Fantasy comics - what should I read?

[gearsofcrabs]

Recommend some good fantasy comics! I'm waiting on the Dungeons and Dragons Fells Five HC currently. Read the free first issue of Skullkickers and am sold on getting it next time I do an order. Thoughts on stuff like Pathfinder or the other DnD stuff like Forgotten Realms? Anyone remember (or actually read) Warlands? I wanna know some good recent fantasy themed comics!

[Choos]

I certainly remember Warlands way back but can't really recommend it as the vampire horde didn't seem all that vampire like to me. Gorgeous art of course.

Pathfinder and Game of Thrones are good reads but are too slow to come out in single issue floppies so best read in TPB form.

[FanboyStranger]

Above all, you want Slaine: The Horned God by Mills and Bisley, which is pretty much the pinnacle of fantasy comics.

Number two would be Dionnet and Gal's Conquering Armies, which got a nice oversized HC from Humanoids last year.

Then you want to dive into Conan. The best of the recent stuff is Truman/Giorello's King Conan stories followed closely by Kurt Busiek's run. As far as classics, you want the BWS archives and the first four volumes of Savage Sword. Most DH REH books are quite good, though.

Oh, to make it a little broader, there's any number of Vertigo books, especially Sandman and Matt Wagner's Madame Xanadu.

Any Warlord material is worth it if Grell is involved. Being charitable, I'll also throw in some of the collaborations between Claremont and John Bolton like Marada the She-Wolf and Black Dragon.

The Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser adaptations by Chaykin and Mignola are downright brilliant. The Elric adaptations by First are quite good, too.

[harpier]

Alright, so I've not read anything you listed above, but when it comes to current fantasy comics I can make a few recommendations. Brian Wood's Conan the Barbarian series out of Dark Horse is a little uneven in quality among story arcs, but it's periodically well and truly excellent. The 2013 Red Sonja series out of Dynamite is Gail Simone at her very, very best. (Truth be told, I don't often like her work, but this is an exception.) For something a little quirkier and far funnier, I strongly recommend Kurt Wiebe's original title Rat Queens out of Image, which recently wrapped up its first arc. Though it's often characterized—erroneously in my opinion—as more sci-fi than fantasy, Brian K. Vaughan's über-popular Saga follows far more fantasy archetypes than sci-fi ones.

I also second another commenter's suggestion of Sandman, which is pretty much required reading for, well, everyone. I'd also add to that Joe Hill's horror fantasy series Locke & Key out of IDW and Alan Moore's 15-year-old Wildstorm series Promethea, though all of these titles are of a decidedly different fantasy flavor than the ones you mention.

And then there's always Jason Aaron's Thor: God of Thunder, which more closely resembles a fantasy comic than it does a superhero one, particularly the first two arcs: The God Butcher and God Bomb.

[antony]

If I may be so bold... UMBRAL is a new 'dark fantasy' series by me and Chris Mitten, and the first trade paperback, UMBRAL Book One: Out of the Shadows, comes out in just a few weeks on May 28.

It's not quite D&D flavoured, but I'm an old school role-player (my first game was the original MERP back in around 1983...!) so it's bound to have an influence. There's even a map in the first issue

The first issue is currently free on Comixology, part of the Image Free Firsts promotion. So you have nothing to lose...

[gearsofcrabs]

I either have dollar first or free digital issues of Locke & Keye, Saga, and Umbral, so I'll give those a read and see if I wanna get more or not. I have the trades of Warlands already and have ever issue and almost every variant of the first series, just have never heard anyone say anything about it so figured I'd ask. I pretty much try and get everything in HC of I can only get TPBs if I have to. I don't have the space or money to be buying floppies all the time. But I'll definitely look inot some of these other series and see if they're anything I wanna look into. But Keep the discussion going! I think this should basically be a fantasy version of the SciFi comics thread, which I think most indie comics are leaning towards now. Haven't that many fantasy ones, at least that are as praised.

[Geralt of Rivia]

Plenty of great recommendations already and some stuff I wasn't familiar with, I'll check them out

In terms of actual DnD, I quite enjoyed Devil's Due adaptations of R. A. Salvatore's pet characther, Drizzt Do'Urden; its a shame they were never completed but what's available is quite good. http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=674961

Id also like to mention Boom's somewhat recent Elric: The Balance Lost, it was a Moorcock sanctioned new story and its very enjoyable.

Also, Demon Knights from DC was a rare example of a quality fantasy comic from the big two, even if its not without its slight problems.

Im sure Im forgetting stuff, I'll add more in another post when I have a chance to go over my long boxes.

[FanboyStranger]

If I may be so bold... UMBRAL is a new 'dark fantasy' series by me and Chris Mitten, and the first trade paperback, UMBRAL Book One: Out of the Shadows, comes out in just a few weeks on May 28.

It's not quite D&D flavoured, but I'm an old school role-player (my first game was the original MERP back in around 1983...!) so it's bound to have an influence. There's even a map in the first issue

The first issue is currently free on Comixology, part of the Image Free Firsts promotion. So you have nothing to lose...

It's really a good book, too. You really fleshed out an interesting world, and I love Mitten's art.

[Arundel Armor Hunter]

Would Saga count?

[Marc Lombardi]

Also, Demon Knights from DC was a rare example of a quality fantasy comic from the big two, even if its not without its slight problems.

Agreed. Up until the last issue or two, where you can feel that they started to rush things to finish out the story (after they announced the title's cancellation), it was one of my favorite books from DC. It even managed to stay very entertaining when they unceremoniously swapped out Paul Cornell for Robert Venditti.

[Deathstroke]

I liked the Dungeons and Dragons Fell's Five series that was published most recently, a shame it never really caught on.

And I read all the Conan and Red Sonja comics I can get.

[Brave Sir Robin]

Right now I am reading Red Sonja and Rat Queens. Rat Queens is more comedic but set in a fantasy realm. Both are entertaining. I am not much for dark fantasy.

Sandman is sort of fantasy but really doesn't fit any genre, except that of GREATEST COMIC EVER!!! (yes, I am a huge Gaiman fan.)

[Max Aero]

Umbral is great, the story and art are lush.
Sovereign is going slow due to the structure (3 short stories per ish) but there's a lot in there I really want to see fleshed out, it shows promise and the art is nice and atmospheric. Head Lopper is a good-looking self-published comic from Andrew MacLean waiting on issue 2 which looks real decent (check out his 5 page Mars: Space Barbarian webcomic). Becky Cloonan's By Chance or Providence is collecting three good-looking, eerie self-published comics. Dungeon is good sword n scorcery satire/comedy, first handful of volumes were translated by NBM but I'm not sure how accessible they are right now. House of Orr is a charming webcomic by the Roll20 guys with a great ensemble cast.

If you don't mind alternating (albeit good) artists, backups, and all-ages comics, Spera is slow at world-building at first but the later volumes have a lot more action and story. Tellos is an older all ages comic yet still pretty complex, and Wierengo on art.

I gotta agree with some older recs already mentioned: Slaine, DC & Epic's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser adaptations, Sandman. Prince Valiant is treading into ancient, but the art is still great and it's being nicely collected by Fantagraphics.

[Don C]

Best fantasy comic out there right now is Rat Queens.

[Groo Odyssey]

Best fantasy comic out there right now is Rat Queens.

And it's not even close. Rat Queens ftw!