Best Comics

Darwyn Cooke’s Must-Read Comics: Exploring a Work Filled with Boldness and Hope

by Fabien
October 21, 2024

Graphic Ink: The DC Comics Art of Darwyn Cooke

Canadian Cartoonist from Toronto Darwyn Cooke (1962–2016) always dreamt of making comics for a living, but it was not economically viable for him for a long time. He instead worked as a magazine art director, graphic and product designer until finally going back to his first love during the 1990s. He answered an ad placed by Bruce Timm that led him to work as a storyboard artist on Warner Bros. Animation shows like The New Batman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond (he created the opening sequence), and Men in Black: The Series (as a director).

Cooke’s pitch to Timm, a Batman story that got him a job in animation, was later discovered by DC Comics art director Mark Chiarello who hired the artist to make a graphic novel based on it. That became the 2000 graphic novel Batman: Ego. Cooke officially transitioned to the comics world.

Despite a short career in comics, Darwyn Cooke’s distinctive artistic style became highly influential as well as his stories. He found popular success with some of his now-considered classic series and gained industry recognition with his work, winning 13 Eisner Awards, 8 Harvey Awards, and 5 Joe Shuster Awards.

15 Best Crime Comics to read, from Criminal to Sin City

by Fabien
Updated on October 23, 2024

Some may think that comics are all about superheroes, but even the mask vigilantes and other overpowered costume heroes are just fighting crimes. Batman was born in the pages of Detective Comics after all, next to Slam Bradley and others. In fact, he is still doing investigating work in the street of Gotham, when he doesn’t fight super-villains.

Anyways, there have always been crime fighters in the realm of comic books, from Will Eisner’s The Spirit, pulp heroes like The Shadow, to paranormal investigators like Hellboy or Scooby-doo & co. There also are simple private detectives, cops, local sheriffs, and amateur sleuths in the pages of the Big Two comics or independent publishers–we can’t forget anthologies like Crime Suspenstories by EC comics.

If you are a dedicated reader of crime stories, you know that they come in a lot of different flavors. The following list is an attempt at covering the spectrum of the crime genre in comics with what is among the best series published. You can add to it by leaving a comment!

Alfred Pennyworth Comics to Read to learn more about Batman’s loyal butler

by Carole
April 25, 2024

It takes a special man to stand next to Batman and be able to snark at him or tell him, in a very British way, that he is wrong. That man is Alfred Pennyworth, the Ultimate Supporting Character.

Introduced in Batman #16 in 1943, under the name Alfred Beagle, Pennyworth is known as Bruce Wayne’s faithful butler and trusted confidant. The world of Bruce Wayne/Batman feels a little bit incomplete when Alfred’s not here to help, guide, and reason with Bruce.

Because Alfred is more than a butler. This former British agent is the surrogate father of Bruce Wayne and other members of the Bat Family. The man doesn’t just look after the Manor and the Batcave, he also takes care of everyone, showing them love, cooking for them, making snarky remarks, and using his military medical skills when needed.

While Alfred generally stands in the shadow of Batman, we choose today to put him in the spotlight with a selection of comic book stories highlighting the greatness of the character.

The 10 Best Spider-Man Stories To Read

by Fabien
December 12, 2023

Spectacular or Amazing, Spider-Man has been slinging his web through a lot of adventures for more than 60 years. That’s a lot, but Peter Parker is more than familiar with his responsibilities and uses his powers to entertain us as much as he can. Of course, it’s not always a hit. As a matter of fact, some years have been difficult.

Nevertheless, there’s still a lot to enjoy in Spider-Man comics and there are a lot of Spider-Man comics to enjoy. Therefore, you may ask: what are the ones that are the best? What are the must-read stories any Spidey fan can enjoy?

25 Best DC Comic Books to Read: Our selection of the best DC Comics

by Carole
Updated on October 23, 2024

Everybody knows Batman and Superman and with the DC Universe expanding on the big screen, the general public has been introduced to less familiar characters such as Shazam and Blue Beetle.

Like the Marvel Superheroes, those characters have lived decades of adventures on paper before. As DC is also renowned for its complicated timeline, those characters have been rebooted and rewritten (some more than others) throughout the years, making it sometimes more discouraging for new readers to dive into this world.

It would be regretful to miss out on great stories because of some temporal shenanigans that, more often than not, are not so important to enjoy the wild, fun, and diverse style of adventures you can find on the DC Universe. From some good detective stories to adventures in time and space, horror, comedy, and more, there is something for everybody.

To help you find some of the best DC stories out there, Comic Book Treasury has made a selection of 25 of the Best DC Comics to read. This is not an exhaustive list, and there are easily more great stories from DC out there.

Whether you are a new reader, an old one, or someone who read DC Comics for some past decades and wants to reconnect with the characters, we hope you’ll find something you want to read or re-read in this list.

As said above, this is not an ultimate list, so don’t hesitate to leave your own suggestions for the best DC Comics in the comments below!

Here is our selection of what we consider 25 of the best DC comics to read (in chronological order):

17 Horror Comic Books for a Chilling October

by Carole
Updated on October 14, 2024

The horror genre always finds a way to creep out of some dark corners to find its public. Thanks to pulp magazines in the early 20th century, horror stories quickly established themselves via the “weird menace” subgenre, giving readers tales with sadistic villains and graphic scenes of violence.

By the late 1930s, and the influence of Universal horror films, vampires, mad scientists, and other creatures began appearing in superhero stories. The horror genre peaked in the comic book sphere in the late 1940s and early 1950s before some worries and the establishment of the Comics Code Authority came to put a halt to numerous graphic tales while simply leading to the toning down of many others.

