Hagen @mrbillyjoebob - Tumblr Blog

Can you suggest a great place to start for a new Batman comics fan?

Hi! Ooooh this is a tough one. It kinda depends on what kind of Batman stories and which characters from the batfamily you like.

A great place to start is Batman: Year One by Frank Miller because it’s basically a modern retelling of the origin story.

I can also recommend some classic/pre-n52 Batman stories that you can read as standalones (in other words, they don’t require catching up with a year of comics before reading):

- Batman: Two-Face and Scarecrow Year One. Introduction to well-known villains. Basically, everything with “Year One” behind it is designed to be a starting point.

- The Long Halloween, by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Very well-known and acclaimed. It has a sequel, Dark Victory.

- The Killing Joke, by Alan Moore. This one is a bit controversial in the fandom, some hail it as a classic, others don’t care for it much or downright hate it. In any case, it’s famous, maybe even famous enough for your library to have a copy.

- Hush, followed up by Hush Returns, and Heart of Hush. Hush isn’t a very well-known villain outside of the comics, but I feel like he’s brought up pretty often in the comics after his introduction, so it might be a good idea to read “Hush” just so you know who he is. "Hush” also has lots of appearances by other Batman characters, villains and heroes alike.

- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. This is an AU story (which of course makes it a perfect standalone) but it’s a very famous one. Its success kinda started the “darker and grittier” trend that most movies follow.

There are many more but it has been a while since I’ve read them. No doubt some of my followers will be able to add to this.

If you’re interested in the Batfamily, here are some pre-n52 books for them:

- Robin Year One (Dick Grayson)

- Batgirl Year One (Barbara Gordon)

- A Death in the Family (the death of Jason Todd)

- “Robin” is a solo title for Tim Drake’s Robin, the collections are called Robin: Flying Solo, Robin: Teenage Wasteland, and Robin: The Big Leagues.

- Battle for the Cowl: this story takes place after Bruce Wayne/Batman has “died”, leaving Gotham in disarray. It introduces Dick Grayson as Batman with Damian Wayne as Robin.

- Tim Drake becomes Red Robin and has another solo title. Collections are: Red Robin: The Grail, Council of Spiders, Collision, Hit List, and Rabbithole.

- Gates of Gotham: a solid story that features Dick Grayson as Batman.

If you do want to read an actual run, I can recommend the Batman n52 run. The n52 was a reboot in 2011, which had a lot of issues as a whole because it erased fan favourite characters and storylines, so you’ll find a lot of people complaining about n52 online (usually for good reasons). However, the “Batman” title was actually pretty good. (Although I’ve only read the first 5 TPs, I couldn’t keep up with comics anymore when I started working full-time so if they became terrible after Zero Year, do let me know in the comments lol.) Here are the collections of that run: Batman: The Court of Owls (2012), Batman: The City of Owls (2013), Batman: Death of the Family (2013), Batman: Zero Year - Secret City (2014), Batman: Zero Year - Dark City (2014), Batman: Graveyard Shift (2015), Batman: Endgame (2015), Batman: Superheavy (2016), Batman: Bloom (2016), and Batman: Epilogue (2016).

(I personally wasn’t a big fan of what the n52 did with the other members of the batfamily, so I focussed mostly on Batman stories during this time. I heard the n52 “Detective Comics” run, which is Batman’s other title, was decent as well but I wasn’t keeping up with that one so I can’t be sure.)

I can’t recommend anything more recent (after 2016) because I actually wasn’t able to keep up with comics anymore. (I know the n52 ended, but idk anything about what followed it.) But I’m sure some of my followers will be able to give even more recommendations!

In the end, this is very personal. When it comes to comics, there’s just so much out there, you can’t possibly read it all and there really isn’t such a thing as “required reading”. There will be writers whose interpretation of the characters you like, and ones you hate. ^^; You’ll have to discover what your taste is, and have fun along the way. :)

actressgal

Rest in paradise, Helen Reddy.

We will never forget all the wonderful gifts you gave the world.

