Recommendations?

[Abraham Smashington]

Sweet. Do I need to know anything about these characters to get into them? It's been fucking years since I've read any superhero comics.

[Captain Russ]

Most of them were restarts of established characters, so not really. Marvel is not as convoluted as DC when it comes to a character's continuity.

For that, I and many of my kind of nerd would be better off watching the JLU cartoon.

[Abraham Smashington]

I just picked up Joker this weekend. Great little story. Dug the artwork as well. I recommend it.

[Captain Russ]

Yeah. Joker was pretty amazing artistically.

Lee Bermejo is a sickeningly talented guy. He started at Wildstorm when he was maybe 17 or 18. Bastard.

[nerdious dorkus]

ok it's not a book and i know this but batman: the brave and the bold on cartoon network. it's a mashup of 60s animation with batman: the animated series. the show is crazy awesome.

[Abraham Smashington]

I just wish there were more painted pieces of art in the book. Those were fucking amazing.

[Captain Russ]

Finished Locke and Key by Joe Hill.

A great little ghost story with some messed up characters. And this is a series (I thought it was a standalone) that I hope continues for a while.

Bonus: It all takes place on Lovecraft Island.

Also fun fact regarding Bermejo: his character designs for Two-Face and the Joker were utilized by Nolan for TDK.

[nerdious dorkus]

RASL by Jeff Smith. I can't describe it without ruining it. Just check it out. There's a trade paperback that collects 1-3. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

[Captain Russ]

The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson. The most fucking juvenile comic I've picked up since Ennis' relaunch of the Punisher a long while back.

It pretty much takes a meta-shit on everything from the Justice League, Stan Lee, to those shitty message-books that crop up once in a while just to drum up sales (Hulk's friend dying of AIDS, Northstar coming outta the closet, Green Arrow's sidekick getting hooked on smack).

It's like a adopted-by-Hustler five year old with an advanced vocabulary wrote a comic. It is awesome.

[Captain Russ]

Ed Brubaker's Criminal series.

Each trade is a self-contained story, and each trade (so far) is fucking outstanding crime fiction.

Pick it up if yew haz the scratch. Or swipe it off some nerd with taste.

[Ed Hocken]

The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow. Damn good mystery set in the surfing world of San Diego.

[Nathan]

I've been reading Norman Mailer's "The Fight." Never read any of his stuff before. Not sure I dig his style. Interesting read nonetheless.

[Captain Russ]

Eric Powell's The Goon series.

Sort of like a mash-up of the odd sci-fi worlds found in properties like Day of the Tentacle/Maniac Mansion/Psychonauts and the goth-fetishism/ghost stories in Hellboy comics.

And the humor of both. AND even more random acts of cartoonish violence.

The fact I hadn't picked it up until this year is fucking sad/a sign that I can get on the bandwagon (which was destroyed by the compounded weight of the nerds seated upon said bandwagon).

Thanks nerds.

Love,
Ogre.

[Ari]

I saw a Goon toy over the weekend. It was some tiny dude with a huge beefy muscle arm. He looked really cool.

[Captain Russ]

Probably the Goon himself.

If he had a wrench in hand, that is.

Character designs are just fucking outstanding in the series.

Especially the zom-cannibal sniper named "Buzzard".