• Ryan Elkins
• Jul 16,2008
• In: Geeky

Getting Graphic

When I was younger I used to really be in to comic books. It started when I found my dad’s old comic books. These were silver age comics - from the 60s. It was a fairly varied collection - Spiderman, Daredevil, Superman as well as non traditional comics like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Archie. I used to read them all the time.

When I was about 10 or so I started collecting comics. The first comic book I ever bought was Wolverine, issue #4 or 5 I think. I kept up with it for a while but stopped for some reason after a year. When I was 14 I met a kid in Junior High that reintroduced me to comics. Image had was relatively new and I was mostly reading Spawn. A year or two later the comic store I went to closed and there wasn’t really any place to buy comics in my town anymore so I quit.

They’ve always been something I’m interested in, however. I’m not sure what it is, maybe this years excellent slate of comic book based movies (Iron Man, The Dark Knight) and the good adaptations of graphic novels to movies over the last few years (V for Vendetta, Sin City, 300) but I decided to get back in to comics a bit.

Mostly, I plan on getting graphic novels or collections. I have bought and read Watchmen and Batman: Year One. They were both pretty good. I especially liked Year One. There are a few other Batman titles I’m eying - namely Batman: The Killing Joke, Batman: The Long Halloween, and , of course, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

Beyond Batman I had a really good recommendation for Garth Ennis’ run with the Punisher from the friend that first got me into buying my own comics, so I’ll be looking at some sort of collection of those stories, probably the version that ran under the Marvel Max (their mature readers) line, probably starting with Punisher MAX, Vol. 1. I’ve decided to try and mostly get the “good ones” rather than simply focusing on stuff about characters I think are interesting. I’ll probably pick up V for Vendetta, Sin City, and 300 at some point as well. What can I say, Alan Moore and Frank Miller are legends.

I also want to get a hold of my dad’s old collection and get them stored a bit better and figure out exactly what is there. I know there were some good ones, including Amazing Spiderman #50 - “Spiderman No More”.

Are there any fellow comic book geeks out there? Any recommendations?