And the new
Humble Books Bundle is themed on banned and challenged books.
It's not just a good theme, it is, in terms of quality content for your money, the single best collection of comics I have ever seen.
Pay more than the average and you get Heartbreak Soup.
Heartbreak Soup is my all-time favorite comic. Your mileage may vary, but as far as I'm concerned, it goes Heartbreak Soup, then Maus, then that Spider-Man arc where he has to lift the rubble off him as Doc Ock's underwater base collapses. (No, Watchmen is not in my top three.)
It's also got the first volume of Bone. Bone is phenomenal; it's an all-ages adventure story in the classic mold, with influences from Walt Kelly to Carl Barks to Don Martin; it's funny and it's
gorgeously drawn. You should definitely get it if you haven't read it yet; it's at the first tier so it can be yours for a penny.
The bottom tier's also got Maggie the Mechanic, which is the other Love and Rockets vol 1. (Heartbreak Soup is the first volume of Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar stories; Maggie the Mechanic is the first volume of Jaime Hernandez's Locas stories.) Maggie the Mechanic is great too, but for my money it's not as great as Heartbreak Soup, or as the other Locas stories that followed. ("The Death of Speedy" is widely regarded as the best Love and Rockets story; if I'm not mistaken it's in vol 2 of Locas. Wouldn't be surprised to see that show up in this bundle later on.)
Bottom tier also has The Frank Book. And if I have a reservation about recommending Frank, it's that I'm not sure I want to read it on a 10" screen. Jim Woodring's work is beautiful, surreal, wordless, and incredibly detailed; it looks best in an oversized book, and I suspect it might lose something on a screen. But for the price (which, again, is as low as you set it) it's well worth checking out.
I have six pieces of comic book art hanging on my walls. One is a Quantum and Woody poster signed by Christopher Priest; one is an Uncle Scrooge print signed by Don Rosa. The other four are Jim Woodring prints that my uncle gave me for my birthday after using them in a museum exhibit.
There's some other stuff in there that I don't know as much about. I like Chester Brown but I haven't read The Little Man; I like Jeff Lemire but I haven't read Essex County. I suppose they're both pretty great based on their respective cartoonists' other work, but I don't know them.
And The Boys is in there. The Boys is not for me; I'm not a Garth Ennis fan. But if you like the sound of a bunch of asshole superheroes being taken down by a group of regular guys led by somebody who looks exactly like Simon Pegg, you'll probably dig it.
But seriously, this bundle? If you have never read a comic book in your life, this has two that I think you
need to read. (Three if you count Frank, but again, not sure how well that one translates to a screen.) And several more that may not be quite so high on the must-read list but still rank as Great.