Comic/Graffic novel sugestions?

[SomeBritishDude]

The Sandman
Ultimates 1&2
Swamp Thing
Hellblazer
Ultimate Spiderman

All good comics, for very different reasons. But Sandman is by far the best.

 

[GothmogII]

the difference between graphic novels and comic books is that graphic novels have a single story with a beginning, middle, and end. comic books only have story arcs which end with some sort of resolution that mostly doesnt end the conflict, so there is room for more in the future. a simpler way to tell is, if it is about superheroes, its a comic book, but there are obviously exceptions to this rule.

From an interview with Alan Moore (Then again, it's just an opinion too):

Spoiler

From: http://www.blather.net/articles/amoore/northampton.html

Alright, okay. I was going to start with going through all these comics you've written. But first a couple of general things about comics. What do you think of the term "graphic novel" that has come into use?

It's a marketing term. I mean, it was one that I never had any sympathy with. The term "comic" does just as well for me. The term "graphic novel" was something that was thought up in the '80s by marketing people and there was a guy called Bill Spicer who used to do a brilliant fanzine back in the sixties called Graphic Story Magazine. He came up with the term "graphic story". That's got something to recommend it, you know, I can see "graphic story" if you need it to call it something but the thing that happened in the mid-'80s was that there were a couple of things out there that you could just about call a novel. You could just about call Maus a novel, you could probably just about call Watchmen a novel, in terms of density, structure, size, scale, seriousness of theme, stuff like that. The problem is that "graphic novel" just came to mean "expensive comic book" and so what you'd get is people like DC Comics or Marvel comics - because "graphic novels" were ge tting some attention, they'd stick six issues of whatever worthless piece of crap they happened to be publishing lately under a glossy cover and call it The She-Hulk Graphic Novel, you know? It was that that I think tended to destroy any progress that comics might have made in the mid-'80s. The companies, the marketing people, who are not terribly bright individuals, they're not terribly creative, they don't really have the hang of - well, I mean, they really haven't got the hang of the 1970s yet, so the 21st century is a long way behind them and they think in very short term measures and consequently they were more or less to blame for destroying whatever kind of momentum the comic book picked up in the '80s by immediately using it predictably to sell a load of Batman, Spiderman shit. But no, the term "graphic novel" is not one that I'm over-fond of. It's nothing that I might carry a big crusade against, it doesn't really matter much what they're called but it's not a term that I'm very comfortable with.

 

[Horizontalvertigo]

are we only discussing physically printed comics? 'Cause the internet has some good ones, such as Platinum Grit. Its a really awesome read, good art, excellent story and interesting characters. Some of them are a bit NSFW (1-2) but its not too obscene hahaha.
Its a bit on the surrealist side, not "Tank-girl" surreal but its on the right track.

 

[Blayze]

Nextwave. It's everything a comic should be.

"I took The Authority and I stripped out all the plots, logic, character and sanity. It?s an absolute distillation of the superhero genre. No plot lines, characters, emotions, nothing whatsoever. It?s people posing in the street for no good reason. It is people getting kicked, and then exploding. It is a pure comic book, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. And afterwards, they will explode."

 

[jim_doki]

Y: the last man
Maus
V for Vendetta
Watchmen
The Sin City Series
Ultimate Spiderman
Earth X
Astonishing X men (Joss Whedon yay!)
I really enjoyed Green Arrow: Quiver as well, but it was written by Kevin Smith, so it may not appeal to everyone

 

[bulbasaur]

i would recommend akira also, its amazin deffo worth a read.

 

[randommaster]

Here are some from the web:

XKCD is funny and geeky (science geeky, not VG geeky) and will usually have you going to wikipedia more than once when you browse the archives. www.xkcd.com

Dresden Codak is also a cool science fiction comics to check out. dresdencodak.com

Real life:

Rereading FLCL never fails to get a lolwut from me.
Persepolis is a a good read with a mix of happiness and sadness.
I think you can find The Hobit in comic form. Don't worry, its the same story but with illustrations of places and people instead of text. Even the dialog is the same.

 

[ThaBenMan]

A really cool one I've read is We3 - it's about a dog, a cat, and a rabbit who were decked out in power armor and weapons as part of a Government experiment. They escape when they find out that they are to be destroyed and try to find their way back to their homes from before the experiment.

There's a series of short comic collections called Flight, there's 5 of them now I think. But the comics tend to be more whimsical and cartoony, so they may not be "serious" enough for your taste.

 

[DreamKing]

Sandman
100 Bullets
Locke and Key(it's a tribute to Love craft, with the first book in the series being Welcome to Lovecraft.)

 

[Arkvoodle]

Second "The Killing Joke." its a fantastic story.


Also, "Batman: Year One." Personal favorite.


I also enjoy "The Ultimates."

 

[cleverlymadeup]

since no one has said it the original Eastman and Laird TMNT graphic novels are good and so is one called Cerebus, tho the graphic novels of both are just collection of comics

Ghost in the Shell is pretty good and so is Fist of the North Star

everything else i was going to say was mentioned already

 

[Isaac Dodgson]

Um i'm not a big comic buff, but I read WANTED and thought that was great. Worlds different from the movie (Really the only thing the two have in common are the names of the characters), and as thus really well done...

 

[Omnipotent_Mortal]

Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Utterly brilliant modern comic book(s), with focus on modern culture. Ridiculously funny in it's references to modern videogames, books, music ('Sex Bob-Omb' anyone?) and so on. Totally recommend it to anyone who can read.

 

[superbleeder12]

I really like the Flight series. its a bunch of short comics by some up and coming artists. they all have totally different art styles. its a really cool series.