READ MORE COMICS, ALEINA PAIGE!

I don’t have very many skills that would make me of use to a young person. I’m utterly, hopelessly, nonathletic, so I can’t be counted upon for a game of catch. I’m old enough now that my tastes in music are incredibly unhip, so the best I can do in terms of musical recommendations is to furrow my forehead, grab my walker firmly, and lecture the youth of today on how awesome Grunge used to be. I’m a reliable ride to the mall, I suppose, but that just means that once my younger relatives turns 16, they probably won’t have much use for me.

So imagine my delight when I had the following chat on Facebook with my younger cousin, Matt.

Matt: hey do you know how to play dungeons and dragons?
Me: Yes I do. Been playing for 20+ years. Why?
Matt: because the library here is holding dungeon and dragons tournaments and i was thinking of playing.
Me: Not sure how that would work. D&D is fun, though…
Matt: D&D?
Me: Dungeons & Dragons. Noob. :)
Matt: maybe when i get back or something u could teach me?

This kid has no idea how happy he just made me, I assure you.

And in an odd bit of coincidence, his step-sister, Aleina, hit me up on Facebook later in the week with a request to know “which comic books are the best?”. (It was probably something closer to “WHICH COMICS R TEH BESTZORS”, but you get the point. )

Now recommending comics is a responsibility I take VERY seriously. And I am thoroughly convinced that comics are a lot like music – Very few people like EVERYTHING, but there is absolutely something out there for EVERYONE.

Aleina is almost 19 years old. She’s an Air Force reservist, and an aspiring photographer. (I actually think she’s ridiculously talented, but if you tell her I said so, I’ll call you a liar.) She is also a voracious reader, but, to the best of my memory, she’s never expressed an interest in comics before. I spent the past few nights thinking of stuff she might dig, and put together a list of suggestions.

(NOTE: I avoided certain “classics” in this list. No Sandman, for example. Now, I LOVE me some Sandman. If you walk away from this blog thinking, “Travis does NOT enjoy Sandman,” you will be very mistaken. But my personal theory is that recommending things like Sandman and Bone doesn’t get new readers into comic book shops. It just gets them into Barnes & Noble.)

So, Aly Paige, here are nine recommendations of comics you might dig.

1. SCARLET (written by Brian M. Bendis, art by Alex Maleev)

I am a huge fan of Bendis’ comics. Dude is one of my comic book heroes, and Alex Maleev is one of my all time favorite comic book artists. Every previous collaboration they have done has been top-shelf, and Scarlet may actually be my favorite. Scarlet is a young woman who decides that the world is not the way it should be after her boyfriend is killed by a corrupt cop. She decides she has had enough, and beguns to fight back against corruption, inadvertently sparking a new American Revolution.  It’s an insanely good read, and weirdly prescient, given that it predates the uprisings in Egypt and other countries by only a few months.

2. LOCKE AND KEY (written by Joe Hill, art by Gabriel Rodriguez)

I really enjoyed Joe Hill’s prose work in his books Heart Shaped Box and 20^th Century Ghosts. So I was very excited when I found out he was doing a comic. And Locke & Key is one of the most brilliant comics I have read in a while. After the murder of their father, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode Locke follow their mother to their family estate, a sprawling mansion called Keyhouse. Once there, they become entangled in a struggle against dark forces that seek control of Keyhouse, and the enchanted keys hidden inside.

This book is a brilliant combination of the fantastic and the horriffic. The art is amazingly clean and expressive, and the characters are very well-rounded and engaging. Nowhere near enough people are reading this book. It is fantastic.

3. ATOMIC ROBO (written by Brian Clevinger, art by Scott Wegener)

SO MUCH FUN! Atomic Robo is a robot built by Nikola Tesla in the 20s. Now he travels the world, investigating and combating paranormal and supernatural threats. Sort of like a Steampunk Hellboy. This is just pure fun comics. No ifs ands or buts. Just an awesome time and a great lead character.

