby

You can pick these again if you like,pick issues it is your list or lists. I'll be adding more later.

[Aaron King]

Hey everyone I was browsing Tony Isabellas book 1000 comics you must read, and I thought it would be fun to start a thread here with what people consider must read comics. It could be single issues, runs, complete series anything. I'll start
Amazing Spider-Man-Lee/Ditko
Fantastic Four-Lee/Kirby

You can pick these again if you like,pick issues it is your list or lists. I'll be adding more later.

Here's a thread that just dropped off the first couple pages. Maybe they can be combined? Must-read comics

[shaxper]

Cerebus (the whole thing)
Usagi Yojimbo: Grasscutter, Grasscutter II, Travels with Jotoro, Fathers and Sons
X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga and aftermath
New Teen Titans #38 up thru Judas Contract
Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

[Aaron King]

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

What did you get out of this book? I read it when it came out, and it seemed sort of devoid of meaning. I finished it feeling like I missed something (which is entirely possible).

[mrc1214]

Here's a thread that just dropped off the first couple pages. Maybe they can be combined? Must-read comics

Yea I missed that it would be better if they were combined.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea
Jodo and Moebius's Incal
Jodo and Giménez's Metabarons
Trillo and Mandrafina's Spaghetti Bros
Trillo and Bernet's Torpedo
Mattotti's Fires
Mattotti's & Kramsky's Murmur
Toth's Zorro
Campbell's Bacchus and Alec
Tezuka's Astro Boy, Dororo, and Buddha
Naoki Urasawa's entire work
Chadwick's Concrete
McNeil's Finder
Pekar's American Splendor, Cleveland, Our Cancer Years
Mizuki's NonNonba and Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
Tatsumi's The Pushman, Good-Bye, and Abandon the Old in Tokyo
Oesterheld and Breccia's Mort Cinder and El Eternauta
Yves Chaland's Young Albert and Freddy Lombard
Marti’s The Cabbie
Los Hernandez Bros' Love and Rockets Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Tardi's Bloody Streets of Paris, It Was the War of the Trenches, and You Are There
Moore's From Hell and Swamp Thing
Giardino's Jew in Communist Prague and No Pasaran
Mézières's and Christin's Valerian and Laureline
Anything Moebius or Corben has touched

and a ton ton more i'm forgetting

[dupersuper]

Keeping in mind that "must read" generally just means "I love these books" and that I'm sure to forget several in this off-the-top-of-my-head list and that these are in no particular order:

Superman Adventures
Batman Adventures
JLU
Tiny Titans
Superman Family Adventures
Mini Marvels
G-Man
Man of Steel
triangle era Superman
Action 775 and 800
Cerebus
I Kill Giants
Watchmen
Mause
Camelot 3000
Stuck Rubber Baby
Air
Unwritten
Batman Year 1
Perez WW 1 - 8
Dark Knight Returns
Love&Rockets
Strangers in Paradise
Sandman
Bone
Atomic Robo
Preacher
The Boys
Hitman
Hitman/JLA
Moores Swamp Thing, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, For the Man Who Has Everything, Tom Strong, Promethea, ABC, LoEG vol. 1&2, From Hell
Morrisons JLA, Animal Man, We3, Seaguy, Invisibles, Sebastion 0, All Star Superman
Must There be a Superman?
Superman 400
Crisis
Wolfman/Perez TT
Claremont/Byrne X-Men
Byrne She-Hulk
Demo
DMZ
Northlanders
Busiek/Perez Avengers
JLA/Avengers
Marvels
Kingdom Come
Hickman FF/Fantastic Four
Icon Milestone run
Xombi vol. 2
Waid Daredevil, Flash, Superman, JL, Cap, FF, Empire, Irredeemable, Incorruptible, Birthright
David Aquaman, Hulk, Supergirl, Young Justice, Fallen Angel, Star Trek, B5
Johns JSA, Stars&S.T.R.I.P.E.
New Frontier
Axe Cop
The Guild
Otherworld
U.S.
IDW Dr. Who
Dr. Who/Star Trek TNG
Rocketeer Adventures
Dwayne Cooke Spirit
Simone Secret Six and All New Atom
Understanding Comics
Zot
Finals
Extremist
Enigma
Ambush Bug
DC Comics Presents: Superman and the Legion of Substitute Super Heroes issue
Astro City
Walking Dead
Super Dinosaur
Cowboy/Ninja/Viking
Girls
Umbrella Academy
Superman: For All Seasons
Robinson Starman
Miller Daredevil
Veitch Swamp Thing
pre-Flashpoint Jonah Hex
Preist Steel and Black Panther
Superman: Secret Identity
Superman: Red Sun
JLA: The Nail
JLA: Super Power
Bizarro Comics vol. 1 and 2
American Splendor
Ghost World
Impulse
Vext
Chronos
Major Bummer
Nu52 Frankenstein, Demon Knights, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Batman Inc, Dial H, Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Action...
JL8 webcomic
Azerello Dr. 13 story
100 Bullets
Aetheric Mechanics
Supergods
Transmetropolis
JLI/A/E
Superman: The Dailies
Action Comics #1

[shaxper]

What did you get out of this book? I read it when it came out, and it seemed sort of devoid of meaning. I finished it feeling like I missed something (which is entirely possible).

