When I was younger and had a level of disposable income that was inversely proportionate to my level of serious responsibility, I was a major comic book geek.

As I've written in the past, my best friend and I would go to comic cons once a month, where I'd stock up on the latest books, buy too many one-offs that were never really that good and, in one regrettable incident involving Batman: A Death in the Family, pay too much for extra mint copies as some sort of "investment." (Hey, I was young, rich, and foolish; at least it wasn't videotaped.)

Over the years, I always looked forward to that chance to lose myself in the new Sandman, Batman, Swamp Thing, Justice League, or X-Men. It was a great time in my life, but as I grew older and the ratio of time and disposable income to time and responsibilities began to shift, the weekly comic habit became a monthly habit, then an occasional luxury, before it was unceremoniously cut from my life all together.

Then, four years ago, I took my kids to Free Comic Book Day at what has since become my Friendly Local Comic Shop. The idea of Free Comic Book Day is wonderful: expose non-readers to comics, and current readers to new books they may not pick up on their own. At that Free Comic Book Day, I mentioned to the store's owner that I was a longtime Sandman fan, loved the miniseries inspired by The Prisoner, never missed an issue of Grendel, and would buy pretty much anything that was in Prestige Format (which eventually became the Vertigo line.) I asked him if he could recommend one or two books to me that I may like. Based upon that criteria, and he suggested Fables and Preacher.

He was right, and Free Comic Book Day could add a new description to its stated goals: remind prodigal comic readers why they started reading comics in the first place. I blew through the entire run of Preacher in a little over a week, and loved Fables so much, it became the first and only book I read in single-issue format since Sandman.

I still don't have much time for comics and graphic novels, but those two books entertained me so much, and gave me such an emotional connection to some of the happiest days of my life (even if I never got to eat pudding without first eating my meat) I found myself frequently day dreaming about a trip back to my Friendly Local Comic Shop, and over the last 12 months or so, that dream has become a reality, and I've become a comic reader again.

During the last year, guided by my friends and the owner of my Friendly Local Comic Shop, I've been fortunate enough to find some books that I missed the first time around when I was busy being a husband, stepfather, and struggling actor. They are now available in collected volumes, and a couple of them are still releasing new issues. I've deeply enjoyed them all, and today I thought I'd point out a few of them, in the hopes that there are some other geeks out in their 30s who at one time loved comics (or still do) but for one reason or another missed these when they were first published.

Top Ten
Created by Alan Moore
Illustrated by Gene Ha and Zander Cannon

Alan Moore is one of a select few writers who can take the heavily-mined superhero genre and find an undiscovered but brilliant gem. What's surprising is how many times he's successfully done it: Watchmen, several issues of Green Lantern and Green Arrow, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and his recreation of the origins of Swamp Thing are just a few stand-outs.

Moore's Top Ten puts the reader in a world where extraordinary super powers are actually quite ordinary. In fact, everyone in the city of Neopolis, from the tiniest rodent to the largest trans-dimensional being, has some sort of super ability, and Top Ten details the lives and exploits of the police force who must protect them all.

At its heart, it's a crime drama with the flawed characters and complex relationships of a show like Hill Street Blues, or The Wire, it's just that the characters all have fantastic powers and live in a city where there's a real risk of a hostage drama playing out with a criminal who is five stories tall. What makes it so satisfying to read and such a joy to re-read is how Moore uses the super powers to support the story, rather than relying on the fantastic situations to hold our interest. In fact, it's how ordinary the fantastic situations are that ends up making the characters in them so extraordinary.

In addition to the solid writing and wide range of very human characters, the artwork and attention to detail is just stunning. It really feels like Neopolis is a city packed with millions of people, almost to the point of giving the reader a sense of claustrophobia. In many of the backgrounds there are visual jokes, like references to classic superheroes, pop culture and enough "oh man I didn't see that the first time around!" material to reward several subsequent readings.

Top Ten originally ran as a 12-issue series, which is collected in two books. There have also been a few spinoffs, including a five issue mini called Smax, which was also written by Moore and is based on the eponymous character Jeff Smax.


Fables
Created by Bill Willingham
Various Illustrators

What if the characters from the fairy tales we all know were actually alive, and had their own land? Now what if some powerful force, who will just be known as The Adversary, drove all those people from their own land, and forced them to seek refuge in ours?

That's Fables. The characters who are human in appearance, like Snow White, Bluebeard, and Prince Charming all live in Manhattan, while all the non-human characters, like the Three Blind Mice, The Dish that Ran Away with the Spoon and Humpty Dumpty all live on a mysterious farm somewhere in upstate New York. The stories are usually crime-style capers, including the first collected issue in which detective Bigby Wolf must solve the murder of Rose Red, and they all focus on how the real lives of these characters aren't exactly the fairy tales we've come to expect.

The writing is engaging, (there's a reason it's won seven Eisner Awards) and the characters are a lot of fun. It's especially gratifying to read stories where the characters play against type (Goldilocks as a homicidal killer, for example) and there is the ever-present threat of The Adversary lurking over the back of every page.

