IF I was interested in collecting ONE dead universe...

[tictuck]

Reckon?

Reckon is an acceptable word.

It's one I employ near daily.

Boy thats a shock, someone who lives in Texas using the word Reckon

[ian_house]

I didn't know 'reckon' was a US-only word...





-slym

It isn't, although I had to check to make sure:

ORIGIN: Old English (ge)recenian 'recount, relate'

[slym2none]

I didn't know 'reckon' was a US-only word...





-slym

It isn't, although I had to check to make sure:

ORIGIN: Old English (ge)recenian 'recount, relate'

Thank you, my point made.





-slym (knows there is a global newspaper called The Daily Reckoning)

[ian_house]

Dude, Crossgen for sure. There are no expensive chase books, and the stories and art is great.

For me it is not really close. Crossgen for sure.

The man has a good point.

I say Crossgen over absolutely everything else for quality.

The Ultraverse/Defiant/Broadway tied in terms of quality.

I am familiar with CrossGen mostly through reputation, but I understand their production values are consistently good and the writing overall is pretty strong (with a couple of exceptions, as with any rule).

Defiant, Ultraverse and Broadway all three had as good of production values as Marvel and DC. I don't think Broadway was around long enough to really establish much of a feel but what writing there was was fairly solid. Defiant and Ultraverse read very differently. Defiant, like Valiant, was a thinking man's comic company. Ultraverse was 22 pages of escapist fun. It's for reading without really thinking too hard. The main characters are derivative and presented as a new spin on existing characters. The side characters are simple and often times silly. They are what comics once were. Another nice thing about Ultraverse, particularly early in the run before Marvel got involved, most of the time the issues contained a complete story and the last page set up the next issue.

If I were in your position, I'd definitely pick Drift and/or Draco's brain about which of these DUs are most available in the UK. They seem best able to answer that question out of anyone.

Thanks for the extra know-how. It looks like Crossgen is going to be the winner. I'm not going to buy immediately, just keep a look out until I see something for a good price and then start.

Are crossgen difficult to find over here Draco/Drift?

I reckon we can do a small box of them

Nice one, I reckon I have some reading to do before I can even think about getting more comics with your parcel on the way!

You know when you say a word too many times and it loses meaning... reckon.

[leonmallett]

Ian, my suggested order of preference (as I reckon it ):

1. Crossgen - just the Sigilverse, forget the Lady Death crap et al
2. Milestone - for the most part the quality was consitently good, which isn't easy over 250+ books.
3. Ultraverse - very varied in terms of quality; art could be very inconsistent in terms of style across given titles runs.
4 (tied). !mpact - one book that is as good as many today (Black Hood), a couple of fun reads (Fly, Jaguar), some so-so titles (Legend of the Shield, the Comet, Crusaders) and one very weak ongoing (the WEB); in all not a hard DU to get into and if you PM me I maybe able to help you out...
4 (tied). Malibu Protectorsverse/Genesis-verse - really suffered when Ex-Mutants and Dinosaurs for Hire folded into the line, but some enjoyable books and some amazing covers.
6. Red Circle/Archie Adventure - 1980's incarnation of the MLJ characters (see !mpact, but different); some hard to find books and the latter books were often not very good but not to big a selection to assemble.
7. Aftermath - from Devils Due; only 22 books but I enjoyed them!

[Draco]

Ian, my suggested order of preference (as I reckon it ):

1. Crossgen - just the Sigilverse, forget the Lady Death crap et al
2. Milestone - for the most part the quality was consitently good, which isn't easy over 250+ books.
3. Ultraverse - very varied in terms of quality; art could be very inconsistent in terms of style across given titles runs.
4 (tied). !mpact - one book that is as good as many today (Black Hood), a couple of fun reads (Fly, Jaguar), some so-so titles (Legend of the Shield, the Comet, Crusaders) and one very weak ongoing (the WEB); in all not a hard DU to get into and if you PM me I maybe able to help you out...
4 (tied). Malibu Protectorsverse/Genesis-verse - really suffered when Ex-Mutants and Dinosaurs for Hire folded into the line, but some enjoyable books and some amazing covers.
6. Red Circle/Archie Adventure - 1980's incarnation of the MLJ characters (see !mpact, but deifferent); some hard to find books and the latter books were often not very good but not to big a selection to assemble.

