Graphic Novel Newbie, need suggestions!!

giftgrub

Hi to everyone here

I've been a sci fi and fantasy nut for 20 years now and have a HUGE collection of books

But for some reason i never got into graphic novels, until recently

After watching both Hellboy movies i bought the first graphic novel, i followed that up with Watchmen (amazing stuff...haven't seen the film) and right now i'm waiting on delivery of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Any other suggestions would be appreciated!!

draven3410

I suggest Preacher, Sandman, Y-The Last Man and Transmetropolitian.

Preacher has I think 9-10 volumes, Sandman 10 also I think, Y-The last man and Transmetropolitian are 10 volumes each.

All good reads and all very different from each other. And no 20 years of back story to filter through like with Marvel and DC graphic lines.

subedei

I am going to be a bit more of a popularist and say get "Kingdom Come" by alex ross, amazing artwork, great story. ("kingdom come" now, not "thy kingdom come")Also really liked V for Vendetta written by alan moore who did watchmen. "Uncle Sam" also by Alex ross, though a bit more political but again artwork and story are great. "Justice" is good too, though think you need some familiarity with the DC universe. 'Sin city' was good to as well as '300' if you like Frank Miller, but the movies are very close to the originals.

There are alot more there if you are willing to dip your finger into marvel and dc, have to start somewhere though, confusing at first but after a while it will all fall into place.

The Mad Hatter

From Hell, but don't expect to come out of it feeling entirely sane.

Ping Chow Chi

if your a sci fi buff you might want to have a look at some of the Alien Legion Novels, I really liked them

JangoFett

The Dark Knight Returns
Watchmen
V For Vendetta
Y: The Last Man
Any Hellboy Graphic Novel
Kingdom Come
Marvels - A really interesting view on major events of the Marvel universe, excellent read and artwork
Batman: Venom
Green Lantern: Rebirth
Batman: Hush
Batman: The Long Hallowe'en


Mostly DC, but that's me!

Grievous

All star Superman vol 1 and 2.
Superman: and the legion of superheroes
Superman: Brianiac
Superman: escape from Bizaro world
The Dark Knight returns
Watchmen
Green lantern:Rebirth
Kingdome come
The New Frontier vol 1 and 2.
Y the Last Man
Fables
Superman: For all seasons
The Flash: Blitz
The Flash: The Return of Barry allen
Batman:The Killing Joke
Batman: year one
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman:The Man who laughs
Batman:Haunted Knight
Batman: Hush vols 1 and 2.
Identity crisis

ztoical

We're kind of at wash, rinse, repeat with the lists now folks, maybe we could wait for the OP to comment back on some of the rec's rather then just keep repeating whats posted in pretty much every rec thread on the forum.

Grievous

A sticky Thread with suggestions for all might be a better idea, it saves the time of new people starting new threads every time.

ztoical

Grievous wrote: »

A sticky Thread with suggestions for all might be a better idea, it saves the time of new people starting new threads every time.

there actually is a stickie thread - if you read the forum charter it has links to several threads that it is suggested people read before posting rec requests.

Grievous

ztoical wrote: »

there actually is a stickie thread - if you read the forum charter it has links to several threads that it is suggested people read before posting rec requests.

Ah that's grand, I didn't see that.

Thanks.

giftgrub

some great sounding suggestions there looking forward to picking them up. Just started The Dark Knight Returns. Brilliant stuff. And my apologies to the mods, i didn't see anything in the stickies!

Fysh

Giftgrub, I'm glad you've gotten some good suggestions for things to try next - let us know how you get on

As for the whole thing with the stickies, I think we need to change the way we use the sticky threads. There've been a few threads like this lately, where people have been better off with new threads than trying to wade through pages and pages of older threads. I'll try and work out something over the next few weeks but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

ztoical

Fysh wrote: »

As for the whole thing with the stickies, I think we need to change the way we use the sticky threads. There've been a few threads like this lately, where people have been better off with new threads than trying to wade through pages and pages of older threads. I'll try and work out something over the next few weeks but if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

We go through the threads, pick out the same titles that keep getting rec'd, write a short few lines of a synopsis, sticky them as a rec'd reading thread and include something like what is already in the forum charter "after rooting through the rec'd reading thread, you're still looking for suggestions, then post up a new thread including at least 5 titles that you have read and which will give a good indication of your tastes."

