Comic Recomendations

[Skie]

I guess more what I'm looking for is recommendations for trade paper backs and graphic novels, unless it's something new out that's really good. I don't want to start trying to collect a bunch of back issues for a story. Sandman and Watchmen are a couple of my favorites. My somewhat guilty pleasure is Ultimate Spiderman. Manga is cool as well, I really liked Ghost in the Shell and enjoy the Lupin series.

[adam]

I really, really am fond of the Akira manga, which Dark Horse republished a few years back as a collection of six books. I'm not sure how hard that is to find, but if you can, it's well worth it.

I also quite enjoyed the Bone series, which is widely available. It's in a fairly different vein than anything else out there these days. Sort of a cross between Pogo and Lord of the Rings, which is as odd as you'd think.

I would recommend Frank Miller's Daredevil collections. His work on that comic was pretty novel at the time. There are far more imitators these days, but few are as good.

[gambit]

Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina both written by Brian K. Vaughan. These series are amazing. Y: The Last Man follows Yorick Brown and his pet helper monkey, Ampersand (y'know, this symbol "&"), after, inexplicably, everything on the planet Earth with a Y chromosome is killed. Yorick is literally the last man on Earth, and trust me, that's a fucked up world. Ex Machina follows the new mayor of New York, who used to be the world's first superhero (names escape me at the moment). It's a very political comic as the mayor tries to deal with his job (gay marriage, offensive art) and his past life (the source of his powers, old enemies/colleagues), and it's set more or less in the real world. Great stuff.

Strangers In Paradise by Terry Moore. I suggest the pocket books since you get more bang for your buck. Anyway, this is a romance comic following the on-again/off-again relationship of Katchoo and Francine, and they'd probably be a couple by now if Katchoo's past and Francine's family/religion/upbringing didn't get in the way. It's extremely funny, dramatic, and heart-breaking all at the same time. A must read.

Tom Strong by Alan Moore. Classic pulp sci-fi hero stuff, and Alan Moore does a great job with this series. It follows Tom Strong, a super-strong super genius and hero of Millenium City, and his adventures and battles that ensue. It's just a lot of fun to read this series, and Chris Sprouse is an amazing artist. Love it.

[mmm skyscraper]

Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis

Manga:

Appleseed
Dr. Slump
Planetes (if you like space stuff)

[den]

I know absolutely nothing about comics or graphic novels. But the Musuem of Contemporary Art in Chicago has an exhibit on Chris Ware right now, whose most well known for his 'Jimmy Corigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth' grapic novel, which is really fantastic. That's all I've really been exposed to, but it's pretty engaging.

Here's a link discussing the exhibition and Ware's work.

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/48760

[darktrain]

add Runaways to the Brian K. Vaughn list. great stuff, that.
also, The Ultimates.

and the absolute best trade i can recommend from last year is Great Lakes Avengers! sounds silly, right? it is, but it's wonderful

Edit1: my favorite two comics of all time are collected nicely in trades: The Maxx and Preacher. MUST READS!

Edit2: for tripped out art, check out Ashley Wood's Popbot

[Kennrr]

Adam - I thought Endless Nights is part of the Sandman series. The other one your talking about is Dream Hunters with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano

JTHM I use to really really dig Johen Vasquez stuff couple years back, but looking back JTHM is just screaming with teen angst/hot topic-ness. maybe its because of those people that love his work so much. don't let me sway you from it though, its still good with some funny/gores. I recommend Squee over JTHM only because it has less of the mindless rambling.

[adam]

I really don't think JHTM has to do with teen angst issues, really...he did do Invader Zim, after all. I think he was just (unfortunately) over-championed by that group. He does make a lot of fun of some of them, too.

Also: find Spider Man's Kraven's Last Hunt collection if you're interested in mainstream stuff. That's good too.