Graphic Novels

[Phoebe]

I am thinking some of you here might be fans of the graphic novel genre? What are your favorites? For those you like, do you like them for the art or for the story, both, other, etc? The first one I ever read was Maus, and it was so distant from all the other comic books I had read that I didn't even think about a territory that might be occupied between them. I used to read Sandman and that was a very different sort of comic book, more like "graphic novel" in many respects although a brief serial publication. Then I started reading other things that are labeled graphic novel and I really liked them; the combination of art and interesting story has been terrific. I'm trying to encourage my kid to make one so I'm wondering what examples we should explore.

[Mike]

Dylan Meconis's . Short. Pretty. A cool fable.

Also from her: about 18th century philosophers and... and something more.

for a cool philosophical take on the superhero genre. Sadly I don't think they will ever finish it.

by Jenn Manley Lee. An epic hard sci-fi story of two itinerant workers and their struggles. It's long and intricate and beautiful and almost done.

[akiva]

Both parts of Persepolis are fantastic.

[Stan]

First, let me plug libraries as a great source for graphic novels. At $20 for an a read of 1-2 hours, frankly, most graphic novels are not worth purchasing. I used to read ~one/week then buy the rare gem.

Ditto to Persepolis and Dicebox. The former shows a girl growing up during the Iranian revolution and going to school abroad, award winning.

From Alison Bechdel (of Dykes to Watch Out For fame) there is Fun Home: growing up in a funeral home, finding sexual identity, and trying to figure whether her dad committed suicide. This was followed up by Are You my Mother? which details her relationship with her emotionally distant mother. These and the Persepolis books are graphic novels in the fullest sense because they explore characters and situations with as much depth and insight as any great novel. My kid even had to read Persepolis in school.

Bride Story - manga about an arranged marriage in central Asia in the late 19th century. She's older (16) and from a nomadic tribe, he's younger (12) and from a town. Things happen, other characters are followed as well. It's very much slice of life and examining the details of various central Asian regions. The main thing is the clothes and embroidery. The cultures embroider all their fabric with complex patterns and it takes a girl years to make all the clothes, wall hangings, bedding, and such for her marriage. It all looks amazing especially on the color covers (rest is line drawings.

Hellboy and BPRD are pretty cool.

I have paper versions of my favorite webcomics but they'd be easier to find online:
Pewfell about a slacker wizard
Narbonic about a young up and coming mad scientist and her assistants
Skin Horse about a government agency that helps the creations of mad scientists adapt to life after being discarded.

[Mike]

Oh damn, I totally forgot about Flutter!

Flutter by Jennie Wood is amazing. It's a 3 issue series addressing LGBTQ issues and the protagonist is a teenage shapeshifter. The art is great. The story is compelling. High recommend. Also Jennie Wood's mom is friends with my mom, which is how I found the Kickstarter in the first place. You can find it on Amazon and Comixology among other places.

[bralbovsky]

Great list...

Maus you probably know

American Born Chinese

I like the old Dark Knight where Bruce is gray and sort of fading

There's a nifty webcomic called Stand Still, Stay Silent...about a post bio-apocaplypse

And the OG graphic novels, which I got for a dollar each from Dover press, by Lynd Ward, Mad Man's Drum and others. Novels in woodcuts

[Tahlvin]

About the only ones I ever really read that might be considered graphic novels were The Adventures of Tintin series and the Asterix series. I loved them as an early teen, and I bought them a few years ago and enjoy them now for the nostalgia. Not sure they'd hold up well compared to the more modern graphic novels.

[Mike]

[FlameBlade]

Sculptor by Scott McCloud. Worth it. Best if I say nothing about it.

Blanket from Craig Thompson.

[poorpete]

Weird that this isn't much discussed here, as all my other nerd friend groups usually were also obsessed (and often made) comics. But, just like here with gaming, I'm only occasionally interested.

Here are some great stuff by those friends:

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Comics-D ... 1626721432 (for middleschoolers)
https://www.amazon.com/Box-Office-Poiso ... 891830198/

As for non-friend recs. Maus and Percepolis are as essential as everyone says they are. Torso by Brian Michael Bendis is great. But I definitely need to read more, especially ones made by friends that I haven't got to yet (i actually haven't completed BOP yet). But there's a lot of stuff that y'all do that I haven't gotten to yet either, ah well.

To second the Scott McCloud rec, his "Understanding Comics" is a great read and influential in anything I've done in design (in web and film). I've also talked to him on a few occasions (he went to the same college, although years earlier, and was part of the same cinema group), the last time when I got his opinion of vertical videos. Although I was trying too defend it, as there are times where it would be useful (and I still believe this), he accurately noted that horizontal is always the best, because the scope of our eyes is horizontal as well. Gotta fill that frame!

[Phoebe]

I am so excited about all these recommendations! Some of them I have read before or presently have here right now, waiting to be read, but I haven't read any of the ones posted online. Plan for summer!

[Phoebe]

Halfway through Persepolis right now and it's so good, so good. Incredible.

Does anyone know if there are "known theories" that account for the interplay between the visual elements of the graphic novel and the written literature? Like are there standard modes or schools of interpretation of these texts?

[Stan]

[Zombie]

Persepolis is great. A few others I like:

Pretty much anything from Alan Moore (Watchmen, The Killing Joke, From Hell, V for Vendetta)
Same for Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y the Last Man)
Essex County by Jeff Lemire
The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg
Black Hole by Charles Burns
Berlin by Jason Lutes

[Phoebe]

Thank you for all these recommendations; I've been busy with work so still only halfway through Persepolis but I love it. I'm ordering the other stuff - I have some kind of gift card to a bookstore and need to unearth it.

[poorpete]

Finally did good and finished Box Office Poison. It's great. In the vein of Clerks, but maybe more Mallrats, wait no, more Chasing Amy. So feels very 90s in that way, but like those, still very solid storytelling from start to finish.

[akiva]

To get a bit of the history of comics, I've been reading some of Will Eisner's The Spirit. And it's a revelation! It's so good! I can't believe it was done in the 40s and 50s--it seems much more modern.

[Phoebe]

Tell me more, what is it about? I am done with Persepolis and halfway thru Watchmen but slowing my place due to the need to read other heavier reading.

[akiva]

The Spirit is a masked crime fighter; no superpowers. And it's incredibly creative and ahead of its time. For example, there's a story about how there can't be a story this week because the artist couldn't complete it by the deadline, and several other times that break the fourth wall. The writing is kind of silly and very well done. And each story is only 7-8 pages because it appeared as an insert in newspapers, but it still manages to tell good and reasonably complex stories.

The art is maybe the biggest revelation--it's incredibly good. I'm not an expert on 40s comic book art, but the ones I've seen are very different. Eisner's composition and dynamism, along with a lot of detail, looks like comics from 30 years later to me. It's just really damn good.

[Phoebe]

Sounds good! I want to read!