Graphic Novels

Dr. Zirk

Dr. Zirk

Mystic
I'm wondering if any other TLO members are fans of graphic novels, as I am. Please don't call them comics; you'll make me feel unsophisticated!

Graphic novels are a huge field, so I won't even pretend to have a comprehensive knowledge of them, but I definitely have a few favorites. My picks are not so much "Ligottian" as they are simply the picks of someone who likes TL's fiction - whether the relationship goes deeper than that I don't care to speculate.

Here are my favorites in no particular order; I'm curious to see what other TLO members may come up with.

Enki Bilal - especially The Nikopol Trilogy and The Hunting Party.
Rick Geary - his Treasury of Victorian Murder series.
Richard Corben - basically anything by, but his adaptation of Hodgson's The House on the Borderlands is a good recent title.
Jim Woodring - author of the Frank series. This is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, if you ask me. Amazing stuff!

At one time I was a fan of Moebius (aka Jean Giraud) but eventually found his stuff to be a bit too sunny and hopeful. Some of those hippies just never got over the Summer of Love!
 
The only graphic novels I've read have been a couple of Neil Gaiman Sandman novels. I would be interested in reading some more darker ones
 
The comic art medium has definitely grown up. Even Norman Mailer praised Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN series. Many individual titles have mature audience labels on them nowadays. I grew up reading comic books, and I still try to check out an occasional series or graphic novel. It has been a while since I last picked one up, but I share your interest in the subject and would like to hear what other members have to say. A few I remember liking would be:

V FOR VENDETTA by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
A dystopian G/N. Moore was getting increasingly wary of Thatcher's right wing government. I think he mentioned Orwell, Huxley, Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451, and Harlan Ellison's "REPENT HARLEQUIN!" SAID THE TICKTOCKMAN as influences.

A COTTON CANDY AUTOPSY by Dave Louapre and Dan Sweetman
Some clowns get drunk and burn down the circus and other hijinks. This collected some stories from the series BEAUTIFUL STORIES FOR UGLY CHILDREN. I thought the entire series was great.

THE CROW by James O'Barr.
This outstanding G/N is what they based the movie on. Good movie too.

KILLING JOKE by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland.
A Batman title. Has my single favorite page of comic writing. Mature themes. Tim Burton's favorite comic book.

OINK: HEAVEN'S BUTCHER by John Mueller.
Another dystopia. An evil theocracy (is there any other kind) breeds slave labor. Shades of Orwell's 1984 and ANIMAL FARM.

THE RAVEN AND OTHER POEMS by Edgar Allen Poe and Gahan Wilson


Other comic artists whose work I enjoy include:
Gary Larson
R. Crumb
Bill Waterson
Richard Sala
 
bendk";p="1660 said:
Other comic artists whose work I enjoy include:
Gary Larson
R. Crumb
Bill Waterson
Richard Sala
Click to expand...
Watterson and Larson have to be my favourite comic artists. Their pieces are witty and reflective of our society and our world, or simply examples of sane or twisted genius. I commend them for that.
 
Anything by Edward GOREY (My screensaver is a random vignette from his Gashlycrumb Tinies)

Anything written by Alan MOORE (FROM HELL is really impressive from every point of view, probably the best work of art about Jack The Ripper...)

Lewis TRONDHEIM is great (I know some of his works have been translated from French on Fantagraphics, check out his site www.lewistrondheim.com): his works have a profound pessimistic feel, which is totally the reverse of most of his drawings, it makes really a great clash!

The same goes with Joan SFAR, even though his drawing is more tortured than Trondheim's. Their collaboration series (Donjon) is really amazing: sometimes funny (very), sometimes dark (very very), sometimes childish, sometimes violent (very), sometimes sexual,... well, you never know what to expect.
 
I wrote a couple of columns on horror comics back in 2003. Covered
a selection of different titles.

