Where to start reading comics: Part Two

The Best places to start reading comics.

Typically(there are exceptions) the best place is start at the begining of a new creators run on a character you like. The challenge here is knowing which creators are good to follow on a given run. In this regard, the upcoming DCU relaunch is very good*. As well, if you are interested in a story find out the artist and the author, see if they have any other colaborations and then expand to other pieces of their work. More times than not when a fan likes a given character they really like the work of the author or artist. What isn't good is when a fan recomends that you read any book featuring any book by an author. Authors do often have a bad book or two in their bunch and moreso many are telling sequential stories and therefore it is better to start at the begining of their work with a given character.

Funny enough, the other best advice I can give is to pick up some issues featuring a character you like. If you like the stories, keep reading the issues that come after and maybe even follow up with some of the preceeding/related issues to that book. I jumped into Spider-Man, Civil War, and Daredevil with little problems.

For jumping on, Marvel is beter than DC. Marvel utilizes the best tool in the new reader repitoir: the recap page. This page helps you A) understand what came before you started reading and is relevent to the story, and B) can help you understand what that cliffhanger on that last issue meant. You have no idea how many times I've read a book, gotten to a big cliffhanger reveal of a character and had no idea who they were or what they meant.

Unless it is a crossover, don't be afraid of an event comic. Things like Flashpoint and Fear Itself are usually simple enough to be new reader friendly. And moreso they offer you easy access points for seeing more of the story such as tie-ins. The reason to avoid crossovers unless you start at part one is they are usually one large ongoing story and more times than not they are a culmination of ongoing plot threads(likely related to all of the books involved) and these can be confusing unless you've read all of the issues of a crossover.


Indie comics are usually an amazing place to start. Most first volumnes of a Indie comic are discounted(both in single issues and trade paperbacks). They are self contained and typically a higher quality book due to a lack of editorial influence. It is in Indie books where the team is king. In a suplimental part of this series I'll include a list of suggestions of books to start out for this kind of thing.




Next we'll discuss where to go once you've started reading comics.
And in a special apendix issue of Where to Start Reading Comics, I'll discuss critically acclaimed creators.
And in ANOTHER appendix issue I'll disucss great starting comics for different kinds of readers.

*I'm still of the belief that the DCU relaunch is a bad course of actions and could adversely affect sales.