Art/Alternative/European comics recommendations wanted!

Fysh

So it's about 2 months since I started this thread, and it turns out that I haven't changed my mind at all. My weekly trips to the local shop reveal that I'm even less interested now than I was when I posted that thread in reading what Marvel's selling, and it's only the existence of Vertigo that makes DC any better.

I've got a selection of DC's Vertigo titles being tradewaited (100 Bullets, DMZ, and I've just started on Scalped - beyond that, they have a couple of OGNs lined up that I'm keeping an eye on), Criminal being followed in both singles and trades (that might change if the prices go up too much when it comes back from hiatus though), and the odd thing here and there (the new Phonogram has started and looks to be excellent judging by the first issue, plus there's trades of a couple of Jonathan Hickman Image books).

In terms of superheroes, the renewed interest in them that I found about 3 years ago (when I started reading The Ultimates and Grant Morrison's 7 Soldiers Of Victory) has died off. I find I just couldn't be bothered with any of it, and barely any of the stories I've read in the last year strike me as being worth paying to read once, never mind keeping to read more than once.

In light of this, I've decided that for the next six months at least, I'm focusing on European comics. I'll probably be looking for stuff from Les Humanoids first since I have some familiarity with them from the aborted partnership with DC from a couple of years back. Magwea was also kind enough to suggest Read Yourself Raw as a source of reading material, which I will be perusing.

What I want to know is, what comics would you suggest I look at in the context of the above? I'm open to art-comics or genuinely alternative american stuff (but will probably already be looking through what Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly have on offer, amongst others). I'd prefer suggestions that will broaden my horizons, so assume that I'm already familiar with, say, the works of Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, and so on.

ztoical

with regards to European rec's do you want just ones that been translated into english? I've a massive pile of some amazing French/Belgian comics but most have only been published in French so far.

Some "alternative" American comics to start with

Essex County Trilogy by Jeff Lemire - as the name implies its three graphic novels put out by Top Shelf.

That Salty Air by Tim Sievert also from Top Shelf [theres some preview pages on the top shelf website]

Swallow Me Whole and Please Relase both by Nate Powell

Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa which I've rec'd a bunch of times cus its just amazing and he has a bunch of other great comics that are sadly not translated into English yet.

The Blot by Tom Neely

Aqua Leung by Paul Maybury

Too Cool To Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson

Fysh

I'll start off with English language material, but I will probably use the large amounts of French stuff as an excuse to learn French. I've also realised that this is an excellent opportunity to get back into some of the Spanish humour comics I used to read years ago.

One thing I'm looking forward to getting is a proper copy of The Hollow Grounds - I got the DC/Humanoids version and only found out a good while later that it was originally published at a larger size.

ztoical

Fysh wrote: »

I've also realised that this is an excellent opportunity to get back into some of the Spanish humour comics I used to read years ago..

don't know about humour comics from spain but I did meet a whole bunch of super talented cartoonists from there recently. Emma Rios who is working on some really amazing stuff with Image comics and J.M. Ken Nimura who draws I Kill Giants with Joe Kelly writing, well worth checking out.

magwea

If you can find any of them cheap Cheval Noir is a good bet. It'll have your mix of rarefied Bolland, Eddie Campbell amongst others published in the states, and some European comics that has never been collected (the Schuiten and Peeters being the best of the bunch, if you liked Hollow grounds, though all of it is in tiny black and white). Also plenty of curiosities like David Lynch doing comics and Geoff Darrow spot illustration. It might be a bit old school, definitely hard to find but worth the search, even grabbing random copies -as i do- whenever you see them.

Maybe, Isaac the Pirate, NBM, Blain's story of a frustrated artist goes on a journey, plenty good swashbuckling (whoring, drinking, fighting as is the noble tradition), very French but in the best ways only. Art is what some would consider sketchy, Blain like Vince Locke draws like an alcoholic: his figures and background are a mess, works thematically. This won the highest award for comics in France a few years ago, along with the likes of Chris Ware and Satrapi, although nothing like these at all, worth mentioning if your into that sort of thing.

Saruwatari

magwea wrote: »

If you can find any of them cheap Cheval Noir is a good bet. It'll have your mix of rarefied Bolland, Eddie Campbell amongst others published in the states, and some European comics that has never been collected (the Schuiten and Peeters being the best of the bunch, if you liked Hollow grounds, though all of it is in tiny black and white). Also plenty of curiosities like David Lynch doing comics and Geoff Darrow spot illustration. It might be a bit old school, definitely hard to find but worth the search, even grabbing random copies -as i do- whenever you see them.

Ooh, seconding Cheval Noir. Basically its an old Dark Horse anthology, and it had some amazing talent in it, a lot of which was European stuff. As Magwea mentioned, most of the stories in weren't collected in trades, so they're real gems.
You can usually find people selling a lot of them on eBay.

BlaasForRafa

Anything by Phillipe Druillet, he's not currently in print but he's been widely published by NBM, Dark Horse, Catalan communications, Heavy Metal magazine amongst others and pretty easy to find second hand/ebay. The following volumes are recommended:

The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane
Delirius
Salammbo
Urm
Gail
Nosfteratu

thepotrovk

you can visit www.eljueves.es for alternative spanish comics... soo funny

Fysh

El Jueves is a good one, I've been meaning to try out their digital magazine offering for a while since the cost of a subscription abroad is a bit much (something like 300 euro for a year if you're outside of Spain, which is a bit much). Good call on that, although I should point out for general reference that some bits of the website are definitely not worksafe.

Bob Z

did you try a comic called street angel? its very good anyone i lent like it as well

magwea

Jog and Tucker Stone are doing an interesting series of blogs about the the history of Humaniods publishing in America. Well worth reading through, jog especially a personnel favourite for online writing on comics.

While they certainly aren't Art/Alternative comics, Metal Hurlant did have an impact on certain European comics, though these guys are now like the aged grandfather of BD.