Stand Alone Graphic Novels

will56

Hi,

Can anyone suggest graphic novels than can be read as stand alone stories ?

I starting to get into reading different Marvel and DC comics but not sure what to be buying graphic novel wise ?

Someything similar to world War hulk or furture imperfect, Dark Knight Killing joke where its a complete story ?

Thwip!

A lot of people will recommend Watchmen, V for Vendetta etc but it depends on you as a reader. What kind of story are you looking for? There are plenty of self contained stories that you can choose from, just depends where your tastes lie

Fysh

What genres do you like? What sort of artists and writers do you like? Once we have an idea of your tastes we can make some recommendations.

will56

Fysh wrote: »

What genres do you like? What sort of artists and writers do you like? Once we have an idea of your tastes we can make some recommendations.

I've no idea about artists and writers really. I've enjoyed the Dark Knight and planet hulk so would be a fan of marvel/dc but would be willing to read something different if the story was good.

MarkHall

Kingdom come us a great else world tale with characters you'll know. But don't need to have read to enjoy.

We3
if you've ever had a pet. This will give you a dose of the feels.

Superman:Red Son
What if superman landed in Russia in stead of the USA

Are the first 3 to spring to mind.

will56

Is superman Earth one worth reading ?

MarkHall

Never read it.

If you've a local Libary it's well worth checking out to see if they have a Graphic Novel section. The Fingal ones have some great pieces on the shelfs. Including full runs of Sandman, 100 Bullets, Y the last man to name a few.

Vojera

Agreed, and if your local library doesn't have it they can order it in from another for a small fee.

will56

Thats where I'm stuck really, no-where near by that would ahve them so its a case of ordering online and hoping for the best really

shazzerman

Two of the most ambitious - and downright awesome - I've read recently: The Unwritten and Locke & Key. Just finished Grant Morrison's Animal Man run too, and that must surely have influenced The Unwritten.

Nervous Wreck

Superman Birthright is one of my top choices.

Fitzg

Hey! I've recently been bitten by the graphic novel buzz and I'm devouring everything I can get my hands on - here are my fave stand-alones;
Lighter than my Shadow by Katie Green
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Maus by Art Speigelman
Unterzakhn by Leela Corman

I'm in the middle of Understanding Comics by Steve McCloud
and hoping to read Blue is the Wamest Colour soon.

Hodges Figgis in Dublin City Centre have a great selection at the moment.
I really also want to read The End by Anders Nillson

shazzerman

Check out some Craig Thompson. Habibi is stunning, and Blankets shows just how good the graphic novel form is for autobiographical purposes (also, you should track down Alison Blechdel's Fun Home - another classic). For more traditional fare, you could do worse than check out The Filth (reading that at the moment), the Complete Miracleman (any Alan Moore really), and a couple of Neil Gaiman standalones like Signal to Noise and Black Orchid. And, even though it isn't finished yet, let's not forget Tony Chu...

Bistoman

Giving the singeing over the weekend, I would recommend Mark Millar's " Starlight" Its sort of what happened to Flash Gordon when he got back to earth, An Old Man Gordon if You like
You should also check out Marvel's "Civil War" and "Old Man Logan"

I would also say the Judge Dredd Mega Collection, You can read any of them stories without knowing anything about the Dredd universe.

Batman The Killing Joke.

Any Hellblazer or Sandman collection.

Zenith.

Fysh

will56 wrote: »

I've no idea about artists and writers really. I've enjoyed the Dark Knight and planet hulk so would be a fan of marvel/dc but would be willing to read something different if the story was good.

OK, forget about writers or artists. In fact, forget that you're asking about comics particularly.

When it comes to TV, or film, or books, what sort of stories do you like?
Do you like stories with straightforward storytelling, or stories that use more complex stories (things like multiple layers of narrative, or disjointed/non-linear chronology, or unreliable narrators) to develop themes?
Do you prefer stories to focus on plot, or on character, or a mixture of both?
Do you have particular genres you like or dislike?

That should be enough to give us an idea of what you'd like or dislike to be able to make some good suggestions for you.

