recommend me some essential graphic novels to acquire

these are some of my faves off the top of my head

xpost: dans got good taste as per.

More recently... Check out some Grant Morrison stuff if you want to feel all weird-sexy-crazy-cool. "The Invisibles" kicked my ass, and "The Filth" is so strange and disgusting it crawls. It's also cool. "Transmetropolitan" is half-recommended as well, though I may not like it as much as I should just because Warren Ellis is such a pompous, asshat, "look at me I'm so twisted" prick. But then I guess all comics writers are.

My man at the moment is Brian Azarello. "100 Bullets" is top shelf. Seriously. Do not miss it.

I guess Chris Ware is an emoboy, but he's so good at it you forgive him. "Jimmy Corrigan" is pretty fucking brilliant. You'll stare at some of the pages for ten minutes. Then you'll have a cry.

Preacher's good if you like snappy dialogue, sick jokes, lots of violence, and somewhat dubious politics.

and for emoboys, The Sands by Tom Hart.

Chris Ware's storytelling needs to catch up to his visual inventiveness, artistic talent, structural genius etc etc.

This was the first comic book I remember ever being referred to as a "graphic novel". It's his power bands....they gave him cancer, just so ya know.

Garth Ennis writes, John Constantine gets cancer in an insultingly ordinary way. Classic.

Wooden lies!

I can see how you could get this idea if you've only read a few of them, but really the entire series is one grand, and very satisfying, story arc. Probably about 60% of the issues contribute to it. It's good election year reading, too. There need to be more political comics!

Well, yeah. It's just me, I know. I don't go to comics to see people being sensitive. Combine that with a lot of the genuinely whiny crap that has been selling at the comic store lately, and I guess I'm just not able to appreciate "Blankets" for what it is. It might be Stevie Ray Vaughn, but white-boy blues gets on my nerves in general, you know?

With the exception of Chris Ware, who is the exception the proves the rule. Besides, he's less whiny than just flat out fucking depressing.

okay, these are actually trade paperbacks, but oh well.

my picks (mostly seconded from above) would be, Watchmen, Sin City, Dark Knight Returns (but not the second one), Top10 (all 12 issues are collected in 2 volumes), Batman Year One, Arkham Asylum, Elektra Assassin, Plastic Forks (probably impossible to find now) and any of the Concrete collected issues.

new Dave Gibbons hardback, The Originals, out this month btw, looks great but is about Mods. http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13693

No offense, but that's nonsense. Hellblazer's had a dozen writers over 200 issues, some of whom (Paul Jenkins, I'm looking at you) only served to tie up loose ends from three or four writers ignoring and rewriting each others work. And there's at least one (self-contained) Sandman collection where it's clear that Neil Gaiman doesn't really have a grand concpetion of where he's going.

Also looking for suggestions for a couple of years older - 16 or 17?

what other books or movies or TV do the 16/17 year old reader like?

Um. I'm conflating two brothers but they've like Grant Morrison's We3, some of the darker Batman Comics, Axe Cop, Jon McNaught's Kingdom.

There's a whole bunch of things they could go for, things really kinda open up at that reading age.

Perhaps Morrisson's take on Doom Patrol? Which is excellent, lemma chew on this and I'll come back with a list.

Hope Descender goes down well!

Descender was well received. Also bought http://www.claypipemusic.co.uk/2019/03/stagdale.html.

Now shopping for Xmas ...

obvious one but i can't recommend louis riel by chester brown highly enough. maybe 14 is too young tho

yeah, get 'em I Never Liked You and The Playboy by Brown instead

^ Looking at the subject matter, I'm trying to decide whether this was a comedy response. Are they reasonable things to buy as presents?

it was a joke - they're fine for teen boys to read if they discover 'em themselves, but not to come from a parent or authority figure! both are about teenage insecurity, including burgeoning sexuality.

"Son, here's everything you need to know about visiting prostitutes..."

With recent(ish) comic books, I'd say Supermutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki and Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell are excellent reads for a teenager:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22752445-supermutant-magic-academy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40864790-pumpkinheads

And speaking of Hicks, here Nameless City trilogy is one of the best fantasy comics of this millennium. It's kid-friendly, but an extremely enjoyable and beautiful read for adults too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/books/review/the-nameless-city-by-faith-erin-hicks.html

Sorry, the post above was cut short, Pumpkinheads is written by Rainbow Rowell and drawn by Faith Erin Hicks, and the Nameless City is by Hicks alone.

