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Starting Batman

post #1 of 6
6/7/09 at 1:30am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I know. I was never really big into any of the superhero comics while growing up save for X-Men here and there. Sue me.

I've already checked out the few most commonly recommended Bats graphic novels (Year One, DKR, Killing Joke) - but where should I start with the actual comic itself?

Thanks in advance for any advice/chastisement.
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post #2 of 6
6/7/09 at 1:36am
Batman in the Eighties is the best widely-available collection. It's a good collection of in-continuity, not-too-old stories with a nice mix of artists and flavours! And because it's '80s stories, they were all produced before the rot set it.

In terms of Batman comics, you can't go wrong with anything between, say, 1977 and 1995. DC and Batman managed to mostly avoid the horrors that haunted early-90s comics.
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post #3 of 6
6/7/09 at 1:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Yeah, I know. I was never really big into any of the superhero comics while growing up save for X-Men here and there. Sue me.

I've already checked out the few most commonly recommended Bats graphic novels (Year One, DKR, Killing Joke) - but where should I start with the actual comic itself?

Thanks in advance for any advice/chastisement.
You didn't mention Arkham Asylum (Grant Morrison/Dave McKean), so I would make that your next read. Lots of people like The Long Halloween, but that one never did much for me, aside from the Tim Sale art.

But if you are looking to get actual individual back issues, I would check out the Legends of the Dark Knight series from the '90s. The entire run is composed of two- to four-part stories interspersed with one-shots, all of which are blessedly free of continuity, standing apart from the other books. The other series I would highly, highlu recommend (even though Batman is not the main player) is Gotham Central. I know it's not technically what you're asking for, but it's basically Homicide: Life on the Street in Gotham City. You get to see Batman through the eyes of average beat cops and street detectives.

To get an overall sense of each of periods in the character's history, you could do worse than The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. Might be out of print, but you could probably score it for cheap on eBay or Amazon.
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post #4 of 6
6/7/09 at 3:01am
The "Prey" arc from Legends of the Dark Knight is a kinky little follow-up to Year One. And they probably read cheesy now, but the Marshall Rogers/Steve Englehart run from the 70s is decent fun.

Swamp Thing #53, which pits Batman against Swamp Thing in a double-sized issue, is one of my favorites.
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post #5 of 6
6/7/09 at 3:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Yeah, I know. I was never really big into any of the superhero comics while growing up save for X-Men here and there. Sue me.

I've already checked out the few most commonly recommended Bats graphic novels (Year One, DKR, Killing Joke) - but where should I start with the actual comic itself?

Thanks in advance for any advice/chastisement.
Pick up Detective Comics # 27 on E-Bay, and go from there.
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post #6 of 6
6/15/09 at 3:11pm
The Batman Chronicles are well worth reading...and at 15 bucks a volume good value. So far there are Seven volumes reprinting every Batman Story from Dec 27 in 1939 throught early 1942. Aside from the Detective and Batman magazines, it also reprints the Solo Batman stories from World's Finests.
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