Please, recommend me some quality one-shots or mini-series!

[McKinsey]

I've loved comics as an art form since I was a little kid, but I didn't read too many of them - at the time comics were hard to come by where I lived, and I was always more of a book guy, anyway. Couple years ago I've stumbled upon Scott McCloud's legendary Understanding Comics piece, and it reinvigorated my love towards this medium - I understood (or rather, saw once again) the potential comics hold and just how much one can do with them, provided one has the desire and the skill for it.

However, it also became crystal clear to me that the comic book scene is rife with hacks and talentless schmucks, the bar of quality is set extremely low, and even the best works can be characterised only as "almost not shitty." Clichéd plots and plot twists that defy logic, terrible pacing, cringeworthy dialogues, one-dimensional characters (every fucking one of them out there), this syndrome of "Oh crap, we've gone almost ten pages without an action scene! Quick, BLOW SOMETHING UP!"... Seriously, it's like every author is thinking along the lines of, "Welp, only pimply teenagers suffering from ADD read comics anyway, and those bastards certainly don't care about literary value, or subtlety, or complexity, or composition, so I can pull everything out of my arse." The plot is treated like plot in porno: It's just some verbal garbage to fill the void between moneyshots.

I can name three works that I like a lot: Watchmen, Maus and ElfQuest. Although I have some gripes with every one of them, these seem to be by far the best comics I've read, and, frankly, the only ones worth reading.

I've looked into some other famous comic books, and daayum, were they dumb. Sin City? Terrible in every aspect except for style. Gear? I like Doug TenNapel, but it looked like a children's cartoon put on a fast-forward with no regards for coherence. Pride of Baghdad? Great artwork, no substance. I've tried some of the Batman comics, too, even though they can hardly be called standalone. The Killing Joke? A very unimaginative origin story for Joker, a rather boring story in general, and basically nothing of value, except for that crazy awesome fan theory about the "kill" at the end, which has been proven wrong. Batman: Year One? Dull and pretentious. The Dark Knight Returns? Ugly and immensely stupid. This list of disappointing stuff goes on and on - and these are supposed to be the "good" comics, as contrasted to the infinitely awful "ongoing" shite...

So what I want of you, my fellow Escapists, is a list of recommendations. Please, name me some quality standalone comics that will restore my faith in this medium and the people who create it. Because the more I search, the more it feels like I'm looking for gold nuggets in a pool of human waste, and the more the maxim "Comics are for kids who can't read" seems true.

Don't bother with manga, though. I've nothing against manga in general, it's just that currently I don't want to read anything that has been translated from another language, even if the translation is superdy duper spot on.

 

[Queen Michael]

The Sandman is very good. Take heed, though -- the first volume relies a bit on you knowing DC lore. Stay with it, though; it gets much more accessible in volume two.

Skim is about a goth-ish teenage girl who falls in love with her female high-school teacher. Beautiful writing and artwork.

Blacksad is a crime noir series with very good writing and gorgeous art. It's got anthropomorphic animals, but in a Disney way, not a furry way. This is not a furry comic.

Strangers in Paradise is a triangle romance. It's also a crime thriller. It's also frequently described as the kind of comic that you recommend to people who don't read comics. One of my all-time favorites.

 

[McKinsey]

Huh, I thought The Sandman was another one of those ongoing series with no end in sight. Turns out I was wrong. Thanks for the tip, and for the other recommendations too.

 

[Fox12]

Here, I posted something similar a week ago, and someone gave me some great suggestions.


"If "web" is your definition of indie you have a way to go, you need to try Pantheon, Self Made Heroes, Oni, First Second, Drawn and Quartely, Fantagraphics and Topshelf as graphic fiction publishers before you're aware of just what this medium's capable of beyond genre offerings, be it super hero, fantasy, sci-fi or noir. These publishers all live beyond the acceptable tastes of the quadruplet of Dark horse, Dc, Marvel and Image which dominate the mainstream.

I love Scott pilgrim, but I looked into your links and "web" and "indie' by your examples seem to imply manga with color and a western inflection.

If there's anything I can say it's go out buy Chris Ware's novel Building Stories(or Jimmy Corigan), it is comics most pure distillation of comics as an inextricably physical medium, web comics have nothing on any of his work neither does the mainstream American or Japanese publishers in either quality or individuality( I could say that of any comics auteur be it Dan Clowes, Bastiene Vives or Marje Satrape)

Craig Thompson (look him up) said "comics are the ultimate auteur medium", and geek culture is utterly blind to that on the web and mainstream level both, but I can't imagine the average geek caring about what a real cartoonist wants to say.

Geeks (or Nerds) just need to get over them self, comics(or games) never belonged to them or anyone any way.

(but i'm drunk and i love comics so...)"



In any case, I agree with you. There's not much out there of quality. I've tried getting into comics, but so much of it is painful to read, especially since the medium has real potential for greatness. I read Sandman, and it's alright if you're a mythology buff. I'd read Neil Gaimans other books first, though, and decide for yourself whether you care for his style of writing. It helps that he's a published writer outside of comic books, and that he actually cares about the quality of his writing. Also, checkout web comics, a lot of them are, in my opinion, quite good.

 

[McKinsey]

Thanks! Speaking of web comics, I almost forgot to mention another series that I absolutely adore: The Order of the Stick. It's got a rather crude style of drawing that may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the writing is superb.

This comics starts as a series of random jokes and gags, but after the first 10-20 pages the plot kicks in, and it's exceptionally well thought out, with complex characters, great drama, great story arcs, great attention to detail, great forethought and the overall sense of coherence. It's better than Watchmen. Hell, it's better than a lot of actual BOOKS. This is an epic fantasy masterpiece that, I kid you not, could be easily compared to The Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones, or what have you, except that it's a comics, and it's also funny as hell.

Seriously, the only bad thing about TOOTS is that it's still not finished, as far as I know (I haven't checked in a while.) This comics alone fills me with hope. I think all great graphic novels of the future will be created in the form of web comics, where the authors, free from time constraints and the editorial censorship, can do what they want rather then what is expected of them.