7. Aftermath - from Devils Due; only 22 books but I enjoyed them!

cant believe you didnt like the Lady Death dude.

Oh well they were free

As for your list, couldnt have put it better.

[leonmallett]

Ian, my suggested order of preference (as I reckon it ):

1. Crossgen - just the Sigilverse, forget the Lady Death crap et al
2. Milestone - for the most part the quality was consitently good, which isn't easy over 250+ books.
3. Ultraverse - very varied in terms of quality; art could be very inconsistent in terms of style across given titles runs.
4 (tied). !mpact - one book that is as good as many today (Black Hood), a couple of fun reads (Fly, Jaguar), some so-so titles (Legend of the Shield, the Comet, Crusaders) and one very weak ongoing (the WEB); in all not a hard DU to get into and if you PM me I maybe able to help you out...
4 (tied). Malibu Protectorsverse/Genesis-verse - really suffered when Ex-Mutants and Dinosaurs for Hire folded into the line, but some enjoyable books and some amazing covers.
6. Red Circle/Archie Adventure - 1980's incarnation of the MLJ characters (see !mpact, but deifferent); some hard to find books and the latter books were often not very good but not to big a selection to assemble.

7. Aftermath - from Devils Due; only 22 books but I enjoyed them!

cant believe you didnt like the Lady Death dude.

Oh well they were free

As for your list, couldnt have put it better.

Cheers mate.

Actually the LD's may be good for all I know, just some of my anti-Bad Girl Comics prejudice sneaking in. Well not so much sneaking as announcing itself. Like a butler. Presenting a card. On a silver platter. "Here is Mr Mallett's anti-Bad Girl Comics prejudice" <in haughty and mildly disdainful tones>. Sort of. Reckon so, anyway.

[Draco]

Ian, my suggested order of preference (as I reckon it ):

1. Crossgen - just the Sigilverse, forget the Lady Death crap et al
2. Milestone - for the most part the quality was consitently good, which isn't easy over 250+ books.
3. Ultraverse - very varied in terms of quality; art could be very inconsistent in terms of style across given titles runs.
4 (tied). !mpact - one book that is as good as many today (Black Hood), a couple of fun reads (Fly, Jaguar), some so-so titles (Legend of the Shield, the Comet, Crusaders) and one very weak ongoing (the WEB); in all not a hard DU to get into and if you PM me I maybe able to help you out...
4 (tied). Malibu Protectorsverse/Genesis-verse - really suffered when Ex-Mutants and Dinosaurs for Hire folded into the line, but some enjoyable books and some amazing covers.
6. Red Circle/Archie Adventure - 1980's incarnation of the MLJ characters (see !mpact, but deifferent); some hard to find books and the latter books were often not very good but not to big a selection to assemble.

7. Aftermath - from Devils Due; only 22 books but I enjoyed them!

cant believe you didnt like the Lady Death dude.

Oh well they were free

As for your list, couldnt have put it better.

Cheers mate.

Actually the LD's may be good for all I know, just some of my anti-Bad Girl Comics prejudice sneaking in. Well not so much sneaking as announcing itself. Like a butler. Presenting a card. On a silver platter. "Here is Mr Mallett's anti-Bad Girl Comics prejudice" <in haughty and mildly disdainful tones>. Sort of. Reckon so, anyway.

The anti-bad girl act of 1996 is in place dude.

I know it well and like to quote from it regularly ( unless one of my DU's fall sinto that nasty sleaze category) then thats ok.

Funny though as the Crossgen Lady Death was ok, almost like they insisted on some actual point to it, maybe a start middle and an ending in a story.
Honest.
Art was lovely too funny enough.

