Recommend me some graphic novels

The Authority - What if the supergroup doesn't just deal with massive world-ending threats but takes down military dictators too? Warren Ellis and Mark Millar did some great stuff. The later stuff is a bit iffy, but still pretty good.

For a very offbeat humourous superhero series, I would recommend The Authority's two series 'Kev' and 'More Kev'. Kev is a layabout from the British army who gets caught up in the adventures of The Authority.

If you get into the British 2000AD series, I would suggest:

Button Man by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson about a hitman who gets involved in an underground 'sport' pitting hitment against each other.

Also try Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell. Zenith mines the pantheon of classic British superheroes and updates them for the acidhouse/Thatcher years. Zenith is a bratty pop star with super powers.

Grant Morrison was also responsible for one of the many revivals of Dan Dare released later as 'Dare'. This is almost impossible to find but its my favourite comic of all time.

Hard-Boiled. Extremely graphic. Tons of detail.

Is that at all related to the Hong Kong action movie of the same title? Joobz and I saw that one back in the early '90s.

Hard Boiled is a Frank Miller comic. There is a wikipedia page about it but I think it contains some spoilers. It was suppossed to be the most violent comic of all time.

A friend got me into a manga series called Cromartie High which is an absurdist take on the Japanese High School Delinquent genre.
 
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Seconding Dragon Head. Excellent post apocolyptic tale. Basically, some horrible cataclysm happens when the main character is in a tunnel in a train. Train derails, basically everyone dies. The kid's goal becomes escaping the tunnel and returning to Tokyo, finding out what happened to the world, and linking up with other survivors.

Also I would recommend Drifting Classroom. Elementary school is thrown into the future, which is a desert wasteland with no water, no food, and no resources. Chaos ensues, aided by a villainous adult and a preschooler that were inadvertently sent with them. Main character Sho Takamatsu struggles to maintain order and find his way home, not to mention survive in a hostile world. Meanwhile Sho's mom is one of the only parents that doesn't think her child was killed (it appeared that the school exploded in the present day), and searches to find him. It can be over the top at times, and the tension rarely lets up (which is frustrating to some people), but it has a good set of characters and it's well illustrated.


For English manga, I recommend Pantheon High, which is about a sort of a high school for Greek/Nordic/Egyptian/Japanese demigods.
 
Some of my recommendations:

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
A successful attempt at portraying an immigrant's experiences as he tries to adapt and settle in a strange, new country. Bonus: Told entirely through pictures alone.

The Aviary, by Jamie Tanner
A cross between David Lynch and Crash. Extremely odd, but rewarding.

Pyongyang, by Guy Delisle
A travelogue of a French animator's stay in North Korea.

Silver Surfer: Requiem, by J. Michael Straczynski
A touching, well-written short piece on a dying hero. Perhaps a bit sentimental, but it still got to me.

Age of Bronze, by Eric Shanower
A faithful, painfully detailed retelling of the Trojan War. For Pasta's sake, it has a bibliography.

Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud
An excellent introduction to the sequential art medium.


And to reiterate other people's choices:

Jimmy Corrigan
Bone
Sandman
Akira
Transmetropolitan
From Hell

There are many more on my shelf, but those are the ones off the top of my head.
 
Most of my favorites have already been mentioned (including my all-time fave, Preacher) but if you like superhero fiction that isn't really quite superhero fiction, I highly, highly recommend Grant Morrison's Animal Man and Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing. Make sure you read 'em in order, they build very nicely. Also, for just straight up fun, read The Authority by Warren Ellis, which is basically about an effed up Justice League.
 
I just stumbled on to this thread and I've been a big fan of Superhero stuff since I was a kid. I'm a big DC fan, so I'm biased toward their stuff. Some suggestions:

The Watchmen : mentioned alot already, pure awesomeness in comic format.

Miracleman : Another Alan Moore story, actually about the character that Captain Marvel essentially became in the British comics. This one is awesome, if you can find it. The follow-up (and unfinished) series by Neil Gaimen is gold as well.

The Dark Knight Returns: Frank Miller details Batman's dystopian future

Kingdom Come: The next generation of costumed heroes run amok and it's up to the old guard to put the newbies in their place.

For the Man who has Everything: An awesome Superman story that's part "What if" and part throw-down. Originally presented in Superman Annual 11, reprinted in the DC Comics collection of Alan Moore stories.

Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow: The last significant silver-age Superman story, also in the aforementioned Alan Moore tpb.

The Infinity Gauntlet: Thanos vs. Everyone. Ron Lim's art is beautiful and you won't find a bigger battle in the Marvel universe.

Crisis on Infinite Earths: DC retooled their universe with this cosmic adventure.

Maus: Worth checking out for reasons others have already mentioned.

Superman: Red Son: Written by Mark Millar. Basically, "What if Kal-El's rocket landed in Soviet Russia instead of the United States?". One of the most messed up endings ever.

Animal Man: Grant Morrison's run. I can't say much about this one without giving something away. The metatextual elements of this story are unbelievable.

The Sandman: By Neil Gaimen. This story chronicles the life and ultimate fate of Morpheus, King of Dreams.

Preacher: Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon detail the adventures of a rogue catholic priest, his girlfriend and a vampire drunk on alcohol and blood. Get ready for a character named "Arseface".

Y: The Last Man: Awesome concept from the 70s (Kamandi) but done in a much more compelling way.

Fables: Modern, mature takes on the lives of characters from fairy tales.

The Crow: James O'Barr's violent tale of revenge and lost love

Hellboy: Pure fun for any fan of the paranormal. A fun fortean romp by Mike Mignola. The art in this one is awesome. The early stories are very reminiscent of the Cthulhu mythos.

Sleeper: Wildstorm studios presents the story of a secret agent, sort of a super-powered James Bond. This is an excellent book, though I haven't finished the second series yet.

A very incomplete list, but I thought I'd throw in my $0.02.... hope you find something that you like!
 
Great post, AO! I've been using this thread for reference even though I didn't write the OP.

As for this:

Hellboy: Pure fun for any fan of the paranormal. A fun fortean romp by Mike Mignola. The art in this one is awesome. The early stories are very reminiscent of the Cthulhu mythos.

I can't believe I forgot to mention Hellboy. Cthulhu Mythos meets time-travelling nazis meets the NWO / seekrit gubmint rapid response team (you never imagined it would look like this). To be fair, I've only read the first couple of trades, but I liked those a lot.
 
Hellboy is an awesome series, and has some of the best supporting characters too. Everyone's gotta love Roger the Homonculus and Lobster Johnson. :)

Mignola did another project called "The Amazing Screw-On Head" which was pretty cool, too. It was about a steam powered robot who can change bodies, and goes on missions for Abraham Lincoln. I believe it was also made in a pretty faithful animated feature as well. If you get the time (and you like Hellboy) make sure to track this one down because it's very much in the same vein.
 
Preacher: Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon detail the adventures of a rogue catholic priest, his girlfriend and a vampire drunk on alcohol and blood. Get ready for a character named "Arseface".

He's a protestant preacher actually, not a Catholic priest... I think.
 
He's a protestant preacher actually, not a Catholic priest... I think.

You might be right, it's been a few years since I've read the books. I've always thought he was Catholic, but in retrospect I'm not sure how I came to that conclusion in the first place.

Apparently HBO is going to be adapting Preacher to a twelve episode mini-series that sounds like a high budget effort. I think the names dePalma, Copolla and Lynch have been thrown around with respect to the project. I don't remember any more details off the top of my head but I'm sure google would be more than happy to help. :)

I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with it but there's just no way the script can possibly be faithful to the original source material. In my dreams they will use CG to cast John Wayne as himself and Jack Palance as the Saint of Killers.
 
For the Man who has Everything: An awesome Superman story that's part "What if" and part throw-down. Originally presented in Superman Annual 11, reprinted in the DC Comics collection of Alan Moore stories.
It was also made into an episode of "Justice League Unlimited." Due to the Titans series they couldn't use Robin, but otherwise it was pretty true to the original material.

Love the Avatar.:)
 
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It was also made into an episode of "Justice League Unlimited." Due to the Titans series they couldn't use Robin, but otherwise it was pretty true to the original material.
I heard about this, but haven't had a chance to watch it. I really love this story. One of Moore's best at DC.

Love the Avatar.:)
Thanks! Yours is pretty neat too - just remember that "it is forbidden to interfere with human history..." ;)
 
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Another excellent story I'd recommend by Moore are his works on Image/Extreme's hero, Supreme. Moore wrote "The Story of the Year" and "The Return". This hero started off as a brutal counterpoint to Superman, but was rebooted by Moore as an homage to the silver-age Superman and has many nods to comic book history in general. These books were really good.
 
