Graphic Novels: Where To Start...?

[Hugo Rune]

OK

So, here's my thing.

I never got into the comic book format.

For the life of me I can't tell you why. The idea of the medium excites me; the freedom; the expansiveness; the depth avaialable to the author... and so on. And yet, even on multiple tries I've never really been able to immerse myself in this format like I can with a book or a film. And I guess (and I'm sure many, many people will lambast me here for my ignorance and shortchanging) it's a bit of a halfway house between those two mediums, so why don't I like it?

I guess I'm a moving pictures kind of guy.

Oh, and I guess I'm a bit impatient too, so the idea of big lumps of story already out there interest me, not waiting years for the story to finish. Hence, Graphic novel interest me with the stories complete. Comic books in in the midst of their run... not so much

/shrugs

All I have read so far in my 30 years are some old 1990's X-Men comics (when I was growing out of my teens) and a Whedon graphic novel which I bought for my mother last year for Christmas (Fray)

And now, at the end of 2008, I see two comic book stories either about to hit the screen or go into production which utterly fascinate me: Watchmen and Preacher

The concepts behind both of these seem, well, rather profound - one in a deconstructionist way, another solely because of its rather controversial story idea.

I have asked someone to get me Watchmen for Christmas, but as soon as I heard Sam Mendes was going to have a stab at Preacher I had to do some research... the graphic novel covering issues 1-7 it's on its way.

And there I was sat on Amazon... and Google... and Wikipedia... and Squidoo...and all these names and stories kept on cropping up. Some of whom I had heard, some of which I vaguely recognised.

So, I want to dip my toe. Try out the format again.

So I'm starting with the obvious - The Killing Joke by Alan Moore; The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller; and the above mentioned Preacher by Ennis.

Killing because it's written by Moore and I want a taste of his work before Watchmen is presented to me in 8 weeks or so. Knight, well, because so many people talk about it.

Now, I have no idea how well the Frank Miller works have really translated to the screen, but to me, both 300 and Sin City were terribly, terribly written films saved by their look. Both were slavish adaptations so I hear (well, less so on 300 as Miller wasn't a co-director) and well, doesn't fill me with hope for Knight, but, hey, it's only £6 so what the heck.

If Preacher takes for me I'm sure I'll be buying more other the other 9 graphic novels out there... but I'd like some other options.

I tend to drift well into the darker territory of my SF/Fantasy/TV/Film overall and read/watch widely across genres and styles.

Series' like The Sopranos, Deadwood, Dexter, NuGalactica, B5, DS9 excite me overall...

SF by Dick/LeGuin/Vonnegut/Gibson/Reynolds/Clarke/Bester gets me going...

I tend to enjoy emotionally, psychologically complex and intense stories (in whatever format) overall and more often than not, stories which have a good lengthy arc.

So, where else should I start...?

A long rambling post, I know... but help me TrekBBS... you crazy bastards are my only hope


Hugo -

 

[God Magnus]

You've got a couple great starts there. Just to throw a couple more in (trust me, you're about to get flooded with suggestions):

1) If you enjoy The Dark Knight Returns, then I believe you'll enjoy Batman: Year One which shows Batman's beginnings in a crime ridden Gotham. There's a very down and dirty feel to the book with very little elements of the "fantastic" and really boils the character down to its essence.

2) Riding on the above point, if you enjoy both of those and don't mind some scifi with loose interpretations of a character thrown in, read both Gotham by Gaslight and Batman Year 100 which are alternate world interpretations of Batman (once under the DC imprint of "Elseworlds").

3) If you want something with a long riding story arc, go with Y-The Last Man which takes us into a world where almost all males on Earth have died out. The book has everything from political humor to action to romance and it has an arc that runs throughout the book all the way to its final issue. This entire series is now in TPB.

4) If you enjoy fairy tales and deconstruction as a theme, you might enjoy Fables which is set in a world where all the fairy tales are real and live in another world. When that world is invaded by a malevolent force, some of the fairy tale characters (from Snow White, to the Big Bad Wolf to the 3 pigs and so on) have to escape into our world. It does a great job of taking characters you thought you new and taking them in unexpected directions. Several story arcs run through the series which is still ongoing.

Those are just a few off the top of my head (and enough to cause you to spend quite a bit of $$$). I hope you enjoy some if not all of my suggestions should you read them.

 

[Hugo Rune]

3) If you want something with a long riding story arc, go with Y-The Last Man which takes us into a world where almost all males on Earth have died out. The book has everything from political humor to action to romance and it has an arc that runs throughout the book all the way to its final issue. This entire series is now in TPB.

I almost got the first volume of this one in fact because I recognised the author, Brian K Vaughn, as co-writing the recent Buffy Season 8 run (the graphic novels of which have been purchased for the maternal unit for Xmas)... and then read on here that most people thought S8 has been, well, poor to say the least... so dodged Y.

