Favorite Graphic Novels?

[Zaharoff]

My Ditko - and pretty much comics - collection are the bound Spiderman and Doctor Strange.
The latter is still readable for me.
I am far removed from my teenage years for Spidey, alas.
Could say the same thing about superhero movies.

[Patrick G.P]

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

Why Is Stan Lee’s Legacy in Question? This is a fairly good assessment of Stan Lee's career and abilities. However I would quibble with the claims about how much Lee is responsible for creating an older audience for comics or that he really saved the industry. Comic strips in in newspapers and magazines have always had an adult audience as far as I know. There were various stabs at mature comics, some of which are only thought of as comics in retrospect. But EC and a few other comics of the late-40s to mid-50s spoke to a more sophisticated audience than Lee's superhero comics and a lot of the Underground Comix people had little interest in Marvel. There have been mature comics from all over the world that probably owe nothing to Marvel. I think it's close to an inevitability that comic books for adults would happen in any country with a fairly healthy industry. === On Ditko recommendations... This is not easy because I'm a huge fan of him, the quality of story and art and availability varies immensely. At the top of the pile I'd say Essential Doctor Strange vol 1 (The art looks better in black and white than the colour reproductions available today) and Creepy Presents Steve Ditko (some of his absolute best art). These should even appeal in a Weird Tales way but not as well written of course. If you'd like books about him with hundreds of images, Strange And Stranger: The World Of Steve Ditko and Ditko Unleashed are both very good. The latter is pretty expensive though, it's a museum companion. Steve Ditko Archives vol 1 has some of his best horror art but later volumes are much more variable in quality. I think all these comics are in public domain now, so you might want to get files of his work from titles like This Magazine Is Haunted and The Thing. The IDW/Yoe Books collections Art Of Steve Ditko and Creativity Of Ditko are pretty good. Writing quality varies. If you want his other superhero comics the Creeper and Shade The Changing Man omnibuses feature two of his coolest creations but the plots aren't very interesting generally. Good collections of The Question and Mr A are harder to come by and much of his best work don't have good or accessible reprints. Maybe none of it appeals, it really depends on how much you like his art and what type of writing you're happy with.

Very interesting article on Stan Lee, I agree with you on Lee's role in creating an older audience for comic books, sure Marvel tackled some more «adult» themes towards the late 60s but its pretty tame compare to what EC had done earlier. In the documentary «Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters and Marvels» he claims that he was the one who came up with basically the whole Norse mythology for the Thor comics.
At times he can be hard to take seriously as he walks a line between carnival barker conman and sweet grandpa, so I apply a grain of salt to much of his statements (a lot of salt in some cases).

Excellent list of recommendations, a lot of interesting stuff there. I'm really keen on checking out his horror work, especially Creepy presents Steve Ditko. I have a collection of early Dr. Strange stories by him I haven't read yet, maybe its time to dive into that.

[beetlebox]

Just read "The Private Eye" by Brian K. Vaughan, which I heartily recommend.

"Years after the digital cloud "bursts" and exposes all of our most confidential hopes and fears, THE PRIVATE EYE is set in the inevitable future where everyone will have a secret identity. Following an unlicensed P.I as he's thrust into the most important case of his life, this sci-fi mystery explores the nature of privacy with frightening prescience."
Also available online: Download Comics - Panel Syndicate

I'm a big fan of Brian K. Vaughan, who is also responsible for SAGA:
Saga | Series | Image Comics

and Y:The Last Man from Vertigo comics

[Severini]

Maus is phenomenal.
I also really love From Hell, Watchmen and the Swamp Thing all of them by Alan Moore.
Also, the graphic novel adaptation of Clive Barker´s The Books of Blood.

[ToALonelyPeace]

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki.



Palestine by Joe Sacco



Safe Area Gorazde



Secret Comics Japan -underground comics produced from the 80s and 90s, featuring the only official English translation of Shintaro Kago to this date.



AX: Alternative Manga



Freesia by Jiro Matsumoto



Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

[miguel1984]

Alan Moore wrote the following panel of V for Vendetta in 1982. Just add prescience to the list of qualities that make him a genius. To prove my point, I also recommend all of you to read Grit, his 1983 parody of Frank Miller's Daredevil, that also works as a parody of All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, published in 2005 (https://io9.gizmodo.com/5643981/read...vil-from-1983/).

[beakripped]

I've been enjoying The Black Monday Murders, by Jonathan Hickman and Tomm Coker - published by Image Comics, since I first heard of it last year. It's a slow burn noir about the occult doings behind the financial market. In the latest, seventh, issue we get to meet Mammon and it's pretty weird. One gets the sense that something else was going on in that meeting. Brilliant issue, I keep going back to it.

I suspect a lot of people here would enjoy it. It's very dark with lots of little pieces of a puzzle slowly coming into place.

[miguel1984]

I have to add this to the list of my favorite graphic novels:

Pim Francie: The Golden Bear Days - Wikipedia

[ChildofOldLeech]

Glad to hear you enjoy Columbia, miguel - his rough drafts have more in them than some artists' entire oeuvres. I only wish now someone would release a collection of his completed short pieces from The Biologic Show and other various anthologies, but knowing Columbia's intense perfectionist streak I won't be holding my breath.

[marioneta]

Anything by Junji Ito, Uxumaki, Shivers, the Tomie series, is my preferred mental poison.