I heard about this, but haven't had a chance to watch it. I really love this story. One of Moore's best at DC.




They also had to fit it into the continuity of the DCAU, and have the Fortress under the ice.
Thanks! Yours is pretty neat too - just remember that "it is forbidden to interfere with human history..." ;)
I always love how Superman seems to prefer my brand of whiskey.
 
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OK, here's a little curveball:

Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.

Don Rosa is probably the most high-profiled living artist who does Donald Duck, and probably only Carl Barks beats him when it comes to fame in the Duckburgh universe (Walt Disney was more into the overall Disney universe and the cartoons/full-length animated movies, so he's excempted). Those familiar with Barks Scrooge McDuck knows that he's actually quite a complex character, and with this collection, Don Rosa gives us a fantastic glimpse into -how- Scrooge became the person that eventually turned into the world's richest duck. Following Scrooge's childhood and youth - and always keeping things accurate with regards to hints and references made in a Carl Barks story - you'll get to spot the adventures of someone who - when all is said and done - is about just that: Adventure. About the joy of finding a hidden treasure. About getting rewarded for hard work. About living his life to the fullest, so he won't have any regrets at the end of the day.

Other things to make note of is that Don rosa always tries to be as historically accurate as possible when taking his adventures into the real world. Of course, he often has to sacrifice realism in order to get the story right, but you can be sure that when he's drawing a hindu temple, there's weeks of research behind it, and any deviation from real life is a deliberate decision. He's also a movie buff, and plenty of references can be found to movies like "Citizen Kane", "Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid", and so on.

Perhaps one of the things that not that many Donald artists understand is the obsession Scrooge has with the money he's filled up his money bin with. But Barks and Rosa (especially Rosa) have both made it clear that there are personal reasons here. Each and every coin has a specific history behind it, and looking at that coin will unveil the memory of that story whenever Scrooge looks at it. The money bin is - almost literally - the story of his life.

And if you enjoyed The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, there are a lot of other stories Don Rosa has made. Both he and I agree that the adventure stories (usually involving Scrooge) are better than the gag stories, but he manages the latter kind fairly well. Especially recommended is the one where Donald tries to get paid in rare coins that he can then sell on to coin collectors.
 
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OK, here's a little curveball:
Perhaps one of the things that not that many Donald artists understand is the obsession Scrooge has with the money he's filled up his money bin with. But Barks and Rosa (especially Rosa) have both made it clear that there are personal reasons here. Each and every coin has a specific history behind it, and looking at that coin will unveil the memory of that story whenever Scrooge looks at it. The money bin is - almost literally - the story of his life.

That's interesting. I haven't really read any of the Disney stuff except when I was a kid, but it sounds like this is worth checking out. If I can find it, I'll pick up a copy.

Thanks for the obscure recommendation!
 
Pretty much anything Alan Moore is enjoyable. He is useally on top of the game.

Lost Girls is comic porn that he spent ten years writing. tehe!
 
I'm a Painting and Drawing student so I really love good artwork above all. My favorite graphic novel has got to be Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Written by Grant Morrison with artwork by Dave McKean.

Dave McKean works with Neil Gaiman often and directed MirrorMask. They did Black Orchid together.

I really dig his artwork. <3

I'm also a fan of Alex Ross's work though it's not as conceptual it's just damn impressive technically. :)
 
I'm a Painting and Drawing student so I really love good artwork above all. My favorite graphic novel has got to be Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Written by Grant Morrison with artwork by Dave McKean.

Dave McKean works with Neil Gaiman often and directed MirrorMask. They did Black Orchid together.

Dave McKean is a fantastic artist. His work on the Vertigo Tarot set was awesome. I was also really impressed with MirrorMask. All of the album covers he's done for Front Line Assembly have also been really great.
 
Amen to that! I've been doing the Fine Art thing in school but when it comes down to it I've learned a lot more and respond a lot more to illustrators such as he. :) Plus I'm just a complete sucker for things dark and conceptual and layered, ha.
 
I'm not very well versed in graphic novels and such but the one I would recommend is "Signal to Noise" by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. It impressed me greatly!
 

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