When I decided to create a blog, one of the first things I promised myself was that I wouldn't indulge in too many posts about how much harder it was to access comics and other sci-fi and fantasy content years ago. Point in fact: I didn't have to walk 10 miles uphill (both ways, in the snow) to get my hands on a comic book as a kid. While I'll save the story of the first comic I ever bought for another post, there were comics racks at several local drug stores and convenience stores that I haunted throughout my adolescence.
Having said that, there's no denying that the pop culture landscape--and culture in general--has changed over the years. Several years ago, I was surprised when, walking my children through our local library, I found that it had an entire floor-to-ceiling shelving unit devoted to graphic novels and comics-related literature. I've always been a big user and defender of libraries, but this was a weird "crossing the streams" moment for me. I'd used the library a ton when I was a kid--usually to bury my nose in some Time-Life book series about folklore or the paranormal. However, I think I can remember there being only maybe 3 books about comics in the whole building back then--all of them scholarly tomes.
I'd collected comics, but I wouldn't call myself a comics collector. There wasn't a strategy to it. I simply read what I liked and kept those comics to revisit those stories. It wasn't an "on demand" world back then. If I missed an issue or a story arc, I missed it. So the idea of stacks and stacks of collected comics thrilled me as I ran my hand along the spines.
What I noticed though was that the offering was very much skewed towards the recent past. That's not to say that there aren't modern classics--as my kids have collected their own comics, I've been exposed to a lot of great story-lines and creators. But I was surprised to see little representation of the foundational stories that paved the way for present-day franchises like the MCU, DC Arrowverse, etc. And that fact birthed the kernel of an idea.
Because we do now live in an on-demand world where compilations of many great old comics stories can be had--sometimes at a considerable discount if you're patient. So I tucked that idea away and started to build a list of the books I'd grab for donation to my local library if I could get my hands on them at a reasonable price.
The list continues to evolve, but here is the latest version along with notes related to some of the books I've already snagged/donated:
- Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (DONE)
- The Death of Captain Marvel
- Justice League: Kingdom Come
- Justice League: The Nail
- Squadron Supreme (the original 12-issue miniseries) (DONE)
- Crisis on Infinite Earths
- Flash: The Return of Barry Allen
- Secret Wars (the original 12-issue miniseries) (DONE)
- The Return of Superman (i.e. Reign of the Supermen) (DONE)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga
- Iron Man: Armor Wars
- Walt Simonson's Thor Ragnarok story-line
- Batman: The Long Halloween
- Spider-Man: The Death of Jean DeWolff
- Avengers: The Siege of Avengers Mansion
- Watchmen
- Daredevil: Born Again
Some of these choices are sentimental, some are based on just their overall quality, some have awesome messages/insights worth sharing--and many combine all of the above. Please join me for Part 2 where I provide a spoiler-free review of several of these books along with the specifics of why I targeted them.
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