Recommend Me A Good Meaty Epic for the Long Weekend

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Okay, you guys probably know my geeky, adolescent tastes by now, and since I plan on mosty doing nothing this weekend, I've decided I'm gonna buy something I can really get into to read while I do nothing, advise away!

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Bone: One Volume Edition

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Normally I'd say an Essentials collection since the price-to-page ratio is so great, but I don't know if that really counts as epic.

Speaking of epic! I'm currently bidding on a COMPLETE RUN of Epic Illustrated, mostly for the Last Galactus Story (which I remember as one of the only Great things John Byrne ever did) and the Bode and Veitch stuff.

That doesn't help you, though.

I'll go with one or more of the Grant Morrison Animal Man tpbs, or the Essential Howard the Duck.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Except VG is actually right, so nevermind. I need to pick that up myself.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Camelot 3000!

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

_JLA: Earth 2_ &/or _Crisis on Infinite Earths_ &/or some of the Grant Morrison JLA TPBs &/or some of the Grant Morrison New X-Men TPBs &/or _Berlin_ &/or any of the _Finder_ TPBs

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

What is this Bone I keep hearing about?

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I have no idea what to compare Bone to -- I said Li'l Abner once and it was promptly greeted with disagreement -- so I'll let Le3 or VG field that.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

It like... it's... like... Disney meets Lord of the Rings.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Huck, have you read either of the _League of Extraordinay Gentlemen_ TPBs yet?!?!??!?!?!??!??!?!

?!??!?!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

No, but I did see the movie.

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

READ THE TRADES! & make sure you add an "r" to "extraordinay".

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 3 September 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Fucking Tom-Sawyer-getting-wrong-ers ...

Definitely read the TPBs. Make that your backup if you don't find Bone, since the first printing sold out. And then, yeah, JLA Earth 2 is good (I assume you've read Crisis, right? and I haven't read Camelot 3000, Finder, or Berlin, so can't second those).

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, read Crisis in Real Time, and then also in the trade over a glorious weekend last winter. I'd love to find another multi-hero, cosmic epic like that, but I've read Kingdome Come and Cosmic Odyssey (and KC reads a lot better when you haven't read ANY comics in 12 years, as I hadn't).

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Mutant Massacre? ILC seems to agree it's the one good X-books crossover (someone else may want to check me on whether or not it's something that works if you're not that familiar with the X-Men; I think it probably does, but I haven't reread it in a long time).

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, get one or two of the New X-Men hardcovers (cheaper than the equivalent trades).

What trades is the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix saga collected in? I wouldn't mind reading that over the weekend (along with about a million other things, including those books without pictures).

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm pretty sure that's Essential X-Men vol 2 -- there's a Dark Phoenix Saga trade that's color and more expensive, but I'm not sure it actually covers straight-up not-so-dark Phoenix.

(Although the Dark Phoenix Saga trade is, I think, the one that also prints the "original ending" to the DPS, where Jean doesn't die.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Here are two I just remembered I wanted to read:

Legion of Supe-Heroes: Great Darkness Saga
New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (I used to have this really awesome pocketbook sized b/w reprint of the first few NTT issues)

― Huck, Friday, 3 September 2004 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Are the Essentials in B&W?

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Yep, Essentials are black and white -- but cheap. $12 Amazon, $15 cover, for something like 25 issues worth (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on annuals and so on; ~ 500 pages). Some comics lose more than others when you take the color away -- the FF don't look as good, I don't think, but the Ditko Spideys still look nice, just less ... moody.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Milligan's X-Force! The one w/ Mike Allred. You can either get two TPBs, or one HC that has both volumes. It's pretty awesome.

Dave McKean's Cages. If you've got $50 USD to drop.

Scott Morse's Soulwind. I really ought to be pimping Scott Morse some more here.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Do they get instant indie cred in the process?

(x-post)

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 3 September 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, so Canadians get Labor Day off too? Freeloaders.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Report back also, Huck!

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I wussed out and got NTT: The Judas Contract, which was okay, I was surprised that I'd actually read all but the final chapter, and Flash: The Return of Barry Allen, which was typical Mark Waidery.
The good news is that I found the Titans book on the used shelf, so I didn't spend much money.