Thanks - I'll rethink this

4) If you enjoy fairy tales and deconstruction as a theme, you might enjoy Fables which is set in a world where all the fairy tales are real and live in another world. When that world is invaded by a malevolent force, some of the fairy tale characters (from Snow White, to the Big Bad Wolf to the 3 pigs and so on) have to escape into our world. It does a great job of taking characters you thought you new and taking them in unexpected directions. Several story arcs run through the series which is still ongoing.

This sounds right up my street, though as I said, I'm more likely to read something which is complete than ongoing. Still, like with any other recommendations, if I like the first "compedium"/collection then I'll get the rest... just slower in this particular case to let the author finish

Hugo - Starts making notes

 

[Chindogu]

Bone rules.
Check it out.

 

[captcalhoun]

are you also interested in more conventional slam-bang superheroics, like Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men etc?

if so, i heartily reccommend Ultimate X-Men (starting with Vol. 1 'The Tomorrow People'), Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 1 'Power and Responsibility'), Ultimate Fantastic 4 (vol. 1 'The Fantastic') and The Ultimates (vol. 1 'Super Human')

 

[Hugo Rune]

are you also interested in more conventional slam-bang superheroics, like Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men etc?

If so, I heartily reccommend Ultimate X-Men (starting with Vol. 1 'The Tomorrow People'), Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 1 'Power and Responsibility'), Ultimate Fantastic 4 (vol. 1 'The Fantastic') and The Ultimates (vol. 1 'Super Human')

You know, as a rule those stories, though of course underpinning the whole superhero genre, aren't as interesting to me as say the idea of Watchmen deconstructing such mythos.

However, The Ultimates by Millar did sound a whole lot more interesting than most given it's re-spin of The Avengers stories. And yet, MillAR seems to be more in tune with MillER's hard-boiled kind of storytelling which might not sing so well with me. But then I might have misread that about him.

If other people big him up then I'll read. I saw Wanted for £6 today in a store and almost bought it having watched the rather stupid (and from what I hear, very very different film) the other day.

The Ultimates was on my list, but I think because of my tendancy towards redrawing the norm, so-to-speak


Hugo - Just got that damned Danny Elfman song "The Little Things" stuck in his head again after taking 3 days to weedle it out... grrr

 

[Lapis Exilis]

OK

So, here's my thing.

I never got into the comic book format.

For the life of me I can't tell you why. The idea of the medium excites me; the freedom; the expansiveness; the depth avaialable to the author... and so on. And yet, even on multiple tries I've never really been able to immerse myself in this format like I can with a book or a film. And I guess (and I'm sure many, many people will lambast me here for my ignorance and shortchanging) it's a bit of a halfway house between those two mediums, so why don't I like it?

I guess I'm a moving pictures kind of guy.

Oh, and I guess I'm a bit impatient too, so the idea of big lumps of story already out there interest me, not waiting years for the story to finish. Hence, Graphic novel interest me with the stories complete. Comic books in in the midst of their run... not so much

/shrugs

There's no shame in not digging comcis, especially for the reasons you've outlined. Comics were sadly greatly constricted to a specific genre (superheroes) for decades, and this dictated a lot of the conventions of the format for a long time. Luckily things have loosened up considerably over the last 25 years.

Besides that monthly comics are constrained in both imagination and storytelling by their own histories and the fact that two major houses do most of the publishing. I love comics, but I hate monthlies. They are generally a sloppy sort of storytelling, now very much beholden to stunts and melodrama, which make them very soap opera-ish.

So I'm starting with the obvious - The Killing Joke by Alan Moore; The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller; and the above mentioned Preacher by Ennis.

Killing because it's written by Moore and I want a taste of his work before Watchmen is presented to me in 8 weeks or so.

Moore is one of the greats, no doubt about it. Killing Joke is a nice one-shot and a good place to start. If you dig it, check out some of the collected issuesof The Swamp Thing, where he took a rather ridiculous superhero and reinvented it into a fantasy epic that is quite interesting.

Knight, well, because so many people talk about it.

It's a landmark book, and a damn good story. I second the recommendation for Batman: Year One, a fantastic character study of a story.

Now, I have no idea how well the Frank Miller works have really translated to the screen, but to me, both 300 and Sin City were terribly, terribly written films saved by their look. Both were slavish adaptations so I hear (well, less so on 300 as Miller wasn't a co-director) and well, doesn't fill me with hope for Knight, but, hey, it's only £6 so what the heck.

Personally I think Miller really lost his chops after DKR got so much attention. I tried to read Sin City and found it shallow and rather silly. He's got a narrow range of interests, does Frank, and his work post-DKR gets pretty repetitive pretty quick.

