please recommend some ¨classic¨reads

juancastro

hi guys, I've been reading a bunch of ongoings, from dc and marvel, and a LOT of great image stuff, but I'm in the mood for some WOW me series with beginning middle and end, i don't care if they're long, as long as they're finite, right not i got promethea and preacher lined uo, but whats a good follow up to those?


thanks in advance guys

Zhurrie

Watchmen
Ichiro
Asterios Polyp
Tekkon Kinkreet / Black & White
Bone

To name a few that I love.

miscatonic

Lone Wolf and Cub, Midnight Nation, Archer and Armstrong and Protectors come to mind.

juancastro

thanks, loved watchmen of course, and asterios polyp I've had for a WHILE and haven't read, ill put it on the immediate reading list, thanks!

larry

Good thread. I have some catching up to do. Going to look for some deals on Zhurrie's and Miscatonic's recommendations.

Kilmarock

Losers
Y: The Last Man
Camelot 3000
Crogan's Vengeance
Crogan's March

mguy1977

Watchmen
Jeff Smith's Bone
Essex County Trilogy (it is from Top Shelf) be sure to have kleenex near you
Top Ten Books 1 & 2
Scalped
Y The Last Man
Criminal from Brubaker & Phillips each trade has a strong beginning, middle & end. Each trade focuses on different characters in the same universe. (It was a CGS BOMC pick if you are curious)
Locke & Key is close to wrapping up 5 HCs/tpbs are out out of a 6 in this series. It has great story & art on epic scale.
Daredevil The Man without Fear it was a 5 issue miniseries by Frank Miller & John Romita Jr.

Happy Reading.

Matthew

juancastro

awesome, I've already read y the last man, probably one of my favorite series ever, love criminal, and scalped as well!

KyleMoyer

Sandman
Bone
Strangers in Paradise
Cerebus (there are some controversial politics in the later issues, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a good series and Dave Sim is a damn fine artist and storyteller)
Criminal
Mage (I never actually finished that, but I got the whole collection at the last Wild Pig sale and it's in my to read pile)

warpangel

Look out for 'Old Man Logan'. One of the best Wolverine stories for years. It's set in the future, is not what you would expect and has the most beautiful artwork in it. Highly recomended.

WetRats

Mage
The Rocketeer

JohnathanConstantine

Going with @warpangel 's Wolverine choice you could also read Weapon X by Barry Winsor Smith. Nice containted story that gives you some detail to Wolverine's background.

Iron Man Extremis is good because it introduces you to the Iron Man of today.
Straczynski's Thor run is a good starting point.
Infinity Gauntlet gives you an idea of Marvel Cosmic.
Powers
Ex Machina
Green Lantern: Rebirth

Definitely a lot of other things but these are just things I can spot on my shelves at the moment.

Zhurrie

I was shooting for self-contained, single book, complete stories. If you are up for multiple book series' then I could list more.

batlaw

Kingdom Come of course.
DCs The Griffin is an overlooked forgotten gem IMO.

kfreeman

Lone Wolf and Cub
Osamu Tezuka's Pluto
Marvels
Local

DesertHermit

A few of my all time favorites:

Skyscrapers of the Midwest
David B.'s Epileptic
Hellboy
B.P.R.D
Maus

ChrisBeckett

Daredevil: Born Again
Batman: Year One

both written by Frank Miller and drawn by David Mazzucchelli. Born Again is my favorite superhero story, bar none (and I'm an Alan Moore devotee), and Batman: Year One is right behind it. Amazing stuff.

chris

fredzilla

Blankets
Habibi
We3
The Escapists
Queen & Country
Pride of Baghdad

Kid Friendly:
Tellos
I Kill Giants
Wizard of Oz (Marvel adaptations)
Anything (mostly) by Doug TenNapel

Superhero fare:
Superman: For All Seasons
Superman: Red Son
DC: The New Frontier

I can give you more, but this, along with all the other responses, will keep you real busy. :D

Zhurrie

Blankets
Habibi
We3

I Kill Giants
Wizard of Oz (Marvel adaptations)
Anything (mostly) by Doug TenNapel

I definitely agree with all of those listed, just stay away from "Bad Island" by TenNapel. I have no idea WTF happened there but it was one of my bigger letdowns of last year. I LOVE I Kill Giants. Do yourself a favor and grab the Titan edition.

fredzilla

I definitely agree with all of those listed, just stay away from "Bad Island" by TenNapel. I have no idea WTF happened there but it was one of my bigger letdowns of last year. I LOVE I Kill Giants. Do yourself a favor and grab the Titan edition.

