I voted DC Comics for Batman alone. They are also pretty consistent with dialogue and action (DC - creators of Action Comics).
Marvel is more hit or miss for me. I like their Spider-man comics but not their X-Men comics. Why? Because there is so much dialogue and so little action. The X-Men cartoons and movies are more entertaining IMO.
Image, Top Cow, and Dark Horse I sadly have not read enough of. But they have good series like Spawn, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and of course Star Wars to name a few.
One more I’d like to mention is Bongo comics. They are in charge of comics with The Simpsons and Futurama. Some of them can be quite good and at times are written from DC and Marvel writers.
It boils down to spider-man and x-men (ironically the two franchises that other studios have been running into the ground) vs batman. Superman is worth negative points.
Image has so many great comics that aren’t soap opera people wearing spandex. Image is like the home of everything that isn’t a hundred-times recycled superhero cliche. (Sometimes I also like Vertigo.)
Pretty sure Dark Horse is mostly licensed non-original stuff, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
@InnocuousFarmer I don’t know Image but ‘soap opera’ is exactly why I stopped reading DC/Marvel decades ago. Ever more ‘angst and drama’, ever more ‘topical commentary and preaching’. Less and less interesting storytelling and adventure. Message fiction instead of fun.
@duodec I do have a hard time getting away from the angst… as long as it’s not overwhelming, I guess? I’ve found it interesting watching myself growing selectively more accepting of some of it, over time. Game of Thrones, for example, is mostly tolerable for me, these days, and I don’t know why that has changed. (The books and TV show, not the comic book that I assume also exists.)
I don’t try too hard to avoid the messaging stuff. Media is awfully self-conscious about supposedly informing the perspective of viewers/readers. I do not believe you can escape it, with occasional exceptions. A lot of things I would recommend have aggressively liberal themes that you have to be able to agree with or otherwise overlook.
The closest I’ve lately come across to a strictly fun comic book is Chew, which is sort of a uh… this detective guy has the magical ability to remember historical events associated with things he eats. There are also cyborgs and aliens. It is quite good, I think, for being as intentionally absurd and silly as it is. I’m only 20-someodd issues in (I would imagine it is complete, by now), but there has only been one drama, so far. And I don’t remember being bonked on the head about the climate or anything.
@InnocuousFarmer The Tick used to be fun. And its not like the comics didn’t usually have some of the angst/drama/preaching, even back in the '60s - '80s. It just got overwhelming and offputting as time went on. Comics were supposed to be fun, escapism, storytelling (and art). When they stopped being fun and the alternative soapboxes aspect grew too heavy and omnipresent… I gave them up. And when John Byrne started drawing Fantastic Four… blech… out they went.
When I was a little kid I loved DCs war comics like Sgt Rock and the Haunted Tank; as I got older I discovered the great '60s Marvel stuff like Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, and Dr Strange.
In the early '70s DC went through a socially-conscious phase that completely lost me, while Marvel turned to pompous crap, imho. However I then discovered great European comix like Valerian, Corto Maltese, and Jean “Moebius” Giraud’s stuff - Dave Steven’s The Rocketeer at Pacific Comics was also fun. And Dark Horse came out with Mike Mignola’s great Hellboy, but then Mignola stopped illustrating…
Anyway, even back in the '60s (maybe I shouldn’t say “even”) comic books had some preaching - Sgt Fury, of all comics, was full of it. Of course ZAP and Sudden Death Comix had their own social messages, eh? Anyone remember Trashman?
I once heard someone say that the chief difference between the two is that DC characters are gods trying to be human, and Marvel characters are humans trying to be gods. That really sums up why Batman is the only DC character that interests me (the exception that proves the rule) and why I like Marvel characters so much better.
Does it count if i’ve only read a dozen or so comics in 50 yrs but i like all the Marvel, DC and other cartoons and movies my hubby and 2 teen boys want to watch?
There was a creditable attempt at the Avengers, animated, a few years ago. The season with the Wasp and Kang was fun! It felt like it had more of the movie people direction behind it than comics. Otherwise the Marvel animated stuff has been pretty weak, IMO. The various Iron Man cartoons sucked and the Hulk, Agents of Smash was just too silly.
But the Batman the Animated Series and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited series that followed (along with a few of the movies, and some episodes of Batman Bayond) were DC high points for me after leaving the comics behind.
Image
I voted Marvel, but I have to admit it’s mostly because their movies are so much better.
@dave Agreed, but then Watchmen was DC, so they get some credit. The comic was better, of course.
Manga!
I’ve never read a single Western-style comic in my life, but I’ve read exactly one manga, so manga it is.
I voted DC Comics for Batman alone. They are also pretty consistent with dialogue and action (DC - creators of Action Comics).
