graphic novels

[bcbm]

i got a gift card to a comic book store. what are some good graphic novels? i already own v for vendetta before anybody says that...

[Sixiang]

As far as American style graphic novels, I loved The Watchmen, 300, 1602, and Y: The Last Man. If you also like manga, I recommend practically anything by Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of manga. Astro Boy, Adolf, and Buddha are all great series.

I suppose it depends on whether you want superhero stuff, drama, sci-fi, historical, manga, whatever else.

[black magick hustla]

the invisibles
a killing joke
the dark knight
dmz zone
berserk

[Sasha]

maus (the only comic ever to win an pulitzer)
hot head paisan, tho homicidal lesbian terrorist
tankgirl
akira
the ghost in the shell
lenore the cute litle dead girl
if they have it (unlikly) "the invention of hugo cabret", its more an illustrated book but very, very good

[bcbm]

As far as American style graphic novels, I loved The Watchmen, 300, 1602, and Y: The Last Man. If you also like manga, I recommend practically anything by Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of manga. Astro Boy, Adolf, and Buddha are all great series.

I suppose it depends on whether you want superhero stuff, drama, sci-fi, historical, manga, whatever else.

sci-fi, fantasy or something with good action and plot. not really into superheroes

[Os Cangaceiros]

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. Man. That one was awesome. Highly recommended. It had this really dark apocalyptic feel that I really liked when I read it.

Also, Daredevil: Born Again (also by Frank Miller) was OK.

If you want something more political, then Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco is good. It was very informative to me regarding the Balkans when I read it. It is my understanding that he also did a fairly good one about Palestine.

Those (and Watchmen & Maus) are the only graphic novels I've ever read.

[Spawn of Stalin]

Y has already been mentioned, it's awesome but it's in like 10 or so volumes, if you're willing to commit to buying 10 books, go with it, one of my favourites.

Other than that there's We3, DMZ, Sandman, From Hell, Ronin, Fables, Northlanders, Sweet Tooth, Elephantment and Hip Flask, Chronicles of Wormwood if you like disgusting humour. Most of these are in multiple volumes but it's worth picking up the first book anyway because if you like comics with good stories you will probably enjoy all of these.

If you're really into sci fi I'd recommend picking up volume 1 of BPRD, but it does have many superhero aspects. If you like talking animals and horror stories you should check out Beasts of Burden too, honestly one of the most underrated books ever.

[Spawn of Stalin]

Oh hey maybe check out anything in Warren Ellis' Apparat line. They're super cheap because they're only like 50 pages each or so.

Another one would be Alan Moore's The Courtyard, again, short, cheap.

[Sixiang]

sci-fi, fantasy or something with good action and plot. not really into superheroes

Y: The Last Man may be a good pick then.

[graymouser]

If you want to stay away from superheroes, you're limiting yourself a lot. If it should be action or plot driven, that's a bit more limiting because a lot of independent comics tend to be character driven and introspective.

Most of the recent Conan collections are a good bet if you want good solid fantasy. For some well-written action, you may want to check out some of Greg Rucka's work....there are omnibus editions of Queen & Country and I think the first collection at least of Stumptown should be out by now. The last really good scifi type of comic I can think of reading was Terry Moore's Echo, which goes a little toward the border of superhero stuff but ends up more in conspiracy/sci-fi territory. Most of my favorite sci-fi is technically still in the supers genre, stuff like Nexus.

The other thing is to check out some Vertigo. Neil Gaiman's Sandman is justifiably a classic of modern fantasy comics. Hellblazer's a great standard, some of Peter Milligan's recent run was excellent and is worth checking out. Preacher (Garth Ennis), 100 Bullets (Brian Azzarello), Fables (Bill Willingham), The Invisibles (Grant Morrison) and Y: the Last Man (Brian K. Vaughn) are other Vertigo series you may want to check out if you have the inclination.

There's a ton out there. With superheroes some of it is good but there's a lot of bad - and it takes a lot to separate the good from the bad. With independent and non-supers stuff, some of it really is crap but there's less and the odds are somewhat better.

[Tablo]

Well, I've never read many western graphic novels. Never been that exposed to it. A good action manga is Black Lagoon. Probably my favorite. Centers around a crew of smugglers in Thailand.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Marvel Noir is pretty great.

Spiderman Noir, Punisher Noir, XMen Noir, etc.

[bcbm]

Y: The Last Man may be a good pick then.

yeah y is good read it a couple years ago


If you want to stay away from superheroes, you're limiting yourself a lot. If it should be action or plot driven, that's a bit more limiting because a lot of independent comics tend to be character driven and introspective.

superheroes never really appealed to me that much idk. there are some bigger titled that are action/plot driven, especially out of france so i don't think that is too limiting and anyway i'll read just about anything that is just what i am looking to pick up right now.


Most of the recent Conan collections are a good bet if you want good solid fantasy.

way ahead of ya on that one ;)

thanks for the recommendations so far, gonna try to go in the morning and check out some titles.

[Jimmie Higgins]

sci-fi, fantasy or something with good action and plot. not really into superheroesI've been reading a lot of new reprints of old comics and that's been really interesting and entertaining - Dick Briefer's Frankenstein alternates between a horror and a comedy comic - Briefer also did a superhero comic for the US Communist Party, Pinky Rankin, one of the first NAZI-fighting superheroes (this has not been reprinted for some reason:lol:).

