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Does Anybody Else Read Comic Books / Graphic Novels?


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I was never really into comics as a kid but I've gotten into them a bit recently. I bet there's a couple people here who have read or do read them, and I'm looking for recommendations or just general discussion.

 

What first got me going on comics was some amazing artwork I saw. I dunno if anybody knows Geof Darrow but he's completely brilliant, although he hasn't done a whole ton of work. He seems to do a lot of covers and things like that, although he also wrote and illustrated "Shaolin Cowboy" which is an insane comic. "Hard Boiled," written by Frank Miller, is his real essential work. It's only 3 issues, and it's amazing. The Wachowski's were influenced by Hard Boiled and took Darrow on as a creative consultant or something for the Matrix trilogy, so I would guess Darrow is set for life with his Matrix money. His style is extremely elaborate and bizarrely crowded with psychedelic nightmarish contraptions and sort of surreal pop culture characters.

 

Anyway, some other stuff I've read and loved:

 

The Walking Dead, full run up to the current issue.

 

Y: The Last Man, full run. People were raving about it and they were right. It's a ton of fun.

 

DMZ, the first 15 or so issues.

 

Heart of Empire by Bryan Talbot. This one is lesser known, but the artwork is incredible, and the story is pretty wild and insane too. 9 issues, but some are lengthy and they're all pretty dense.

 

Watchmen obviously, it's the best.

 

Peter Pan by Loisel. Very highly recommended. It's not a children's book at all, and in fact young children definitely should not read it.

 

 

Some stuff on my future list: Ex-Machina (by Brian K. Vaughan who did Y), Planetary, Transmetropolitan, and a few other shorter things. I'm looking for other great stuff. I'm not so into superheroes, but I'm sure there are superhero comics that are very worth reading also, I just don't know where to start.

 

 

Hard Boiled, click to zoom. A ton of Darrow's work is this elaborate and busy, it's kind of his thing:

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Heart of Empire:

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Really great short comic I just read called "Crecy," written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Raulo Caceres:

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Alright, I'm at least 5 years out of the comics game, but I do love them as an art form. I think the first thing I'd recommend is "understanding comics" by Scott McCloud. It's a graphic novel, but it's also like a history of comics and not just that, but an examination of the art form itself. It's super good, and can give you a bunch of suggestions of other artists you might like.

 

From there, I think probably my favorite GN is Jimmy Corrigan, the smartest kid on earth. All of Chris Ware's acme novelty library stuff is great, but jimmy is just beautiful.

 

The first comic that I ever read, that I truly loved and thought it was on another level of art, was the Sandman series, by Neil Gaiman. There are many different comic artists in it, almost all of them at least interesting.

 

Another one I got into early was The Preacher Written by Ennis and drawn by Dillion. It's funny and ****ed up. I love Ennis, but without Dillions sort of hyper cartoony art to take the edge off his ****ed up material, I don't like him near as much. They are the perfect writing/art combo. They also had a great run on Hellblazer ( many great writers wrote for Hellblazer), and on Punisher.

 

Punisher is one of the comics I traditionally hate. In the post Dark Knight Returns world ( by Frank Miller. You should read pretty much anything Miller put out), many comics started getting really ****ed up and hard boiled. But without the intelligence that Miller had, most were just graphically violent and bad. I thought Punisher was a great example of this. He wasn't a hero, he was just a serial killer, who happened to pick criminals to kill. He was a geek revenge fantasy wet dream. But, when Ennis started writing it (and particularly when DIllon did the art) it had the right amount of irony and absurdity.

 

You mentioned that you read The Watchmen. You should read pretty much anything Alan Moore wrote, starting with his Swamp Thing run. it's not overstating it that he and miller transformed mainstream comics and inspired a generation of writers and artists. My favorite non-watchmen thing of his, was his America's Best Comic's run.

 

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, (you may be familiar with the shitty movie) is like a steam punk super hero comic, set in victorian england, using books from Victorian literature for it's characters and inspiration, like Dracula, The Invissible man, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Jeckyl and 20,000 leagues.

 

Promethea is like a Wonder Woman re imagined story. Moore believes in a lot of weird magical stuff, and how it ties into story telling, It's very weird, but the art is tremendous, and it's funny. (All of his ABC stuff is really funny)

 

Tom Strong is like his take on the "Science Hero", kind of fantastic four-y, but also many of the golden/ silver age adventure comics. It's really funny.

