The Essentials: Which Comics are Must-Reads? - Page 2

I'll second Concrete, it's totally not what you'd expect it to be based on its' premise.  Fragile Creatures, if I remember correctly, drew from Chadwick's real life experiences working on the set of Masters of the Universe - a fact that makes the comic that much more interesting.  

Some of my favorites:

American Splendor

Invincible (Kirkman's best title, IMHO.. and one of the most fun and consistent superhero books)

Lone Wolf and Cub - a must read for those into samurai/Japanese culture

Planetary

Conan - both the classic Marvel titles as well as the current Dark Horse titles, which are pretty faithful to Howards stories 

The Boys - It gets a lot of flack, but I have a blast with every issue

Northlanders - historical fiction set in the varying northern European/Nordic/Viking setting. 

Persepolis 

Palestine

The Tick

Sandman (duh)

ElfQuest (original Pini run, up through Kings of the Broken Wheel... solid fantasy with great artwork and a lot of soul.. which got watered down when other creators were invited into the mix

Crossed - Brutal stuff. Good "zombie" action.

Preacher

Watchmen (duh)

Dork (IMHO, Dorkins funniest work.. much better than Milk & Cheese!)

Bone!

Buddha by Osamu Tezuka. A semi-biography of The Buddha by the guy who brought you AstroBoy. How can you lose?

Maus

Locke & Key - Cool little horror/thriller by Joe Hill

Usagi Yojimbo - Still as great as it was when it started long ago. Using Japanese mythology and culture gives Sakai a seemingly never-ending pool of inspiration for his ronin bunny.

I'm only recently breaking down and giving mainstream superhero books a shot, but it's pretty hit or miss.  I really enjoyed Blackest Night and Brightest Day, but have mixed feelings on Green Lantern as a whole.  Likewise, I've been reading some of the Ultimate X-Men/Ultimate Spider-Man series and find myself enjoying them for what they are.  There's just so much history in the Marvel/DC universes and not enough consistency.

I consider this the "LotR of graphic novels", and it's the only one I deemed worth [necessary] owning.  

The story of its creation makes it really peculiar.

When Miyazaki had done about 20-25% of what was going to be the final story, they went on and made a movie about it.

So, if you have seen the movie, you still know nothing of the actual story. Basically they went with what was already there, made some changes - a few substantial ones too - to make it "whole", toning it down to make it entirely family-friendly, and that was that.

But Miyazaki wasn't done with it, and he continued working on it until he completed it several years later. During that time he grew older, changed (or evolved) as a person and decided his still unfinished novel needed to tell something different than what he originally intended.

While this might look like a recipe for creative disaster, the alchemy actually worked to produce Miyazaki's undisputed (if relatively unknown!) masterpiece: the story after the initial stages takes even darker, tragic turns, the plot goes into overdrive racing towards unexpected, thought-provoking places, characters evolve and become magnificent.

I don't know what is generally expected from "comics", but if you're looking for a moving, engrossing, epic tale for all ages, beautifully told by dialogs and images as dense in detail and meaning as only repeat readings can uncover, this is the one to get ;)

(off-topic) Chadwick did work on a movie but it wasn't Masters of the Universe. It's an easy assumption to make since the story obviously parodies that film.

(on-topic) The other title I always try to champion is Love and Rockets. It's really two-and-a-half titles since Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez do most of their work independently, and each tend to employ their own characters and continuities.

Jaime's work is primarily set in East L.A., with occasional sci-fi touches. His characters age realistically, gaining or losing weight, changing their hairstyles, even going by different nicknames in different situations-- attention must be paid. I recommend "Chester Square", where his fascination with women's wrestling really comes into play.

Gilbert's art is looser and more psychedelic than Jaime's, but his characters are just as human. His stories drift between SoCal and the mythical Central American country of Palomar. I'm partial to "Love and Rockets X", which spins an Altmanesque web of intersecting stories towards a powerful conclusion.

Love & Rockets is the best American comics work being published right now. Bold statement. But I'll stand behind it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hammerhead 

Whenever a thread like this pops up, I always name Paul Chadwick's 'Concrete'. My favorite arc is Fragile Creature, in which our nigh-invulnerable non-superhero hires himself out as 'special effects' for a low-budget film production. The behind-the-scenes details and drama are authentic and sharply observed and, as with most Chadwick stories, a close reading reveals numerous parallel storylines. Try and find the original back issues or the first full-color TPB; the reduced, black-and-white reprints don't do it justice.

