comic collecting

Where to Start Reading Hulk Comics For The First Time – My Comic Advice

The Hulk has always been one of Marvel’s most important characters, a central part of their cultural footprint. The Incredible Hulk followed Fantastic Four at Marvel! Created before Spider-Man! As Danny Fingeroth notes in his biography The Amazing Story of Stan Lee: A Marvelous Life, “Even at the time, magazines like Esquire had a sense that these characters were an integral part of the current conversation. It named Spider-Man and the Hulk as two of the ‘28 People Who Count’ on college campuses in its September 1965 issue.”[1] One of the reasons comic book movies took the world by storm is they often feel “more approachable” while the world of comics can feel overwhelming if not overtly unwelcoming to new readers. When you have decades of continuity and hundreds of stories where do you begin?!?  The truth is there are plenty of entry points for any character and the Hulk is no different. There is no “right” way to do this. There are lots of paths to loving Hulk comics and they’re all good! If it works for you, yay! That makes me happy :). But, as this is my comic advice, I think these are the best places to begin for all the monster horror and psychological deconstructions of the Incredible Hulk!

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Spawn Year One: Exploring the Birth of the Archetypal ‘90s Antihero!

It is all but impossible to explain to someone who wasn’t reading comics in the ‘90s what it was like when writer/artist Todd McFarlane debuted Spawn. It became the flagship book of Image Comics, the only independent comics publisher to rival the “Big Two” (Marvel and DC), and it felt like everything changed about the comic scene overnight. All of a sudden Spawn was the hottest character around…but I never read a single issue. So with my reading Spawn Year One – from Spawn #1 (May 1992) through Spawn #9 (March 1993) – I was psyched to see if I was missing out! I nicked this title from Frank Miller’s iconic Batman: Year One where he gave the Caped Crusader a darker, grittier origin. We love reimaginings of our heroes’ origins almost as much as Marvel and DC love producing them. But I’m fascinated by their original origin – who were they when they first burst onto the scene? What feels familiar? What feels different? Here I examine the literal year one of a character and it’s time for Al Simmons/Spawn! Reading Spawn’s first adventures I couldn’t help but wonder if they could live up to the hype…

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Who Is Supergirl?: A Tale of Two Karas

No matter what may change for a specific story arc, long-running serial superheroes have core character traits they always default to. Superman is always the beacon of hope who champions truth and justice. Spider-Man is always living paycheck-to-paycheck while overwhelmed by his sense of responsibility. Batman is a genius detective with trust issues. Hulk is a brilliant scientist with rage issues. Supergirl however is an exception to this rule. There are two very different core characterizations for Kara Zor-El, the last daughter of Krypton, and unlike most superheroes who she is (since 2005) is more a reflection of the author and the story they want to tell than her bedrock character default. I can’t think of another mainstream comic book superhero who works this way and that fascinates me about Supergirl. In this li’l piece I want to explore a bit of Supergirl’s history and both characterizations to see how this makes her such a unique character.

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Where to Start Reading Supergirl Comics for the First Time: My Comic Advice

For nearly seventy years Kara Zor-El – the Girl of Steel, the Maid of Might – has protected the Earth and the universe as Supergirl. So much fun! So much excitement! And so many stories! One of the reasons comic book movies took the world by storm is they often feel “more approachable” while the world of comics can feel overwhelming if not overtly unwelcoming to new readers. When you have decades of continuity and hundreds of stories where do you begin?!?  The truth is, there are plenty of entry points for any character and Supergirl is no different. There is no “right” way to do this. There are lots of paths to loving Supergirl comics and they’re all good. If it works for you, yay! That makes me happy :). But, as this is my comic advice, I think these are the best places to begin for all the hope, heart, and resiliency which have made Supergirl so beloved for so many decades!

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Superhero Movies & Shows So Good I Had to Read the Comics

I know, I know – conventional wisdom dictates we should always read the book first. And having grown up loving superheroes, reading everything I could get my hands on, it’s rare I meet a character for the first time on screen. Yet it happens. Since 2008, when Iron Man and The Dark Knight fundamentally changed how we see superhero movies (re: the general public started flocking to them and studios saw them as surefire money-makers), there have been more comic book movies and TV shows than young me could have ever imagined. If you told fourteen-year-old me, who loved comic books but never talked about them at school lest he risk being branded a nerd or geek, there would be a time where he’d see movies about the Avengers, multiple Spiders-Man in a Spider-Verse, the Black Panther, Harley Quinn, and freakin’ Clayface he’d’ve thought you were insane. But here we are! So in this piece I’m celebrating the superhero movies or shows so good I began reading the comics after I saw them :D.

