Last Christmas I bought my true love an iPad. Since then, one of my intermittent joys has been reading what they call “graphic novels” on said device. Having little knowledge of the field I’ve been working through some old 2000AD favourites, bits of Marvel and – because I’ve heard of him – Alan Moore. (Despite its minimal use of the machine’s colour palette, “From Hell” is my favourite so far).
I have now arrived at the point where I need direction for further reading. All suggestions welcome…
Recommend Me A Comic
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The usual suspects are Watchmen (Moore/Gibbons), The Dark Knight (Miller/Janson), Sandman (Gaiman). If you want a particularly harrowing read, I highly recommend Maus by Art Spiegeman. I’m sure there are many more worthy examples…
*Spiegelman*
Any of the following:
Black Hole
The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: Year One
All Star Superman
Anything from Grant Morrison’s run on Doom Patrol back in the 90s
Maus
Love and Rockets
Cerebus the Aardvark
100 Bullets
Peter Bagge’s Hate
Anything by Evan Dorkin
The Sandman
V for Vendetta
A lot depends on your tastes, but there will be at least something in the above for you.
Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol! One of the best runs on any comic ever. Providing you can cope with complete lunacy. Absolutely beautiful writing.
I’d also dive into Frank Miller’s Daredevil, which is pretty much my favourite run of comics ever. And staying with Frank Miller (who also did the Dark Knight Returns and Batman Year One – which are also great) he did a graphic series called Ronin, prior to his Dark Knight Returns work, which is a samurai science fiction thing in a future city a little like the one the elderly Dark Knight lives in. It is superb, well worth tracking down.
Freddie “Parrot Face” Davies – he’s absolutely hilarious
Tee Hee! Another good one was Norman Collier. He used to do this thing with a microphone. He’d be t king and the s d would d p out and you dn’t un stand what saying. I used ss myself laughing!
Cerebus only has High Society available on line I think (issues 26 to 50 out of 300), but seeing this is from the “earlier, funny years” it is worth looking at.
Obviously a big fan of Love and Rockets. Seriously one of the great works of art/novels whatever you want to call it. Maggie is more real to me than many people.
Planetary is wonderful but possibly depends too much on your awareness of the comics it is pastiching each issue (but still wonderful)
Saga is just streets ahead, but Brian K Vaughan (who used to write for Lost, but don’t hold that against him) also wrote the fantastic Y the last man – catch it before it appears on TV.
Phonogram is a music comic, and particularly interesting if you are a Britpop kid.
Nowhere Men has Science as the new Rock and Roll, and the world scientists had been the Beatles (kinda) – sadly there only 6 issues as the artist has problems that stopped him working
If you like the film you might like Scott Pilgrim.
If you like old fashioned comics, Joss Weedon’s Astonishing X-men IS, Matt Faction’s recent Hawkeye (aka Hawkguy) was great, and I rather liked the Jonathan Hickman Fantastic Four.
On my ipad at the moment are Sandman, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Don’t know where you are getting them but Comixology has regular sales and promos, and some free comics
I don’t know what’s available or not but other stuff I’d be looking for would include Preacher (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preacher_%28comics%29 ) which I’ve just seen is due to come out as a tv series next year.
A TV adaption of a DC series, with two of the main leads both having recurring roles in two Marvel Comic series. Surely there’s a wider pool of talent to choose from….
Again, not sure whether they’ll be available on said device, but Hellblazer (v poorly adapted into the Constantine movie) is great stuff, permeated with South London and Liverpudlian griminess. Preacher and Sandman as mentioned above, are great, as is Swamp Thing.
Far from the worlds of those with any kind of ‘powers’ are My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf, a truly bizarre true tale of being a schoolfriend of mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, and Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine, kind of Woody Allen meets Eric Rohmer. Alison Bechdel’s Fun House is spot-on, too, with its account of growing up in a well-fucked up household.
Thanks for your suggestions folks . I have done V For Vendetta and Daredevil. As remarked, everything might not be available onscreen, but I’ll try chasing all leads..
I’ve hated Grant Morrison’s Batman work so much that it almost made me give up the comic for good. As it is, I’m about two years behind. I think he’s a smug, self-indulgent prat and I hope never to give him any more of my money.
I have to put in a word here for my beloved Spider-Man. I’ve just waded through a boring story called ‘Spider Verse’, but prior to that I had a wonderful year of enjoying The Superior Spider-Man, in which Doctor Octopus took over Peter Parker’s body. Never has such a terrible idea been so brilliantly executed.
Have you read Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke” yet? If not, it’s brutal and amazing, easily my favourite Batman story.
On a completely different tack, the non-fiction “Fortune & Glory” By Brian Michael Bendis is a wonderful read about how awful Hollywood is.
