The best ‘entry drug’ for civilians is Love & Rockets – very hip in the 80s, but still as brilliant as ever (best comic of past 30 years IMO).
Confession time: I’ve never really gotten into Love & Rockets. At first I was too engrossed with superheroes, then when I did start looking into other sort of comics, I could never find anything in the local comics shops, unlike with e.g. Cerebus, which I discovered through flipping through the High Society phonebook in my then local. I was aware of it of course, because it was, as Kasper says a serious candidate for being one of the best comics of the past three decades, but I never found a good jumping on point.
To be honest, there didn’t seem to be any. These days, Fantagraphics a nice line of L&R collections, but back in the nineties, when I was a serious comics collector, Love & Rockets was one of those series that it seemed you’ve had to have read from issue one to be able to understand it. Which sort of reinforces my point from two days ago, that continued availability is key for any comic to become part of the canon.
W.Kasper
October 30, 2011 at 5:45 amSpeaking as someone who’s always hated Cerebus, I strongly recommend Fanta’s chronological budget-paperback L & R collections. Start with Jaime’s ones – how his characters subtly age from story to story is impressive in itself (especially since they sometimes flash back and forwards- Moore’s debt to them was acknowledged). As for the actual characterisation – I can’t think of more subtle, emotionally-rich characters in the history of comics.
Gilbert’s are more overtly political and melodramatic, but also add up to a stunning achievement. Those collections are cheaper than most you get in these deluxe-hardback days. You really should check ’em out. They make the reader feel like they really are catching up with people’s lives.