Give me your graphic novel suggestions.

waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
Ok, I have with the help of 2 mates from work and my iPad started getting into comics/graphic novels and am very much enjoying it. It's keepin me sane in this PCless time.

We have created ourselves a book club at work where we plan on grabbing a graphic novel once or twice a month and chatting about it together. The other 2 have read a lot more than I have and I don't want to appear crap by ot haing any ideas for our next book etc.

I'm hoping this is where you fine folk can help me, both to give me suggestions for things to read myself and also books I can put forward for our club.

Our first book was Batman hush. Which I thought was awesome especially fitting so well as a stand alone into a well established series.

I've also recently read, civil war and most of the adjoining side stories. Preacher which is epic. Y: the last man, which I can't recommend highly enough. I re-read watchmen, wanted, 300 and sin city.

I'm about to start the waking dead as well which I'm looking forward to.

I'm up or reading almost anything people have read and enjoyed. From a personal point I'm looking for longer series to get into. For book club I'd prefer more standalone books.

Thanks in advance.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
Top of any list of mine:

Midnight Nation, by JMS

I cried. Seriously.

Others that I've found good, in no particular order:

  • Rising Stars
  • 52
  • Superman, For Tomorrow
  • Dark Knight Returns
 
SgtFury

SgtFury

Junior Administrator
Staff member
Get the marvel App for the ipad... (if you don't have it already) they do some free comics on it every now and then and you can build up a feel for which you like in those characters.....

I'm enjoying Green Lantern lately......

Since Rebirth (where they brought back Hal Jordan) the whole rainbow corps story has been entertaining.... Sinestro Corps War and the Blackest Night are good.

but these have been the paper version not the electronic :).

So wish flash worked on the ipad, you can get a subscription to marvel and their digital database but all of it is flash based.
 
Ki!ler-Mk1

Ki!ler-Mk1

Active Member
waterproofbob said:
I've also recently read, civil war and most of the adjoining side stories. Preacher which is epic. Y: the last man, which I can't recommend highly enough. I re-read watchmen, wanted, 300 and sin city.

I'm about to start the waking dead as well which I'm looking forward to.
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Where do you get them from, whenever i look for them i can never find what i want, ever. I have got many form the libarary though

I enjoy the star wars expanded universe myself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_comic_books

Legacy is quite hip :)
 
Panda with issues...

Panda with issues...

Well-Known Member
Sandman (Short series) - Possibly the greatest scope of story ever told in any medium, and it could only be done in comics

Rising Stars (3 trade paperbacks) and Midnight Nation (as Ronin has already pointed out). Rising stars - A superhero story that isn't recycled tosh. Midnight nation, self contained, and just utterly fantastic. Both by J Michael Straczynski.

Fables (Series - Ongoing) - All your favourite characters from your childhood tales have been purged out of their homelands by ethnic cleansing and an evil dictator, and are making their lives in our world, while trying to work out a way to topple the dictator.

DMZ (Short series - sort of ongoing, but seems to be finishing up) - The extreme US right wing square states secede, and start a civil war. New york is where the line gets drawn between the Free States and the US, a demilitarised zone, where people live hand to mouth in what was once the most stable country in the world.

The Filth - (Grant Morrisson). Because even I don't really have a good idea about what the fuck is going on in this one, and I've read it. Again, self contained in a single volume.

'Powers' / 'The Boys' (Ongoing series)- Both humourous takes on 'who polices the superheroes?'

'Y: the last man' (Short series, finished)- Why is one lame guy spared when a global apocalypse wipes out every other organism with a Y chromosome on the planet, except him and his monkey?

Watchmen and V for Vendetta (Alan Moore). Whilst V for Vendetta is a bit dated now, watchmen still hits as hard as it ever did. Nothing quite captures the 'us and them' feel of the cold war era like the original 'comic that challenged a medium'. Self contained volumes.

Norsemen: A series of one shot individual pick up and reads telling tales of vikings and their descendents through the ages. Brutal, Bleak and spot on.

Preacher (Short Series, finished): A disgruntled Texan preacher sets out on a journey to confront god about why the world is a mess, kicking ass and taking names all the way. Could it be that god is actually afraid of him? Strong western feel to this one, its fantastic.

Morning Glories: Don't be fooled by the cover. Only one trade paperback is out at the moment, and if you were to look at the cover you'd gloss right over this one. Don't. I bought it on a whim, and was sucked in immediately. I'm dying for the next installment.