 

My favorite though, is Top 10. Top 10 is like this inter dimensional super hero police force. IT's very meta, taking jabs at.. pretty much every single super hero archetype

 

Warren Ellis wrote two of my favorite comics, Transmetropolitan (who's main character is obviously inspired by Hunter S Thompson, but in a cyberpunk future) and The Authority ( another meta super hero comic, that plays with the archetypes) He also had a great run on HellBlazer.

 

Brian MIchael Bendis has been given the keys to Marvel and is considered their brightest writing star. And while his marvel stuff is better than the average marvel stuff, Marvel ruins almost everything it touches. I would highly recommend his indy Powers run. Powers is yet another meta super hero comic ( seeing a pattern in the things I like?) The hero is a superman type character, who had been a hero on earth for millennia. But sometime in the recent past, he went through a procedure that turned him into a normal human, and now he's working as a cop who gets assigned to "powers" related crimes.

 

 

Fables is a great comic about heros from children's storys, who live in New York City. I think these TV shows like Ever after ripped it off pretty hard.

 

 

My favorite marvel Comic of all time was Milligan and allred's X-Force-Xtatix run. Again, another meta take on super heros, but this time, it's more of a critque of celebrity and reality tv culture. The style of the comic is a jarring contrast to the content of the stories, which is often really violent and dark. Mike Allred in general has a throw back style that I really like. A lot of fan boys HATED it when they took over X-Force, but I pretty much hate anything a fanboy would like.

 

 

I didn't read a lot of the truly indy comic stuff, but http://www.fantagraphics.com/ out of seattle puts out a lot of amazing things. They put out Crumb's stuff ( the artist who drew Harvey Pekar's stuff), Acme Novelty library, Love and Rockets,Daniel Clowes (Ghost World, Eightball) and all kinds of great stuff.

 

My favorite indy artist is Joe Sacco, who is a "Comic journalist" It's hard to explain, but he will go into a war zone or a ****ed up likes like Palestine or Sarajevo and make comics about the people he meets there and their stories. Palestine, The Fixer and notes from a defeatest are all great.

 

 

Perseopolis is also amazing. And Maus. That Art Spiegelman would put out the comic, that is probably most widely read as it gets assigned in schools, would have been impossible to predict, as he was a giant in the indy-alternative comic scene. Maus pretty much single handedly brought "narrative sequential art" into a place of respect.

 

Those are what is coming to me off the top of my head, I'm sure there's a bunch of others that are great that I'm not thinking of right now.

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I mostly have just read what McGee tells me about, so don't really have much to add, but love almost all of what's listed.

 

Heart of Empire looks dope, so I'm grabbing that one for sure.

 

I actually haven't finished Preacher somehow, but it a my favorite, followed by Sandman, then Transmet.

 

 

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If you're ever in the pacific northwest, you simply must stop into Olympia, and go to Danger Room comics. It's a tiny store ( at least it was, I think they've expanded now) but no place has foot for foot more good comics. They have almost no back issues of comics, almost no collectible comics( the only ones they buy, are really random and obscure ones, they think people would like. They don't have space to have 10,000 old super man back issues). While they do sell a few gamer stuff, like they will begrudgingly have packs of magic cards or w/e, they don't have display cases full of "collectible" items. The store is basically anti-collectables. They love comics, for the art of the comics, not them as "investments" or w/e. I think they'd do away with marvel and DC, if they could afford to, but they have a lot of geeks that come in and buy them. The people there are SUPER knowledgable, about anything from mainstream to like zine level comics and if you tell them what you like, they can give you great recommendations. 90% of what I've read, was recommended by the guys in that shop

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Also...the iPad the ideal way to read comics. That's what alway kept me from getting too into it long ago, because the computer is awkward, but comics are just too much shit to have laying around (same with books in general). The day the iPad Air was released was the day comics became viable again.

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Swamp Thing was the only one I read faithfully as a teenager. I picked up the Alan Moore compilations again a few years ago and still love them.

 

 

I've got Hellblazer on my wish list, and I need to pick up TWD after hard bound 7 (8 and 9 I think?).

 

I enjoyed the editions of Sandman I read.

 

I've been reading the webcomic of Crossed.

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Swamp Thing was the only one I read faithfully as a teenager. I picked up the Alan Moore compilations again a few years ago and still love them.

 

 

I've got Hellblazer on my wish list, and I need to pick up TWD after hard bound 7 (8 and 9 I think?).

 

I enjoyed the editions of Sandman I read.

 

I've been reading the webcomic of Crossed.

 

Hellblazer is dope. Swamp thing is one of many I've sampled and loved. It's nothing at all what I imagined, it's so weird and glorious. Need to read mode, I have them all in my hand as we speak.

