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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on May 4, 2015 8:18:20 GMT -5
Right now, I feel like I need to focus. I just buy whatever, although there are certain series and such that I prefer.
1. Amazing Spider-Man - my favourite hero, I have an almost complete run from 90-400. Slowly hoping to accumulate some more Silver Age books when I can. 2. Captain Marvel- I would really like to get some of the Starling issues, as my collection between #20-35 is slim. I have a lot of earlier ones and some later issues in the series. Am hunting for an affordable #1. 3. Batman. I prefer Batman over 'Tec, and unless its stuff from Neal Adams' run, I am not really on the hunt for anything Batman at this time other than Dark Knight Returns. Book is very pricey to find, at least a first print. 4. Ms. Marvel- Character I want to start collecting but what with the movie announcement/speculation, her stuff has gone up. 5. Deadpool - see above 6. Watchmen- want to find original issues 7. V for Vendetta- missing one issue to complete the run, #5
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Post by Paradox on May 4, 2015 8:53:23 GMT -5
Tied for Avengers and Legion of Super-Heroes.
And I no longer "hunt" (since '06).
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Post by Cei-U! on May 4, 2015 9:56:36 GMT -5
Well, you've already noted that my favorite series is The Brave and the Bold, so here are my other Top Ten, in no particular order:
2. Batman (all titles--including World's Finest--up to the Crisis) 3. The Avengers (the original up through Stern's departure, plus the Busiek run) 4. Justice League of America (the original, plus the Morrison run) 5. All-Star Comics/Justice Society (everything up to about ten years ago) 6. Master of Kung Fu 7. Nexus 8. Thor (Lee/Kirby, Thomas/Buscema/Pollard, Simsonson) 9. New Teen Titans (up to the Crisis) 10. The Defenders (the original series up til DeMatteis turned it into an X-Book and the Busiek/Larson run)
I'm still actively collecting all of the above, plus numerous other shorter runs. I do not follow or purchase any contemporary comics.
Cei-U! I summon the four-color delights!
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Post by thwhtguardian on May 4, 2015 10:17:24 GMT -5
I've never really understood the, "I only follow creators" stand point all that much as it just seems counter-intuitive to discovering some real fun stories, and I'm that way with all my reading as well. I mean sure, there are some writers that I pick up their work with out second glance like Umberto Eco, John Le Carre, Neil Gaiman and Steven King, but more often than not when I go out and have a hankering for say horror I just let my fingers run over the spines on the rack and pick a title that sparks my interest. They're not always winners but because of the shared elements inherent to the genre and my enjoyment of those said elements it's a fair bet that I'll get at least my money's worth of enjoyment out of the deal and sometimes even more than that as I uncover an author I had never heard of whom I really enjoy like Paulo Coelho.
And comics are no different, a comic like Batman though it has gone through many changes in tone through the years has a pretty reliable style to it; there's action, adventure, a little intrigue and maybe some sc-fi or horror thrown in, which are all elements I enjoy which means when the mood presses me I can pick up just about any Batman title and probably enjoy it. Are there stinkers? Definitely, but a lot of fun reads too, many of which one would miss if they were just following say Ed Brubaker, Grant Morrison or Frank Miller. Does that mean I'm advocating obsessively getting every issue no matter the quality? Absolutely not, but there's nothing wrong with going back to it again and again if one's in the mood for the kinds of stories Batman usually delivers.
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Post by dupersuper on May 4, 2015 21:01:13 GMT -5
I could certainly name some of my favourite ongoing series (Morrison JLA and Animal Man, Waid Flash and Daredevil, triangle era Supes books, Busiek/Perez Avengers, Moore Swamp Thing, Sandman, Priest Steel and Black Panther, Peyer Hourman, Chronos, Vext, JLI books, Saga, Sex Criminals, Girls, Strangers in Paradise, Air, Ms. Marvel, current Silver Surfer, PAD Star Trek and B5 and Hulk and Young Justice and Supergirl and Aquaman and X-Factor, Whedon X-Men, Wolfman/Perez Titans, Gerard Jones GL books, Superman Adventures...), but I'll never be sure I got them all...
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Post by DubipR on May 4, 2015 21:35:14 GMT -5
All Time Favorite Series? Easy... Love and Rockets. Love it so much, I have the issues, the trades, the hardcovers, the trading cards and pretty much everything Los Bros Hernandez create. I'm a sucker for their work.
What I buy..not much these days. About 5 titles but most of my comic purchases has been sketches and artwork.
