Christmas Gifts Ideas for the comic book nerd

Sure, it is late for this kind of thing, except for some of us who still have all but a single gift purchased.  Some of use love the thrill of procrastination.  I'm going to split these up between the comic book nerd that has everything so will be looking at some newer releases, and then maybe the person you want to get into comics.

First up is the newer stuff for the everyday comic book nerd. 

Chew vol 3: Just Desserts written by John Layman with artist Rob Guillory.  Tony Chu, the main character for this series, is a cibopathic FDA agent meaning he has the ability to get a psychic impression of something by eating it.  Being an detective for the government, this quickly turns into him eating dead body parts and getting an impression of what happened to that person as they died.  This particular volume deals with Tony hunting down his ex-partner, Mason Savoy, who is also a cibopath.






The Unwritten Vol 2: Inside Man written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Peter Gross.  Unwritten follows Tom Taylor, who's father wrote books in the same vein as Harry Potter, but with his son as the main character.  Tom has to deal with somewhat celebrity status because the character was so closely based on him. So think if Harry Potter was based off a real kid, just an completely boring kid.  Only later do strange things start happening, and make his followers believe he actually is the character from the book.  Volume 2 follows Tom into prisoner where he was sent after being accused of killing a room full of famous artists.

Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit adapted from the classic series of books and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke.  This is a sequel to The Hunter which is also a great book, and I suggest both of these books.  Parker is hunting down members of The Outfit to get revenge for messing with his life.  The style of the book has that classic noir style, and Cooke illustrated the book to keep with that them, and it works perfectly for this book.


Now for the classic books or trying to get the new people turned to into a comic book nerd.


Y: The Last Man written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Pia Guerr. Yorick Brown is for all intents and purposes the last surviving male on Earth, save for his pet money Ampersand. This series ended two years ago, and has been out in paper back volumes for awhile, but I have been enjoying the hard back collected editions. Yorick along with his bodyguard Agent 355, has been following Doctor Mann across the country and now across continents.

Pride of Baghdad written by Brian K Vaughan as well.  During the bombings of Baghdad, a group of lines escape the city zoo and this story follows them around the city while giving them human qualities.  Based on a true story of some animals, this like the Y: The Last Man is not a traditional superhero comic book and is easily accessible to non-comic book readers.

 If you like either of the two most widely know superheroes around, then you may like the next three books.  All three are by the team of Jeph Loeb writing and Tim Sale illustrating.  Superman: Man for All Seasons, Batman: Long Halloween, and its sequel Batman: Dark Victory.  Superman is less about him being a superhero, but more about him dealing with the repercussions of being a superhero.  Batman Long Halloween centers around the crime families of Gotham, and the Holiday Killer, and also the origins of Two-Face.  Dark Victory is the follow-up with the crime families struggling after the events of Long Halloween, and then the Hang-Man Killer killing cops throughout the year.  There is classic Batman stories here with Batman being more detective instead of just a fighter.

Sleeper  written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sead Phillips.  Agent Holden Carver was given superpowers by his boss in the government and then sent into a secret organization as an undercover agent. Only problem is that the only person who knew he was a double agent is now in a coma.  He struggles with not getting caught while also slipping into just accepting his fate as a supervillan as he feels that no one will ever believe him as a double agent.





Finally,  Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Rags Morales and Michael Bair.  The Superheroes of the DC Universe are in a crisis because family members of heroes are being killed. The JLA come together to try and hunt down the killer. One of the better "DC Crisis" stories, and a definite for and DC fan out there, or any who enjoyed shows like the JLA Unlimited TV Series.