My Bounty, Feast Upon It

By Jen O.

These are my spoils from Mother’s Day.  Bossypants, the Game Of Thrones boxed set, and Y: The Last Man Deluxe Edition, Book One.  Also Smarties and Toffifee and a certificate and some beautiful artwork and a princess house made from a shoebox that Avery made for herself about six months ago, but I’m not supposed to know that.  The certificate says “My Mom is special because she reads to me and she helqs me ried my biek,” which is a 100% true story.

I’ve only just decided that I like comics.  I mean, I’ve always read comics, of the back-of-the-paper variety, a few dailies online, and that sort of thing, but until recently, I hadn’t read an actual comic book.  And then one day, after watching this season’s The Walking Dead, I wanted to know more.  I wanted to KNOW ALL OF THE THINGS.  I wanted to know who Michonne was and why her appearance was so significant.  I wanted to know what happens next.  I wanted to know what parts they’d left out and what parts they’d stayed true.  So I bought the first Compendium.  One thousand and eighty-eight pages worth of comics.  And you know what?  I really dig comics.  I know I’ve only read a portion of one series and that hardly makes me any sort of expert…so I’m going to read more.  I didn’t know how I’d feel about reading a book with pictures, but I love the format and I’m going to continue to find stories and series’ that interest me and sort of get into this comic book thing.

It’s because of the same curiosity that I had about The Walking Dead that I asked for the Game Of Thrones series.  I want to know more.  I want to compare and contrast and learn what they haven’t told us.  I also want to read Fire In The Hole by Elmore Leonard, which is the short story that inspired Justified, and the Southern Vampire Mysteries,which brought us True Blood.

And…um…Bossypants because I love Tina Fey and I heard it was good.  I actually rarely read biographies, but I thought I’d make an exception for Tina.

I can’t think of a better Mother’s Day gift than a book and I got six.  It was a good day.  When I woke up, a little late, I was presented with my bounty and serenaded with Happy Mother’s Day to the tune of Happy Birthday by my two adorable chitlins.  But then we spent the rest of the day doing hard manual labour, just like the day before.  I baked for the entire morning, then ran around frantically getting the house ready to host dinner, and assisted AH in assembling the World’s Shoddiest Patio Set (brand new).  And then I collapsed in a heap of exhaustion.  Ahahahahhaahah, just kidding.  I actually stayed awake for thewhoooooolenight thinking because apparently I don’t need sleep anymore.  It’s my super power.  Every mother needs one.

***

What I require from you (homework time!): Help me get started in this comic adventure.  What should I read next?  I have Fables in my Amazon wishlist because it looks pretty awesome.  What else?  I’m hesitant to read the typical Marvel/DC comics because they’ve been around for so long that I think it would take me a lifetime to catch up thoroughly.  But what else can you suggest?  Enquiring minds want to know.

23 thoughts on “My Bounty, Feast Upon It”

  1. Bossypants = great read. But the homemade gifts are the best…even better than chocolate 😉 Well, if you could get your kids to make homemade chocolate, then you’ll have pretty much reached an apex of awesomeness.

  2. So DC has recently undergone a reboot which makes it very accessible to new comers. I recommend the reboot of Batman which is excellent. For Marvel Runaways is very good. Another good DC property is Sandman. Walking Dead is excellent and all available in trade form plus it still has new issues coming out.

    • Oh, really? Well, maybe I’ll check out some of the reboots. I also can’t wait for the second Walking Dead compendium, which I think comes out in December.

  3. Because you demanded it:

    Preacher: a tale of a superpowered preacher and his quest to find God. Along for the ride? His best friend: a d-bag vampire.
    Sandman: If you want, you could skip the first book, because it was when Gaiman tried to tie into the DC Universe. A lovely, touching read.
    Daytripper: I just finished this and loved it. A story of love, life and death, told through the most important days of one man’s life.

    Fables and Y: The Last Man are both delicious, so you will likely love them.

    If you want some superheroes, then try:
    The Dark Knight Returns: if only to find out where Chris Nolan got most of his inspiration from.
    Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?: Written by Alan Moore, maybe the best Superman story ever told. Aside from his Supreme mini-series.
    Animal Man: Grant Morrison just starting to figure out how he was going to write. Kind of meta, sort of great.

    Enjoy! There is so much great stuff out there and collected, you should have a lot of fun.

    • Thanks! Sandman is also on my wishlist and I was thinking about Preacher, too, so I’ll add that as well.

      I’m glad to hear the positive review of Y and Fables, to know I made a good choice for a jump-off point.

  4. Nice!!

    I am slowly making my way through the Y: The Last Man series. Read the Sandman series and everything else by Neil Gaiman! And I love Elmore Leonard. Enjoy your reading! 🙂

  5. Did you love Buffy? Because Season 8 and 9 in comic form are pretty kick-ass. You can get them in nifty omnibuses (?) omnibi (?) onmigeese (?) which is my preference. I never manage to get them all as they come out, so I like to wait and buy something book sized. Also, Locke and Key – great googly moogly, Locke and Key. Joe Hill. I wish he would marry me.

  6. I bought The Wife “Bossypants” for Christmas. She read the entire thing in 11 hours this Sunday, on Mother’s Day, while I had the kids out of the house all day. Apparently it was good. :o)

  7. It’s finished its run but I really dug Strangers in Paradise by Terry…something or other. Also, I loved the Zatanna series from DC but they dropped that as when the rebooted DCU and I think that I’m still bitter about that one. My daughter loves Tiny Titans and the new supergirl – Cosmic adventures in the 8th grade.

  9. Smarties… yummmmm… My fave comic (comics?) is Mafalda. It’s actually Spanish but has been translated to so many languages. She’s a cool little girl, she hates soup but has a this brilliant circle of friends. It’s simplistic but deep. If that makes any sense?

    I think you’d love her and her stories. I asked Wiki to help me describe her to you and this is what it offered: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafalda

  10. Another (yes, late) recommendation for Sandman. I’m going to suggest not skipping Preludes and Nocturnes though. Now I want to read them all over again….

  11. Bossypants is a good book, and you’ll now know things about the SNL crew that maybe you wish you didn’t. 😉 I was surprised to find that I actually liked “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” even better. And I don’t even watch The Office. I know. You may commence stoning now.

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