I don't think there was any deeper meaning to "get," really. The first part of the story was passable for me, but the second brought a tear to my eye -- just the idea that the Batman was an inevitability: going through all that pain and seeking nothing more in the world than the comfort of a second childhood, which can only come about in death and then be taken from Bruce once again. No matter what reality he is reborn in, and no matter what the specifics, this always remains the center of his persona.

It was both a nice synthesis of the character's seventy plus year history and incredibly touching for me.

Maybe it's that, for most of the age in which comics have been deeply psychological, we've been stuck in Frank Miller's read on Batman in which the boy that Bruce Wayne was died when his parents were killed. By revealing that the boy still existed deep inside and, in fact, was the very core of who Batman was, it did something for me. I understand a boy mourning for the safety of childhood far better than a vengeance driven sociopath.

[dupont2005]

Just looking at my shelf some of my favorites I see are
Usagi Yojimbo
Strangers In Paradise
Love And Rockets
Empowered
Sin City
Elfquest
Creepy/Eerie
Savage Sword Of Conan
Walking Dead
Bone
Epic Illustrated
Maus
The Maxx

[Max Hauser]

We're all very similar...

What I would add is (and this is mainly post-1990 stuff too... so all you Classic Fella's what gold and silver age stuff SHOULD we be reading?)

However...

All the Hellboys,
Bendis. I'm serious this fella is just sooo damn readable. Whether it be Sam and Twitch, Dark Avengers or Ultimate Spidey. Favourite though is Powers.
Planetary (it really is that good, it gets repeat reading in my house).
Peter David's Hulk... All of them...
Controversially, Jason Aarons Hulk! I finished this last night and loved every page of it.
Batman Year 100 by Paul Pope (the next Batbook to be referenced by the movies, I reckon)
Miller & Simonson's: Robocop versus Terminator.
Moore's Top Ten.

[Gothos]

We're all very similar...

What I would add is (and this is mainly post-1990 stuff too... so all you Classic Fella's what gold and silver age stuff SHOULD we be reading?)

However...

All the Hellboys,
Bendis. I'm serious this fella is just sooo damn readable. Whether it be Sam and Twitch, Dark Avengers or Ultimate Spidey. Favourite though is Powers.
Planetary (it really is that good, it gets repeat reading in my house).
Peter David's Hulk... All of them...
Controversially, Jason Aarons Hulk! I finished this last night and loved every page of it.
Batman Year 100 by Paul Pope (the next Batbook to be referenced by the movies, I reckon)
Miller & Simonson's: Robocop versus Terminator.
Moore's Top Ten.

It's hard to recommend Golden Age stuff not because there's not good stuff, but because the good stuff is so mixed up with bad or ordinary stuff.

For instance, I've read about four volumes of early PLASTIC MAN. This series has a strong rep, but an awful lot of stories are mediocre despite nice artwork, so I couldn't recommend a run of Cole PLASTIC MANs.

Marston-Peter WONDER WOMAN is more consistent, if you're into Marston's unique universe.

I recently read the first four JUSTICE SOCIETY stories, which would probably be a good summation of the series as a whole.

[Aaron King]

Maybe it's that, for most of the age in which comics have been deeply psychological, we've been stuck in Frank Miller's read on Batman in which the boy that Bruce Wayne was died when his parents were killed. By revealing that the boy still existed deep inside and, in fact, was the very core of who Batman was, it did something for me. I understand a boy mourning for the safety of childhood far better than a vengeance driven sociopath.

I somehow didn't see until now. A very graceful explanation. I'll grab it from the library and see if this helps my enjoyment of it at all.

[DonEMC]

What did you get out of this book? I read it when it came out, and it seemed sort of devoid of meaning. I finished it feeling like I missed something (which is entirely possible).

I'm with you on that one. It was a huge disappointment. I didn't even realize it had ended and I kept wondering if there was supposed to be something more. In the trade paperback, the Gaiman stories included with it are about as pointless. It's just not his best work and not even really a good Batman story, in my opinion.

[DonEMC]

Kyle Baker's Plastic Man is way better than Cole's. There were 20 issues of this great, great series and every single one was brilliant.

Ostrander's Suicide Squad and Spectre.

Fleisher's Jonah Hex.

Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald.

Starlin's Warlock and Captain Marvel.

Simonson's Thor.

Byrne's Fantastic Four.

Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne/Austin Uncanny X-Men

Starlin's Dreadstar.

Moore/Bissette/Totleben/Veitch Saga of the Swamp Thing.

Gillen's Journey Into Mystery.

Peter Milligan/Mike Allred X-Statix.

Frank Miller's Daredevil.

Alan Moore's Miracleman.

Stern/DeMatteis/Budiansky Ghost Rider.

Russ Manning's and Jim Shooter's Magnus Robot Fighter series.

Jim Shooter's Harbinger.

Peter David's Incredible Hulk.

Wein's and Wrightson's Swamp Thing.

Pasko's and Yeates' Saga of the Swamp Thing.

Grant Morrison's New X-Men.

Bill Mantlo's and Sal Buscema's Incredible Hulk.

Jeff Smith's Bone.

Bates' and Infantino's Flash.

Groo The Wanderer.

Gotham Central.

Byrne's Alpha Flight.

[Aaron King]

Kyle Baker's Plastic Man is way better than Cole's. There were 20 issues of this great, great series and every single one was brilliant.

I would say that Baker's is the only series to really take a cue from Cole in that Plas was much more the "straight man" and left the overt joking to others.

Also, you must mean 19 great issues. The Scott Morse fill-in was all bad puns. Bad puns.