The rest of it before and after though, no nonononononononooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!

Well untill Avataar fold then i get to add them to my DU list.

YOu want scary though, Drift already added Avatar to his complete list.

Mad *SQUEE*.

[cinlach@aol.com]

Dude, Crossgen for sure. There are no expensive chase books, and the stories and art is great.

For me it is not really close. Crossgen for sure.

Seconded...Crossgen is absolutely my next quest for completion.

Most everything is fantastic, and even those not that great are still pretty damn interesting.

Scion, Sojourn, Ruse...all top notch stuff.

[leonmallett]

Ian, my suggested order of preference (as I reckon it ):

1. Crossgen - just the Sigilverse, forget the Lady Death crap et al
2. Milestone - for the most part the quality was consitently good, which isn't easy over 250+ books.
3. Ultraverse - very varied in terms of quality; art could be very inconsistent in terms of style across given titles runs.
4 (tied). !mpact - one book that is as good as many today (Black Hood), a couple of fun reads (Fly, Jaguar), some so-so titles (Legend of the Shield, the Comet, Crusaders) and one very weak ongoing (the WEB); in all not a hard DU to get into and if you PM me I maybe able to help you out...
4 (tied). Malibu Protectorsverse/Genesis-verse - really suffered when Ex-Mutants and Dinosaurs for Hire folded into the line, but some enjoyable books and some amazing covers.
6. Red Circle/Archie Adventure - 1980's incarnation of the MLJ characters (see !mpact, but deifferent); some hard to find books and the latter books were often not very good but not to big a selection to assemble.

7. Aftermath - from Devils Due; only 22 books but I enjoyed them!

cant believe you didnt like the Lady Death dude.

Oh well they were free

As for your list, couldnt have put it better.

Cheers mate.

Actually the LD's may be good for all I know, just some of my anti-Bad Girl Comics prejudice sneaking in. Well not so much sneaking as announcing itself. Like a butler. Presenting a card. On a silver platter. "Here is Mr Mallett's anti-Bad Girl Comics prejudice" <in haughty and mildly disdainful tones>. Sort of. Reckon so, anyway.

The anti-bad girl act of 1996 is in place dude.

I know it well and like to quote from it regularly ( unless one of my DU's fall sinto that nasty sleaze category) then thats ok.

Funny though as the Crossgen Lady Death was ok, almost like they insisted on some actual point to it, maybe a start middle and an ending in a story.
Honest.
Art was lovely too funny enough.

The rest of it before and after though, no nonononononononooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!

Well untill Avataar fold then i get to add them to my DU list.

YOu want scary though, Drift already added Avatar to his complete list.

Mad *SQUEE*.

The only Avatar books I read or have read are Black Summer, No Hero and Doktor Sleepless, so I really can't comment.

[Phoenix8008]

Other than Valiant I'd vote for Marvel's New Universe as a dead one to get into. Definitely gonna be cheap to pick up and the story's were very good IMO. Done by Shooter ta boot. I can just imagine how good it could have been if they hadn't yanked his budget for the project away.

-Edit- Okay, the flying girl was in Meridian and the soldier guy was from Negation War I think. I had forgotten that I loved Scion as well! (Did a google image search on Crossgen )

Greeeeeaaaaaaat. So now I have another DU to consider getting after I finish up Valiant and New U. I guess it is contagious if you come to this section of the boards.

[Elveen]

Other than Valiant I'd vote for Marvel's New Universe as a dead one to get into. Definitely gonna be cheap to pick up and the story's were very good IMO. Done by Shooter ta boot. I can just imagine how good it could have been if they hadn't yanked his budget for the project away.

-Edit- Okay, the flying girl was in Meridian and the soldier guy was from Negation War I think. I had forgotten that I loved Scion as well! (Did a google image search on Crossgen )

Greeeeeaaaaaaat. So now I have another DU to consider getting after I finish up Valiant and New U. I guess it is contagious if you come to this section of the boards.

