Episode 1252 Talkback: Top 5 Original Graphic Novels
Pants
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Four Geeks plus three members of the Wild Pig crew equals a packed house for this Top 5 episode on Original Graphic Novels. (1:44:39)
Comments
5. JLA/JSA Virtue & Vice (Carlos Pacheco art is MUAH!!! fantastic!!!!
4. Fables 1,001 Nights of Snowfall (proof that a 25 cent preview comic can get you hooked onto Fables like a bad drug habit, I bought the HC as a birthday gift for myself when it came out).
3. Essex County Book 2 Ghost Stories (I love that damn series)
2. John Byrne She Hulk Marvel OGN (Byrne + She Hulk sold!)
1. Blankets (Yea it is an autobiographical comic that delivered a worldwind of emotions and it was one my best "afternoon reads" in my recliner in a long, LONG time.
Notes of Mention:
1. Arkham Asylum I read it, hated it, returned to the fellow comic geek I borrowed it from. 'Nuff Said.
2. Batman The Killing Joke I liked it in the old DCU Stories of Alan Moore trade w/o the changes made in the redone Killing Joke HC. If you get the DCU Stories of Alan Moore HC it does NOT have the Killing Joke in it. The lying f*ckers at DC solclitations in previews made changes without telling the customers afterwards.
Matthew
I need to think about my picks, but I wanted to make a comment vis-a-vis Watchmen as a wholly legitimate graphic novel (and I imagine there are a $#!t-ton of people who will disagree with me). From my perspective, the [preferred] distribution format is supplanting the intent of the author(s). Yes, it was released as twelve single issues and then collected into a trade, but it was always meant to be one, single story - a graphic novel, if you will.
Jamie D. makes this very point when arguing for the entirety of Essex County as a legitimate choice for anyone's top 5 graphic novel list. And he's right. They were distributed as three single OGNs and subsequently collected, but this was always meant to be one story.
On the flip side, one could argue that Mike's choice of A Contract with God should not be included, as it is actually a short story collection with a thematic throughline rather than a true graphic novel. In this instance, it seems that the terminology first used by Eisner has supplanted the true nature of this work. That said, it's a great choice by Mike.
If one wants a more mainstream (as in true mainstream public tastes, not DC/Marvel) example, one need look no further than J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Everyone views this work, and discusses this work, as a trilogy (and, sadly, it seems to have spawned similar fantasy trilogies, which - like the legacy of Watchmen and Dark Knight spawning "grim 'n gritty" comics - misses the point of what Tolkien was doing, only latching onto the surface quality of three books set in a Middle Earth type setting. But I digress). Tolkien wrote this as a single story and wished it to be published in one volume. It was the publisher - balking at such a large volume, which would bring a hefty price tag with it - that chose to release it as three separate volumes. So now, people call The Lord of the Rings a trilogy when it is, in actuality, a single novel.
Anyway. Fun episode so far. Looking forward to the rest of it. Oh, and Murd should know that David Wenzel did the artwork for an adaptation of Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse back in the 80s, which was adapted by Chuck (then Charles) Dixon.
chris
It is fully painted in beautiful watercolors, and written by Chuck Dixon... WELL worth seeking out.
chris
The early Marvel graphic novels have been some of my favorites. Recently my favorites have been baseball related ogns, Play Ball, 21 The Story of Roberto Clemente, Satchel Paige, and such.
Who did the OGN on Satchel Paige. The school I went to for 9th grade,Satchel's son was the janitor there. He saw one day that a bunch of us had baseball cards so he came over to tell us he had a bunch of cards of his dad. Of course being snotty teenagers we didn't believe him. The next day he shows us a shoebox full of his dad's baseball cards. He had no idea that they had any value. So we told him about the local baseball card shop. He went and sold off half of them and used the money to get a nice car.
http://www.cartoonstudies.org/books/paige/sample.html
chris
Superhero OGNs
5.
Wolverine & Nick Fury: Scorpio Connection - Written by Archie Goodwin, drawn by Howard Chaykin, this was my introduction to Chaykin's art and it hit hard. His sharp lines, curvaceous women, and chiseled men - it was something new for me. And Goodwin's story was great, even though I knew nothing about Scorpio and very little about Wolverine and Nick Fury.
4.
JLA: Earth 2 - From Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely. when these two get together it's always gold for me. I can't add anything more than what was said on the show. Great book.
3.
Arkham Asylum - Morrison again, this time with Dave McKean. I got this for the art - there was a promo image that may have become a poster that completely sold me on this. I had loved McKean's work in Black Orchid as well as his covers for Sandman, so there was no doubt I'd be getting this. Most likely, this was my introduction to Morrison's writing, and the story resonated for me long after I finished it.
2.
Daredevil: Love and War (Marvel GN #24) - written by Frank Miller, art by Bill Sienkiewicz. This book is amazing. One of the oversized OGNs that Marvel did back in the 80s, it has the Kingpin willing to do anything to help his wife, who is suffering from a terrible illness (I can't remember what). To get a specialist to assist his wife, he kidnaps the doctor's wife. Daredevil gets involved, and, in the end, he gets the doctor's wife back, even as the Kindpin's wife rejects him. That scene is gut-wrenching and amazingly portrayed in an understated manner by Sienkiewicz - with spare dialogue from Miller. This book could be seen as a master class in creating pathos and drama and very real emotion in a superhero story. Brilliant, brilliant stuff.
