Recommend me some Graphic Novels !

[Flatfrog]

As a slightly different option (obviously yes, Sandman, Watchmen etc, all great) if you like slightly more offbeat fare like Scott Pilgrim you could try Ghost Road.

Meanwhile, by some crazy omission, no one has mentioned Hellblazer or Swamp Thing, both great comics, even if they're a bit dated now.

Neil Gaiman is obviously a genius, but I particularly love Miracleman and Black Orchid.

Never been into the Manga thing myself, but my daughter has recently become obsessed with Black Butler and I have to say it's pretty good.

 

[Bloodcrow]

The Manhattan Projects. It's a dystopian take on an alternative history. No super heroes here except the likes of Albert Einstein. Not for the squeamish.

The Authority. The Authority is a group whose goal was to do what needed to be done and to not be accountable to any government. While they tended to believe violence was a first resort, it's because violence needed to be a first resort. Story and artwork by Grant Morrison (i believe). Read also, KEV- a splinter story of a moronic, violent, homophobic and yet effective SAS agent whose ongoing hate/ loathe affair with the Authorities Midnighter (openly gay along with his lover, Apollo) made for some good story telling.

Planetary. A small group of anthropologists work to find and undo the hands behind the conspiracies that have dogged humanity for decades. Written by Warren Ellis.

Tales of the Beanworld.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

You can get a LOT of these used through Amazon. You might also want to check out bookfinder.com too.

 

[weirdsoup]

DC The New Frontier. An excellent story that looks to bridge the golden and silver age of comics.

 

[Auberon]

First 12 issues of Authority were written by Warren Ellis, and then Millar took over (for the worse, in my opinion...). I recall that artist changed too, or Mark gave new looks.

 

[Ratty]

Batman: The Long Halloween: My favorite Batman Story, details a year long mystery and goes over the origin of Two Face in exciting new detail. A great examination of Batman as a detective and a key inspiration for The Dark Knight with its depiction of the new Supervillains of Gotham clashing with the old Mafia.

That might just be my favorite Batman story. It's so great to see the quintessential detective superhero actually solving an interesting film noir style mystery.

I recommend Elfquest, it's a fantasy series that's been running on and off since 1978.

Yeah I read the first ElfQuest series a few years ago. It was pretty good, especially for free.

I must say though that Lackadaisy that Ratty suggest as already got me curious from the piece of art

Those are minor characters, and that's a panel from the newest page so the art wasn't always as detailed. But wanted to give an idea of the quality of the artstyle. Like ElfQuest it's legitimately available for free online ( http://www.lackadaisycats.com/archive.php ) unfortunately it's slow to update because the author has a full time job working on an MMO. The comic is largely, but by no means entirely, comedic. Though given the underworld setting some of that humor can get dark at times.

Here's an extra one-off comicstrip outside the regular series that shows two of the main characters as kids in 1914. Gives a bit of an idea of the humor and what the artwork looked like in 2006. [http://www.lackadaisycats.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=27]

Another strip showing a glimpse of some of the major characters before the events of the main comic's storyline. This one with a bit darker humor. [http://www.lackadaisycats.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=216]

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

First 12 issues of Authority were written by Warren Ellis, and then Millar took over (for the worse, in my opinion...). I recall that artist changed too, or Mark gave new looks.

It was first drawn by Bryan Hitch and then taken over by Frank Quietley. If you want a really compelling read make sure to START your delve into The Authority by reading Warren Ellis's run on Stormwatch and then his run on The Authority, it's actually a pretty concrete storyline between the two and goes a lot more into my favourite character from The Authority, Jenny Sparks.

 

[MrBaskerville]

Black Hole by Scott Burns is probably one of the best graphic novels i have read. It's very far removed from the usual superhero stuff, it's sort of a coming of age story written like a bizzarre horror story with a vintage/pulpy and expressive (at times surreal) drawing style. A very engaging and though provoking piece of work. I would also recommend some of the stuff by Enki Bilal, he did the Nikopol Trilogy among other stuff. His artwork is really nice and most of his stories are interesting to read.

 

[Bloodcrow]

First 12 issues of Authority were written by Warren Ellis, and then Millar took over (for the worse, in my opinion...). I recall that artist changed too, or Mark gave new looks.

Ahhh... it's been a while. I may have known this at some point. I always felt that The Authority never ran the duration that it should have. It was equally entertaining, scathing and cathartic.

 

[Artina89]

While not a huge fan of graphic novels in general, I really enjoy Doktor Sleepless, which to my knowledge, not a lot of people mention that much. It is written by Warren Ellis with the art by Ivan Rodriguez and is about a former child prodigy called John Reindhardt who disappeared and, upon his return to the setting of the story, a placed called Heavenside, has reinvented himself as the mad scientist "Doktor Sleepless". He uses his mastery of technology addresses the disenfranchised people of Heavenside through his radical rhetoric. The last I heard it was on hiatus, but what they have so far is well worth checking out in my view.

 

[nohorsetown]

My favorites are probably:

*From Hell by Alan Moore -- Jack the Ripper and so much more. There was a bad movie adaptation.

*Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi -- autobiographical story about growing up in Iran, traveling abroad, coming of age, all that jazz. There was a pretty good movie adaptation.

*American Splendor by Harvey Pekar -- slices of life, mostly from Cleveland, Ohio. Honest stuff about real people. There was a mediocre movie adaptation.

*Fun Home by Alison Bechdel -- autobiographical story about growing up / coming out. Largely about her relationship with her dad. It seems there is / was a musical adaptation, which I haven't seen.

Honorable mentions: Sandman (Neil Gaiman), Watchmen (Alan Moore), Transmetropolitan (Warren Ellis), Any Empire (Nate Powell), Maus (Art Spiegelman), and Daytripper (Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá).

 

[norashepard]

My recommendation is Palestine by Joe Sacco. It's about the author's trip through and around Palestine and it is probably one of the best non-fiction graphic novels ever. The art is interesting, the subject is interesting, everything is so cool!

Any others I would have said has already been listed. Persepolis, Preacher, Lackadaisy, so on. Anyway, have fun reading!