Graphic novels and all that

[nice weather]

Decided recently to start spending money on stuff again and started off with a few nice looking graphic novels, because, you know, it's autumn and stuff and felt like I needed to fork up some enthusiasm for something.

Since I've always been afraid of "getting into comics" due to the seemingly sheer endless mass of material there is, I didn't even bother ever concerning myself with Marvel, DC and the likes. I'd probably like it too, but it feels like purposely walking into a maze that's gonna take you a shitload of money to pay the guard to get out of.

Anyway, I ended up buying Daniel Clowes new or newish(?) "the Death Ray", most of Pascal Girards stuff and Rutu Modans "Exit Wounds". Got it at Montr?als Drawn and Quarterly, so it probably qualifies as "arthouse graphic novels". Who gives a shit.

Gonna save up the Rutu Modan one for an upcoming holiday, but the other ones I really enjoyed so far.


very very first page already sold me on it. Really fucking nice to look at, pretty hilarious and even better than I thought it would be, having never heard of Danile Clowes beforehands.



Really liked this one because I thought it captured the feel of qu?bec autums very well and is a pretty nice coming of age/friendship story which I usually enjoy. Very on point dialogue and illustration. I'd say stuff like "couldn't put it away" and "read it all in one day", but then again it's a fucking 30 page comic.


it said graphic novel of the year. I looked left and right and bought it, pretending I had totally already heard of it.



I also have these ones on my radar for future purchases:


an old man started going on a literary rant to the lady he was talking to about how dumb the book was I was checking out, so I slowly put it back down, shook my head and tssss'd and randomly grabbed a new one, this one. Ended up being pretty interesting looking.


I asked the old man if he was also totally over zombie stuff and he said no and I said me neither.


It said "now a major motion picture" on it so i put it back down and bought something more obscure. Probably gonna buy it off amazon instead.


I know there are or at least used to be some enthusiasts around here, so recommend stuff or hotlink us to lycos.com so we can search and then double click on your own stuff.

[frank]

i've never looked into any of this but it looks really cool and i'm starting to think i should. the artwork for death ray is sweet!

[smokecrack]

those are some great pic ups, nice weather. even though you said you don't really mess with DC/Marvel, i'd recommend Watchmen, Kingdom Come, Ronin, The Return of the Dark Knight, The Killing Joke, and The Sandman. Vertigo and Fantagraphics are 2 of the best comic publishers. nothing but quality stuff. some of my favorite authors are Alan Moore, Charles Burns, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Peter Bagge, Daniel Clowes, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Brian Azzarello, The Hernandez Brothers, Harvey Pekar, Brian K. Vaughan, etc. Will Eisner & Robert Crumb are like the gods of the medium.

the Death Ray is an awesome Eightball comic. i heard Wilson is pretty good too.

you should definitely get Charles Burns' Black Hole. it's one of the best things i've ever read (novel or comic.) he wrote it and drew it/inked it himself. he started in 1995 and he'd release an issue every few years. he finally finished it in 2004 and it's compiled as a graphic novel now.







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_(comics)

Rupert Sanders is a director and he made a short film about it.

http://www.rupertsanders.com/blackhole.html?ref=0

and i know i already mentioned it, but Watchmen is incredible. it's the only comic book that's ever made me get teared up a bit.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen

this site is a solid source for finding comic book stores.

http://comicshoplocator.com/

you should also try your local library. i check out all kinds of stuff there and i end up liking material that i would otherwise never had bothered with: horror, mystery, super-hero, anime, comedy, etc. you'd be surprised how many good graphic novels libraries carry nowadays.

edit: oh yeah, Maus is really good. thanks for reminding me about it, Monty Burns.

imma have to read that one again.

[Monty Burns]

Been reading these since maybe 1990 , but I guess thats more of a manga thing . Really good story about feudal Japan told in a fable kind of way .




WW2 story told in a fable way , its really really good




Are we talking about manga too or ? , cause got some more recommendations then

[Bobby Peru]

I heartily second Black Hole, Maus, and The Watchmen.

If you're concerned about spending too much cash on getting into superhero stuff, consider checking out your local library. I read a book every few days for free that way a couple summers ago.

[crackrazor]

Exit Wounds is a really good one. You'll like it for sure.


