Posted in: Comics | Tagged: christmas, comic shop, comic store in your future, Comics, gifts

Comics To Give For Christmas – Comic Store In Your Future

Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa, writes weekly for Bleeding Cool. Find previous columns here.  This week? Christmas.

It is the season, the season to shop for those you care for. Comic books, trade paperbacks, and hardcover collections are excellent gifts. With such a wide variety of materials, there is something for everyone. Have young kids in your life you want to get into reading? Comics are an excellent gateway to reading. Reading for entertainment makes it easier to overcome one's reluctance to read,

IDW publishes kid-friendly comic titles featuring Marvel characters such as The Avengers, Black Panther, and Spider-Man along with collections. Other kid-friendly titles published by IDW featuring popular characters are My Little Pony, Sonic the Hedgehog, and more. They publish Star Wars Adventures, which is aimed at young readers for the kids in your life that enjoy Star Wars. Here at Rodman Comics, we love kids coming in for comics. Kids do not care if a comic book is the first issue or if it will be worth money in the future. They want to be entertained.

What about the young adult or older adult in your life? There are Star Trek comics and collections available from IDW. Comics and collections featuring classic Star Trek, Next Generation, Picard, Star Trek from the last few movies, and more. Here in the store, the more popular Star Trek comics and collections are the ones that feature the Mirror Universe evil versions of the Next Generation. A buff evil version of Picard turned out to be a cool character for many to read about.

IDW has published Transformers comic books for years. Transformers even had a crossover with classic Trek. Transformers have been having an increase in interest this year for us.

Another old property, G.I. Joe, was part of my childhood and recently grew in popularity. IDW has an ongoing comic and collections for the title.

For non-young kids, people may have seen the TV shows, games, or old movies based on comic characters. There is plenty of comic book material for people already into comics or for those you believe might like to get into comics.

BOOM! Studios releases monthly Buffy the Vampire comics. The old sci-fi series Firefly lives on in a monthly Firefly comic. Know fans of the old Dune movie or the new upcoming Dune movie? Boom! Studios recently released a new Dune comic. Bill and Ted's adventures continue on the printed page with Bill and Ted, are Doomed limited series that wrapped up this month. Old school gamers most likely played Mega Man back in the day. Mega Man currently is in his own limited series, Mega Man Fully Charged.

Many people have seen the movies featuring Amazing Spider-Man, Aquaman, the Avengers, Batman, Shazam, Superman, the X Men, and more, though have they read the comics that were the source material for the movies? These characters have been around for decades and have plenty of comics available to pick from. What collections would I recommend?

Aquaman first showed up in More Fun Comics #73 back in 1941. More Fun Comics 73 is also Green Arrow's first appearance. There are many comics books out there to pick from that would make great gifts for Aquaman fans. As for collections people might be most interested in,

• I would recommend for older possible fans Aquaman Death of a Prince, which collects stories from 1974 to 1978. Adventure Comics 435-437, 441-455, and Aquaman 57-63. It features Mera and Black Manta.
• Aquaman Suicide Squad Sink Atlantis trade. Suicide Squad will be featured in a new upcoming movie. Add them in with Aquaman to make a good story for a great gift collection.
• Aquaman the Trench. The Trench was introduced in this storyline and used in the Aquaman movie. When someone comes in and is interested in getting into Aquaman, this trade is the first one I recommend to people walking into the store showing interest in reading Aquaman material.

The Avengers first became a team in 1963. The Hulk was even a founding member.

• For older possible fans, I would try giving them the Avengers Defenders War trade. It collects material from the 70s. The trade has Avengers 115-118 and Defenders 8-11.
• The Avengers vs. the X Men and the Fantastic Four trade. The Avengers go after Magneto, and the X-Men try to stop them. The X Men go to Doctor Doom for help. The Fantastic Four are not happy about that. It collects X Men vs. the Avengers 1-4, Fantastic Four vs. the X Men 1-4, X Men 9, and Fantastic Four 28.
• The Avengers by Hickman vol 1. Collects Avengers 1-5 from 2012, New Avengers 1-6, and Astonishing Tales of Mojoworld 1-6.

Batman's first appearance is in Detective Comics 27 from 1939. There is a lot of great Batman storylines out there. Here are just a few.

• Batman Knightfall vol 1 Batman vs. Bane and Bane breaks the Bat.
• Batman Court of Owls vol 1 New 52. Great writing and great art. Collects Batman 1- 7.
• Batman the Button, what if Batman had a chance to meet his dad, who became Batman? Crazy stuff here, along with a team-up with the Flash. Collects the current series of Batman issues 21 and 22 and the current Flash series of Flash 21 and 22.

Shazam! Originally Captain Marvel, who first appeared in Whiz Comics in 1940.

• Shazam trade vol 1 New 52. This collection is a large influence on the Shazam movie. Collects Justice League 0, 21 and stories from Justice League 7-11,14-16,18-20.
• Shazam trade vol 1 The Seven Magic Lands. Collects issues from the latest Shazam comic run.

Superman's first comic appearance was back in 1938 with Action Comics 1.

• Superman Secret Identity. A complete self-contained story. Collects issues 1-4 of Superman Secret Identity.
• The Death of Superman trade. The most famous Superman storyline collected. Superman: The Man of Steel 18-19, Justice League of America 69, Superman 74-75, and Action Comics 684 are collected in this trade.
• Superman and the Legion of Superheroes trade. Part of the Legion decides they need Superman's help in the future. Collects Action Comics #858-863.

The X-Men first showed up in 1963 though it would be years before they would become super popular.

• X-Men: God Loves Man Kills. Collects X Men: God Loves, Man Kills Extended Cut issues 1 and 2.
• X-Men trade Mutant Massacre. A gritty story where a group of mutants decides to slaughter other mutants, and the X Men make some tough choices. Collects Uncanny X Men 210-214, X-Factor 9-11, New Mutants 46, Thor 373-374, Power Pack 27, and Daredevil 238.
• House of X Powers of X collection. These two limited series are what started the current direction of the X titles. Collects House of X 1-6 and Powers of X 1-6.

There you have it, some gift ideas! Happy holidays everyone.

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