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Alright, I'm at least 5 years out of the comics game, but I do love them as an art form.

 

Wow, thanks for the lengthy recommendation post. Some thoughts:

 

Alan Moore's Swamp Thing - I guess I'll have to check that out. I was actually planning to read a more recent iteration of Swamp Thing because Brian K. Vaughan wrote it, but I guess I'll start earlier.

 

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - I tried to give it a go awhile ago but didn't try very hard.

 

I'll check out some of those other Alan Moore projects too. I'm not sure why I haven't looked at more of his stuff, since I think Watchmen is brilliant. I think I felt like they'd be disappointing or something because they're not gonna be as good as Watchmen, but that's not a good reason really.

 

Top 10 - I'd heard this recommended before but forgot about it - definitely gonna check it out.

 

Maus - I keep meaning to read this but I'm not often in the mood for something completely heartbreaking and devastating. I read the first couple dozen pages of it a long time ago but never went further.

 

I'll also definitely check out The Authority, which I hadn't heard of.

 

 

You should totally read Hard Boiled by the way, if you haven't. It's amazing. Geof Darrow has really only drawn 3 comics - Hard Boiled, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, and Shaolin Cowboy. The art in all of them is astounding, but Hard Boiled is the only one with an amazing story. He recently revived Shaolin Cowboy for a 4-issue run and while the art is still amazing, it's almost masturbatory. Almost 2/3 of the entire run of 4 issues is just pages and pages of variations of the same image over and over again with no dialog. It's Shaolin Cowboy cutting down zombies in the desert with his hilarious 20-foot double-chainsaw. Issues 2 and 3 are literally just him chainsawing zombies nonstop for the entire issue, front to back. It's kind of hilarious, but also kind of unnecessary.

 

But Hard Boiled, holy shit it's amazing. Big Guy and Rusty is also totally worth reading, it's only 2 issues and it's also by Frank Miller. The plot is fairly straightforward in that one though, it's mainly about the art.

 

Also, I seem to have sold Sklansky on Heart of Empire and I think you would really love it also. It's completely hilarious and fucked up and gorgeously drawn, and the world he created is very elaborate. It's actually a sequel to his earlier The Adventures of Luther Arkwright but you don't need to read that one first. The earlier one is very esoteric and, for me, hard to get into, but Heart of Empire had me absolutely hooked after about 5 pages.

 

Oh and I also have never read Sandman. I should probably check that out finally. So thanks for all the recs and especially some of the superhero stuff that I really don't know much about. I also haven't read any of Preacher.

 

Everybody raves about All-Star Superman (Grant Miller) but I read the first few issues and wasn't really into it.

 

Y sounded like a genius idea, but can't get into it. DMZ I started years and years ago, forgot about. Been meaning to start 100 Bullets.

 

Y isn't perfect, but it's a lot of fun. I'd definitely recommend giving it another go. I felt like it went over the shark a bit towards the end of its run but the fist 40 issues or so are just awesome.

 

DMZ I'm not sure how well I'm gonna like it through the rest of the run. There's some stuff about it I love and other stuff I don't, and it kind of seems to have shot its wad after 20 or so issues. But there are 72 overall so maybe I'm wrong and it maintains itself or even gets better.

 

 

One more random image. This is from the first run of Shaolin Cowboy:

 

3737929-5530978647-sc07..jpg

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A lot of the mainstream super hero stuff, like Morrison's Xmen (or his Batman, for that matter) has to be graded on a curve, because most main stream super hero stuff is so dreadful.

 

 

A non-traditional superman I'd recommend is "Red Son" which is a superman mini series, set in an alternative universe, where Superman landed in Russia instead of the US, and became the superhero for Socialism. It's really great.

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Also, I alluded to it, but Frank Miller's Dark knight Returns and Batman year one are excellent. You can't underestimate how much Dark knight returns changed the industry (along with Watchmen) For good and bad. The latest batmen movies are very inspired by Miller's batman run. Also, his other stuff is great, like 300, Sin City and what not.

 

Oh, and Moore's V is for Vendetta is amazing. Probably his best non-watchmen look. The movie is fine, but the book is about anarchism, and the movie totally neuters that. From Hell is great, too.

 

His Top Ten really is going over the same ground that The Watchmen covered, interms of deconstructing super heros, but it's done much more for laughs in top 10, where as in The Watchmen it was more of a Comic Noir.

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Top Ten was over my head, given that I'd read like three comics when I gave it a rip. I'll work it back in some day.

 

Red Son is amazing. Just a genius premise.

