Ask Collected Editions #1 - Flash, Grant Morrison, Booster Gold, Fables

We're introducing a new segment on the Collected Editions blog today. It's "Ask Collected Editions", where I answer your most pressing trade paperback questions.

Reader Silver Tomato Productions left some great questions in his comments, so I thought I'd answer them in a post. Here goes ...

... Being a trade afficienato, I was hoping you could straighten out some reading order related stuff.

Firstly, the Flash books. I want to read some modern Flash, preferably from Waid and Johns. Where do I start, in terms of TPBs, and could you please walk me through the reading order of the subsequent ones.

Secondly, I want to dabble in some Grant Morrison. What's the reading order in terms of TPBs for his Batman run? Is We3 good? Seven Soldiers? Any other suggestions?

Thirdly, I wanted to get on the Booster Gold bandwagon, but I know that that's a hefty comittment. In addition to 52, what do I need to read before starting on Booster, and what're the names of the Booster trades.

Lastly, I wondered why you don't have more Fables reviews up? Did you lose interest after Arabian Nights and Days? If you're going to do them, that's fine, but if you can't/don't want to and are open to the idea, I'd love to do some guest reviews as far as Fables.

That's it. Thanks for all the work you do for wait-for-traders like myself.

Tomato

Well, Tomato, let's see what we can do.

For the Flash reading order, allow me to direct you to our Top Flash Trade Paperbacks list, which runs down (no pun intended) the various Flash eras since Crisis on Infinite Earths. I'm also particularly proud of our retrospect of the Geoff Johns Flash era, if you'll allow another plug.

The reading order for Grant Morrison's Batman run is Batman and Son, Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, Batman: The Black Glove, Batman R.I.P., and then on to the new Batman and Robin series. Of those I mentioned, Black Glove is wonderfully creepy (the best of them, short of the R.I.P. event), and Resurrection one you could skip if you were so inclined.

As for Morrison's other work, I enjoyed Seven Soldiers and devoted a series of reviews to it on the blog, but I don't necessarily run to re-read it like I might Batman R.I.P; I think it gets a tad confused toward the end. I haven't read We3, but I hear lots of good things about it -- see Wild Tyme, Comics Worth Reading, Line of Fire Reviews, Always Bet on Bahlactus, and Read About Comics, among others.

New Booster Gold trades include 52 Pick-Up, Blue and Gold, Reality Lost, and the forthcoming Day of Death. For some classic Booster Gold material, one of these days I'm going to pick up the oversized, black-and-white Showcase Presents: Booster Gold, collecting the old Dan Jurgens series.

Regarding Fables, I didn't much enjoy Homelands, but I thought the series bounced back with Arabian Nights (and Days). Bottom line, however, there were just so many mainstream DC Comics trades I wanted to buy, and the price of trades going up such, that I just couldn't afford to keep getting Fables (or Y: The Last Man, much to my chagrin). Now I see Vertigo is releasing deluxe editions of both series (love those deluxe editions!); chances are that somewhere down the road I'll start over with those, and then you'll see reviews of both series.

Thanks again Tomato for your questions and for supporting the blog. I appreciate it!

If you'd like to participate in "Ask Collected Editions," send your questions to our Yahoo account (see address in footer) and I'll try to answer them in the next segment. (Questions may be edited, not all questions may be used, etc., etc.) Thanks for reading!