There are eight collections of Fables and it is still releasing new issues, though some say it's become rather heavy-handed as of late. There is a spin-off that I haven't read called Jack of Fables, which follows the exploits of Little Jack Horner. Presumably, he does much more than just sit in the corner.


Transmetropolitan
Created by Warren Ellis
Illustrated by Darick Robertson

In Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis puts us in a future world simply called The City. It's sort of a cross between modern day New York, Tokyo, and Blade Runner's Los Angeles, where rampant consumerism and unaccountable politicians threaten to rob The City's citizens of what is left of their rapidly-evaporating humanity. Our anti-hero and protagonist is Spider Jerusalem, a gonzo journalist who doesn't just take on the system as much as he slowly and methodically dismantles it with sadistic glee while the system futilely begs for mercy.

Spider carries with him a device called a "bowel disruptor" which does exactly what it sounds like, from simple cramps to full on shitting yourself to death. While Spider frequently aims this device at other characters in the series, writer Ellis also turns its literary equivalent onto religion, politics, consumerism, and popular culture. This is not to suggest that it's preachy, in fact, quite the opposite; while Ellis has said that he created the series to "get some things off my chest," he manages to craft a compelling story with rich and multi-layered characters that holds our interest while it alternately boils our blood and cracks us up.

The result is like playing fetch with a pit bull: you never know when your friendly game of catch is going to turn into a mauling, but that's why it's so much fun to read. One of my friends pointed out that by the time you get to issue three, you're so hooked into Spider's world, you become a Jerusalem Junkie, unable to do much of anything until you get the next chapter, and I have to agree with him. Never in my life have I been so grateful that I didn't have to wait for a story to play out in single-issue format.

Transmetropilitan is collected into ten trade paperbacks (number six shares its title with a Pixies song, which I only mention because I'm such a fan, and it's rare that two things I love make any sort of venn diagram) and if you just can't get enough Spider Jerusalem when it's all over, check out Warren Ellis' website, where you'll discover that it's hard to know where Ellis ends and Jerusalem begins.


Preacher
Created by Garth Ennis
Illustrated by Steve Dillon

A priest, a stripper-turned-hitman, and a drunk vampire walk into a bar . . . seriously.

In Preacher we spend some quality time with Jesse Custer, a preacher of questionable moral purity who is possessed by something called Genesis, an entity which was created when an angel and a demon pounded one out, and could very well be more powerful than God and Satan. Apparently, God was so upset about this, He just sort of walked off the job and essentially abandoned all His followers on Earth (Hey, if douchebags like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were constantly speaking on my behalf and people actually listened to them, I'd abandon humanity too) Jesse wants to understand exactly why God hung up his cleats, so he sets out on a quest across America to find God and, uh, talk to him, or something. Along the way, he discovers this cool power called "the voice" which he can use to force anyone who hears him to carry out his commands. Accompanying him on his quest are his ex-girlfriend, Tulip O'Hare (who is one of the sexiest comic book girls I've ever seen. It honestly makes me a little uncomfortable that I find her so fucking hot, but I've just come to accept it) and a one hundred year-old alcoholic Irish vampire called Cassidy. Oh, and John Wayne shows up, too. And so does a guy with an ass for a face.

If you can accept all of that, you're going to love Preacher's largest story-arc, which involves an organization called The Grail, that wants to use Jesse to start Armageddon, as well as this ever-present character called The Saint of Killers, a sort-of Angel of Death sent from Heaven to capture or destroy Genesis, who is inconveniently (for our hero) stuck inside Jesse Custer. There are numerous other smaller arcs that are all tremendously satisfying, and when it's all done, Preacher is a classic Joseph Campbell-style hero's journey.

It's dark, it's funny, it's satirical, it's violent, and it's one of the most "American" comic books I've ever read that doesn't feature super heroes, yet it was created by an Englishman and and Irishman. Considering that Neil Gaiman, also an Englishman, crafted American Gods, which tackles our modern national mythology better than anything before or since, I'm wondering why we bothered to fight the Revolutionary War; these guys are obviously planning to take the colonies back from within. (Hey, if we get more stories like these in the process, Hail Britannia, and bring me a spot of tea. I already have the fucked up teeth.)

Preacher's seventy-five issues are collected into nine trade paperbacks (my personal favorite, which stands alone very nicely, is Volume 2, Until the End of the World), and if you want more when it's all over, you'll probably like Garth Ennis' run on Hellblazer. There is also a television adaptation in the works for HBO, but don't get too excited; the creative force behind it, Mark Steven Johnson, is the guy who inflicted Ghost Rider, Elektra, and Daredevil upon the world.

Honorary Mentions: Planetary, Hellblazer, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Grendel, Sin City, Y the Last Man, Ex Machina.

As I said the last time I compiled a list like this, it's by no means comprehensive, and I'm sure that there are great titles that I've missed, but these are titles which I promise will be worth your time and money . . . and if you're in the same boat as I am, you probably know how valuable time and money are.

Wil Wheaton is Five, and the Devil is Six.