[0:00] getting into reading comics can be
[0:02] really daunting and difficult
[0:03] but let me help you with this guide stay
[0:07] [Music]
[0:14] tuned
[0:20] i know how confusing it can be to start
[0:23] reading comics
[0:25] and that's something that needs to be
[0:26] acknowledged first and foremost
[0:28] when trying to help people out there's a
[0:31] lot of confusion because there are so
[0:33] many characters especially when we're
[0:35] talking about
[0:35] mainstream comics like spider-man or
[0:37] batman that existed for decades and have
[0:40] just thousands upon thousands of
[0:42] different comics
[0:44] and someone who has no idea about how
[0:46] comics work
[0:47] is probably gonna look at that and say
[0:49] okay well i'd like to start spider-man
[0:51] but i don't know where because
[0:52] there are so many different series
[0:54] amazing spider-man web of spider-man
[0:55] spectacular spider-man spider-man
[0:57] and each of them has multiple number
[0:59] ones do i have to go all the way back to
[1:00] the 60s
[1:02] or where where can i start i don't know
[1:03] what to do it's confusing and i know
[1:06] that and the thing is that you have to
[1:08] kind of understand a few things before
[1:09] you get into comics
[1:11] so that it's less confusing when you
[1:13] start actually diving in
[1:15] now the first thing that i have to do is
[1:17] to dispel the notion
[1:19] that there is a perfect starting point
[1:22] for any character or team or franchise
[1:25] because there's not
[1:27] the perfect starting point is really
[1:29] wherever you want to start
[1:31] whatever works best for you and that's
[1:33] what i'm here to kind of help you to try
[1:35] and find
[1:36] is your perfect starting point for any
[1:38] character or
[1:39] team or franchise because you can start
[1:42] with any single issue you could grab an
[1:45] issue out of nowhere of
[1:46] any series any comic any character
[1:49] and start right there and just expand
[1:52] from that
[1:53] story but that might not be the most
[1:55] beneficial place to start and that's
[1:57] what i kind of want to help is to find
[1:59] the most beneficial place for you to
[2:01] start with anything
[2:02] or really to help you to be able to find
[2:05] that spot
[2:06] for yourself so first i want to
[2:09] have you know a couple of things
[2:12] you need to know what single issues are
[2:14] what collected editions are and also
[2:16] what a run
[2:17] is so really quick single issues this is
[2:20] a single issue of a manga but it is a
[2:21] single issue nonetheless
[2:23] these are published oftentimes monthly
[2:25] sometimes twice a month sometimes
[2:27] four times a month whatever the case is
[2:30] these magazines are about 20 pages long
[2:32] and there are longer ones as well and
[2:34] they collect the ongoing
[2:36] stories of whatever character it is that
[2:38] you're reading about
[2:39] and eventually these do get collected
[2:41] into paperback or hardcover editions
[2:44] now this is a standard paperback edition
[2:46] it just collects four issues
[2:48] it's nothing huge but most comics
[2:51] are collected at least in a standard
[2:54] paperback like this
[2:55] that collects a small number of those
[2:58] single issues
[2:59] typically this contains an entire arc so
[3:01] you can pick this up and have
[3:03] a decent story that has a beginning a
[3:05] middle and an end
[3:06] and there are also standard hardcover
[3:08] editions that often are the same as
[3:10] those standard paperback editions where
[3:12] these will just be a collection of a few
[3:14] issues that make up an arc
[3:15] but there are thicker ones of both of
[3:17] those formats as well that will collect
[3:18] you know a dozen or more issues
[3:20] um oftentimes collecting like larger
[3:22] chunks of a whole series
[3:24] and then there are oversized hard covers
[3:26] and oversized means the trim size is
[3:28] larger so it's taller and it is wider
[3:31] than one of those paperbacks or one of
[3:33] those hardcovers and oftentimes these
[3:35] will collect maybe a dozen to 18 issues
