How to Start Reading Comics - A Beginners Guide

[00:00] getting into reading comics can be

[00:02] really daunting and difficult

[00:03] but let me help you with this guide stay

[00:07] [Music]

[00:14] tuned

[00:20] i know how confusing it can be to start

[00:23] reading comics

[00:25] and that's something that needs to be

[00:26] acknowledged first and foremost

[00:28] when trying to help people out there's a

[00:31] lot of confusion because there are so

[00:33] many characters especially when we're

[00:35] talking about

[00:35] mainstream comics like spider-man or

[00:37] batman that existed for decades and have

[00:40] just thousands upon thousands of

[00:42] different comics

[00:44] and someone who has no idea about how

[00:46] comics work

[00:47] is probably gonna look at that and say

[00:49] okay well i'd like to start spider-man

[00:51] but i don't know where because

[00:52] there are so many different series

[00:54] amazing spider-man web of spider-man

[00:55] spectacular spider-man spider-man

[00:57] and each of them has multiple number

[00:59] ones do i have to go all the way back to

[01:00] the 60s

[01:02] or where where can i start i don't know

[01:03] what to do it's confusing and i know

[01:06] that and the thing is that you have to

[01:08] kind of understand a few things before

[01:09] you get into comics

[01:11] so that it's less confusing when you

[01:13] start actually diving in

[01:15] now the first thing that i have to do is

[01:17] to dispel the notion

[01:19] that there is a perfect starting point

[01:22] for any character or team or franchise

[01:25] because there's not

[01:27] the perfect starting point is really

[01:29] wherever you want to start

[01:31] whatever works best for you and that's

[01:33] what i'm here to kind of help you to try

[01:35] and find

[01:36] is your perfect starting point for any

[01:38] character or

[01:39] team or franchise because you can start

[01:42] with any single issue you could grab an

[01:45] issue out of nowhere of

[01:46] any series any comic any character

[01:49] and start right there and just expand

[01:52] from that

[01:53] story but that might not be the most

[01:55] beneficial place to start and that's

[01:57] what i kind of want to help is to find

[01:59] the most beneficial place for you to

[02:01] start with anything

[02:02] or really to help you to be able to find

[02:05] that spot

[02:06] for yourself so first i want to

[02:09] have you know a couple of things

[02:12] you need to know what single issues are

[02:14] what collected editions are and also

[02:16] what a run

[02:17] is so really quick single issues this is

[02:20] a single issue of a manga but it is a

[02:21] single issue nonetheless

[02:23] these are published oftentimes monthly

[02:25] sometimes twice a month sometimes

[02:27] four times a month whatever the case is

[02:30] these magazines are about 20 pages long

[02:32] and there are longer ones as well and

[02:34] they collect the ongoing

[02:36] stories of whatever character it is that

[02:38] you're reading about

[02:39] and eventually these do get collected

[02:41] into paperback or hardcover editions

[02:44] now this is a standard paperback edition

[02:46] it just collects four issues

[02:48] it's nothing huge but most comics

[02:51] are collected at least in a standard

[02:54] paperback like this

[02:55] that collects a small number of those

[02:58] single issues

[02:59] typically this contains an entire arc so

[03:01] you can pick this up and have

[03:03] a decent story that has a beginning a

[03:05] middle and an end

[03:06] and there are also standard hardcover

[03:08] editions that often are the same as

[03:10] those standard paperback editions where

[03:12] these will just be a collection of a few

[03:14] issues that make up an arc

[03:15] but there are thicker ones of both of

[03:17] those formats as well that will collect

[03:18] you know a dozen or more issues

[03:20] um oftentimes collecting like larger

[03:22] chunks of a whole series

[03:24] and then there are oversized hard covers

[03:26] and oversized means the trim size is

[03:28] larger so it's taller and it is wider

[03:31] than one of those paperbacks or one of

[03:33] those hardcovers and oftentimes these

[03:35] will collect maybe a dozen to 18 issues

[03:38] and then beyond this there are larger

[03:40] editions such as an omnibus edition

[03:43] my name on here is the omnibus collector

[03:45] because i like to collect these omnibus

[03:47] editions

[03:48] now they are more expensive but they do

[03:50] collect a lot more material

[03:52] they can collect anywhere depending on

[03:54] how long a series is it can be

[03:56] i think small as 10 issues is one of the

[03:59] smallest ones

[04:00] and as large as 50 plus issues of

[04:02] material

[04:03] they are presented in the oversized

[04:05] format similar to the oversized editions

[04:08] and there are larger formats as well

[04:09] such as dark horses library editions

[04:11] or dc's absolute editions and many other

[04:14] formats for

[04:15] comics so now you have a basic

[04:16] understanding of collected editions and

[04:18] not

[04:18] everything is collected that's another

[04:20] important thing to note

[04:22] and the best way to find out what is

[04:25] collected especially for mainstream

[04:27] stuff from like marvel or dc

[04:30] is in my opinion the best resource is

[04:33] crushing comics.com my friend peter has

[04:36] been running that website for

[04:37] forever and he does guides on basically

[04:40] every major character so you can figure

[04:42] out

[04:43] what places are you know good jumping on

[04:45] points you can see what stories are

[04:47] collected what issues are not collected

[04:49] and whatever's not collected that way if

[04:51] you want to read everything you can seek

[04:52] out

[04:53] those single issues or maybe read them

[04:55] digitally and that brings me to another

[04:56] great point

[04:57] is reading digitally what type of apps

[04:59] are there that are out there

[05:01] because when it comes to manga we have

[05:02] stuff like the shonen jump app the viz

[05:04] media app the manga plus app and stuff

[05:06] like that

[05:07] and there are apps like this for comics

[05:09] now you can use comixology which

[05:11] basically you have to purchase