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A Historic Shift In My Monthly Comic Reading (Egad!)

I noticed something the other day as I looked at the comics I read monthly (something I do regularly so I don’t read myself into bankruptcy XD). What I noticed reviewing my pull list at my local comic shop shook me. I have been reading (well, looking at and later reading) comics since I was three-years-old. I’ve had a membership to my local comic shop since I was seven-years-old. Now, for the first time in over thirty years, I am reading more DC titles a month than Marvel. What!!? When did this happen?! I love all superhero comics but I’ve always been a “Marvel guy.” There’s a reason of the sixty-three (yikes!) comic boxes I have tucked around my home six have comics from other companies (IDW, Image, Archie, Titan, Boom! Studios, etc.), fifteen are filled with DC comics, and a whopping forty-two hold Marvel comics. But now each month I’m reading more DC comics than Marvel ones?! It wasn’t a conscious choice and it blew my mind when I realized this. Naturally, I sat down to do a little self-examination and see if I could figure out how this disruption in the Force occurred.

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Where to Start Reading Spider-Man Comics For The First Time – My Comic Advice

When it comes to comic book superheroes, Peter Parker / Spider-Man is the most recognizable and beloved of all Marvel Comics characters. He’s relatable! He’s witty! He has the best costume! He’s popular! As of 2016, “Spider-Man merchandise pulls in more than the next three most popular characters / teams combined: Batman, then Superman, and then the Avengers.”[1] All this makes diving into Spider-Man comics feel both exciting…and intimidating. One of the reasons comic book movies took the world by storm is they once felt “more approachable” while the world of comics can feel overwhelming if not overtly unwelcoming to new readers. When you have decades of continuity and hundreds of stories where do you begin?!?  The truth is, there are plenty of entry points for any character and Spidey is no different. There is no “right” way to do this. There are lots of paths to loving Spider-Man comics and they’re all good. Just pick up a comic and read! That makes me happy :). But, as this is my comic advice, I think these are the best places to begin for all the soap opera shenanigans and spectacular superheroics of the Amazing Spider-Man!

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Reflections on Why Readers Are Flocking to DC’s Absolute Universe

James Patterson and Matt Eversmann begin their 2024 book The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by noting, “You are holding a book in your hands right now. Or maybe listening to one. If you live in America, you’re among only one in five who can read a book and are actually in the habit of reading. To my way of thinking, that statistic is dystopian.”[1] I agree. The ever-plummeting number of readers in our country makes me as sad as it does scared. So I get really happy when I see a book or series exciting readers, especially new readers! When the phenomenon turns out to be comic books?! well that’s all the more fun :D. This is exactly what DC’s new Absolute Universe has been doing since it launched in October of 2024. In this li’l piece I want to consider why so many readers are diving into Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Batman, looking at both the conventional wisdom and a bit no one’s talking much about that may be a key piece of this, too.

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The Amazing Spider-Man Nears Issue #1000 and I Get Nostalgic

Comic shops can be dangerous places. I say this as someone who balances his “comic budget” alongside things like “mortgage” and “utilities” to be sure I have the money I need to live life and, you know, not end up bankrupt or something. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL. As if the staff recs and comics on the shelves weren’t trouble enough, my local comic shop tucks copies of Comic Shop News and previews from Marvel and DC in my bag – even though they know my poor self-control!! – when I buy my comics each week. This was how I learned The Amazing Spider-Man was nearing issue #1000 and decided it was time to start reading the title again.

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The Fantastic Four Year One: Exploring the Origin of the Marvel Age of Comics!

Without the Fantastic Four there would be no Hulk, no Spider-Man, no X-Men, no Avengers. There would be no Marvel Comics or Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least not as we know them today. Each of those stories on page and screen begins here. Fantastic Four #1 changed EVERYTHING. So it’s a natural fit for this li’l series! I nicked my title from Frank Miller’s iconic Batman: Year One where he gave the Caped Crusader a darker, grittier origin. We love reimaginings of our heroes’ origins almost as much as Marvel and DC love producing them. But I’m fascinated by their original origin – who were they when they first burst onto the scene? What feels familiar? What feels different? Here I’ll examine the literal year one of a character. The Fantastic Four’s tagline is “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” and it’s easy to see why. With this series, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created an entirely new kind of superhero story, completely different from their Distinguished Competition. People loved the FF and the world was never the same! The Marvel Age of Comics was born!

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