Recommendations For Classic Superhero Comic Collections? 165
mvdwege (243851) writes "Due to being in a relationship with a comics geek, I have gotten interested in the history of superhero comics. I would like to get a better grounding in the Golden Age (pre-Comics Code) comics, so here's my question to the Slashdot audience: what are your recommendations for essential reading? What collections/omnibus editions of Golden Age comics would you recommend?"
Flaming Carrot (Score:4, Funny)
Dare I share it?
The hero of win
& mega-whisker chin
Burma Shave
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The Flaming Carrot [wikipedia.org]
Dare I share it?
The hero of win
& mega-whisker chin
Burma Shave
Guess you missed the part that said "Golden Age"
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Carrots are full of golden.
Masterworks/Archives (Score:5, Interesting)
Marvel Comics has a Marvel Masterworks line which includes a lot of Golden Age volumes. They are very expensive, but there are also $20 paperback editions that come out 7-8 years later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
DC Comics has its DC Archives program, but most of those never get reprinted in paperbacks and the program rarely releases much nowadays.
Also, something about this topic seems to bring out the stupid in Slashdot. No, Flaming Carrot is not a Golden Age comic.
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Instead save your money. Not one penny of that money is going to go to the people who created those Golden Age comics.
Instead, download one of the excellent comic reader apps and use this:
https://thepiratebay.se/torren... [thepiratebay.se].
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Neither are any of your suggestions Golden Age. There are no Marvel Comics from the Golden Age.
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Proving my point about bringing out the stupid. You're either totally clueless, or else you're trying to get pedantic like people on the Internet often do and claim that there's no Marvel because they were named "Timely" at the time. In that case you didn't read well because the way I phrased it, the company that is *publishing* the Masterworks right now is certainly named "Marvel".. Furthermore, even getting pedantic on this point ignores that DC Archives, which I also mentioned, certainly include Golde
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Also... (Score:5, Funny)
Also, I'd like to take notes while reading those comics.
Which text editor do you recommend? Vim, Notepad or Emacs?
Re:Also... (Score:5, Funny)
That's a good question, but first I'd need to know on what operating system you plan to take notes. Do Slashdotters recommend Windows, Mac OS X, or FreeBSD for this purpose?
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I'd like to commend ''BlackPignouf'' and ''Trepidity'' for the magnificence of their comments in this thread.
Seriously: Go back to these comments. Read them. Re-read them. Savor their perfect balance of snark, trolling and irony. This is simply superb - it almost brings tears to my eyes.
Ladies and gentlemen of /., this is why the Internet was created in the first place. That, and cute cat pictures, of course.
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No, this is another case of the topic brinring out the stupid in Slashdot. Are you seriously suggesting that Golden Age comics have controversy about them similar to vi versus emacs or Windows versus Linux?
Did everyone take the original post, pick out the word "comics", and ignore the rest of it?
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No, this is another case of the topic brinring out the stupid in Slashdot. Are you seriously suggesting that Golden Age comics have controversy about them similar to vi versus emacs or Windows versus Linux?
Did everyone take the original post, pick out the word "comics", and ignore the rest of it?
You don't get out much, do you?
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It's fairly obvious that any real geeks have long gone from Slashdot, and the site has been taken over by 13-year old Rand-worshipping basement dwellers.
I had hopes some of the old spirit was left to give an answer to my question, but I now have come to regret this.
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And the porn. Always with the porn.
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Why do you imply he would need a pre-made operating system? Are you insinuating anyone with a seven digit user ID is unable to make his own OS?
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Pen and paper usually works best and is cross compatible between manufacturers for multiple sourcing options.
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Do Slashdotters recommend Windows, Mac OS X, or FreeBSD for this purpose?
NetBSD viwth /bin/ed?
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If you're looking for old school comics, you need an old school editor ... and what could be more old school than a modal editor like vim?
If you're really nostalgic, take notes on the back of some old punch cards. Maybe festoon your workstation with paper tape.
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Well, since it's Golden Age about which we're speaking, I'd recommend TECO or ED.
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Very helpful linking, there. The words "new trend" appear once, entirely unexplained.
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You have to give him credit. He actually provided an answer that answers the original question. (The boundary for "Golden Age" is fuzzy, but EC in the New Trend period is pre-code and fits the original request. The most recent full reprints of EC are the Russ Cochran color "EC Archives" from 2006 to 2008 which are expensive, but at least they are available.) And they are definitely very influential comics in pre-code history.
