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The Ultimate Comic Bookshelf
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15-01-2007 1:27pm#1Ok so I've been looking at my bookshelf and thinking of replacing some of those single issues with their trade equivalent so it will take up less space... But it's also made me think what are the very best comics/graphic novels that every comic fanboy should have on his shelf. The ULTIMATE books, the best of the best. Think carefully before you recommend something and I dunno might have others vote on it before it goes on what I will call the official list. Of course being the progenitor of all this I get to add one first without any objections.
So here's the first few titles for the Ultimate Comic Bookshelf;
100 Bullets
The Dark Knight Returns
The Sandman
Let voting commence on titles to join them, heh and yeah I know there's no Alan Moore there yet because so far I've yet to be truly impressed by him, but you know go ahead and convince me.0
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was raised on Dan Dare myself - so at least one would have to be there.
aside from some already mentioned add;
some enki bilal - cause it's lovely to look at.
swamp thing.
hell blazer.
we 3.
Nextwave (know it's been said but it's worth saying again
)
invisibles.
arkham asylum.
the wolves in the walls or the day I swapped my dad for two goldfish (for the kiddies - a good host has these things)
the mystery play0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 10301
I have to say I really disagree with Preacher. It's not bad by any measure, but on the other hand I don't think it compares favourably to Transmetropolitan, Sandman or Sin City either visually or in terms of the characters and stories it tells. (A large part of this is reading the story's fixation with the "myth" of america - as a non-american - and then realising, with some disgust, that the guy writing it is from Belfast and, from the look of his other writings, far too cynical to actually believe such nonsense unless he's just peddling stuff he knows will sell. In which case, fine, but not something that deserves any special consideration).
I'm also going to risk fanboy wrath and say that Dark Knight Strikes Back, and a lot of the secondary superhero stuff being mentioned, really really aren't that good. If we're talking the ultimate shelf here, it's going to take more than "snikt" to qualify for entrance. The Death Of Superman really really doesn't make it, for my money. I'm not a superman fan, but I'd accept something like Stephen Seagle's "It's a Bird". The Death Of Superman (and the even worse The Return Of Superman) was mediocre at best.
Onto Morrisson, while I think of it. I've not read all of the Invisibles so I can't comment on that, but I'm undecided about his standing on the Ultimate Shelf - perhaps some of the shorter stuff (WE3, Seaguy or maybe Animal Man) but what I've seen of the Invisibles so far strikes me as having a bit too much "weird for the sake of weird" "reality is greater than you can perceive" stuff in it without justifying it. The Filth suffered from this too. (That said, the Invisibles may yet get away with it, I've 3 volumes left to read).
So, now to defending my choices:
Transmetropolitan - cogent and well-developed writing, a convincingly realistic yet inmensely interesting futuristic world setting, and absolutely breathtaking visuals. A landmark in longform sci-fi comics.
Watchmen - pretty much a ruler by which to measure all your superhero comics; what the colouring lacks by todays standards, the intricate design and layout work more than compensates for. Every character is an actual character, with a past, a future, ambitions and fears explored intimately. A strong storyline tackling the central ideas that superhero and vigilante comics raise just by having their central characters exist, and some interesting approaches to the writing (the "Symmetry" issue, the various recurring visual themes, the "story-within-a-story", the interlacing lives of various secondary characters who take on more importance than mere background noise). It's not about superheroes; it's about the idea of superheroes, and it's the most in-depth, cogent and engrossing deconstruction and examination of the idea I've ever read.
Not too sure about Squee, thinking about it now. There's a bunch of gothy alternocomics in that vein (Bear, JTHM, I Feel Sick, Kreeky Hollow, Spaztic Colon, Lenore, in fact almost anything published by SLG) but I'm not sure enough of the timelines or the relative quality of any of them to genuinely say they deserve space on The Shelf. (Personally of the lot I'd go for JTHM but I don't feel it's quite there...almost, but not quite)
Right, that's enough of putting the cat amongst the pigeons for now
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watchmen
V for vendetta
ye all know the story with the above 2 entries
Superman: Birthright
Yes it's yet another re-telling of the origin of superman, but it's done so well.
