Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Best Graphic Novels?
Stage Left Dr 'Steve' Strange-Stage Right the Fab/Fantastic FourI probably know more than is strictly necessary about comics, superheroes, alter ego's and 'events' - I'm not quite a geek, more of a fanorak I suppose, and with Word seemingly a fanorak friendly publication (Alan Moore features, straight-faced, snear-free reviews of TPBs) I'm sticking my neck out - Mr Fantastic/Plastic Man/Elongated Man style - and suggesting that these may be some of the World's Finest graphic nov's ...so, anymore suggestions for the superhero role call?
Planet Hulk
What do the brightest minds in the Marvel universe (The Marvel Illuminati) all agree is an appropriate anger management plan for The Hulk? Trick him, trap him and shoot him into space of course (on a pre-programmed flight to some far off unhabited planet ). But, oh dear, computer says 'Error:abort, re-try, ignore' , and crash lands him on world of royal crazies, limb-ripping gladatorial combat and wide-eyed worshippers .Whoops.
Kurt Busiek's - Marvels
A New Yorker's eye view of the arrival of (Marvel) superheroes in the city ( appearing by original publication timeline). Who could complain about the usual commute with Thor or similar, thunder-busting their way through the regulation rush hour snarl-ups. The genuinely jaw-dropping artwork of Alex Ross, and a discreet guest appearance of the Fab 4 at the Fantastic 4 wedding make this a keeper.
Civil War
When overzealous Reality TV teen superheroes atomise an entire American every-town, cue reactionary goverment enforced registration of all superheroes and split loyalties in the super community. Satire, social comment, unmaskings and high-powered punch-ups - this one really has got it all.
The Killing Joke
Alan Moore's masterclass in comic tale-telling and Brian Bolland's 'Kubrickly' clean lines round out the depth and shadowy simpatico conjoining the The Joker and the Dark Knight
Marvel Essential - Silver Surfer
Not strictly a graph' nov' - but all eighteen editions of the ol' Chrome Dome's first flights collected in one volume - it is classic tragi-comic Marvel and almost like Shakespeare in space
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Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
Where are the Watchmen?
Indeed
Just reading as we speak. Just superb.
I've it tried 3 times
but always start drifting after a couple of issues - I really should try again. There again, Frank Miller's 'Dark Knight' didn't do much for me either.
But it's the
"Pet sounds" of comics!
And
the London Calling/Blue Lines/Zen Arcade/Revolver
I'll put together some ideas later
can i make for a early case for just calling them "comics" we don't call singles "mini albums" comics is a good name for a popular artform graphic novels is only to be used (i reckon) at publishing firm expense lunches by people embarrseed not putting out the latest Amis or rushdie. Also there's a lot of men in underpants in your list.
No, Comics are different IMHO
They are Victor, Warlord, Battle, Wizard etc. and they have four page strips that continue every week whereas Graphic Novels are complete stories in colour with lots of thought to the art as well as the story. (Not meaning to criticise the art of comics of old).
we'll have to disagree
because some of the selection above are by your definition are comics.
Misunderstood
I mean that they are not in novel form. Whereas Graphic Novels are just that.
I just
think comics don't need this added name which was dreamt up to give them "cultural repesctability" by marketers, comics are powerful force in their right and don't need to justify themselves by being likened to that young upstart the novel.
a pendant writes
Technically a Graphic Novel is a book length publication of something that wasn't previously published in another form. So Watchmen isn't (because it was originally published as twelve monthly comic books), whereas (say) Arkham Asylum is.
Although the most common usage of the term "Graphic Novel" is by journalists writing features about Alan Moore who are terrified of using the c word.
a pedant writes
I think you meant "pedant".
Arf!
Spotted!
I *wish* I could say that
I *wish* I could say that was intentional
I agree with you Springer.
Trouble is, the term 'comic' is often conflated with 'cartoon', whereas I think we are positing a definition that allows a 'comic' to be a serialised publication having multiple, seperate stories that unfold in an episodic fashion, none of which are necessarily inter-related. Your examples are exactly that, though I would have listed Hornet and Hotspur alongside the Victor as the epitome of this form. While a 'comic', in these terms, does indeed usually contain cartoons, it does not have to do so exclusively, and indeed in one case (I forget which, as I didn't buy it at the time; was it Valiant?) the entire 'comic' consisted of prose stories, in either complete or serialised form. A 'graphic novel', then, is an entirely different beast, being a single story presented in a graphical form, that is, in cartoon form, which may or may not be delivered in a serialised format.