And before anyone asks, "New Trend" and "New Direction" are not the same thing.
The Golden Age Spectre Archives (Score:2)
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If they want Golden Age heroes, they should read golden age comics. First, mortgage the house for everything over principle. Then, run down to the comics shop and drop the wad on all the double bagged stuff behind the counter they don't usually drag out for anyone. Don't for the love of God, read any of them. Just leave them in their bags,hang them on the wall in frames and just soak up the golden ageness of it all. There, worth it, wasn't it?
Golden age comics have their place, not in your grubby mitts. The
Superhero comics? (Score:3, Funny)
Boy did you come to the wrong place. Slashdot is all about calm and dispassionate intellectual debate about issues important to science nerds and not frivolous things like comics. Why we have never even had a flamewar around here!
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Have you tried asking your partner what she'd recommend? You don't seem to have the experience with comics to realize it, but your question is extremely loaded. There are so many threads from the Golden Age that you could start reading about and reading through a particular thread and it may wind up having no relevance to what your lady likes. Is she into Dick Tracy? Classic Superman, WonderWoman or Batman? Submariner? Human Torch (not to be confused with Johnny Storm from Fantastic 4)? If you talk wi
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The GF is mostly a late Silver Age Marvel fan, so willing to help she may bey, she knows just as much as I do of this particular period. From what I've seen so far it would be closer to my tastes; I read her comics and enjoy them, but the enjoyment is just a bit off.
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It's all a matter of taste and what we can relate to. I've not been able to get into any of the Gold Age stories that I've found, and the Silver Age still tends to have too much camp. Being a child of the 80's and teen of the 90's I guess it makes sense that my tastes tend to travel along the trenches of the Bronze and Modern ages.
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I like the campy fun of the Silver Age, and the Bronze age has its highlights (isn't Spider-Man more or less the #1 Bronze Age Superhero?); it's the needless 'Darker and Edgier' hype of the later ages that put me off comics for a long time, they were nothing like I remembered from the few volumes I read as a child.
Now I'm getting into it a bit more, I just want to round out my experience with a genre that feels closer to my tastes, hence the question.
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You fixed nothing and came off as either a pedantic or misinformed troll.
The person I replied to, mvdwege, happens to be the OP that asked the initial question and has very much stated that the partner in question is a woman in the statement I replied to. If you got yourself a /. account and lowered your threshold to 0 you'd see it since mvdwege has been inappropriately modded offtopic, but here's the text of the post for your reference:
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Hmmm ... several permutations.
Female dating male comic nerd. Male dating female comic nerd. Female dating female comic nerd. Male dating male comic nerd.
Most frightening, one or both could be furries. ;-)
DC++ (Score:3)
Get DC++, join comics hub. Easy to get access to all the comics you could ever want.
Wrong place to ask (Score:1)
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Because, as it so happens, Golden Age is not to her taste. Now, did you have anything useful to add? No? Then kindly STFU.
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Because, as it so happens, Golden Age is not to her taste. Now, did you have anything useful to add? No? Then kindly STFU.
So the relationship is superfluous to question. But we don't/can't know that from your submission. Thus you WILL get a bunch of replies saying ask your partner, and given that the question reads like a relationship advice request ("what can I do to understand my partners interests?") you will get a bunch of replies like the OP, especially given that /. is slowly dying (and I bet net craft can confirm it) and people are trying to hold onto the tech side of things rather than the crap(*) that is being promul
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Or, the poster is going for more of a 'classical' education where you learn what came before, understand the roots and origins of it, and then have a greater context for what came after.
For instance, if all these smarmy teenagers would stop pretending that their cool punk rock clothes have never been done before and realize there are people old enough to be their parents who used to wear the same things, they'd stop acting like they invented this stuff.
And, any
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Or, if you had a clue, you'd realize those were presented as two separate things.
The punk rock kiddies are just recycling old ideas. The people who still think the 80s were awesome are recycling old bad ideas.
DC Omnibus (Score:3)
My personal suggestion is to go back where the superhero genre first started. DC Comics released a Superman Omnibus last summer (http://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/superman-the-golden-age-omnibus-vol-1).
If you want to read about the golden age, Paul Letvitz (long time DC comics writer and one time President) wrote a great book entitled The Olden Age of DC Comics (Amazon)
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Thanks, that was a useful answer!
