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The Boys Reading Order, Your Comic Guide to Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s Satirical series

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Who could have guessed in 2006 that The Boys would become a franchise on television? Not DC Comics, which cancelled the title after 6 issues. Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic found a second home at Dynamite Entertainment, where the creative team could pursue their vision for this violent and darkly humorous series that was concluded in 2012, after 72 issues and three six-issue limited series. 

But who are the Boys? You may know them from Amazon Prime Video’s television adaptation. They are a team of vigilantes led by Billy Butcher who work for the CIA to keep an eye on the superhero community. Like the superheroes they worked so hard to stop, they are messed-up people. The story begins when Wee Hughie (based on Simon Pegg) watches his girlfriend get killed by a superhero who doesn’t care about collateral damage. Butcher invites Hughie to join his team in the US and teaches him everything he needs to know about the origin of superheroes and how they are propaganda for a failed military consortium.

The Boys is a satirical comic filled with violence, dark humor, Marvel and DC references, and even an Animal House storyline. At its heart, it’s about the evolution of Hughie and Butcher. Like a classic Garth Ennis comic, it’s full of rage, violence, and dark, twisted humor, interesting characters and pure emotion.

With The Boys celebrating its 20th anniversary and the series returning for its final season, now is the perfect time to revisit the comic book. Explore the various editions available with our The Boys Reading Guide and read the story between episodes of the adaptation (or one of its spin-offs!).

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Jennifer Blood Reading Order

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Created by writer Garth Ennis and artist Adriano Batista, Jennifer Blood is a vigilante character who made her debut in her own comic book series published by Dynamite Entertainment in 2011. 

Her story will sound slightly familiar to fans of Ennis’s work, as she may be described as the female suburban version of The Punisher (the first issue is even titled “War Journal“). Jessica Blute is the daughter of Sam and Jennifer Blute, members of the violent Blute family. Betrayed by his brothers (Jimmy, Michael, Nicholas, Pete, and Steve), who thought his marriage softened him, Sam was murdered. Pete decided to take care of Jennifer, who learned what really happened to Sam and revealed it through letters to her daughter, who was then at boarding school. After Jennifer took her own life, Jessica disappeared, faking her death during Spring Break.

As Jenny Bell, she spent years training in combat, weapons, espionage, and forgery, preparing to avenge her parents. In college, she met Andrew Fellows, married him, and had two children. Though nearly ready to abandon her mission, the Blutes’ repeated escapes from prosecution pushed her to create her vigilante persona, Jennifer Blood, to go after her uncles one by one. But that’s only the beginning for Jennifer’s bloody journey…

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Gargoyles Comics – Your Reading Guide to the Stories Beyond The Show

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While the DCAU Universe was taking shape in the ’90s, changing the landscape for animated children’s shows, Disney was making its mark with Gargoyles:

One thousand years ago, superstition and the sword ruled. It was a time of darkness. It was a world of fear. It was the age of gargoyles. Stone by day, warriors by night, We were betrayed by the humans we had sworn to protect, frozen in stone by a magic spell for a thousand years. Now, here in Manhattan, the spell is broken, and we live again! We are defenders of the night! We are gargoyles!

While there is no official creator credit, Gargoyles (1994–1997) was developed by former DC Comics editor and Disney director of series development Greg Weisman, co-producer Frank Paur and key writers Michael Reaves and Brynne Chandler (among other writers), and would go on for three seasons, and a total of 78 episodes. The third and last season — untitled The Goliath Chronicles — was unexpectedly ordered and mostly made by a new creative team and is now classified as non-canon.

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Elvira, Mistress of the Dark Comic Book’s History, From DC to Dynamite

Amateurs of horror are certainly familiar with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Played by Cassandra Peterson, Elvira is a campy horror-themed TV hostess with a razor-sharp wit and an iconic gothic sense of style–her plunging black dress and beehive hairdo are immediately identifiable. She rose to fame in the early 1980s as the Movie Macabre star, a show featuring her clever, satirical, and innuendo-filled commentary on low-budget horror films. 

Her popularity led her to host another type of horror show, as she became one of the caretakers of DC’s House of Mystery, the horror anthology comic book. Since then, her adventures in comics have taken a different path, as she became the protagonist of a long-running series—not just the hostess—before coming back in a pop-culture-heavy series that Dynamite regularly publishes. So today, we are taking a look at Elvira’s comics history.

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The Shadow Comics: The Comic Book History of a Pulp Hero

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Created for the magazine publishers Street & Smith, the character of The Shadow started in 1930 on the Detective Story Hour radio show as a mysterious host before moving to print the following year. He would stay on the air for a few years, but this original incarnation would be forgotten and replaced by the one created by writer Walter B. Gibson (under the pen name of Maxwell Grant).

Gibson was tasked to write stories about “The Shadow” and, inspired by classic literary works and the French character Judex, he composed a character that would eventually become the prototype of the American Superhero. Through the years, The Shadow prospered in the pulps, on the radio, and even got a comic strip in the early 1940s.

The Shadow was a former World War I aviator named Kent Allard who faked his death and became a crime-fighter. Upon returning to the United States, he adopted several different identities to aid him in his war on crime. The most famous one is Lamont Cranston, a wealthy socialite who went abroad and Allard stole his identity, impersonating him to gain access to the rich and powerful of the world.