[3:38] and then beyond this there are larger
[3:40] editions such as an omnibus edition
[3:43] my name on here is the omnibus collector
[3:45] because i like to collect these omnibus
[3:47] editions
[3:48] now they are more expensive but they do
[3:50] collect a lot more material
[3:52] they can collect anywhere depending on
[3:54] how long a series is it can be
[3:56] i think small as 10 issues is one of the
[3:59] smallest ones
[4:00] and as large as 50 plus issues of
[4:02] material
[4:03] they are presented in the oversized
[4:05] format similar to the oversized editions
[4:08] and there are larger formats as well
[4:09] such as dark horses library editions
[4:11] or dc's absolute editions and many other
[4:14] formats for
[4:15] comics so now you have a basic
[4:16] understanding of collected editions and
[4:18] not
[4:18] everything is collected that's another
[4:20] important thing to note
[4:22] and the best way to find out what is
[4:25] collected especially for mainstream
[4:27] stuff from like marvel or dc
[4:30] is in my opinion the best resource is
[4:33] crushing comics.com my friend peter has
[4:36] been running that website for
[4:37] forever and he does guides on basically
[4:40] every major character so you can figure
[4:42] out
[4:43] what places are you know good jumping on
[4:45] points you can see what stories are
[4:47] collected what issues are not collected
[4:49] and whatever's not collected that way if
[4:51] you want to read everything you can seek
[4:52] out
[4:53] those single issues or maybe read them
[4:55] digitally and that brings me to another
[4:56] great point
[4:57] is reading digitally what type of apps
[4:59] are there that are out there
[5:01] because when it comes to manga we have
[5:02] stuff like the shonen jump app the viz
[5:04] media app the manga plus app and stuff
[5:06] like that
[5:07] and there are apps like this for comics
[5:09] now you can use comixology which
[5:11] basically you have to purchase
[5:12] digital single issues or digital
[5:14] collected editions and then read them
[5:16] through the app
[5:16] or you can use services like marvel
[5:19] unlimited or dc
[5:21] universe which have many of the stories
[5:23] published by those publishers
[5:25] available to read similar to the viz
[5:28] media app or the shonen jump app where
[5:29] you subscribe you pay a price per month
[5:32] and you have access to all that content
[5:34] now the next thing i want to help you
[5:35] understand is what is a run
[5:37] now a run on a comic is basically the
[5:40] the time that a certain creator or
[5:42] creative team
[5:43] spends working on that series now for
[5:46] instance i have grant morrison's batman
[5:48] omnibus
[5:48] and morrison worked on batman for an
[5:50] extended period of time
[5:51] now their batman run can be broken up
[5:53] into smaller arcs like batman and sun
[5:55] the black glove
[5:56] r.i.p but those are all pieces of their
[5:59] ongoing
[6:00] run there can be runs that are just a
[6:02] few issues long or you can have runs
[6:04] like chris claremont's initial run on
[6:06] the uncanny x-men that lasted for 17
[6:09] years now this is something that's
[6:10] different than manga
[6:12] if you're a manga reader usually there's
[6:15] not really runs
[6:16] a series begins under one creative team
[6:18] or one creator
[6:19] and it will stay with that team or
[6:21] creator until the end
[6:23] if you're interested in reading
[6:24] something like one piece
[6:26] and you say you know where do i start
[6:28] you start with volume one and you keep
[6:30] going from there
[6:31] but it's different for comics and the
[6:33] way that people will divide
[6:34] comics up and recommend is often going
[6:37] to be
[6:38] by the run and that's how i recommend
[6:40] stuff is by people's runs
[6:41] so if it comes to spider-man i might say
[6:44] oh you know my favorite runs on
[6:45] spider-man
[6:46] are the roger stern run the dan slot run
[6:49] right now nick spencer's run is is about
[6:51] to wrap up and there are
[6:53] manga that do have like spin-offs and
[6:55] stuff like i know you know you could be