Now, can I get back to my case for Watchmen as the definitive example, being positively cinematic in its graphical splendour, and a sure fire rebuttal to any one questioning the validity of the graphic novel form.
we know what "Graphic Novels" is
it's a slightly grand name that allows blokes to justify (not that they need to) to themselves and their loved ones buying or being bought comics, they are easy to buy than single issues coz we go to shop everyweek. They have had a load of analytical literary language added to them to ease the buying, there are just long comics and short comics or are we going to start buying Opera paintings next or maybe sculpture music?
I'm glad you know what a Graphic Novel is,
but if that's the case, I can't understand why you want to insist that they can also be referred to as 'long comics'.
This is nonsense. It has nothing to do with 'justifying' anything, or somehow escaping from the childish associations of the term 'comic'. It is simply an accurate description of what they are.
Given that there have been many 'comics' in the past that do not even contain any stories in drawing form, there can be no doubt that the term 'comic' is nowhere near as descriptive as 'graphic novel'.
Comics
is what just about everyone involved in the process of creating them, publishing them, and distributing them, calls them. It's a bit like a non-butcher trying to tell a butcher that a slicing sausage isn't really a sausage...
we could
get all fancy dan and call them
"bande dessinée" or maybe "stripverhalen" which is what Herge may be called them!
I quite like
"Narrative serial art" myself. Nah, not really. Comics. Yup.
Comics
Alan Moore re. the term 'graphic novel':
"It's a marketing term. I mean, it was one that I never had any sympathy with. The term "comic" does just as well for me. The term "graphic novel" was something that was thought up in the '80s by marketing people... "
Full interview here:
http://blather.net/articles/amoore/northampton.html
Dan Clowes and many other comic book writers and artists also think the term 'graphic novel' is BS, so I'm going to take their lead and stick with 'comic'.
Alan Moore can think what he likes
and so can I. They are books.
Why 'books' sucks as a definition of comics
If you just call them 'books', then how do you differentiate between the media of comics and literature?
The term 'comics' defines a medium, and the comic tales of Spiderman, Dennis the Menace and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth are representative of that medium.
But
Jackie Collins, Jeffrey Archer, Marcel Proust and Raymond Chandler are all literature. Some a wee bit better than others.
Also
The entire western world (including Davids Simon and Hepworth) enjoy to draw the comparison between (HBO cop drama) The Wire and the written novel. And the programme is (because of reasons both thematic and formal) certainly more akin to a Tolstoy work than is a series of Big Brother. But most people still accept, when they are watching The Wire, that they are a watching a TV programme. The term 'televisual novel' is not useful, because the distinction is not necessary. This despite the fact that Simon and HBO went to great lengths to distinguish The Wire as 'novelistic' so as to appeal affluent demographics who subscribe to HBO (and buy 'graphic novels').
Back to comics. Some are stand-alone half-page narratives (Biffo the Bear). Some are serialized narratives that have closure (Watchmen), and some have the formal capacity to infinitely run and run (Spiderman). The term 'graphic novel', as with the term 'televisual novel', serves zero purpose (other than to market product to HBO/Word magazine subscribers). It is an unnecessary term of distinction.
There is nothing unnecessary about being distinct.
Is 'Look and Learn' a comic? It doesn't fit any of your definitions. It is certainly not a novel. It is however a collection of factual articles with a smattering of serialised fictional narratives with the formal capacity to run and run. Whatever the sophistry, to almost anyone with common sense it is a comic, and you buy it at the newsagent each week along with your 'Beano'.
Is 'Tintin In Tibet' a comic or is 'Tintin In Tibet' a novel? It began life as a 'comic strip' inside a periodical, but if one buys it from Amazon today, it's bound in one volume. It is most definitely a book. It has the formal structure of a novel. The story is told in graphical form with the addition of speech and contextual commentary in text form. Should I describe this thing as a 'fiction comic with a serialized narrative that has closure', or do I just say 'it's a graphic novel'?
Which description is terse and unmistakable?
didn't look
and learn have the made but cool Tragan empire strip in it which was the iliad in space or something.
That's
the one!
As far as I'm concerned, Tintin in Tibet
is a comic. I do not feel it needs to be distinguished as anything other. (You'll have to forgive me, but I'm not sure what Look and Learn is.)
I also do not understand why, just because issues of Tintin are bound into a volume, they stop being 'comics', and suddenly become 'graphic novels'. Just because issues of Daredevil have been stapled together does not mean the volume attains the formal qualities of the novel. (There's more to a novel, as I'm sure you are aware, than having a narrative with a beginning an end.) If, say, collected issues of Watchmen or Ghost World or Jimmy Corrigan do attain the formal qualities of the novel, then someone can make that argument (although it would be an argument I would be resistant to, because, for me, the comparisons belittle the excellent narrative techniques unique to the comics medium).