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The Dresden Files Graphic Novels in Order

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Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files Graphic Novels in Order

Popular urban fantasy book series written by Jim Butcher, The Dresden Files grew beyond its initial prose to embrace other types of storytelling. The story expanded to the Graphic Novel format with adaptations of some of the books, but most notably new stories that are really part of the canon.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a professional wizard living in modern-day Chicago. He operates as a private investigator and magical consultant, offering his services to both the magical and mundane communities. In this universe, magic is real and exists alongside the ordinary world, hidden from the majority of humanity—and vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves, outsiders, and other monsters are also present.

In 2008, Jim Butcher worked with Dabel Brothers Productions to create a Dresden Files graphic novel series. Everything started with a prequel story before the first novel was adapted. Published by Dynamite Entertainment, the series continued with new stories taking place between novels. They have been illustrated by Ardian Syaf, Chase Conley, Joseph Cooper, Carlos Gomez, and Diego Galindo, but all were written by Jim Butcher and Mark Powers.

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Warlord of Mars/Dejah Thoris Reading order (Dynamite Comics)

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Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1911, the Barsoom series — also called the John Carter of Mars series —  is one of the most influential science fiction and fantasy tales of the 20th Century. The story features John Carter, a veteran of the American Civil War who is transported to the planet Mars, known as Barsoom by its inhabitants, where he lives dangerous adventures, falls in love with the princess of Mars , and saves the world. Some classic tales!

John Carter has influenced characters like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Superman, as well as other massive stories, including Dune, Star Wars, and Avatar. He was also a popular character among many famous people like Carl Sagan, Michael Crichton, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke.

This is no surprise that John Carter found his way into the comic book format. In the past, John Carter has been adapted by companies like DC Comics (as John Carter featured in Tarzan and Weird Worlds), Marvel Comics (in John Carter Warlord of Mars), and Dark Horse (see Tarzan / John Carter: Warlords of Mars).

But the most important publisher is Dynamite (Red Sonja, Evil Dead), which has released many series in the John Carter Universe since 2010. His main series Warlord of Mars ran from 2010 to 2014 and spawned several spin-offs, most notably Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris, as the Princess of Mars is the breakout character of the comics. Several crossover stories have also been published, with other popular female characters from Dynamite, but also with other franchises.

In 2012, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., the family company in charge of handling everything associated with the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, sued Dynamite Entertainment over trademark infringement. It never stopped the publisher from releasing new comics during all that time. The matter was settled in 2014, and both parties worked together to relaunch the series as John Carter: Warlord of Mars.

The Warlord of Mars franchise is still expanding today, and to help you find your way, we have created this Warlord of Mars/Dejah Thoris Comics Reading order!

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James Bond Comics Reading Order (Dynamite Entertainment)

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His name is Bond. James Bond. 007. Created by Ian Fleming in 1953, the most famous British Secret Service Agent launched his career on paper, in the novel Casino Royale, became a movie star, had his own video games and radio drama, but also his own comic book line.

The first James Bond Comics spawned from the success of our Secret Agent after the start of the film franchise in 1962. It was a comic book adaptation of Dr. No published by Classics Illustrated in United Kindgom. It would take 20 years for another James Bond comic to be published afterward, with this time an adaptation of For Your Eyes Only, followed in 1983 by an adaptation of Octopussy.

Permission to Die was the first original James Bond comic published by Acme/Eclipse in 1989. Then, Dark Horse obtained the rights and released several original stories until 1996. Nothing new was to be released for the next 20 years, until the comic book publishing license was picked up by Dynamite Entertainment (Red Sonja, Evil Dead).

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Red Sonja Reading Order

At the beginning of 1973, the Conan the Barbarian comics were a success, and writer Roy Thomas wanted to expand Marvel’s sword and sorcery line with a spin-off title. With artist Barry Windsor-Smith, Thomas created Red Sonja, a character loosely based on Red Sonya of Rogatino from Robert E. Howard’s short story “The Shadow of the Vulture.”

Red Sonja was to be a fierce warrior who could be Conan’s match. She could battle at his side and keep her feminine side. That was the author’s ambition and, in Conan the Barbarian #23, their last book together, Thomas and Smith introduced Red Sonja as she was wielding a sword against guards, wearing a long-sleeved chain mail shirt. One issue later, Conan declared that she was his equal.

She made a few appearances in Conan the Barbarian, The Savage Sword of Conan, and Kull and the Barbarians before finally getting her solo series in 1975. She became quite popular, and Marvel Comics published stories featuring Red Sonja for a good decade—she also appeared in novels and, in 1986, got her movie starring Brigitte Nielsen in the title role.

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Army of Darkness/Evil Dead Comics Reading Order

Hail to the King! Not content with being built around a series of cult classic films, The Evil Dead franchise grew over the years and now consists of movies, comics, games, and a TV Series.

It all began in 1982 when Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell)’s life changed forever after he discovered the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and accidentally unleashed a Kandarian Demon. Ash’s friends are transformed into zombie-like creatures called Deadites, and he will after that never be the same.

As the king of alternate timelines, our unique hero lived multiple adventures, and we are today in his comic book ones. We have stories in different continuities, published by Dark Horse, Dynamite, and Scape Goat.

What to read/watch before the Army of Darkness Comics?

Let’s state the obvious by pointing out that the movies are must-sees. The movies and the TV series take place in what is considered the prime Evil Dead continuity, even though there are some elements in the films that have been removed from canon with the TV shows.

You can also read The Army of Darkness adaptation in comic, published the first time by Dark Horse in 1992 (and released by Dynamite in paperback in 2006).

What follows are stories that expand the universe in one direction or another, with different continuities.

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