KadMunky

look fo Maus by Art Speigelmann(spelling?), and anything by Will Eisner-Specifically 'A contract with God Trilogy'. Log on to Amazon and order a book called 500 essential graphic novels. it covers reviews of comics across a variety of genres and artists. well worth getting.Also look out for 'The Crow by J O' Barr-oh and anything by Garth Ennis and Frank Miller

Coriolanus

Some that I haven't seen mentioned yet, but that I love, in no particular order:

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Lucifer (11 volumes)
Grendel, any and all of them.
Pride of Baghdad
The Red Star (beautiful art)

giftgrub

Right bit of an update

Y The Last Man is amazing, I have to get more
About to start Batman, Year one

I'm like a kid at Christmas, luckily Mrs Giftgrub, being of the arty persuasion, admires the artwork, she even wants to frame a few pages from Hellboy!

No i say

superfly

no one has mentioned the Hellblazer series yet

smokingman

Was down in Cork for the weekend and got Batman: Year one and Arkham Asylum for 14 quid each in Easons. Now that I have added them to Dark Knight Returns and The Long Halloween, I'm just missing one of the top 5 all time Batman novels

Went looking for Marvels The Ultimates 2 but could only find volume 2

subedei

smokingman wrote: »

Went looking for Marvels The Ultimates 2 but could only find volumn 2

You try other Realms?

smokingman

subedei wrote: »

You try other Realms?

Yup, that was first on my list but they didn't have both volumes; the guy in there tried to tell me volume 1 and 2 were never printed together....which they were but that's another story.

subedei

smokingman wrote: »

Yup, that was first on my list but they didn't have both volumes; the guy in there tried to tell me volume 1 and 2 were never printed together....which they were but that's another story.

Sounds like other realms

superfly

The Zenith books from 2000AD are excellent

Fysh

superfly wrote: »

The Zenith books from 2000AD are excellent

As in the Grant Morrison series? I've been wanting to check that out for ages (I'm a sucker for HP Lovecraft stuff, so anyone using villains called Many-Angled-Ones will get at least a bit of my money) but thought that they were out of print due to some weird legal situation to do with rights ownership...

Oman

I recently bought the killing joke, year one, the dark knight returns and arkham asylum what other batman graphic novels would you suggest and is watchman worth picking up thanks

Mickeroo

Oman wrote: »

I recently bought the killing joke, year one, the dark knight returns and arkham asylum what other batman graphic novels would you suggest and is watchman worth picking up thanks

Watchmen is well worth picking up!

Hush is another good batman one. I really like the Batman/Spuperman team ups too, like Public Enemies, also another great one for batman is Justice League: Tower of Babel.

Sleazus

Oman wrote: »

I recently bought the killing joke, year one, the dark knight returns and arkham asylum what other batman graphic novels would you suggest and is watchman worth picking up thanks

Watchmen is an unqualified "yes".

As for Batman, it really depends what you're into. Grant Morrison (who wrote Arkham Asylum) is currently in charge of Batman at DC and his work is collect in three volumes (so far) - Batman & Son, Batman: The Black Glove and Batman: RIP. I hear they're a bit... out there, but good in a trippy sort of way. Not as good as Arkham, but good.
If you liked The Killing Joke, try The Man Who Laughs. The Killing Joke is probably the best Joker story, but The Man Who Laughs is an interesting Batman/Joker story (it's based around their first encounter and picks up directly from from the end of Year One).
I will caution you do not bother with Dark Knight Strikes Back - somewhere Frank Miller lost it.
I've always had a soft spot for Hush, but I hear it's a love it or loathe it kind of book.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention The Long Halloween - that's a great TwoFace story.

giftgrub

Picked up Batman the Long Halloween, very good stuff, also I'm liking 100 Bullets a lot!!

Fysh

Fysh wrote: »

As in the Grant Morrison series? I've been wanting to check that out for ages (I'm a sucker for HP Lovecraft stuff, so anyone using villains called Many-Angled-Ones will get at least a bit of my money) but thought that they were out of print due to some weird legal situation to do with rights ownership...

They've been out of print for nealy two decades. Was trying to get my hands on them a few years back but gave up. I did get to read some of the issues about six moths back when I met an ex2000AD artist. What I read I enjoyed and would love to get the complete collection.

John 187

Anyone mentioned Supermarket and Demo I think both are by Brian Wood and are great. The art of supermarket is something else.
Also the Nightly news by Jonathan Hickman or Scapled by Jason Aaron
Plus Doctor Sleepless.

Spastafarian

If you're into your Sci Fi then look no further than Glimmer Rats. Awesome to the maxi pad! It's only a one-off though. Sandman, Preacher and Y: The Last Man are brilliant too, as is the Gareth Ennis Punisher series.