[6:57] reading my hero academia
[6:58] and there are several spin-offs but for
[7:01] the most part manga are typically
[7:02] one series and it's pretty cut and dry
[7:04] how to read forward in that series which
[7:07] makes it hard for manga readers to start
[7:09] reading especially like superhero comics
[7:11] alright so now we have these terms out
[7:13] of the way you understand
[7:15] single issues collected editions how to
[7:16] read digitally what a run is and stuff
[7:18] like that
[7:19] and some of the differences between
[7:21] manga and comics
[7:22] now let's get to the meat of this video
[7:26] how do you start though where is the
[7:28] best place to start
[7:29] and like i said i want to help you to
[7:32] find out the best starting place
[7:34] for you so the best thing that you can
[7:36] do
[7:37] if you're just starting and reading
[7:38] comics you don't know anything about
[7:41] any creators or you know anywhere that
[7:44] you can start with certain stories
[7:46] first think about what are you
[7:48] interested in because you're probably
[7:50] wanting to read comics because
[7:52] you're already familiar with something
[7:53] maybe you're a big fan of the avengers
[7:55] movies or some batman cartoons or you
[7:58] played the spider-man video game on ps4
[8:00] and really loved it and whatever it is
[8:01] you'd like to
[8:02] see some of the source material where
[8:04] that comes from you're interested in
[8:06] diving in
[8:07] so you take whatever it is that you're
[8:08] interested in let's say you're a big fan
[8:10] of christopher nolan's batman movies and
[8:13] you can't wait for the new movie from
[8:14] matt reeves and you'd like to read some
[8:16] batman comics
[8:17] in preparation for this new movie so
[8:20] what i recommend doing
[8:21] is going online and searching just
[8:23] searching for the best batman comics or
[8:25] best batman stories
[8:27] greatest batman stories top 10 batman
[8:29] stories whatever you want to search
[8:31] search those great stories for that
[8:34] character that team
[8:35] we're using batman again as the example
[8:37] here and you're going to find a ton of
[8:39] different lists oftentimes they're going
[8:40] to be lists
[8:41] from websites you know big comic book
[8:43] websites like ign or cbr or news-a-rama
[8:46] stuff like that
[8:47] or you'll find individual people's blogs
[8:50] where they talk about their own opinions
[8:51] on what their favorite stories are or
[8:53] maybe people's youtube videos like my
[8:54] own
[8:55] where i talked about my favorite batman
[8:57] stories so
[8:58] look at or watch or read as many of
[9:01] these
[9:02] articles or videos as you can or as you
[9:04] want to
[9:06] and pay attention pay attention to the
[9:08] stories that are being brought up
[9:09] what stories are being brought up
[9:11] multiple times between multiple of these
[9:13] articles
[9:14] and also pay attention to what the
[9:16] stories are about
[9:17] and why they're being recommended really
[9:20] pay attention to
[9:21] what these stories are because that's
[9:22] how you're gonna see you know i don't
[9:23] expect you to go
[9:24] and read a list of you know the top 25
[9:27] batman stories and then
[9:29] read every single one of those 25
[9:31] stories but choose the ones that appeal
[9:33] to you the most that appeal to your
[9:35] tastes and then go with those
[9:37] and see why these people are
[9:38] recommending them see if that appeals to
[9:40] you go with those stories pick up a few
[9:42] of those
[9:42] read them and then we're going to expand
[9:44] from there so let's take a few examples
[9:46] of batman stories that come up
[9:48] really often on these top story lists so
[9:51] we have stuff like
[9:52] the death in the family or we also will
[9:55] often have
[9:56] morrison's arkham asylum another popular
[9:58] one that will come up a lot
[9:59] is going to be alan moore's killing joke
[10:02] and then one that's
[10:03] probably going to be on everyone's list
[10:04] is year one
[10:06] so let's take year one for instance you