Meridian was GREAT. I am going to sell off some of my Crossgen books, but not Meridian, that is a for sure re-read. Negation and Scion were also very good.


Crossgen is very,very good across the board. I could not recommend it any more.


Sojourn might be the most beautiful book I've ever seen. Ruse 1-12 is one of the absolute very best runs I have ever read.

[Knightt]

So which universes should I be looking at (theoretically)?

That is VERY much up to you, my friend. Our recommendations all have value but I would take a sampling of each and see which draws you to it the most.

In my case, it was a board member which sent to me the retailer copies of Crossgen... I was hooked.

When I first started collecting again, I said ok only X-O Manowar and Bloodshot. Ok, maybe Shadow Man. Well, I can get these Harbinger books for only $30 (#0 pink, 1-30). But when I bought the first 10 issues (including #0) of Magnus Robot Fighter, it WAS ON !! I said gotta have them all and I went to it. LOVED the reads.

Then I heard that Shooter made the Defiant Universe, so what the heck, it's short, so I picked THAT up. Broadway by Shooter as well ? SHOOOT, that is even smaller. Continuity looks good... WOW CROSSGEN !!! HEEEEEEY, I remember the Ultraverse. Bravura was by Malibu as well ? MALIBU GENESIS ?

Point is, all it took for me was to get a sampling of something and I was hooked. Within a couple years my DU collections were growing by the month.

Maybe scroll through the threads and issue lists to see what is out there and take a sample of everything. Draco is damned cool across the pond from us here... a nice sampling of a few issues of each universe should be kinda easy to assemble, if even just reader copies.

BUT... I feel confident to write that I think that you will find Crossgen to be VERY entertaining. Solid writing, wonderful art and coloring... and relative continuity across the board (very few crossovers, etc). This is a VERY fun collection for me. (notice I am speaking of 'me', my opinion)

A solid second could be the Ultraverse... the commons are EASY to find AND very cheap but if you are a completest, the premium books and variants will drive you crazy (or fill you will happiness if you like 'the hunt').

Draco... if you could put a small stack together very cheaply, I would be more than willing to pay for it so that Ian would have a good start in figuring this out. Or if Crossgen has been chosen, then so be it (cause I loves me some Crossgen as well), he can be on his way.

Actually this is an evil plot... if you get a sampling of a few of the DUs out there, it won't be JUST Crossgen that you'd be collecting. I had to face it at one point... collecting DUs is very addictive.

This section, it's members, our code of conduct and the many morsels of the very much alive universe of Dead Universes... it's like Shangri-La.

I am very excited that we can have someone ask 'what should I collect' and enable very informative answers to be posted as well as passionate responses. This section is now running on it's own steam... yes, due to the prime posters and experts within but we are finally at a point where I don't feel the need to stimulate conversation. (There was a time when this joint WAS dead... no pun intended).

Oct 11 will mark our 4 year anniversary and I think that the DU is larger than we think. But Ian's post brought out some of our members that make this place tick. Hey, I loves me some Valiant/Acclaim comics but you can only talk SO MUCH about them. Here in this universe, you can go from planet to planet, DU to DU and find new life.

Thank you to everyone who has posted so far... the knowledge it fantastic and dudes, WE ARE INTERNATIONAL !!!

Boo yaa !!!

To Ian... I hope you find your DU to collect and go after. Money is always an issue (whoop another pun), but there is SO MUCH to collect out there. And it's all good.

I hope that you are infected... and have fun.

Oh yeah.... GO CROSSGEN.

[Draco]

So which universes should I be looking at (theoretically)?

That is VERY much up to you, my friend. Our recommendations all have value but I would take a sampling of each and see which draws you to it the most.

In my case, it was a board member which sent to me the retailer copies of Crossgen... I was hooked.

When I first started collecting again, I said ok only X-O Manowar and Bloodshot. Ok, maybe Shadow Man. Well, I can get these Harbinger books for only $30 (#0 pink, 1-30). But when I bought the first 10 issues (including #0) of Magnus Robot Fighter, it WAS ON !! I said gotta have them all and I went to it. LOVED the reads.