Series' like The Sopranos, Deadwood, Dexter, NuGalactica, B5, DS9 excite me overall...

SF by Dick/LeGuin/Vonnegut/Gibson/Reynolds/Clarke/Bester gets me going...

I tend to enjoy emotionally, psychologically complex and intense stories (in whatever format) overall and more often than not, stories which have a good lengthy arc.

So, where else should I start...?

A long rambling post, I know... but help me TrekBBS... you crazy bastards are my only hope


Hugo -

One word for you, my friend. Sandman. Hands down the best bit of high fantasy written in any format in the last 30 years. And probably the best graphic novel series ever written. Ten books in the main story, two supplements written later (Dream Hunters, which is brilliant, and Endless Nights which is mediocre). The first book, Preludes and Nocturnes, is tad shaky in the beginning, but picks up towards the end, and the last chapter is a charming preview of what is to come in getting involved with Dream and the Endless. The journey that follows is epic on the scale of Lord of the Rings, tremendously contemporary while referencing everything from classical Greek mythology to the French Revolution to fairy lore, and brilliantly told. A Game of You (the fifith collection) is one of the best books I've ever read.

Go ahead and pick up that other material first, but definitely hit Sandman once you've gotten a feel for what comics can do.

Oh, and you might want to check out Pride of Baghdad, the Flight books, and Strangers in Paradise at some point or another.

 

[firehawk12]

Pick up the newer Vertigo books.
Y: The Last Man, Scalped, The Exterminators.

 

[Hugo Rune]

One word for you, my friend. Sandman. Hands down the best bit of high fantasy written in any format in the last 30 years. And probably the best graphic novel series ever written. Ten books in the main story, two supplements written later (Dream Hunters, which is brilliant, and Endless Nights which is mediocre). The first book, Preludes and Nocturnes, is tad shaky in the beginning, but picks up towards the end, and the last chapter is a charming preview of what is to come in getting involved with Dream and the Endless. The journey that follows is epic on the scale of Lord of the Rings, tremendously contemporary while referencing everything from classical Greek mythology to the French Revolution to fairy lore, and brilliantly told. A Game of You (the fifith collection) is one of the best books I've ever read.

Yeah, shouldn't have started this thread... I'm gonna be bankrupt

Sandman will be on the list (I love Gaiman's novels), but he's expensive over here...


Hugo - Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly

 

[Lapis Exilis]

One word for you, my friend. Sandman. Hands down the best bit of high fantasy written in any format in the last 30 years. And probably the best graphic novel series ever written. Ten books in the main story, two supplements written later (Dream Hunters, which is brilliant, and Endless Nights which is mediocre). The first book, Preludes and Nocturnes, is tad shaky in the beginning, but picks up towards the end, and the last chapter is a charming preview of what is to come in getting involved with Dream and the Endless. The journey that follows is epic on the scale of Lord of the Rings, tremendously contemporary while referencing everything from classical Greek mythology to the French Revolution to fairy lore, and brilliantly told. A Game of You (the fifith collection) is one of the best books I've ever read.

Yeah, shouldn't have started this thread... I'm gonna be bankrupt

Sandman will be on the list (I love Gaiman's novels), but he's expensive over here...


Hugo - Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly

Nice!

Can't you pick some of this stuff up at the library, and then decide what you want to buy?

 

[stj]

Speaking as another person with limited experience of graphic novels, I'd recommend Kurt Busiek's Astro City. It has a broad emotional range and approaches its medium (superhero stories) with respect but not blind admiration.

Of the Alan Moore titles, I've tried Promethea (which was dreadful,) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which rewrote literary characters for no obvious reason, and Watchmen. I think Watchmen is esteemed more for its lapses than its successes, but it---unlike the other Moore titles---is far more interestng. Life is shorter than you think. I don't see any reason to save the good stuff. Read it soon. It can actually be read twice.

My list to read include Maus and Persepolis. I thinking of History of Violence and Road to Perdition, but I was overall disappointed with the underlying childishness of the movie adaptations.

 

[Ben Sisko3]

Y: The Last Man
Ex Machina
Pride of Baghdad
RASL
Resurrection
Doktor Sleepless
V for Vendetta
The Sandman

 

[Garth Rockett]

You know, as a rule those stories, though of course underpinning the whole superhero genre, aren't as interesting to me as say the idea of Watchmen deconstructing such mythos.

While I think you can enjoy Watchmen (provided that's your cup of tea, I'm one of those rare birds who didn't care for it) as an early foray into the medium, I will caution you about reading it as one of the first works you come across.

As a friend of mine pointed out to another friend who was new to the genre, without a familiarity of the elements of the genre Moore is deconstructing in Watchmen you may miss out on quite a bit of what Moore is trying to communicate in the work.

