Suggestion & recommendation merged thread

doodlenoodle

I feel a bit at loss trying to find new Graphic Novels. No, I'm not looking for main stream American comics...forget Dark Horse and Marvel...loving French or Spanish English translations. No super heroes of any kind, rather stories on anti-heroes that make Constantine like a pillar of propriety. Great graphics and illustrations, with excellent stories.
A few examples, please add more (my list is a bit dated):

* Boy Vampire, Eduardo Risso (done plenty for DC, Marvel)
- Waaay before honey sickly Twilight vampire mills&boon

* Chicanos, Eduardo Risso
- Action and blood, among latino gangs.

* The beast trilogy, Enki Bilal
- Art, gripping...great, great, great.

* Inkal series, Jodorowsky and Moebius
- A true classic that has to be read.

* Son of the Gun series, Jodorowky and Bess
- Guns and unsettling story

Fysh

If you like Eduardo Risso's work, 100 Bullets is a must (if you haven't already read it). Great sprawling noir story, starting with an old man offering the chance of legally-sanctioned revenge to those who have been wronged and escalating to a much higher-level tale about the powers that run the world.

DC's short-lived humanoids collaboration led to a few interesting things - Fragile, for example, was a very distinctive tale about zombies in a post-apocalyptic world and all the better for it. Another one was The Zombies That Ate The World, which was a lot more humorous in tone.

You may also want to check out Crecy by Warren Ellis - it's a great standalone comic, more a history lesson than anything else but fascinating at the same time.

sean corcoran

simple answer, read battle royale, theres 16 books (i think avent read it in ages) and its the perfect balance of a story, action and suspence. its by far the best grafic novel i have ever read

steddyeddy

Maus is one of the best in my opinion!

Paddy Samurai

Because your excluding Dark Horse your missing out on one of the best graphic novel series ever IMO.
Way before Dan Browne there was REX MUNDI

When a medieval scroll disappears from a Paris church, Doctor Julien Sauniere investigates, uncovering a series of horrific ritual murders and an ancient secret society. Julien cannot let these shadowy figures retreat into the darkness, lest they take up their killing once again. His investigation turns into a one-man quest into the bizarre secrets of the Catholic Church

Johnny Depp to star in the film

http://www.rexmundi.net/story/index.html

Paddy Samurai

I hate most superhero comics as well,but this anti superhero series is brillant.Well worth a look.

From the dark and twisted mind of Garth Ennis, co-creator of "Preacher" and "Hitman", and the savage pencil of Darick Robertson, artist of "Transmetropolitan", comes a darkly hilarious story that will change the way you look at superheroes forever!Meet Billy Butcher. He's not a nice man, and neither are his team: the Frenchman, Mother's Milk, and the Female. They hate "capes"...and so does Billy's newest recruit, Wee Hughie, whose girlfriend has just become collateral damage in a super-brawl. But does Hughie know what he's getting into?This hugely controversial new series - which caused an uproar upon original publication - explores the sordid side of superheroics! Warning: Adults Only!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_(comics)

Roomic Cube

deffo read preacher if you havent already

John_Cultane

I'm looking for some new ones to read too.

Series I loved

The Sandman
Lucifer
Books of Magic
Preacher
Swamp Thing
Maus

Liked
Y last man Standing
Concrete


Other good ones but heroes involved
Uncle Sam
Kingdom Come
Marvels

MikeC101

John_Cultane wrote: »

I'm looking for some new ones to read too.

Series I loved

The Sandman
Lucifer
Books of Magic
Preacher
Swamp Thing

Based on these, the one that immediately springs to mind is Hellblazer. I'd almost guess you might have read it, but forgot to include it Constantine is in the Books of Magic a bit isn't he?
You'd probably enjoy Fables as well.
And because I recommend this to anyone who likes Preacher and maybe likes superheroes a little less: The Boys

NetDabbler

I recommend the Requiem Vampire Knight series by Pat Mills and Olivier Ledroit. It was translated from French for Heavy Metal but collected English editions from Panini are now available.

Links:
Requiem Vampire Knight Vol. 1 (Resurrection and Danse Macabre)
Requiem Vampire Knight Vol. 2 (Dracula and The Vampire Ball)
Requiem Vampire Knight Vol. 3 (Dragon Blitz and Hellfire Club)
Requiem Vampire Knight Vol. 4 (The Convent of the Blood Sisters & the Queen of Dead Souls)

Vols 3 and 4 are out in September.

L

@ JC, It depends on what you want. You seem to have similar taste to me so off the top of my head:

Warren Ellis
Transmetropolitan
Planetary
Ministry of Space
Ruins (a subversion of Marvel's shiny origin stories)
Ocean
Switchblade Honey
No Hero
Black Summer

Garth Ennis
Chronicles of Wormwood
Just a Pilgrim
303

I'll have a root around at home and update this with some other stuff later.

PerrinV2

Hey guys,basically looking for some suggestions here,anyway when I was younger I used to watch all the old marvel cartoons(xmen,spiderman,iron etc) around 94 I think they were on and I'd like to get into some of the stories again.
Just wondering do marvel publish any graphic novels or maybe a collection of comics grouped together,something that would be a decent lenght of a read?