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Not quite GA, but other brands had some good works; Gold Key, Western Publishing, Tower, Red Circle, etc... even Archie. Mostly they didn't stay around because they didn't enter the steroid/big tit arms race DC and Marvel did.
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Actually why I included Western Publishing. Cowboy stories and my fav, Torok Son of Stone.
Herbie (Score:2)
Nerd hero non pareil. Fear the lollipop.
Comics Code (Score:3)
I'm not sure how, but I'd never heard of this "Comics Code" you mentioned in your question.
Wow! That's a hell of a story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
Thank god that's dead.
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I'm not sure how, but I'd never heard of this "Comics Code" you mentioned in your question. Wow! That's a hell of a story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org] Thank god that's dead.
It's even worse then you think. Here's the story that many believe on why it really got started.
EC Publications had a successful line of comics in the early 1950s that changed the industry. EC was very successful and they had some of the best artists ever to work in the comics such as Jack Davis, Graham Ingels, Wally Wood, etc. EC's most successful comics were 3 horror comics - Tales From The Crypt, The Haunt Of Fear, and The Vault Of Horror. Anybody remember the old HBO TV series "Tales From The
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According to Wikipedia they all agreed to it to avoid federal regulation. Much like the music industry did later because of the PMRC.
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Kei and Yuri. Dirty Pair.
"But sir, the civilians were in the way!"
'nuff said.
European influences (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe not commonly associated with 'golden age' comics but published concurrently and extremely influential and well-loved are "Tintin" (orig in french, starting c. 1929) by Herge (the pen name of Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi) and of course, the hilarious "The Adventures of Asterix" by Goscinny and Uderzo (orig in french, starting c. 1959). Enjoy!
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I am Dutch, and as it happens I have these, in the original French no less.
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BTW, I've read all of both Tintin and Asterix in both english and french. Really no difference for Tintin.
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Oh, Asterix (bugger, stupid keyboard doesn't do accents, can't be bothered to fix right now) has always had absolutely brilliant translations. I grew up on the Dutch ones, and they're quite as good as the original French.
I just pointed out I have them in French these days to ensure no misunderstandings: I'm quite at home in European comics. I am thankful for the suggestion, but it's superfluous in my case. And bonus: I get to enjoy brilliant if occasionally silly wordplay in multiple languages.
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Yes, God forbid someone should have a pride being competent at something. The horror. Think of the self-esteem damage to the incompetent.
History of Comics: "Ten Cent Plague" (Score:2)
You can also check out Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book [amazon.com] I didn't read the first, but it's supposed to be pretty good. The second focuse
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For Christ's sake, now what? (Score:1)
Why is Slashdot all messed up?
- I checked "disable ads" because I have high karma, but it doesn't disable them. I turn it on and off, nothing.
- I only see 5 messages here, a score 3, a score 2, and a score 1, and the score 1 has two score 1's nested under it
- I expand the score 1 and it shows, then I collapse it and it's two child ones contract into "2 hidden comments" line
Other threads are like this -- one only showed me +5s (regardless of how I dragged the sliders and reloaded and prayed and wept like Ge
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I work in the embedded world, and the ability to find four major issues ***in seconds of use*** indicates a profound incompetency on the part of the programmers of this site.
Usability testing?
Test planning for features?
Obviously did not have any tests done and written by people who don't know the implementation because that is a known vector for bugs to get by the programmer?
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another satisfied slashdot beta customer! "thank you for coming, see you in hell!" -Apu
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Why is Slashdot all messed up?
Because you're not viewing in classic and with adblock plus active.
Every so often I check in on Slashdot in a naked browser and yup, still looks like shit any other way.
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Opera mini on my phone currently. Will see if full Chrome on PC at home has same issues. Did they just "flip the switch" for everyone? I was using classic exclusively but can't seem to find a way to get to it anymore.
Comic Book Plus (Score:3)
This is a great resource for old school comic books: http://comicbookplus.com/ [comicbookplus.com]
Digital Comic Museum (Score:4, Informative)
I would head over to the Digital Comic Museum [digitalcomicmuseum.com], create a free account, and start going through the public domain titles in addition to the Masterworks/Archives listed by others. The DCM will also give you access to stuff like The Spirit, Lev Gleason's Daredevil, Fawcett's Captain Marvel, Whiz (where CM first appeared), and Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, the golden age/western hero Ghost Rider (with the unfortunate outfit), and thousands of others. Follow your interests; the 1930s and 1940s were part of an era when superheroes weren't quite as dominant as they would later become, so you can find piles of romance, comedy, crime, and so forth in the mix.
