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A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

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Criminal Comics Reading Order

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In 2006, comics creators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips launched Criminal via Icon Comics (Marvel’s creator-owned Vertigo-esque publication imprint that ran for about a decade). The duo had previously collaborated on the critically acclaimed 24 issues of Sleeper set in DC’s Wildstorm Universe, and each had a strong reputation just shy of comics superstardom. Phillips was likely most well-known for Marvel Zombies (no disrespect to his decade of Vertigo work!), while Brubaker was fresh off “The Winter Soldier” saga in the pages of Captain America.

The following year, Criminal would win the Eisner Award for best new comics series (one of three the title has earned all time), and Brubaker and Phillips were on their way to the most respected, consistent creative collaboration of the entire 2000s. Though Criminal went more or less on hiatus following 2011, the series returned in 2018 (or 2019 depending on your math) and is kicking out great graphic novels 20 years after starting. Plus, as I write this, the Amazon Prime TV adaptation of the work is well underway. [Read more…] about Criminal Comics Reading Order

Spider-Man Noir Comics Reading Order

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Fans of Spider-Man Noir, aka “The Spider,” aka “Voiced/Acted by Nicolas Cage,” are most likely to have fallen for the crime-noir version of Spidey via Into the Spider-Verse or (if you’re like me) the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions video game where Noir was one of the four playable dimensions (alongside Amazing Spider-Man classic, 2099, and the Ultimate Universe). There’s not an especially deep comics history beyond those adaptations, but as always, the story does start in Marvel Comics, and I’ve put together a guide to all the Spider-Man noir comics!

The Spider-Man noir comics are set in an alternate Marvel Universe (Earth-90214) and the stories begin in the early 1930s during The Great Depression. Some great comparative 1930s noir reading here would be Dashiel Hammet’s Red Harvest (inspiration for the Coen Brother’s Blood Simple) and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.

Likewise, if you just want the best noir comics in the game, check out Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Criminal!

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Something is Killing the Children (Slaughterverse Comics) Reading Order!

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James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera, and Miquel Muerto launched Something is Killing the Children via BOOM! Studios in 2019, and it has since gone on to become one of the most successful independent comics of the 2020s. I know my local comic shop’s best selling graphic novel and trade list always features several volumes of Something is Killing the Children right at the top next to the likes of Absolute Batman, DC’s Compact Classics or Ultimate Spider-Man. The world full of monster-hunting Houses of trained assassins combines the visual stylings of modern American comics with the pacing and structure of 2000s manga to reach a stratosphere of sales that’s allowed for 50 consecutively published issues (an extremely rare feat in the 2020s). Plus, uh, Erica Slaughter’s mask is really, really cool.

The success has allowed Tynion IV and team to launch spinoffs like House of Slaughter and the Books of Slaughter, not to mention a Blumhouse production TV series in the works and a 2026 launch on Webtoon. But as so often happens with long-running comics, the more spread out the universe (or Slaughterverse) becomes, the more challenging it is to puzzle the order together. I’ve pieced together all the available trades and graphic novels that are available, so you have a complete reading order for all published comics. [Read more…] about Something is Killing the Children (Slaughterverse Comics) Reading Order!