Good examples of graphic novels/series?

[LOG]

So my english professor has decided that he would like to try and teach a course on graphic novels, specifically their difference from traditional novels, and possible influences on the creation of each graphic novel.

Can anyone suggest some really good examples of graphic novels? Comics and series/story arcs within a universe if you could be specific.

 

[archerjoe]

How about Jimmy Corrigan?

 

[suki]

Three of my favorites are:
Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang
The Plain Janes, by Cecil Castellucci

All very different, and all great examples of stories that couldn't have been told near as well in a traditional novel format, without the graphic material.
There was also a terrific article published by the Horn Book a few years ago on graphic novels. Here's a link to some of the Horn Book's listed graphic novel resources. http://www.hbook.com/resources/librarians/graphicnovels.asp

~suki

 

[sunandshadow]

Cages by Dave McKean is my favorite UK single-volume work, but might be a poor choice for a class format - it doesn't have standard page layout and the book is big, heavy, and expensive due to use of color and glossy pages.

Gloom Cookie by Serena Valentino is my favorite American series, and the first volume is more or less standalone. Again, a questionable choice - would students take a goth themed book seriously?

Clover by CLAMP is a pretty little 4-volume set of translated Japanese manga and there is an omnibus edition which would be more convenient for a class. I'm not sure how much analysis the story would stand up to, the impression it left in my mind is more vague than is ideal.

Absolutely the class should include one romance manga, but most of the ones I have involve homosexuality or crossdressing or incest or blackmail or other themes which someone or other might object to. And a lot of them are long, with no omnibusses available. The few single volume romance manga I've read have been significantly poorer quality than the series ones though, so the choice for the class would probably have to be the first 2 or 3 volumes of a series, or the shortest quality series available.

 

[ejaycee]

The Sandman series, by Neil Gaiman. my personal favourite. It's a must.

I could also reel off many many manga titles, but I don't know if that's what you're looking for.

 

[JMBlackman]

My absolute favorite is Identity Crisis. I feel like it worked so well because 1) Brad Meltzer is a fantastic story teller and 2) because it was a graphic novel, it was easier to keep up with all the characters. It deals with sexual abuse but briefly.

 

[elae]

Fun Home is incredibly well-written, and has a lot of references to literature, so that might be a good choice if he wants to draw those comparisons.

Shooting War might be good if you want to get into politics.

Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms is about Hiroshima and its aftermath.

Me and the Devil Blues might be interesting to talk about: a Japanese manga about black plantation life in the 1920s and the rise of blues music. You could talk about the cultural differences and if the author managed to write it realistically, or talk about things like how someone *draws* music in a medium without sound.

 

[alleycat]

Road to Perdition.

 

[batsofchaos]

Here's what springs to mind:

Maus by Art Spiegelman (a necessity)
Bone by Jeff Smith (a great example of what can be accomplished in the genre)
My Troubles with Women by R. Crumb (there are better choices for Crumb GNs, but this one's pretty good and is still in print)
The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller (the pinnacle of super-hero comics, and it can be read with only a cursory knowledge of Batman)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore (really anything by Moore could go here, but League is fast paced, literarily focused, and poppy.)
AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo (Manga at its best)
Sin City book 4: That Yellow Bastard by Frank Miller (One of the most beatifully illustrated minimalist books ever. And it's the best Sin City story, in my opinion)

 

[Kitty Pryde]

I'll ditto Sandman, American Born Chinese, and Maus. It doesn't get any better than those.

Also Hellblazer (the original Jamie Delano series), Ode to Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, Alan Moore's Top Ten, OMG why has no one said Watchmen??, or V for Vendetta. Both Watchmen and V for Vendetta are about a million times more brilliant than the movies.

 

[maxmordon]

I was just going to say Watchmen, Persepolis and Maus, but thankfully they were already mentioned.

 

[Richard White]

Graphic Novels are somewhat different from Trade Paperbacks. Specifically GN's were designed for the longer format while TP's are collections of stories already published in their regular monthly (22 or 30 page format).

If you want to go after graphic novels specifically then I recommend:

Maus (I and II)
Road to Perdition
Watchmen
Brat Pack (A De-evolution of the "sidekick" phenomenon)
League of Extrordinary Gentlemen
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (definitely not your average X-men title)

On the other hand, there are some darn good TP's that capture arc's of some great stories.

Sandman: A Midsummer's Nights Dream by Neil Gaiman
Bone
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs #1 (TPB)
Strange Attractors

There are a few mangas that might be a good compare/contrast to the British/American way of telling a tale.

Akira
Lone Wolf and Cub
Uchuu Senkan Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato)

If you want romance manga, there are several flavors:

Video Girl Ai - Definitely a bittersweet romance tale
Ah My Goddess - Definitely a romantic comedy

These are just a few off the top of my head. I'll look through my stacks of stuff at home if you want more ideas.

 

[elae]

Graphic Novels are somewhat different from Trade Paperbacks. Specifically GN's were designed for the longer format while TP's are collections of stories already published in their regular monthly (22 or 30 page format).

If you want to go after graphic novels specifically then I recommend:

Maus (I and II)
Road to Perdition
Watchmen
Brat Pack (A De-evolution of the "sidekick" phenomenon)
League of Extrordinary Gentlemen
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (definitely not your average X-men title)

I think that's a bit of a misnomer in some ways. Maus, Watchmen, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I haven't read the others) are all collections of previously serialized stories.