― Huck, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I think this thread inspired my shopping spree @ Borders this past Friday, where I took advantage of their BUY 3 GNs GET 1 FREE, and snagged:

- Catwoman: Selina's Big Score (Darwyn Cooke is superb, but MUCH MUCH better in _The New Frontier_) (and, damn, $17.95!?!?!?!?)
- Lone Wolf & Cub: Volume 1 (the freebie) (just started, 1 chapter in)
- Carnet de Voyage (next!)
- Tezuka's _Phoenix: Dawn_ (or whatever the 1st volume is called) (best for last?)

I feel the guilt for letting _V_ wallow while I run from pages w/out words, but I hope to make up for that w/ some quality funny book selections.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it too late to make suggestions? Oh well -

If you can get the Titan Judge Dredd books where you are, many of the old epics are great - I'd probably go for 'The Apocalypse War'. Gritty Ezquerra art throughout.

Moebius' Blueberry series. I think you can get the confederate gold saga in one volume now.

And for true epicness, 'Church and State' vols I and II could keep you going for a whole weekend.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Wooden, your last mention reminded me that I had a Cerebus-related dream recently.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Did it have a boring Torah commentry near the end?

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

If by "boring Torah commentary" you mean browsing in a shop and flipping through the pages, why, indeed!

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 17:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Lone Wolf & Cub: Volume 1 (the freebie)

What do you mean by "freebie" exactly?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

It was the 4th GN FREE in the Borders deal, as it was the cheapest of the 4 books I purchased.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS "BORDERS DEAL".

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Sounds like a Taco Bell advert.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope your Borders is better than mine, Jordan, as my Borders A) didn't have much to choose from in the non-manga area, B) had most of the non-manga books stored on the shelves like dirty clothes in a dorm room. There was also a mutilated copy of _Astonishing X-Men_ #3 wedged between two GNs - I almost wept.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

My borders has two shelving units of GNs, one indie, one Marvel/DC. Lots of good stuff. Of course it has four whole shelving units of manga in perfect primary-colored order...I looked for Phoenix and didn't find any, but they did have Lone Wolf & Cub.

Of course, I'd rather get them from a comic store anyway.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I should've done that. Unfortunately, I'll have to trek as I believe my local comic shop stocks primarily Marvel / DC trades (including a Wall O' Gaiman), & I am jonesin' for the Top Shelf / Oni Press / D&Q stuff.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

REVIVE, as I'm taking my $125 credit to the comic shop after work today. No long weekend, but I'm gonna try to get a few things that I (a DC spandex nerd) wouldn't normally go for.
Probably another Bendis/Maleev trade and maybe Batman: Death & the Maidens are on my list, what else?

― Huk-L, Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Death & the Maidens was ehhh, there were a couple really good issues, but the end was a little weak (although perhaps important in the Batverse?) and the art inconsistent.

Get some Powers! And Top 10 if you haven't read it. And New X-Men of course.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay. I'll skip D & M. I was just looking for an excuse to. I've read the two Top 10 trades (and loved them!), so no can do there. I've read Powers: Role Playing, what would be another good one? Which one came first?

― Huk-L, Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

You could always try one of the Marvel Essentials collection - the Howard the Duck compendium is really damn good! It finds a nice spot between total absurdity and super-heroic seriousness, and then plops down & goes "WAUGH!" Fun stuff.

I just finished reading Jinx (a HUGE collection of a series written & drawn by Brian Michael Bendis before he was BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS) - it was OK, but I was underwhelmed. Not really sure why, though.

Have you given Sleeper a chance, Huck? The other half of the Gotham Central tag-team (Ed Brubaker) writes it.

Also, if you find any Finder TPBs (by Carla Speed McNeil - great sci-fi w/out the sci-fi taint), give them a looksee. Here's the company line:

Magri White has a whole world in his head. It's what he's been raised to do ever since he exhibited a talent for it. As far as he's concerned, he isn't a person, he's a place; A place where thousands of people throng to visit and explore via virtual reality.
What's Magri to do when he finds out that the 'house' he's spent all his life building is 'haunted'-- by something he didn't put in there?
Inside his very expensive piece of psychic real estate is a ravening monster bent on its total destruction.

I can't think of anything outside of DC's world that would truly slake your DC spandex thirst, unfortunately.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Has Smax been collected yet? I read the first issue, thought it was great, then forgot to buy the rest.