[10:08] read year one and you
[10:10] really enjoyed it you really love this
[10:12] story now there's a couple things that
[10:13] you want to pay attention to when you're
[10:14] reading these stories
[10:15] take note of the things that you enjoy
[10:18] number one
[10:19] who's the writer and who's the artist
[10:21] pay attention to who the creators are on
[10:23] this book
[10:24] number two if this story has any other
[10:27] character aside from batman in it that
[10:29] you might be interested in
[10:30] take note of that and then number three
[10:32] if it is a story that's connected to the
[10:33] greater continuity of the universe that
[10:35] it takes place in
[10:36] take note of any stories that are
[10:38] referenced often there will be editor
[10:40] notes
[10:41] in the book maybe not so much in batman
[10:42] year one but a lot of times there will
[10:44] be editor notes that will tell you like
[10:46] oh do you want to see where this took
[10:47] place
[10:48] read this issue so that's how we start
[10:52] now you you chose some books you enjoyed
[10:55] those books
[10:56] and if it comes down to year one
[10:59] you're going to say okay well this was
[11:00] written by frank miller
[11:02] and it had artwork by david nazicelli
[11:05] frank miller and david mazzagchelli have
[11:07] done
[11:07] work elsewhere they teamed up together
[11:10] for a daredevil story
[11:11] called born again and it is one of the
[11:14] best stories over at marvel definitely
[11:16] my favorite story arc for daredevil
[11:19] it's just an amazing story so you
[11:21] enjoyed what they did with batman
[11:22] chances are you're also going to enjoy
[11:24] what they do
[11:25] with daredevil so go from batman year
[11:27] one
[11:28] and go pick up daredevil born again
[11:30] because chances are you enjoyed their
[11:32] work in one place you're gonna enjoy
[11:33] their work in another place
[11:35] now you've started to open your doors to
[11:37] another character entirely another
[11:39] franchise entirely because now
[11:41] you're reading daredevil now if if you
[11:43] find that you really enjoy the character
[11:44] of daredevil then you repeat the same
[11:46] step as before but instead of looking up
[11:49] the best batman stories
[11:51] start looking up lists for daredevil
[11:53] recommendations
[11:54] so for daredevil you might see that
[11:56] people recommend stuff
[11:57] like mark wade's run or brian bendis's
[12:00] run so let's say
[12:01] you decide to read mark wade's run
[12:03] because it looks like something that
[12:04] would appeal to you
[12:05] you read mark wade's run on daredevil
[12:07] and you really love that once again
[12:09] repeat this
[12:10] you see other books by mark wade mark
[12:12] wade has written
[12:13] black widow he's written captain america
[12:15] he's written all kinds of characters
[12:17] he's written the justice league go find
[12:18] some more mark wade books
[12:20] and it just keeps going from there this
[12:23] is in my opinion the best way
[12:26] to start getting into reading comics
[12:27] because this shows you that what's
[12:29] important
[12:29] is not always the character and while
[12:32] the character
[12:33] is important it's the writer and it's
[12:36] the artist these are the ones
[12:38] who are making this story enjoyable for
[12:41] you
[12:42] and so it's more important in my opinion
[12:44] to follow the creators
[12:46] in what they're doing rather than just
[12:47] looking at the characters
[12:50] so let's move back to those batman books
[12:52] so you read the killing joke and you
[12:54] really enjoy this story now there's a
[12:55] few things to take
[12:56] note of here number one the creative
[12:59] team once again
[13:00] we get alan moore and
[13:03] brian bolland so you can look up
[13:05] creations other works by moore and
[13:07] bolland
[13:08] together or separately and then who's
[13:11] involved with this story of course we
[13:12] have
[13:13] the joker so if you enjoyed the joker in
[13:15] this story then you might decide that
[13:16] you want to seek out other joker stories
