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Fabien

An avid reader who likes order! Read a lot of Sci-Fi, but also hardboiled fiction, and non-fiction (mostly about the history of cinema). My favorite authors are John Wyndham, Arthur C. Clarke, Grant Morrison, Susanna Clarke, Ross MacDonald, Ed Brubaker, Matt Wagner, and Jason Pargin.

Quarry Books in Order: How to Read Max Allan Collins’s series?

I discovered Quarry quite recently with the Cinemax series. I like the style of the show and the characters, but they were not developed in a satisfactory way, in my opinion. Mainly, we just learn to understand Quarry, from where he was coming to where he is going, but it’s not the same with the other important figures in his life. I suppose that the idea is to keep some stuff for the second season. That said, I’m pretty sure the show will never cover all of the books, mainly because I’m not even sure there will be more episodes. So, the best way to explore the world of Quarry is to jump right into Max Allan Collins’ books.

What is Quarry about?

Quarry is a pulp fiction about a US Marine sniper returning from the Vietnam War. He finds his wife in bed with another man and, after dropping a car on her lover, he finds himself unemployable. His proficiency at killing interests a middleman known as the Broker, who runs a murder-for-hire operation. After an assignment, Quarry gets back to the place he was using as a lookout where he found out his partner is dead – and the money they were paid was also stolen. Quarry got himself a new mission, he must learn who hired him and makes him pay.

That’s only the beginning of the first book. Maybe it’s a spoiler, but Quarry survives and lives on to kill more people. Quarry uses the Broker’s list of targets to reimagine the business: Quarry will alert the intended victims of their situation and offer to guard them.

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The Boys Reading Order: How to read Garth Ennis’ satirical comics ?

Information This article will not be updated anymore. Since we have launched a blog dedicated to comic book reading orders, you can find an up-to-date version of this Boys Reading Order here.

If there was only one Garth Ennis to read, it wouldn’t be The Boys, because nothing is better than Preacher. That said, in my opinion, The Boys is quite fun, especially if you are a superhero comics fan.

What is The Boys about?

Illustrated by Darick Robertson, The Boys follows Billy Butcher and his team. They work for the CIA in order to keep an eye on the superhero community. Of course, because Ennis wrote this, the “heroes” are mostly fuck ups. Everything starts when Wee Hughie – based on Simon Pegg – watched his girlfriend being killed in front of him by a superhero who didn’t care about the collateral damages. Butcher invites him to join his team in the US and teaches him all he needs to know about the birth of superheroes and how they are just propaganda material for a failed military consortium.

The Boys is full of Marvel and DC references, there’s although an Animal House storyline and a lot of really dark and disturbing things, you know, like in a Garth Ennis comics. I really like the idea that the heroes are just for show and the comics industry told “their” stories which is basically a tool to criticize the real industry. It’s satirical, but it’s not the main point. The evolution of Hughie and Butcher is the heart of the story. Overall, The Boys is pure Ennis with a lot of rage, a lot of dark and twisted humor, a lot of violence, really good characters and a healthy dose of emotions.

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How to read Criminal, a comic by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips ?

  • Fabien 

As I said in my first message, even if the main point of this website is to provide the best reading order guide I can produce, I also want to write about some great comics that don’t require a lot of guidance.

I’m starting with a modern classic, Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. This is for those of you who love crime stories with all the clichés and violence that you can think of, but those are still greats.

What is Criminal?

In short, Criminal is kind of a crime anthology. Each arc follows a different character. They all live in the same universe though, and some are connected, but the stories work independently from one another.

To this day, there are 7 stories, the last ones were published a few months ago after a four years break. I personally hope there will be more.

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Dirk Gently books in Order

Dirk Gently books in Order: How to read Douglas Adams’s series?

  • Fabien 

By the author of The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy.

What is the Dirk Gently series about?

Douglas Adams was not the most skilled writer of his generation, by far. Nevertheless, his talent was to build incredible and highly entertaining stories that were smart, really funny, and imaginative.

The way he structured his stories was brilliant, in particular with the Dirk Gently series. Not as popular as The Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy, the adventures of this insufferable holistic detective are just a delight for those who love a bit of absurdity with a spark of intelligence.

So, this is the story of Svlad Cjelli also known as Dirk Gently, a detective, a holistic detective to be accurate. He uses the fundamental interconnectedness of all things to solve mysteries. Even if he doesn’t want to believe in such things, Gently is a psychic.

The adventures of Dirk Gently inspired two TV shows: the simply titled Dirk Gently in 2010-2012 on the BBC, and the 2016-2017 American Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency on BBC America.

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