how do I get into comics?

WHERE CAN I BUY COMICS?

This is surprisingly a more difficult answer for people than it should have to be, but the comic market being what it is, means it’s not entirely unexpected.

There’s lots of places to buy comics online. Amazon runs lots of deals and has a very wide selection, but there’s also In Stock Trades, which is entirely comics focused and has even better deals on some titles, and Things From Another World, which includes other merchandise as well, some great discounts, and has the rather appealing ‘Nick and Dent’ section. Want comics on the cheap? Don’t mind getting a slightly used copy? Hit up TFAW’s Nick and Dent for a nice selection of comics that are at LEAST 50 percent off!

Or maybe you want to buy your comics in person, which I support heavily as well - much moreso when the store itself is worth supporting (not all of them are, and I’ll admit that off the bat). You can use the Comic Shop Locator to see if there’s anything close by to you. Some stores run membership discounts, and are usually a great way to pick up tons of back issues - often on the cheap - or just window shop. Check around your own local store, see if it’s a Yea or Nay for you. If you don’t have a local comic shop, usually book stores will have a ‘graphic novel’ section, though whether they angle more towards stuff like Marvel and DC or more towards more indie publishers like Fantagraphics and the like, is entirely up to them.

If you’re interested in buying singles, or following a specific series, you can ask your store to set up a ‘pull list’ for you, where they’ll pull and hold the titles you ask for, for you every month, so you can be guaranteed to have it. Some stores will even give you discounts if you do this! However, make sure you like the way the pull list is handled at your local store. Some handle it well, letting you be as flexible with it as you like, and some can be kind of jerks about cancelling a pull list, or the like.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.

how do i get into avengers comics? (plus more)

Okay, so. After the movie came out, there were naturally a ton of new fans of the Avengers, and the characters therein. So people naturally want to know ‘Where do I go in the comics to get that same great stuff?’

Now, the usual approach people would go with is recommending individual characters, and their best runs. Captain America (Lee/Kirby, some JM DeMatteis for a great sampling of the old school, Brubaker/Epting for modern, just for a quick example), Thor (Walt Simonson, basically forever), Iron Man (David Micheline, Denny O’Neil for some classic stuff, the Extremis storyline for a nice peek into modern), and so on, but the real question remains. How do you get into the Avengers as a TEAM? What will deliver everything you loved about the movie?

Here’s something I want you to keep in mind.

“Kurt Busiek can do pretty much no wrong.”

Because it’s seriously true, and it’s why I recommend his run on Avengers as a good way to get into the team as a whole. Heavy on the characterization, and character interaction, without ever missing a beat for action, drama, humor, and more, Busiek delivers the whole package. Don’t be intimidated by continuity! Busiek will draw your right in, explain what’s needed to know, and make you want to learn more about each and every member of the team, and the Marvel universe in general. Teamed up with the legendary George Perez on art, this is a run that will satisfy on every level.

You can download issues 1-10 of Busiek’s run here, and here. Comixology provides a place to buy a lot of Busiek/Perez Avengers digitally. Amazon and In Stock Trades once again if you wanna get your hands around the actual comics themselves.

From there, you’re obviously going to want more! You should also check out the Avengers/JLA crossover, with Busiek and Perez back on creative duties, a great read for Marvel and DC fans alike!

Beyond that, I say you absolutely should check out Busiek’s creatively owned series, Astro City. I like it. A lot. I’d say it’s even better than his Avengers run, as he’s given a lot of freedom to truly create his own world, his own characters, even if they’re homages to DC and Marvel history.

You can download the first 4 issues of this fantastic series here. Sadly, it doesn’t appear to be in digital format yet, but you can go right here  to pick up a copy of the real thing. This collects the first six issues!

Enjoy the comics, support and buy when you can, and keep reading! I’ll likely be revisiting the Avengers in the future to recommend older, more classic runs, like the Kree/Skrull war.

bsaapiers asked: Hello! I'm a baby comic reader, started about 3 months ago. I started with Blue Beetle (New 52), got into Booster Gold (starting from 52 Pickup) and Runaways, but I could always use more comics in my life! Any recommendations please and thank you? :D

Getting into the Blue and Gold! Thankfully, that’s fairly straightforward, as they aren’t tied up in continuity snafus. Well, not nearly as much as other heroes, anyway.

