 |
comic reviews
essential TPBs
character essays
event essays
other
comic links
|
|
 |
Shotgun Reviews presents:
The Essential Trade
Paperback Collection
Compiled
below is a list of trade paperbacks that collect some of the
finest stories in comics. It does not pretend to be an
exhaustive list, but merely a starting guide to lead you to
some of the best stories in the medium. The majority of
these are available for you to order simply by clicking on the
appropriate links below.
 |
V
For Vendetta
DC Comics
Writer:
Alan Moore
Artist: David Lloyd
Another one of Alan Moore's patented dystopian
nightmares, V was begun in the early '80s and relates
a vision of England under facist domination in 1997.
Into this bitter landscape comes V, a person dressed in
Guy Fawkes finery and sporting a similar anarchy-fueled
agenda. A stirring political work loaded with nods
to classics like The Prisoner and elements of noir,
V For Vendetta steps above most comics and
has never gotten the recognition it deserves. |
Squadron
Supreme
Marvel Comics
Writer:
Mark Gruenwald
Artists: Bob Hall/Paul Ryan
Long
written off as pale JLA knock-offs, the Squadron Supreme
were crafted in this tale into one of Marvel's deepest,
most thought-provoking works. Echoing themes in
Watchmen and Kingdom Come regarding the
careful balance of power that super-heroes must observe,
the story also plays with the politicals of mind-control
and the ethics of utopia. From the beginning you
can tell there will be no happy ending. For most
media, that's nothing new; for Marvel, that's a revelation.
|
 |
Batman:
The Killing Joke
DC Comics
Writer:
Alan Moore
Artist: Brian Bolland
While
he busy redefining comics in the '80s, Alan Moore paused
to do this all-too-short Batman tale that forever stood
the character on end. Now accepted as part of modern
continuity, this features the Joker's attempt to break
the spirit of Commissioner Gordon, with Batgirl paying
an unspeakable price. Bleak and haunting, this is
one of the finest Batman stories ever told. |
 |
Watchmen
DC Comics
Writer:
Alan Moore
Artist: Dave Gibbons
Perhaps
the best story in comics ever, Watchmen originally
began as Moore's pitch to explore the Charlton characters
(Blue Beetle, The Question, etc.) that DC Comics had recently
acquired at the time. As Moore worked, it grew into
an amazing dissection of paranoia, realization of mortality,
and the place of heroes in a much darker world.
No true comics fan can have a collection without it. |
 |
Kingdom
Come
DC Comics
Writer:
Mark Waid
Painter: Alex Ross
In
many ways the spiritual cousin to Watchmen, Waid
and Ross's Kingdom examines the themes of responsability
in a possible future where the DC Universe has gone wrong.
Super-powered young people, bereft of morality, run wild
in the street. The Spectre tells a preacher that
doom is coming. And where is Superman? A truly
fantastic story, with spectacular art. When people
ask me why I read comics, this is one of the things I
point to. Intelligent, imaginative, and moving. |
 |
Batman:
The Dark Knight Returns
DC Comics
Writer:
Frank Miller
Artists: Miller/Klaus Janson
Frank
Miller had already established himself as comics legend
in the 1980s with his brilliant Daredevil run and
his creator-owned Ronin. Rather than rest
on that, he decided to raise the bar for the entire comics
industry, dramatically rebuild an icon, and pave the way
for a veritable explosion in fandom. Anyone who
has seen 1989's Batman has felt the impact of The
Dark Knight Returns. Beginning with a future
Gotham in dystopian upheaval, Miller gives us an older
Bruce Wayne that must take up the mantle of the bat one
more time to save his city. Every single page of
this gem revolutionized comics. By the time that
Batman faces off against Superman in a fight he knows
that neither man will walk away from, you know
that you're holding comic history in your hands. |
 |
Maus I & Maus II
Writer/Artist: Art Spiegleman
There
are those that don't believe that comics carry any real
emotional impact. I'll challenge anyone to get through
both volumes of Spiegleman's masterpiece and not shed
a tear for what humanity is capable of. The tale
is built around a simple conceit: the European Jews
of the 1940s are depicted as mice, while the Nazis are
shown as cats. It sounds almost sweet, but the story
is anything but. Subtitled A Survivor's Tale,
these two volumes tell the true story of Spiegleman's
father as he endures the horror of mankind's lowest hour:
The Holocaust. A work of towering importance, not
only for its message, but for its medium as well. |
 |
X-MEN:
The Dark Phoenix Saga
Marvel Comics
Writer:
Chris Claremont
Artist: John Byrne
Quite
possibly Marvel's finest tale from the 1980's actually
began in late 1979. In Uncanny X-Men #129,
a chain of storyline events began that would take readers
to places they never thought they'd go. As beloved
character Jean Grey, a.k.a. Phoenix, began to spiral into
madness, we saw the introductions of Kitty Pryde, Dazzler
and the Hellfire Club. When the series reached #134,
we watched Wolverine become the most popular character
in comics overnight as he faced the Hellfire Club alone.
And by the tear-jerking, gut-wrenching climax of #137,
we knew that neither the X-Men, nor we as readers, would
ever be the same again. It's all here, #129-137.
Read it, please, if only to understand how great the X-Men
can be. |
Superman:
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
DC Comics
Writer:
Alan Moore
Artist: Curt Swan
When
Crisis on Infinite Earths occurred, it was clear
that someone had to write the story that closed the door
on the Pre-Crisis Superman forever. Who better than
Alan Moore? In a story that rings with both sadness
and hope, Moore tells us how the final days of Superman
might have gone as a brave new world begins to overtake
him. A powerful story with a soaring ending, this
is a classic tribute to the most classic of characters.
|
 |
The
Golden Age
DC Comics
Writer:
James Robinson
Artist: Paul Smith
We
already know that no one reinterprets the stars of DC's
Golden Age like James Robinson. His work on Starman
and JSA shows the care that he lavishes on these
characters. However, no project shows his reverence
for the past like this one. Taking place just after
the close of World War II, The Golden Age examples
the shiny veneer of post-war America, and the growing
darkness and paranoia that exists underneath. The
narrative follows the former heroes of the All-Star Squadron
as they become embroiled in an unbelievable conspiracy
that threatens the fabric of the American Dream itself.
The art is masterful and the storytelling flawless.
If you have the slightest fondest for the JSA or the '40s
era, this is definitely a story for you. |
Marvels
Marvel Comics
Writer:
Kurt Busiek
Painter: Alex Ross
From
'40s nostalgia to '60s revisionism, Marvels examines
the beginnings of the Marvel Universe through the eyes
(and later on, eye) of photographer Phil Seleski.
Busiek's p.o.v. scripting is a stroke of genius, and this
was the project that triumphantly introduced Ross to the
comics mainstream. With indeliable images such as
the arrival of Galactus and the death of Gwen Stacy, Busiek
and Ross make everything old seem new again. |
|
|
