Graphic Novel recommendations? [Part One]
 

Ok so far I have read:

Watchmen
Ronin
Batman year zero
Batman The Killing Joke
Batman The Dark Knight Returns
The Dark Knight Strikes Again Vol 1 & 2

and I have bought already and am going to read eventually:
From Hell
V for Vendetta


I have liked so far everything Ive read for the most part and Im wondering, whats some other good graphic novels to read
Im probably gonna pick up some Sin City eventually, what else is good?

Re: What Graphic Novels to read?
 

I may be wrong, but I've always been under the impression that all of these that you have read are NOT graphic novels, rather they are Trade Paper Backs. They all collect comics that were originally published in single issue format. A "graphic novel" is original material published in novel format.

Here are some Trade recommendations as I'm sure that's what you meant. . .


Since you seem to be a Batman fan I would highly recommend you get get Batman: The Long Halloween which also has a sequal, Batman: Dark Victory, they are truly great mysteries that involve almost the entire Batman rogues gallery.

I also cannot recomment Planetary enough. It's the book I recommend the most to customers at my store & not one of them yet has been disapointed. It's sort of like X-Files meets the X-men.

You might want to check out the current Wizard that lists the Top 100 TPBS of all time for some recommendations.

I'd say check out the first 2 collections of Preacher. I'd be willing to bet you'll be hooked on it after that.

sorry about my verbage, lol

i saw that wizard but then i would have to pay for it.............. bah!anyone else??

[sarcasm]i hate that damn list!! i have spent the last two weeks trying to get as many of those as i can and i have spent way too much money. ;) darn wizard. [/sarcasm] actually that is a really really good place to start.

i would have to reccommend marvels or kindgom come and also anything by jeph loeb and tim sale.

Since if you're checking out Alan Moore, try Watchmen.

I haven't read Top 10, League of Extraordinary Gentleman, or From Hell, but want to as they're supposedly damn good.

Also the first book of Rising Stars is great. I haven't been able to read the rest yet.

Good stuff to check out PREACHER, SANDMAN, SWAMP THING (Alan Moore), ANIMAL MAN (Grant Morrison), KABUKI, and THE INVISIBLES.

A warning about PREACHER, though. It tends to be pretty blasphemous and politically incorrect at times.

Other stuff on the alternative tip you might want to look into: CEREBUS, LOVE AND ROCKETS, the work of Dan Clowes (esp. GHOST WORLD and LIKE A VELVET GLOVE CAST IN IRON), and OPTIC NERVE.

i read (or shall i say skimmed) through kingdom come, i liked the art but im not a big fan of superman at all....

i read watchmen

and is the list of wizards top 100 online?

i couldn't find a link so here goes...

1. maus
2. watchmen
3. dark knight returns 10th anniversary ed.
4. sandman vol. 4: season of mists
5. ultimate spider man vol. 1: hc
6. batman: year one
7. daredevil: born again
8. marvels
9. superman:whatever happened to the man of tomorrow?
10. x-men: dark phoenix saga
11. the golden age
12. x-men:days of future past
13. swamp thing vol. 1:saga of the swamp thing
14. miracleman vol. 3: olympus
15. new teen titans: the judas contract
16. top 10 book 1
17. magnus, robot fighter:steel nation
18. daredevil visionaries: frank miller vol. 2
19. hawkworld
20. preacher vol. 3: proud americans
21. the books of magic
22. squadron supreme
23. superman: for all seasons
24. death: the high cost of living
25. fantastic four: the trial of galactus
26. solar, man of the atom: alpha and omega
27. sin city: that yellow bastard
28. spider man: nothing can stop the juggernaut
29. daredevil: yellow
30. astro city vol. 3: confessions
31. torso
32. bone vol 2: the great cow race
33. league of extraordinary gentlemen
34. 300
35. pedro and me
36. sin city: a dame to kill for
37. planetary vol. 2: the fourth man
38. neil gaiman's midnight days
39. banner
40. kingdom come
41. akira vol. 1
42. 100 bullets vol. 3: hang up on the down low
43. fantastic four visionaries: john byrne
44. usagi yojimbo book 6
45. x-men: e is for extinction
46. hellblazer: hard time
47. thor visionaries: walt simonson
48. hellboy: the chained coffin and others
49. stormwatch vol. 4: a finer world
50. the power of iron man
51. the authority vol. 2: under new management
52. box office poison
53. hellblazer: dnagerous habits
54. animal man
55. strangers in paradise col. 2: i dream of you
56. legion of super heroes: the great darkness saga
57. dr. strange/dr. doom: triumph and torment
58. jla: new world order
59. earth x
60. infinity gauntlet
61. justice league: a new beginning
62. x-force: a new beginning
63. jinx: the definitive collection
64. x-men: god loves, man kills
65. silver surfer: the rebirth of thanos
66. avengers: under siege
67. daredevil: the man without fear
68. captain america: war and remembrance
69. wolverine
70. fortune and glory
71. goldfish
72. powers vol. 1: who killed retro girl?
73. punisher: circle of blood
74. whiteout
75. doom patrol: crawling from the wreckage
76. batman: the long halloween
77. tmnt: the collected book vol. 1
78. jla: earth 2
79. avengers: ultron unlimited
80. crisis on infinite earths
81. obergeist: director's cut
82. green lantern: emerald dawn
83. batman/huntrss: cry for blood
84. the coffin
85. nightwing vol. 4
86. batman: dark victory
87. ultimate x-men vol. 1: the tomorrow people
88. incredible hulk: ground zero
89. batman: arkham asylum
90. american flagg! vol. 1: hard times
91. wolverine: blood debt
92. cerebus vol. 2: high society
93. the adventures of tony millionaire's sock monkey
94. batman: haunted knight
95. x-men: from the ashes
96. the complete concrete
97. spider man vs. venom
98. batman: red rain
99. the red star
100. batman: faces