I'll third that Concrete love. Gorgeous artwork, the stories are deep & stick with you for years. I met Chadwick at Comic-Con a couple years ago & almost lost my shit. It's criminal that he doesn't get more recognition.

Not enough foreign comics love in here.

I'm kind of stunned Tintin hasn't been mentioned, what with the movie and all. But the series has lovely, deceptively simple artwork, ingenious plotting, clever humor, and an infectious swashbuckling tone. It's also a great way to introduce comics to your kids.

Marjane Satrapi's brilliant Persepolis was turned into a brilliant film a few years back. Her account of her youth in Iran and later experiences is fascinating. And speaking of French graphic biographies, David B's Epileptic is both a riveting account of his life paralleled to his brother's struggle with the titular condition and a sophisticated as hell visual experiment.

Anything by Guy DeLisle is a must-read. Start with Pyonyang, a hilariously cutting look at the insanity of the North Korean regime. Then move on to Burma Chronicles and Shenzhen to read more insider's looks at totalitarian Asia.

And has no manga really come up here? Check out Vertical's wonderful editions of Osamu Tezuka's graphic novels. Ode to Kirihito is my favorite, and I've also read MW and Apollo's Song and loved them both. And I hate to keep harping on the autobiographies, but A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi is an illuminating look at postwar Japan and the development of comics there. And speaking of postwar Japan, there's Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, a account of the bombing of Hiroshima and it's aftermath. Finally, read pretty much anything by Naoki Urasawa. I think he's the single best Japanese author/illustrator working today. Monster and 20th Century Boys are both brilliant, epic series. Pluto, the only other series of his published in English as far as I know, isn't as good as those two, but it's still definitely worth checking out.

Metabarons. Trust me.

Alejandro Jodorowsky writing epic sci-fi with some of the most gorgeous artwork ever used in a comic book.

Backing up Tintin here. I guess I don't usually think of it as "comics". If you're new to the series, why not start with The Secret of the Unicorn/Red Rackham's Treasure? Those two books appear to be the basis for the film and they're immensely enjoyable.

And then there's Asterix, that other great Belgian institution. Broad and cartoony, but with a taste for historical detail. The wordplay is magnificent too, with a trove of awful puns in each volume. In English, be wary of substandard translations-- look for the names of Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge or keep looking. I suggest Asterix at the Olympic Games.

2001 Nights by Yukinobu Hoshino

Expanding on the hard science universe established by Arthur C. Clarke, this rare anthology Manga series is some the best sci-i I've ever read (in any form). The inter-related stories are moving, suspenseful, & incredibly thoughtful. It's hard to find but well worth the search.

Oh God yes 2001 nights. Can't believe I forgot about that.

And the number-based title jogged my memory more... 100 Bullets. An excellent mix of crime, noir, conspiracy, and a hint of "what would you do in this situation?" Brian Azarello has a phenomenal ear for dialogue and local color.

And continuing on the crime comic thread, Criminal by Ed Brubaker is a great. Plus it's an anthology, so you can start with any story and go (although they do overlap in small ways). Stray Bullets is terrific too, albeit unfinished and seemingly unlikely to be finished soon. Darwyn Cooke has been adapting Richard Stark's Parker novels into comic book form. He's done The Hunter and The Outfit, and more are on the way.

That's awesome - I had no idea other people knew of it's existence. It is a startlingly good read.

The thing about Tintin is that I think you have to get into it before you hit adolescence. Reading it again as an adult, there's gorgeous artwork, and Captain Haddock is still kind of awesome, but Tintin himself is a boring cipher and the plots tend to be somewhat repetitive, with the characters being saved over and over again by sheer dumb luck rather than skill.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Prankster 

Huh, I haven't contributed to this thread yet? Well, I hate to start with a negative, but:
 

The first half of Preacher is great, though it suffers somewhat from "We wish we were a movie" syndrome; nevertheless, as with Y: The Last Man, the artist (Steve Dillon) is spectacularly good at character "acting" and other narrative nitty-gritty that a lot of flashier artists often fumble, so the frequent lack of visual flair isn't as much of a problem as it might be. But the second half of the storyline goes off the rails BADLY. First it gets sidetracked by a truly stupid standalone plotline involving the Ku Klux Klan AND Nazi war criminals AND a villain who fucks meat, at which point you realize Ennis puts shock and button-pushing ahead of story and character. He continues to give us more and more Arseface, a character who was briefly funny but quickly becomes tiresome, and turns his big archvillain, Herr Starr, into a walking joke who's impossible to take seriously. And then, even as the final battle is moving towards a genuinely touching confrontation between Jesse and Cassidy, Ennis basically completely loses interest in the whole "hunt for God" thing--you know, the premise of the book?--and resolves it in an utterly perfunctory and predictable manner. It's not a good sign when you end a series going "huh, that would have been a lot better if they'd ignored all the crap that the series was supposed to be about and just told a modern western."

