RogerSC

Spiderman Torment by Todd McFarlane.

hiccup

Seems like most have given you excellent recommendations and basically anything I would say, but it couldn't hurt to throw my hat into the ring.

Watchmen is my absolute favorite comics/GN and is a must for anyone (not just for those interested in comics). Great social commentary even though we are in the post cold-war era, the impact in its pages still permeates to this day. And truly Watchmen, though it disassembles what has come to be known in Superhero lore, is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in GN or just comics in general. That's how I got a bunch of my friends interested.

Really, just go out and do yourself a favor and read anything Alan Moore has penned. Anything the man touches is literary gold. From his early days at Swamp Thing to V for Vendetta to League to Tom Strong. All excellent, though his work in Tom Strong (mostly the stuff in the last two TPB/volumes of Tom Strong (3 and 4)) seems to show it stagnating a bit.

Batman: Dark Knight Returns is very good as well. Also, Batman: Year One is another fave of mine and this one Scarecrow (can't think of the name at the moment) is also good.

Sin City is simply a must read, but if you've recently seen the movie that it may bore you since it will feel like deja vu. Really, the movie is the perfect telling of the GN, especially since every scene seems to be taken right out of the GNs.

For Xmen, Days of Future Past is a must read. Phoenix Saga is also very good. God Loves, Man Kills was enjoyable and the Age of Apocalypse GN are excellent reads.

Spiderbite

Looking thru Ebay & Amazon lately, I saw that Marvel has several TPBs called Visionaries and/or Legends that collect rus from John Byrne, Peter David, McFarlane, Miller and others.

I am really interested in maybe picking some of these up one by one & was curious on the quality of them. I haven't noticed them in any bookstore so I was just curious on opinions.

I was also curious if there is a complete list of them somewhere. Going thru Amazon's site, there could be several that are easy to miss and I could not find a checklist on Marvel's site.

nny

http://tplist.millarworld.net/index.html

That's an excellent site, but even though it does have a Visionaries listing, it's not comprehensive. You can find pretty much anything by looking under title or creator though.

davidh777

This series confused me, but I think the pattern is that the first volume of a creator/character is called Visionaries, and the second (and third etc.) is called Legends. So I picked up the McFarlane Spider-Man Visionaries and followed it up with Legends 2. My first exposure to McFarlane's Spidey and it liked it quite a bit. I need to pick up #3.

On the other hand, I also have something on my shelf called Spider-Man Legends 4 (Spider-Man/Wolverine) that is not McFarlane. Not sure how this fits in.

Baron Of Hell

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol 1

lucasorion

is there a graphic novel where the hero is similar to the character in the movie "Unbreakable"?

Spiderbite

Wow, awesome site! Thanks.

I was about to ask if DC had anything like Marvel's Visionaries or Legends series (comics from the last 20 to 30 years) but I should be able to find it there. If anyone has a quick answer, that would be great.

exharrison

They have their archives series.

Spiderbite

But they don't have any 80's reprints, do they? I Thought that was mainly 30's thru 50's stuff.

JasonF

DC's selection of 80s reprints is relatively meager. There's lots of Batman stuff from the mid-to-late 80s, and you can get your hands on genre-breaking stuff like Watchmen, but in terms of reprint of whole runs of classic stuff, that's harder to come by. Off the top of my head, they've reprinted a couple of New Teen Titans storyline (Judas Contract and Trigon), and one LSH storyline (Great Darkness), and that's pretty much it. DC had a lot of series in the 80s that were just good clean superhero fun (Levitz's LSH, Wolfman's NTT, Conway's Firestorm, Bates's Captain Atom, Ostrander's Suicide Squad, Thomas's All-Star Squadron, and I could go on but I won't). These should be in print the way Byrne's FF and Miller's Daredevil are in print.

By the way, if you're a fan of 80s Marvel, you should be aware that Marvel is bringing the first volume of Michilinie and Layton's Iron Man back into print. This is really, really, really good stuff and you should pick it up when it comes out (April 12).

bloopbleep

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman , read in order. One of the greatest runs ever in comics!

JasonF

Visionaries and Legends are two different series. "Visionaries" reprint runs by seminal creators, in order. Legends reprint seminal storylines. Obviously, there's some overlap, and for whatever reason, Marvel decided to dump a large part of the McFarlane Spider-Man run into its Legends line. Why? Beats me. At the same time, the Daredevil Born Again story is part of the Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller line. Why? Again, I don't know.

Speaking of Daredevil, I recommend picking up the Daredevil Legends TPB that reprints Ann Nocenti's and John Romita Jr.'s Typhoid Mary story. And in April, there's an Iron Man TPB coming out called "Demon in a Bottle" that reprints a great story by David Michelinie and Bob Layton. Michelinie wrote all those McFarlane Spider-Man issues, so if you like those, you should check out the new Iron Man TPB. Michelinie and Layton had a long run on the title, so I'm hoping this is the first of many TPBs reprinting their stuff.

Edit: I just realized I pimped the Iron Man TPB in my last post! I remember talking about it yesterday, but I thought it was on another board. What can I say -- I really like Michelinie/Layton Iron Man, and I'm hoping sales are high so Marvel does more.

Eric F

Pick up the Visionaries: Daredevil Frank Miller ones. They are truly great reading.

aukevin

Batman graphic novels I would suggest: "Year One" and "Long Halloween". Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns is a classic, but I'm not a big fan of his.

Superman graphic novels: "Birthright" is a recent retelling of Superman's origins and is very cool. "Superman for All Seasons" is a story of Clark leaving Smallville to become Superman and encountering Luthor for the first time, it's one of my favorites. You also can't go wrong with the original 1985 relaunch "Man of Steel" or the "Death of Superman" followed by "Funeral for a Friend" and "Return of Superman."

I also recommend the original Gen 13 miniseries from the mid-90s.

Draven

I'd chime in with one of my favorite series when I was growing up, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I can't remember the GNs I own by title, but the collections of the original comic series are excellent. Extremely cool, very violent, and excellent reads.

benedict

A couple of earlier threads that might be worth checking through:

• Graphic Novel recommendations?
• Graphic Novel recommendations? [Part Two]

I would imagine that they'd include both superhero and non-superhero titles.

FrancisRizzo3

If you like conspiracy theories, The Invisibles is a fantastic read. There are six volumes. Here's #1:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156...lance&n=283155

fujishig

I loved my TMNT graphic novels, though they're probably somewhere in my parent's basement at this point. I've always wondered why they haven't reprinted them, in this era of TPBs...