Jim's Blog Ramblings about novels, comics, programming, and other geek topics

My Top 5 Comic Book Trades

Over the last couple of years, I’ve restarted my comic book collecting hobby. A couple of weeks ago, I came up with an idea to create a list of my top 5 comic book trades that I wanted to own (that I didn't already have). So that, over time, I can eventually find these books and add them to my collection. Of course, I could just go to Amazon.com and buy them right away, that’s not what I wanted to do. I want to find and read these over the next few years.

Here’s my list (in alphabetical order):

1. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
2. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale
3. Watchmen
4. V for Vendetta
5. X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is one of the most famous and popular story arcs of all time. The four issue mini-series written by Frank Miller in 1986 revitalized Batman and made him into the hero we think of today. Prior to this book, Batman was seen as a campy crusader (much like the old Batman TV show). Frank Miller’s vision of Batman and Gotham was much darker than previous stories. In this story, Gotham is a dystopia future setting and Batman is 50 years old and returns to fighting crime after retiring from his life as a superhero/vigilante.

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale written by Art Spiegelman is a story about a couple living and surviving in Hilter’s Europe. This book is considered a classic by many and one of the most important series of all time addressing the Holocaust. The Jews are presented as mice and the Nazis as cats, but the book doesn’t hide the terrible events. The book won a Pulitzer Prize. This book contains both Maus I: A Survivors' Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Her My Troubles Began.

Watchmen by Alan Moore was one of my favorite movies, but I have never read the original series. I’ve read other comic books by Alan Moore, but for some reason, I’ve never read the original Watchmen comic books. The Watchmen story is packed with symbolism, complex overlying themes, and social and political commentary. The story is much deeper than the movie due to choice of mediums.

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore is also one of my favorite movies, but I have never read the original series. I’ve read other books by Alan Moore, but for some reason, (same as with Watchmen) I’ve never read this series. V for Vendetta is a gritty story where war has taken hold over England and the British population is under constant surveillance. V is seen as a mad anarchist/terrorist by some and a freedom-fighting avenger for good by others.

Note: Last week, I was very lucky to find this trade in hard cover format at a used book store for just $15 where the same book sells on Amazon for around $40. Finding this book at my local used bookstore, prompted my search for my top 5 trades and this blog post.

X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga was written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by John Byrne. Chris Claremont is one of the most popular writers of the X-Men series. This is the story of how the Phoenix Force consumes Jean Grey and eventfully sacrifices herself to same the universe from mass destruction. The X-Men has long been one of my favorite comics and this is probably the most famous X-Men story arc of all time. The original comics were produced in the last 1970s, before I started collecting, but the impact of the story is still felt in today’s comics.