Recommending Comics/Graphic Novels

The obvious: Watchmen, Killing Joke: If you don't have these in your collection, you need them if for no other reason than reference.

Books of Magic: Any. It's patently British, but a fun romp. Also, it takes an interesting perspective on magic, looking at the metaphysics of the situation. Also, the relationship between Tim and Molly is one of the best in comics.
And the cameos are a definite plus; John Constantine at his most definite best, as well as Zatanna. Oh, and demons really being evil...

Marvel Mangaverse 1+2: An interesting take on Marvel, and worth it just for that. I would recommend anything Ben Dunn (especially Ninja High School!), but this is him at his best. Volume 1 is essentially a miscellany of things with two stories, but the second is the Marvel Universe against Galactus (okay, so I would like to see the FF from Volume 2 extended (ie, not killed later on)). There are high heroics, and villains at their most evil, but you'll keep it for the fight between Johnny Blaze and the Son of Satan.

FF vs. X-Men: If you can find the trade, GRAB IT! This has it all: Kitty Pryde committing suicide, a Doc Doom vs. Sue Richards duel to beat the band, and Magneto apologizing. Oh, and one of the "Why We Fight" chapters ever, as the FF looks at why they do what they do; The Thing's rescue of a little girl will bring a tear to your eye if you have any humanity in you.


If it helps...
FR

FinbarReilly said:

FF vs. X-Men: If you can find the trade, GRAB IT! This has it all: Kitty Pryde committing suicide, a Doc Doom vs. Sue Richards duel to beat the band, and Magneto apologizing. Oh, and one of the "Why We Fight" chapters ever, as the FF looks at why they do what they do; The Thing's rescue of a little girl will bring a tear to your eye if you have any humanity in you.


If it helps...
FR

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I have the original four issue series and I highly recomend it for both the story and art is top notch.

Hi, All:

Try The Escapists, a graphic novel written by Brian K. Vaughan. It's spun off from Michael Chabon's Pullitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and is all about three young creators trying to make it in the tough, tough world of comics.

For something older, I'd try Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse. It's a graphic novel about a young gay man trying to make it through life in the deep South during the Civil Rights era. It's quite moving.

As far as superhero comics go, I'd recommend the Ultimate Spider-Man series by Brian Michael Bendis. It's far more entertaining and moving than the mainstream Spider-Man tales.

Dan
www.comicwriter.wordpress.com
www.blogprorealty.com
www.propertycrossroads.com

Watchmen: A must-read. I just got the Absolute Edition and it's gorgeous.

Dark Knight Returns: Like Watchmen it ushered in the GN era.

Captain America: The current run with Ed Brubaker is brilliant.

Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War was the best event of 2007

New Frontier: Darwyn Cooke's homage to the Silver Age Justice League.

I must admit to becoming something of a fogey in my old age -- I stopped reading the monthlies years ago, though I always pick up a collection or two when something strikes my fancy. So keep that in mind as I give you my picks -- my tastes are probably somewhat square....

As always, Watchmen. It's the one I've had the most success with, as it's entirely self-contained (people don't feel like they've missed something because they're not 'regular readers'), and just plain brilliant. For non-comics readers, I start them here.

And then there's Sandman. Again, for non-comics readers, Gaiman does enough in the early issues to explain enough of the back story (including the necessary reference to the Golden Age Sandman) that once you hit issue 10, and Gaiman really takes off on his own mythology, you're covered. Absolute Sandman is a gorgeous book, but even Gaiman himself recommends picking up any of the paperback collections.

From Hell: people are familiar with this one from the movie, but the graphic novel comes highly recommended for its index of resources and endnotes alone. Moore's research -- and theory -- is simply dazzling.

Now, for pure fun in comics, I've got several recommendations:

Fantastic Four 232-300 (or thereabouts) -- the John Byrne run on FF -- is some of the most fun I've ever had in comics. I'm not a hardcore Marvel reader (though I've read my share) and up until I read these, I had only read the Lee/Kirby reprints in an oversize edition I owned in the 1970s, and had no knowledge of much of the prior continuity. Byrne's run is just a plain romp through good old comic book fun, with lots of Dr. Doom swagger, Reed Richards harumphing, and great group interplay (though Byrne gets a bit too enamored with She-Hulk late in the run). I don't think these have ever been collected, but tracking down the originals is still no great shakes.