just doing a little quick looking over the chart i see

batman-9
x-men - 6
superman - 2

that is not to say spinoffs are included in those but simply those core characters.

enjoy everyone!

dude! thanks for listing all of them,lol

now to Amazon!

I highly agree with Josh-da-man, especially Cerebus and Optic Nerve. Cerebus is tied with Johnny the Homicidal Maniac as my favorite comic series of all time. Johnny is by the same guy who created Invader Zim for Nickelodeon but in this comic he has no limits. All 7 issues of Johnny are collected in one trade paperback and his follow-up, Squee is also collected. It might be hard to find, but if your sense of humor is at all like mine and my friends it is most definitely worth it. Btw, my friends and I tend to love animated shows (South Park, Simpsons) and sketch shows (Mr. Show, UCB).

Well, I just looked through the Wizard list for the first time and I think they did a pretty good job, but where's all the independents? I know Wizard deals mostly with mainstream books, but I don't see how you can make a list like this and leave off so many independents. I was glad to see a Cerebus book on there, but the biggest absence on that list is Cerebus: Church and State vol 1&2. But the list did remind me of 2 more trade paperbacks I have to recommend. The 2 best series I've read in the past year were the collections of Box Office Poison and Akira.

Btw, Kevin did you type that out yourself? If so, thank you very much. I might actually pick up the issue to see if they have anything interesting to say about the list.

i might get some akira to read

the movie was tight but made no sense mostly

yeah i did type it all out. i was bored and i found it to be a really informative list. i highly reccommend reading the article if you can, it really is pretty informative and runs 16 pages. they give a short paragraph talking about each title. as for the independents, many of the ones that have many volumes out, like cereus and preacher, they only chose one but did make mention of the other volumes available.

has anyone read any of america's best comics like tom strong, top 10, or league of extraordinary gentlemen? i thought i might pick those up but wanted some opinions on them first?

thanks again dude

I bought the hardcovers for Tom Strong (Vol 1) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I enjoyed both quite a bit and I eagerly await another Tom Strong volume. As for the other ABC titles, I tried Promethea and Top 10, but I couldn't get into either one.

Spiff if your still deciding you absolute have to get The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's being re-released in softcover next month, right now it's only in hardcover & I think it's out of print. It is truly one of the greatest comic book stories ever told, plus there is a movie adaptation starring Sean connery eventually coming out & after over 4 years since it's initial release the first issue of it's sequal, volume 2 finally comes out next week. I've read it & it is absolutely amazing, maybe even better than the original.

The list in Wizard only gives a representative sampling of the TPs. Once it names one volume of a certain title, typically they'll recommend that the reader find other similar volumes in the descriptive blurb. So like, under the Sandman entry, they mention that one should read "World's End" and "A Dollhouse" in addition to "Season of Mists." Although I don't have the list in front of me right now, I'm sure the Cerebus entry mentioned the other volumes of the series.