On a separate note:
1) I'm really impressed at the range of recommendations in this thread so far
2) I'm also somewhat surprised that "any volume of Sandman or Hellblazer" could be recommended as an enjoyable standalone read. I'm a big fan of both series, but honestly I think that the best approach to them is to read them in sequence; barring a couple of volumes I think that most volumes in each series have to be read in sequence in order to work.

will56

Fysh wrote: »

OK, forget about writers or artists. In fact, forget that you're asking about comics particularly.

When it comes to TV, or film, or books, what sort of stories do you like?
Do you like stories with straightforward storytelling, or stories that use more complex stories (things like multiple layers of narrative, or disjointed/non-linear chronology, or unreliable narrators) to develop themes?
Do you prefer stories to focus on plot, or on character, or a mixture of both?
Do you have particular genres you like or dislike?

That should be enough to give us an idea of what you'd like or dislike to be able to make some good suggestions for you.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions so far.
When it comes to TV, or film, or books, what sort of stories do you like?
I like action, comedy, thriller. I'm also a fan of stories where the lines between right and wrong are blurred if that makes sense ?
Do you like stories with straightforward storytelling, or stories that use more complex stories (things like multiple layers of narrative, or disjointed/non-linear chronology, or unreliable narrators) to develop themes?
I'm not a fan of overly symplistic storylines, but at the same time wouldn't want anything overly convoluted
Do you prefer stories to focus on plot, or on character, or a mixture of both?
I like a mixture of both
Do you have particular genres you like or dislike?
I enjoy superhero and sci-fi genres for the escapism, westerns, (having a hard time thinking of genres)

I'm familiar with the characters in the Marvel & DC universes but not in great detail ie Multiverses etc

Fysh

OK, the first thing that pops into my head is The Highwaymen. It's a great self-contained action story, with a kind of buddy-cop thing going on between the two male leads and some lovely art.

On the superhero front, Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. is one of my favourite series for delivering action-comedy fun. There's an all-in-one collection available, which is a pretty good deal considering it's 12 issues. The first volume of the recent Moon Knight series by the same writer (Warren Ellis) is also really, really good and very much a standalone thing.

I also really liked the recent Dial H series from DC - it's split across two trades but is very much a standalone story, and has some really odd but always entertaining ideas on how to do superheroes.

On the western front I can't really help you too much - there's an anthology from Image called Outlaw Territory, and I remember the first collection of it being a very good mix of stories. I haven't read any of the subsequent volumes, though. There are a couple of longform series that might be interesting to you - Scalped by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guerá, and the recently-started Southern Bastards by Jason Aaaron and Jason Latour. I've read Scalped and it's a great noir/western/crime story though very grim and heavy going at times; Southern Bastards is more of a "badass returns to his home town, decides to chase the scum out of town" type story, though a grittier take on it than is usually the case.

MarkHall

Agents of Hate is a great call.
But now I wonder how well it would sit with someone who's not familiar with the comic world.

There's a fair bit of in jokeness to it.

mayordenis

Underwater Welder.

Fysh

MarkHall wrote: »

Agents of Hate is a great call.
But now I wonder how well it would sit with someone who's not familiar with the comic world.

There's a fair bit of in jokeness to it.

I've given it to a couple of friends who weren't particularly comic fans and they enjoyed it, I think as long as your sense of humour tallies with what's in the book everything else is fine.

brianregan09

Marvel Civil War ,Marvel Secret Invasion , Walking Dead volume 1 , Spiderman Spider Island

Defo a few good ones there

Reg'stoy

The ones I own so I can return to them, as you always find something extra at every reading; are.
Watchmen, nothing for me comes close.
V for Vendetta.
Batman The Killing Joke.

You might notice the Alan Moore connection.

Ones I've picked up from my local library which should be read are
Batman Year one
Batman the Dark Knight returns
Maus (I will at a birthday be adding this to my collection)

Now not necessarily stand alone in the purest sense

The ones I personally love, others might disagree are the Marvel Zombie series, have all of them.

I have by way of my library again read some of the Hellblazer books, excellent but can be (for me) hit and miss.

I am a huge 2000ad fan and so purely as an indulgence I own a lot of their compilation books. Dredd first 8, Strontium Dog all, Nemesis all, Rogue Trooper and Robo Hunter.

I agree with another poster and use your local library and I for one will be checking out some of the other recommendations of others here.