Having said that, however, I understand it is frequently an early purchase for many people, so take that advice for what it's worth.

If you find Moore to your liking, I would recommend Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? I find it to be his best work that I've read, and it's one of the best Superman stories of all time.

If you enjoy both of those works, I would also recommend you track down the prose novel Superfolks by Robert Mayer, which was extremely influential on Watchmen, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (Moore "borrowed" from Superfolks quite heavily on that one), and Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

I'll also give my heartiest recommendation to KBAC, a work which approaches the idea of a "realistic" interpretation of a world in which superheroes exist in a way that still upholds the ideals of the superhero concept, which I personally find very appealing.

Lastly, if the western genre holds any appeal to you, I also recommend The Kents, which follows Jonathan Kent's (Superman's adopted father) ancestors during the Bloody Kansas / Civil War era.

 

[DeafPoet]

I'm kind of new to comics myself and just started reading Watchmen the other day and I'm loving it, FWIW. I'll be back to comment more when I'm done. I could just plow through it but I'm finding that absorbing it in smaller bits, volume by volume is heightening my appreciation for it, given I'm not really used to the storytelling style.

 

[darthraidr]

I am a big fan of Brian K Vaughn, so i'd reccomend his work (as others have stated):
Y: The Last Man
Ex Machina
Pride of Baghdad

I enjoyed the Ultimates, but my biggest gripe with it is the constant pop culture references.

I would also suggest anything with art by Alex Ross, specifically Kingdom Come and Marvels. Marvels is a great look at the Marvel universe from the eyes of the regular citizen. Kingdom Come is just an awesome look at a possible future of the DC universe where the heroes are out of control.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I'll also heap on Y: the Last Man, just finished it...a great read...
Also: Watchmen, obviously. Dark Knight Returns. Those two are classics.

If you like darker stuff, I would check out Alan Moore's From Hell. It's not sci-fi or superheroes, but, it's a fantastic story about Jack the Ripper. And nothing like the craptastic film.

And if you can...and I don't know how you could...but if you can find reprints of Marvelman, I believe it was called in the UK, Miracleman here in the states...it's AMAZING. Though, it's out of print here...with a very tangled mess of ownership.

OH...I wanted to add...for the darkly comic, I have to say The Goon is pretty funny. If that might interest you.

 

[Ben Sisko3]

If you like darker stuff, I would check out Alan Moore's From Hell. It's not sci-fi or superheroes, but, it's a fantastic story about Jack the Ripper. And nothing like the craptastic film.

Amen to that. A classic case of amazing literature butchered for film. The book is highly recommended; the film is MST-worthy.

More suggested reading...

Superman: Red Son - The story of what would have happened if baby Superman had crashlanded in the Soviet Union instead of the heartland of America. A brilliant re-creation of the Superman mythos.

DC: The New Frontier - Set against the backdrop of the 1950s McCarthy witch-hunts, superheroes are outlaws...unless they work directly for the government. Arriving in a broken world, a Martian named J'onn J'onzz struggles to find his place, and shell-shocked veteran Hal Jordan is presented with a gift from beyond the stars.

All-Star Superman - One website described this book as "distilled wonder". They'd be right.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

OH...I wanted to add...for the darkly comic, I have to say The Goon is pretty funny.

I'll second this one. And with every issue, the art just gets prettier.

Same with Jeff Smith's Bone, as mentioned earlier.

 

[Ben Sisko3]

OH...I wanted to add...for the darkly comic, I have to say The Goon is pretty funny.

I'll second this one. And with every issue, the art just gets prettier.

Same with Jeff Smith's Bone, as mentioned earlier.

Bone really is superb. Am I the only one reading Smith's current book, RASL? Anyone? Bueller?

 

[TheArsenal]

Here are some favorites from my collection. Those which have to do with superheroes don't require any particular knowledge of continuity or the like, just a passing understanding of who the big players are. I won't go into them here - too many - but a quick trip to wikipedia will tell you if they sound like something you would like.

Y: The Last Man (series of books)
Criminal (series of books)
Astro City (series of books)
Fray
Powers (series of books)
DC: The New Frontier
Sleeper (series)
Top Ten
Kingdom Come
Invincible (series of books)
Sandman (series of books)
Lucifer (same universe and Sandman)(series of books)
Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
JSA: The Liberty Files
Transmetropolitan (series of books)
Marvels (Marvel Heroes)
300
Supreme: The Story of the Year
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear!
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Walking Dead (series of books)
Ultra: Seven Days
Whiteout: Melt
Fables (series)
A History of Violence
Queen & Country (series of books)
Runaways (series of books)
Starman (series of books)
Fallen Angel (series of books)
Ex Machina (series)
We3
Ministry Of Space
Supreme Power
Gotham Central (series of books)
Sin City (series of books)