October 25th, 1941 ~ September 29th, 2020

positive-outlooks

You’re exactly where you need to be.

alannasolflower

I needed this. 💓

chizuu-deactivated20200817

me: looks up something related to adhd / autism every article ever: observe your child’s behavior. talk to your child about it. you know, your child that you have, because this is a condition children have. everyone knows that autistic people disappear by the time they hit 18 years of age

00dani

gotta love the implicit assumption that an autistic person couldn’t possibly be looking up information about themselves too

iprayforangels-deactivated20220

Me looking in the mirror: I am observing the child’s behavior.

its-the-fluorescentsss

Cinematic parallels

la-laborista-republiko

cockmcstuffins

bella was lucky she didn’t have a cell phone of any kind because you know ya boi edward would be blowing up that phone 24-7 going “saw a snail today…. effervescent” or some shit equivalent

wildesappho-deactivated20201031

classics are like: you went so extremely hard with the misogyny that it turned into homoeroticism

oldangeliloqui

“i hate women so much that i only kiss men”

hashtagloveloses

rapunzel has a whole song about what you can do while self-isolating at home. tangled said queen of social distancing

incorrectelu

she is the princess of corona. literally. like that’s the name of her kingdom.

desertedbluffs-deactivated20201

im sure this has already been done before but

thenatsdorf

2019 Fashion year in review. (via @rover_thecat)

pricklylegs-deactivated20250727

That mouse necklace!

ottermatopoeia

henstomper

How to talk to a “Gamer”

Consider asking the Gamer about their “Specs”, which is short for spectres. Gamers enjoy passing the time by discussing the various ghosts trapped within their “gaming” contraptions. At this point, they will begin rattling off a long list of entirely meaningless numbers, letters, and phrases. This should give you enough time to prepare your sedative.

ultrafacts

Source

Video of Tama

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

majikkant-deactivated20180504

The picture in the background of the second one

pizzaismylifepizzaisking

Tama is boss

ultrafacts

cat-fandom

THE TRAINS HAVE CARTOON TAMAS ON THEM

ultrafacts

Sad update everyone, Tama recently passed away… An estimated 3,000 people, including railway officials, attended Tama the cat’s funeral on Sunday, days after she died of heart failure aged 16. [x]

retro-geek-deactivated20220412

For those who haven’t read articles about it, the local shrine elevated her to a god. She’s now the Eternal Stationmaster and patron god of the station.

karinanotcinerina

Beautiful.

system-fail-ure-deactivated2021

Now I’m crying thanks

sapphic-matriarchy

and a new cat was hired right?

clarenecessities

yep! her name is Nitama (essentially ”second tama” or “tama II”) and she served under Tama as an apprentice before being appointed her deputy

she works very hard

beasti

Everytime this crosses my dash, I reblog. It is the law.

lafayettelabaguette

Law

tooiconic

I’m crying at 11pm over train cats

sighinastorm

Nitama, already now a mature cat (born 2010), has a protege named Yontama (fourth Tama, b. 2016). There is no information available for either the physical befellment or tragic self-disgrace which has removed Santama from contention.

^Nitama majestic, and below with Yontama

Yontama.

linkislost

a legacy

bemusedlybespectacled

okay but actually what happened to santama (or sun-tama-tama, which is her name because it’s a pun on santama) was that she was basically sent to train for the position in okayama and they liked her so much they refused to send her back

kindaoffkilter

“Sun-tama-tama” (a pun off of “Santama”, lit. “third Tama”) was a calico cat sent for training in Okayama. Sun-tama-tama was considered as a candidate for Tama’s successor, but the Okayama Public Relations representative who had been caring for Sun-tama-tama refused to give the cat up writing, “I will not let go of this child, she will stay in Okayama.” [25]

As of September 2018, Sun-tama-tama is working as the stationmaster in Naka-ku, Okayama and appears occasionally on Tama’s Twitter account.

cryoverkiltmilk

Every time I see this post there’s new info and it gets better

northeastartist

You are only allowed to scroll pass this after you pay tribute to the great Tama Station masters.

redchrominance

The shrine of Tama Daimyōjin (Great gracious deity Tama), next to the Kishi station where she worked.

Nitama presenting her yearly offerings to Tama Daimyōjin on the anniversary of Tama’s Death, June 23 (The offerings are presented by the company president, as Nitama is a cat and thus can’t hold the offerings herself) (Not pictured, but also present, Yontama)

anxietyproblem

zero-two-ten

this site has one setting

rus-califi

Welcome to the space age, ladies and gentlemen

shunkawarakin

This is really quite a big deal. A tremendous amount of modern research ends up being sold to journals which require unreasonable payments to access it and only pay the original authors a pittance. It’s nice to see an agency like NASA deliberately widebanding its findings.

vabla

Not sure if people fully realize just how big of a deal this is. THIS is how science is advanced. Not through biased corporate research, business secrets, marketing, paywalls and patent wars. But through open, uncensored and unrestricted public access to knowledge.