 

This. A thousand times this.

You also can't go wrong with Joe Sacco, especially Palestine.

And Harvey Pekar is, was and always will be a treasure.

(Click to enlarge)

When talking about autobiographical comics, Pekar & Clowes are the names that get the most attention, but Drawn & Quarterly Comics have been publishing some of the most elegant, funny, beautifully drawn & written non-fiction comics for almost 20 years. Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve & Seth's Palookaville are both brilliant & gorgeously told dramatic comics but it's Joe Matt's caustic & hilarious Peep Show that's always ranked as my favorite D&Q.

Joe Matt, I first encountered with Spent, which was like a piss-take on the whole "lonely guy jerks off a lot" autobiographical comic. Funny as hell, though.

Always liked how he, Seth and Chester Brown appear in each other's comics. Seth's always a judgmental dick, Chester's always pleasantly detached, Joe's always a cheap fuck. Someday I'd like to see 'em do a jam comic. Apparently Dave Sim used to hang with Chester as well until they disagreed over Chester not signing Dave's "I Am Not a Misogynist" form. Put the four of them together and you'd have a pretty good sitcom. Those Wacky Canuck Cartoonists or something.

My sister's also a fan of Peep Show  & she'd once met Joe Matt at a signing in the 90s. She said that he was just as awkwardly anti-social & obnoxious as he was in his comic. He's kind of the George Costanza of autobiographical cartoonists.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Blank 
Seth's always a judgmental dick

I've only read It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken. It was kind of interesting but I did come away from it thinking that Seth was a dick. And it didn't feel like he was doing it deliberately, like as a way of exposing his flaws.

The bit that really made me roll my eyes was this part where he's he's walking in the park and strikes up a casual conversation with an attractive woman. There is then an abrupt jump cut to them both in bed, post-coitus, carrying on the conversation they were started in the park. Maybe he genuinely just wanted to show how he first met his girlfriend but didn't want to make their relationship the focus, but if so it was hilariously misjudged. The way he did it it just looks like he's trying to say "Yeah, I fuck women I casually chat to all the time. I'm not gonna make a big thing of it, that's just how Seth rolls" as if he's the James Bond of alternative comics.

I've only read Chester Brown's I Never Liked You. I'd like to read more, but again I found it really self involved and navel gazing. He seemed to be aware enough of his own weirdness to want to expose it to the world, but other than that he didn't seem to have much to say about it. In the background there's an interesting and sad story of his mother, but Chester the character is too oblivious to notice it, and Chester the writer is too self involved to want to properly explore it.

I like autobiographical comics but the problem I have with them is that most comic book artists don't have very interesting lives, they're usually just awkward introverts trying to come to terms with the alienation of their youths. That's why I liked Persopolis, Epileptic and Fun Home - those people actually had interesting stories to tell.

53.

When it comes to "Horror" comics, nothing beats the old EC publications from the 50s. Nothing. I recommend checking out The EC Archives: Tales From The Crypt series for a start.

No sure if Locke and Key counts as horror... but worth checking out.  

Anyone know of any GOOD Lovecraft adaptions and/or mythos series?  About the best I 've come up with is Alan Moore's Neonomicon.  Most others I've seen fall flat.

Speaking of Alan Moore and horror books, From Hell is both spooky and fucking great - not to mention DENSE. Don't let the shitty movie turn you away, Moore weaves a stunning tapestry with this book based on exhaustive research and tin-foil conspiracy trips!  I may actually prefer From Hell to Watchmen when it comes to personal favorite Moore works. But I'm odd like that :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

53.

 

When it comes to "Horror" comics, nothing beats the old EC publications from the 50s. Nothing. I recommend checking out The EC Archives: Tales From The Crypt series for a start.

This completely.  The EC horror comics were the best of all time.  This includes the Vault of Horror and the Haunt of Fear.

I can't believe these two aren't noted yet.