1.
Dr. Strange & Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment - written by Roger Stern with art by Mike Mignola and Mark Badger. This is my favorite superhero OGN. It opens with a contest between the best magicians in the world, with the winner getting a boon. Dr. Strange is obviously there, but so is Dr. Doom. In the end, it comes down to these two and Dr. Strange wins - and discovers that he does not receive a boon, but must grant one to the one who came in second, Dr. Doom. Doom wants to go to Hades to save his mother's soul and Dr. Strange must accompany him. In the end, Doom betrays Strange to Mephisto as payment for his mother's soul, but she refuses and thus escapes the realm of Hades even as Doom earns her immortal scorn - a sacrifice he willingly, but heartbreakingly under Stern's writing, made. It, like the previous one in my list, is full of pathos and emotion the likes of which is rarely seen in superhero comics, and is why I hold it in such high esteem.
This post is far too long, and I haven't managed to whittle down my other top 5, so I'll leave it there and hope to have finished up my non-superhero list for tomorrow.
Thanks again for a great episode.
chris
I don't think it counts but it's the only thing I have closest to a ogn because I started in comics such a short time ago, the first volume of Mouse Guard. I picked it up at San Diego from Mr. Peterson. The artwork was superb, I really thought the art style fit the setting perfectly. The storyline was intriguing as well. I just wish it didn't read so quick, but I guess there's volume 2 for more. :)
5. Sandman: The Dream Hunters
4. 3 Story
3. The Killing Joke
2. Ghost Stories
1. Maus vol 2
I completely agree with Dani on Gut Delisle. "Pyongyang" is simply amazing. I've also read his "Shenzen", but not yet Jeruselum. I plan to very, very soon, since I was reminded in this episode. If you want a straightforward, personal account of all the little and big things in a foreign society with an objectivity that is amazing, try on of Delisle's books. Reading his accounts of a "mundane" day of work for the author in North Korea is amazing. I found my old local library carried Pyongyang and Shenzen and read Pyongyag at least three times (and I think Shenzen twice).
My only Marvel/DC pick is God Loves/Man Kills. Not because it was the basis for the X2 movie, but because it was one of the few times mutant powers were not important for the X-Men. I'm not going to spoil, but at the end, the person who concludes and is the hero of the story has no mutant powers, and is just doing what he/she thinks is right.
Just my comments--I really, really, loved this episode. There were so many perspectives, and so many exciting books both superhero and non-superhero that I think I've found my third love after comics and legos.
I just figured after the film and all his appearances on Letterman he would at least be well known in the town he lived in. In my eyes Harvey is up there with Mark Twain as a great American author.
It is a solid read that places the X-Men in a real world situation where the enemy isn't another mutant or superpowered villain.
I didn't get to read God Loves man kills until this year. For some reason ,even though I was a huge X-men fan,I just never read it.
There is a ton of gns I couldn't fit in.
5. French Milk by Lucy Knisley - Fun, light travelogue about the writer/artist and her mom spending several weeks in Paris. My own experience in the City of Lights was brief, dirty (as in, the city itself was *filthy*, annoying, and filled with more than a little vomit, so it's a true joy to read about a trip that was the polar opposite of my own. It makes me want to maybe consider giving the place another shot some day. Plus, there just aren't enough good comics-format travelogues. I enjoyed the Guy Delisle books Dani mentioned for much the same reason.
4. Emperor Doom (Marvel Graphic Novel #27) by David Michelinie & Bob Hall - Doctor Doom harnesses the persuasive powers of the Purple Man to (finally) successfully conquer the world. And here's the catch: the world's kind of a better place as a result. But there's one hero the effect doesn't work on, and this makes Doom... kind of happy, as it turns out.
3. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley - Pretty much any volume of Scott Pilgrim could fit here, but I think this one, the 4th, is my favorite overall. The opening color beach sequence is a lot of fun, and after three volumes of Scott being a tool, it was rewarding to see him kind of get mature (as much as he can at this point in the story) and, indeed, get it together. Plus, it builds up to the huge fall his life takes in the next book, making that all the more painful.
2. Tricked by Alex Robinson - I agree with Chris that Too Cool To Be Forgotten is a great work, but I think I like Tricked *just* a bit more. It's amazing to see him work with such a large cast of disparate characters and then watch him count down to the event that ties them all together.
1. The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert - Basically a screwball comedy/romance/thriller about the title character and the man she loves, a reanimated Egyptian mummy. It... doesn't go well, and a whole lot of people end up dead in clever, hilarious ways.
Honorable mentions: A Contract with God, Same Difference and Other Stories, Mister O, pretty much anything by Jason but especially I Killed Adolph Hitler, Death of Captain Marvel, JLA: Earth 2, Why I Hate Saturn, Essex County 3: The Country Nurse, Ghost World (if that counts... wasn't it originally serialized in Eightball?), The Fate of the Artist, Shenzen, Pyongyang