So, I have no interest in Marvel and my enthusiasm towards DC is greatly diminished. Where does that leave me? It leaves me open to things I haven't picked up before. I made the joke in the 'Fanboy Dictionary' that anything not published by Marvel or DC was an 'independent comic'. If that were actually true then Archie is an indy comic. Kinda nukes the old stereo type.
That's right kids, there much more to comic books than just Marvel or DC. This should be apparent to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention. HELLBOY is getting action figures, animated shows and some very cool movies. Frank Miller scored big with big screen adaptations of SIN CITY and 300. SPAWN has a huge following and has had figures, cartoons and a movie. These are just four off the top of my head. Venturing outside of the big two yields some very fun results.
For me, I've recently started getting into MADMAN, THE GOON and BONE. Good times all around. For those who haven't really ventured outside the big two, here's an idea of what's waiting for you.
DARK HORSE comics have been around for decades. This is where you're going to find comics like SIN CITY, THE GOON and HELLBOY but also STAR WARS and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. This is where you'll find a lot of really great, high quality, creator owned works. There's not a lot of your 'traditional' super heroes flying about, kinda a spandex free zone.
IMAGE COMICS has had it's ups and downs, but like it or not the founders struck a major blow for creator ownership when they broke away from Marvel and went their own way. This is the company that gave us SPAWN, THE SAVAGE DRAGON and host of others.
ONI PRESS is one you may not have hear off. However, if you've heard of Judd Winick or Greg Rucka then you should be familiar with them. This is the company that produced THE ADVENTURES OR BARRY WEEN: BOY GENIUS, WHITEOUT, and QUEEN AND COUNTRY. These are award winning books, and I've currently been spending a lot of time lately drooling of the grand gloriousness of the QUEEN AND COUNTRY absolute editons that are being released.
Then there's BOOM STUDIOS which is currently working very hard to suck me in and doing a fine job of it. I'm predicting this group becoming major players, and not just because they had the good the sense that DC didn't and made Mark Waid editor. Here's the best part about these guys: if you're leery of forking out the cash n something new, they've taken the sting out of that by offering some of their titles FREE on their site. So, once you're done here, go read you some free stuff. I'm currently working my way through 2 GUNS.
That's just a glimpse of some of the other stuff out there. So, by now you're thinking, 'OK, Marty's heading off into the wilds of indy comics now.' This is true, but what I talked about above isn't it.
More later.
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