They've started putting out collections of early Dredd stories in order. Theres a couple missing because of licensing issues but its a really good start. First couple of issues aren't the Dredd that you would expect these days, but they're still good fun.

These ones http://www.amazon.co.uk/Judge-Dredd-Complete-Case-Files/dp/1904265790/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265203141&sr=8-2

If you wanted a jumping on point, Vol 4 is probably where it gets really good as you've got the awesome 'The Judge Child Quest' arc.

They've also done Strontium Dog, Nemesis, Ro-busters and a couple of others.

Then pick up a sub to 2000AD to revel in genuine good strips. Dredd is at a really interesting point now as he's been shoved out after the Mutie law fiasco. Interesting to see where they take this.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123978555&ft=1&f=1001
Yeah I am real stoked to crack open this new book I just bought. I really hope this "Action Comics" series takes off.
In all seriousness. wtf. $1 mil! I can throw this at my girlfriend everytime she gets mad at me when I spend way too much at the shop.

Another reason why Batman > Superman:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/26/news/ec ... htm?hpt=C2

Same thing for me. I've been collecting Spider-man for ever. I also like to fall in the
comercial trap of crossovers from time to time when he's involved and so, I'm reading now
the Deadpool issues with Spidey and the Hit-Money. Despite the fact that I think Deadpool
is garbage, those issues are pretty funny.

The new Rupert & Mulot is the fuckin' shit, but this will mosly flow only with
the other french speaking boardies, sadly. Anyway, check their website out if you're curious ;
http://www.succursale.org/

The new Hellboy tp, Wild Hunt is worth mentioning. I think it's a great starting point for
new readers. The story is pointing out to something big. It is not drawn by Mignola
but Fegredo art is great.


*Trivia : Duncan Fegredo did the cover art for Darkthrone's Soulside Journey.

terry moore's echo and jeff smith's rasl are both great.
i've recently picked up the complete (well, up to date) runs and have been focusing on them mostly lately.
i love both of these guys characterization & epic scale of story telling...

I really liked Fegredo's art... it's more err... "comic-booky" than Mignola's, but still great.

Darkness Calls was the last arc I read, but my problem with the latest TPBs is that the story is taking too long to actually go somewhere. I wonder if Mignola already has an ending panned out for this series or if he's just aiming to keep this going for god knows how long.

I haven't read Echo, but really like Jeff Smith's stuff. (I'm a big nerd for Bone)
I just started slugging through all the Love and Rockets stuff. Way different that most of what I read, but I'm really enjoying it.
Ainsley just picked up Chocolate Cheeks by Steven Weissman. Can't wait to read that one.
I don't know if I posted about it yet, but I'm in love with Multiforce by Mat Brinkman! I am Skeleton Jelly!

i would much rather own detective comics #27 over action comics #1
i love supes, but all issues before the 80's i find very lame (based on story, not value)
but, my opinion is:
green lantern > batman/superman.

which brings me to the "big 3"
why is wonder woman still considered part of dc's big 3? any character who's books need to be cancelled and then relaunch to keep readers/collectors intersted isn't interesting enough to carry such high ranking. my big 3? green lantern, batman, & booster gold!



i always been interested in Bone, but sadly, i have not read it in its entirety. always has been a low priority on my list of back issue hunting for some reason, i can't bring myself to pick up the scholastic colorized releases....
the leather-bound bone one-volume edition is always tempting when it pops up on the bay.

other notable mentions worthy of checking out:
kick-ass
books with pictures (<--very cool series about a girl who gets a job at a comic shop and dealing with all of the crazy comic crowd)
blood orange

We have a big Bone phenomena here. All the kids at my sons in school are way into it.
It's amazing to see that, since it was kind of an underground comic for me when it
came out originaly.

Got this yesterday
A autobiography of a swedish raper on a dogmatic trip. Boring art, very good story.

I'm into this right now, while watching the Habs game and brainin' here

Amazing storytelling !

Bone rules.
I reread the whole thing every now and then.
I've yet to pick up the collected version.

I love rasl, but I really wish it came out with greater frequency. I typically read about 35 titles a week and, since it doesn't come out very often, I find myself having to re-read the previous issues just to know what the hell is going on.