Another John Byrne title, Generations, which tracks the DC universe from the 1930s and upwards, inventing new histories and geneologies for characters, is a great time, especially in its first two series (have there been more? I'm not sure). Part of the fun is playing the "what if?" game, and, when a new character comes on the scene, trying to guess which famous DC universe residents might be his/her parents.

(Oddly, I'm not a huge Byrne fan, but I think he makes comics a lot of fun, when he's in the right frame of mind.)

This list is pretty good. Eisner stuff is on here. So is Zot! Alan Moore's name comes up umpteen times. Elfquest, too.

I'd add the Cerebus collections, particularly "Church and State."

silver surfer: requiem was one of the most beautiful comics i have ever read, both story and art-wise.

i dont think a comic book has ever effected me as much as that story did.

The Exterminators. Sort of like Repo Man with bug spray. Set in North Hollywood, my hood, and deeply weird and messed up. Truly fun.

100 Bullets. At least the first few trades. Violent, not for the squeamish, but technically brilliant.

Planetary, especially if that prat Ellis ever gets around to doing a fourth trade paperback. A gorgeous book in which the pulps and comics are the secret history of the world, and the FF are revealed for the John Birch fascists they truly are...heh-heh-heh.

The first ten issues of Hellblazer if you can find them in trade. As seminal in their way as Watchmen.

The Brad Meltzer Identity Crisis arc of JLA in trade.

Anything by Milton Caniff, particularly the high-end reprint volumes of Terry and the Pirates put out by IDW...



...or the Steve Canyon volumes produced by Checker Books.



Better than this, you just don't get.

The Louvre.

Bravo said:

silver surfer: requiem was one of the most beautiful comics i have ever read, both story and art-wise.

i dont think a comic book has ever effected me as much as that story did.

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I liked the Spiderman and Mary-Jane issue the best by far...that was a pretty great book.

I forgot to make some suggestions...I'll stick to things that haven't been mentioned yet and add my support to Sandman(probably the greatest comic ever) and Watchmen. I'll also agree that the Sinestro Corps War was pretty cool...plus there is a tiny Sinestro Corp guy named Despotellis, a virus, who is smaller than his ring so when he is on the scene it's just a ring flying around.

Annihilation is really great. There are 3 collections(hard and soft cover) out for Annihilation and one(hard cover) for Annihilation Conquest so far. Just great action and adventure in space.

Planet Hulk was fantastic I thought.

World War Hulk wasn't very good but if you want to know what happens after Planet Hulk you'll read it anyway. Why is Planet Hulk good and WWH not good? Because Planet Hulk is it's own story out in space and WWH is Hulk back on Earth so everyone has to be involved and it gets too scattered. This is also why Annihilation is great and something like Civil War isn't.

Ed Brubaker is my favorite comics writer so if he's writing it I probably like it. The list includes...Uncanny X, Daredevil, Cap America, he sort of supervises on Iron Fist but doesn't really write it...it's still a great book, Criminal, a noir comic he created with Sean Phillips that is the best non-superhero book out there if you ask me, and Sleeper which is collected in trades and is another great book.

I love X books. Uncanny is my fav...see above...but X-Factor is a really great book and is vastly different from the X-Factor I remember in the eighties. X-Force is a great new book that supposes a small team of mutants that go on black-ops missions. X-Men Legacy which was just 'adjectiveless X-Men' until recently is pretty cool. I don't read the New X-Men and find it absurd. I also don't read everybody's favorite X book...Astonishing. I have too much X on my plate already...
...including both Wolverine titles which are hit and miss but I grew up with Wolverine and I can't not buy his books. X-23 is a dumb character coming from a dumb concept...and she's great. Get the X-23 five part collection as it is really good, surprisingly good.

Batman is my main man and I get Batman, Detective Comics and Batman and the Outsiders. I also get any other Batman book that looks cool and doesn't have him hanging around with Superman or the other Justice Leaguers. Currently that means Gotham after Midnight and the really good and recently finished Gotham Underground. Batman is my favorite but I don't get everything with his name on it...the guy has a ton of books and specials and minis. Batman and Detective are can't miss options, though.

I just started reading Moore's run on Swamp Thing and I like is so far.

Grab the Black Adam mini just to see what a total maniac Adam is.

Hmmm...that's it for now...

Hmm - I [heart] comics!

Anyway - here are some books I have and am enjoying.