55.  Warren Ellis' & Darick Robertson's brilliant fusion of cyberpunk and Hunter S. Thompson,  Transmetropolitan

56.  Hellblazer, with Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon and Glenn Fabry or Tim Bradstreet on the cover, also Brian Azzarello.

Metabarons is incredible in all it's weird glory and the stuff Travis Charest did with Jodorowsky, while I'm pretty sure was just Charest "prettying up" earlier work, is amazing. The guy is slow but man he can push a brush.

On the art tip I'll throw in a one-shot with Phil Hester's The Coffin. It's pretty much just a riff on Swamp Thing but I dig it, especially the character designs and the art is great. It's got one of the few "physical" representations of Hell that I actually thought was clever.

I'm not going to sit here and say it's a seminal work but if you put it side by side with some of the other contenders I don't feel bad for tossing it out.

I'll echo the support for The Coffin. Some of the best manga-inspired art I've ever seen - the story treads some familiar territory, but the execution is great.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anjin 

 

Speaking of Alan Moore and horror books, From Hell is both spooky and fucking great - not to mention DENSE. Don't let the shitty movie turn you away, Moore weaves a stunning tapestry with this book based on exhaustive research and tin-foil conspiracy trips!  I may actually prefer From Hell to Watchmen when it comes to personal favorite Moore works. But I'm odd like that :)

 

Holy shit, From Hell hadn't been mentioned yet? We've been failing.

I also sometimes find myself thinking that it's Moore's best work. Watchmen is the main thing they'll be writing about in the obits when the crazy bastard dies, but From Hell may be a truer look into his headspace.

Although it has been mentioned a few times, it hasn't been formally included.

54. Hellboy

Primarily the earlier Mignola-drawn stuff (although it has stayed very good through the BPRD spin-off and the Corben & Fegredo material).

The Library editions are wonderful.

55.

I'm not a fan of the movie. At all. It's an obscenely dumbed down adaptation of Alan Moore's masterwork (my favorite book of any kind). If you're one of the many who liked the movie but have never read the book, pick this up & you'll soon discover the cinematic swill you'd been served. The book is a fine wine to be savoured.

Speaking of V for Vendetta, and since I didn't know where else to post this:

Alan Moore comments on the V mask being adopted as a protest symbol.

What's ironic is that when the movie was being made, Moore pointed out, correctly, that the filmmakers had misinterpreted what V stood for. He wasn't a freedom fighter, he was an anarchist with his own agenda of revenge, and he would have been the villain in most situations--but he happened to have existed in the right context to be a hero. He wasn't about restoring democracy (which is why blowing up Parliament makes sense in the comic and doesn't in the movie) and he was only about "freedom" in its pure, not-necessarily-beneficial, "Do as thou wilt" form. So unfortunately, the masks do give a bit of ammo to people who claim that the OWS protesters are a bunch of lawless anarchists--they're certainly adopting the symbol of a lawless anarchist.

56)

It starts off as a gimmick crime comic (A mysterious man in a suit gives you a suitcase full of evidence of whoever ruined your life, a gun and 100 untraceable bullets) but it quickly becomes great as the bigger plot kicks in. Secrets. Alliances. Psychopaths. It's all great and like The Wire, Everything Matters. Gorgeous art by Eduardo Risso and great dialogue by Brian Azzarello.

57. I haven't finished it yet but I'm already convinced that Feynman is an instant classic. Really, it's nothing more than Richard Feynman's own words and recollections set to pictures, but what a fascinating, brilliant, funny man.

I'm mildly surprised the Bendis/Maleev run on Daredevil hasn't been mentioned yet.  I'm not really a fan of Bendis or the character, but he and Maleev really knocked it out of the park.  Great run.

The Bendis run is indeed incredible, especially when considering how well it plays off everything Kevin Smith's run set up (halfway through Bendis' run it's an important plot point that Matt realizes he had a nervous breakdown after Karen died). I prefer to think of the Smith-Bendis-Brubaker-Diggle run as a complete story line.

59. Larry Hama's run on Wolverine (issues 31-118, relatively unbroken). It's a little dated now, with cheesy '90s super heroics, but everything the character is today owes as much to Hama as Claremont. The first thirty or so issues deal strongly with Weapon X, followed by a very strong stretch in which Wolverine loses his adamantium to Magneto and thinks he's dying. Unfortunately that only lasted about a year (interrupted by "The Age of Apocalypse") before Wolverine got turned into a mutated creature, and around that point Hama lost control of the plot and character (although #102, guest starring Elektra, is my favorite of the whole run), possibly due to editorial influence. 