This one's good too.

[David]

Someone showed me this a while back

[smokecrack]

here's a few pdfs if you guys are interested



Black Hole - written & drawn by Charles Burns

http://www.filestube.com/147b48272d7c03c303eb/go.html



Maus - written & drawn by Art Spiegelman

http://www.mediafire.com/?3qodomumgq2
http://www.filestube.com/15e568f9519cee4503e9/go.html

or read it here

http://fliiby.com/file/24067/it3z0zjuvd.html
http://fliiby.com/file/25510/mc0b5naajl.html



Batman: The Killing Joke - writer: Alan Moore artist: Brian Bolland

http://www.mediafire.com/?majlzjrmwwn



Watchmen - writer: Alan Moore artist: Dave Gibbons

http://www.4shared.com/document/9YfCC1cv/AlanMoore-Watchmen.html



Wilson - written & drawn by Daniel Clowes

http://www.filestube.com/1058b328c56fd27303e9/go.html

(Wilson is a cbz file, so you need to dl this to view it http://download.cnet.com/CDisplay-Image-Display/3000-18488_4-10162238.html)



Ice Haven - written & drawn by Daniel Clowes

http://www.4shared.com/file/250014078/416b26e0/Ice_haven__Daniel_Clowes_.html



Mister Wonderful - written & drawn by Daniel Clowes

http://www.filestube.com/978f9695a87ea72203ea/go.html



Stupid Comics - written & drawn by Peter Bagge

http://www.filestube.com/8b3242f52452521b03eb/go.html



HATE! - written & drawn by Peter Bagge (i have no idea what volume this is though)

http://www.4shared.com/file/HTR9kOL4/Hate_KMQS.html?aff=7637829



The Sandman: Endless Nights - writer: Neil Gaiman artists: Glenn Fabry, Milo Manera, Migeulanxo Prado, Frank Quietely, P. Craig Russell, Bill Sienkiewicz, Barron Storey

http://www.filestube.com/e5dff1fddcbf804f03e9/go.html



Transmetropolitan issues 1-3 - writer: Warren Ellis artist: Darick Robertson

transmetropolitan 1 - 3 (you can read this one without downloading it)



Preacher (complete series) - writer: Garth Ennis artist: Steve Dillon

this is the entire series, so you need to download all 6 files in order for them to work

http://www.fileserve.com/file/QNAvK3n

http://www.fileserve.com/file/N8Ak4QW

http://www.fileserve.com/file/Z3SbYew

http://www.fileserve.com/file/FfrJjQP

http://www.fileserve.com/file/3u4uwSy

http://www.fileserve.com/file/7zwmJZg

if anybody has any requests, let me know

[noileum]

read this the other day



was a fun read.  very ott and kinda reverse of batman

[saucy ragu]

I don't have anything to contribute, but I've been reading a bunch of Batman graphic novels (Hush, Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, etc. etc.) and all of the books mentioned seem super promising, so I wanted to be lopped in in case someone updates again.

[nice weather]

I'm glad I got around to reading many of the above mentioned novels. Maus stood out as particularly great, without taking away from the greatness of Exit Wounds, Black hole or Blankets. All absolutely worth reading for their own various reasons.

Also read Hell House by Richard Matheson (who wrote I am Legend)

- was ok. More in a way of " I wonder why this isn't a B movie yet?" (in case it isn't)

Then I also got my hands on Kickass, but I thought it sucked. It had some cool moments, but generally I wasn't feeling it.


Could anyone post up a link to Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Distant Neighbourhood by Jiro Taniguchi or the earlier mentioned "Usagi" one?

[WhackAsFuck]

From Hell- Allan Moore
300, Robocop, Sin City- Frank miller
The Sandman, Neil Gaiman

[Brandon]

can't count how many times i've endorsed this dude on here.  adrian tomine is the truth!






here's a nice one page teaser:

[bust.factor]

poor bastard-joe matt

drinking at the movies-julia wertz

Paying for it-chester brown

it's a good life if you don't weaken-seth

all amazing. there are so many more though

[Rumpleforeskin]

i used to like manga...  anyone else or am i the only manga fag here?

