Recommend me some graphic novels

Kindaichi Case Files- Murder mysteries. Always have a good twist.

Death Note- One of the characters is my avatar. Basically it is a bunch of super geniuses duking it out while Kira is trying to become God by cleansing the world of evil people. Awesome philosophy tossed around as well.

Gravitation- Good old drama/comedy/romance/gay rockstar.

I have to admit I've never read an American comic book, which is slightly backwards. The best line in my argument over which ones are better:

"Ugh, that is just mixing in real world physics with the completely impossible Flash to add drama. At least mine reflects the real world, which has cross dressers!"
 
By the way, a great way to get graphic novels inexpensively is on Amazon with the "Used and new" links. For example, you could get 4 of the 8 Gon books for about $11.
 
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A lot of cool suggestions, some of which I plan to take up myself the next time I'm at a comic shop!

One more to add: 1608(is that the right year?) - Neil Gaiman's take on the X-men. I haven't read that much of the series, but what I read was pretty cool.
 
Some oversized ones:

Hard-Boiled. Extremely graphic. Tons of detail.

Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot. More light-hearted, but again, very detailed.

Any of the special DC/Justice League painted big books by Alex Ross. The artwork is just gorgeous.

Lone Wolf and Cub. Very cinematic.
 
Roboramma said:
A lot of cool suggestions, some of which I plan to take up myself the next time I'm at a comic shop!

One more to add: 1608(is that the right year?) - Neil Gaiman's take on the X-men. I haven't read that much of the series, but what I read was pretty cool.
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1602. It's not just the X-Men, but the whole Marvel Universe and It's great.
 
The only superhero arc you ever need to read: Batman: Knightfall. There are three trade paperbacks that encompass the entire arc: "KnightFall" "KnightQuest" and "KnightsEnd".

If you're a fan of Firefly/Serenity series then you should read: Those Left Behind.

I greatly enjoyed the previously mentioned Preacher series as well as the Sandman series and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (which was not done justice at all by the movie).

Finally, an oft-overlooked series The Maxx is quite, quite good.
 
Tsukasa Buddha said:
Kindaichi Case Files- Murder mysteries. Always have a good twist.
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Personaly, I've generally found Kindaichi Case Files to be somewhat contrived, even by mystery-novel standards. Have you ever read Case Closed? The premise is silly, but I think the mysteries are usually better.

And man, speaking of avatars... mine is Judde Death from the 2000AD comics. And while I'd hesitate to call it "classic," that really is a very fun comic when it's done right. So that's another recomendation for joobz. The selection of Judge Dredd TPBs in America is abysmal, but look for Apocalypse War or The Day the Law Died for good fun.
 
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Why do I feel like I'm tumbling down the rabbit hole?

Thanks for all the great suggestions
 
Morrigan said:
For manga, I would recommend Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. The anime movie is awesome, but the manga is even better. Superbly beautiful and massively epic, it should be read by anyone, really.
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I enjoyed that too. Although the English dubbed version of the movie I saw greatly disappointed me. I remember that they altered a major part of the theme. In Miyazaki's story the disaster that befell the Earth was man made, but in the dubbed movie they changed it so that an alien threat was responsible for the state of the world.
 
Hawk one said:
Well, the comic is a +2000 page epos, so it's more or less the main characters and their attitudes, and some other important facts that relate. But while you will reckognise these things, you will also notice all the things that - rather naturally - couldn't possibly have fit into the movie. The comic also has the luxury that it can explain what's going on to a much greater degree than the movie with regards to those powers.

Tiny spoiler:
For one thing, more than half of it takes place -after- Akira awakens.
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I was lucky enough to get hold of a VHS copy of a subtitled Japanese version back around 1990 or so. I'm pretty sure that it was my copy that Joobz saw. The Japanese version has very good voice talent. The English dubbed version has much less impressive actors and about 30 minutes cut from the running time.

I have the bulk of the English issues of the manga Akira in acid free bags in my Attic. I should really track down the last few issues that I'm missing and re-read it again.
 
I believe we saw both of those with Aldo and Puste in my Parent's basement that my brother had set up as his back from college apartment.:)

Hard to believe it's been 12-15 years.


BTW, Are you heading home for thanksgiving?
 
joobz said:
I believe we saw both of those with Aldo and Puste in my Parent's basement that my brother had set up as his back from college apartment.:)

Hard to believe it's been 12-15 years.


BTW, Are you heading home for thanksgiving?
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Then there was that appallingly misogynistic anime movie that left us all feeling creeped-out.

We're hanging out here for Turkey Day. Mini-Me has a virus anyway.
 
Kingdom Come

I'll add my voice for the Watchmen, of course (which quite deserves its place on Time magazine's list of the top 100 *novels* of all time). The Dark Knight Returns equally deserves its enduring legend.

My vote to round out the Holy Trinity of graphic novels is Kingdom Come. This is a sprawling cast-of-thousands story that takes place in a near-future version of the DC universe, and features the perhaps the best Superman ever realized. It is also probably the most beautifully painted comic book ever made. It's especially amazing for comics nerds, as it's loaded with amusing cameos and some legitimately thrilling accomplishments (such as making both Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel cool and serious). But it's so powerfully told that the drama—real spine-shivering drama—plays just fine for a comics outsider. (It helps that some of the main players are universally known access points to the story, of course, like Batman and Superman.)