I see that Anjin mentioned it but it's not on the list. 

60.  The Boys - Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson. 

The Boys is the antithesis of a superhero comic.  There are superheroes in it, but they do things that no self-respecting superhero would cop to, like going on a sex junket called Herogasm. 

"You get what I like to think are very human characters set against a backdrop of hideous superhuman corruption. Hughie, Butcher, Annie, even MM and the two maniacs -- they're all damaged in their own way, but they all keep going and maintain their commitments to themselves and each other -- sometimes in the face of insurmountable odds.

"You also get 70-80 years of American history and politics, filtered through the notion of a superhero universe made real -- albeit an extremely dark vision of such a world.

"And when the action comes, it's not heavily choreographed martial arts elegance -- it's the kind of violence that occurs outside a bar at 3am, an ambush followed by often-unnecessary brutality. In other words it's what happens in the real world, because nobody's looking for -- or expecting -- a fair fight." -- Garth Ennis

61. She-Hulk, Dan Slott

Just read through this whole thing the past few months through TPBs. Really awesome stuff. No current comic book writer gets the Marvel Universe and how to make it seem fresh like Dan Slott. This along with his Human Torch/Spiderman mini have cemented him in my mind as the only one who gets how to make this shit seem FUN again. I highly recommend this to anyone who thinks comics don't know how to do that anymore. Marvel needs to release an Omnibus of this asap. I can't believe their wasting their time reprinting the ultra shitty Jim Lee/Claremont 90's X-Men stuff when this series is out-of-print. I haven't been following his current Spiderman run but I can't wait to dig into it when it eventually gets collected as well.

Some more eurocomix for this thread!

62-"The Incal", Moebius & Jodorowsky

Moebius, who can totally be mentioned alongside Jack Kirby, Osamu Tezuka, etc. as one of the all-time greats, passed away recently. There's been a bevy of tribute articles released, usually focusing on his influence on everything from Blade Runner to Miyakazi to The 5th Element, but he's worth savouring for his own work. The Incal is an amazing mystical sci-fi epic, with a plot which, admitidely, you'll have to be in tune with Alejandro Jodorowsky's budhist mysticism to fully enjoy. I'm not, but I can't say that hurt my enjoyment of the book - I could just spend hours staring at those buildings and spaceships. Recently reissued in english, with a foreword by Bendis.

63-"Valerian et Laureline", Christin and Mézieres

From that same era of pop art sci-fi that brought you Barbarella, this is the story of a future in which most of the world's population sleeps eternally, dreaming their most blissful dreams. The only people awake are a corp of police officers in charge of patrolling time and space, of which Valerian is one (so you could say he's a timecop, ho ho ho!) In his first adventure, he picks up Laureline, a girl from the medieval ages who quickly becomes emancipated, and together they have adventures while being flippant and smug as only french people can.

George Lucas is reportedly a fan, and there are some shot-by-shot comparsions between Valérian and Star Wars, but the tones couldn't be more different. Valérian is light-hearted, satirical, and often quite subversive and anti-authority. 

Absolutely Cerebus, with the caveat that it only really gets going with High Society and starts to shit itself with Reads. Even so, the cartooning draftsmanship stays strong to the end and there are fine, painful and/or funny moments throughout.

64. A God Somewhere (2010)

If Kick-Ass were Daredevil, this one shot GN would be Superman. This essentially a horror comic about what happens to a close group of friends and the world at large when one of them gets Superman-like powers. Good intentions bring about utter disaster as the newfound "hero" begins to lose his grip on his sanity.

It's an excellent, terrifying, & kinda moving story that's just begging to be turned into a film.

Yeah, love that book. 
 

Peter O' Donnell and Jim Holdaway's Modesty Blaise

Start here: http://www.amazon.com/Modesty-Blaise-The-Gabriel-Set-Up/dp/1840236582

Secret Agent X-9 by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond

The Dylan Dog Case Files by Tizlano Sclavi

Dylan Dog is pretty amazing, such a weird mix.

Love Cerebus too, though it's ultimately a tragedy, because the good stuff, sure, it works on its own but also as such a promise that, of course, ends up unfulfilled. And the fact that it went off the rails in such a bizarre fashion (as opposed to the regular running out of ideas/losing interest arc) adds to that.