The movie Hellboy has me revisiting all of my Hellboy books and getting all excited all over again. So yesterday at the comic shop I decided to peruse around for a new series to pick up on, but what I’m looking for is something a little more…literary and intelligent than the fun and action packed X-Men and standard Superhero comics.
What I like about Hellboy is the emphasis on mythology, religion, international legend and folklore. My perfect comic book series would be one involving the Greek Gods, but that’s just a pipe dream.
If I recall correctly, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is about Morpheus, and I’ve always enjoyed Gaiman’s work. I’ve been wanting to pick up an issue or two myself for awhile now.
I’d start by recommending Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, available in Trade Paperbacks in a bookstore near you. Touches on many mythologies. The *Books of Magic * series is likewise a good read.
Well, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman collected up a lot of bits here and there of folklore and myth, plus he’s even got various personifications of certain Powers, like Death (perky-goth chick with Egyptian-heiroglyph-style eye makeup), Despair, and others.
[preview - Dammit, too slow. There are a number of trade paperback collections of different story arcs in the series, so it should be relatively easy to grab one, see if you like it, and collect the others if you do.]
There were only two slim volumes, but Epicurus the Sage directly told stories set in the time of ancient Greece and included the gods and other figures from those myths.
I feel compelled to point out that Morpheus of Sandman, while we learn that he was the being the Greeks referred to as the God of Dreams, is not a God himself. He and his siblings are godlike, but not Gods… but they often interact with Gods. The Greek, Egyptian, and Norse pantheons each make appearances over the course of Sandman.
Hmm…I was under the impression that Sandman was fairly apocolyptic and a total downer, if that’s not the case, I’d love to check it out. I don’t like end-of-the-world, apocolypse, armageddon stories. They freak me out too much.
I seem to remember a comic book from the 1960’s starring the Norse god of thunder but for the life of me I can’t remember the title, it probubly didn’t last long.
There’s no real apocalypse in Sandman. It can be a bit of a downer, it depends on how you look at it.
It also seems to me that I recall an Alan-Moore-scripted series about Greeks, or Troy, or something along those lines… I haven’t read it, but it’s stuck in my head as something that’s out there.
Something along similar but different lines you may enjoy is the series *Fables * … all the heroes and villains of all the fairy-tales you’ve ever heard were forced out of their homeland several hundred years ago, and are living in our world.
Only read it from the beginning, if you read it, though.
You want intelligent and literary plus international folklore, you could do a lot worse than pick up the first collected volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Just pretend there was no shitty movie last year. The original book is great. Tons of embedded literary references about Victorian England and associated subjects. Lots of fun. The second volume is also very good, but it deals with a Martian invasion of Earth (as adapted freely from H.G. Wells) and it might be a little too apocalyptic for you.
Also, if you’re interested in mythology, check out the Bone series by Jeff Smith. It’s an off-kilter pastiche of conventional fantasy elements — dragons, prophecies, lost princesses — as filtered through a truly oddball sensibility. The story is huge and complicated, but stays grounded because it sticks with a small group of core characters. Phoney Bone is a hilarious villain, and the baby rat creature is a real charmer. Builds slowly, but stick with it and you’ll be hooked. Bonus, it’s very, very, very funny.
Sandman only got apocalyptic in the last story arc, when the series was ending. I’m not positive, but I think it was called “The Kindly Ones”.
Sandman spawned a spinoff series called Lucifer which is still in print. The premise: Lucifer gave up the war against Heaven, closed Hell, and opened a bar in Los Angeles. But those pesky angels and demons just won’t leave him alone… It often gets apocalyptic, but it’s still fun to read.
Come to think of it, supporting characters from Sandman often get one-shot or short series. A good comic shop can order you “trade paperbacks” collecting many of them.
Fables is a series in which characters from folklore and fairytales have come to New York to live. Snow White runs the community. “Bigby Wolf” is the sheriff. and Goldilocks is the leader of the Marxist revolutionaries (Don’t ask. Just read the series. It’s great!)
Marvel Comics’ Thor often delves into Norse mythology, and frequently crosses over into Greek and other pantheons as well. The quality of the stories can vary drastically, depending on who is writing it.
I’d recommend Powers. It’s a superhero comic, but it tries to be a little more epic than most. You should definitely read some of the trade paperback collections first to get the background.
Another good one is Kingdom Come. It was a miniseries a couple of years back, that’s been collected in a single volume.
Admittedly neither of these features any Greek gods. If that’s literally what you’re looking for, I’d recommend Epicurus the Sage. It’s about obviously the philosopher Epicurus who, amongst other adventures, tends to run into the gods more than he wishs. However the tone is more humerous than epic.
Seriously, great suggestions folks. Sandman intrigues me, I"ll check it out. They can’t replace my cuddly hellboy boyfriend, but a change of pace will be nice.
Well, there’s plenty of Greek myth in Wonder Woman. I can’t believe no one’s mentioned that yet.
I definitely recommend Sandman. I wouldn’t call it a downer at all; the series ends in a somewhat bittersweet fashion for the main character, but it occurs as part of a greater process of personal growth that we readers get to enjoy watching.
One more title, which is not really anchored in genuine ancient-culture mythology, but is very heavy into metaphysics: Promethea.
Run, do not walk, and read Alan Moore’s Promethea. It deals explicitly with the Kaballah, the mystical “Grand Unification” of mythology. Absolutely fantastic stuff.