[05:12] digital single issues or digital

[05:14] collected editions and then read them

[05:16] through the app

[05:16] or you can use services like marvel

[05:19] unlimited or dc

[05:21] universe which have many of the stories

[05:23] published by those publishers

[05:25] available to read similar to the viz

[05:28] media app or the shonen jump app where

[05:29] you subscribe you pay a price per month

[05:32] and you have access to all that content

[05:34] now the next thing i want to help you

[05:35] understand is what is a run

[05:37] now a run on a comic is basically the

[05:40] the time that a certain creator or

[05:42] creative team

[05:43] spends working on that series now for

[05:46] instance i have grant morrison's batman

[05:48] omnibus

[05:48] and morrison worked on batman for an

[05:50] extended period of time

[05:51] now their batman run can be broken up

[05:53] into smaller arcs like batman and sun

[05:55] the black glove

[05:56] r.i.p but those are all pieces of their

[05:59] ongoing

[06:00] run there can be runs that are just a

[06:02] few issues long or you can have runs

[06:04] like chris claremont's initial run on

[06:06] the uncanny x-men that lasted for 17

[06:09] years now this is something that's

[06:10] different than manga

[06:12] if you're a manga reader usually there's

[06:15] not really runs

[06:16] a series begins under one creative team

[06:18] or one creator

[06:19] and it will stay with that team or

[06:21] creator until the end

[06:23] if you're interested in reading

[06:24] something like one piece

[06:26] and you say you know where do i start

[06:28] you start with volume one and you keep

[06:30] going from there

[06:31] but it's different for comics and the

[06:33] way that people will divide

[06:34] comics up and recommend is often going

[06:37] to be

[06:38] by the run and that's how i recommend

[06:40] stuff is by people's runs

[06:41] so if it comes to spider-man i might say

[06:44] oh you know my favorite runs on

[06:45] spider-man

[06:46] are the roger stern run the dan slot run

[06:49] right now nick spencer's run is is about

[06:51] to wrap up and there are

[06:53] manga that do have like spin-offs and

[06:55] stuff like i know you know you could be

[06:57] reading my hero academia

[06:58] and there are several spin-offs but for

[07:01] the most part manga are typically

[07:02] one series and it's pretty cut and dry

[07:04] how to read forward in that series which

[07:07] makes it hard for manga readers to start

[07:09] reading especially like superhero comics

[07:11] alright so now we have these terms out

[07:13] of the way you understand

[07:15] single issues collected editions how to

[07:16] read digitally what a run is and stuff

[07:18] like that

[07:19] and some of the differences between

[07:21] manga and comics

[07:22] now let's get to the meat of this video

[07:26] how do you start though where is the

[07:28] best place to start

[07:29] and like i said i want to help you to

[07:32] find out the best starting place

[07:34] for you so the best thing that you can

[07:36] do

[07:37] if you're just starting and reading

[07:38] comics you don't know anything about

[07:41] any creators or you know anywhere that

[07:44] you can start with certain stories

[07:46] first think about what are you

[07:48] interested in because you're probably

[07:50] wanting to read comics because

[07:52] you're already familiar with something

[07:53] maybe you're a big fan of the avengers

[07:55] movies or some batman cartoons or you

[07:58] played the spider-man video game on ps4

[08:00] and really loved it and whatever it is

[08:01] you'd like to

[08:02] see some of the source material where

[08:04] that comes from you're interested in

[08:06] diving in

[08:07] so you take whatever it is that you're

[08:08] interested in let's say you're a big fan

[08:10] of christopher nolan's batman movies and

[08:13] you can't wait for the new movie from

[08:14] matt reeves and you'd like to read some

[08:16] batman comics

[08:17] in preparation for this new movie so

[08:20] what i recommend doing

[08:21] is going online and searching just

[08:23] searching for the best batman comics or

[08:25] best batman stories

[08:27] greatest batman stories top 10 batman

[08:29] stories whatever you want to search

[08:31] search those great stories for that

[08:34] character that team

[08:35] we're using batman again as the example

[08:37] here and you're going to find a ton of

[08:39] different lists oftentimes they're going

[08:40] to be lists

[08:41] from websites you know big comic book

[08:43] websites like ign or cbr or news-a-rama

[08:46] stuff like that

[08:47] or you'll find individual people's blogs

[08:50] where they talk about their own opinions

[08:51] on what their favorite stories are or

[08:53] maybe people's youtube videos like my

[08:54] own

[08:55] where i talked about my favorite batman

[08:57] stories so

[08:58] look at or watch or read as many of

[09:01] these

[09:02] articles or videos as you can or as you

[09:04] want to

[09:06] and pay attention pay attention to the

[09:08] stories that are being brought up

[09:09] what stories are being brought up

[09:11] multiple times between multiple of these

[09:13] articles

[09:14] and also pay attention to what the

[09:16] stories are about

[09:17] and why they're being recommended really

[09:20] pay attention to

[09:21] what these stories are because that's

[09:22] how you're gonna see you know i don't

[09:23] expect you to go

[09:24] and read a list of you know the top 25

[09:27] batman stories and then

[09:29] read every single one of those 25

[09:31] stories but choose the ones that appeal

[09:33] to you the most that appeal to your

[09:35] tastes and then go with those

[09:37] and see why these people are

[09:38] recommending them see if that appeals to

[09:40] you go with those stories pick up a few

[09:42] of those

[09:42] read them and then we're going to expand

[09:44] from there so let's take a few examples

[09:46] of batman stories that come up

[09:48] really often on these top story lists so

[09:51] we have stuff like

[09:52] the death in the family or we also will

[09:55] often have

[09:56] morrison's arkham asylum another popular

[09:58] one that will come up a lot

[09:59] 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