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Post by fanboystranger on May 5, 2015 10:00:11 GMT -5
I've never really understood the, "I only follow creators" stand point all that much as it just seems counter-intuitive to discovering some real fun stories, and I'm that way with all my reading as well. I mean sure, there are some writers that I pick up their work with out second glance like Umberto Eco, John Le Carre, Neil Gaiman and Steven King, but more often than not when I go out and have a hankering for say horror I just let my fingers run over the spines on the rack and pick a title that sparks my interest. They're not always winners but because of the shared elements inherent to the genre and my enjoyment of those said elements it's a fair bet that I'll get at least my money's worth of enjoyment out of the deal and sometimes even more than that as I uncover an author I had never heard of whom I really enjoy like Paulo Coelho. And comics are no different, a comic like Batman though it has gone through many changes in tone through the years has a pretty reliable style to it; there's action, adventure, a little intrigue and maybe some sc-fi or horror thrown in, which are all elements I enjoy which means when the mood presses me I can pick up just about any Batman title and probably enjoy it. Are there stinkers? Definitely, but a lot of fun reads too, many of which one would miss if they were just following say Ed Brubaker, Grant Morrison or Frank Miller. Does that mean I'm advocating obsessively getting every issue no matter the quality? Absolutely not, but there's nothing wrong with going back to it again and again if one's in the mood for the kinds of stories Batman usually delivers. For me, it's mostly follow creators. There's always new books that strike my fancy, but I rarely follow a character just for the sake of following a character. If something looks interesting or has an interesting description, I'll pick up. That's frequently how I end up with a book like Humanoids Millenium, which I thought sounded interesting and has become my favorite recent comic despite being an expensive HC. (Picked up a new Humanoids books called Throne of Ice over the weekend for a similiar reason, but I have not had a chance to read it yet.)
I've found that if I just follow a character or title, there's going to be a whole lot more miss than hit for me. For example, I have every issue of Avengers from the Kree-Skrull War through Disassembled, and I can safely say that I only re-read certain eras of the book, mostly '70s and '80s. A vast wasteland occurs once Stern leaves that doesn't get fixed until Busiek, although there's some good issues here and there, mostly by Harras and Epting. It was actually Chuck Austen's run post-Busiek that broke my Avengers habit, but I did come back for Disassembled, which disappointed me to no end.
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Post by thwhtguardian on May 5, 2015 11:09:47 GMT -5
I've never really understood the, "I only follow creators" stand point all that much as it just seems counter-intuitive to discovering some real fun stories, and I'm that way with all my reading as well. I mean sure, there are some writers that I pick up their work with out second glance like Umberto Eco, John Le Carre, Neil Gaiman and Steven King, but more often than not when I go out and have a hankering for say horror I just let my fingers run over the spines on the rack and pick a title that sparks my interest. They're not always winners but because of the shared elements inherent to the genre and my enjoyment of those said elements it's a fair bet that I'll get at least my money's worth of enjoyment out of the deal and sometimes even more than that as I uncover an author I had never heard of whom I really enjoy like Paulo Coelho. And comics are no different, a comic like Batman though it has gone through many changes in tone through the years has a pretty reliable style to it; there's action, adventure, a little intrigue and maybe some sc-fi or horror thrown in, which are all elements I enjoy which means when the mood presses me I can pick up just about any Batman title and probably enjoy it. Are there stinkers? Definitely, but a lot of fun reads too, many of which one would miss if they were just following say Ed Brubaker, Grant Morrison or Frank Miller. Does that mean I'm advocating obsessively getting every issue no matter the quality? Absolutely not, but there's nothing wrong with going back to it again and again if one's in the mood for the kinds of stories Batman usually delivers. For me, it's mostly follow creators. There's always new books that strike my fancy, but I rarely follow a character just for the sake of following a character. If something looks interesting or has an interesting description, I'll pick up. That's frequently how I end up with a book like Humanoids Millenium, which I thought sounded interesting and has become my favorite recent comic despite being an expensive HC. (Picked up a new Humanoids books called Throne of Ice over the weekend for a similiar reason, but I have not had a chance to read it yet.)
I've found that if I just follow a character or title, there's going to be a whole lot more miss than hit for me. For example, I have every issue of Avengers from the Kree-Skrull War through Disassembled, and I can safely say that I only re-read certain eras of the book, mostly '70s and '80s. A vast wasteland occurs once Stern leaves that doesn't get fixed until Busiek, although there's some good issues here and there, mostly by Harras and Epting. It was actually Chuck Austen's run post-Busiek that broke my Avengers habit, but I did come back for Disassembled, which disappointed me to no end.
That sounds different than what I'm suggesting though, for instance I don't have every issue of Batman and 'tec from the last 20 years as they are simply not consistently good through out that whole stretch; instead when I hit a bad patch I just stop, but chances are that a little later down the line there will be an issue I may enjoy so I'll continue to go back because as I said there are a general set of themes, plot elements and moods that I enjoy. I'm not a big Avengers fan, so maybe there isn't a consistent set of similar themes and plot elements that would make reading the Avengers like reading a genre.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on May 5, 2015 18:45:53 GMT -5
Tales of the Beanworld is my favorite comic.
