Recommended Graphic Novels

[darkwolf]

Sandman is what got me into the graphic novels, and what made me fall in love with the Vertigo imprint. So I'm probably going to be the millionth person to recommend Sandman, Y: The Last Man, Preacher, 100 Bullets, Pride of Baghdad, etc etc etc.

DC wise, I'll probably catch some heat for this, but I HATE superman, even though I'm quite familiar with his story, supporting characters, etc. There was one graphic novel that stood out though: Red Son. The deluxe edition is coming out November 17th, well worth your $17. Its about Superman landing in communist Russia instead of Smallville, and that's all I'll say about it. Phenomenal story-telling, and great art! Also another one that's been recommended a trillion times probably, The Dark Knight Returns. On top of that, Batman: Year One, Batman: Knightfall series, The Killing Joke, Watchmen (this one changed MY LIFE!).

From Image comics, I recommend Spawn, although I haven't read anything in ages, I started that series when it first came out. Awesome art, great dark stories and characters. Also, probably for the millionth time, The Walking Dead. I was recommended this and finally years later I finally started reading the collected TPB's. Great story, and apparently its going to be made into a TV show on AMC! Also, I saw that The Darkness was recommended, and I second, or third, or whatever that recommendation! Very dark, humorous, great art. Also look into Witchblade, for they tie in sometimes.

Marvel... Ah, Marvel... What got me into comics, and reading in general. I remember being a horrible reader in 1st-3rd grade, until my mom bought me a stack of comic books from a garage sale, all classic 80s Marvel titles. I instantly fell in love and improved in reading, and the teachers seemed to notice. By 5th grade, I had a high school reading level. Because of comics. But I digress. X-Men: Age of Apocalypse is awesome. So is the Dark Phoenix saga! The House of M series blew my mind, LOVED that!

[Sam]

I know I've said it before, but I can't find it so here it is again.

Astro City. Check it out if you haven't. I'm rediscovering it myself and the stories are STILL great. It's a great read with compelling characters, interesting heroes, and a very unique twist to the superhero story. One of the best titles to have ever been printed.

[darkwolf]

I've just remembered Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan. Only read the first volume, but it was pretty damn good!

[turtlex]

darkwolf - You've named some of my all time favorite GNs. There are a lot of Neil Gaiman fans here, and Sandman ( and Death ) are wonderful titles. Without a doubt.

Dark Phoenix is right at the top of my all time favorites list... right there with V for Vendetta.

I wish you'd been around when we did our Best Graphic Novel of All Time polls. We had a lot of fun with that ( pssst... Watchmen won ).

I've never been much of a Spawn fan, however. :shrugs:

I don't mind Superman.. but if I had to go for the true-red-white-and-blue... I'd go with Captain America. I love Cap.

Sam!! Where have you been, my partner in crime !!

[Sam]

You keeping up with the Dark Age story Pam? It's not Busiek's best, but it's still pretty good.

[fernandito]

Does anyone else here read The Invisibles?

[darkwolf]

darkwolf - You've named some of my all time favorite GNs. There are a lot of Neil Gaiman fans here, and Sandman ( and Death ) are wonderful titles. Without a doubt.

That's great to know! I met Neil Gaiman a few years back at Temple University. He was doing a reading there. Awesome dude, very humble, gracious, and one of the nicest people you'd ever meet! I got him to sign my first volume of Sandman too!

[Brainslinger]

Does anyone else here read The Invisibles?

I have read some of those GNs. A bit of a mixed bag for me. Some of it seemed way pretentious but other times very interesting and fascinating.I haven't caught the last book yet.

[Sol Invictus]

Top Three Series

"The Walking Dead" will blow your mind. Post-apocalyptic zombieland with very strong socio-cultural undertones and dialectic.

"The Sandman Series" is just beautiful. Can't be described any other way. A serious work of literary art!

"The Dark Tower Series" is very well done. Compliments to Robin Furth and Jae Lee! Kinda wish Lee stayed on through Fall of Gilead as lead artist though.


Top Three Non-Fiction

"The People's History of the American Empire" is standard. An abridged graphic version of his alternative epic, very well done.

"Palestine" is raw and emotional but as critical as an Op. Ed. Really makes you reconsider the Middle East conflict.

"Persepolis" should be read in High Schools. Mainly same comments above.


Top Three Graphic Novels

"Watchmen". There's enough comments on the web for this. Wonderful piece of moral relativist lit.

"Black Hole" is beautiful. Feels like Alice in Wonderland for our century.

"The Cat with the Really Big Head"...fucking priceless!

[Seymour_Glass]

Does anyone else here read The Invisibles?

You migt have known about my love for this series before. Also, there's a book about it coming out called "Our Sentence Is UP". it's kinda like Grant Morrison: The Early Years, except focusing in the Invisibles. And, there's a Grant Morrison doc in th

Spoiler:

[darkwolf]

Top Three Series
"Black Hole" is beautiful. Feels like Alice in Wonderland for our century.

Read this last week, loved it. How does it feel like Alice in Wonderland?

[MasterRanger]

Has anyone seen this? http://www.radicalcomics.com/titles/books/caliber-vol-1

Seems strangely familiar. Is this associated with the DT stories? Seems not to be. If not, it looks obviously inspired by it IMO.

[fernandito]

Whoa whoa whoa, WHAAAAT?

Can anyone say RIP OFF ?!?!?!


------

Synopsis

From visionary writer Sam Sarkar comes a stunning reinvention of the Arthurian legend where the might of the Round Table rides the Old West with guns blazing.

In the far reaches of the Old Pacific Northwest lies a world where lawlessness runs rampant and only a mystical six-shooter forged from the metal of the legendary Excalibur can balance the scales.

