Everyone of every age loves a comic book in their stocking over the holidays. And if that gift can’t fit (or is too heavy) in the stocking, how about just gift-wrapped with a bow?
As we head into the stretch holiday-shopping drive, Biff Bam Pop! has got you covered with even more comic book love for your comic book loving loved one. Head over to your local comic book shop or book store with this first list and find the right comic for the right person:
Miles Morales: Shock Waves (Original Spider-Man Graphic Novel) (Marvel Comics/Graphix)
Written by Justin A. Reynolds (Opposite of Always, Early Departures, Forever End on Fridays) and illustrate by Pablo Leon (Refugees), Miles Morales: Shock Waves is a coming-of-age activism story featuring everyone favourite (new-ish) Spider-Man.
This is a compelling story for the middle grade reader in your life (or any fan of Miles, truth be told) about big business, the exploitation of people, our role in society and the ties that bind family and friends together. Miles Morales is all of us – especially all of us at a younger age, when we see the world through a more optimistic lens that tends to dull as we as we get older.
If there’s a kid in your life whose world is opening up to possibilities, who is starting to make important connections between economics, poverty, people and places across the world and is looking for a sense of purpose – and even some heroism – Miles Morales: Shock Waves is a perfect holiday gift reading experience.
Exploring Gotham City (Insight Kids)
Exploring Gotham City is a wonderfully lavish hardcover romp through the highest towers, craziest and most desperate locales, and deepest caverns of Batman’s base of operations. It’s a great read for any fan of the Dark Knight, but perfect world-building fun for the burgeoning admirer, suited for anyone five years of age (with a little help in reading and understanding) and up.
Not only is it fantastic in your hands, but it looks great on a shelf or as a coffee table book, too!
Written by Matthew K. Manning (The DC Comics Encyclopedia, Superman: An Origin Story, The Art of AMC’s The Walking Dead Universe) and illustrated in a perfect art deco style by the famous MUTI studio (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Castle Glow-in-the-Dark Lock and Key Diary), you’ll discover all of the infamous streets, neighbourhoods and locales of Gotham City. Beginning with a two=page spread map that wouldn’t be out of place at a New York travel and tourism kiosk, Exploring Gotham City visual and background info highlights include Wayne Manor, the Bat Cave, Arkham Asylum, Burnside, Blackgate Prison, The Iceberg Lounge and a whole host of other places that make the city itself a main protagonist in the Batman mythos.
For new and old fans of Batman, his family of heroes and his cadre of villains, Exploring Gotham City is a must-have and a perfect gift for any wide-eyed kid!
Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven (DC Comics)
Written by bestselling author Kami Garcia and wonderfully illustrated by Gabriel Picolo, (which was also the team behind other highly acclaimed young reader books Raven and Beast Boy), Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven focusses on the romantic meet-up between two of everyone’s favourite teen-angst superheroes!
While still dealing with recent events and life-altering experience (like, you know, discovering strange powers and trying to rid the world of your demon father), Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven takes Raven Roth and Garfield Logan on a journey where answers are sought. Unfortunately, the one person who might have those answers is the villainous Slade Wilson.
Like all great young adult reads, here is a story about trust and love…and the search for identity. It’s a story that is sure to resonate with any pre-teen lover of comics or books this holiday season.
Who’s Who Omnibus (DC Comics)
Back in the late 1980s, at the conclusion of DC Comics’ famous Crisis on Infinite Earth series that served to streamline and revamp the entire DC Universe, the comic publisher also saw fit to highlight their stable of characters in a dossier-styled series called appropriately enough, Who’s Who.
Illustrated by a legendary who’s who stable of artists including George Perez, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Jim Aparo, Jack Kirby, Todd McFarlane and many, many others, Who’s Who was an impossibly expansive series where individual monthly issues listed every character ever published by DC Comics, along with various iterations of those various characters. Because comics and comic book storytelling is an historically iterative process, even when the series finally ended after over two years of continuous publication, Who’s Who lived in various appendices releases, pull-out page publications and one-offs.
Now, all of that has been handsomely collected in a thick 1,320-page hardcover volume (part one of at least two!) that is nostalgic for those that remember 1980’s comics and characters and a treasure trove of heroic fun for new, younger enthusiasts.
The Who’s Who Omnibus is a pricey but priceless gift for friends or loved ones of any age -and will get you talking about characters and stories and reminiscing all of the best that DC Comics has to offer.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition (Marvel Comics)
Across the comic book character library aisle is the Marvel Comics offering of all things ever published. In the mid 1980s, it was the comic book publishers two-year monthly publication, an encyclopedic version of character-driven information that fans were clamouring for.
The 1,392 page hardcover tome called the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition collects the entire original series, covering heroes and villains from Abomination to Zzzax and features artwork by legends in Frank Miller, Arthur Adams, Walter Simonson, Bill Sienkiewicz, John Byrne and so many more!
Learn about all of your favourite characters histories, their powers, equipment, headquarters, alien races and maps of places. Not only is the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition make for entertaining, if somewhat nostalgic, reading now, but it’s also an amazing primer for any fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series of films. If you want to know how “it’s all connected” those linkages can certainly be found in these pages!
We’ve got even more last-minute comic recommendations coming tomorrow, so stay tuned!
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