Best of Comics 1995-2005

[HudsonPhillips]

Okay, so I used to collect, took time off, back collecting again... blah blah blah...

The thing is, I'm sure I missed a lot of good comics in my time off and I'd like to catch up.

So... what are the "must have" books released between 1995 - 2005?

[davegraham]

The first thing that pops into my mind whenever the 2000's are brought up is Warren Ellis on Stormwatch through Mark Millar on The Authority.

[Jimski]

Oh, Alias. Alias, Alias, Alias.

[davegraham]

Avoid the anything with an X on it. I guess not the Joss Whedon stuff and maybe the Grant Morrison stuff (not for me, but other people seemed to have dug it). In general, the X-Men were not in a good place for the time you are talking about.

[Luthor]

Powers is one of the best ongoings ever. Gotta read that.

[ConorKilpatrick]

So... what are the "must have" books released between 1995 - 2005?

Pick of the Week Archive 2003-2007 (http://www.ifanboy.com/pow_archive.html)

Gotham Central!

[Jon_Samuelson]

I'm gonna echo the reccomendations of Gotham Central and Ellis' run on Stormwatch. Those are two of my absolute favorite books of that period. I prefer the Ellis portion of Authority to the Millar run. Millar's run was still really good, but he can be a little over-the-top and cynical for my taste.

Fables started in that period, so I'd definitely reccomend that.

Astro City was in there. The first several trades of that are just AWESOME. I haven't thought much of the last couple of stories, but the first ones were brilliant.

[Labor_Days]

Strangers In Paradise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangers_in_Paradise). With the exception of Love & Rockets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_and_Rockets_%28comics%29), there are no other comics I can think of better.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/Strangers_in_Paradise_v3_no1_cover_b.jpg

[Jon_Samuelson]

I can't remember if "Sleeper" was during that time frame. Towards the end of it anyway. It's excellent spy/crime drama stuff. About what you'd expect from Brubaker, which means it's excellent.

Same goes for "The Losers". It was from '03-'06, but it was brilliant (what I've read of it, I guess. I'm only 60% thru it)

Oh, and "Bone". I cannot recommend Bone highly enough.

[xyzzy]

What did you read before you took a break? What are you interested in reading now?

[JAFlanagan]

My first thought was Transmetropolitan, which we talked about in the last show.

Basically any book I've talked about in the video show will fall in those dates.

[Six Gun]

Gotham Central, Sleeper, Queen and Country and Bendis' Daredevil

[Six Gun]

What Labor said about SiP goes equally for me on Sleeper and Queen and Country

[cormano]

Pick of the Week Archive 2003-2007 (http://www.ifanboy.com/pow_archive.html)

Gotham Central!

It's funny to look back at the pre-podcast POW's and just see you three talking to each other in the comments with The Dude Abides stopping in from time to time.

[Six Gun]

It's funny to look back at the pre-podcast POW's and just see you three talking to each other in the comments with The Dude Abides stopping in from time to time.

Yeah, except Ron's fabled drawn POW isn't there.

[Labor_Days]

It's funny to look back at the pre-podcast POW's and just see you three talking to each other in the comments with The Dude Abides stopping in from time to time.

Haha, and Nick. Nick was all over the comments back then.

The POW reviews were so short!

(Totally agree with the Transmet and Queen & Country reccs. Both are excellent. There is wealth of of good stuff in this time frame.)

[Dave Accampo]

Basically any book I've talked about in the video show will fall in those dates.

yeah, he's probably right on about that. The one that popped into my head was Preacher. Don't know if you read any Vertigo when it started in the late 80's/early 90's, but Preacher was sort of THE big series of the second wave. I know Josh has written and talked about it extensively on iFanboy.

Looks like it started in '95.

Basically, i think Vertigo had some really good stuff in the 90's, just as Marvel became kind of a wasteland. But Marvel switched around in the late, late 90's when Quesada and Jemas came on board, and you started to see a new influx of talent.

Bendis on Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-man. Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee on The Inhumans also comes to mind.

Oh, and one of my favorite overlooked and underrated books was James Sturm's Unstable Molecules.

[Dave Accampo]

Ooh, and Greg Rucka's White Out -- from before Queen and Country. That's a great book.

[JAFlanagan]

Haha, and Nick. Nick was all over the comments back then.

Th POW reviews were so short!