I'd also like to throw out there most of the titles that are on Avatar Press: Supergod, Crossed, Captain Swing, Anna Mercury, Gravel, Ignition City. Most of them are written by Warren Ellis (a personal god of mine), so you know the story is going to be odd as hell and well-developed. It also doesn't hurt that the art is top-notch.

I haven't read anything lately. Over the winter I read:

Travel and New Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama. These are both awesome and I hope there's more on the way.

Red Snow by Susumu Katsumata. I really love the aesthetic of this book. The stories are kind of weird, incidental, lightly surreal stories about rural Japan in the early 20th century. They remind me a lot of Kenji Miyazawa's short stories.

A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Tatsumi's memoir about coming of age in postwar Japan's manga world. I like it a lot better than his collected short stories, which are good but not quite my thing.

Powr Mastrs 1 & 2 by C.F. These are fun and trippy, though not quite as deep in terms of creating this weird world as I hoped they'd be. A lot of comic creators are crazy about em. Le Merde fans might like em.

Cold Heat by Frank Santoro. I read part of this online, but I'm waiting for Picturebox to release the whole thing in a book because it is so great I'd rather read it that way. It's like reading a mid-90s paranoid teen zine comic from your favorite artist.

I think all of these are from Picturebox or D&Q. Those guys can do no wrong.

You can get Yokoyama stuff here. French editions, but still, it's wordless.
http://matiere.org/catalogue_imageme.html
Tatsumi' black wizard came out this week from D&Q. It reads fast.
It's one of his first work, so it's intersting in a historical way.

I got Bone's mono volume on one of Jeff Smith signing tour. I love the lil' Ted on the flip book !

I have been rereading Mike Allred's earlier stuff. Grafik Muzik has been rocking my world.

Have also recently read Uzumaki, Black Hole (so good), A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, and Chrome Fetus.

Noticing a lot of similar tastes in this thread, very cool.

not familiar with chrome fetus but all of these others are super top notch in my world.

Just picked up the first three issues of the new "Age of the Reptiles" by Ricardo Delgado. Fantastic illustrations.

some of the avatar stuff is very good. i read all the living dead stuff (escape, plague, night). warren ellis' black gas was fantastic, and managed to put in some originality in a horror realm that has been beat to death. i don't like his super hero stuff much though. i guess his "maps of hell" arc in jla classified could have been good, if the CGI artwork didn't destroy it. but his ultimate extinction was kinda lame.

my only dislikes with avatar press is:
a) all of the artists work look pretty much the same.
b) lady death crap.

also, anyone reading any of kevin smith's stuff that has come out lately?
green hornet, batman: cacophony, & batman: the widening gyre.
all really good and worth a read...

I hear ya on that. My big dislike of Avatar is the fact that they put out about 50 covers per issue. As a pathological completist, this just gets my goat.

I had the opportunity to ask one of the Avatar muckity types about the glut of covers and he just grinned at me and said that it was part of what made them so successful so quickly. I called him a bastard as I purchased 12 covers of Doktor Sleepless.

So their whole business model is based on milking consumers dry with duplicate products, and unfortunately you're their prime market... nice.

^ It's not dissimilar to endless varations of the same toy.

being a non-completist with variant covers, it works good for me. i buy the one i like the most, and occassionally 1 or 2 extra. usually i pick one cover "theme" per series. for instance, black gas i went with the white cover gore versions. absolution i went with the "auxiliary" covers (except issue no. 1 i went with the big apple version). etc.

Aside Spider-man's, I stop all the series I followed and now just get them on trade paperback. I was sick of seeing those come out with all the covers and bonus crap. Sure I have to wait a while but I'm so behind in my reading that it don't matter anymore & Mr Wallet is happier

i too have cut way back. i've dropped marvel and majority of the non-top-2 titles. i pretty much stick with dc exclusively. i still get everything dc puts out (except magog & gotham city sirens) and it only sets me back about $30 a week. and i don't go for all those retailer incentive cover crap. the 1:25 that retail for $15 and sell a month or 2 later for $2-3. that stuff is worse than the secret base & rxh on the resell side! cover A collector all the way!

i wish i would have went the tpb route on all that final crisis junk, or just borrowed someone else's and read it. that whole thing was pretty much awful. which i am surprised, since the new gods have always been some of my favorite characters/stories in dc. sometimes i think grant morrison doesn't know how to write, but people just think he does...