I agree about Bad Island. It wasn't bad-bad, but definitely not as good as his other stuff. My son liked it and that's usually my barometer for books like that.

I also forgot to mention Jim Henson's Tale of Sand.

Zhurrie

The pacing was just so terribly off, it lingers on meaningless stuff and then gives you whiplash jumping into other, actually important, bits. I don't understand what went wrong there, it was a simple story to tell and they really managed to bungle it up badly. It was one of the rare books I finish and actively do not want on my shelf or even in my house.

DesertHermit

Daredevil: Born Again
Batman: Year One

both written by Frank Miller and drawn by David Mazzucchelli. Born Again is my favorite superhero story, bar none (and I'm an Alan Moore devotee), and Batman: Year One is right behind it. Amazing stuff.

chris

David Mazzucchelli's artwork on Year One is truly magnificent, and Richmond Lewis's watercolors are stunning. The story is excellent, but I have to assert that the art represents the apex of aesthetic possibility in the super hero genre, and even in the medium of graphic narrative as a whole. It is as near to perfection, for me, as I can imagine.

mguy1977

Lone Wolf and Cub
Osamu Tezuka's Pluto
Marvels
Local

I second Local's nod.

Matthew

LibraryBoy

Little White Mouse by Paul Sizer. My favorite sci-fi comic book story ever, and one of my all time favorite comics period.

batlaw

Definately second DC New Frontier. Daredevil: man without fear though I gotta I dont think holds up. I loved it at the time but re-read it years later I didnt see what I thought was so great about it.

mguy1977

Also if you want to read something funny that is for mature audiences read The Big Book of Barry Ween.

Matthew

jaydee74

Pride of Baghdad
Orchid (It's currently still in a monthly format but it's a 12 issue story)
Joe the Barbarian
Magneto: Testament
Batman: The Cult
Astro City: Life in the Big City
Astro City: Confession

bats00

Hitman
Terry Moore's Echo

Fade2Black

If you haven't read Top Shelf's Box Office Poison collection by Alex Robinson, consider giving it a read. For a series that debuted in 1996, BoP's story seems even more relevant in 2012. One of the book's focal points deals with an elderly comic creator who's characters have suddenly been given a new lease on life via the big screen, only he's getting screwed out of his deserved royalties. Sound familiar?

Awards (source: Wikipedia)
The 608 page volume of the series was nominated for the Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work in 2002, and an Eisner Award, Ignatz Award and a Firecracker Award in 2001 and 2002. The French version of Box Office Poison, called De Mal En Pis, won the Prix Du Premier Album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2005.

Also consider his Tricked and Too Cool to be Forgotten OGNs, both of which are also said and done stories.

Miraclemet

Great multi-volume Sets:
Y: The Last Man
Starman
Bone
Essex County Trilogy
Planetes (manga) great 5 volume sci-fi read if you can find it
Queen & Country

(looks around for Jamie)
DMZ :-\"


Great 1 Volume Reads:
We3
I Kill Giants
Blankets
Superman For All Seasons
All Star Superman


On the fence:
Powers: Hasn't had an end yet... wonder if it ever will...
Scalped: also hasnt ended yet, but has been great so far.

LibraryBoy

If you haven't read Top Shelf's Box Office Poison collection by Alex Robinson, consider giving it a read. For a series that debuted in 1996, BoP's story seems even more relevant in 2012. One of the book's focal points deals with an elderly comic creator who's characters have suddenly been given a new lease on life via the big screen, only he's getting screwed out of his deserved royalties. Sound familiar?

Awards (source: Wikipedia)
The 608 page volume of the series was nominated for the Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work in 2002, and an Eisner Award, Ignatz Award and a Firecracker Award in 2001 and 2002. The French version of Box Office Poison, called De Mal En Pis, won the Prix Du Premier Album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2005.

Also consider his Tricked and Too Cool to be Forgotten OGNs, both of which are also said and done stories.

Ditto to this, though I would have to say that I think I liked Tricked a little better than Box Office Poison. Since it's written as an OGN, it reads a little better in that format, where as Box Office Poison was clearly written to be serialized, and Robinson's narrative focus switches characters midway to 2/3rds through, so was a little weird to see two of my favorite characters drop out of the story almost completely near the end. But that aside, the series is still great and very much worth a read.

There's also a much slimmer follow-up volume, BOP! - More Box Office Poison, that reprints the stories that ran in various anthologies and as back-ups in other indy books. Not required reading, and nothing that bears any reliance on the main stories, but still worth reading if you like the other stuff.