Finally, another non-fiction read is “Pyongyang: A journey through North korea” by Guy Delisle which is a wonderful look at a westerner’s experience working in North Korea.
Lots of good recommendations here so far, but if I may throw in a few more….
Saga by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples is my favourite ongoing comic at the moment. Colourful, flamboyant space opera full of action and emotion.
Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba – 12 issues (collected as a graphic novel) about a Brazilian named Bras, who dies at the end of each issue, with the next one being another way his life might have turned out. It’s full of the glory and beauty of little bits of everyday life, and very very special.
The Killer by Matz and Luc Jacamon. French noir about an existentially concerned hitman. Great story, beautiful art. (Another great French book is Aama, more science fiction but supercoloured pulp stuff that recalls the best of Moebius).
Also, has no one mentioned Sandman yet? Incredible stuff from Neil Gaiman, who has never come close to anything this good ever again. There’s an entire mythology of its own in this comic, alongside a tremendously literate sensibility that wanders through three thousand years of story and history and magpies whatever it likes the look of. Probably my favourite comic ever.
At least three of us mentioned Sandman earlier. Unless I dreamt it 😉
this is why I am better off reading things with lots of pictures
you forgot to mention that Saga will not be coming to a TV screen anywhere us anywhere soon, and therefore comics are the only place to partake of its wonderful madness.
I’d recommend Fables and the short-lived but excellent Batman spin-off Gotham Central.
(apologies if the below have been recommended already):
The Punisher
Irredeemable
Sin City (Frank Miller)
The Originals (Dave Gibbons)
WildC.A.T.S (Allan Moore)
Crisis On Infinite Earths
American Splendo(u)r
Graphic Audio (“a movie in your mind”) do excellent audio plays of a number of the Marvel and DC titles…
Hip Hop Family Tree is magnificent, too.
All the above and Jack Staff – Things Used to be Black and White – the best British graphic novel (it features Steptoe and Son as Vampire Hunters).
I presume you’re aware of Comixology, check out the Sequential app/store too.
also anything by Darwin Cooke.
I really enjoyed the James Robinson Starman – now available in one stunning collection (are you reading this Sharon? It’s almost Christmas!)
What else? The 2000AD archives are worth plundering. I don’t know what you have/haven’t read, the Strontium Dog is now being reissued in big collections, as are the Judge Dredd case files and Rogue Trooper.
Charley’s War, now in hardback – an essential add I think. Gloriously presented, great forewords and detail explanations. If you like Colquhoun’s artwork, then the Johnny Red reissues may suit you as well.
If you like the classic Marvel/DC style comics, the X-Men Dark Phoenix saga is enjoyable. And if you were/are a fan of Buffy, the Whedon-penned Fury and Season 8 (the latter following on from the end of the TV show are pretty decent.
Can I recommend The Infinity Gauntlet, brilliantly bonkers.
And perhaps wait for Amazon’s Twelve Days of Kindle, I picked up a load of Judge Dredd for 99p a pop last year.
Y the Last Man (a plague wipes out all males, apart from one) was excellent from start to finish. I think there’s 10 volumes of it.
Recent stuff I’d recommend…
Saga. Brilliant space saga
Sex Criminals. A couple discover when they do ‘it’ they can stop time. So they rob a bank to save a library. Then things get complicated.
The fade out. Great noire set in 50s Hollywood.
Southern Basford. A HBO TV show waiting to happen.
Wytches. Great horror comic. It’ll freak you out by page two.
Paper girls. Imagine a John hughes alien invasion movie
Birch planet. Women’s prison in space/future sports exploitation fun
All these are published by image comics who are just on an insane run of quality titles.
(Southern Bastards and Bitch Planet)
Excellent recommendations, Arch. Sex Criminals is very funny, the Fade Out is exceptional – fans of James Elroy would dig it.
Some more from me.
Umbral is a good dark fantasy that was very promising, but in googling it to try to do a better synopsis I’ve discovered it has been cancelled. So that’s rubbish. The two volumes published are very enjoyable, but as things stand it’s a story with no ending, so I can’t really recommend it.
Rat Queens is also fantasy, but much more traditional. It has a real Fritz Leiber / D&D vibe, with one twist – the traditional party of adventurers – elven mage, human cleric, dwarf fighter, halfling thief – are all women, and they can out fight, out drink, out drug and out swear every man or monster they come across. It is very silly but very fun.
On an entirely different tack, March is an autobiographical comic by Congressman John Lewis (and two others who I suspect do most of the heavy lifting), about his experiences growing up in rural Alabama and becoming involved with the burgeoning Civil Rights movement. It is fascinating, and sobering to think that these victories still had to be fought for and won just the blink of an eye ago.
Comixology giving away a free recent comic every day till Christmas. Which might have some good stuff, you never know