Graphic Novels

ActionClock · March 21, 2009, 10:25:53 PM

So the Watchmen movie came out, still haven't seen it yet, btw. Anyhoo, I felt for some reason i should attempt to read the graphic novel before seeing it. I am normally not interested in comics, never have been, I've attempted to read them before but lose interest nearly immediately. BUT This was acctually really great, and the nerd in me is beginning to blossom. I want more, and I, being new to this, am not sure what graphic novel i should go to next. Give me a must read list.

buttplug · March 21, 2009, 10:27:20 PM

Well you might try other allan moore stuff, I think that would be a good place to start.

Topcatyo · March 21, 2009, 10:57:56 PM

I also have been reading Watchmen before seeing the movie and have been having discussions with Action about the book. It's some great stuff. I've yet to finish, but I can get it done by tonight.

Slurpee · March 21, 2009, 11:01:15 PM

standard go-to fare for recommending graphic novels, besides Watchmen, is:
Maus
Sandman
V For Vendetta
MiracleMan (Alan Moore's run, but I guess Neil Gaiman, too)
The Dark Knight Returns
Hellblazer
maybe Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol
maybe Alan Moore's Swamp Thing
maybe Stray Bullets
maybe The Invisibles

but truth be told I've been into comics for like 9 years and I've never even touched any of those.
I just can't get into them at all

so what I'd actually recommend is:
Transmetropolitan (bald Hunter S Thompson pastiche doing guerrilla journalism in a futurism future)
We3 (bit like The Incredible Journey with military robots and violence)
Y: The Last Man (every male on earth is wiped out except one. cool story.)
The Walking Dead (zombies)
Hellboy (you might have seen the movies, but the real fun of it is the "every myth is true" style mythology imho)
Bone (it occurs to me that I don't know how to describe Bone, so here.)

Killing Joke falls under both categories

If you're in to superheroes, Kingdom Come is a nice isolated story.

everything listed here is mostly free of continuity tries- you could more or less just jump in without much prior knowledge.

if you'd like to trap yourself forever in the mires of shared continuity, let me know, because there are some good stories in there. Tower of Babel, Judas Contract, Fatal Attractions, Days of Future Past, 52, DC One Million, Young Avengers... but it's easy to be like "Oh, why does Wolverine have bone claws here?" and then be lost forever to 60 or 70 years of crazy soap opera bullshit.

bgryderclock · March 21, 2009, 11:19:10 PM

Black Hole by Charles Burns was great.
It messed with my head for 2 weeks...

K3LTR0N · March 21, 2009, 11:20:07 PM

the only comic i have ever read was automatic kafka

zl · March 22, 2009, 12:35:08 AM

These aren't logical jumps, just some of my personal favorites:

The Rabbi's Cat and Klezmer by Joann Sfar
The Acme Novelty Library and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
Most things by Jason
Anything by Graham Annable
Fluffy by Simone Lia
The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Munglai · March 22, 2009, 05:18:36 AM

I've been reading From Hell on and off and it's really an amazing book. Don't let the film put you off, it's extremely smart.

salt · March 22, 2009, 05:51:35 AM

yeah i'm reading Watchmen as well at the moment and i'm loving it

i wouldn't mind getting into other graphic novels. i definetely hold them in much higher regard than regular comics. i just think of them as books but with great art in them, and some might argue that that ruins our imagination of some character etc. but i think that the creators WANT us to see their characters as they created them

either way, there's some really good stuff out there but i'm not too experienced

my brother sort of reads Transmetropolitan so check that out

and i guess some other alan moore stuff

EnglishClock · March 22, 2009, 06:44:11 AM

Quote from: bgryderclock;1544671Black Hole

I was gonna recommend Black Hole too, it really is a fantastic read. Have you heard they're gonna make a movie out of it? Btw nice job on posting the last page of the novel LOL

CrustClock · March 22, 2009, 01:50:22 PM

Quote from: Munglai;1544780I've been reading From Hell on and off and it's really an amazing book. Don't let the film put you off, it's extremely smart.

An incredible book. It's so dense. I lent it to a friend and he immediately spotted something which went right over my head: the dying Gull in the first frame. The illustrations in it are some of the best graphic art I've ever seen.