(The only exception I see to that pattern are when a superhero title has a different creative team doing a story-arc. Then Wizard will most likely list both TPs under the same superhero title in different entries. See any number of "X" titles.)

Thanks for the correction. I decided to pick up the Wizard, but just flipping through the list again, I immediately see some contradictions to your explanation about different creators on the same title.

25. fantastic four: the trial of galactus
43. fantastic four visionaries: john byrne

10. x-men: dark phoenix saga
12. x-men:days of future past

In addition, the sidebar, "Greatest Stories Not in TPBs", has both X-men: The Proteus Sage and FF Visionaries: John Byrne Vol.2-3. Plus, Claremont has like 3 more X-men stories on the list. The worst thing about this list, though is the lack of information. I know they're limited for space, but I would have appreciated a listing of the creators, issue #s contained, and maybe a retail price. Of course this doesn't affect me too much since I've read most of the stuff on the list, but it would be nice for comic book novices.

I still haven't had a chance to read through the whole article in Wizard, but I think I just realized the reason for the multiple ff and x-men spots on the list, regardless of creator. The reason might be that Sandman, Preacher, and Cerebus are all considered one work because they're limited, even if the limit is 300 issues. Whereas X-men will never end unless it's cancelled.

So, I understand why they did it this way, but I disagree with it. I'm into computer games and often when they make greatest lists for games they only choose the best game in a series. I think this is a good idea because game sequels usually just improve or add some more content to the original without being really different. I hate to disregard the artistic aspects of games, but I believe each comic book story stands as it's own work of art. For anybody's who has read Cerebus can tell you, every volume deals with unique concepts often in unique ways. You wouldn't make a list of the greatest plays ever written and only include one work from Shakespeare.

anybody read 100 bullets? i was reading about it on amazon, and it looks way cool

Plus with those two X-men storylines - the "Dark Phoenix" plot and the "Days of Future Past" - it's like the "alpha" and the "omega." You can't read one without the other. Those are THE definitive X-men yarns. Bar none.

For the top 100 independent comics, you'll have to look at the The Comics Journal's Top 100 Comics of the Century:

