I'm 40 and I've been collecting comic books since I was about 9. My favorite characters are Spider-Man, Superman, and Batman. I like a lot more but when it came to modern day comic books I got to the point where I only read those three, but I've reached a point where I have decided with Marvel and DC to just read back issues and luckily there are a ton of back issues that I haven't even touched yet. For instance I recently found a bunch of 70s Conan comic books in a bargain bin.
My question is does anyone have any indie/Manga recommendations? It seems like Marvel and DC for the most part want to hire people who are clueless about or hate comic books (the lady doing the She-Hulk show as well as the guy hired to do the Superman movie come to mind). I think I may start supporting Alterna Comics as well.
Thanks in advance.
That is a very dangerous question. Manga covers every genre, so it's a little necessary to focus in on a specific genre. The conventional superhero genre isn't actually all that common in Japan. The virtuous hero type story tends to be shojo, girls manga.
So, the box standard super hero manga is Dragonball (specifically Z). It's a parade of ever escalating fights.
Then there's the subversive super fighter manga, One Punch Man, where the hero is so strong he suffers from lack of purpose from having no worthy opponents.
And the dark super fighter manga, Fist of the North Star, where basically everyone is built like a brick shithouse and can make their shirts explode by flexing.
And the even more darker super fighter manga, Battle Angel Alita, where landing a punch frequently results in people exploding.
Having read through at least 15 volumes of this, I'm calling bullshit on that manga being referred to as dark.
...
How about messy? That work better?
I guess? My baseline for "messy" or "dark" is Berserk. Alita is downright bubbly a lot of the time and the mess is just robot parts flying apart rather than mortal injuries.
In a series where multiple characters have various bullshitty ways of cheating death (none more so than Alita).
Come to think of it, Five Star Stories has that same problem.
You might enjoy Now and Then, Here and There. It's dark and horrible in a good way. Some guy said it gave him serious depression.
So I take it those are written for adults? Thanks!
Well, let's expand the terminology.
Shojo manga is targeted at school girls.
Josei is aimed at women teenage and older.
Shonen is for boys under teenage, and Seinen is basically all audiences but usually teenage and older guys.
Dragonball is definitely Shonen. Alita and Fist of the North Star are definitely seinen, and One Punch Man falls on the edge.
But that's just a tiny, tiny edge of manga. The norm in Japan is story lines that end, and there's a lot of diversity in stories. Some recent ones that come to mind include:
Fire Force - About a paramilitary group of pyromancers who fight fire elementals.
Goblin Slayer - Some edgy dark shit about a guy who is really, really committed to killing all goblins everywhere.
But those are all just fighting hero manga, and I'm not really even a fan of those because they don't have giant robots.
Which ones have giant robots? Wow you are right there is a to. Of Manga
Okay so mecha....
The ten ton gorilla franchise of mecha is Mobile Suit Gundam, of which there are quite literally dozens of individual storylines.
Gundam Origin is probably the easiest starting point for that one.
a bit late to this but im going to have to correct what that guy said. but shonen and shoujo is more for teens.