Grant Morrisons New X-men run.
One of those series that really pays off at the end and makes you want to go back and read from the beginning.
Spiderman : The Other
I feel I should add a disclaimer at this point, this was a tad hit and miss..but more hits than misses, it added a new dimension to a long standing character, the low point for me would be Pat Lees lazy artwork..but thems the breaks.
high point:the coma dream of young Peter Parker sitting on his bed holding up his design of the Spiderman costume to the 'Spider God'
Transmetropoliton: not a dissappointing page in the book.
Preacher, yeah this got slow in parts but still stands up well for me. I may be mis-understanding Fysh here, but I don't think the fact that Ennis is not from the States should take away from anyones enjoyment of Preacher. You don't have to be in love to write a love song, you don't have to be sad to write a sad song and you don't have to believe in god to write a story in which he exists...but I guess Preacher does have the americana turned up to 11.
In the end it makes my list because its an epic sweeping story that contains many "colourful characters" (i.e interesting deviants) and takes in some well worn subjects that literary characters have always had thrust upon them: love, death ,God, betrayal..Bill Hicks...all that good stuff ...and did a great job of bringing them to into the story and really giving the characters depth.
Kingdom Come:
Surprised that no one mentioned this before (or maybe I missed it)
Fantastic artwork from Alex Ross and answers the question where do old superheros go?
Batman: Dark Knight Returns
Was nearly gonna add Supreme Power to my list , the first two books are fantastic..but the series has since developed into an exercise in waiting for something to happen.
Perhapas Rising Stars0 -
qwertplaywert wrote:cant believe no body but be has mentioned any whedon stuff..............
I've ever season of buffy on dvd if that helps
....and angel and firefly and serenity and titan AE and alien resurection.........and the orginal buffy movie......dear god i even have the veronica mars ep he was in......will i see wonder woman when it comes out? why lie of course i will ahhhhhh but only when i buy box sets of Roseanne am i offically sad0 -
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spooydermot wrote:watchmen
V for vendetta
ye all know the story with the above 2 entries
Superman: Birthright
Yes it's yet another re-telling of the origin of superman, but it's done so well.
Grant Morrisons New X-men run.
One of those series that really pays off at the end and makes you want to go back and read from the beginning.
Spiderman : The Other
I feel I should add a disclaimer at this point, this was a tad hit and miss..but more hits than misses, it added a new dimension to a long standing character, the low point for me would be Pat Lees lazy artwork..but thems the breaks.
high point:the coma dream of young Peter Parker sitting on his bed holding up his design of the Spiderman costume to the 'Spider God'
Transmetropoliton: not a dissappointing page in the book.
Preacher, yeah this got slow in parts but still stands up well for me. I may be mis-understanding Fysh here, but I don't think the fact that Ennis is not from the States should take away from anyones enjoyment of Preacher. You don't have to be in love to write a love song, you don't have to be sad to write a sad song and you don't have to believe in god to write a story in which he exists...but I guess Preacher does have the americana turned up to 11.
In the end it makes my list because its an epic sweeping story that contains many "colourful characters" (i.e interesting deviants) and takes in some well worn subjects that literary characters have always had thrust upon them: love, death ,God, betrayal..Bill Hicks...all that good stuff ...and did a great job of bringing them to into the story and really giving the characters depth.
Kingdom Come:
Surprised that no one mentioned this before (or maybe I missed it)
Fantastic artwork from Alex Ross and answers the question where do old superheros go?
Batman: Dark Knight Returns
Was nearly gonna add Supreme Power to my list , the first two books are fantastic..but the series has since developed into an exercise in waiting for something to happen.
Perhapas Rising Stars
yay someone else who liked the Other!! Besides some lazy artwork i think Hudlin's few scripts were not up to scratch and I also felt PAD was constrained by it all.
Have to say I really have liked JMS's run on Spidey to date. he's been controvertial but at least Spidey's always a fascinating read. His War at Home arc around Civil War is his best yet. Great relationship building with Tony S and how it comes apart! Brilliant. And he's also regenerated Aunt May into a compelling character.0 -
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