Since you’re reading New 52 Beetle, you absolutely need to check out the previous volume that came before.

You can download the first 8 issues of Jaime Reye’s run here. You can digitally buy ALL of it here! Amazon also still has all the trade paperback collections as well, and I’d also recommend trying instocktrades.com

From there, you also need to check out the absolute classic, Justice League International, which gives you plenty of Booster Gold, and plenty of Ted Kord, Blue Beetle II, in one of the funniest comics DC has ever put out. As a specific rec-list for those two, you need to read:

Justice League International (the Giffen/DeMatteis run, not the New 52 one by Jurgens)

Formerly Known As The Justice League

I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Justice League

And for the unfortunate end of Ted Kord, Countdown to Infinite Crisis and Infinite Crisis. You can buy a lot of the original JLI in trade format, and some of it from Comixology.

Moving on from that, other titles you should absolutely be checking out, given your tastes. For Marvel, you should be reading Ultimate Spider-Man, which is not only a great introduction to the whole Spider-Man name, but a fantastic comic on its own.

Once again, Comixology for digital, and all the printed collection are still well in circulation. Amazon or In Stock Trades will hook you up! All of them will also have the new Ultimate Spider-Man, Miles Morales, so you’ll want to check him out once you’re finished with Pete’s run.

Now, the recommendation that I think doesn’t get NEARLY enough love, and a lot more people should read. The original Static comics.

Don’t let the title fool you - it used to be called just ‘Static’, but picked up the ‘Shock’ after the success of the toon.

Created by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie, and with a heavy amount of writing duties shouldered by the late, great Rob Washington III, Virgil ‘Static’ Hawkins was formulated off essentially the Spider-Man teen hero formula. Nerdy kid gets superpowers somehow, so what do they do now?

Static differentiates itself from the pack, though, by not only taking on thugs and supervillains, but also facing a lot of challenges in just day to day life. More than just relationship drama, and more than just trying to hold down a job, Virgil tackled everything from religious tensions, racial prejudice, homophobia, class struggle, pretty much you name it, he had to deal with it. It was easily one of the best things of the Milestone comics, and that was an imprint with a lot of great comics. Static is full of characters you’ll love, and a world you’ll find yourself really sinking into.

You can download the first 18 issues of the original Static series here, and here. You can buy the Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool TPB here, which collects the first 4 issues, and the Rebirth of the Cool miniseries that came out awhile back.

Enjoy the comics, buy and support whenever possible, and keep reading!

beamkatanachronicles asked: YO DUDE. Rec me some Rhodey comics, please!

Ah, good ol’ Rhodey! James Rhodes, AKA War Machine, Tony Stark’s BFF has been in just about everything relating to Iron Man since he first appeared way back in 1979 - from the comics, to the cartoons, to the movies.

But where to start with him?

It’d be easy enough to say Iron Man V1 #118, his first appearance, or #144, which gives his origin story, but if you ask me, the best way to come to know and love Rhodey is during the time he WAS Iron Man. Starting with Iron Man #169.

Tony, after intentionally flying his suit through every billboard for booze in town, promptly forgets the symbolism of what he just did and rewards himself by falling off eight different wagons at once. Then, when one of Tony’s (many, many, MANY) goofy villains, Magma, storms into town, he decides the best way to kick his ass is to get loaded before a supervillain fight.

Magma, using only said goofy-ass robot, kicks Tony all the way back to Stark industries, who promptly regroups and comes up with a fresh new strategy of getting even drunker, but only after revealing his secret identity to Rhodey.

When he passes out? Rhodey steps up to plate.

From there? It’s issue after issue of Rhodey, baby! Rhodey trying to be Iron Man, while Tony tries desperately to run away from his life. We get a lot of what defines Rhodey himself, and his friendship with Tony, as they go back and forth, Rhodey trying to save him and his company, and Tony pushing him - and others - away.

We also get what may be the funniest panels in Iron Man history.

I really cannot overemphasize this. Rhodey’s time as Iron Man is not only intensely satisfying in terms of story, characterization, drama, action, but is also funny as hell.

And that’s before we even get into Obadiah Stane dressing like a wizard.

So as an opener to Rhodey, I heartily recommend #169-199 of Iron Man V1, as written by the amazing Denny O’Neil, better known for his character defining work on Batman!