Dark Horse's Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars Legacy - both have great art (barring three issues in KotOR by Scott Hapburn) and all of them have a deep story line.

Marvel's Secret Invasion is also a good limited run book (12 issues). Damn Skrulls...

DCs Trinity for you fans of the three powerhouses of the DCU - Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman!

Superman Batman is also a great pick.

I would also have to recommend both monthly Iron Man titles - Iron Man and the Invincible Iron Man. IIM is a new book with 3 (as of today) isssues out and I have loved the two I already own and have been awaiting #3 to come out this month.

Thor is also a great Marvel title - our god of thunder has returned and the divine host of Asgard now reside in Oklahoma...trust me - it is better than it sounds

Conan the Cimmerian also debuted with issue #0 a few weeks ago and issue #1 should be out next week. Dark Horse has some really strong books out now, and with them wrapping the previous Conan title last month, I am eagar to see what they do with this new title.

Moore: From Hell, Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Tom Strong.

Gaiman: Sandman.

Spiegelman: Maus.

John Constantine Hellblazer. JSA (either recent series). Resurrection. Wasteland. Scott Pilgrim. Peter David's X-Factor. John's new Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. Fables started strong. The new Spirit series. The recent Flash re-launch. Anything superheroes by Geoff Johns. JMS's Thor seems like it will take off soon, don't know when though. Decompressed storytelling and all that. Early Bendis Powers graphic novels are good. Walter Simonson's Thor run was the best Thor ever. The classic Byrne X-Men run.

Fear Agent. "Let's not mince words--science fiction has lost its stones." This is the perfect sf series. Action-adventure.

My absolute favorite series of the past decade was Marvel's Runaways (until Joss Whedon got ahold of it and surprisingly ruined it). If you like teen adventures (think Buffy without the vampires or the Breakfast Club with superheroes) this is a definite must read. It's super fun for a longtime Marvel fan but it's also one of the company's most stand-alone books and definitely one of their most unique. And now apparently they're going to make it into a movie! Woohoo!

ChimeraCreative said:

By the way, the last Y: The Last Man trade has been released. I strongly recommend all ten books of the Brian K Vaughn series. Like I said in the first post, it's about the last man on Earth after a plague wipes out the y chromosome in all mammals. The cast is predominantly female (duh) and there's plenty of sub plots, traveling, jokes and action. Some of these ladies really step up and kick butt after all the men die. ^_^

-An

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I've really been meaning to read this series. I've heard amazing things about it and I love Vaughn's work. He wrote Runaways too (see post above), which I'd highly recommend.

Moon Knight is a pretty good book these days. It's very violent, though, and I'm surprised it isn't a MAX book. Spector is also a bit more schizophrenic...or maybe not...in the current book. Moon Knight has always been a Batman knockoff in almost every way, but I still think he is a pretty cool character. Both characters are wealthy men with bizarre vigilante complexes. They both dress in dramatic, night themed, costumes and are adept hand to hand combatants...though Batman would take MK out in a heartbeat. They both utilize various gadgets and technologies to aid their crusades. Their both loners, though MK is far more so. They both have mental...questions I guess you could say. However, while Wayne is able to keep it together and compartmentalize, Spector is pretty much a nut through and through.

Inkdaub said:

Moon Knight is a pretty good book these days. It's very violent, though, and I'm surprised it isn't a MAX book.

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Sounds good. Is there a collection or writer you'd particularly recommend as a starting point?

I love Supreme Power and Ultimate Avengers (link to a similar thread link w. a few scans below): http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108293

The last volume of Y almost made me cry. It was really good.

If you like Vertigo, I highly recommend "Scalped." The comic book store owner described it as The Sopranos on an Indian reservation. That's a pretty accurate description.

shawkins said:

Sounds good. Is there a collection or writer you'd particularly recommend as a starting point?

I love Supreme Power and Ultimate Avengers (link to a similar thread link w. a few scans below): http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108293

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Moon Knight has just been restarted in the last year or two...we're on issue 19 or so. You can start with the issues themselves or you can grab Moon Knight Vol 1 'The Bottom' which is issues 1-6, Vol 2 'Midnight Sun' which is issues 7-13 and ANNUAL 1, Vol 3 'God and Country' which is issues 14-19.

There are other, older, MK collections like Essential Moon Knight but they will be much different in tone from MK's current incarnation.