― Wooden (Wooden), Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

First Powers trade -- Who Killed Retro Girl? I think I like Roleplay (the 2nd one) better, but I don't know. It's pretty close.

3rd -- Little Deaths, with a brief arc about a sex scandal and some one-shot stuff (the Warren Ellis ride-along issue, I think a Wizard special, etc), probably the weakest tpb. Oh, except it has Who Killed Madman!

4th - -Supergroup, probably the one I'd recommend getting next, or after Retro Girl

5th -- Anarchy, I don't actually remember what happens in this one ... anyone?

6th -- Sellouts, great but you want to read the others first.

7th -- Forever, the final arc of the non-Marvel Powers. Secrets revealed, major plot changes wreaked, read this last.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, well I'm beginning to think I pretty much covered all the DC stuff worth reading in my binge over the last year (which was how I could trade in enough GNs to get $125 in credit and still have a ridiculous amount of comics for someone who's only been buying for a year).
Will definitely look for Sleeper. The library has some Bendis "True Crime" thing that I keep meaning to take out, it might be Jinx.
Maybe JLA Earth-2?

― Huk-L, Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

... whoa, Finder sounds right up my alley.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Smax is due to be collected any day now. Hasn't been yet, though.

FYI - Light Speed Press (CSM's li'l self-publishing venture) features various issues of Finder online (along w/ a great 5-page silent story).

JLA: Earth 2 could DEFINITELY scratch that itch! I can't recommend it enough. I'd buy you a copy and hand-deliver it if I could feasably do so.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

The biggest reason I haven't read Earth 2 yet is I just can't stand Kyle Rayner's crab-mask. It drives me nuts. And Superman's long locks.
I don't know why these things bother me so much, but I think I prefer Electric Superman to bouffant Superman.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

He doesn't have the mullet in Earth 2! Crab-mask is in full glory, though.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, okay then.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

If there turns out to be a party in the back, though, don't hate me for too long.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 14 October 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

7th -- Forever, the final arc of the non-Marvel Powers. Secrets revealed, major plot changes wreaked, read this last.

WTF!! I've never seen this one, I read Sell-Outs and thought I was all caught up! It seems to flow into the Marvel re-start storywise at least.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I have enjoyed reading Vols. 1 & 2 of The Invisibles over the weekend, but I have a funny feeling it is going downhill soon. Plus I am getting tired of really GORY death the interferes with eating things like spaghetti while reading. How many more vols. are there?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Jordan, I think the 7th Powers collection is coming soon. Bendis referred to it in his latest letter column (I think) as being OUT RIGHT NOW!, so it might just be hitting shelves.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I don't know, I read it in issues so I checked Bendis's page to see what the TPBs were. Forever has a monkey sex issue, but don't let it put you off from continuing.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

There is nothing wrong with monkey sex! Also, it inspired a slew of ha-larious letters along the lines of "WTF? Decompress THIS, BendASS!"

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, like monkey sex could ever be used as a pejorative.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Monkey sex you, Jordan.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm hearing "monkey sex?" now in my head the way Han says "Boba Fett?" when he's half-blind on Tatooine in Jedi. I am also on cold medicine.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"Monkey sex, where?!"

Monkey sex your mom, Dave. Okay, that's it, I have to go home now.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Essential Howard The Duck is a good call - one of my favourite comics ever. I haven't bought it because my impression is that I couldn't sell my originals for any more than the replacement would cost! I think the Essentials collecting the Kirby FFs and Ditko Spideys are among the most essential comics ever published.

All the Bendis I've read has been terrific - I'm gradually catching up on DD, Powers and Alias, as well as reading his Avengers.

You know from my email that I have to mention Lone Wolf & Cub - the greatest epic story in comics history, for me. Tezuka's Phoenix impresses me as much, but is less of a single epic tale. Also my favourite old strips - the recent Krazy Kat collections should be available, but I don't know if you can still get the Popeye dailies that Fantagraphics did many years back.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 14 October 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I think about three of them are still in print, and they often have damaged copies half-price on the website. Reprinting the whole run is semi-planned as an eventual way for Fantagraphics to squander their bundles of PEANUTS money.