With Caliber in hand and posse at his side, Arthur must fulfill his destiny as the Lawbringer to defeat evil and restore order to his home.

Soon to be a major motion picture to be produced by Johnny Depp's production company Infinitum Nihil and Radical Pictures.


"With a great story and great art, Caliber is one of the best books i've read in a while."- Express Times

[MasterRanger]

I went to put this on the social news site Digg.com and someone beat me to it:

http://digg.com/arts_culture/Caliber..._Justice_Vol_1

[Brainslinger]

To be fair it seems just a retelling of the Arthurian legend except in Western form. The Dark Tower was certainly not that, although it had stuff in common, like the quest etc. Arthur to Roland was an ancestor, i.e history.

The only similarity I can see so far (apart from the Western genre) is the idea of the revolvers forged from Excalibur. And that was something introduced late in the Dark Tower series. It wasn't really intrinsic to the story at all.

Novels spoilers:

Spoiler:

They provided a key to the Tower at the end, just as the sword in the stone (in some versions of the legend) was the key to Arthurs kingship,) but through much of the story we just knew they were special as heirlooms but they didn't seem to be anything other than guns. And apart from the special properties mentioned, that's pretty much all they were. Even Walter was able to use his magic to evade them.

If they're just translating the Arthurian legends to western, it's quite possible they came to the idea of sword to gun independently. Of course, you'd think that with a basic retelling the Excalibur guns would have been created that way from the start rather from a melted down sword (after all if this character is Arthur, who had the original sword in that world?) so that idea itself is a little suspect but not really proof of a rip off.

[herbertwest]

To me, the banner on the website definitely reminds me DT.
Doesnt the woman seem to be sitting?

[Hannah]

Seems a little too similar to me. Suspiciously so. But, meh. Who cares? If it's good, it's good. It still can't be better than the DT.

[WeDealInLead]

I've read this and it honestly didn't seem anything like TDT at all. I bought it on a whim and ended up trading it in because art seemed too digital

[TheCrisisKing]

If you guys want a cool look at a superhero, checkout Old Man Logan by Mark Millar (writer of Kick Ass and Wanted) which is about a old and gritty Wolverine. Another book also from Millar that you should read is Marvel 1985, which is about Marvel villans escaping to the real world and going nuts.

But the best book of all time, better than Watchmen in my opinion, is Millar's American Jesus. It's the story of the return of Christ as he reflects on his childhood. It has an insane twist and is just awesome

[RIsanove]

There are some comics I find myself re-reading regularly and never get tired of:
"Batman: Year One", "Y: the last man" and "Preacher" of course.
"The Ultimates" 1 and 2 by Millar and Hitch.
"Criminal" by Brubaker and Phillips.
The "Alias" series by Bendis and Gaydos.
"Stray Bullets" by Lapham (just wish he'd finish it already)
"Lieutenent Blueberry" by Charlier and (Moebius) Giraud
"The Death Notes" by Ohba and Obata.
and a little gem of a graphic novel "Scene of a crime: A little piece of Goodnight" by Brubaker and Lark.

[Sam]

All of the Marvel stories you mentioned are on my regularly read list, and I believe "Alias" is one of the best written graphic works that I have ever read. Also on that list are the "Astro City" stories (all of them), the Garth Ennis run on "The Punisher" MAX series, "The Boys" (just for the fun of it if nothing else), and Bendis's "Powers" series. I haven't read "Stray Bullets" but have heard good things about it. I've read several of "Y: the last man" and really want to read the rest of them. Maybe some day soon.

[turtlex]

I'm currently building my Y The Last Man GN collection. They keep coming out with those darned "deluxe" hardcovers!!

[WeDealInLead]

DMZ and Scalped are two ongoing series I think everyone should read. DMZ is already at collection #7 and Scalped just came out with #6. It's not sci-fi, it's not about magic, it's not some bizzaro super-hero stuff Warren Ellis would write. It's about things that very well could happen.

Rex Mundi recently wrapped up. It's about Europe if Catholic church and inqusition were still the leading power. It's happening between two World Wars. Interesting stuff for sure.

Battlefields by Ennis, Northlanders by Brian Wood, Gravel by Ellis, Air (name slipped my mind), Ex Machina and Madame Xanadu are some other ongoing comics I'm into that are already collected in trades.

I'm also a big fan of Star Wars comics and GNs. Pretty much every series about SW is ace while one shot trades (so anywhere between 4 to 6 comics collected) are hit and miss.

Check out Loveless by Azzarello if you like your westerns bloody as hell.

And yeah... add DMZ and Scalped to your shelves. It's absolutely GREAT stuff.

[fernandito]

I started collecting DMZ , but I became very bored with it by around Vol 4 and I stopped reading the series altogether. Right now I'm too occupied with Morrison's The Invisibles and Ellis's Preacher novels to bother going back to it. I think I'll eventually pick up where I left off .... maybe ...

[Yaksha]

Sit back and here we go( BTW lots of Batman. What can I say he has good books)


Planet Hulk
Kingdom Come
Preacher
Fables
Y The Last Man
Scott Pilgrim (check Magna section)
Marvel Zombies
Marvel Zombie vs Army of Darkness
Identity Crisis
The Walking Dead
Irredemable by Mark Waid
Wanted
Batman: Hush
Batman: The Killing Joke
Runaways
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: Dark Victory
Batman: RIP
The Dark Knight Returns
The Dark Knight Strikes Back
Green Lantern Rebirth
Infinite Crisis
52
Countdown
Final Crisis
Sinestro Corps War
Invincible
Civil War
House Of M
New Avengers
Marvel 1602
Death and Return of Superman
Flash Rebirth
The Flash Rougue War
(Pretty much anything written by Geoff Johns)
Justice
Kick-Ass

and thats all.......for now