Favorite Graphic Novels

[ZenGoalie]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman is my favorite ("meep")

Another Sandman fan here. If you look at my icon, you can see that Dream is who I have custom painted on my goalie mask.

[Latinandgreek]

Some favourites of mine, in no particular order, are:

The Sandman
Runaways
Buffy (Season 8)
Fables
The Unwritten
Y the Last Man

I'm reading Promethea and enjoying it so far. I would like to read "swamp thing" next. My favourite manga are by CLAMP, my all-time favourite would probably be Card Captor Sakura.

[alexdecampi]

Dreams: VALENTINE looks pretty amazing on the iPad... I'll organise some pics

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Some favourites of mine, in no particular order, are:

The Sandman
Runaways
Buffy (Season 8)
Fables
The Unwritten
Y the Last Man

I'm reading Promethea and enjoying it so far. I would like to read "swamp thing" next. My favourite manga are by CLAMP, my all-time favourite would probably be Card Captor Sakura.

I enjoy CLAMP's work too, and I'd recommend both "Angelic Layer" and "Chobits." Both are excellent reads.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

I enjoy CLAMP's work too, and I'd recommend both "Angelic Layer" and "Chobits." Both are excellent reads.

If we're going into Manga recommendations then I'll like to add a couple

Oh My Goddess! by Kosuke Fujishima
Great series with good characters and exploring some serious issues but keeping a light hearted feel so its very relaxing read.

Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi
One of Rumiko Takahashi's seminal works. Much better then the Anime.
A Light hearted lark which is a lot of fun. While I enjoy her other works, non of them appeal to me as much as this one.

The Ghost in the Shell by Shirow Masamune
Classic Cyberpunk Dystopia from the acclaimed master. Its great in combination with the Anime, which was surprisingly well adapted.

Appleseed by Shirow Masamune
Another of Shirow's great works. In fact the first one that introduced me to his Work. A Great read.

[bbusybookworm]

Also, I'm surprised I forgot the Obvious and no one else mentioned them, namely

Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix Series

Its probably the series I've reread more times then I can count since I was very young. What I Love about the series is the numerous layers to it.

When Younger, I just enjoyed to stories. As I Grew up I begin to enjoy more of the puns. Still later I enjoyed the level of Satire that was present along with the references to real world places, figures, etc.

I think I've re bought the whole series three or four times to replace lost or worn copies

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

If we're going into Manga recommendations then I'll like to add a couple

Oh My Goddess! by Kosuke Fujishima
Great series with good characters and exploring some serious issues but keeping a light hearted feel so its very relaxing read.

Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi
One of Rumiko Takahashi's seminal works. Much better then the Anime.
A Light hearted lark which is a lot of fun. While I enjoy her other works, non of them appeal to me as much as this one.

The Ghost in the Shell by Shirow Masamune
Classic Cyberpunk Dystopia from the acclaimed master. Its great in combination with the Anime, which was surprisingly well adapted.

Appleseed by Shirow Masamune
Another of Shirow's great works. In fact the first one that introduced me to his Work. A Great read.

I have been reading Oh My Goddess and I enjoyed The Ghost in the Shell, I'll be sure to check out your other recommendations. Thanks!

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

I enjoy CLAMP's work too, and I'd recommend both "Angelic Layer" and "Chobits." Both are excellent reads.

I really enjoyed Chobits as well, I haven't yet read Angelic Layer although I've been meaning to. I'll be sure to check it out when I get a chance.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I have been reading Oh My Goddess and I enjoyed The Ghost in the Shell, I'll be sure to check out your other recommendations. Thanks!

Something to mention about Ranma 1/2: it's best to read the series in order. Although it doesn't have a tight continuity for the most part, the story does have a general thrust that works better if you read it in order. The entire story has been released in the U. S. and is contained in 36 volumes.

Also, if you've not seen the Ranma 1/2 anime, I'd recommend not watching it until you've read the manga. As released in the U. S., the anime had many spoilers for the manga, with characters appearing in the anime who didn't appear in the manga in some cases until years later.

I have another manga to recommend: Case Closed. It's an excellent mystery series that features a young detective, Jimmy Kudo, who is considered the Sherlock Holmes of his generation. The series features excellent mysteries that will keep you guessing until the end and a twist that makes it even more challenging and entertaining.

[ardeegee]

Since the conversation has turned towards manga, I'll touch on a few. My tastes run more towards character-driven and setting-driven "slice of life" material than action driven. And the art style is almost as important as the story itself (though ideally of course it would have both) so I tend to seek out the other works of a manga artist if I like something I've found.

(Disclaimer-- I really have no idea which of these manga which are available in English are available legally in the US or any other country, but all of 'em are around, ifyaknowwhatimean. Others by those artists might not be available in English from any source, and make me really wish I had the self-discipline to sit down and learn Japanese, which I've been not trying to do for years.)

One of the first things that came to mind when I started pondering a list is the horror writing of Junji Ito. Gyo and Uzumaki are must-haves, and Tomie is good (but doesn't rise to greatness.) Flesh-Colored Horror has some good stories, too.

Another (utterly unrelated) manga that easily came to mind was the award-winning Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.

Whew! Shutting up now...

Also (no links, but is Your Friend), Memories of Emanon, Before Dawn and the End of the World and Hanashippanashi.

I really enjoy the art style and dark writing of Kei Toume-- Lament of the Lamb looks to be readily avaliable on Amazon, but also good is the ongoing Hour of the Mice (no wiki link) and the perpetually stalled Acony.

I could recommend Narutaru more strongly if it didn't seem to lose direction towards the end, but it still makes an interesting read-- sort of like Pokemon, if Pokemon had been conceived by Stephen King.

And going into the opposite direction-- light humor-- I enjoy Azumanga Daioh, the ongoing series by the same mangaka, Yotsubato! and the similar (to both titles) and equally funny Ichigo Mashimaro.

[rock]

Kingdom Come by Alex Ross is by far one of my favorites.

I am a huge Batman fan so Hush, The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, and The long Halloween.

Marvels by Alex Ross

Watchmen

and I know there are a few more but they escape me at the moment.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by rock

Kingdom Come by Alex Ross is by far one of my favorites.

I am a huge Batman fan so Hush, The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, and The long Halloween.

Marvels by Alex Ross

Watchmen

and I know there are a few more but they escape me at the moment.

Have you read Alan Moore's The Killing Joke? That's one of my all-time favorites.

[rock]

Yeah I read that one, I thought the ending was what killed it for me. It really does show how sick Joker was though.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by rock

Kingdom Come by Alex Ross is by far one of my favorites.

I am a huge Batman fan so Hush, The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, and The long Halloween.

Marvels by Alex Ross

Watchmen

and I know there are a few more but they escape me at the moment.

If you are a fan of "Kingdom Come," there's a Justice Society of America story called "Thy Kingdom Come" (which has been collected as three trade paperbacks). Per Wikipedia it's not a sequel to "Kingdom Come" but features a very similar Superman (the Superman of Earth-22) who is accidentally brought to New Earth (the current DC Earth). The story was written by Geoff Johns and features Alex Ross artwork (on the scenes set on Earth-22).

[rock]

Yeah I been wanting to read THY Kingdom Come FOR awhile, but haven't been able to find it again ( it was at a comic shop near my work but no longer there!).