Recommended Graphic Novels? (1 Viewer)

[Kachi Khatri]

Due to the increasing comic to movie adaptations, I've been curious to check up some popular graphic novel titles out there.

I've read some comics back in my teen years so it's been a while.

I'm interested in buying some for my collection. I'm on a budget so I may limit to a dozen or so titles.

So far the following titles by these writers seem to be popular:

Frank Miller:
Batman Year One (ordered)
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (ordered)

Alan Moore:
Watchmen (ordered)
Batman: The Killing Joke (ordered)

Jeph Loeb:
Batman: The Long Halloween (worth buying??)

What other titles would be recommended reading?
Any selections from other mainstream superhero? (Superman,Daredevil,Spiderman, etc)


Appreciate any input.

 

[Andy Sheets]

I've kind of lost touch with mainstream superheroes but Frank Miller's Daredevil and Elektra work is great.

It's hard to go wrong with anything that has Alan Moore's name on it, although I particularly like his Swamp Thing work (finally all back in print in six volumes).

Mike Mignola's Hellboy is wonderful. Five volumes, the first of which is Seed of Destruction.

Kurt Busiek's Astro City has a few collections out. Superheroes from a variety of viewpoints. It's really good, and to tie in with the comic-to-movie thing, I read that they're developing a movie now. Not sure how they're going to manage that, but there you go

Dark Horse Comics is currently reprinting Marvel's old Conan the Barbarian comics. They've 3 books out so far, a 4th should be out this month, and a 5th is in the works. Good stuff that gets better as it goes along.

If you dig Kill Bill, you might check out Kabuki: Circle of Blood, by David Mack. The storytelling gets more abstract with each volume, but Circle of Blood is a pretty straightforward introduction.

 

[LarryDavenport]

V For Vendetta
Elektra Assasin
Batman: Arkham Asylum

 

[James_Kiang]

DC:
Kingdom Come
JSA and JLA collections (some are better than others)

Vertigo:
Neil Gaiman's Sandman collections (might want to try them first as they are a bit different)

Marvel:
New X-Men (I think this is the one Grant Morrison took over; Planet X storyline was pretty good)

 

[Ricardo C]

Whatever you do, you can't skip "Marvels" by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross.

On the "guilty pleasure" side... Try the "Onslaught" saga. It was a humongous crossover spanning most of the Marvel universe. The basic story is that Professor Xavier's repressed anger drives him mad and he becomes an über-powerful psychic being that takes over Manhattan. In the end, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men (along with pinch-hitters the Hulk and Dr. Doom) have to face Onslaught in a battle to the death. And yes, there are MAJOR casualties (though of course no one stayed dead for long :p) This is comics, after all, and rule #1 of comics is that only Uncle Ben stays dead, ever.)

Convoluted as all hell, but a good read nonetheless. The whole thing is collected in six TPBs, though they've been out of print for a while, so tracking them down might be tough.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Kingdom Come is a favorite

Also try DC's oversized Series:
Superman: Peace on Earth
Batman: War on Crime
Shazam: Power of Hope
Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth

Also by Miller:
Sin City
Sin City: Yellow Bastard
Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Man Without Fear

More as I remember

Take care,
Chuck

 

[James T]

I really liked Batman: The Long Halloween. It's a murder mystery/whodunnit along the lines of the Hush series(another great series that was recently put out in graphic novel). It's not as predictable as it appears to be.
I also liked its sequel, Dark Victory.

Daredevil: Out. It's vol. 5, but I never read the previous issues or the issues afterwards and didn't have a problem following the story. It's the story when a reporter gets ahold of Matt Murdocks secret identity through the police and publishes it for all of New York.

Superman: Red Son of Krypton. It's an elseworlds comic, but I found it kinda funny. The basic story is what if Superman's spaceshp landed on Earth 12 hours later. Then he would have landed in Russia. He grows up during the Cold War and during the age of communists, but he's still a boy scout.

Wolverine: Origins is a cool little story of Logan's origins. If you're a fan of Wolverine, also check out Wolverine: The Brotherhood. It's only volume 1 and vol. 2 should be out shortly. I really like it because I'm a fan of Greg Rucka and he seems to give Wolverine a human side to him and at the same time, shows us the monster that he really is.

 

[Dominik Droscher]

Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman

 

[Andy Sheets]

Another Wolverine one that's really good is Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith.

The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank, by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon is pretty damn good.

 

[RafaelB]

Marvel
X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga
X-Men: The Asgard Wars (I think this may be OOP at the moment, but you can get the New Mutants story of it in the Marvel collected Arthur Adams book)

DC
New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
New Teen Titans: the Terror of Trigon
Superman: Man of Steel
Ronin (Frank Miller)

Independant
Elquest: "Fire and Flight" through "Quest's End"
The first few (six) collected volumes of Spawn
Anything Cerebus

Rafael.