For what it is worth (little, I know), even I were to agree that a distinction is needed to separate issues of comics and bound volumes of comics (and I'm not sure I do), I find it problematic that the term of distinction oft used should have the word 'novel' involved. If a term of distinction were needed, it would be a lot more accurate if that term incorporated the word 'comic' and did not allude to separate media.
It's picky, I know,
but as I mentioned before, there were never any 'issues' of Tintin; there were only episodes. It was simply a single line comic strip in a mag, like Fluke or The Gambols. Each row on a page of the collected works/book/graphic novel version represents what was originally a week's worth of the strip.
Therefore the collected version cannot 'stop being' a 'comic', as it never was one!
I disagree
with the argument about why some people chose to call them graphic novels, frankly I think it's boring and irrelavant and too nerdy even for comic book fans. I'm 17 in a few weeks so if you think it's socially unacceptable to read comic books try being in my shoes. But I'm not a nerd and this isn't a moan. Some of the Wolverine stuff around the early to mid ninetys is fantastic (just after he lost the adamantium) as is the team up with Spiderman where they track down an old flame of Wolvies when she goes on a murderous rampage.That said Civil War is good, as is The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. I really enjoyed Marvels as well, and Batman Year One. Batman in probably my favourite charcter, just above Wolverine and Spiderman The last twenty years in comics have been an excercise in how they should be made.
Here are those...
...which have made an impression on me: -
Barefoot Gen - Keiji Nakazawa
Story of a young boy's life both before and after the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
Maus - Art Spiegleman
Artist tells his father's experience of the Holocaust.
The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
Miller takes what was at that point probably the most laughable of all comic heroes and masterfully returns him to his dark roots.
Year One - Frank Miller
How Batman came to be.
Seconded - Barefoot Gen
Brilliant book. When they're ready, I will give it to my kids to read too. He said pompously. But it is a true account of what went on in Japan in the run-up to Enola Gay's visit and just how a society can get so brainwashed and twisted.
When I was a kid, I thought the Japanese drawing style was strange but now with Pokemon etc, kids are far more used to that style.
the best comics sans capes
Being British (we did invent science fiction and fantasy after all)
Tend to favour comics not involving super heroes
So in no order
Alan Moore (one of comics few genius)and Eddie Campbell "From hell" a brilliant telling of the Ripper cases full of psycho-geography, the mason etc
Sandman series
Neil Gaiman's evolving story about the god of dreams is human and moving filled with reference to classical gods but also English literary one the best episodes is based around a midsummer nights dream
My dad’s old eagle annuals
We may have skipped the wordy story but Dan Dare Harris tweed etc were just as exciting and funny etc in 1979 as they were in 1953.
Beano annuals
Christmas was always better with Dennis Roger, Mini and the bash street kids written by grown ups for children.
League of extraordinary gentlemen Alam Moore (the knows the score)
Ignore the film the books are great Kevin O’Neil spiky drawing is ace
Charley’s warby Pat Mills et al: war comics were the thing as a lad warlord, victor valiant and the daddy “Battle Action” full of real life war the most significant was Charley’s war set in WW1 and adding some realism to the gung ho world of "bristcher schwinehunds"
Any of the anthologise of 2000 AD Judge Dredd Slaine, Dr & Quinch
The most important comic ever produced in Britain most of what was written in Dredd has come true. Reading my first copy on coach to Blackpool I was literally giddy at the sight of huge fighting robots, mutant bounty hunters, wise cracking college drop outs and of course Torquemada!
Ghost world by Daniel Clowes;
Clowes work is all good this one was made into surprisingly good film, he’s a standard barrier for the non cape wearing end of US comics.
Asterix and Obelisk: Underzo and Goscinny genuinely funny stories I like the "Big Fight" and "in Britain" much preferred to that goody goody
Tintin
Spot on with most of those, I reckon.
I remember when I read Birdsong thinking, 'This is beautifully writtten, but all this stuff the critics are lauding about it being revelatory was all in Charley's War when I was barely into my teens.'
Leo Baxendale's Willy The Kid Annuals
are like Spike Milligan in comics format - I read them to my two now who love them - the Dr Who, King Kong, Kung Fu and other re-made references make them almost timeless.
Oh and Billy That Cat and The Leopard of Lime Street are corkers too.
DC:The New Frontier
by Darwyn Cooke is comic book perfection. Worth shelling out for the absolute edition.