 

Y will get another shot, but I need to finish some other stuff first. I have like 40 series going right now.

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"Trees" is a new comic which I'm liking. It's by Warren Ellis. Only 3 issues so far, third one just came out today. I actually don't love the art or at least I'm not sure yet, and I usually can't get into a comic if I don't love the art, but the story is really compelling.

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The comic is about an alien invasion, or semi-invasion. These enormous "trees" land all over the planet but the aliens never come out. The comic takes place ten years after they landed.

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This is an actual song: Save the whales- whales are cool - they swim in schools - save the whale their size is large - their number is small- heed the call - save the whale

 

 

and you can't forget Surf aids:

 

tried to catch it tried to catch it now I caught it now I got it tried to catch the sickest wave ended up catching ****ing AIDS stepped on a needle at the beach(3x)and now my life is out of reach

I'm dropping in SURF AIDS I can't go down to the shore no more no more no shore no shore no more

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I've read quite a few. I get almost all the stand alone books from the library. The serialized stuff (Fables) I had to purchase.

 

Maus 1 and 2--both brilliant.

 

Stitches by David Small. It's a memoir told in graphic novel form. The narrator doesn't trust the world around him, which affects the art. I really liked it--there was a few panels depicting living as an artist in a Detroit squat that was so vivid I'm still thinking about.

 

 

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

 

This book was much, much smarter than me. It goes into architecture, formal design, and philosophy. I should re-read it to see if I can catch up at all.

 

 

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

 

Really really great. It's a memoir by a woman who grew up in a funeral home. There's lots more as her father died in a possible suicide, she comes out as queer, etc. Read it, and be secure in talking about the Bechdel rule.

 

 

Marbles by Ellen Forney

Another bio from a mental illness type queer lady. The weakest of all the books in this post, but still worth it from the library.

 

 

Fables I adored, I just stopped wanting to buy more. Is there a limited series, with a definite end that you all recommend? I've read Watchman, and am just okay on the other Alan Moore I've read. I'd love to read a superhero series, but again--I want it to be maybe a 6-10 trade book run.

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Fables I adored, I just stopped wanting to buy more. Is there a limited series, with a definite end that you all recommend? I've read Watchman, and am just okay on the other Alan Moore I've read. I'd love to read a superhero series, but again--I want it to be maybe a 6-10 trade book run.

 

Sandman was 75 issues by intention, it had a full story arc. Transmet has a arch too. All of the allan moore stuff I recommended had very short runs, like Promethea had like 32 issues, so that's like 3 or 4 books I think. Top ten had 3 or 4. League had 3 I think. The Preacher was a 66 issue run ( get it?!?! wacka wacka)

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Is there a limited series, with a definite end that you all recommend?

 

 

I think you might really love a pretty short one that I just read: The Tale of One Bad Rat, by Bryan Talbot who also did Heart of Empire. It's nothing like Empire which is a bizarre alternate universe fantasy satire. One Bad Rat is a story about a girl who was sexually abused, and it's beautiful. It's not sappy, it's not preachy, it's just really good and at least a little bit heartbreaking. I actually haven't read the 4th issue yet so I don't know how it ends.

 

"The Tale of One Bad Rat is an ingenious, intertextual narrative that interweaves the charming, whimsical, and above all, English vision of Beatrix Potter with a vision of England as it has become; the soft juxtaposed with the savage; Peter Rabbit lost in Cardboard City. Thoroughly excellent." - Alan Moore

 

 

Heart of Empire that I mentioned also fits that (a limited series with a definite conclusion), as does Peter Pan (by Loisel, originally in French but translated into many languages). They're both gorgeously drawn and are exciting and funny and weird.

 

 

Anyway thanks for those recs, they sound interesting, especially Stitches.

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Read the first couple issues of Top 10, it's pretty great, I'm excited to see where it goes.

 

I also slogged through the rest of All Star Superman, which nobody here recommended but people everywhere else rave about. It's awful. I don't know why people think so highly of it. Just terrible.

 

Definitely gonna read Red Son next though. Also V for Vendetta.

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Read the first couple issues of Top 10, it's pretty great, I'm excited to see where it goes.

 

I also slogged through the rest of All Star Superman, which nobody here recommended but people everywhere else rave about. It's awful. I don't know why people think so highly of it. Just terrible.

 

Definitely gonna read Red Son next though. Also V for Vendetta.

 

I started All Star Supes, because it was popping up on lists for essential comics, and quickly learned that Alex Ross isn't the only reason I don't like Superman. I mostly hate him because he is mostly awful.

 

 

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