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Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

reading orders

Miracleman (Marvelman) Comics Reading Order

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Back in my day, you had to really WORK if you wanted to read Miracleman (or Marvelman if you’re nasty!). This comic was the lost work of Alan Moore (aside from, you know, the actual lost work of something like Big Numbers with Bill Sienkiewicz… but that’s another story!), horribly entangled in legal battles and badly out of print collected editions. If you wanted to read Moore and artist Gary Leach’s superhero subversion, you had to dig, man. Both ways! In the snow!

Then Marvel Comics found a loophole to acquire the license to Miracleman in the 2010s (Disney money/lawyers rise up!), and suddenly the long lost comics classic was not so lost. Even with the wrinkle that Alan Moore has long since distanced himself from corporate reprints of his licensed works (in probably the weirdest credits fact in comics, Marvel has to refer to Moore as ‘The Original Writer’), now you can pretty easily collect the entire Miracleman saga. Kids these days! They’ll never learn the value of a dusty old longbox at a comic con! [Read more…] about Miracleman (Marvelman) Comics Reading Order

Big Nate Reading Order

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Never in my life did I anticipate Lincoln Peirce’s Big Nate would become one of the best-selling series of kids graphic novels, and a personal favorite of my son throughout first, second and third grade! As a young strapping lad, I churned the butter, kindled the fire, and used the outhouse while reading Big Nate as a comic strip alongside Peanuts, Pickles and Dilbert (I’m still trying to untangle how Dilbert became preposterously popular among my 5th grade friends in the late 90s, but that’s a story for another time). This isn’t a knock on Peirce or Big Nate – I just never guessed the strip would re-enter my life 20+ years later as an absolute comics juggernaut!

The Big Nate comic strip debuted in 1991 and enjoyed plenty of success before really exploding to another level when Peirce released the first Big Nate novelization in 2010. This means new readers effectively have the choice to start with the classic comic strips, or with a series of illustrated chapter books, a la the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. While I’m loathe to recommend literally anything over comics, the 8 book novel series (which, let’s be real, is also full of comics broken up by slightly longer blocks of text) is a more focused narrative with a clearer sense of building off the previous volume. The comic strips are very easily accessible, but more in the model of Calvin and Hobbes where virtually any strip could be your first because that was the daily newspaper environment they were working in (newspapers, kids, are like TikToks that we printed out and then used to wrap Christmas presents). For most kids, whether they start with the novels or comics, once they get a taste of Big Nate’s world, they’re going to want to hop between formats to laugh at more.

Regardless of your approach, Nate Wright’s 6th grade antics are a highly entertaining way to encourage a 6 to 11 year old audience to read more. Plus, there are now animated TV series and a musical. Below you’ll find a complete guide to the world of Big Nate, from novels to graphic novels to comic strips to Lincoln Peirce written fantasy comics! [Read more…] about Big Nate Reading Order

Demon Days Universe (Peach Momoko) Reading Order

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Peach Momoko is one of the most popular cover artists now, thanks to her distinct and almost dream-like style inspired by horror and Japanese cinema. In 2021, Momoko also filled the insides of comics with her watercolors in the “Momomo-verse,” starting with Demon Days: X-Men #1. Its premise is to create a new Marvel universe, but more inspired by Yokai stories and Japanese folktales, creating new versions of popular characters and transporting them to different settings.

As of 2023, the Momoko-verse has two main stories: Demon Days and Demon Wars. Each has a character called Mariko as the protagonist. She is a new character created by Momoko who suddenly finds herself between the world of humans and Yokai. That’ll bring changes to her own life but also to many others.

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The Essential Galactus Reading Order!

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I’ve been thinking about it for a hot ten minutes now, and you’d be hardpressed to find a more famous hungry character than Galactus. The cosmic planet eater created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee is right up there with Scooby and Shaggy, Kobayashi, and Garfield for famous personas revolving around eating.

Of course, Galactus has plenty more going for him, starring in arguably the first Marvel Comics event, and functioning as the center of the entire Marvel Cosmic universe for decades since the Silver Age. Galactus inevitably brings a presence – and yes, a hunger – to any story, enhancing the stakes and consistently taking traditional “beat ’em up!” solutions off the table. [Read more…] about The Essential Galactus Reading Order!