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IT’S STRANGE how often adult collectors of comic books are stereotyped as childish, geeky or – at best – eccentric. In fact, not only is it odd, but in most cases, it’s just plain wrong. Sure, back in the day, most superhero comics were cover-to-cover campy fun, written and marketed for an audience of ‘tweens. But during the Reagan era, mainstream comic books left “camp” where it belonged – following “summer.” Writers, artists and publishers decided to get serious on fans. And pop culture noticed.

Lately comics have been as much a part of the Hollywood universe as they are the Marvel and DC universes, banking hundreds of millions of dollars from PG-13 and R-rated movie adaptations.

Where do you think film directors/comic creators the Wachowski brothers got much of their stylistic inspiration for the “Matrix” movies?

The Bat Boat and Bat-Shark Repellant of the 1960s have left the big screen, replaced by the heart-wrenching drama of “Spider-Man 2” and Wolverine’s berserker attack in “X2.”

And in addition to February’s “Constantine” and today’s release of Frank Miller’s “Sin City,” over the next two years, flicks featuring Batman, Fantastic Four, The Watchmen, Superman, Wonder Woman and more will share box office popularity with sequels from the already huge “Spider-Man” and “X-Men” silver screen juggernauts.

Grown-up comic book fans everywhere are cocking one eyebrow with a query: “Wait, who’s the geek again?”

If you’ve been missing out on what has become an intensely innovative, popular literary art form over the past couple of decades, now’s your chance to make up for it.

Here’s a pullout collection of landmark books in the new school of action/adventure comics. This list is in no way comprehensive; consider it a tiny taste of the variety and scope of the genre.

Most are available collected in graphic novel form – no need to go bin diving to collect and store individual issues like you did when you were 11.

Though if you feel like doing some serious collecting after reading a few of these books, no one would blame you.

Batman goes postal

The fundamental gap between Archie and Jughead and Batman and Robin has grown intensely since the mid-‘80s, and for that we can thank Frank Miller – most notably for his 1986 DC masterpiece, “The Dark Knight Returns.”

Miller’s public persona may go supernova with today’s theatrical release of the R-rated “Sin City,” the highly anticipated movie version of his landmark Dark Horse graphic novel series of the same name.

But in the meantime, it’s Miller’s revolutionary portrayal of an aging, battered, retired version of Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego, Batman, that makes the writer/artist a name among names in the comic world.

Miller reinvented the look and attitude of the beloved Caped Crusader with gritty art and an uncut dose of humanity rarely, if ever, found in previous superhero comics.

His was a Batman so fed up with the talking heads on TV and in the Oval Office and a living in world without justice that he went on an old-fashioned vigilante killing spree with a 16-year-old female Robin under his fatherly wing. He even nearly killed Superman when the by-the-rules do-gooder got in his way.

Needless to say, this wasn’t the same crime-fighter from earlier Batman comics, and certainly didn’t resemble Adam West’s cheesy 1960s big-and-small screen portrayals. Miller turned Batman into a truly flawed, thoughtful badass.

Who watches whom?

While Miller was predicting a dark future for Batman, writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons created “The Watchmen” for DC, and immediately blew the minds of everyone in the comic medium.

The 12-part series portrayed a group of superheroes that becomes a target years after being disbanded at the insistence of a law banning masked heroes from fighting crime.

The story is set amid Cold War tensions, told partially in straight prose and news article form, features a comic-within-a- comic (how Shakespearean) and, in terms of art, breaks every prior convention concerning scene framing and angles.

In its graphic novel form, “The Watchmen” reads on par with the best sociopolitical, philosophical thrillers in literature, making it – along with “Dark Knight” – an early indicator of comics’ trend toward maturation. Each character has unique problems, personality and philosophy.

Expect the movie version, by “The Bourne Supremacy” director Paul Greengrass, in 2006.

Fear and bullets

When the movie version of “The Crow” hit screens in 1994, it seemed as if James O’Barr’s graphic masterpiece was becoming the voice of a generation.

Based partially on true events from the author’s life and printed in black and white, “The Crow” portrays a man who, after being murdered along with his fiancée, comes back from the dead as a well-armed superhero vigilante and exacts revenge on their murderers.

The mainstream success of O’Barr’s seminal indie graphic novel in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s not only added to the comic sales boom of that time period, but it became an outlet for a young society filled with angst.