[13:18] or maybe you enjoy seeing you know
[13:21] commissioner gordon or barbara gordon's
[13:22] parts
[13:23] in this story and you'd like to see more
[13:25] from them so then you decide
[13:27] well i really like the writing in that
[13:28] one i'd like to read more from alan
[13:30] moore
[13:30] so you look up best alan moore comics
[13:33] and you're gonna get a whole list
[13:35] because he's written
[13:36] so many things over his decades that
[13:38] he's been
[13:39] in the comics industry and of course
[13:40] you're gonna see stuff like watch men
[13:42] pop
[13:42] up and you'll jump into watchmen and
[13:44] read this and you might really love it
[13:46] and then there's more stuff from here
[13:47] you you see that dave gibbons was the
[13:50] artist here maybe you want to read more
[13:51] stuff that dave gibbons has worked on he
[13:53] worked on green lantern core
[13:55] or you can grab one of my favorite
[13:57] comics of all time
[13:58] swamp thing by alan moore and then you
[14:00] find that you really enjoy the character
[14:02] of swamp thing and you want to see what
[14:03] other swamp thing runs are recommended
[14:05] from there maybe you pick up the new 52
[14:06] run
[14:07] by scott snyder and you enjoyed his run
[14:09] on swamp thing so you want to read more
[14:11] by scott snyder so you read scott
[14:12] snyder's batman run
[14:13] which you might have seen pop up in some
[14:15] of those top batman story lists or maybe
[14:17] you decide to go with the charles soul
[14:19] run on swamp thing which was also part
[14:21] of the new 52 and you really enjoyed
[14:22] that
[14:23] so then you look for more stuff by
[14:24] charles sol and you see that he wrote
[14:26] the red lantern series he wrote the
[14:28] thunderbolts he wrote
[14:30] all kinds of stories this is a great way
[14:32] to really start introducing yourself
[14:34] to a large range of stories from
[14:38] all kinds of publishers for all kinds of
[14:40] characters from all kinds of creators
[14:42] and again you need to pay attention to
[14:44] those creators because they are the ones
[14:46] that are really going to inform your
[14:48] tastes
[14:49] and it's really a lot safer for you to
[14:52] say
[14:53] i enjoy the works of grant morrison so
[14:55] i'm going to pick up more grant morrison
[14:57] works rather than saying i really like
[14:59] batman so i'm just gonna grab more
[15:00] batman books
[15:01] because not every batman book is going
[15:04] to appeal to you even if you're a huge
[15:06] fan of batman and they don't need to
[15:07] because they're written for different
[15:08] people
[15:09] but if you're a big fan of what morrison
[15:11] did on batman
[15:12] then you might go from there and say
[15:14] well i also want to read more more since
[15:16] i'm going to pick up doom patrol animal
[15:18] man
[15:18] and countless other stories by morrison
[15:21] so it's a very
[15:22] simple tactic but it's one that i think
[15:25] is extremely effective
[15:27] in really helping people to
[15:30] be able to help themselves i think in
[15:34] reading comics and in starting to
[15:36] explore the comics medium
[15:38] and the cool thing is that this is not
[15:40] just going to
[15:41] be relegated to marvel and dc because as
[15:44] you go forward and you read more books
[15:46] by different creators
[15:48] you're going to start finding that these
[15:50] creators you enjoy
[15:51] have also written work outside of these
[15:54] larger universes
[15:55] for instance maybe you're interested in
[15:57] reading fantastic four and one of the
[15:59] recommended runs that seems really
[16:01] enjoyable to you
[16:02] is jonathan hickman's which these
[16:04] omnibus editions are getting reprinted
[16:06] soon so it'd be a nice time to jump in
[16:07] on that run
[16:08] and so you choose to look at jonathan
[16:10] hickman's run and you really enjoy his
[16:12] writing and you find out that
[16:13] he's actually done a lot of work outside
[16:15] of marvel
[16:17] over at image and you might want to pick
[16:18] up his series east of west
