Looking for suggestions of good solid reads in comic books. What I'm currently reading with interest:

The Losers -- just got the first trade and was pretty impressed overall. Not nearly as creative or original as Wildcats 3.0, but terrific dialogue, excellent pacing, and novel artwork that serve well an idea that is, well, a little tired and pedestrian.

Ex Machina -- Conclusion of "State of Emergency" arc was disappointing tho -- note how Mayor Hundred doubts one friend but not another, who, incidentally, also would know how to build a bomb, having worked on the Bomb Squad for years. Hmmmph. Gotta love that Tony Harris artwork, tho. One of my favorite books since Starman, quibbles aside.

Kabuki -- quite happy with the relaunch so far -- moving along faster than I anticipated. Just an agonizing wait between each issue, with no idea when it's coming out.

Ocean -- Andrew tries once again to get into Warren Ellis' writing. Lots of cool sci-fi concepts but glacial pacing and only mediocre characterizations in this first issue. Pity, 'cause Joe Casey could write a convincing original supporting character with only a few deft strokes in Wildcats 3.0. With Alan Moore virtually retired, Ellis has recently been threatening the same, even saying in a recent interview that 2004 may well be the last year he's writing comics.

Doom Patrol -- been disappointed so far. Issue #3 was great and I was hoping the conclusion in #4 would live up to the cliffhanger. Will be dropping it after issue #6 if it doesn't get better FAST.

Just dropped Powers from my pull list. I guess I was expecting the radical experimentation we saw on the Tabloid magazine single-issue story to continue in other directions. Impressed with Bendis's grasp of dialogue and character but hate the washed out noirish color scemes all the time without variety.

Looking forward to reading The Intimates, as Joe Casey will be at the writing helm. The recent interviews on Comic Book Resources say that Casey will be writing stand-alone, single issue stories on this book, rebelling against 'decompression.' If anyone can remind me what it was like to read Miller's Daredevil or Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, with their brilliant single-issue stories, Joe Casey is the one to pull it off. Hope this one lives up to the quality of Wildcats.

Any other suggestions, folks?

Well, certainly Astro City should be there. I'm not quite catching Arrowsmith, as yet, however.

Teen Titans
JSA
Flash
Green Lantern: Rebirth
Planetary

Andrew - keep reading Losers - the stories get more interesting and more action packed...decompression free zone baby!

The mystery of Max deepens, more heists, caribean adventures, and Aesha takes on half the middle east!

The second trade comes out soon...excellent arcs in that trade.

The current storyline gives us the "origin' of the LOSERS.

If you like LOSERS check out Andy Diggle's new ADAM STRANGE mini...again..no decompression here...issues 1 and 2 are out: Adam beleives the planet Rann where his wife and kid live to be destroyed...but..well..lets just say the title of the mini is PLANET HEIST...in the first two issues we get alien bounty hunters, cyborgs, jet pack chases through Gotham city and twin laser blaster action.

Diggle has stated that future issues will feature Hawkmen from Thanagar, LEGION, Omega men, Darkstars and tons of action..plus the art is GORGEOUS.

Highly recommended.

Thanks, guys... I'm almost finished with the first Fables trade and I'm loving the premise as well as the execution. Kinda wish Steve Leialoha were doing ALL the artwork himself, as I always enjoyed his style. I'm a Bill Willingham fan since waaaaayyy back in the 1980s with the Elementals. So much good stuff and so little money.

I tend to prefer trades to floppies, and you should know I am a lapsed comic book reader whose collecting habits trailed off at the end of the 1980s. I've only returned to reading comic books in the last four years or so, so I'm only gradually catching up on the best stuff of the 1990s like Sandman, Starman, Hellboy. I also tend to be reading less and less Spandex these days, and more and more neglected genres like crime, espionage, war, romance, sci-fi and drama. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. Recently I've especially enjoyed Gotham Central, Wildcats 3.0, Stormwatch: Team Achilles (well, the earlier issues), Hawaiian Dick, Alan Moore's ABC titles, and Kabuki. Looking for comics that stretch the limits of the medium.

MY TOP 5 BOOKS:

1. ASTONISHING X-MEN
2. THE WALKING DEAD
3. TEEN TITANS
4. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN (current arc excluded)
5. Y: THE LAST MAN

it makes me happy that 2 are non-superhero books.

Brendan -- what's the premise of 'The Walking Dead'? Zombies? I think your comic book tastes are similar to mine.

My Top 5:

1. Astonishing X-Men
2. Y: The Last Man
3. JSA
4. Teen Titans
5. Astro City

I'm not counting minis (aside from Astro which is sort of on going minis). That said, GL: Rebirth is very, very good.

Yeah, THE WALKING DEAD is about zombies... but as opposed to most zombie movies, which are inevitably 2 hours of action... this is about what happens AFTER those 2 hours. i highly recommend it... the first trade is DAYS GONE BYE.

Let's see, I'm collecting...

Astro City
Conan (ongoing and Chronicles trades, but hey I'm biased on that one )
Supreme Power (only in trades 'cause I missed the first few issues)
Ultimate X-Men (again in trades - with this one, I wasn't too concerned about not supporting the regular series and only grabbing the trades because of how popular the series is)
Ultimate FF (I'd have to say I'm enjoying this much more than UltyX-men)

let's see, I know I spend more money than that at the comix store...

I picked up the entire 4-issue mini series 'Loki'. Most folks are complaining about the whimper-like ending...I liked it, but I also see what they are talking about. The trade of this comes out soon, so you might want to think about it.

I grabbed the first issue of the 'Majestic' mini series, but only saw issue 3 in comic stores after that - was there no issue 2? I've heard of wierder marketing gimmicks (kinda like that issue 25 thing about the original Image books)...

I grabbed up the three 'Essential Tomb of Dracula' collections...however, I cannot recommend the 'Tomb of Dracula' current series. I picked up the first issue of that and was very very dissapointed with the cliches...too bad, I really like the old series (obviously).

Fallen Angel. Give this one a shot.

Watch out for sharks!

That was then (I had it bad for Geoff Johns)...
THIS is now (my top 8)...

1. Y: The Last Man (ending shortly )
2. Astro City (more please Mr. Busiek... the delays are killing me)
3. Captain America (one of my favourite runs on any superhero title ever)
4. Daredevil (Bru + Lark = )
5. The Spirit (won't be the same after issue 12)
6. Madman Atomic Comics (fun)
7. Astonishing X-Men (X-Men done right... but too much time between issues)
8. DMZ (highly underrated book je pense)