Grant Morrison's All Star Superman is another good take on the joyous side of superheroes. Frank Quietly's art is lovely too.
They also did an interesting story called We 3 which is about animals turned into weapons.
Any of Brian Michael Bendis' Daredevil hardbacks are ace, as is Ed Brubaker's follow up.
Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell is excellent too drawing on all the various Jack the Ripper myths plus Moore's occult interests.
There's loads - ooh - Try Black and White - a three part manga series which is terrific too - drawn in 'the european style' - reminds me of Moebius.
*cough cough*
I realise this is a bit like some dickhead responding to a thread about the best albums ever by posting a link to his shitty tunes on myspace, but what the hell...
http://www.flyingmonkeycomics.co.uk/hftf/?p=6
Thanks Simon
These are great!
Planet Of The Apes
One I'd love to see reprinted and collected in one volume is Marvel's mid-seventies POTA comics - but for now they are available online here...
http://pota.goatley.com/marvel_uk.html
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel ...
...tells a Superman story from the perspective of his most enduring enemy. Here Superman is a background presence - a blue and red blur racing across the city; occasionally seen glowering through the window of Luthor’s corporate offices. He speaks just once.
Lex Luthor is the embodiment of a Nietzschean superman – amoral and dedicated to advancing the human race without recourse to gods or, in this case, alien saviours. The presence of Superman on earth is an anathema to him. He doesn’t necessary want to destroy him - he just wants him to go away. The story is about how many lines he is prepared to cross and how much he is prepared to personally sacrifice to bring about this end.
My fave
Bit of an anti-hero, actually, Spider Jerusalem in Warren Ellis' 'Transmetropolitan'.
I was expecting you
to nod in the direction of the excellent 100 Bullets series, Agent Graves.
Hehehe
...oh yeah, the home of my namesake. Forgot about that one! The concept and the first few trade paperbacks but I kind of lost interest after 'Hang Up On the Hang Low'....Agent Graves was a fantastic character who obviously made an impression!
Rich
Magnus, Robot Fighter 4000 AD
Pure fifties brilliance, and never properly lauded.
I have Issue 1, I am proud to boast.
No one has mentioned Manga.
'Akira' is utterly, utterly brilliant.
Marvel Man/miracle man
Anyone else remember this other Alan Moore masterpiece, based on aa trashy late 50s/early 60ss british knock-off of american superhero strips, that Moore turned into something quite scary. Started in the UK mag Warrior which closed, then got its own American comic . Moore bowed out and Neil Gaiman took over. Now the whole series in trapped in a legal hall of mirror. You can buy the very hard to get graphic novel that collects some of the stories on Amazon for about the price of an original master tape of The White Album.
Shame really as both writers visions were totally fantastic.
Which reminds me I used to LOVE Jim Starlin's Marvelman and his Warlock. No one else did cos they closed.
I remember Miracle/Marvelman - it was brilliant.
I wish they'd dig it out of legal hell. It's like being prevented from listening to a classic album because the band don't get on any more.
And another one...
The Chris Clairmount era of the X-men, paticularly the phoenix story that X-3 messsed up.
And while we are at it and just for blatant nostalgia sake, does anyone remember Commado comics? "Achtung Tommy for you the war is over" "Not blooming likely Fritz"
have you not invested in the Commando reissues
very big mothers but with 12 "Classics" in each one, and you can get the Battle Picture Library and War Picture Library versions too. Ah to be 10 again or 15 or even 21 but there you go.
Achtung! Spitfire!
Take that Fritz!
Budda-budda-budda
Donner und blitzen!
Schweinhund!
AAAAAAAAaarrghh!
etc.
International Diplomacy & Modern European History Key Stage 3
Superheroic West Wing
Ex Machina (Brian K Vaughan + Tony Harris)
The Mayor of New York is an ex superhero who saved one of the twin towers. Snappy dialougue, plots that actually rely on the political elements as much as the superheroic stuff.
Oh and his power is that he can talk to machines.
But it's not really a capes and kecks on the outside kind of book.
Good stuff
Or for a classic guilty pleasure try the Fantastic Four. From the start - Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. The Essentials black and white collections are the best and cheapest way to do this.
To be honest, there are loads of great books, comics, graphic novels, whatever, out there. This is just the tip of a grand iceberg. Walking Dead, the Preacher, The Authority (Millar's or Ellis'), any Alan Moore, some Neil Gaiman, blah blah blah blah blah
I Am The Law
Borag Thungg, Earthlet - If you were ever a 2000ad buyer or browser you will tear through this new (well, 2007) Judge Dredd Origin epic. Written by Judge Dredd creator John Wagner, art by Ezquerra and a Bolland cover too. Zarjaz! What more do you need?
