All throughout April, we’re crowdsourcing a coronavirus comics reading list. Each weekday for a month, we’ll post a new recommendation from someone in the comics industry to help folks get through the quarantine. It’ll be a crowdsourced list of recommended reading from writers, artists, letterers, editors, comics journalists, publicists, and more…all paired with a local shop that’s currently selling the books via mail order.

Today’s selection comes from writer Ben Kahn…enjoy!

We’ve all seen our share of mega-giant universe shaking event comics. And while 2005’s Infinite Crisis wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, what happened afterwards most certainly was. Every book in the DC line jumped forward one year. What happened in the missing year? That is the story of 52, an unprecedented weekly series that brought together a veritable Justice League of comics talent: Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka & Mark Waid co-writing with Keith Giffen on layouts. Together, they told a sweeping tale that encapsulated the whole of the DC Universe, and turned into a living, breathing, changing character in its own right.

So much of 52’s success comes from its atypical choice in protagonists. The story begins with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman all missing, and it’s up to a motley collection of B and C list characters to take up the spotlight. Letting characters like Steel, Ralph Dibny, and Will Magnus take center stage let writers breathe new life into old concepts, and prove that they’re just as compelling as the big guns. Most importantly, these characters’ obscurity let 52 tell complete, life-changing character arcs for its heroes.The partnership of Vic Sage and Renee Montoya, the fall and rise of Booster Gold, the tragedy of the Black Adam Family; these have become defining moments in these characters’ histories. Moments that may never have happened without the space to become protagonists in their own right. To see the finest talent in comics weave a tapestry through one of fiction’s richest universe, there’s no better read than 52. -Ben Kahn

Ben Kahn is an Ignatz-nominated writer working in New York City. Ben has been writing for over a decade, with experience in webcomics and video games before beginning their published comic career in 2015. Ben divides their time between working on their latest comic book projects, and playing with a kitty who would really rather be left alone.

Ben's most recent work includes Gryffen: Galaxy's Most Wanted, and Heavenly Blues from Scout Comics, with more to be announced soon.

52
Writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid
Artists: Keith Giffen, Eddy Barrows, Dale Eaglesham, and Phil Jimenez
Publisher: DC Comics
Four of the most critically acclaimed writers in comics—Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid—are joined by breakdown artist Keith Giffen and a host of the industry's finest pencillers and inkers to create this unprecedented event in comics history. DC's groundbreaking publication of the weekly comic 52 tells the story of a "missing" year in the DC Universe—in real time. The cataclysmic events of INFINITE CRISIS have left the world without its three biggest icons—Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman¾and the question is asked: who will stand up in their absence?

Click here for the full coronavirus reading list!