The Best Dark Horse Comics Series: 15 must-read comics books

by Fabien
Updated on October 3, 2024

Following the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, what is now called the Black-and-White Boom took form with the apparition in 1986 of a LOT of new publishers ready to make a fortune. Apple Comics, Fantagor Press, ACE Comics, Crystal Publications, Eternity Comics, Imperial Comics, Quality Comics, Malibu Comics, and more! Most of them produced forgettable books and rapidly closed shops. Not all of course, or else we wouldn’t be here to talk about Dark Horse Comics.

Mike Richardson used the profit generated by his comic book shop to launch the company with his friend Randy Stradley. Dark Horse Comics started with the anthology Dark Horse Presents and James Dean Smith’s parody comic Boris the Bear. The two titles became hits and helped the company to go much further than most of its competitors.

Using its successful launch, Dark Horse Comics adopted a strategy based on popular franchises. Mike Richardson began buying the rights to make Godzilla comics, then it was Aliens, Predator, Star Wars, and Tarzan. The company soon started producing toys and producing movies (via Dark Horse Entertainment).

Dark Horse Comics even tried to invade the world of superheroes with the imprint Comics’ Greatest World. But as the industry changed, DH had to refocus its ambitions on the creators–this led to the publication of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy.

25 Best Marvel Comic Books to Read: Our selection of the best Marvel Comics

by Carole
Updated on October 23, 2024

From Spider-Man to Captain America, the world has become quite familiar with Marvel Superheroes. Before becoming iconic characters on the big screen, those heroes were already living great adventures on paper for several decades.

If you are unfamiliar with the Comic Book World, getting into Marvel can look daunting. As the Marvel Universe is continuously growing, there are new stories to discover as well as old ones to explore. And you can’t read everything as it is obviously the sort of mission only reserved for Ethan Hunt’s team (meaning: impossible!)

To help you find some of the best Marvel stories out there, Comic Book Treasury has made a selection of 25 of the Best Marvel Comics to read. This is not an exhaustive list, and there are easily more greatest stories from Marvel out there.

Whether you are a new reader, an old one, or someone who read Marvel Comics for some past decades and wants to reconnect with the characters, we hope you’ll find something you want to read or re-read in this list.

As said above, this is not an ultimate list, so don’t hesitate to leave your own suggestions of the best Marvel Comics in the comments below!

Here is our selection of what we consider 25 of the best Marvel comics to read (in chronological order):

Best Batman Stories For Beginners

by Fabien
Updated on September 28, 2023
1 Comment

We often explore the way to read Batman stories. We’ve got a Batman Post-Crisis Reading Order, a Batman New 52 Reading Order, a Batman Rebirth Reading Order, and even more specific ones following writers’ works on the famous characters or about specific crossover and bigger events. There is a lot to cover in the Batman Universe.

But all of this is not beginner-friendly. There are always too many books to track down if we just want to see if we like it or not. Everybody is not heavily invested in the Dark Knight Universe, yet. We all start somewhere and there’s nothing better than a good story to discover if we want to read more.

This article is here to provide those who are not that familiar with Batman with a list of possible entry points in his world or just some good stories to read without the pressure to complete a series or to invest too much time. The title says it all: the best stories for beginners.

But first, we assume that everybody knows who Batman is, but there are always younger people who just start to learn about those things. So, let me introduce you to Batman–quickly because we have now a complete article about his origins. Created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger in 1939, Batman is the superhero identity of Bruce Wayne, a wealthy man from Gotham City who witnessed the murder of his parents as a child. After training himself physically and intellectually, he started fighting crime, masking his true identity behind a mark, and becoming a symbol of justice in the process.

Simply put, he is a vigilante but also the greatest detective and, with his sidekick Robin, he’s now facing costume villains like the Joker, Two-Face, The Riddler, the Penguin, and more. But he also has a lot of allies in his crusade for justice like Commissioner James Gordon, his previous sidekicks, and numerous vigilantes and powerful superheroes.

The Best Vertigo Comics Series: 15 must-read comics books

by Fabien
Updated on May 21, 2024
1 Comment

Before there was a DC Black Label, we had Vertigo Comics, an imprint of comic book publisher DC Comics started by editor Karen Berger in 1993 and dedicated to the publication of comics with adult content. Liberated of the restrictions of DC’s main line, those comics benefited from the larger creative freedom offered to artists and writers who gave us memorable series.

During the 1980s, DC launched a mature readers’ line, and, following the success of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, this kind of book started to evolve separately from the main line. But the real origin of the Vertigo Imprint was when DC stopped submitting The Saga of the Swamp Thing for approval by the Comics Code Authority. Alan Moore’s book opened the door for a new generation of writers, most of them coming from the UK (the famous British Invasion).

Launched in January 1993, Vertigo Comics offered a mix of new and old series, limited or ongoing, and even graphic novels. The first comic book published under the “Vertigo” imprint was Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo (see Death Reading Order). A lot of books followed during the 1990s and 2000s and became classics (some are even in our best comics of all-time list), but the imprint started to slowly lose its appeal. Karen Berger left the company in 2012 and was replaced by Shelly Bond. In 2016, new changes at the head of the imprint did nothing to help save it. In fact, even the return of the Sandman Universe (see reading order) didn’t stop the inevitable. DC announced that, as part of a consolidation into a unified branding, the Vertigo imprint would be discontinued in January 2020.

For a long time, Vertigo was synonymous with quality comics for adults, innovative storytelling, and great art. Here is the list of our favorite Vertigo books. Don’t hesitate to submit yours in the comment section.