Splundig Vur Thrigg!
When I was a kid...
I imagined Carlos Esquerra to be the coolest man on earth. And I am fondly remembering my poster of Judge Death, drawn by Brian Bolland...
Splundig Vur Thrigg to you too!
would anyone like to hear the
Judge Dredd single recorded by members of Madness I can rip it when i get in. It's offically the best looking picture disc ever.
"From Justice Hall to the Zappa Block..."
I've got that at home somewhere. The Fink Brothers, wasn't it?
I had the 12"
I think it came with a poster - shame they didn't follow up with 'I Wanna Be Your Strontium Dog'
Or maybe something by...
Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein.
re: Madness/Judge Dredd tack - sure would!
Back in the day, pre-net, I hunted for this bloody thing and never could find it at a price for less than a shedload of cash. (Relatively speaking)
the best British GN
in my opinion, obv, is Jack Staff by Paul Grist. Ostensibly a superhero tale parodying (slightly) Captain America, set in WW2 onwards, knowing funny Dad's Army references, Steptoe and Son as vampire hunters, nods to old British strips and the most amazing sense of composition. His 39th Precinct series - US set cop series is also first class.
'Persepolis'...
by Marjane Satrapi. Moving, informative and funny.
Men In Tights
Most of the responses seem a bit Superhero-centric, I've got a few hundred comics collections on the shelves, and probably a couple of dozen are remotely linked to superheroes and other costumed clowns of various types. So here are a few favourites from outside the dressing-up box:
"Tamara Drewe" and "Gemma Bovery" by Posy Simmonds - wonderfully-observed, beautifully drawn and tightly plotted tales of jealousy and betrayal amongst the British middle-classes. One of the best one-(wo)man-bands in British comics.
All the "Maakies" collections by Tony Millionaire - a demented alcoholic chimp and a suicidal alcoholic crow take to the high seas on the good ship Maakies. Frequent disembowellings, grotesque violence, and every taboo broken along the way. Utterly hilarious.
"Mad Night" by Richard Sala - all of Sala's comics are the comics equivalent of film noir. Murder, mad scientists, and lady pirates are all in the mix as the mystery deepens.
"The Poor Bastard" by Joe Matt - One of the best and funniest producers of autobiographical comics, Joe Matt confesses all about his disastrous relationships and his obsession with pornography. Fantastic comic timing and black self-deprecatory humour make this very, very funny, and nowhere near as self-indulgent as it may sound.
"Love and Rockets" by Los Bros Hernandez - terrific comics series set in Mexico, centred around the imaginary town of Palomar. The two brothers have different, but complementary styles, and the various intertwining storylines are huge fun. The artwork is gorgeous, too. Collected in about 16 volumes - probably best to start at the beginning.
Some other names to look for: Seth, Chris Ware (all his Acme Novelty Library series), Robert Crumb, Jason Lutes, Edward Gorey (not really comics, but his faux-Edwardian world is a taste hard to shake once acquired; start with his "Amphigorey" collections), Daniel Clowes (as mentioned above, "Ghost World" is a good first dip), Charles Burns (his massive "Black Hole" is a dazzling parable of teenage angst and monster movies), Howard Cruse, and Jeff Smith, whose "Bone" series starts off like a Disney funny-animal short, and gradually turns into "Lord of the Rings"-style epic fantasy.
Oh, and tons more, but enough, enough!
Another vote for los bros Hernandez
It is pretty essential to start Love and Rockets at the beginning to get full value, but the beginning is somewhat misleading - it is not actually a science fiction thing at all. The rocket ships and dinosauars are all made up (this will make sense if you read it) but about people living now(ish) in LA and Mexico. It has 2 of the most moving deaths in any media (Speedy and Tonantzin). Can't recommend it enough.
I haven't read these myself...
but these titles are doing very well in the bookshop where I work...
'Alice In Sunderland' by Bryan Talbot
'Maus' by Art Spiegelman
'Moomin - The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip' by Tove Jansson
'Palestine' by Joe Sacco and Edward W. Said
'Tamara Drewe' by Posy Simmonds
all good stuff
Alice is Sunderland is wonderfully rendered he just labours the idea too much (ie that sunderland is the centre fo the world).
Maus is a straightforward forward classic.
I have slight problem with Posy Simmonds; I love the style of her drawing it's the upper middle class "lets all go down to Padstow" world she depicts that grates also she get's very wordy and seems to forget comics are a visual medium.