The Comics Journal's Top 100 Comics of the Century

1) Krazy Kat by George Herriman
2) Peanuts by Charles Schulz
3) Pogo by Walt Kelly
4) Maus by Art Spiegelman
5) Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay
6) Feiffer by Jules Feiffer
7) Donald Duck by Carl Barks
8) Mad by Harvey Kurtzman & various
9) Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary by Justin Greene
10) The Weirdo stories of R. Crumb
11) Thimble Theatre by E.C. Segar
12) EC's "New Trend" war comics by Harvey Kurtzman & various
13) Wigwam Bam by Jaime Hernandez
14) Blood of Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez
15) The Spirit by Will Eisner
16) RAW, edited by Art Spiegelman & Francoise Mouly
17) The ACME Novelty Library by Chris Ware
18) Polly & Her Pals by Cliff Sterret
19) The sketchbooks of R. Crumb
20) Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks
21) The New Yorker cartoons of Peter Arno
22) The Death of Speedy Ortíz by Jaime Hernandez
23) Terry and the Pirates by Milton Caniff
24) Flies on the Ceiling by Jaime Hernandez
25) Wash Tubbs by Roy Crane
26) The Jungle Book by Harvey Kurtzman
27) Palestine by Joe Sacco
28) The "Mishkin" saga by Kim Deitch
29) Gasoline Alley by Frank King
30) Fantastic Four by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee
31) Poison River by Gilbert Hernandez
32) Plastic Man by Jack Cole
33) Dick Tracy by Chester Gould
34) The theatrical caricatures of Al Hirschfeld
35) The Amazing Spider-Man by Steve Ditko & Stan Lee
36) Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
37) Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau
38) The autobiographical comics from Yummy Fur by Chester Brown
39) The editorial cartoons of Pat Oliphant
40) The Kinder-Kids by Lyonel Feininger
41) From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
42) Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
43) Amphigorey by Edward Gorey
44) Idiots Abroad by Gilbert Shelton & Paul Mavrides
45) Paul Auster's City of Glass by Paul Karasik & David Mazzacchelli
46) Cages by Dave McKean
47) The "Buddy Bradley" saga by Peter Bagge
48) The cartoons of James Thurber
49) Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
50) Tantrum by Jules Feiffer
51) The "Alec" stories of Eddie Campbell
52) It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken by Seth
53) The editorial cartoons of Herblock
54) EC's "New Trend" horror comics by Al Feldstein & various
55) The "Frank" stories by Jim Woodring
56) Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer by Ben Katchor
57) A Contract with God by Will Eisner
58) The New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams
59) Little Lulu by John Stanley
60) Alley Oop by V.T. Hamlin
61) American Splendor #1-10 by Harvey Pekar with various
62) Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray
63) Hey Look! by Harvey Kurtzman
64) Goodman Beaver by Harvey Kurtzman & Bill Elder
65) Bringing Up Father by George McManus
66) Zippy the Pinhead by Bill Griffith
67) The Passport by Saul Steinberg
68) Barnaby by Crockett Johnson
69) God's Man by Lynd Ward
70) Jimbo by Gary Panter
71) The Book of Jim by Jim Woodring
72) The short stories in Rubber Blanket by David Mazzucchelli
73) The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick
74) Ernie Pook's Comeek by Lynda Barry
75) Black Hole by Charles Burns
76) "Master Race" by Bernie Krigstein & Al Feldstein
77) Li'l Abner by Al Capp
78) Sugar and Spike by Sheldon Mayer
79) Captain Marvel by C.C. Beck
80) Zap by Crumb & various
81) The "Lily" Stories by Debbie Drechsler
82) "Caricature" by Daniel Clowes
83) V for Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd
84) Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker
85) The "Willie and Joe" cartoons of Bill Mauldin
86) Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
87) The New Yorker cartoons of George Price
88) Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" comics
89) The autobiographical comics of Spain Rodriguez
90) Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean
91) Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
92) "Pictopia" by Alan Moore & Don Simpson
93) Dennis the Menace by Hank Ketcham
94) Space Hawk by Basil Wolverton
95) Los Tejanos by Jack Jackson
96) Dirty Plotte by Julie Doucet
97) The Hannah Story by Carol Tyler
98) Barney Google by Billy De Beck
99) The Bungle Family by George Tuthill
100) Prince Valiant by Hal Foster

Yeah, I love lists and picked that up when it came out and surprisingly I agree with Wizard much more than Comics Journal. I think most people would agree the Comics Journal has really gone downhill in the last several years. There's a lot of comic strips and pretty old stuff in that list and I'm not into those at all.
Man, looking at that list again, I'm amazed at how few things I really like on there. The only things on there I really love are Watchmen and Ghost World (I haven't read Caricature). I love Chester Brown, but his non-autobiographical stuff is much better. My favorite autobiographical comic is Peepshow. If I made a top 100 list a lot of the other comics would be on it, but even though I'm a total comic geek, I don't feel I've read enough to make a top 100 list. Maybe a top 50, but that would be really hard.

Speaking of the Comics Journal, I think it is true that they have gone down hill in the last several years. There's a certain narrowmindedness that pervades their editorial policy which exalts the avant-garde, "cartoonists," and golden age at the exclusion of almost everything else, as well as a fair amount of politicking.

It's very much reflected in their Top 100 list. You'll notice the emphasis on Fantagraphics material, as well as thing like Barks' Ducks and old newspaper strips.

Curious how some things are lumped into a single category (like the Lee/Ditko Spider-Mans) while LOVE AND ROCKETS gets five spots. There's also a heavy emphasis on Fantagraphics-published material, which on one hand shouldn't be surprising because of course Fantagraphics would seek out and publish material that they believe to be outstanding, but on the other it can't help but appear suspect.

There are also some pretty obvious omissions like SANDMAN and CEREBUS. Not surprising that they'd leave SANDMAN off of the list because it's such a huge crossover hit (I've always gotten a player-hater vibe off of the Journal), same for CEREBUS (isn't there a bit of a feud between Sim and TCJ editorial?).

thanks for that list, good to see calvin and hobbes on there

The Comic Journal's list, blah. Akira isn't even on there. What is their problem?