Well it's a Marvel Superhero character, so it's pretty mainstream and superhero-y, but Planet Hulk is really entertaining and more like Planet of the Apes/Spartacus than, you know, the Hulk movies or TV show. I wish they'd make that into a Hulk movie rather than the standard origin story with set-pieces thrown in movies that they tend to make. Fuckin' Hollywood.

Y The Last Man is ok IMO, and probably fits the description. Pride of Baghdad is also by Brian K Vaughn and is about a pride of Lions walking around Iraq after they escape the zoo when the US attacked.

[Sixiang]

yeah y is good read it a couple years ago



superheroes never really appealed to me that much idk. there are some bigger titled that are action/plot driven, especially out of france so i don't think that is too limiting and anyway i'll read just about anything that is just what i am looking to pick up right now.


I'm not really into the archetypal superhero comics of superhero saving the day from the same bad guys and disposable henchmen every issue, but there are some great graphic novels that have superheros in them as main characters, but are much more than that when you get into their background story and what not. The Watchmen is about a bunch of retired superheroes and it is a superhero graphic novel like none other. This isn't superhero saves the day type stuff. It's dark.

[Red_Devotchka]

"jhonny the homicidal maniac" by jhonen vasquez

[Red_Devotchka]

johnny *

[Kuppo Shakur]

Arkham Asylum.
THAT IS ALL YOU WILL EVER NEED.

[Spawn of Stalin]

Word, visually one of the best looking comics ever

[RED DAVE]

It's not a novel but Wobblies, edited by Paul Buhl, is fantastic.


http://i53.tinypic.com/2mi5eex.jpg



RED DAVE

[-marx-]

Guy Delisle "Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea" is a brilliant book, funny and insightful.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. :)

[wunderbar]

Guy Delisle also did Shenzen and Burma Chronicles, but I haven't read that one yet.

Anything by Chris Ware is good, but Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth is his most famous book.

If you like Howard Zinn and/or U.S. History, A People's History of American Empire (a somewhat-adaptation of A People's History of the United States) is great.

A comic book store might not have it, but Mexican cartoonist Rius has done many political comic books and a couple have been translated into English, such as "Mao for Beginners", "Marx for Beginners", "Nicaragua for Beginners", and "Cuba for Beginners". Interestingly, "Cuba for Beginners" wasn't released by the same publisher as the others, but was instead released on American SWP's Pathfinder Press.

[Sixiang]

Guy Delisle "Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea" is a brilliant book, funny and insightful.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. :)
I forgot about that one. That graphic novel was phenomenal. It's simplistic art style was delivered just right.

[-marx-]

Yeah it was great and I loved the style...I plan on reading the other two mentioned above also.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Ever check Harvey Pekar's American Splendor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Splendor) series?

[dwyck]

I've just started getting into graphic novels myself recently, but aren't into superheroes, fantasy or sci-fi much. However there still seems to be a lot out there not in these genres.

Some of the best stuff I've come across so far graphic novelettes by a Norwegian guy called Jason. Hey Wait... was just superb

[Jimmie Higgins]

Ever check Harvey Pekar's American Splendor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Splendor) series?Good recommendation - not exactly action packed though :).

But if people want to read some underground comics, here's a link to the infamous Air Pirates comics:

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/05/complete-scan-of-mic.html

http://www.boingboing.net/_img151_5784_airpirates1013nw.md.jpg

[magicme]

Wanted by Mark Millar's really good, just don't ever watch the film they made of it. If you haven't read Maus then you should.

[Olentzero]

Seconded whoever mentioned Joe Sacco. I literally stumbled across an Italian translation of Palestine lying on the street and immediately adopted it.

I admit I greatly enjoyed Jeff Smith's Bone; if you can find (and afford) the complete one-volume edition I highly recommend it.

Jason is also awesome. There's one Hitchcock-style comic where the main character witnesses a murder à la Rear Window - unfortunately the name escapes me at the moment but that one was a hell of a read. I haven't been disappointed by anything I've read by him yet.

EDIT: The Air Pirates link seems to be down; how sad. That one would have been great fun to read!

[Tavarisch_Mike]

The Walking Dead is about a group trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic world where a zombie-epedimie has breaking out. Its very, very dark and realistic (well as realistic as zombies are) and its not so much slash and splatter, but more about the dayly survival of the group and how they manage to deal with eachother. But dont worry there is plenty of violence and action to.

[Lyev]

I have not read many, but I received "Chicken with Plums" as a present. It is by Marjane Satrapi who did the comic that was adapted into the movie Persepolis. I quite enjoyed it; it is set in 1950s Tehran, and is about the twilight days of Satrapi's uncle. I find that interesting, because I often associate graphic novels with action and crime etc. (which is a rubbish generalisation), but this is an often humourous and down-to-earth story (this particular one is quite sorrowful) told through what is normally a very grand or action-filled format of storytelling. I love the style of drawing too, it is kind of expressionistic
http://www.grovel.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/chicken-plums-03.jpg

[x359594]

I recently finished Anarquia: An Alternate History of the Spanish Civil War by Brad Linaweaver and J. Kent Hastings. Good story, well drawn.