Comic Book/Graphic Novel Recommendations

[Elesirdur]

So I'm just about to finish my current book ('World War Z', which was awesome) and am thinking I want to pick up a graphic novel or start reading some good comics while I commute to work.

I never really read comics as a kid and the standard superhero fare really doesn't really hold much interest to me. (I downloaded the 'Cable and Deadpool' set a while ago and thought it was kind of fun, but tended to skim a lot.) But I really do enjoy the medium of comics for storytelling and I'm a rather voracious reader of webcomics - for good and ill I suppose.

My last few trips to a comic shop have been kind of overwhealming as there's just so much to choose from I really don't know where to start. Any favorite authors/artists and publications would be appreciated too.

PS: I've already asked about a Watchmen anthology but the shop I've visited and really liked has about a 3 week backorder on it right now. I'll get to it eventually.

[Correction]

I think there's another thread about comic recommendations but what the hey:

Fables (up to volume 11 is out in trades I think)
Jack of Fables (same author, same universe, different tone)
Transmetropolitan/Global Frequency/Desolation Jones/Planetary (Warren Ellis)
Preacher/Punisher (Garth Ennis)
Y The Last Man

[Remyo]

Batman: Cataclysm, No Man's Land, Killing Joke, Man Who Laughs, Long Halloween, Hush, Hush Returns. some of my faves.

[Beckwin]

Watchmen
V for Vendetta
anything Sandman

hit up amazon, this stuff is cheap there.

[Headspace]

Where I work (Borders) have been getting Watchmen in weekly. Usually take a copy to the back and read on my lunch breaks (pretty good so far)

[thebearofscience]

World War Z was amazing.

I'm not that much of a Star Wars fan, but the comic books are pretty decent.

[Deftscythe]

If you're into Joss Whedon, there's Buffy: Season Eight and Angel: After the Fall. There's also Spike: After the Fall but as far as I know there's only 2 issues so far.

[Septimus]

I gave up comic books a while ago, but here are my recommendations:

Astonishing X-Men- One of the best superhero books I have read, characterization always came first during Joss Whedon's run.

X-Factor- Peter David is one of my favorite writers, I love how he can mix serious issues with humor. (Much like Joss Whedon.) It is another series that focuses on the characters but still has a lot of action.

[Denchi]

Un-provoked by Watchmen (surprisingly) a friend of mine and my brother both decided to send me graphic novels (which i have never read) to read.

The first is Watchmen (lolz) Which I'm reading now and enjoying very much. My brother hadn't even realized it was being made into a movie yet.

The second is "Blankets" which definitely fills the "Novel" part of Graphic Novel. It's long, and is a character story about 2 young christians growing up. That's as much as it's been explained to me, so maybe read some reviews and see what you think. My brother and my friend are not bible thumpers by ANY stretch of the imagination, so I can only imagine Blankets has more to offer than a simple christian love story. If I beat you to it I'll let you know how it is.

[grantlogan]

As far as recommended writers/artists go, you''ll really wanna go with writers because more often you will find shitty stories with great artists(hi2u Jim Lee).

Alan Moore-Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swampthing collected books, From Hell
Grant Morrison-Arkham Asylum, New X-men collected books, JLA collected books, Doom Patrol collected Books, The Filth, The Invisibles collected books
Neil Gaimen-Sandman
Brian K. Vaughan-Y the Last Man
Bill Willingham-Fables
Garth Ennis-Preacher
Warren Ellis-Transmetropolitan, Planetary

These guys have alot more stuff but that should keep you busy for awhile. Enjoy!

[Huggo]

Preacher

[Howard Roark]

uh what took so long?


AMERICAN SPLENDOR




seriously surprised no one said this yet

[Melchiah]

Arkham Asylum: Serious House on Serious Earth

Read it.

[Tricen]

Battle Pope

[Vigilia]

Some of these have been said already but what the hell..

Sandman and most other things by Neil Gaiman
V for Vendetta (so much grittier than the film), Watchmen, Alan Moore stuff in general
Blade of the Immortal
Sin City
Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale Batman stories (dark victory, long halloween, when in rome etc.)

[Elvis]

Kingdom Come - Great artwork and interesting story.
Long Halloween
The Killing Joke

[Isiolia]

Seconding to buy these from Amazon. Seriously. They're usually something like 40% off cover price, which Barnes and Noble or whomever will charge you 100% of.

Sandman was excellent.

Bone (the collected version is like $30 and 1300 pages...)

V for Vendetta and Watchmen of course

Fables series is entertaining.

Ghost in the Shell is basically in the format of an American graphic novel. Haven't read all of Man Machine Interface (the manga sequel) yet myself, but the original was good. I think they recently rereleased it with a few previously cut pages restored (orgy scene)

Batman Year One, The Long Halloween, and Dark Knight Returns are all great. I also liked Child of Dreams, which was done by the manga artist that did Nadesico. So it was interesting to see a more Japanese take on Batman.

Dawn books are nice for the art at least >_>

If you look around, Marvel (at least) has released some of their comics on disc in (I think) PDF format. You know, legally. If you wanted to read X-Men, for example, you can get 485 issues (40 years of it) on DVD for $50 or so.

[Trichocyst]

Marvels
Kingdom Come
The Dark Knight Returns
Earth-X
1602
Sam & Twitch
Y the Last Man

[tyven]

Batman: Cataclysm, No Man's Land, Killing Joke, Man Who Laughs, Long Halloween, Hush, Hush Returns. some of my faves.

this list delivers

[Skai]

If you're into Japanese comics (manga) then there are a lot to recommend. Death Note comes to mind as a really interesting read. If you like basketball, Slam Dunk! is highly recommended.

Those two mentioned manga could be read online at www.onemanga.com.