Graphic Novels; Where to Start
 

So I've never been I to comics (except a brief stint with GI Joe comics when I was young, and am interested in purchasing some graphic novels to get me into the genre.
I'm planning to get Dark Knight Returns, as I hear that's the best, but for you afficianodos, where would you start?

As I research, I find that I'm pretty interested in the stories with alternate stories (Marvel in the past, Superman as a Soviet, etc) but that's just from reviews. I'm also pretty drawn to Batman.

The Sandman graphic novels are pretty awesome (though they're really comic books, but they're bound into compendiums).

The superman as a Soviet is really good.

Compendium will work. I just don't want to spend 2-5 dollars on somethibg I'll blow through in 5 minutes.

Also, it possible I'll need to learn how to read comic books, as I assume you don't want to blow through them.

Marvel in the past. You mean like that 1602 stuff they had running a while back?

I'm a fan of Dark Horse era Conan.

Yeah

For Batman the big ones (other than DKR) are Year One, The Killing Joke, and The Long Halloween. And if you like The Long Halloween, its sequel Dark Victory is good as well. I like the Batman: Earth One graphic novels, but it's kind of a reimagined take on Batman, and sometimes people have a problem with that.

Superman: Earth One is good as well, but if I was going to recommend a Superman comic it'd be All Star Superman. It's probably the best Superman comic ever, but don't go in expecting gritty realism. Which isn't to say it doesn't take itself seriously. It embraces the 1950s insanity of Superman and makes it work.

Marvel's a little tougher, because they don't have the obvious self-contained stories to recommend like DC does. Recommending things from Marvel you start getting into entire runs, which is basically saying "get this series of 8 graphic novels".

If you want to get up to speed on the Marvel/DC universes, I would recommend Crisis on Infinite Earths compendium for DC and Civil War compendium for Marvel (although both universes are rebooting themselves right now, but that is another subject).

I liked the Sinestro Corps War for DC, as well.

And if you're just reading for entertainment and not to get caught up up various storylines, do NOT miss this...

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/2135/kingdomcome2.jpg

Solid. I'm very interested in that.

Thank you. This is great info.

Charles Burns' Black Hole