Best TPBs on my bookshelf

• Age of Bronze - By the time this ends, Sage will be 10 years old. This retelling of the Trojan War, sans gods, is worth the wait, though.


• Atomics - Four softcover books collect the entire Allred run. Delish!


• Authority - Only the Ellis run. The uneducated think that Millar did better, but they're just misinformed.


• Berlin - I can't wait for more human stories from Lutes.


• Bone - Read it as a whole, along with the latest collection. It's almost over.


• Castle Waiting - Wry, moving, intelligent - a fairy tale redux it isn't.


• Clan Apis - Proof that comics can educate and still entertain.


• Concrete - Get ALL of it and you'll see what an artful storyteller Chadwick is.


• Golem’s Mighty Swing - Powerful and self-contained.


• Grendel - Hunter Rose, Spar and Li Sung only plus the Black/White/Red.


• Hellboy - All five current volumes show that Mignola is a class act on a different level


• Jimmy Corrigan - Ware's sense of design is sublime.


• Julius Knipl - Fractured, twisted and brutally brief reflections on the odd and the banal.


• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 - Moore crafts an engaging tale. The entire hardcover package is excellent.


• Little Lit Vols.1 & 2 - The first volume is stronger, but both are wonderfully sophisticated takes on children's literature by very talented storytellers and illustrators


• Madman - More Allred wackiness. The spirit is infectious.


• Maus- Breathless.


• Miracleman - Moore's run is unequaled.


• Planetary - Ellis shows beauty in the secret histories.


• Powers - Stick to the first one and revel in Bendis' dialogue style.


• Sandman - All of it, except Dream Hunters. Why not? "One does not applaud the tenor for clearing his throat."


• Sleepwalk - Tomine's slice of life vignettes cut like shattered glass.


• Sock Monkey - Indescribable. A book that seems to have fallen into our world from elsewhere.


• Starman - Robinson does superheroes the right way.


• Watchmen - Of course. It is almost unheard of not to include this book. But after all these years, it maintains its power.