Then I heard that Shooter made the Defiant Universe, so what the heck, it's short, so I picked THAT up. Broadway by Shooter as well ? SHOOOT, that is even smaller. Continuity looks good... WOW CROSSGEN !!! HEEEEEEY, I remember the Ultraverse. Bravura was by Malibu as well ? MALIBU GENESIS ?

Point is, all it took for me was to get a sampling of something and I was hooked. Within a couple years my DU collections were growing by the month.

Maybe scroll through the threads and issue lists to see what is out there and take a sample of everything. Draco is damned cool across the pond from us here... a nice sampling of a few issues of each universe should be kinda easy to assemble, if even just reader copies.

BUT... I feel confident to write that I think that you will find Crossgen to be VERY entertaining. Solid writing, wonderful art and coloring... and relative continuity across the board (very few crossovers, etc). This is a VERY fun collection for me. (notice I am speaking of 'me', my opinion)

A solid second could be the Ultraverse... the commons are EASY to find AND very cheap but if you are a completest, the premium books and variants will drive you crazy (or fill you will happiness if you like 'the hunt').

Draco... if you could put a small stack together very cheaply, I would be more than willing to pay for it so that Ian would have a good start in figuring this out. Or if Crossgen has been chosen, then so be it (cause I loves me some Crossgen as well), he can be on his way.

Actually this is an evil plot... if you get a sampling of a few of the DUs out there, it won't be JUST Crossgen that you'd be collecting. I had to face it at one point... collecting DUs is very addictive.

This section, it's members, our code of conduct and the many morsels of the very much alive universe of Dead Universes... it's like Shangri-La.

I am very excited that we can have someone ask 'what should I collect' and enable very informative answers to be posted as well as passionate responses. This section is now running on it's own steam... yes, due to the prime posters and experts within but we are finally at a point where I don't feel the need to stimulate conversation. (There was a time when this joint WAS dead... no pun intended).

Oct 11 will mark our 4 year anniversary and I think that the DU is larger than we think. But Ian's post brought out some of our members that make this place tick. Hey, I loves me some Valiant/Acclaim comics but you can only talk SO MUCH about them. Here in this universe, you can go from planet to planet, DU to DU and find new life.

Thank you to everyone who has posted so far... the knowledge it fantastic and dudes, WE ARE INTERNATIONAL !!!

Boo yaa !!!

To Ian... I hope you find your DU to collect and go after. Money is always an issue (whoop another pun), but there is SO MUCH to collect out there. And it's all good.

I hope that you are infected... and have fun.

Oh yeah.... GO CROSSGEN.

Now this my friend is a very cool post.

[Knightt]

What can I say, comrade !! I love this Dead Universes place of ours.

[Draco]

What can I say, comrade !! I love this Dead Universes place of ours.

If i had to name the single coolest place anywhere online, it would have to be right ( DU ) here.

This site is full of diversity both in board members and topics.

Being someone who has lived comics for near on 30 years, this is the place i have learned the most by far.
I have always talked comics ( i accept way too much ) and been called up by various people in my life for taking it too far since i can remember, so to be able to talk comics and learn is priceless.

In the past i have met many retailers/collectors/readers who i shared comic time with, but on this side of the pond i was always the one giving information i had learned and not found too many sitations where i was the pupil.
Here i quickly found multiples of greater knowledge in various areas, some of which i knew next to nothing, so it was surprisingly pleasant and much easier to concede that someone knew more than me about comics than i thought it would be.
Pride is sometimes a terrible thing and having gone the 15+ years not having met anyone who had more overall comic book knowledge, im happy to say not being the most knowledgable is indeed an unexpected pleasure.

Since the early days of the internet, people of similar tastes have come together to share a wealth of information that before was just dreamed of.
This site is classic example of how impessive the results can be when so many diverse people from such a different mixture of bacgrounds & cultures share an incredible wealth of knowledge.
Not to mention the willingness to actually share more than just knowledge, because I have also never seen such selflessness when giving to others, just because they can and because of a common interest.

