Ok. So when you hear the words ‘superhero comic books’ what’s the first thing that comes into your head?

Honestly.

Simplistic stories? Muscle bound super athletes battling each other?

Out of proportion females, wearing next to nothing? Skin-tight (spandex) costumes?

If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions you would not be alone.

For a long time since the beginning of the comic book industry, this was the norm, the reasons being are as follows.

The muscle bound characters often found in comic books were originally designed in the 1940's to appeal to the power fantasies of early to late teenagers.

There are still a few comic books which feature these images but, on the whole, most are toned down in favour of stronger characterization and story.

The spandex costumes came about as a shortcut to drawing, normal, everyday clothes on figures.

All you had to do was outline a body, draw a design or two and a costume was born, hence the familiar Superman and Batman "outside underpants” look.

This enabled early artists to draw more pages in a short time and is a popular time saving device.

It also helped quick reader recognition of characters which is essential in the medium.

The simplistic stories were simply a product of their time and that was what the audience wanted.

Times have changed and so has the audience for comic books.

A more diverse, media savvy, demanding, sometimes cynical, global audience is the reality and catering for this is the challenge to all comic book creators past, present and future.

There have been creators that have consistently produced great stories and I would like to recommend a few of them to you now.

Writer Neil Gaiman is a legend in the industry.

He recently created the Marvel Comics' title 1602 which placed the Marvel characters in the 17th Century.

He will be re-imagining Marvel's Eternals, with artist John Romita Jr, for a complete update.

Alan Moore is widely accepted as one of the best comic book writers of all time.

Coming to prominence in 1982 working for Marvel UK, writing Captain Britain drawn by Alan Davis, he showed the mastery which would soon trademark his work.

In 1986 he penned a widely recognised masterpiece called Watchmen.

This is a classic murder mystery amongst superheroes and shows the comic book format at it’s best.

It is also available in trade format.

Moore gained a whole new legion of fans with his America's Best Comics (ABC) line published by Wildstorm Productions through DC Comics.

Breathing life into any character he writes with an eye for great dialogue and storytelling.

He was the first black writer of superhero comic books, and was an editor for Marvel Comics, truly a pioneer.

His most recent success was re-inventing the Marvel Comics character Black Panther who happened to be the King of the fictional African country of Wakanda.

This was one the most technologically advanced nations on the planet in the Marvel Comics universe.

Priest’s stories are full of political intrigue, action and subtle comedy moments and are also collected in trades.

He has also written the titles The Crew and Captain America and the Falcon.

The creme de la creme however has be his creation of Planetary, which is a loosely veiled interpretation of all comic book and adventure genres with layers of plot and characterization.

Focusing on, for want of a better description, a trio of super powered archaeologists.

This is a must read and is, again, collected into trades.

I’d finally like to mention the late Will Eisner.

I first learnt about this man’s work a few years ago after many years of reading a steady diet of Marvel and DC comics.

A writer and an artist, Will Eisner was the man who re-created the comic book format and broke many of the accepted industry rules in the mid to late 1940’s.