Not just visual
Although there are perfectly valid wordless comics, at their best comics combine the visual and the textual seamlessly. That's the difference between comics and pictures. Scott McCloud's excellent "Understanding Comics" explains all this, and much more.
I think my problem is some times the words
get in the way of the flow of her stories there's a bit too much deference to so called grown up literary novels.
Fair enough
comics is one of them there "broad churches", after all. Did you ever start reading Dave Sim's "Cerebus" series? If so, I bet you were grinding your teeth when it reached the first of those long stretches that were mainly text-only extended rants about Sim's pet hobby-horses! It even grated on me, and I'm usually perfectly happy when a comic goes texty for a while.
"die alone and unloved"
Sim himself thinks he is the only person to actually read all the text stuff - though there is a certain perverse interest in seeing a person going quite so far outside the normal accepted values of society (women should be subservient to men, Judaism Christianity and Islam are the same thing, invading Iraq was right, liberalism is the work of the Devil, the Bible is the literal truth...). I think he should stay away from psychiatrists if he wants to avoid being sectioned (or the equivalent in Canada). The art is great though.
Palestine
is as good a piece of investigative journalism as any you'll ever read.
Though I thought Sacco wrote it alone. Said maybe wrote an intro..? I could be wrong.
I just took the authors from Amazon...
so I may well be wrong.
The last one I bought
was a collection of crime stories compiled by Paul Gravett. It has about 20 two fisted/noir/mystery tales and is also highly recommended.
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel is a touching autobiographical study of a gay girl and her closeted father.
Pretty much everything by Michael Allred is splendid, funky pop art entertainment a go go.
I want to praise Brendan McCarthy too - if you can find Swimini Purpose, buy it - even though it's an art book rather than a GN, look out for Skin by him and Pete Milligan - a graphic novel about a thalidomide skinhead.
Very briefly
Two recommendations:
1) Pyongyang by Guy Delisle. Autobiographical account of an animator's time working in North Korea. Captures the atmosphere of Pyongyang beautifully.
2) Safe Area Goražde by Joe Sacco. Journalist's diary of the Bosnian War from Goražde, a UN-declared 'safe area' that was anything but safe. Scary.
Another really unhelpful comment
Lots of good stuff mentioned here, none of which I would dispute. Unfortunately there's a lot of great stuff out there that has never been collected as trade paperbacks, so it's a bit tricky to find.
One of my favourite comics ever was Pete Milligan's Shade The Changing Man. Although it was rather overshadowed by the contemporaneous Sandman series, there's some great stuff here, not least Chris Bachalo's gorgeous artwork.
The first six issues (when the creators were finding their feet) were collected as a trade paperback but this didn't sell, so there are unlikely to be any further collections. But if you can find them anything from issue 20 is great and the run up to issue 50 is genius. It's kind of hard to describe (uh, there's this bloke from another planet and he has the power of madness and then he inhabits the body of a dead serial killer and hangs around with lesbians), and the wiki entry isn't much help, but if you do find yourself rooting through the bargain bins in your local comic shop and find a few copies, they're at least bound to be cheap.
Another uncollected gem is Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly's 4 issue miniseries Flex Mentallo. It's both creators' best work, and, again, pretty difficult to decribe - suffice to say it's about a man in leopardskin trunks struggling with questions of reality. It's simultaneously exciting, creepy, sad, and ridiculously funny (in that sense I like to think of it as The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway of comics).
In a similar brain mangling mode, (but, happily, collected into five volumes) I would also recommend Alan Moore's Promethea series. But you don't need me to tell you Alan Moore's a genius, do you?
tis true
I managed to get all of Shade on CD Rom from 'a source' and have Flex in the floppies (!)
Hellboy, gotta get runnin' now
I'd also recommend the Hellboy books - Mike Mignola's hailed as a brilliant visual stylist, but it's his mastery of storytelling that makes these stories. The atmosphere of these comics is amazing (something the films lacked, i reckon), so much so that you forget what a daft premise it is (for the uninitiated, nazis summon a demon from hell to take over the world but the US army find him and raise him and he becomes "The World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator" - this generally entails him falling through the floors of abandoned churches and hitting monsters)
No Preacher!!!!!
Excuse the over-use of exclamation marks but nearly seventy posts and no mention of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's PREACHER series. A modern western full of hillbilly freaks, it's wonderfully plotted, full of pitch-black humour and visceral art. Jessie Custer is cooler than the other side of the pillow and rocks the eyepatch like no-one since Ziggy. I was completely absorbed with it and had to start rationing myself as it dreww to a close.
