I saw this last night and just had to pass it on to you guys out there who have yet to get into comic books or graphic novels, and would like to learn more about where you friggin’ start with all of it.
IGN.com has begun a big series of articles entitled the Ultimate Reader’s Guide that aims to help inform you about everything under the sun about comic books, whether you are a newbie or a returning fan.
Their first volume is all about DC Comics and it also explains the basics of comics, plus all the titles out there from the DC universe that you should read.
I like this little section below explaining how comic books make it from their “flimsy” form to a trade paperback/graphic novel. I’ve gotten a few friends asking me what the heck the difference is, but this is a great way to describe it:
In the last decade the trend has become for publishers to collect storylines (or arcs) in longer books, often called trade paperbacks. The standard practice for most mainstream books is for each storyline to be broken up into five or six individual issues, which are then collected in a trade. Many times, multiple trades will then be collected in larger, deluxe hardcovers.
Ultimate Spider-Man is a perfect example of this practice. Each arc tends to be about six issues long. These issues are collected in a trade paperback. Two trade paperbacks are then combined to form a hardcover. Sometimes a publisher will take things a step further, as when Marvel combined the first three Ultimate Spider-Man hardcovers into a larger hardcover.
Occasionally a comic will skip the monthly format altogether and be released as a trade. These books are often referred to as original graphic novels, or OGNs. OGNs are increasingly rare as they are generally less profitable for publishers.
Check out the rest of it, I think it’s worth a read if you are looking to get into this arena of pop culture. If you are ALREADY a comic book expert, I’m curious what you think of what IGN has to say and also the choices of comics they give us from the DC world.
Also, today (Friday) they should also come out with their guide to the Marvel Universe, so take a peek at that too.
Ok so, the Cap'n doesn't need to create a blog-website anymore =(
Awesome link Mo, thanks for postin it!!
I'm glad, because if anything, you are writing for THIS blog
Nice concept – I like the idea of this. I think this might be where the Ape can finally enter the world of comics since I've never been into them before. I'll have to check it out more – thanks for the info!
Great project. Looking forward to see how it will look when they reach the end of the run.
Yeah, good project and very helpful.
Welcome to Pop Critics
Hope to see you around more often, there are quite a few Iron Man fans here 
Nice to have something digital to link to when coercing friends to take a look at comics. Easier than getting them to buy Understanding Comics.
And thanks for the warm welcome! Who says Disqus can't be a great referrer.
I was wondering if there's a way to subscribe specifically to comics-related content by RSS, but I seem to be confusing some tags with categories and so forth, so if you could clarify I'd appreciate it greatly. Your assortment of comics news is too good to pass up.
Actually Niclas, we don't have anything yet, but your comment raised a great point that we hadn't really looked at before, so we'll be checking into that.
We do need to break down our content a bit better, because right now all comic book stuff is just in our “books” category, but it really should be separate.
And feeds for all of them might be interesting – TV, Movies, Comics, Books, Music, etc.
Thanks for the idea, we are always striving to make this place better and more interactive.
looking forward to this!