After that it gets strange... Jason's anthropoid animal graphic novels, but not his short stories. Kim Deitch's Waldo stuff, in all the 30,000,000 formats it appear in, Love and Rockets but Gilbert's weird-ass experiments just as much.
I also do try to keep up with comics as an art form - anything that seems novel/cool/different than the 40 zillion comics I've already read, and I'll look for "Best of the Year" type lists and seek out stuff on those.
I'm in the library three or four times a week seeing what's on the new shelves, and I aggressively interlibrary loan stuff I want to read but don't want to pay for. I'm fairly-sort of caught up on current DC and Marvel - except I'm 9 months to a year behind.
I read a lot of comics history, and will grab back issues of 'most any comics magazine.
If I'm travelling I try to grab some mini-comics by local creators.
I collect comics with pirates in 'em and team-up books. Seriously "Anything with pirates in it" is on my pull list. And there are lots of things I'll idly grab out of the fifty cent bins - Milestone Comics, Joe Kubert or Bill Sienkiewicz covers, Marvel's '70s reprint books just to see how the stories were changed, anything with dinosaurs on the cover.
I don't have the same kind of psychological attachment to corporate IP that a lot of comics fans have, although I'm not completely immune - I bought Squirrel Girl just 'cause it featured Squirrel Girl.
I buy by creator, but it's a combination of creator and the right concept - I'd buy anything by Joe Kubert or Steve Gerber, but they're both dead so now I'm more picky.
I'm trying for a full run of Marvel Masterworks, all 217 volumes. (I'm at 140 now, and I just ordered Avengers vol. 13.) I REALLY wish they had kept making the trades - I preferred 'em to the Hardcovers, and not just 'cause of the price point. (Although mostly 'cause of the price point.) I'm totally a sucker for new # 1 issues, (I bought ALL the new 52) but it's rare that I buy a mainstream book for more than 5-6 issues in a row. This isn't me getting older or anything - I've always dropped a book the second it stopped being great.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 20:33:36 GMT -5
For me, it's mostly follow creators. There's always new books that strike my fancy, but I rarely follow a character just for the sake of following a character. If something looks interesting or has an interesting description, I'll pick up. That's frequently how I end up with a book like Humanoids Millenium, which I thought sounded interesting and has become my favorite recent comic despite being an expensive HC. (Picked up a new Humanoids books called Throne of Ice over the weekend for a similiar reason, but I have not had a chance to read it yet.)
I've found that if I just follow a character or title, there's going to be a whole lot more miss than hit for me. For example, I have every issue of Avengers from the Kree-Skrull War through Disassembled, and I can safely say that I only re-read certain eras of the book, mostly '70s and '80s. A vast wasteland occurs once Stern leaves that doesn't get fixed until Busiek, although there's some good issues here and there, mostly by Harras and Epting. It was actually Chuck Austen's run post-Busiek that broke my Avengers habit, but I did come back for Disassembled, which disappointed me to no end.
That sounds different than what I'm suggesting though, for instance I don't have every issue of Batman and 'tec from the last 20 years as they are simply not consistently good through out that whole stretch; instead when I hit a bad patch I just stop, but chances are that a little later down the line there will be an issue I may enjoy so I'll continue to go back because as I said there are a general set of themes, plot elements and moods that I enjoy. I'm not a big Avengers fan, so maybe there isn't a consistent set of similar themes and plot elements that would make reading the Avengers like reading a genre. If I don't like an entire run, I tend to not like the comic at all. Which means I mostly don't like comics with rotating talent, or long run titles. I also have zero character loyalty or brand loyalty. Whenever I'm asked which character is my favorite, I never have an answer, because characters are just vehicles to tell the story. It seems to me that often times in the comics where the character takes priority above the talent or the story, there isn't much talent or story. If I had been asked what my favorite comic was ten years ago I'd likely have said Elfquest. But somewhere in the mid 90's it fell into a ditch it can't seem to dig itself out of, and as much as I LOVE Wendy's first 20 years of output, I won't waste too much energy defending her current output. And the quality of the current output, while it doesn't make the earlier stuff any worse, has an impact on the title as a whole, which is why I can no longer say it's my favorite series. How can something be my favorite series if I hate half of it? Now, Love And Rockets has yet to have a bad installment.