Ennis' current work on THE BOYS is also great (although deffo for Mature Readers Only) with a group of normal citizens (including a spit of Simon Pegg) going around exposing superheroes for the arrogant, reckless sons of guns they are and giving them a good kicking.
Good Point
Well Made
I can only agree
that Preacher is a blinder. In addition to great stories, art and all the other stuff required, any book that gives Bill Hicks a featured cameo is worth a look.
May I add:
"Strangehaven". The only thing I can compare it to is Twin Peaks but that doesn't do it justice - it's a unique and very English work - quite brilliant.
Grant Morrison's "Doom Patrol" and "Animal Man" are amazing takes on Super-heroes, recommended without qualification. His so-called masterwork "The Invisibles" travels up its own rear at points, but is still excellent.
Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" and Moore and Campbell's From Hell are among the best things ever published in any medium.
Gotta disagree with the Preacher/Hicks thing
I thought it was a really horrible bit of fanwank and obviously crowbarred in. I say this a big fan of both Preacher and Hicks.
Learn How To Become Invisible
Grant Morrison's THE INVISIBLES. The ultimate conspiracy/time-travel/consciousness-expanding/acid-tripping/media-subsersive mindscrew ever put to paper and ink. Literally does strange thing to your head after prolonged exposure...
Another vote for Preacher
Read the whole thing and it's very good.
Fables is my favourite. Just finishing volume 8.
Watchmen arrived in the post today. I've tried it before but never had my own copy. Gotta read it before the film comes out.
Ex Machina is well worth a look too.
My list for what its worth
All of Alan Moore is interesting and most is brilliant particularly; Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Ballad of Halo Jones.
Sandman by Neil Gaiman in its entirety included the magnificent Death spin offs - I also liked his 1601
Persepolis
Love and Rockets - particularly the Locas stuff
Millers Dark Knight Returns - though little else of his stands up to re-reading
Cerebus by Dave Sim the high point being High Society and Church & State and it does go off the rails after Jaka's Story.
Brought to Light - is an unheralded one in the documentary vein also featuring Alan Moore
Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
Phew! at last...
...Someone's mentioned V for Vendeta by Moore and Lloyd. For caped antics, Frank Miller's Born Again where he rejuvenates Daredevil. His previous run on this character, indeed the one that made his name, is also worth checking out - mainly for the Elektra issues. "Elektra lives again" is pure art porn, BTW, Lyn Varley's finest hour. Still with the capes - the best of Claremont's work with the X-Men is the run with Paul Smith, 165-175, and his issues with John Byrne - don't know the names of the anthologies though.
"From Hell" by Moore and Campbell is excellent once you realise that the scratchy artwork is as essential to the power of the book as the startling prose.
Sandman hasn't aged well for me, sorry.
What else...Cerebus upto about 150, the Jamie Delano/John Ridgeway issues of Hellblazer, Bill Sienkiewicz issues of "New Mutants", probably lots more that I can't recall now...
Oh...and there's nothing wrong with Tintin!
ta ta to Tintin!
I never got Tintin of course it's brilliantly drawn it's just the stories are dull, Tintin is dull as a main character, and aprt from decent swearing from haddock the reat are even more uninteresting. could never get into them I always prefered Asterix much funnier, anarchic and engaging. I am prepared to admit this may be just me.
There was a very funny
Trotskyist adaptation of TinTin knocking around in the late 80s. I used to have a copy but lost it along the way.
Read about it at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin:_Breaking_Free
or read the actual thing at
http://tintinrevolution.free.fr/
funny
that you should read that!
Not just you...
Asterix was rock n' roll. Obelix was rock n' roll incarnate.
Staggeringly,
no one has mentioned Swamp Thing.
one to watch...
just read the Umbrella Academy over the weekend. Written by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, art by Ba and Stewart (excellent colouring job). Quite Morrison-esque, echoes of Doom Patrol.
With you on Swampy
I assume, Vulpes, you are talking about Alan Moore's regeneration of the character in the mid-eighties? Moore was surely at the height of his powers around then and created double ace scouse Sting look-alike John Consantine into the bargain. His more recent stuff doesn't really do it for me, TOP TEN leaves me cold and ALBION(I know it's mostly down to his daughter)is near enough unreadable. I loved the first two volumes of LoEG but by all accounts the new one is a bit of a stinker.
maybe we should include some manga
or get the Japaneses PM to suggest his list
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/06/japan.comics
I'm no expert and have only
I'm no expert and have only 'read what I've read' if you know what I mean but I add votes to 2000ad - Slaine The Horned God series in particular (kinda answers the graphic novel v comic thread in my eyes) pat mills' take on celtic mythology really turned me on to this area(he played a little fast and loose but hey these are 'comics' ;~) ) ans simon mills art is my fave in this area. Votes also to Asterix and Obelix - just got lots of these out of the loft for my 10 year old and we're both really enjoying them - I mean a king of england called 'mykingdonforanoss' !!