Life and Death/Knightfall (Score:2)
[Life and Death of Superman] - that's some classic Superman right there. Superman vs Doomsday is literally my favorite fight in comics that I've ever read. It would be wise to not forget [Red Son] which like TDKR tells a what if story, of what if Superman landed in Russia instead of USA. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did in finding [Superman: Blue] I can find evidence it exists it wasn't just a dream I had but I can't find evidence that it's anywhere. To be fair most people seem to dislike it based o
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And I can't believe the fight between Superman and Doomsday is exciting to anyone. Stories are exciting because of characters, because of emotion, because of facing your demons and overcoming them or falling victim to them. Doomsday was drawn well, but other
Asterix (Score:2)
Well, you're asking the wrong guy, because I'm not at all into comics. But since you asked, I do have fond memories of reading Astérix [wikipedia.org] as a kid. Astérix was translated into English and many other languages, so even if you don't speak french, it shouldn't be a problem for you.
What? You were hoping for a suggestion involving some sort of masked, tight-wearing super-hero that obtained their superpowers because of a bite from an irradiated insect? Oh, please. Astérix may not be masked or tig
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a fantastic moustache, and is absolutely fearless in battle. Furthermore, his friend Obélisk does wear tights (or at least some kind of tightly fitting, blue and white striped half-body-tube thing), and I challenge you to find another super-hero that is as strong as him, as funny as him and who has as voracious an appetite as him
Volstagg might be a contender. But for strong and funny (with a cool mustache), I'd choose The Tick. http://youtube.com/watch?v=80D... [youtube.com]
The JSA (Score:3)
EC comics (Tales from the Crypt) (Score:1)
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Ah, for the days of misspent youth.
Second Suitor? (Score:1)
"Wow! That's a great question. Tough one, though I mean, what does one gauge his response on? Physical prowess? Keen detection skills? The ability to banter well with super villians?"
Something Slightly Off The Wall... (Score:1)
Comic Book Plus - Free And Legal Public Domain (Score:3)
http://comicbookplus.com/
You are all welcome :)
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This (Score:2)
is what you're looking for:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Grea... [amazon.com]
Defining the Paramaters (Score:1)
Comical comic book reader (Score:2)
Download this. [sourceforge.net]
I have heard a rumor that there may be comics available on Bittorrent in this format.
Irrespective of the Comics Code ... (Score:2)
Understanding Comics (Score:2)
Rather than read what somebody think is a classic, why don't you strive to get a better understanding of the medium of comics in general? For that, there is no better resource than Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud [scottmccloud.com]. It's not a book about comics, it is a comic about comics!
That being said, I haven't read any superhero stuff since I was 12, but in my ripe old age, I still enjoy Prince Valiant [wikipedia.org]
Many are public domain (Score:2)
22,000 free and legal... go here: http://comicbookplus.com/ [comicbookplus.com]
Writer Gardner Fox (Score:2)
Fox wrote for a ton of different titles through the Golden Age. He was one of the best for stories back then so it might be wise to try his story lines.
Golden Age comics are generally not very good (Score:1)
Patsy Walker (Score:2)
Back in the days when gas was 20 cents a gallon (and gas station attendent(s) pumped the gas for you plus check tire pressure, oil, and water levels), and also when Stan Lee created Spiderman, X-men, and The Avengers for the Marvel Comics group (yep, if they were real-life characters, they'd be old enough to collect social security).
Another character in Marvel "universe" was Patsy Walker. She didn't have superpowers but she had lots of beautiful dresses and unlimited budget to buy them all. Not created at
One word... (Score:1)
JackKirby.
Golden Age is difficult to read (Score:2)
You want to see what the medium can really do, go by author, not characters. Anything by Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Lost Girls, Necronomicon, Marvelman), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Garth Ennis (Punisher, War Stories), Warren Ellis (late Stormwatch,
Golden Age Comics (Score:1)
I've just come across ComicResearch.org (Score:1)
Fahrenheit 451 (Score:1)
And a match.
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Fortunately, by the time I've been a "grownup" for 30-40 years, I should have passed the average lifespan of a human and won't have to find out.
I've been an adult for 25 years or so, but so far being a "grownup" has been something I've avoided. ;-)
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