[crest]

[frisco]

I was buying quite a few before getting a tablet, now I just torrent them from the web and read them on there

Favourites







Jim Lee is my favourite artist, tried to check out all of his work

The new "DC 52" is actually pretty good, basically DC rebooted every franchise and some of them got a lot better

[nice weather]

Oh shit, how did I forget about Chester Brown.


An autobiographic comic strip about Chester Brown becoming a john and questioning/attacking romantic relationships. Really fucking interesting.


Something completely else, but also good. If there's any way I want to hear about canadian history, comic strips are probably the way to go.

[poopmonkey]

bought black hole after reading this thread. i really liked the artwork. i saw this movie before, and really like charles burns' contribution to it, so i knew i was gonna dig the style.


The story was a bit of a let-down for me though, the characters could've been introduced a bit better i think, couldn't really identify with any of them.

This is a real beauty in my opinion:



the art is dark and awesome, as if every page is a detailed painting. some images also show signs of materials such as fabric being used to paint/draw on. really cool. the story is especially awesome if you like the psychological side of batman. Some artwork:





really stoked on batman as of now. hush looks really promising. any other recommendations?

[Bagger Vance]

Recently just finished reading The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames. Normally graphic novels aren't my thing but I actually really enjoyed it.http://dccomics.com/media/product/9/7/9791_400x600.jpg

[Numeral]

Batman stuff:

Batman - Year One
Batman - Haunted Knight
Batman - The Long Halloween
Batman - Dark Victory
Batman - Hush

do yourself a favor and read those stories back to back.

[Dishonest John]

[David]

Vintage avant-garde manga by Maki Sasaki

http://pinktentacle.com/2008/10/vintage-avant-garde-manga-by-maki-sasaki/

[sfa]

well, now I'm going to go in a more super hero direction

this is one of my favorites



as is any of this



and if you've been seeing all the marvel movies, this whole series was the fucking shit!!!

[svilleantigo]

FUCKYEAH this thread. a lot of my favorites have already been mentioned.. daniel clowes' "wilson", it's a good life if you don't weaken, maus, and the alcoholic are all fucking amazing. links are also muchappreciated.

let's see what i can add:



American Splendor - kinda shocked someone didn't beat me to this, considering its popularity. illustrated by some of the best artists in the game over the last 3 or 4 decades. (read: r. crumb) harvey pekar's storytelling/narrative skills were amazing.. he could write this comic about some mundane shit like paying bills or feeding his dog, and offer up some profound nugget of wisdom in the process, completely off-handedly. i'm just linking to one collection, but there's an insane amount of material out there and it really is worth hunting down. http://www.filestube.com/ec67f3bff443487d03e9,g/American-Splendor-01.html



X'ed Out (Charles Burns) - this is a really interesting one. it's about a guy with a head injury and his experiences in an alien world while under the influence of medications. a lot of the appeal lies in how the alien world is illustrated.. anyone who's seen the codex seraphinianus or voynich manuscript know what i'm talking about. heavily influenced by tintin too, apparently. http://www.mediafire.com/?n0aqj7pnx96nzk5

actually, while we're on the topic..




this is the most amazing treat for the eyes and imagination you'll ever see. http://hotfile.com/dl/68446901/b45cc86/Luigi.Serafini.-.Codex.Seraphinianus.pdf.html



Wizzywig - and one for the compunerds. a graphic novel by ed piskor, who's also drawn for american splendor. about a young computer hacker in the 80s/90s and his adventures with the law.. partially based on the story of kevin mitnick. there's a torrent magnet link floating around if you wanna look for it, but everything's also online for free at http://www.wizzywigcomics.com/

[burritobell666]

My GF randomly found this bad Larry at Half Price Books, never heard of it before, but I dig the art style, and pretty interesting story.



This series was pretty awesome as well, I hear a show is on the way from Showtime(?)



And I'll be starting Preacher soon, I've heard only good things.

[Mundungus]

Never got into super heroes. But I always liked the more historical samurai comics.

[noileum]

for non capes & cowls fans



liking the first couple of issues - esp as it starts with a rescue of Luke Skywalker from terroists 

Also this is worth a read

[Archers of Chaka]

I agree with whoever put Adrian Tomine. Been a fan of that dude for years.

[Bobby Peru]

I just finished this and I highly recommend it.



Jason has a unique and creative minimalist approach to storytelling and simple but arresting art.