Marvel is more hit or miss for me. I like their Spider-man comics but not their X-Men comics. Why? Because there is so much dialogue and so little action. The X-Men cartoons and movies are more entertaining IMO.
Image, Top Cow, and Dark Horse I sadly have not read enough of. But they have good series like Spawn, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and of course Star Wars to name a few.
One more I’d like to mention is Bongo comics. They are in charge of comics with The Simpsons and Futurama. Some of them can be quite good and at times are written from DC and Marvel writers.
It boils down to spider-man and x-men (ironically the two franchises that other studios have been running into the ground) vs batman. Superman is worth negative points.
I don’t want to say I don’t like them, but the only ones I’ve really read are Dark Knight Returns and Maus. They were very good, though.
@jqubed me and my 10 year old son just srarted watching the dark night returns last night he loves batman
First!
Image has so many great comics that aren’t soap opera people wearing spandex. Image is like the home of everything that isn’t a hundred-times recycled superhero cliche. (Sometimes I also like Vertigo.)
Pretty sure Dark Horse is mostly licensed non-original stuff, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Marvel and DC, blech, whatever.
@InnocuousFarmer I don’t know Image but ‘soap opera’ is exactly why I stopped reading DC/Marvel decades ago. Ever more ‘angst and drama’, ever more ‘topical commentary and preaching’. Less and less interesting storytelling and adventure. Message fiction instead of fun.
@duodec I do have a hard time getting away from the angst… as long as it’s not overwhelming, I guess? I’ve found it interesting watching myself growing selectively more accepting of some of it, over time. Game of Thrones, for example, is mostly tolerable for me, these days, and I don’t know why that has changed. (The books and TV show, not the comic book that I assume also exists.)
I don’t try too hard to avoid the messaging stuff. Media is awfully self-conscious about supposedly informing the perspective of viewers/readers. I do not believe you can escape it, with occasional exceptions. A lot of things I would recommend have aggressively liberal themes that you have to be able to agree with or otherwise overlook.
The closest I’ve lately come across to a strictly fun comic book is Chew, which is sort of a uh… this detective guy has the magical ability to remember historical events associated with things he eats. There are also cyborgs and aliens. It is quite good, I think, for being as intentionally absurd and silly as it is. I’m only 20-someodd issues in (I would imagine it is complete, by now), but there has only been one drama, so far. And I don’t remember being bonked on the head about the climate or anything.
@InnocuousFarmer The Tick used to be fun. And its not like the comics didn’t usually have some of the angst/drama/preaching, even back in the '60s - '80s. It just got overwhelming and offputting as time went on. Comics were supposed to be fun, escapism, storytelling (and art). When they stopped being fun and the alternative soapboxes aspect grew too heavy and omnipresent… I gave them up. And when John Byrne started drawing Fantastic Four… blech… out they went.
I still miss them sometimes.
When I was a little kid I loved DCs war comics like Sgt Rock and the Haunted Tank; as I got older I discovered the great '60s Marvel stuff like Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, and Dr Strange.
In the early '70s DC went through a socially-conscious phase that completely lost me, while Marvel turned to pompous crap, imho. However I then discovered great European comix like Valerian, Corto Maltese, and Jean “Moebius” Giraud’s stuff - Dave Steven’s The Rocketeer at Pacific Comics was also fun. And Dark Horse came out with Mike Mignola’s great Hellboy, but then Mignola stopped illustrating…
Anyway, even back in the '60s (maybe I shouldn’t say “even”) comic books had some preaching - Sgt Fury, of all comics, was full of it. Of course ZAP and Sudden Death Comix had their own social messages, eh? Anyone remember Trashman?
I once heard someone say that the chief difference between the two is that DC characters are gods trying to be human, and Marvel characters are humans trying to be gods. That really sums up why Batman is the only DC character that interests me (the exception that proves the rule) and why I like Marvel characters so much better.
My favorite comic book is The Tick. But I really enjoyed the comic novel, The Watchmen.
Does it count if i’ve only read a dozen or so comics in 50 yrs but i like all the Marvel, DC and other cartoons and movies my hubby and 2 teen boys want to watch?
I picked leaning towards marvel for the movies. Never read the comics.
Only comics I’ve read are Manga… And not that many.
There was a creditable attempt at the Avengers, animated, a few years ago. The season with the Wasp and Kang was fun! It felt like it had more of the movie people direction behind it than comics. Otherwise the Marvel animated stuff has been pretty weak, IMO. The various Iron Man cartoons sucked and the Hulk, Agents of Smash was just too silly.
But the Batman the Animated Series and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited series that followed (along with a few of the movies, and some episodes of Batman Bayond) were DC high points for me after leaving the comics behind.
Advantage DC
Baman n Piderman
My favorite Comic is Jackie “the Jokeman” Martling