4. CASANOVA (written by Matt Fraction, art by Gabriel Ba)

Fraction is one of my top five favorite writers working in comics currently. I have yet to read a comic he wrote that didn’t either completely entertain me, or utterly blow my mind. I will warn you that Casanova is not entry-level reading. Fraction’s writing on a whole different level here, and I actually have found myself requiring multiple read-throughs to pick up all the detail and craziness he is jamming in here. But MAN, is it worth it. Cassanova Quinn is a thief and spy, the black sheep of his family. His life turns around when he is shunted to a parallel dimension and forced to undertake missions across space and time.

It’s a wild ride. And Ba’s art is SO very cool.

5. KABUKI (by David Mack)

A breath-takingly beautiful book, and one that a LOT of people have said brought them (back) into comics. It features an assassin, named Kabuki, and the book travels through her memories, her dreams, and her thoughts. Mack is one of the most brilliant artists I have ever seen, and the emotional core of this book is his amazing imagery, brought forth in art that combines collage, photography, painting, and pencil work.

Also, on a side-note, David Mack is the nicest person I have ever met in comics. I’ve met the guy four or five times at conventions, and he is always so sweet that he makes me want to be a better human being. I have also been told that he is boy-band handsome, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.

6. X-23 (written by Marjorie Liu)

On paper, X-23 sounds kind of goofy. She is a teenaged, female, clone of Wolverine. She has been a prostitute, an assassin, and a member of the X-Men’s black ops team X-Force. There’s a lot of silly there. But Marjorie Liu is such a fantastic writer that she makes me really love and care about characters that I otherwise wouldn’t really give a crap about. This book is full of action, humor, drama, and (I have it on good authority) sexiness (many of my lady friends who love comics LOVE Gambit, who Liu has introduced into the book as X-23’s mentor, protector, and big brother figure). It’s also a nice gateway into super hero books, as it touches on the X-Men universe, but doesn’t really require any prior knowledge of it. Also, Liu writes the best Wolverine of anyone since Chris Claremont.

7. LOCAL (written by Brian Wood, art by Ryan Kelly)

I was a huge fan of Brian Wood’s DEMO, in no small part because of the comics crush I have on artist Becky Cloonan. His Local was touted as the successor to that book, but I actually think Local surpasses it in a lot of ways. It’s a 12-part series, each issue a stand-alone story set in a different town or city, and following Megan, a young woman searching for herself, and intersecting with a series of fascinating characters and events. Sometimes she is a main character, sometimes she is just in the background, but she’s the thread tying these 12 amazing tales together. Great writing, really vivid and realistic characters, and fantastic art.

8. 27 (written by Charles Soule, art by Renzo Podesta and W. Scott Forbes)

Taking off from the fact that a ton of artists and musicians (Cobain, Hendrix, Joplin) have all died at age 27, Charles Soule’s 27 follows a guitarist named Will Garland, who has lost his ability to play music, and will do anything to regain it.

Charles is a really good guy, who I have had the pleasure to meet at a few drink-ups over the years. I really dug his graphic novel Strongman, and had a ton of people talking this book up to me. Man, it did not disappoint. Probably one of the most creative premises and fascinating stories I have read in comics this year.

9. BATGIRL (written by Gail Simone)

This one won’t be out until September, as part of DC Comics’ Relaunch of their entire universe. But I am going to recommend it anyway based solely on the strength of Gail Simone’s writing. Gail is an amazing writer (and also a CRAZY PERSON) who has been kicking ass and taking names on DC’s Secret Six and Birds of Prey titles. She writes incredibly strong, interesting characters, and she is constantly taking her stories in directions nobody saw coming.

Gail is also my absolute favorite comic book person to follow on Twitter (@gailsimone), as her posts read like the diary of a lunatic. Even if I thought she was a horrible writer, I might still buy her books just because of the joy of things like #hauntedboat, #thatssowarrenellis and #kingsharkisashark. Gail rules.

YOUR TURN, INTERNET

I was going to make this a top ten list, but decided instead, I would rely on all of my internet friends to make recommendations for me. If there’s something Aleina should be reading, throw a recommendation into the comments here.

And Aly – GO READ SOME COMICS!

Hugs and Kisses,

(The)Travis