Seconded on those Tamaki and Rowell books.
Gotta catch up with Nameless City, only read the first volume which I liked

Sikoryak's Masterpiece Comics I feel is the platonic ideal of a gift you can get anyone.

... no, lol (as much as I like his work)

Tamaki and Hicks are good recs for YA readers, yes

xp Whu... why not?

Anyone read Haugomat's Through A Life? (It came up as a recommendation if you like McNaught).

Any more suggestions?

Quite a few! Be patient with me.

Ha! Thanks!

A few things I've finished recently that I would recommend:

Alt-Life by Joseph Falzon and Thomas Cadene (Europe Comics - Sci-Fi)
http://www.europecomics.com/alt-lifespecial/

Upgrade Soul by Ezra Claytan Daniels (Lion Forge - Sci-Fi)
http://www.ezracdaniels.com/#/upgradesoul/

Clockwork Apple by Osamu Tezuka (Platinum Manga - Manga)
NB: this is decidedly minor by Tezuka standards but worth the read
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/clockwork-apple/

Pulp by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image - Crime Noir)
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-5343-1644-7

The Kill Lock by Livio Ramondelli (IDW - Sci-Fi)
https://www.idwpublishing.com/product-category/the-kill-lock/

Bread and Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York by Samuel Delany and Mia Wolff (Fantagraphics - Romance)
https://threeimaginarygirls.com/bread-wine-fantagraphics-reissues-timeless-romantic-masterpiece/

Starving Anonymous by Yuu Kurasishi and Kazu Inabe (Kodansha - Horror)
NB: This is a seven book manga series and pretty deeply disturbing stuff. Great fun!
https://kodanshacomics.com/series/starving-anonymous/
https://mangakakalot.com/read-om4bi158504913701

Thanks forksclovetofu!

yah, thx!

Anyone read Matthew Dooley's Flake?

Or Jean-Marc Rochette's Altitude?

Grr. Ordered the above two books only to find they already had them.

Anything new?

Not in response to any particular requests on this thread, but has anyone else been checking out the TKO Studios stuff? I've read a few of them and some are better than others but they all look really cool on the bookshelf. The two that stand out the most to me are Goodnight Paradise (a noir story set among the unhoused community in Venice Beach) and Redfork (supernatural horror set in a West Virginia town ravaged by opioid epidemic and problems with the local coal mine).

https://tkopresents.com/products/goodnight-paradise

https://tkopresents.com/collections/titles/products/redfork

I missed the entirely to Wave II and own, but have not yet read, Wave III's werewolf noir Lonesome Days and Savage Nights.

The Fearsome Doctor Fang from Wave I was not a hit with me at all. SARA, by Garth Ennis, is pretty well-acclaimed from what I understand, and I thought it was okay but a little bland.

I have the Planetary Omnibus coming my way for Xmas, which I am expecting to enjoy.

Some recent GN purchases -

Seth - Wimbledon Green
Tom Gauld - Mooncop
Inio Asano - Nijigahara Holograph
Warren Ellis - Injection

All good, especially Wimbledon Green and Injection

I also bought the first few volumes of Bill Willingham's 'Fables' for my nephew's secret Santa and it looks pretty interesting.

Oh, one more, Jodorowsky and Moebius' 'The Incal' perhaps not a 14-year-old read, well maybe a trippy but edifying 14-year-old read, I'd have definitely been into it at that age, I think. The artwork alone is amazing.

Fables is a good pick for teens who would vibe on it, because there are so. many. volumes

For some out-there stuff that's still PG rated, I liked V1 of Prism Stalker. Setting and story is A+ but the art is B-/C+ -- sloane leong is not great at drawing action poses.

I think Trondheim’s INFINITY 8 is among the best comics of the year. All 24 issues available in English.

8 volumes? A shame they're all in hardcover but it looks interesting. Has that changing art crew like Dungeon.

Doesn't seem PG rated with the nudity, same goes for Dungeon, looks deceptively child friendly and my copy of Dungeon Monsters: Heartbreaker says "perfect for kids" on the back cover and has two rape scenes; obviously whoever wrote that read different volumes.

oh yeah they (and dungeon) aren't for kids. didn't note that was your line. i thought crowded by image was okay and might be teen appropriate?
https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/crowded-vol-1-tp

Assuming this thread is still serving DJH's 14 year old.

i'm serving gear from 16 years ago

x-post. Thanks Robert. This thread has been so useful for buying presents for a close friends kids ... but doesn't have to be *all about me*.