Which comic book series should I get into?

[GeneralMacArthur]

I recently came into possession of some vintage comic books my dad was holding onto from his childhood, and it made me want to pick some particular series of comics and read them.  Now start-to-finish isn't tractable since I've learned that especially for the popular series there are an absolutely enormous number of issues (I was expecting to read maybe like 100 comic books) so it would be more like the best storylines or the best sets of issues from certain eras.  But maybe for a less-popular series it would be tractable to read the entire set.

Things I like are creativity, a real focus on adventure and discovery, a real sense of danger, mystery and suspense, entertaining and imaginative villains with lots of variety, and a hero who's pretty unambiguously good.  I don't want something that's really dark or grim and I don't want a lot of moral conflict or philosophizing.  Not that I want mindless shlock either, it has to have a good story... but I want to read the kind of thing that would've made me want to draw all over a cardboard box or go run around in the woods re-enacting my hero's adventures when I was a kid and a heavy focus on heroes questioning their worldview and moralizing kind of detracts from that.  I also don't really like comic books that devote an enormous amount of time to fight scenes, I'm much more interested in mystery, exploration, adventure and the relationships between characters.

For reference I'm a big fan of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson.  That kind of fare.

[GoTfan]

Hmm . . . Not The biggest expert on comic books around. Others would have more knowledge than I would on the specifics. I'll have a poke around the bookstore when I can.

Spider-Man comics are usually a safe bett for an unambiguously good hero, Ultimate Spider-Man being the safest of the lot.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Just wanted to bump this, I sent basically this same text to my relatives when they asked what Christmas presents I wanted and was hoping someone would buy me a comic book from a series they thought I'd like, but nobody did.

[vitoNova]

Paul Auster’s City of Glass

I must have been like 9 when I first read the comics.   

And yes. There were comics.   It wasn’t until I was older that I realized he wasn’t even a comic book writer, but a real writer.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Carl Bark's classic Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics had a lot of fun adventures in the exploration category.

[ShadowRocket]

My mind went straight to Superman after reading what you're looking for.  GoTfan's suggestion of Spider-Man is a solid one as well.  I think you'd like the Fantastic Four a lot.  Especially the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby stories.