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Holiday Gift Ideas for Comics Lovers

This is an update of last year’s post… it wasn’t a great year for mainstream comics. Both Marvel and DC have gone down the path of satisfying long-time fans by brutally killing old characters. Both have been running long crossovers like Countdown, World War Hulk, 52 and Civil War which have ultimately served more the purpose of selling comics than telling satisfying stories.

This year’s major comics-related films have also garnered less than stellar reviews.

Given that, I don’t have a lot of new things to recommend, but there are a few things the comics fans in your life might enjoy.

Do you have a comics lover in your life who you’d like to get a holiday gift for, but haven’t got a clue what to get them? Read on, true believer.

1. The Absolute Sandman, Volume 1 and Volume 2

Sandman is possibly the most important mainstream comics publication of the last few decades. It helped launch DC’s Vertigo imprint and solidified the role of comics for adults in addition to children. Each volume of Absolute Sandman is a beautiful collection of the 20 issues, corrected, re-colored, and with additional material.

Check out 2. League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier

The third volume of Alan Moore’s “League of Extraordinary Gentleman” stories; if you’ve only ever seen the movie I’d highly recommend checking out the comics. They’re far superior.

Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s new story follows only Mina Harker and Allan Quartermain this time around, in 1950’s England, as they gain possession of the mysterious “Black Dossier” and flee for America.

Given Moore’s strained relationship with DC, it seems likely that this will be the final volume of League.

Check it out at Amazon.com. You can also check out Volume One and Volume Two

3. Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman
In a time of increasingly gritty, shocking comics where writers are plumbing stories involving the rape and murder of childhood favorites, Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman is a breath of fresh air. Before it I might have said that there wasn’t much left to say about Superman, but Morrison captures the heart of the Superman stories and presents them in an interesting, fun way without making them childish or simple. I’m not a big Superman fan but these are some of the best comics stories of the last few years. Frank Quitely’s gorgeous art shines as well; he and Morrison are always a great team.

Check out All-Star Superman Volume One at Amazon.

4. Comics on DVD-ROM

The ultimate gift for the Marvel Comics fan is the complete collections of three of Marvel’s most prominent titles, on DVD-ROM. Each issue is stored as a PDF file, easily readable on any platform which has an Adobe Acrobat reader available for it (for instance, Macintosh, Windows and Linux). The transfers are generally very good and the comics quite readable. The Acrobat files aren’t protected by any kind of Digital Rights Management, so you can easily copy them around and back them up if you want to.

40 Years of the Avengers	40 Years of the X-Men	44 Years of the Fantastic Four
Incredible Hulk the Complete Comic Collection	Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer - Complete Comic Edition”	Amazing Spider-Man Complete Comic Book Collection

5. Marvel Zombies / The Walking Dead

Those zombies you like are coming back in style! Zombie mastermind Robert Kirkman has been taking Marvel by storm, possibly even overtaking Brian Michael Bendis for the percentage of Marvel Comics he’s writing at once.

In the 70’s, the term “Marvel zombie” was a fondly used derogatory term for Marvel fans… it now has a whole new meaning, thanks to the success of Kirkman’s “Marvel Zombies” comics, which tell a story of an alternate earth populated solely by flesh-eating zombie versions of Marvel’s classic heroes. Marvel Zombies was a huge surprise hit, going into multiple printings, and spawning several spinoff projects.

Check out Marvel Zombies at Amazon.com.

Marvel also published a successful follow-up/crossover comic - Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness.

Kirkman already had a successful zombie series running at Image. ‘Walking Dead’ started out very similarly to 28 Days Later but quickly staked out its own turf. Check it out at Amazon.com by clicking on any of the following volumes:

“ The Walking Dead Book 1 (Walking Dead)	The Walking Dead Vol. 2: Miles Behind Us”	The Walking Dead Vol. 3: Safety Behind Bars	The Walking Dead Vol. 4: The Heart’s Desire
The Walking Dead Volume 5: The Best Defense	The Walking Dead, Vol. 6: This Sorrowful Life	The Walking Dead, Vol. 7: The Calm Before

6. Scott McCloud’s Making Comics

Twelve years ago, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics took the world by storm, exploring the medium of the comic strip, taking it apart and looking at what makes it tick and why it remains a compelling medium. McCloud recently published his second sequel to it, Making Comics, which goes deeper into how to use comics as an effective communications medium. Presented as a comic itself, it’s not just a fun read for comics lovers, it should be an essential manual for anyone doing computer user interface or web development.

Check it out Making Comics on Amazon.com.

7. Heroes

The second season of Heroes was disappointing, and mercifully cut short by the writer’s strike, but the first season still stands out as some excellent TV.

You can pick up Heroes Season One on DVD.

8. Superhero Movies on DVD

Some of the most prominent comics-based movies from the last few years are available on DVD.

Follow the link to see the DVD on Amazon.

Spider-Man 3	X-Men 3 - The Last Stand	Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer
The Simpsons Movie	Transformers

There are also a few well-regarded direct-to-dvd movies as well:

Superman - Doomsday

Ultimate Avengers - The Movie

Ultimate Avengers 2 (Rise of the Panther)

9. Who Wants to Be a Superhero?

One of the odder things to hit cable this last year was the SciFi Channel’s summer series, “Who Wants to Be a Superhero?”, with Stan “The Man” Lee himself as the mastermind behind the creation of a new superhero team, featuring the likes of Monkeywoman and Fat Momma. With a philosophy of “No comics cliche left behind”, the show is both fascinating and appalling. You can get it at the iTunes Store or on DVD. To give the show as a gift from the iTunes Store, follow the link below into the iTunes Store, look for the “Gift this show” link, and click on that. The iTunes store will give you the option of emailing the gift certificate or printing it out.

Check out Who Wants to Be a Superhero? at the iTunes Store.

Check out Who Wants to Be A Superhero? on Amazon.com

3. Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Marvel Ultimate Alliance has gotten a lot of press recently… it’s a massive game that allows you to play several different superheroes and go up against classic villains like Dr. Doom, even leading up to the biggest boss of all, Galactus. It runs on quite a few different platforms and most allow multiple players to work together to bring down the bad guys.