(Totally agree with the Transmet and Queen & Country reccs. Both are excellent. There is wealth of of good stuff in this time frame.)

Nick was my roommate and he reads comics. Heh.

Don't look at our humble beginnings!

It's funny, because we never stopped doing the reviews, but when people started reading them, we all subconsciously kicked it into gear and put some time and thought into writing them. So, thank you everyone for the kick in the ass.

[horatio616]

Okay, so I used to collect, took time off, back collecting again... blah blah blah...

The thing is, I'm sure I missed a lot of good comics in my time off and I'd like to catch up.

So... what are the "must have" books released between 1995 - 2005?

Thinks that stand out for me are:

Ellis's Stormwatch (beginning with Force of Nature and ending with Change or Die) and even better The Authority (stop before Millar's run... good but too cynical)

Planetary

Ultimates Volume One

Alan Moore's Top Ten and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

All Bendis Daredevil

Morrison's JLA (was that after 95?) particularly New World Order, the first arc.

Morrison's X-Men, particularly E is for Extinction

Alias

Powers

I know I'm forgetting lots but these are the first things to come to mind.

[projektidiot]

Morrison's New X-Men all the way through Planet X. Forget about Here Comes Tomorrow and the 2 Austen issues.

[Dave Accampo]

Depending on what you're into, there are more good indies, too.

If you like straight, slice-of-life "literary" fiction, then you've got Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve. His work comes out very sporadically, but there are a few great collections of his work.

Similarly, anything by Jason Lutes. His first work, Jar of Fools was amazing. His current work, Berlin, is still coming out verrrrrrrrry slowly, but there's at least one collected volume. Also very good.

Oh god, and how could i forget: it's a bird... by Steve Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen. One of my all time favorite graphic novels. Looks like that was 2004, so that makes the cut. ;)

[Euchre0]

Bracing for overwhelming shunning...

All the stuff that's been mentioned, especially Preacher, Rucka stuff, and Bendis stuff I agree with, but the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the mid 90's that i liked was Onslaught. Now, I was in middle school at the time, so that certainly contributes, but it still stand out as one of, if not THE best colossal Marvel crossover. Honestly, I've never understood why people hated it. Just fun superhero stuff.

Also, No Man's Land in the Bat books was great during the topical time period.

[davegraham]

Bracing for overwhelming shunning...

All the stuff that's been mentioned, especially Preacher, Rucka stuff, and Bendis stuff I agree with, but the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the mid 90's that i liked was Onslaught. Now, I was in middle school at the time, so that certainly contributes, but it still stand out as one of, if not THE best colossal Marvel crossover. Honestly, I've never understood why people hated it. Just fun superhero stuff.

Also, No Man's Land in the Bat books was great during the topical time period.

Onslaught had some good moments. Like Joe Mad drawing the Avengers (when the appearred in Uncanny). Even if Hawkeye wasn't wearing his traditional costume and there was a Teen Tony in the armor. It had one of my favorite X-Characters, X-Man, as a major player in the story. My favorite part of that crossover was the Green Goblin issue when the good goblin, Phil Urch, used everything he had to take down a single Sentinel as it attacked the Daily Bugle. I think the problem with the mini was the time it took place in the Marvel U. Wolverine was still without his metal and feral. Ben Reilly was Spider-man. No, it wasn't all bad, but the too much of the mainstay Marvel elements were their generic versions and the whole thing tasted sour.

[Jimski]

I missed somebody!

Who or what was "X-Man"??

[Dave Accampo]

Also, No Man's Land in the Bat books was great during the topical time period.

I did like No Man's Land. That was pretty good. I wonder how it holds up in re-reading...

[davegraham]

I missed somebody!

Who or what was "X-Man"??

Now I am going to get scorn for this... X-Man was Cable from Age of Apocalypse. Except he was under 21, didn't have a techno virus, and no guns. Because he had no virus, his powers were growing at an unchecked rate moving closer and closer to a point when they would make him go boom.

[Jimski]

Now I am going to get scorn for this... X-Man was Cable from Age of Apocalypse. Except he was under 21, didn't have a techno virus, and no guns. Because he had no virus, his powers were growing at an unchecked rate moving closer and closer to a point when they would make him go boom.

He must have, or some sort of Superboy punch must have removed him from my universe. I don't think we've ever crossed paths.