The new Dark Horse reprints are so good, it deserves to be in the top 10, if not #1.. Can anybody tell me if Dark Horse updated the translations from the last US release over 10yrs ago? It seems as if the slang they're using (one line was "bust a cap in their ass"), while current, I can't see it being a literal translation from Japanese. Actually I don't see much of it being very literal. The story is excellent and easy to understand unlike most direct Japanese-English Magna. That's why it's so amazing.

Book 5 going on to Book 6 any minute now... :)

i need to read akira sometime...


btw battle angel alita is very good too!

For the person who asked about 100 bullets, I don't see why people think it's so great, but it's definitely entertaining and the tpb's are real cheap. I'll keep buying the tpbs as long as they keep the price low.

Lone Wolf and Cub is probably the best value out there, but does anybody know of any other series where you save a lot of money by waiting for the tpb? I'm pretty cheap and buy too many comics, so I'm always trying to figure out how to save money. The comic I'm most thinking about waiting for the tpb is Daredevil, but I don't know where the tpb would stop and end. I'm so cheap I'd want to avoid buying the same comic twice. I love Bendis and wouldn't want to miss any of his stuff, but Daredevil is moving too slow and at 2.99 an issue I think I'd save money waiting for a tpb.

AAAAAAH! Just read this week's Daredevil. In addition to being the best issue since they started this secret identity mess, it also has a big cliffhanger ending. Guess I'll keep getting Daredevil after all. I think I'm going to stop getting Uncanny X-men since a new writer/artist team starts next issue. If I hear a lot of good things about the run, I'll pick up the tpb.

if you guys read my book buying binge thread:

as for tpbs i just bought arkham asylum and elektra: assassin

woo (spent too much money)

The Wizard list was good to list Hellboy, but they didn't pick the best one out there -- Wake the Devil is a lot better, particularly for being a single, very solid story.

Also, looking for opinions, is Scud the Disposable Assassin any good? I remember hearing a good amount about it back in the day, but not much recently.

I really wish they'd get around to putting out more Hitman TPBs, but sadly they've probably quit on that series completely.

Tuan Jim

Nooooooo. After college, I quit all my comics except Preacher, Cerebus, and Sin City. So I have unfinished runs of Hitman, Invisibles, and several other series. I was planning on picking up some of that stuff in tpbs, but Hitman was the only one I really wanted.

Probably true, though I hope it isn't.

By DC logic, since the series has ended, there's no need to keep putting out TPBs of the remaining uncollected material.

I hope to hell they keep Starman coming out, but it wouldn't surprise me if the last one was the last one we'll see.

DC usually gets a lot of credit for having a great TPB program, but I don't see it. The print/paper quality in all of their recent TPBs is substandard. They're over-priced, and they have a hard time committing to reprinting ANYTHING. When you consider the deep AOLTW pockets they have access too, it's really a shame. Independent and self-publishers put out higher quality and more frequent collections than DC, and presumably they have access to considerably less capital than DC.

100 Bullets is my current favorite comic book & IMO one of the greatst stories ever told in comic book format. Someone posted they don't know why it is so great, don't listen to that, it's either not that persons taste of they just don't get it.

The book is crime noir at it's absolute best , way better that Sin City I am a big fan of Sin City. Bullets is extremely intelligent & the plot line is very very intricate & complex. The first trade covers the first 2 story arcs & barely even hints at the larger picture of what the book is actually about. Sure the premise is that a mysterioud man offers revenge to individuals who have had their lives ruined by giving them 100 untraceable bullets & proof of who ruined their lives. This however is not what the comic is about. Their is a very large picture being formed, every character in the book is connected to each other & serves a purpose. I cannot recommend this enough & I garaunty once you read the 3rd which won the Eisner for best story of the year, you will be absolutely hooked. Order it!

<small></small>I just picked up three anthologies of this title: I think they didn't have book two. Here's hoping it lives up to the reviews ;)

Does that mean you got trades #1, #3 & #4? If so DO NOT read 3 & 4 without reading 2 first, as #2 introduces one of the 3 most important & pivitol characters in the book. Also a lot of people that I recommend 100 Bullets to don't like the first trade, (although looking back I've grown to love it), you have to read at least up till the 3rd trade to start to get a sense of the bigger picture involved & buy then you should be hooked. I really hope you enjoy it.

so...
wheres dk3?

I'm surprised there's none of David Mack's Kabuki on the Wizard List. Circle of Blood is up there with anything else on the list...