Anything you want to know about DU's is here or somewhere close by being sourced as we speak.
Any comic you want that is listed here ( or soon to be ), mentioned here or seen here is probably available to you, if not the information you find here will tell you everything you might need to know in order to get a copy at some point in time.
The discussions here are friendly informative and even dissagreements on what makes a DU good or not ( Chiclo on Milestone ) are fun and in no way derogatory to any other member who sees differently.

If you have any interest in a company who made a coherent line of continuity based titles ( and plenty who didnt ), but for some reason or another no longer publish, then look no further than where you stand right now, eveything you could possible want is right here.

Amen.

[Cyberstrike]

I would also highly recommend Crossgen but if it's too big for you then try Defiant, Broadway, New Universe, Marvel 2099, Impact, Ultraverse, Genesis.

[Draco]

The man has a good point.

I say Crossgen over absolutely everything else for quality.

The Ultraverse/Defiant/Broadway tied in terms of quality.

I am familiar with CrossGen mostly through reputation, but I understand their production values are consistently good and the writing overall is pretty strong (with a couple of exceptions, as with any rule).

Defiant, Ultraverse and Broadway all three had as good of production values as Marvel and DC. I don't think Broadway was around long enough to really establish much of a feel but what writing there was was fairly solid. Defiant and Ultraverse read very differently. Defiant, like Valiant, was a thinking man's comic company. Ultraverse was 22 pages of escapist fun. It's for reading without really thinking too hard. The main characters are derivative and presented as a new spin on existing characters. The side characters are simple and often times silly. They are what comics once were. Another nice thing about Ultraverse, particularly early in the run before Marvel got involved, most of the time the issues contained a complete story and the last page set up the next issue.

If I were in your position, I'd definitely pick Drift and/or Draco's brain about which of these DUs are most available in the UK. They seem best able to answer that question out of anyone.

Thanks for the extra know-how. It looks like Crossgen is going to be the winner. I'm not going to buy immediately, just keep a look out until I see something for a good price and then start.

Are crossgen difficult to find over here Draco/Drift?

I reckon we can do a small box of them

Nice one, I reckon I have some reading to do before I can even think about getting more comics with your parcel on the way!

You know when you say a word too many times and it loses meaning... reckon.

You have some very cool reading to do indeed.

[myron]

DU's are like potato chips, you can't just have one...

capital/first
crossgen
broadway
defiant
ultraverse
topps

and so on...

[ian_house]

I've made a start on the bay of E's...

Got some bids in for 3 1st issues of Marvel New Universe stuff and I've seen some crossgen bits I'm also tempted by.

Good posts Knightt & Draco. As Draco said he talks about comics too much and this is the perfect place for it. I love chatting about comics here and its the one place I can have a chat without being told I'm sad! ha ha

[Draco]

I've made a start on the bay of E's...

Got some bids in for 3 1st issues of Marvel New Universe stuff and I've seen some crossgen bits I'm also tempted by.

Good posts Knightt & Draco. As Draco said he talks about comics too much and this is the perfect place for it. I love chatting about comics here and its the one place I can have a chat without being told I'm sad! ha ha

Dude, at age 12 the other kids teased me about comics.
The funny thing is serving them and their children now.





p.s check with me before you jump into the ebay thing as i have a monster amount of bits here you can grab.

[Phoenix8008]

I've made a start on the bay of E's...

Got some bids in for 3 1st issues of Marvel New Universe stuff and I've seen some crossgen bits I'm also tempted by.

Good posts Knightt & Draco. As Draco said he talks about comics too much and this is the perfect place for it. I love chatting about comics here and its the one place I can have a chat without being told I'm sad! ha ha

Cool! Which New Universe titles are you bidding on the 1st issues of? My favorites were DP7, Psi-Force, and Starbrand. Justice was good as well. I'm still amused that the 4 series of the 8 New Universe titles I liked best from the get go ended up being the ones that went past 12 issues.