Yes, my friends, it's another column prompted by an unsolicited e-mail. This one promises to be at least slightly less controversial than the last one.
Hi, my name is Bill.
I am just thinking about getting into comic books after a long young adulthood away from them, and I would appreciate if you would help me with a few questions I have. I'm trying to get a consensus on where I should start from several websites.
I don't want to be a collector at this point, I just want to read some excellent stories, so if you can, please answer the following questions for me:
What is the best overall, or the top five, comics to read as an adult (my interests are in the darker superhero mythologies and graphic novels).
What is the best hero/villain relationship that you can think of?
What do you think of stories like Sandman and Watchmen? What other comics compare to these in theme and reading level?
For this last question, I'm looking for a very specific storyline. Is there a comic mythology that deals with a powerful superhero that serves mankind, then is shunned or banished/killed by man for some reason, and the former superhero comes back and rededicates himself/herself to destroying humankind?
My inspiration for this question comes from the lyrics to Black Sabbath's "Ironman" song. That sounded like a really interesting story to me, if it even exists.
Like I said before, I don't intend to collect thousands of comics at this point, but I would like to begin to gather three or four really good stories and get into them deeply. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot!
Bill
What started off as a normal enough request took kind of a weird turn there at the end, but I think Bill is more or less sincere in his request for help. So, here are my thoughts on the matter.
I just want to read some excellent stories...
This is always an honourable goal, and a not uncommon one. In the heirarchy of human needs, being told a story is not far down the ladder from survival and reproduction. It's just that basic.
Unfortunately, Bill, you kind of limit yourself when you say...
What is the best overall, or the top five, comics to read as an adult (my interests are in the darker superhero mythologies and graphic novels).
"What are the top five comics to read as an adult?" to my way of thinking does not necessarily intersect well with limiting the choices to superheroes, but I'll do my best to steer you to worthwhile material.
That said, the first book I am going to recommend has no superheroes in it at all. You mention superhero mythologies and Watchmen, so I must assume you have enjoyed Alan Moore's work in the past, and are capable of sustaining your attention through a complex work like Watchmen.
So, my first recommendation has to be From Hell from Eddie Campbell Comics, available in the U.S. from Top Shelf Productions.
From Hell represents the pinnacle of Alan Moore's comics writing career. It is a complex and astonishingly complete work that delivers Moore's theory on the true identity of Jack the Ripper. This massive book also delves into magic and the nature of reality, two intertwined subjects that Moore is fascinated and inspired by.
The artwork, by Eddie Campbell, evokes the Victorian era perfectly, and works with Moore's script in ways that may not be apparent early on. But by the end of the book, one is left with the satisfaction usually reserved for the best works by a single creator.
The back cover of the book touts From Hell as being Moore's best work other than Watchmen, but that's really a clever and honourable bit of disinformation designed to lure Moore's fans to a work that might seem a bit too labyrinthine and impenetrable for all but the most intellectual and courageous readers. Whoever wrote that copy needn't have worried. Watchmen is child's play compared to the grand opera of From Hell. It is, finally, the best graphic novel the artform has yet produced.
One tip that I always inflict on readers new to From Hell: Use the footnotes. Each chapter has an accompanying chapter of footnotes in the back of the book. As you finish reading chapter one, go and read the footnotes for that chapter, then go back and read chapter two. And so on. The book may not be as labyrinthine and impenetrable as its size and complexity would indicate, but the footnotes provide an invaluable guide not only to the setting and characters, but to the creative process as a whole.
You say you've been away from comics for a while but you don't say for how long. So, I'll briefly recommend two excellent graphic novels by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli dating from the 1980s: Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One. Each is the definitive story of their respective characters, and the Daredevil volume (it's coming back into print this fall, ask your retailer to order you a copy out of the current Previews catalog) is the finest story about that character, ever.
More recent, and much less complex, but still a dark and entertaining story, is Confessions, an Astro City graphic novel by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross. This tale starts off seeming like a variation on the Batman and Robin mythology, but it goes places the Dynamic Duo rarely have gone, and is an excellent introduction to the Astro City mythology.
Jack Staff is a hard book to track down (there are five issues out so far, but I have only been able to find the first three -- - Alan David Doane