I HAVE TWO EXPLOSIVE LINES OF INQUIRY, GV

atma

I humbly request your best answer to these queries, the rad and mad for comics need only reply:

Of all the series you love, how many of them did you get to follow from issue one? How many long serials have you read missing the front of the story?

And following that;

How important is it, do you think artistically or otherwise, for issue one of a series to be spectacular? Need it merely be representative of the content to follow?

This is my first thread in GV and I'm sorry to disturb you gentlemen, but please be kind.

Solar

I'm pretty new to comics but there are a few series I got to read from issue one, notably Vengeance of the Moon Knight which was really great. I kind of enjoy it when something starts afresh and that's a point in support of the new Avengers stuff because I can be there right from the start (for me I find it very hard to read a series without having picked up all the previous stuff). And yes, first issues tend to need to be good, if only to make you interested in buying more.

So yeah that's my 2p.

wwtMask

The first issue must be pretty good/great if the creators are an unknown quantity. No one is going to stick with a book that's just okay from a creator that they don't know.

I've followed about 5 or 6 ongoing series from the beginning, and only 1 of them (Criminal) was one that I really loved.

Munch

atma wrote: »

I humbly request your best answer to these queries, the rad and mad for comics need only reply:

Of all the series you love, how many of them did you get to follow from issue one? How many long serials have you read missing the front of the story?

And following that;

How important is it, do you think artistically or otherwise, for issue one of a series to be spectacular? Need it merely be representative of the content to follow?

Eesh, I don't know how many I've followed from issue one. A lot?

I will say that, with a few exceptions, when I get really into a character, I try to accumulate as much old material as I can, but for most comics, starting at the beginning is pretty infeasible. I couldn't chronologically navigate through all the X-Men and Spider-Man comics even if they were in TPB. Still, in lieu of starting at issue one, I'll usually just find a specific era to hop onto a long-running book. For instance, I started reading Spider-Man when JMS and JR Jr. took over, because I wanted to read about Spider-Man, and it seemed like a good jumping on point.

I think your second question's the more interesting one. Personally, I want a first issue to be both spectacular, and indicative of what's to come. If it's a superhero comic, I want to meet the supporting cast, a villain, see the hero in their costume, have a good action beat, and have the high concept for the book laid out in a clear and concise manner.

In this respect, I think Robert Kirkman's Invincible had one of the best first issues I've read in years. You get Invincible discovering his powers, learn he likes comics, meet his parents and friends, he fights a supervillain, he gets his costume, the plot of the first arc is teased, and the book's premise is laid out. It's pretty much everything I want from the start of a superhero comic.

Likewise, nothing bugs me more than a bad first issue. I mentioned elsewhere that the first issue of this week's Atlas irked me, in large part because the titular team barely showed up, and most of the issue was dedicated to a new addition to the cast clobbering people possessed by some vague energy. If I wasn't such a fan of the creators and characters, I would have no idea what the Hell was to come in that book, or who the guys that show up at the end are, and really no desire to keep reading.

Comics Alliance also did a round table review of Avengers #1, which also had a couple of interesting thoughts on first issues.

TexiKen

I don't remember getting into many series (not counting minis or short lived, 12-issues then canned type series) that I like from the first issue. I guess the most recent would be Secret Six, and then Captain Britain and MI-13. And books that I would later love like Thunderbolts or the first JSA run I came into the series late, like 50 issues late. But if I liked what I read, I slowly worked backwards bit by bit.

And issue one needs to have a hook, be it good art or a likeable character to keep me interested. Sometimes a first issue can be mediocre but I have faith that the writer will do something or is setting up something big or interesting in the future. For instance, All-New Atom #1 wasn't a "wow" issue, but it had a nice hook in it being a brand new character and some of John Byrne's best art in recent years. It kept me interested and by #3 I knew we were getting something cool when Puritans go watch a movie at a drive-in. Captain Britain & MI-13 took a different approach and just went balls deep into a war that, if you read the Secret Invasion mini proper after reading it, would be shit because in Captain Britain it was a war, truly something that you wonder how far are they allowed to go with these B-listers.

Witch_Hunter_84

The only complete run of any series I have from beginning to end is Dark Avengers, and I'm pretty proud of that. I read them all once and they shall never be opened again!

I don't count limited series and special events though.

liquiddark

I don't think I've started at issue 1 of anything, but if I like a book I'll get all of it:

- Y, the Last Man
- Transmetropolitan
- Freakangels
- Bone
- Scud, the Disposable Assassin
- Scott Pilgrim
- Sandman
- Cerebus (haven't finished the entire run, but getting through it)
- The Boys (ongoing)

Out of those, Transmetropolitan had probably the best first issue, but any given issue of the series would have convinced me, the thing kicks ass from word one. The only ones in this list I probably would have passed over based on #1 would be Sandman (doesn't really get good until the stories from the Dream Country TPB) and Freakangels (only really got good in the past couple of months).

I think if you're with one of the Bigs and not indie or semi-indie, then having a near-perfect first issue is important just from a financial point of view. Indie books it's not as important as long as you're persistent and have some way to survive a less-than-stellar launch (and a way to generate word of mouth on an ongoing basis).