I remember back in the Dark Ages... the mid 90s... I came within a hair of dropping out of comics altogether. I was buying a good number of things, but when push came to shove, it was only two titles that *really* kept me going back to the comic shop week after week: Sandman and Ennis' Hellblazer (later his run on Preacher).

Mind you, in the last couple of years I've abaonded the comic shops and buy all my trades on-line, so the dynamic is completely different these days. I just buy stuff that seems interesting and might not read a particular graphic novel for years after it was released... sort of like real books that way.

But, anyway, anybody else have a similiar experience either now or in the past where it was only one or two books keeping you reading comics.

Totally...the 90s turned me off almost every Marvel and DC comics out there...lots of dreck.

But Vertigo kept me interested with Hellblazer, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, and later Preacher and Sandman.

Wildstorm also kept me reading with Alan Moore on Wildcats, Warren Ellis on Stormwatch and some nice art by Travis Charest.

A few DC titles were still strong like Starman by Robinson and Chuck Dixon's bat titles...

These days there are Tons more books to keep me happy.

I hear you on that last bit.

I read lots these days, but buying only trades really changed my attitude. Tons of old stuff coming back into print (like The Spirit), all sorts of stuff I had no idea was in print (EC), some great imported manga (Samurai Executioner) and lots of good graphic novels coming out of Vertigo and Avatar.

Not to pick on the 90s too much, because they had some truly excellent stuff as well, but DC and Marvel did their level best to bury it under endless franchise spin-offs. Even books that I once enjoyed (Justice League, Green Lantern, and the like) had seperated most of their cast into sub-par spin-off books. Too many cross-overs, new universes, etc. It was around then I institued a "No Cross-Over" edict, where I dropped any book that said "quick, go read XXX #Y". I think Hitman was one of the few books to survive a cross-over, since the entire book was about the cast sitting in a bar trading stories waiting for the super-heroes to save the world... right up there with Animal Man dealing with the suicidal former super-villain (with a death touch) in the aftermath of INVASION! as the best cross-company cross-over chapter.

There have been 3 or 4 times where Cerebus was the only comic I read.

At one point the only regular books I bought were "Starman" and "Usagi Yojimbo". I had switched "Cerebus" to wait-for-the-trade standing and books like "Hellboy" and "Patty Cake" came out rarely.

I still went to the comic shop almost every week since my drought of interest didn't coincide with those of my friends. At that point going to get comics was just how we started our weekends. Eventually, I would start picking up "Transmetropolitan" and "JSA" would start up. Though I still haven't gotten back up to the levels of my prime collecting years.

Superhero comics in the 90's were bleak weren't they? These are the titles that kept me going until I dropped the hobby completely around 1997.

JBNM
Hellboy
Sandman
Strangers in Paradise
Bone
Astro City

Also, having picked it up in back issues, I REALLY enjoyed 'Marvel: The Lost Generation'. In addition, I've heard great things about 'Starman', but never picked it up.

I think Starman was about the only decent thing that spun out of Zero Hour/Zero Month, which brought us "classics" like spikey shoulder Manhunter, Primal Force, and knife-wielding Fate.

Never read Starman much... sort of a cross between a DCU and Vertigo book as I recall

The big 2 were shoveling out dreck in the early 90s...its a good thing that a lot of top talent went the creator owned route and gave us some great books: Miller on sin city, Next men, Hellboy, etc..

I think know we have a nice balance of creators doing mainstream superhero work for the big two but also giving us creator owned original stuff as well.

Amen to that. I was really enjoying a lot of what Dark Horse was doing at the time, especially Miller and JB's stuff.

Mike - my answer is no I dont think so - the marketing machines/higher ups at the time were going nuts, and just wanted to milk the industry for what it was worth...creative talent was seen as replaceable ...which is what prompted the Image boys and the old school greats to take off and do their own thing...do you blame em?

At the end of the day Frank Miller at DC is just an employee...if DC wants to issue 5 polybagged cardstock covers...Frank would have no say...but at Image or Dark horse he was free to do what he wanted the way he wanted.

In a way it was a blessing in disguise because it gave readers great creator owned stuff and showed the big two that its not just about corporate icons...there is a fanbase out there for genre fiction, crime comics, sc-fi, etc...

Plus If i was a creator at that time I would have gone to Image or Dark horse as well...they got creative freedom and cashed in on their talent instead of making $$ for others and collecting a paycheck..!

I dropped almost entirely, in high school. I wandered into a drug store, and saw "Everbody Versus Galactus" and had to buy it. Thank God I did, at that point. I had probably missed a few things, and wandered back into a really good pile of comics.

Well, right now I'm totally out of comics. I bought "Blood of the Demon" #1 and liked it. But I'm reading a lot of prose fiction lately and kinda need something to "keep me going" in comics. Y'all have similar tastes to mine - you're disgusted by the forced "maturing" of superheroes and needless superhero deaths. Any suggestions?

Have you tried "Conan" or "The Goon"? Not traditional superhero type stuff, but they are fun action comics.

And since "Starman" was mentioned up thread I'll mention again myself. An actual mature readers book, if you know what I mean. Respectful of the genre while breaking new ground in storytelling and subject matter. A great little gem. The best thing DC put out in the last ten years.

So what happened to DH? In the early 90's I was buying X, Nexus, JBNM, Babe, DU, Sin City, Shadow meets Doc Savage, Hellboy, ...etc.

Now, about the only thing I buy from DH in a long time is the new Concrete series.

Jim Lawless

Hmm. Astro City is just dern good. My short list looks like:

Blood of the Demon
Astro City (my strongest recommendation)
Great Lakes Avengers
Doom Patrol
the Marvel "all ages" Digests for my son
The Goon