Goodman Games

I've been a bit out of touch in the comic world for a while, and I'm wondering what's new and good that I should be reading? Or rather, what should I read when it comes out in trade since I don't buy single issues anymore?

I started on DMZ recently and I've been enjoying it. I've been reading Marvel's Civil War and DC's 52, which I think are both pretty bad.

None of the stuff I'm about to say is "new," although it's all new to me.

I just started reading the trade paperpacks of Kurt Busiek's Astro City (starting with Life in the Big City).
It's a pretty cool book that has analogues of most of the DC heroes doing the hero thing in a world that isn't all weirded out by time-travel (mostly), alternate dimensions, and Infinite Earths.
The thrust of the book is that it isn't about the super powers or the fighting, but rather about the relationships and lives of people who live in a world that has had super-beings for years.
Kinda neat, reminds me a bit of a toned down Wild Cards.
If you like your heroes heavy on likability, low on bodycount, and mid-level angst, along with an occasional story where the hero is entirely in the periphery, Astro City fits that bill (so far).

I started reading Stormwatch at the Harlan Ellison reboot, but I dropped it like a hot potato as soon as I found out that it starts screwing around with multiple dimensions and heavy retconning.
I swear multiple dimensions, time travel, retconning, and clones are why I can't stand most comic titles.
Off the top of my head, the only cool story involving a clone was the X-Men's "Inferno" storyline with the Goblin Queen (a Jean Grey clone).

I'm a huge fan of zombies, so I read the trade paperbacks of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead. Again, it's more about the relationships of people who have survived (so far) the Zom-pocalypse than about the zombies. Great stuff.
His Marvel Zombies was rubbish, though. Nothing that could not have been foreseen happened.

Wanted is like the opposite of Astro City. The villains won, and then made everyone in the world forget that the heroes ever existed.
It's a more "mature" title, meaning it handles its dark subject matter in a fairly immature way, but it's decent escapism if you don't mind watching the antics of amoral, evil shits running rampant and betraying each other.
Fun, but not for everyone. Me, I liked it as a change of pace.
I've only read the first TPB, so it may change up.

Finally...a book recommendation. Brian Clevinger (who does the really funny webcomic 8-Bit Theater) wrote a book named Nuklear Age.
Superheroes kind of in the vein of The Tick doing their thing, with a ton of running gags and fun.
And then comes a moment you see just how brilliant Clevinger is. You'll know when you get there.
I can't say any more.

I just don't get the whole zombies thing. Marvel Zombies is an insult to Kirby, Ditko, and every other creator of a Marvel superhero who lumbers around looking to eat brains in those books. I mean, what's the treat in seeing Peter Parker talked about how he ate his wife and aunt? This is a Marvel comic? (That said, the intro of the zombies -- the Ultimates "Frightful Four" -- was damn effective. But it should've stopped there.)

Like Dieter, I don't read a lot of current comics, and the crossovers make me ill, but Dieter, you have to check out the Green Lantern "Rebirth" story from last year, now collected as a graphic novel. Geoff Johns' unenviable goal was to restore the disgraced, insane, and dead Hal Jordan back to his rightful place in the DC pantheon of heroes, and wow, did he pull it off. And in the process, he gave comics continuity buffs a huge treat, connecting a bunch of loose threads from GL history into a terrific whole.

I think the zombified versions are supposed to be #1) tongue-in-cheek and #2) an "ALT" version of the Marvel universe. Kirby et al shouldn't roll over in their graves for (fairly obvious) parodies.