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Post by thwhtguardian on May 5, 2015 21:03:14 GMT -5
That sounds different than what I'm suggesting though, for instance I don't have every issue of Batman and 'tec from the last 20 years as they are simply not consistently good through out that whole stretch; instead when I hit a bad patch I just stop, but chances are that a little later down the line there will be an issue I may enjoy so I'll continue to go back because as I said there are a general set of themes, plot elements and moods that I enjoy. I'm not a big Avengers fan, so maybe there isn't a consistent set of similar themes and plot elements that would make reading the Avengers like reading a genre. If I don't like an entire run, I tend to not like the comic at all. Which means I mostly don't like comics with rotating talent, or long run titles. I also have zero character loyalty or brand loyalty. Whenever I'm asked which character is my favorite, I never have an answer, because characters are just vehicles to tell the story. It seems to me that often times in the comics where the character takes priority above the talent or the story, there isn't much talent or story. If I had been asked what my favorite comic was ten years ago I'd likely have said Elfquest. But somewhere in the mid 90's it fell into a ditch it can't seem to dig itself out of, and as much as I LOVE Wendy's first 20 years of output, I won't waste too much energy defending her current output. And the quality of the current output, while it doesn't make the earlier stuff any worse, has an impact on the title as a whole, which is why I can no longer say it's my favorite series. How can something be my favorite series if I hate half of it? Now, Love And Rockets has yet to have a bad installment. Are you that way with novels as well? Like if you picked up a bad fantasy novel would you be turned off of fantasy?
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Post by berkley on May 5, 2015 21:18:34 GMT -5
I like several recurring Marvel & DC characters - e.g. the Black Panther, Dr. Strange, various Eternals and New Gods - but the current versions of them aren't up to snuff, in my view, so I don't read anything they appear in right now and haven't for many years - decades, in most cases - though I'll check out previews and so on in the forlorn hope that some writer, someday, will show a hint of having a clue.
Some characters, like Batman and Superman, have become so distasteful to me over the years that I can barely stand to look at them at this point.
I follow some creators - the Hernandez brothers, artists like Paul Gulacy, JH Williams; writers like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis - but don't read everything they write, though I come very close with the Hernandezes and Moore.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 23:44:06 GMT -5
If I don't like an entire run, I tend to not like the comic at all. Which means I mostly don't like comics with rotating talent, or long run titles. I also have zero character loyalty or brand loyalty. Whenever I'm asked which character is my favorite, I never have an answer, because characters are just vehicles to tell the story. It seems to me that often times in the comics where the character takes priority above the talent or the story, there isn't much talent or story. If I had been asked what my favorite comic was ten years ago I'd likely have said Elfquest. But somewhere in the mid 90's it fell into a ditch it can't seem to dig itself out of, and as much as I LOVE Wendy's first 20 years of output, I won't waste too much energy defending her current output. And the quality of the current output, while it doesn't make the earlier stuff any worse, has an impact on the title as a whole, which is why I can no longer say it's my favorite series. How can something be my favorite series if I hate half of it? Now, Love And Rockets has yet to have a bad installment. Are you that way with novels as well? Like if you picked up a bad fantasy novel would you be turned off of fantasy? No, but if I picked up a bad Harry Potter novel I'd likely not pick up any more. Not liking an issue of Spiderman isn't the same as not liking super heroes. In fact, not liking corporate owned studio talent comics with shared universes isn't the same as not liking super heroes. I still read Empowered. Last year I read DKSA and Weapon X. I still pick up a hero comic here and there. Bought the Batman Chronicles last Black Friday. Haven't read it yet though. I will say though, I stopped reading James Patterson books ever since they have had cowriters. And I will not read a posthumous Bourne novel written by someone other than Ludlum, or any Covert One novel. Won't read any Rainbow Six books Tom Clancy didn't write either. The entire reason those books were enjoyable were the author. Not the character. And I'm one to believe any author who spends their career as second billing on a novel about characters someone else created probably isn't that great an author.
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Post by wickedmountain on May 6, 2015 13:51:04 GMT -5
I am a newer collector so i just buy whatever I think I will like but some of my faves are jsa, justice league, flash, green arrow, firestorm, wolverine, cyclops etc I need to start a good run of these lol.
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Post by thwhtguardian on May 6, 2015 16:00:48 GMT -5
Are you that way with novels as well? Like if you picked up a bad fantasy novel would you be turned off of fantasy? No, but if I picked up a bad Harry Potter novel I'd likely not pick up any more. Not liking an issue of Spiderman isn't the same as not liking super heroes. In fact, not liking corporate owned studio talent comics with shared universes isn't the same as not liking super heroes. I still read Empowered. Last year I read DKSA and Weapon X. I still pick up a hero comic here and there. Bought the Batman Chronicles last Black Friday. Haven't read it yet though. I will say though, I stopped reading James Patterson books ever since they have had cowriters. And I will not read a posthumous Bourne novel written by someone other than Ludlum, or any Covert One novel. Won't read any Rainbow Six books Tom Clancy didn't write either. The entire reason those books were enjoyable were the author. Not the character. And I'm one to believe any author who spends their career as second billing on a novel about characters someone else created probably isn't that great an author. I've always been more about the story than anything else and I just imagine doing it any other way. Not saying your method is wrong, you're obviously enjoying yourself, but I just can't see why I would ever deny myself the fun of a good story for any reason.
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