I don't really distinguish between TP and GN on my bookshelves, but I'm sure some people do.

 

[batsofchaos]

I left Watchmen off the list because it's so embroiled in the history of super-hero comics that it can be daunting, confusing, or esoteric to the casual comics reader. League I felt was a better representation of Moore's amazing talent for comic writing and since the characters are old literary icons most people could get the feel for what super-hero team-up comics were all about without the frustration of not being terribly familiar with half the DC or Marvel b-cast.

 

[Richard White]

I think that's a bit of a misnomer in some ways. Maus, Watchmen, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I haven't read the others) are all collections of previously serialized stories.

I don't really distinguish between TP and GN on my bookshelves, but I'm sure some people do.

It's not so much MY distinction as it is the comic industry. (I used to be a small-press publisher . . . ok, Micro-press back in the 90s and have worked in comic retail also).

Normally . . . normally, GN's were supposed to be complete (or a mini-series) of all new stuff. TBP were collections of stuff. After a while, the terms definitely became interchangable.

I use the TBP definition based on Brian Hibbs, who used own one of the largest comic shops in SF and also wrote for the Comics Buyers' Guide and the Comic Journal as a retailer. He used to insist that if a comic was good enough to put out on a monthly basis, it was good enough to be collected into TPBs and released so the shops could keep copies around.

In his experience, it seemed comic buyers would turn up their nose at a year old comic (unless it was a "key" issue), but would snatch up a "collection" of the same story.

But, your mileage may vary and I certainly can see your point on this.

 

[sunandshadow]

Here's what springs to mind:
AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo (Manga at its best)

Have to say when I saw the anime I thought it was rather stupid. I think the science fiction in it hasn't aged well. But then I also don't like Sandman, I'm sure many people would just say I have bad taste.

I had Maus as assigned reading in college. That's the only argument I could see against it - that it's so standard. Well, and if the teacher wanted to focus more on art and technique the subject matter would tend to steal attention from that.

 

[suki]

Ooo, how did I forget Fun Home, by Allison Bechdel. Another great suggestion, and another great example of a story that couldn't have been told near as well with just text.

~suki

 

[batsofchaos]

Have to say when I saw the anime I thought it was rather stupid. I think the science fiction in it hasn't aged well. But then I also don't like Sandman, I'm sure many people would just say I have bad taste.

The anime is a two hour long movie. The manga is a six volume epic. They are not the same at all. For what it is, the movie has some good things going for it but it is nothing compared to the manga.

 

[Freelancer]

Aspen

Fathom

Soulfire

 

[sunandshadow]

The anime is a two hour long movie. The manga is a six volume epic. They are not the same at all. For what it is, the movie has some good things going for it but it is nothing compared to the manga.

But unless they changed the story radically, it's still about a motorcycle gang in cyberpunky (yuck) future Tokyo encountering mutant ugly kids with dangerous mental powers. I hate stories where the mutants must die so the world can go back to being normal, and their ugliness is supposed to contribute to the impression that "Oh well they are unnatural, failed science experiments who aren't really human, and could never live a happy life cause who would ever want to screw one, so it's fine that they have to die."

 

[batsofchaos]

Well, if you have complete disdain for the genre there's not much I can do to change your mind on the subject. But yes, the story was SEVERELY truncated in order to be movie length. The manga series covers much more ground, delves much deeper into the characters and in-universe history, and is all-around a better and more fully-realized story. Still, if you don't like cyberpunk or psychic children stories, you'll find no love for the manga.

 

[LOG]

All very lovely examples
If you guys think of any more, feel free to suggest them.

 

[myrmidon]

Wow. Great suggestions here. I would definitely second (or third or fourth - whatever): Jimmy Corrigan, Persepolis, Cages, Maus, Fun Home, The Dark Knight Returns, That Yellow Bastard, Watchmen, Top Ten, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I'm glad my number one recommendation hasn't been listed yet, so I can at least feel somewhat useful. Black Hole by Charles Burns would be my number one pick. Amazing book - and a great book to dissect AND enjoy.

I'd also suggest:
Daniel Clowes' Eightball and his stunning Ghost World
Greg Rucka's Whiteout
Gabrielle Bell's Lucky
Craig Thompson's Blankets and Goodbye Chunky Rice
Adrian Tomine's Summer Blonde and Shortcomings
Jeffrey Brown's Unlikely
Jason Lutes Jar of Fools
Seth's It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken
Chester Brown's I Never Liked You
Jason's I Killed Adolf Hitler and Why Are You Doing This

Also, any collected trade of Fables (there are 12 I think) is a solid start (and Fables is great for dissection)...also, Y The Last Man by Brian Vaughn is a fantastic book and great for dissection - you probably couldn't do it all in a class if you were going to also focus on other things - but you could certainly get started with volume 1...

If the suggestions you got from this post are any indication - sounds like a great class!

 

[BigWords]

The Will Eisner GN's (A Contract With God seems to be the most popular) and the original GN It Rhymes With Lust (no idea who wrote it without going up into the attic) are probably going to help the understanding of where more serious ideas began entering the medium. Lots of good answers in this thread.

 

[LOG]

I'm considering suggesting Drowtales: Moonless Age, it's written in English, and left to right, but it has the manga style of exagerrating emotions.