Maus, one book contained, a survivors tale of the holocaust - Harrowing.

Edit: Probably should have read all of bob's post before going to town on this, as I've suggested things he's already read.



I've just started reading Scalped and the invisibles. Too early to tell yet whether i think they're gonna be good or not. THey aren't awful though. Things I've bought the first comic of and not bothered with the rest: 100 bullets, ex machina. Walking dead is ok. It's kind of waning for me at the moment. I don't see where they can really take it much further.


Best ones from this list for your book club: The filth, Watchmen/V, any of the norsemen books, rising stars/midnight nation (esp MN), Maus. Reckon they'll get a kick out of Morning Glories too.

I guarrantee if you like the series you've already stated, you'll at least enjoy the other series on this list. Anyone who hasn't read sandman must. Fables has me over a barrel with how much I love it.

Something else to consider: Forbidden planet used to do little low quality 'flier' type versions of the first issue of a bunch of series for free, to encourage people to pick up new books. Worth checking to see if they still have them. Was how I picked up preacher.
 
Haven

Haven

Administrator
Staff member
Two that I've thoroughly enjoyed:
* Sandman collection by Neil Gaiman.
* V for Vendetta by Alan Moore.

I've not read them but I suspect the Ghost in the Shell novels are pretty good also.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
Haven said:
I've not read them but I suspect the Ghost in the Shell novels are pretty good also.
Click to expand...

The original GitS manga is fairly well represented in the anime, if memory serves me properly, but (unsurprisingly) spends more time on characters other than Batou, Kusanagi and Togusa.

That said, so does Stand Alone Complex.

For me, the animations do this justice as well as the manga.

While we're on the subject of manga, however...

I really enjoyed both Bleach and Naruto. There's a LOT of both, as with any popular manga series, and (to an extent) one might argue that these are as good in the anime, but the source manga I think is both superior and doesn't suffer from needing to rerun previous content or make up zero-impact fillers.
 
Tempscire

Tempscire

Active Member
I also can't recommend the Sandman (Neil Gaiman) enough. I actually started re-reading them all the other night and they're amazing. You honestly could not go wrong with them.
 
Silk

Silk

Well-Known Member
By the way, you can usually borrow graphic novels & manga from your library. Free! There's quite a few in the MK one I'm getting through slowly..
 
waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
Thanks for all the suggestions. We picked Marvels for this month which is well worth a look for the art work alone. It's also a slightly different perspective on various heroes which is nice.

We've agreed that sandman will be next month and in the mean time I have picked up midnight nation which I'm already enjoying.

I think I have a good list that will last me a little while at least but keep the suggestions coming if anyone has anymore.
 
Windzarko

Windzarko

Well-Known Member
Sandman and Neverwhere (both Neil Gaiman works) are great. Watchmen and V for Vendetta are, as others have already said, brilliant as well.

I'd also recommend the old Dark Horse "Aliens" comics; they were originally done before Alien 3 came out, and follow a different canon branching off from the end of Aliens, and I personally love them far more than Alien 3 and Resurrection; got the first "Aliens Omnibus" sitting on my bedside table right now, well worth the tenner it cost. Worth noting, though, that most versions of the Aliens comics were updated in a weak attempt to make them still relevant after Alien 3, by renaming the two humans that died (the little girl Newt and the marine Hicks to Billie and Wilks respectively), but without changing their backstories and thus leaving them basically the same people... weak, but hey.

If you don't have any issues with Manga-format stuff, then I'd VERY highly recommend Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind"; the film was based on the first book and a half (if memory serves), but pales in comparison to the manga series; all hand-drawn art done over about twelve years, it's gorgeous and a damned good read.

I know there's something else I'd recommend, and as much as it's nagging me from the back of my mind, I just can't remember it...
 
Ki!ler-Mk1

Ki!ler-Mk1

Active Member
Anyone got any ideas where i can get buffy season eight, found out about it today? I've tried looking myself to no avail.

EDIT: There is a torrent... but i am open to buying* it :p


*I love comics, but sometimes they are very unobtainable.
 
DeZmond

DeZmond

Junior Administrator
I'll say first of all that I don't read an awful lot in the way of comics etc, but I've found some of the Doctor Who tie ins by IDW to be quite good, like The Forgotten.

I think I'll be checking out some of the other recommended titles here at some point in the near future also :)
 
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