I got a graphic novel of The Trial by Kafka's 'The Trial' as a gift and it was fucking shite. He had obviously traced this one photo of Kafka (making him K., which is a really boring interpretation), and because of this, never wanted to show him at another angle. He drew this shitty SHOUTING SKELETON every 5 frames and made everything psychedelic and 'trippy', which is SO unlike the book. Tbqh, everything in the comic medium, even the supposedly 'grown up' ones, has been utterly unconvincing as a piece of literature. Alan Moore is one incredible exception.

GearBoxClock · March 22, 2009, 02:02:26 PM

Watchmen is a great movie

On topic though,

Try reading this series, its really good.

PirateClock · March 22, 2009, 02:10:59 PM

Yeah watchmen was pretty great. However i tried some other heavier comics like V for Vendetta and Hellblazer but i couldn't really get into it, it all felt to serious and grim for my taste. I'm more into the lighter superhero stuff. I'm into pretty much everything that happens in the earth-616 Marvel universe, but it requires quite some back knowledge to get into. Reading the more recent events like House of M, Civil War and Secret Invasion are a must and for any other things that don't make sense you can always use Wikipedia to get some background. But once you're in, you're completely hooked (well i am) currently following the Dark Reign, Messiah War and War of Kings story Arch's, as well as everything Skaar and Deadpool related. I tried to get back into DC a while back but i don't like it as much anymore for some reason.

Munglai · March 22, 2009, 04:15:29 PM

Quote from: CrustClock;1544914An incredible book. It's so dense. I lent it to a friend and he immediately spotted something which went right over my head: the dying Gull in the first frame. The illustrations in it are some of the best graphic art I've ever seen.

I got a graphic novel of The Trial by Kafka's 'The Trial' as a gift and it was fucking shite. He had obviously traced this one photo of Kafka (making him K., which is a really boring interpretation), and because of this, never wanted to show him at another angle. He drew this shitty SHOUTING SKELETON every 5 frames and made everything psychedelic and 'trippy', which is SO unlike the book. Tbqh, everything in the comic medium, even the supposedly 'grown up' ones, has been utterly unconvincing as a piece of literature. Alan Moore is one incredible exception.

I know what you mean. There's lots of people who claim loads of comics are great but to be honest the only ones that really hold up against books are the few famous ones.

I was reading an Art Speigelman autobiography today that was done in all different art styles and it was really interesting. I was kind of amazed that stuff like that was allowed to exist and is accepted by a lot of people. It's nice because when it works it's really great.

Anyway, have you had a look at Maus or Persepolis or Palestine, they're the ones I've found to be as powerful as Alan Moore's stuff.

CrustClock · March 22, 2009, 04:49:00 PM

Quote from: Munglai;1544960Anyway, have you had a look at Maus or Persepolis or Palestine, they're the ones I've found to be as powerful as Alan Moore's stuff.

Maus is very well executed, but obviously not quite comparable to Moore's use of the medium. The cutesy versus profound juxtoposition is well done, but, yeah, in terms of realistic characters, mature subject and thematic sophistication there's a real dearth in the industry. I could be overlooking them through my ignorance, though.

All I know about Persepolis is that it was the art film to watch for about a week. Worth getting, I suppose. I just wish my library stocked graphic novels as they cost a bomb.

Munglai · March 22, 2009, 07:17:58 PM

Quote from: CrustClock;1544970Maus is very well executed, but obviously not quite comparable to Moore's use of the medium. The cutesy versus profound juxtoposition is well done, but, yeah, in terms of realistic characters, mature subject and thematic sophistication there's a real dearth in the industry. I could be overlooking them through my ignorance, though.

All I know about Persepolis is that it was the art film to watch for about a week. Worth getting, I suppose. I just wish my library stocked graphic novels as they cost a bomb.

The film of Persepolis was pretty good and it's nice to see animation being accepted by adults but the book is way better. The art seems really simple but the way she composes them is so clever.

It's worth a look just as an insight into storyboarding and that kind of thing.

Topcatyo · March 22, 2009, 07:34:02 PM

I've just finished Watchmen, so time to read some other graphic novels. Luckily my brother's got a whole collection of them.

Silly Putty Clock · March 29, 2009, 08:00:32 PM

Graphic novels! graphicnovels

ActionClock · April 02, 2009, 08:09:42 AM

I'm about a third of the way through V for Vendetta, it's very good so far.

DigitalLemonClock · April 02, 2009, 08:33:58 AM

I'm a fan of Moebius (Jean Giraud)

I like pretty much everything he's done, from blueberry to his design in films like tron and alien to his crazy sci fi splits with Jodorowski

He has some great style and vision

News:

Graphic Novels