Preacher also, excellent.
Not to bang on about Tintin, but...
...The Castafiore Emerald (Herge's attempt to sustain a narrative where nothing much happens) is chock full of wonderfully drawn and dialogued comedy, perhaps the toughest genre to pull off in comic form?
OK, I'll admit that Tintin himself is pretty dull...but the world would be a poorer place without Captain haddock.
Good shout on the Moore\Bissette\Totleben\Veitch Swamp Thing issues. Anybody ever finish that very futuristic one where he drifts about in space??
'fraid not
but the stuff with the 'cereal' killers was dark genius.
some people not already mentioned
I'm currently enjoying 'Death Note', a 12 volume Manga and David Lapham's 'Young Liars' series, which is seriously weird but not yet collected in book form (when, doubtless, the first six issues will suddenly become a 'graphic novel'. Love and Rockets was what got me into adult comics, and is now an annual anthology rather than a comic. The great Yoshihiro Tasumi's comics from the late sixties and early seventies are being republished in annual anthologies from D&Q, the latest 'Goodbye' being the bleakest to date. The McSweeney's comics issue is a good intro to a lot of the best current work. We're in a golden period of comics with people like Adrian Tomine and others mentioned above producing really interesting, accessible work.
A Few Favourites...
Any of Herge's Tintin books - when I was younger I used to love them, but going back to them a few years ago I picked up on all kinds of jokes, subtexts and little visual references that went right over my head as a child.
DC's Justice League: The New Frontier is a great piece of work - I was able to get the Absolute edition (for the uninitiated, beautiful oversized deluxe hardback editions in slipcases) for about £25, and it's a gem. Terrific artwork from Darwyn Cooke.
Alan Moore's name usually comes up several times in these lists, so I'll nominate 'V For Vendetta', as it's brilliant, sometimes moving and genuinely shocking at times. I tried 'Watchmen', but ended up disappointed - it was interesting, but I didn't like it.
Marvel's 'Civil War' and 'The Ultimates' are good fun, too. And as a faithful 'Doctor Who' viewer of many years' standing, some of the graphic novels reprinting the Marvel comic strip adventures of Tom Baker's Doctor (and later, Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor) show the format at its most inventive and imaginative. Highly recommended.
Alan Moore
V for Vendetta AND Watchment AND (to a lesser extent) League of Extraordinary Gentlemen....one of those would be career defining, but all three? I can be a bit coy admitting that I can have a very informed debate about the differences between Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan; I happily admit to the being a big fan of the first two. And Maus. Always, always Maus.
Preacher was immense, particularly in the early books. The consistency disappeared in the latter books, but they were still capable of excellence.
Charley's War, by Mills and Colquhoun, was as alluded to above, a defining read. It may not have been a classic graphic novel, but even reading that at a *cough* very young age, I was aware it was groundbreaking.
Judge Dredd? Very easy to mock, but when assessed on its own terms as a book or series? Capable of, well, really goodness. I lost my copies when I emigrated, but the Chopper series, as well as Necropolis and the precedent Dead Man bear revisiting time and again.
I do find interesting that the characters that are usually held to be defining of comic books - SUperman, Batman et al - are not normally held to have produced defining graphoc novels or series.
Dark Knight and Year One, perhaps. Death of Superman moved me. Arkham Asylum or The Killing Joke, maybe. Butr can anyone point out a truly classic book concerning them? Or Spidey? Or Daredevil (Frank Miller to one side)
Red Son...
was fantastic, while I hold true the belief that Alex Ross' KINGDOM COME is a masterpiece and JUSTICE is shaping up very nicely (have only read the first two books). I would argue that Ennis, Ellis, Moore etc do their best work with characters they themselves have created as they are not tied into issues of continuity, although this certainly didn't stop Moore on the 'Saga of the Swamp Thing'. The reason that PREACHER, TRANSMETROPOLITAN or SANDMAN are held up as defining works in the medium is the freedom allowed the writers by their not having to work within the constraints of a companies percieved direction for certain titles.
Death Note
Definitely agree with this one. Teaching comics at the moment to my Year 10s. They loved this one and Watchmen. Going to do Persepolis as a movie next month - splendid stuff!