I'd also give a very high recommendation for God Loves, Man Kills, the classic X-men graphic novel (which was extremely influential on the first two X-men movies). They weren't kidding around in those days—that's a deadly serious story told using super heroes.

(Incidentally, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Maus, which won the Pulitzer prize.)
 
Pardalis said:
Blacksad
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That's a wonderful recommendation, by the way. When I get together with my illustrator friends to do a "comics jam" once in a while (a sorta game in which we each draw a panel on our own blank new page, and then the pages are handed off to someone else to try to follow our lead), Blacksad inevitably comes up as a topic for envy and admiration.

(So does Masamune Shirow's classic Appleseed.)
 
Loxton said:
(Incidentally, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Maus, which won the Pulitzer prize.)
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Actually, I mentioned it in passing, noting that I find it marginally more readable than Persepolis. These are both great accomplishments, it's just that when recommending comics to a "new" reader, I still think a better place to start is something fun and more conscious of the medium, like Bone. Or, if you insist on starting with "serious" drama, Jimmy Corrigan.

Loxton said:
That's a wonderful recommendation, by the way. When I get together with my illustrator friends to do a "comics jam" once in a while (a sorta game in which we each draw a panel on our own blank new page, and then the pages are handed off to someone else to try to follow our lead), Blacksad inevitably comes up as a topic for envy and admiration.

(So does Masamune Shirow's classic Appleseed.)
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Sounds like fun. Is there an example online somewhere? And yes, the art in Blacksad is amazing.
 
I'm late to this thread, but here are my faves (and they were my faves back when I was new to the world of "good" comics):

Lone Wolf and Cub: a samurai and his son fight their way through feudal Japan. At times beautiful and violent and sweet and smart. If you like it, though, be prepared to spend serious cash to see it through to the end. It's like 30 volumes or something.

Maus: it won the Pulitzer for a reason. Pack some tissues.

Jimmy Corrigan: Chris Ware can do no wrong in my eyes. He takes a blank page and turns it into a circus of boxes.

Goodbye Chunky Rice: a short book about a little turtle and his mouse friend Dandel. It's about friendship and death and love. Makes me cry.

Stray Bullets: super violent (at times) stories that intertwine really wonderfully.

Ghost World: different from the movie but if you like one you'll probably enjoy the other.
 
If you want a comic that's about a former preacher kicking God's ass together with his hot girlfriend and vampire buddy, then go with Preacher. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon creates a new kind of Western story with some real characters. Especially the Saint of Killers, who is so bad-ass that even Satan kicked him out of hell.

Read Karl Edward Wagners Kane series. Kane actually backed Satan and his hound of hell down in a story called "Ravens Eerie".
 
Foster Zygote said:
I enjoyed that too. Although the English dubbed version of the movie I saw greatly disappointed me. I remember that they altered a major part of the theme. In Miyazaki's story the disaster that befell the Earth was man made, but in the dubbed movie they changed it so that an alien threat was responsible for the state of the world.
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Ugh... was that the grotesque Warriors of the Wind version, by any chance?

Because I would be greatly surprised if the dub on the 2005 re-release of the DVD would be like that.

I love that trivia, had nearly forgotten about it:

Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki have asked fans to forget its existence and later adopted a strict "no-edits" clause for future foreign releases of its films. On hearing that Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein would try to cut Princess Mononoke to make it more marketable, one of Studio Ghibli's producers sent an authentic katana with a simple message: "No cuts".[7]
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Hahahah, <3 Studio Ghibli \m/
 
rebecca said:
Lone Wolf and Cub: a samurai and his son fight their way through feudal Japan. At times beautiful and violent and sweet and smart. If you like it, though, be prepared to spend serious cash to see it through to the end. It's like 30 volumes or something.
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Great series! And yes, I believe DarkHorse has 28 volumes.... The movies rock too!
Goodbye Chunky Rice
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: a short book about a little turtle and his mouse friend Dandel. It's about friendship and death and love. Makes me cry.
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Honestly one of the saddest comics I've ever read. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Speaking of heartbreaking, I'll mention Epilpetic by David P. (I don't think it's been mentioned yet. Wonderful art, brutally honest and sincere in its depiction of an illness and the selfishness, kindness, jealousy and love that siblings have for each other.

I love Black Hole. Very creepy and captures that 70s teen vibe so well. Btw, if anyone wants to quote me as saying "I love black hole" I'd giggle everytime I saw it.

Eagle- what a great comic! A Japanese-American runs for president. Part West Wing, part soap opera, part mystery and chock full o' details from the campaign trail as filtered through a Japanese perspective. Great stuff.

Uzumaki is the best take on Lovecraftian horror in comic form. Disturbing, hilarious, weird and just plain amazing.

Maus, Watchmen, League of Extra', The Killing Joke, Bone, etc. are all excellent as well. As for introductory stuff, well, it kinda depends on what themes and genres you enjoy. I don't think Bone is any more accessible than, say, Lone Wolf' (except maybe the length) so grab whatever strikes your fancy.

And yes, if someone were to quote my "grab whatever strikes your fancy" I'd be amused as well.....
:D
 
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