 

[Bill Williams]

Some great graphic novels/collections I would include to the list:

The Earth X / Universe X / Paradise X trilogy and tie-ins - Really sets the Marvel Universe on its ear! And of course, more of that gorgeous Alex Ross cover artwork all the way through. I wonder if the Earth X limited edition hardcover ever came out. It was scheduled then pulled a couple of times for some reason.

Batman: 3-D - This was a great graphic novel I enjoyed in that the main story was all created in the computer. And also a great old-school 3-D story included as well!

JLA: Liberty and Justice by Paul Dini and Alex Ross - Another wonderful oversized graphic novel from DC showcasing all of that beautiful Alex Ross artwork!

 

[JonZ]

Lots of good stuff mentioned above.These are HIGHLY recommended.....

-Hellboy:
Seed of Destruction
Wake The Devil
The Chained Coffin & Others
Right Hand Of Doom
Conqueror Worm

-Moonshadow (A Fairy Tale for adults. Wonderful! The first series,I never read the sequel)

-Gregory (About a kid in a institution)

-Akira

-Angry Christ Comix (Collects JML early stuff - theres a few really good stories in there "Burns Brightest" & "Dropping Anchor" forget about his newer stuff,IMHO his best stuff was his B&W work)

 

[Kachi Khatri]

Wow! Thanks to all of you for the many suggestions!!!

 

[StephenK]

Kachi,

In addition to the ones you already ordered (excellent), you will want to try:

Frank Miller:

Ronin
Give Me Liberty (if it's been reissued in a single volume)
Elektra Assassin (Amazing stuff)

Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (also amazing)

For more mainstream stuff, the Infinity Gauntlet collected volume was pretty good.

Have fun!

 

[Bill Williams]

Also as good companion pieces to Elektra: Assassin (I remember that 8-book series Miller and Sienkiewicz did - really funky!), the following have to be added as well:

- The Elektra Saga (basically re-telling the Daredevil issues but from Elektra's point of view)
- Elektra Lives (big hardcover graphic novel)

 

[JonZ]

I was gonna post theAlex Ross oversized books but I see Chuck did it.

Batman:War on Crime,Wonder: Woman:Spirit Of Truth,Superman: Peace on Earth,Shazamower of Hope are all excellent.

Also check out the Bryne/Claremont X-Men TPBs

Ive been collecting Cerebus since 83. The phone books are a great way to read the comic, which is broken up into smaller novels.Youll definitely have to start at the beginning with that one.High Society and the first book in Church & State are probally my all time favorites comics to this day.

 

[Kraig Lang]

I'd definitely agree with Kingdom Come and Marvels. There are a number of older novels that would be good as well;

Crisis on Infinite Earths (DC)
Superman: The Man of Steel (DC)
Secret Wars (Marvel)
Dark Phoenix Saga (Marvel)

As you can see, these are obvious classics, but you don't give an age to determine what you read when you were younger.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I've got just about everything Oni puts out on my pull list at the local comic shop; they do just about everything well, and span a ton of genres - lots of good crime, fantasy, espionage, and humor books.

Of special note: Judd Winick's The Adventures Of Barry Ween, Boy Genius, which could be described as a funnier version of Dexter's Laboratory... with swearing (not for kids, but hilarious). Also, Ted Nafieh's Courtney Crumrin books, on their third 4-issue series now with the first two available in collected editions, and Greg Rucka's Whiteout (Antarctic murder mysteries) and Queen And Country (a spy book that strives for realism)

CrossGen has not turned out to be the Marvel-level player that they seemed to be on their way to becoming last year, but they've produced some fantastic comics on the way - it seems like every artist who goes there does the best work of his career. Of particular note: Ruse, a pseudo-Victorian mystery series; The Way Of The Rat, a martial-arts adventure about a thief and his talking-monkey sidekick (with a movie in development); and Negation, the most kick-ass outer space adventure you'll find out there. Not yet collected, but worthy of note are El Cazador, a flat-out gorgeous pirate series, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a clever twist on the James Bond format.

If you're looking for superheroes, you need Powers; it's about the cops who investigate superhero-related crimes. There's a movie in development with Frank Oz attached to direct, but Brian Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming have cranked out some great stories. Also contains one of the funniest (if disgusting) lines in comics history: "Wow, all I ever got was a stomachache!"

Probably the best series ongoing is Y - The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerera. It's the story of the only man on earth to survive a plague/paranormal event that killed every large mammal with a Y chromosome instantly. I think two collections are out, with a third on the way.

For straight graphic novels, let me whole heartedly recommend Doug TenNapel's Creature Tech and Three Fingers, though I'm blanking on the author of the latter. Oh, and Orbiter by Warren Ellis & Colleen Doran (a space shuttle mysteriously disappears and returns thirty years later, when the space program has been shut down) along with The Life Eaters by David Brin.

 

[Alex Prosak]

Dark Horse Comics
Lone Wolf & Cub

 

[JonZ]

If theres any TPB of the really old Avengers comics (60s-early 80s) Id recommend them as well.

I love the old Buscemi,Barry Windsor Smith,Perez,Bryne issues.