Mr. K

Wow, where to start? If you enjoyed the X-Men cartoons in the 90s, you might enjoy the Age of Apocalypse. It's set in an alternate timeline, where Apocalypse rules North America. It's quite long and has been collected in four trade paperbacks (graphic novels). Here's where you can buy the first volume (but shop around!): http://www.midtowncomics.com/Neshop/SearchResult.asp?txtTitle=Age+of+Apocalypse&biTitle=&txtSeries=X-Men+The+Complete+Age+Of+Apocalypse+Epic+Book+1+TP&cboMfg=632&cboParCat=62&txtWriter=&txtArtist=&txtPrice1=0&txtPrice2=0&txtIssue1=0&txtIssue2=0&showOutstock=0&Grade=0&rdosubscribable=0&cboRelDate1=&cboRelDate2=&searchType=0&chkPreOrder=&chkShowSalesItems=0&txtKeyword=&WhereFrom=SeriesSearchResult&chkshowthum=1#

PerrinV2

Thanks Mr k.Just flicking through ebay today and this is the cheapest I found

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/X-Men-Complete-Age-Apocalypse-Epic-Book-1-TPB-Comp-/150466001115?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item230878f8db

I probably post back again once I complete the four of them,thanks again.

Mr. K

No problem, enjoy. I kinda want to read AoA again now, it's been a while!

Ridley

I'd suggest you should grab volume one of Essential Spider-Man and Essential X-Men (Not Essential X-Men Classic) and start at the beginning, moving up the numbers if you like them.

They're the basis of the cartoon series, are still readible and are designed to be cheap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Marvel

There's free single issues at Marvel aswell ( http://marvel.com/digitalcomics/free/ ) if you can bare navigating it.

Dots77

Yep id reccomend the boys by Grath Ennis, its my fave series ever, not sure if its in novel ofr collected form yet but its definatly the best comic ever, i know crossed is in a collected edition and its definatly one of the best series ever:D

kevinanchi1

Superman rocks the greatest super hero of all time ......
Long Live The Legend

distraction

the boys is one of my favs as well, a few others include

The walking dead,
Next wave agents of HATE,
Red,
The Authority
Chew

so many good comics so little time

Chronic Rick

just to be clear do you want graphic novels or trade paperbacks and graphic novels?

distraction

Chronic Rick wrote: »

just to be clear do you want graphic novels or trade paperbacks and graphic novels?

forum is comics, id say that includes all of them

RocketFalls

Not doing yourself any favours by leaving out Dark Horse.

Look at the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore. Think that was published by his own company.

Penn

Hey all

I have a pretty good knowledge of comics based on various computer games, cartoons, Wikipedia etc, but I'd never read a comic before. However, I recently got the Marvel Comics app for the iPhone and I'm getting pretty hooked. Loved the Civil War story (played through it in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 but after reading the comics it definitely didn't do it justice) and currently reading New Avengers (2004). Also read the first Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine comic which I think is a new series.

Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions. Thinking of taking a spin up to Forbidden Planet tomorrow. Want to pick up Batman: Widening Gyre too if possible. Read the first two issues and really enjoyed it.

Cheers

nicklauski

I have never been into comics, but a mate of mine was so he had some great ones.
Preacher being the stand out one in my opinion.

edit : Also if your into Batman check out, Batman : Year One, The Dark Night Returns and The Killing Joke.
I think there the only four proper kinda grophic novels/comics Ive ever read. Apart from the Beano and Dandy

Ridley

There's The Long Halloween of the Batman gotos aswell.

As far as Civil War, I'd suggest the fallout from it. Avengers: The Initiative and Thunderbolts (starting with Faith in Monsters)

If you like New Avengers then maybe just move up from there, really, and branch out when that series splits into New Avengers, Mighty Avengers and Initiative (and eventually Dark Avengers).

Gambler

This may be controversial but I loved Kevin Smiths run on Daredevil.

I also loved Supreme Power, the opening issue is about an infant alien sent to earth from a dying planet who is found by a lovely couple who've never had a child of their own (recognise anything in the theme) but then the government comes along, snatches the baby and raises it to be the perfect patriotic super soldier... A great "twisted take" on Superman that set the tone for the whole series..

Mr. K

I'd strongly advise reading Batman: Year One and The Long Halloween.

In terms of Spidey, I'd recommend Ultimate Spider-Man. The first few volumes are easy to track down.

Looking at X-Men, I'd advise reading The Dark Phoenix Saga and The Age of Apocalypse. The latter is divided into four TPBs and is set in an alternate timeline where Magneto leads the X-Men.

Zero-Cool

Hi,

After playing through Batman Arkham Asylum again, I'm mad for a batman comic fix. I havn't read Batman since mid 90's. Only recently I read The Killing Joke which was absolute class.

Can anyone recommend any other good Batman graphic novels to feed my fix??

PS. The darker, the better.

Penn

Due to underestimating how expensive comics are, I didn't get as much as I intended. However, I did pick up:

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Read it today. Thought it was excellent. Few niggles with it here and there, but overall, a great read)
Batman: The Killing Joke (Was a choice between this and Year One. Haven't read it yet though. I'll try pick up Year One next time)
Batman: Cacophony (I'm a big Kevin Smith fan, so since Widening Gyre was all sold out, picked this up instead. Actually thought it was very good. Could have been better, but still really liked it)
Amazing Spiderman: The Road to Civil War (Thought this was excellent)

Like Ridley suggested, going to start working my way up from Civil War to try and catch up

Ridley

sheehy83 wrote: »

Hi,

After playing through Batman Arkham Asylum again, I'm mad for a batman comic fix. I havn't read Batman since mid 90's. Only recently I read The Killing Joke which was absolute class.

Can anyone recommend any other good Batman graphic novels to feed my fix??

PS. The darker, the better.

http://comics.ign.com/articles/624/624619p5.html

Fysh

Alright folks, I've merged the four recommendation/suggestion threads that we had going because we might as well keep all of that sort of chatter in the one place.

myImage

One for the non-superhero readers, Joe Saccos war reporting style books are fantastic. Reading "Footnotes in Gaza" at the moment, great book