― kit brash (kit brash), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been told that Moore's ABC series take forever to get collected, and you might have to wait till next year to see Smax in TPB form.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Friday, 15 October 2004 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

saw Smax in THB form (H for Hardback) on my birthday earlier in the month (pissed me off as i only have 1 and 2 of individual issues). this was london though (Gosh to be precise), dunno if that'd make a difference.

― koogs (koogs), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:23 (twenty-one years ago)

(same shop had the Mignola LOTDK that somebody's looking for on the wall. £7.50! which is way too much. i think mine was from a 50p bin at some comic mart in the same place as the one on the 23rd)

― koogs (koogs), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Shit, I forgot that ABC collections always come out in hardback first. I'm not gonna pay eighteen quid for it.

I like Gosh.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Saw Smax in hardcover, didn't get it. I'll wait for paperback. The only hardcover I have is my signed edition of Chester Brown's Louis Riel.
What I did get:
Daredevil: Something or other (the second Bendis/Maleev trade)
Powers Vol 1
JLA Earth 2
Flash Blitz

After Canadian mark-up, that's my whole $125 (actually, I think it was closer to $120, and they let me use the rest towards my single issue comics).

Haven't had time to read any of them, though I'm already wishing I had gotten something other than Flash Blitz, since I have the final chapter of that in my Gmail. But really, I think I've read all the other DC stuff worth reading.

― Huk-L, Friday, 15 October 2004 13:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, Canada's a bitch! I can't imagine those books costing more than $65-$70 here. Good stuff though.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, the Marvel stuff seems to get marked up the most (another reason why I'm having difficulties getting away from DC, though their new deal of collecting shit in 2 Vols is only gonna point me toward that Essential Howard the Duck before Hush Vol. 2), but generally if something is marked $19.95 US, it's about $32.95 Cdn.

― Huk-L, Friday, 15 October 2004 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Mind you, after accounting for Universal Health Care, Gay Marriage, Decriminalized Pot, and, uh, the CN Tower, it all comes out about even.

― Huk-L, Friday, 15 October 2004 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Or we could set up an undergrond railroad system where we smuggle cheap comics into Canadia. ~~I'D~~ WE'D BE MILLIONAIRES.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Huk, if GWB wins the election, will you let me crash on your couch for four years if I bring loads of trade paperbacks?

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 15 October 2004 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Mi sofa, su sofa.

― Huk-L, Friday, 15 October 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Decriminalized Pot?

Ha ha ha, pot.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 15 October 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, we're not all the way there on the pot thing yet, but, uh, we're close.

― Huk-l, Friday, 15 October 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Mile High Comics is currently having a 40% off all trade paperbacks/hardcovers via mailorder sale.

And I enthusiastically second/third the recommendation for FINDER... really really great stuff.

― Douglas (Douglas), Friday, 15 October 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

My local comics store are doing 50% off ALL DC, Marvel and manga graphic novels today. Which is nice. I think I'm gonna pick up the two Brubaker Captain America books, the Joker/Gotham Central collection, Essential Howard the Duck, and Judas Contract (or is it terrible?) -- but any further suggestions for big and meaty and bouncy and epic are much appreciated.

― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 March 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

Perhaps the first few volumes of "Death Note," in the manga dept.? Yes, I'm plugging that thing all over the place these days, but it seems to fit the bill for what you're looking for...

― Douglas, Thursday, 15 March 2007 17:01 (eighteen years ago)

My daughter has gone apeshit for Death Note.

― Rock Hardy, Thursday, 15 March 2007 18:30 (eighteen years ago)

Done! Death Note and Cap and basically anything interesting were already sold out by the time I got there, so I grabbed

** Unresolved Targets, the Brubaker Gotham Central volume (I'm not so keen on the Rucka stuff)
** All of Grant Morrison's JLA trades! Yay.

Came to $57 CAN/$48 US. Which is pretty good, I think.

The title of my next thread is, "Explaining to your girlfriend why you just blew $60 on comics."

― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 March 2007 19:31 (eighteen years ago)

You just SAVED $60 on comics. Remember?

― Casuistry, Thursday, 15 March 2007 19:41 (eighteen years ago)

BUDDHA.

― forksclovetofu, Friday, 16 March 2007 05:51 (eighteen years ago)

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