It proved the ability of raw, emotional superhero- esque stories to impact popular culture – bands such as Nine Inch Nails, The Cure and Stone Temple Pilots performed on the movie soundtrack – and assured that those suffering in fear and pain were not doing so alone.

A youthful, clawed Canadian

Anyone who’s seen the first two “X-Men” movies knows that Wolverine was turned into an efficient killing machine when adamantium metal was fused to his skeleton during underground military experiments.

But until 2001, Marvel skirted the issue of his deep past – Wolverine’s amnesia helped him remain a mysterious figure in the comic lexicon.

Well, Marvel editor-in- chief Joe Quesada came up with the idea for “Origin,” a miniseries that compiled Wolverine’s boyhood years spent on a Canadian plantation and his time spent on the run, and revealed how he first found out about the genetic skeletal mutation that gave him claws.

With iconic cover art by Quesada and Richard Isanove, lushly illustrated inside art and an exemplary back story written for an emblematic character, this graphic novel is one for any shelf.

Book of biblical proportions

All hail comic artist Alex Ross.

This is a guy who hires folks to dress in costume, photographs them in scenes and poses, then uses the pictures as models from which to watercolor paint each frame of his comics.

The result is majestic, which is exactly what DC was trying to achieve with the book “Kingdom Come.”

The story retells the Book of Revelations – yeah, from the Bible – as if the apocalypse were brought about by superheroes from the DC universe, and is consistently name-dropped as one of the heaviest works in the graphic medium.

Bring me a dream

British writer/novelist Neil Gaiman blows minds for a living. He’s the wizard of mixing modern fantasy with ancient mythology, and nowhere has he done it better than in his DC/Vertigo “Sandman” series.

The books revolve around a supernatural being named Morpheus – aka Dream, god of the dream world – and employ a variety of artists in order to create some of the most raw, creative images in comics.

One of the more interesting “Sandman” plotlines occurs in the “Season of Mists” graphic novel, when Dream travels to Hell in order to convince Lucifer to release a girl whom Dream had condemned to hell 10,000 years earlier. Without spoiling the plot, let’s just say Lucifer isn’t called the Prince of Darkness for nothing, and he is much more cunning than he seems.

Warning: Gaiman’s knowledge of mythology and storytelling is so intense, it’s best to read his books with a waking mind and a cup of strong tea. He’ll flip you for real.

It’s magic

Speaking of Gaiman, ever hear of “The Books of Magic”?

This DC/Vertigo series introduced the world to a skinny, 11-year-old British kid with glasses, a magic pet owl and, unbeknown to him, magical powers.

No, not Harry Potter. Timothy Hunter.

Young Tim Hunter is rumored to have been the inspiration for J.K. Rowling’s Potter, though Gaiman’s storyline is far more adult and epic in scope. If you’re a fan of the Hogwarts crowd, try this on for size.

A comic to kill for

Of course Miller’s noir-epic “Sin City” had to make this list.

Drawn mostly in hard-edged, minimalist black, white and red, this seven-part series about criminals, dames, outlaws and politicians married the world of comics to that of the stylish crime novel – and neither shall be the same again.

After catching the film version tonight, which has a gigantic cast of superstars and nearly three directors, chances are you’ll rush out to find these books already have flown off bookstore shelves.

Marvel-ous

Writer Kurt Busiek teamed in 2001 with watercolor artist Ross to do something never before attempted.

In the book “Marvels,” Busiek rewrote some of the landmark Marvel stories – think Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer – from the outside view of a photojournalist.

The concept shows that perception is everything. “Marvels” successfully portrays how human bystanders must have felt in the presence of god-like superheroes.

Plus the art is completely insane.

New heavy-hitters on the scene

Of course, none of those books is brand new. But plenty of great stuff is coming out.

Recent wave-making series, such as Brad Meltzer’s groundbreaking “Identity Crisis” for DC, Mark Millar’s “The Ultimates 2,” Joss Whedon’s “Astonishing X-Men” and Brian Michael Bendis’ “Secret War” and “The New Avengers” for Marvel, take previously shallow, quip-slinging superheroes such as Captain America and turn them into introspective, well-written characters with obvious humanity.

If you haven’t been to a comic store lately, take a moment to see what you’re missing. You might realize comics aren’t at all what you thought.