Comics seem so confusing! Where do I start?
In today’s age, you’re probably more than familiar with the average comic book superhero. With what seems like a new superhero movie coming out every other day, it’s hard to not be at least somewhat acquainted with the likes of Spider-Man or Batman. And yet, there seems to be a growing consensus that the source material for these projects is quite hard for newcomers to get into. Even long-time comic fans have started talking about the comic book industry’s poor organization methods, and how confusing it all must be for newcomers. If you’re finding yourself lost every time you walk into a comic store, or are having trouble finding a starting point for your character of interest, let me be your guide, and allow this article to serve as your Beginner’s Guide to Comics. We’ll start off by going over the different formats you’ll find in stores, identify common problems and terminology that newcomers face, and follow up with some advice and recommendations that’ll help you start reading all the greatest stories of your favorite characters.
How Do I Start Reading?
Comics exist in many forms. The most common formats you’ll see in stores are Single Issues and Trade Paperbacks. Single issue comics are usually about 30 page stories or pieces of larger stories, with about 10 or so of those pages being used for advertisements. Often these will be smaller portions of a larger story, like chapters in a novel. These single issues release around once a month, starting with “Issue #1” and continuing on with monthly additions until the end of the intended storyline. Sometimes a story will start and end in the same single issue. These are referred to as One-Shots.
Now, you might be thinking “That seems simple enough,” but before you go and pick up a handful of them at the store, it’s worth noting a few reasons why single issues may not be the ideal reading experience for a comic newcomer. To start off, let’s go back to that monthly release schedule. On average, you’re only getting a small portion of a full story around every 30 or so days. Sometimes, it won’t be a large enough piece of the story to hold your interest during that waiting period
However, single issues are quite good for the more devoted comic fans. Not only do they allow them to experience these episodes of new stories as soon as they become available, but variant covers (issues of comics with alternate and varying cover page artwork) make for great collectibles. A new reader is likely to get a lot more out of a trade paperback.
Trade paperbacks collect pages of at least around 6 single issues into one book (excluding ads) and are organized into volumes, instead of issues, with the volume number displayed on the spine and/or cover. Not only are paperbacks more cost effective, with more story to experience than your average single issue, but they also have spine printing, allowing you to properly display them on your shelf for all to see. If you feel like you’re missing out on all the cool art and variant covers of single-issues, trade paperbacks almost always come with an art gallery of the covers and variants of all collected issues in the back of the book, sometimes even including concept art!
There isn’t much more to say on TP’s, but if you feel like there isn’t enough of the story included in a given TP, you’ll want to take a look at Omnibuses and Compendiums. Omnibuses and compendiums are simply larger collections of the aforementioned single issues. Rather than collecting about 6-10 of your average trade paperbacks, you’ll often end up with over 30 included issues per volume. That’s about 600+ pages of comic book greatness! While you definitely have to watch your wallet when buying these, if you enjoy the story, you won’t regret picking them up!
Digital comics are also available in many forms. Apps such as Marvel Unlimited, or Comixology will allow you to read comics in a format similar to single issues and trade paperbacks, only digitally. Webcomics and Webtoons are also great ways to start reading. Webcomics and Webtoons are online comics posted anywhere on the internet, with the intention of being read on a personal computer or smartphone device. These are often fan comics of bigger properties or even indie projects, but some larger companies like DC Comics are even starting to publish official webtoons of their characters!
I feel like I’m missing some context…
Oftentimes, even when you pick issue 1 or volume 1 of a series featuring popular comic book characters, you might find yourself a bit lost as the characters mention things that haven’t happened in the series you’re reading. Unfortunately, this is one of the unavoidable downsides of most big-name characters being 60, sometimes even near 90 years old. What-would-eventually-become DC Comics found its biggest name characters all the way back in the 1930s, with Action Comics #1 introducing the world to Superman and Detective Comics #27 being the introduction of Batman. Since their and many other superheroes’ introductions in the following decades, almost every published comic of theirs has been some form of spin-off or sequel of the one before.
So who’s to say that your entry point for reading Batman shouldn’t be all the back in 1939’s Detective Comics #27? Luckily, no comic creator expects you to do anything like this. However, some series might still have some required reading to fully understand, even if your starting point says “issue 1.”
Many comic series are able to stay running by rebooting. A reboot is when they end the current story, and completely restart it from the beginning. This creates great jumping-on points for new readers, as well as giving the writers a lot more room for new storytelling. Any of these are great places to start for anyone looking to get into that character. A perfect example of this is the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series, which completely retold the original story of Peter Parker from the beginning, in a whole different universe from Marvel’s mainline comics.
You might also hear the term Soft Reboot. A soft reboot is where a comic can function as a new jumping-on point, but still exists as a continuation of the prior series. These will often be labeled as “Vol. 1,” even if it’s still continuing the prior series (like with Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z). This can get confusing sometimes, but more often than not, the writers will do their best to make sure you don’t have to read the entire prior series to understand.
That’s all good… but I still can’t decide!
If you’re still unsure of exactly what comics you should start picking up, it’s always a good rule of thumb to try any “volume 1/issue #1,” or even a standalone comic (a self-contained series) but if you need a little extra guidance, start talking about comics with those around you! Ask your friends, ask your favorite creators, and definitely try asking the employees at your local comic store! As a long-time comic book fan, the best part about comics is discussing them with other fans. And most, if not all, fans will be super excited to help you out.