From there, as a primer, you’ll also want to check out Iron Man #300 (a fantastic issue overall, with a lot of time spent on Tony’s oft-overlooked supporting cast), and West Coast Avengers, of which, Rhodey was a member of.

Believe it or not, Rhodey doesn’t REALLY take on the iconic War Machine armor himself all the way until #284, during The Death Of Anthony Stark, where he not only takes on the name of Iron Man again, but becomes the head of Stark Enterprises himself. Ride that out all the way to the aforementioned #300, and you’ll be loving Rhodey jusssst fine.

As a good sized sampler of 169-199, you can download Iron Man 169-184 here and here.

You can buy some Iron Man V1 over at Comixology, but what they have uploaded is really scattershot so far. Covers a lot of The Death of Anthony Stark, though.

If you got a hankerin’ for splurging? You can buy The Complete Invincible Iron Man on DVD, covering 43 years of comics! It’s over a hundred bucks, though. Admittedly cheaper than trying to root for every back issue!

Enjoy the Rhodey, and keep enjoying comics!

RECOMMENDED: HSU AND CHAN

Two men. Green hill, Ohio. Danger, adventure, lust. Shovelware video game knockoffs.

Hsu and Chan, likely known to you through their time as a comic strip in the back of issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly, are a pair of video game making brothers created by Norm Scott. With their company, Tanaka Bros. Game Development, having less ambitions set on creating the next, new, groundbreaking video game, and more on ‘maybe we can trick enough grandmas into thinking this is a Mario and buy a way cooler car with the profits’, they’re a fairly low key bunch.

Naturally, they are also inevitably sucked into bizarre adventures involving attempted murder, successful murder, carnies, and the devil. The video game parodies and references saved for the EGM strips, Hsu and Chan as its own series was more of an over the top comedy title, wrapped around a one-and-done adventure in each issue. A style of humor inspired by and drawing from things like Sam and Max and the Monkey Island series (yet not referencing either of those themselves), tv series MST3K, as well as other comic artists like Evan Dorkin, Hsu and Chan crams in as much comic as they can fit into one issue after the other, loaded to the top with as much comedy that could be shoved into each page. Helped greatly by the cartoony, gorgeous pages, with some truly impressive inking skills, Scott delivers a comic you’ll desperately wish there was more of.

You can download the first six issues of Hsu and Chan here: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6

You can buy the Hsu and Chan trade paperback here.

You can get more Norm Scott comics at spookingtons.com, throw him some bones, and maybe bug him to update again while you’re at it.

If you like it, please support Norm!

HOW DO I READ COMICS ON MY COMPUTER?

There are multiple options for this. Firstly, you’re going to want a program to read downloaded comic files (extensions are generally cbr or cbz). I highly recommend CDisplayEx, though there are plenty of others out there.

If you want to read these files on an iPod, iPhone iPad, or other Apple products, you should check out the Comic Zeal app. For Android users, try the Droid Comic Viewer. All of these will make it nice and easy to read the comics you’ll be downloading.

If you want to go through some legal channels for your comics - and I recommend it, whenever it’s possible, to support good comics and good creators - there’s Comixology, which is pretty much the biggest marketplace for digital comics right now, and also has their own Apple and Android applications. The one real killer of Comixology, though, is that while using a device like an iPad or a Kindle Fire will let you download your comics to those devices, Comixology does not let you download directly to your own hard drive. Additionally, due to this, you’re not entirely buying comics themselves - you’re buying a license to view those comics. There’s been a fair share of criticism of Comixology for this practice. This might change down the line later.

Marvel comics also has an interesting, Netflix style kind of digital comics offering: Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. Costing 60 dollars a year/5 dollars a month total, it lets you read thousands of Marvel comics online. The downside is, again, no download options, and also, a lot of Marvel’s library isn’t digital yet, and will not necessarily be up currently, or anytime soon. So you might miss a lot of issues in a run, or a title entirely.

As for where to find comics through not-so-legal channels, well, you got google for a reason. I don’t want this blog shut down right out of the gate, y’know. Torrents are a great way to find older, not-collected-or-reprinted comics, though.

More things to be added to be this post as more info comes down the line.

Open for business. Ask me how to make finding, reading, and enjoying the world of comics easier for you. Whether to get into a specific character, the best titles in a genre, or just something to hit the sweet spots of your specific taste.

unless you’re asking how to break into the business of comics, in which case: buy mark waid multiple beers