[16:20] and this is a self-contained series over
[16:22] an image that has a beginning middle and
[16:24] end but you might be turned on to the
[16:26] artist nick dragada who's done a lot of
[16:28] work elsewhere
[16:28] or maybe you check out the series
[16:30] manhattan projects by jonathan nickman
[16:32] so it just opens all these doors to
[16:35] trying out these creators and it can
[16:36] send you through to other publishers and
[16:39] from those other publishers maybe you
[16:40] find that you really enjoy the style of
[16:42] stories that are written over at image
[16:44] so you start expanding and wanting to
[16:45] read more stuff from image even if it's
[16:47] not
[16:47] from a creator that you're already
[16:49] familiar with like joshua williamson's
[16:51] nail biter
[16:52] or margaery lou's monstrous and both of
[16:54] those creators
[16:55] have done comics over at marvel and dc
[16:58] so it just brings you right back into
[17:00] that
[17:00] and then maybe you read marjorie liu's
[17:02] work with x23
[17:04] and decide that you would like to read
[17:05] more of that character and expand from
[17:06] there and check out tom taylor's all-new
[17:08] wolverine
[17:09] it's a never-ending cycle you will never
[17:11] run out of material to get
[17:13] and you're really just curating your own
[17:15] tastes that way and
[17:16] feeding to yourself in in further being
[17:19] able to find
[17:20] things that basically you know that
[17:22] you're going to enjoy or you can be
[17:23] confident that you're going to enjoy
[17:25] now this video is basically the crux of
[17:28] a series of videos that i'm going to do
[17:30] getting into various comics and various
[17:32] franchise
[17:33] this is my advice on how to start and i
[17:36] think that it's the perfect advice for
[17:37] anyone who's not
[17:38] into comics specifically mainstream
[17:41] marvel and dc comics
[17:42] but you might be into other media like
[17:45] manga
[17:46] or maybe you watch a lot of tv or movies
[17:48] and stuff like that because
[17:49] this is a way to kind of help you to get
[17:52] past those preconceived notions that we
[17:54] mentioned at the beginning of the video
[17:56] where you're no longer thinking there
[17:57] has to be one beginning
[17:59] and one middle and one end to every
[18:02] series to every team or anything like
[18:04] that
[18:04] but i'm going to be creating more videos
[18:06] that kind of work in conjunction with
[18:08] this
[18:09] and what i'm going to do from here is to
[18:11] talk about different
[18:12] characters different teams different
[18:15] series different creators
[18:16] to help you to try and get into that
[18:18] stuff more easily now i've already done
[18:20] one of these videos basically for batman
[18:22] and i was planning on doing one for the
[18:24] x-men as well
[18:26] but i felt like i needed to do this
[18:27] video first to expand on kind of
[18:30] how to get into stuff like the x-men
[18:32] before actually talking about
[18:34] the x-men franchise because it's such a
[18:36] grand one so
[18:37] if you liked this video if you enjoyed
[18:39] what i had to say here and if this
[18:41] advice was helpful for you at all and i
[18:42] really hope that it was
[18:44] please subscribe to this channel if you
[18:45] haven't already and stay tuned for those
[18:47] upcoming videos
[18:48] i will be trying to put those out as
[18:50] frequently as i can and if there's any
[18:52] characters or teams or maybe even
[18:54] creators that you'd like to see me
[18:56] work on these videos for i already have
[18:58] a list of ideas that i'm moving forth
[19:00] with
[19:01] but please comment down below to let me
[19:03] know
[19:04] which of those you would like to see me
[19:06] talk about that you would like some help
[19:08] with
[19:08] so thank you so much for spending this
[19:10] time with me i hope this video was
[19:11] entertaining
[19:12] and that it was informative and let me
[19:14] know what character or what franchise
[19:16] that you are most interested in starting
[19:19] to read
[19:20] see on the next one peace out