Just recently I finished “It’s a Bird” by Steven Seagle for a class, and although it was somewhat not what I expected, I really liked it. I am not the biggest fan of graphic novels, but I have enjoy the ones I have read (mostly) and think they are extremely interesting. Unfortunately, I have no time in my schedule for extra classes at the University, and a topics class in graphic novels was offered, but I can’t fit it in.
I have also read and enjoyed “American Splendor” and “Our Cancer Year.”
What graphic novels did dopers enjoy? Anything I should look at next?
Check out the work of Will Eisner. I don’t have any titles off the top of my head to recommend as best, but any comic book store will have several of his books.
Top Ten and Saga of the Swamp Thing, both also by Alan Moore are excellent. Top Ten is much lighter in tone than most of the other stuff I’ve read by him. It’s about a police precinct in a city where everyone has superpowers, very funny stuff. V for Vendetta is also an absolute must-read. Hell, just about anything by Moore is a must, IMO.
A truly graphic novel is The Arrival by Shaun Tan - there’s not a word in it. It is simultaneously the most moving and most surreal thing I’ve read in the last year. A tale of immigration and displacement told with real magic and skill.
If you believe in the American Dream (or Aussie Dream in Tan’s case) as embodied by the words on the Statue of Liberty, you owe it to yourself to read this.
I more recently liked Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen and Glacial Period by Nicolas de Crecy. Both short but interesting. And of course there’s Maus.
I am a fan of Guy DeLisle - he has done Pyongyang about his time in North Korea (absolutely fascinating) and Shenzhen about his time in China. I hear he’s also got another one coming out about the time he spent…in a country I cannot recall…living with his wife who works for Medecins Sans Frontieres.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi also gets a mention.
I cannot possibly reccomend Jimmy Corrigan highly enough. It is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Several portions of the book had me in tears. It is one of the most affecting comics I have ever read. Chris Ware is a genius, and you may also want to check out The Acme Novelty Library if you ever come across it.
Persepolis was recently made into a really, really good movie, so you might want to see that instead if time is an issue. The movie follows the same plot as the book, but I found it to vary in atmosphere somewhat. They are both fantastic.
I generally don’t reccomend Watchmen to people who don’t read comics in general, and don’t read superhero comics in particular. Not only is it really, really dense, it can also be quite confusing, and I think it’s much richer when you do have some superhero reading under your belt.
Are GNs and TPBs not differentiated in this thread? I’m assuming the Neil Gaiman is Sandman, my favorite! (Not to be confused with the Spidey Villian Sandman.)
Seconded Blue Monday, and it’s sorta estranged twin Scooter Girl.
I haven’t read any of them, but they, like practically all of Eisner’s work, are supposed to be quite good, and the new editions are very nice looking. His other big project, the Contract with God series deserves its reputation.
The Best of the Spirit is a pretty good primer to his Spirit work. I purchased a big lot of magazine-sized, black and white Kitchen Sink Comics reprints of the Spirit from eBay, which is how I was introduced to the character. There’s such a wealth of Spirit material that it’s absurd, but the Spirit archives are pricey.
The Spirit is really one of the only comics that revolves around crime fighting that I reccomend to people who don’t read or like superheroes.
Bone! It starts out funny, gets funnier, then takes a left turn into High Fantasy without losing all of the humor. It was originally in black & white. So far, seven of the nine volumes have been reprinted in color. (My whole family is reading it for the first time, as the color books come out.)
If you aren’t turned off by the other Alan Moore stuff that people are recommending, Miracleman has its high points. Unfortunately, the early issues are uneven, in both story and art. IMHO, it improved immensely when the team of Neil Gaiman & Mark Buckingham took over. Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker is an old favorite. According to an interview I read a long time ago, he pitched it to NBC as a series, but they told him that it was too NYC-centric and clever-dialog-heavy. So he sarcastically pitched another idea, designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator: Ghost Chimp M.D. (I think he may have made it up on the spot.) That one, they were interested in.