Recommended Comics/Graphic Novels
Posted: January 20th, 2009, 21:37
This has been mentioned before, and I keep meaning to do it, and im bored. So here goes, rough and unedited stream of thoughtvomit:
Sandman
Comic series that is now available in glorious looking hueg hardback tomes, this series follows the Sandman, aka Morpheus, aka Dream, master of the dream world and other dramatic names. Its miles away from the comic book stereotype of fellas in spandex slapping each other stupid. Much more adult stories, including such lovely topics as rape, brutal murder, and eating peoples eyes. But also some well written and touching stories with well developed, believable and likeable characters. Not really surprising in this respect, as its written by Neil Gaimen. A great read, and definately one to try if you think you might like graphic novels if they were not so childish and silly.
Y: The Last Man
Another comic that steers clear of muscle-bound men in tights, this is the story of Yorrick, who is the last male alive on the planet (other than his monkey) after a weird incident simultaneous causes all the other men to fall over dead. Fascinating read, and a pretty unique take on the post-apocalyptic world, again with interesting characters. Frequently made me actually laugh, and im pretty sure that if he were real, Yorrick would fit in perfectly on 5punk.
Fables
Nothing to do with the computer games. This one is, *again*, a departure from men in spandex, instead based around the idea that characters from myth, fables and childrens stories are acually real and have been expelled from their homelands. They now have to live in the real world, in hiding from us "mundys". Quite a variety in the storys told; although im still reading it its so far had a political conspiracy story, a murder mystery and what can only be described as a "caper". Twists the source materials in strange ways: Goldilocks is a militant left wing activist who is sleeping with the littlest of the three bears, Prince Charming split up with Snow White and slept his way around Europe, when Azlan was killed by an army invading Narnia, none of the other fables gave much of a shit because they always thought he was a bit up himself anyway.
Watchmen
If you haven't heard the Watchmen fans on the forum blowing their loads over the trailers for the upcoming film of this, I'm amazed. If you are even slightly interested in comics but haven't read this yet, I'm appalled. It is almost certainly the best comic I have ever read, in my opinion. Well written, well drawn, well paced, with genuinely surprising moments and some brilliantly entertaining characters (Rorschach FTW), its managed the incredible feat of being revolutionary but not ageing badly. Read it, now. Seriously.
Top 10
Kinda silly, but a must-read for comic fans, as its stuffed to the gills with references to other comics. I've read it through a few times now, and every time I see something new in the background of a scene that I hadn't noticed before. Basic idea is its set in a world that had superheroes, similar to the marvel/dc worlds (although they are called Science Heros in this, for some reason), but the world got a bit pissed off with them messing things up for us normal people all the time. To remedy this, all super hero types in the world are concentrated in one city. Because everyone there has some kind of super power, they are no longer required to do superheroey type things, and have to get normal jobs. Queue the pizza boy with super speed, the superintelligent dog as a policeman, and a pest control man called The Exterminator, called in to rid a flat of Super Mice (although the super mice eventually ended up in a war with some Ultra Cats, which degenerated into a "Civil Crisis on infinate wars crossover thing". Eventually one of the cats removed the whole event from history to preserve the integrity of the universe. This pisses off The Exterminator no end, as it meant he didn't get paid.) Like I said, kinda silly, but amusing.
More to come, when I can be arsed.
Sandman
Comic series that is now available in glorious looking hueg hardback tomes, this series follows the Sandman, aka Morpheus, aka Dream, master of the dream world and other dramatic names. Its miles away from the comic book stereotype of fellas in spandex slapping each other stupid. Much more adult stories, including such lovely topics as rape, brutal murder, and eating peoples eyes. But also some well written and touching stories with well developed, believable and likeable characters. Not really surprising in this respect, as its written by Neil Gaimen. A great read, and definately one to try if you think you might like graphic novels if they were not so childish and silly.
Y: The Last Man
Another comic that steers clear of muscle-bound men in tights, this is the story of Yorrick, who is the last male alive on the planet (other than his monkey) after a weird incident simultaneous causes all the other men to fall over dead. Fascinating read, and a pretty unique take on the post-apocalyptic world, again with interesting characters. Frequently made me actually laugh, and im pretty sure that if he were real, Yorrick would fit in perfectly on 5punk.
Fables
Nothing to do with the computer games. This one is, *again*, a departure from men in spandex, instead based around the idea that characters from myth, fables and childrens stories are acually real and have been expelled from their homelands. They now have to live in the real world, in hiding from us "mundys". Quite a variety in the storys told; although im still reading it its so far had a political conspiracy story, a murder mystery and what can only be described as a "caper". Twists the source materials in strange ways: Goldilocks is a militant left wing activist who is sleeping with the littlest of the three bears, Prince Charming split up with Snow White and slept his way around Europe, when Azlan was killed by an army invading Narnia, none of the other fables gave much of a shit because they always thought he was a bit up himself anyway.
Watchmen
If you haven't heard the Watchmen fans on the forum blowing their loads over the trailers for the upcoming film of this, I'm amazed. If you are even slightly interested in comics but haven't read this yet, I'm appalled. It is almost certainly the best comic I have ever read, in my opinion. Well written, well drawn, well paced, with genuinely surprising moments and some brilliantly entertaining characters (Rorschach FTW), its managed the incredible feat of being revolutionary but not ageing badly. Read it, now. Seriously.
Top 10
Kinda silly, but a must-read for comic fans, as its stuffed to the gills with references to other comics. I've read it through a few times now, and every time I see something new in the background of a scene that I hadn't noticed before. Basic idea is its set in a world that had superheroes, similar to the marvel/dc worlds (although they are called Science Heros in this, for some reason), but the world got a bit pissed off with them messing things up for us normal people all the time. To remedy this, all super hero types in the world are concentrated in one city. Because everyone there has some kind of super power, they are no longer required to do superheroey type things, and have to get normal jobs. Queue the pizza boy with super speed, the superintelligent dog as a policeman, and a pest control man called The Exterminator, called in to rid a flat of Super Mice (although the super mice eventually ended up in a war with some Ultra Cats, which degenerated into a "Civil Crisis on infinate wars crossover thing". Eventually one of the cats removed the whole event from history to preserve the integrity of the universe. This pisses off The Exterminator no end, as it meant he didn't get paid.) Like I said, kinda silly, but amusing.
More to come, when I can be arsed.
