recommend me some essential graphic novels to acquire

actually, yes, Hellblazer wasn't a good example as it does seem to have self-contained 4 or 5 issue storylines. but, given that there are 200 issues available now, which one do you pick? i'd much rather buy something that contained all 12 issues of something that was planned as 12 issues, that had a beginning, a middle and an end, than something that was just a snippet of a much bigger thing. that was my point, stated badly 8)

My other recommendation is for him to ask what his hipster ex-roommate reads, then avoid that, but then I hate emocomics.

i would recomend "lone wolf and cub" as well but thats a lot of paper to buy. so better stick with "the legend of kamui" by sanpei shirato which is drawn in similar style but is moer concise and dramatic. and has girls.

plenty of good titles listed.

Grendel, Black White & Red is another

In 7th grade I thought that 4-volume original Elfquest stuff was the shit! Made me have funny feelings about...things.

for non-indie stuff, Sandman seconded, I devoured the whole series in a three month jag, probably read it too quickly. There are lulls in it but on the whole it's staggering. I'm not big on Gaiman when he gets too twee or clever but he's in check most of the time in the series. The early Hellblazer stories are pretty good but it lost focus and became uninteresting to me quickly. I hate, hate, hate Preacher. The Invisibles was pretty good but I never got the desire to finish it after a point. You can't go wrong with Watchmen (most Moore stuff is pretty good, even the recent things; Top 10 was cool, Tomorrow Stories was fun; Promethea was great up to the point where it didn't seem like a story was ever really going to happen, it seems like it was just an extended character sketch), and From Hell is brilliant. the Moore Swamp Thing stories are collected now and are really good too.

omg youre right! i thouhgt this was all the kamui there was.

(yay magick comix)

Still, some arcs or mini-series are clearly meant to be of a piece, and just happen to be released in issues first (like the first Kabuki collection?). There's also the phenomenon of "writing for the trade", the same as filming for the dvd I guess.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl - Phoebe Gloeckner
Epileptic - David B.
Summer Blonde - Adrian Tomine
I Never Liked You - Chester Brown

I understand the Blankets backlash but I think that there is something rich being uncovered throughout the story in the religious overtones. Like jaymc says, there's a lot that you don't catch visually the first time through that adds a very sophisticated counter-element to the plot. That said, I totally understand why someone would not want to read about sad teenage boy nostalgia.

I didn't like Tomine untill recently when I gave him another chance w/ Summer Blonde and loved it. A few weeks ago I was at a party of like 8 people, me and 3 others in the living room, then 4 people in the hallway who left after an hour. I was like hey who was that? And my friend was like, that was Adrian Tomine, and I was like WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU INTRODUCE ME!!!!

Phoebe Gloeckner's work is amazing.

Tomine is great but I fear he is becoming predictable.

I don't!

It's issues #5-8 of Optic Nerve (I think). But it's where he really hits his stride.

I thought the original Aliens V Predator story was a good book too, the one set in the futuristic farming ranch, again delicous artwork.

Arkham Asylum was okay with some great character designs but I felt it weakened towards the end.

Is that the one where the Japanese woman joins the Predator tribe? If so, god, I read that as a kid and I've been looking for it for ages. It's got to be out of print.

And one more Alan Moore not mentioned so far: Skizz

(maybe you couldn't make it look more better)

Or American Splendor by Harvey Pekar. Drawn by Crumb.

Sacco is brilliant.

Love and Rockets received numerous props upthread. I've been reading it since issue 18.