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Anonymous asked: Dear Ron, I'm a lover of mainstream comics, especially DC, Batman in particular. I hate getting sucked into all the daft spinoffs but don't have the patience for a storyline to end and go to trade. What trades/one offs do you rcommend to distract me so I don't feel the urge to read Rob Robin and Batgirl, thinking I'm missing someone big
Sorry for the delay!
As you know, I’m not a huge fan of superheroes. BUT! There are some exceptions…
I really, really like Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s run on Daredevil from a couple of years back. Incredible art and a reality-grounded story (for the most part) that strips the character back to a core concept - how does a blind vigilante who is also an attorney get away with breaking the law? And what happens when his identity is revealed to the world?
It’s a great story, and can be bought in trades or hardbacks.
Similarly great is Ed Brubaker’s fantastic Captain America story from the last few years, dealing with bringing back to comics-life the character of Bucky Barnes, Cap’s boy sidekick from WW2. Only this time he is just about the coolest and most bad-ass character in Marvel-dom. Again, it’s all out there in trades, with the proviso that Brubaker is STILL telling this story up past issue #50. It’s well worth reading though.
Over at DC… I’ve heard a LOAD of great things about Green Lantern, but to be perfectly honest I’ve never really been able to get into ANY cosmic character beyond Captain Marvel. It could well be worth a look-see though, especially because Geoff Johns has written ALL of it, and he’s pretty much the driving force in the DC Universe alongside Grant Morrison.
You have read all of Grant Morrison’s Batman stuff, yes?
Non-superhero - Fables gets my vote at the minute, as does Scalped, Ex Machina and Y the Last Man - all of these are brilliant series, however the first two are still going on.
As for one-offs… Brian K Vaughan’s Pride of Baghdad is brilliant - the story off a group of four lions who escape Baghdad zoo following the Shock and Awe bombings. It’s obviously a pretty thinly veiled criticism of American foreign policy, but at the same time a well written and beautifully illustrated book.
Queen & Country from ONI PRESS by Greg Rucka is also a worthy addition to any bookshelf. It’s a hard boiled spy thriller set in the modern world that concentrates on a female ‘minder’ - a highly trained MI6 officer. You can get the whole series in 4 Definitive Editions (smaller size books, but actually pretty thick - really good value). It’s black and white and well researched.
Any of that take your fancy?
Ron reads comics. In fact, he's read rather a lot. So, rather than keep all this knowledge to himself, he wants to share it with you. Yes, you. And you. Even you.
Tell him what you're interested in, and he'll try and point you in the right direction. All he asks is that if you're going to buy it, you go through the Amazon link he gives you.
He's grown rather fond of eating, see...