Of course, I recently found a book and said, "I've wanted to read this for ages!" only to discover I'd already owned it for at least ten years and almost certainly read it already. So, you know, grain of salt.

[Mikegraham6]

Now I am going to get scorn for this... X-Man was Cable from Age of Apocalypse. Except he was under 21, didn't have a techno virus, and no guns. Because he had no virus, his powers were growing at an unchecked rate moving closer and closer to a point when they would make him go boom.

when is he going to come back? he was like Cable minus the suck

[Humphrey Lee]

List Time!

Uhm, how about:

Transmetropolitan
Sleeper
DEMO
Lucifer
Fables (still going baby!)
Y: The Last Man (ditto!)
100 Bullets (extra special ditto!)
The Inhumans
Top Ten
Promethea
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From Hell
Starman (most of it anyways)
Preacher (dittoed again!)
Hitman
Alias
The New Frontier
The Authority
Stormwatch
Powers
Astro City
Box Office Poison
Hellboy


So yeah, basically the best comics of all time. It was a good run.

[davegraham]

when is he going to come back? he was like Cable minus the suck

He was transported to an alternate reality and I lost track of the character. He died, but I read somewhere (probably wikipedia) that Beast made a comment about how he could be resurrected. Yeah, I'd buy any X-Book he appeared in.

[Jimski]

He was transported to an alternate reality and I lost track of the character. "I have to go now; my planet needs me."

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/c/c0/180px-Poochie.gif

[kahunablair]

Where was this thread last year?
I started back up late 05, so I was in the same boat. Here's a few of the recommendations that won me over.

Fables
The New Frontier
Powers
Sleeper
The Ultimates
Y: The Last Man

[HudsonPhillips]

Wow, thanks for the overwhelming response!

If only I had ten thousand dollars, I'd read all the books you mentioned.

Here are the books that I've already read:
DEMO - Very much liked this one... a great example of what I'm into... anything with teens dealing with the supernatural in a very reality-based world.

Y: The Last Man - Again, this one is fantastic.. I'm only two trades in, but it's incredible.

Fables - I read the first trade and I thought it was a perfect set up with a so-so execution. Everyone really seems to love it though... should I keep reading???

And here are the ones I'm going to check out as soon as possible based on your recommendations:
Morrison's X-Men run - because I love the X-Men but it's always so hard to jump into any story.

Ellis's StormWatch & Authority runs - I recently read the first trade of Fell and really liked Ellis's writing. And StormWatch is a remnant of those early Image books which were pretty much the only books I collected when I got out of comics.

Sleeper - I have never heard of this, but it sounds really interesting. And a ton of your recommended it, so...

Strangers In Paradise - This is one that I've been wanting to read for a while... and since it was recommended so much on the podcast, it's on the top of my list to check it out.

Box Office Poison - This is another one that I've been wanting to check out ever since they recommended it on the podcast, so I'll definitely check it out.

Thanks again everyone! And I look forward going over all the old POW's as well...

[Dave Accampo]

Fables - I read the first trade and I thought it was a perfect set up with a so-so execution. Everyone really seems to love it though... should I keep reading???

Honestly, yeah, you should keep reading. I felt the same way after the first trade, and I didn't buy the second for awhile. Then I bought the second trade for a business trip, and...I had to scramble around some bookstores while traveling because I just started eating 'em up. I think I came back home having read at least volumes 2-5...and the rest followed soon after.

[iSteve]

Honestly, yeah, you should keep reading. I felt the same way after the first trade, and I didn't buy the second for awhile. Then I bought the second trade for a business trip, and...I had to scramble around some bookstores while traveling because I just started eating 'em up. I think I came back home having read at least volumes 2-5...and the rest followed soon after.

Dave's right on about Fables. I had the same experience. First trade - so-so. I became obsessed with the second and third trades. Haven't stopped since.

Powers is an absolute "must" for your list. It's one of the best titles being written. After I read the first trade, I broke my piggy bank and immediately bought the next nine. Epic!

[esophagus]

Fables - I read the first trade and I thought it was a perfect set up with a so-so execution. Everyone really seems to love it though... should I keep reading?Fables took a long time to get going. Longer than a title should. The first trade was good, the second trade was even worse, and from that point on things are excellent. It's definitely worth it, just sad you have to go through the rocky start.

[kahunablair]

Fables took a long time to get going. Longer than a title should. The first trade was good, the second trade was even worse, and from that point on things are excellent. It's definitely worth it, just sad you have to go through the rocky start.

Really?
I thought the first was really good.

[esophagus]

Really?
I thought the first was really good.The first trade was goodI guess I shouldn't have said that the second trade was "even worse", it gives the wrong impression. I should say that it went downhill with the second one.

[kahunablair]

I guess I shouldn't have said that the second trade was "even worse", it gives the wrong impression. I should say that it went downhill with the second one.

Gotcha. I was a wee bit perplexed. Thank you for clarifying for us simpletons, my good man!

[esophagus]

Gotcha. I was a wee bit perplexed. Thank you for clarifying for us simpletons, my good man!Anytime. I will always make time for you simple folk. :rolleyes:

[horatio616]

It's been forgotten by most people but at the time I thought Milligan's X-Force/X-Statix was a great experiment and worth picking up.

[Euchre0]

He was transported to an alternate reality and I lost track of the character. He died, but I read somewhere (probably wikipedia) that Beast made a comment about how he could be resurrected. Yeah, I'd buy any X-Book he appeared in.

X-Man was great! I think the problem was that he was much too powerful, so they had to get rid of him. plus, they didn't utilize him enough to make him interesting. He was great as a guy who would pop up in X-Force, Generation X, or Amazing Spider-Man as a guest star, but I never faithfully stuck with his ongoing series. I think Warren Ellis killed him by spreading his essence over all of humanity or some such contrived thing. In any case, it wouldn't be too hard for a writer to bring him back from that.

I'd also buy a book he comes back in.

hmmm...mayhaps he should be the Messiah in Messiah complex...

[davegraham]

hmmm...mayhaps he should be the Messiah in Messiah complex...

OHHHHHHHHHH Boy! He was worshipped as a Messiah figure.

[Euchre0]

OHHHHHHHHHH Boy! He was worshipped as a Messiah figure.

That's right! I forgot about that! Man, it'd be so sweet if they went that direction. Plus, I heard they recently killed Cable, so there is no Nathan Grey/Summers in the current Marvel U. It's all fitting together...

[HomeTeam790]

Depending on what you're into, there are more good indies, too.

If you like straight, slice-of-life "literary" fiction, then you've got Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve. His work comes out very sporadically, but there are a few great collections of his work.



Another one to add to this is The Waiting Place by Sean McKeever and Mike Norton. A very good book in the veign of Optic Nerve.

And Blankets by Craig Thompson. Very very good graphic novel

[Dave Accampo]

Ooh! Ooh! While it technically started in '94, James Robinson's Starman should fit in this category.

20-something, hipster-type with a whole super-hero legacy thrust on him that he doesn't necessarily want?

Some good stuff in there.

[JAFlanagan]

I think Jack Knight is in his thirties in that book. He knows exactly who he is, and he's not dicking around lik eyou would in your twenties. It's what makes it refreshing. Everyone writes characters in their 20's, cuz that what writers know starting out. Then when they get older, they get nostalgiac.

[Dave Accampo]

I think Jack Knight is in his thirties in that book. He knows exactly who he is, and he's not dicking around lik eyou would in your twenties. It's what makes it refreshing. Everyone writes characters in their 20's, cuz that what writers know starting out. Then when they get older, they get nostalgiac.

I haven't looked back at it in a while, but I'm pretty sure they even tell you he's 27 at some point. That sticks in my head for some reason because they never usually give an age. That's just my memory though, and it could be faulty...

I agree, though. I think I started to call him a slacker at one point in my first post but decided that really isn't at all accurate, except as the most generic label for a 20-30-something guy in the 90's.

You're absolutely right; he's got his life all set up. He's knows who he is. And that makes it all the more compelling when he STILL just can't escape the pull of his family's legacy.

[Mikegraham6]

That's right! I forgot about that! Man, it'd be so sweet if they went that direction. Plus, I heard they recently killed Cable, so there is no Nathan Grey/Summers in the current Marvel U. It's all fitting together...

They are also relaunching Cable in a "bold new direction".....hmmmmm
plus beast was talking about him recently with dark beast in Endangered Species. The baby's birth showed off the chart power, and devastated an entire town.
It could make sense that they are bringing him back