The columns are at http://www.thealienonline.net/columns/wp_mar03.asp?tid=7&scid=64&iid=1532

and at http://www.thealienonline.net/columns/wp_oct03.asp?tid=7&scid=64&iid=1959

And a graphic novel series of possible interest is Planetary by Warren Ellis. A trio of superpowered archeologists attempt to uncover a worldwide conspiracy as analogues of characters from weird literature commingle with historical events. The X-Files meets The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

And a series I've mentioned elsewhere on this board is The Invisibles by Grant Morrsion. Occult anarchists fight to save reality from extra-dimensional overlords. Imagine Robert Anton Wilson, Michael Moorcock and Philip K Dick rewriting The Matrix as a comic (although The Invisbles actually came out before The Matrix). The series occassionally descends into pretentious gibberish but overall it's an interesting read.
 
Stu,

I agree with you on GM's THE INVISIBLES. Great, intellectual read.

Might I suggest Alan Moore's THE WATCHMEN, and PROMETHIA?
 
The only graphic novel I have read is Allan Moore's "From Hell", and it was quite a shocking ride. Really well made and highly recomended.
 
I think one of the best comics ever produced it is also one of the first. I am talking about "Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Winsor Mc Cay. This comic strip, published in the New York Herald from 1905 to 1911 is just sheer "art nouveau" magic. It is also for me a beautiful elegy to the loss of childhood, that most hospitable country (alas, not for everyone).
The French poet Aime Michel said something like children are neither happy nor miserable, but sleepwalkers. Hence growing up can be defined as an awakening process. Little Nemo fought for some years every sunday (it was a weekly strip) against any "awakening". He only wanted to carry on riding the roller coaster of his dreams, so beautifully crafted by Mr. Mc Cay. Who would blame him?
 
I second (or third, or whatever) all the Alan Moore recommendations.

I do like Gaiman, but have gone off him a bit of late for some reason.

I would certainly describe the Japanese graphic novel, Uzumaki as Ligottian, for those who are interested.

I also very much enjoy escapist fluff, such as Outlanders by Manabe Johji.

Tezuka Osamu is considered the god of the comic book form in Japan, and I can certainly recommend what I have read of his. I believe his story of the Buddha has been translated, but I'm not sure whether the same is true of his Second World War story Adorufu ni Tsugu, which means something like 'To Adolf'.
 
A new graphic novel suggestion for people who can read French, Italian or Spanish. The article, (in English)which I don't fully support, specially in its political leanings, can be found at www.ninthart.com/display.php?article=646
I do agree on the quality of Oesterheld-Breccia work. Warning to the numerous Frank Miller fan base, :D since the author draws some not too flattering comparisons with the Southamericans work.
 
qcrisp";p="1727 said:
I would certainly describe the Japanese graphic novel, Uzumaki as Ligottian, for those who are interested.
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I listened to your advice and placed the three volumes in my amazon shopping cart 😉 I had to read just a few reviews online to have my attention picked, mainly because I am fascinated by spirals...
 
This thread started me rummaging through my comic boxes. I came up with a few more:

BRATPACK by Rick Veitch
About some unusual superheroes and their sidekicks. Not at all like Alan Moore's WATCHMEN - which I also liked.

THE MASK. I'm not a big fan of the movies, but the early series put out by Dark Horse Comics were very good. Both violent and funny as all get-out.

LENORE by Roman Dirge
About an adorable little dead girl and her humorous misadventures. She is named after Poe's poem.

I agree with the recommendations for Edward Gorey. In addition to many of his cartoon books, I have quite a few books that he illustrated. I used to love watching the intro to the PBS series MYSTERY! that was based on his artwork.

I'm a big fan of Gahan Wilson too. I have most of his cartoon books. Unfortunately, they are often repetitive and poorly produced. I wish someone would put together a comprehensive collection of his work like they did for Gary Larson. I bought THE COMPLETE FAR SIDE on eBay for $80.00 postpaid, and it was one of the best purchases I have ever made. These books are wonderful. The only drawback to them is you can't read them in bed; they weigh a ton.

I also have a bunch of Jim Unger's HERMAN collections and PLAYBOY CARTOON books and albums. Funny stuff.

On Dr. Zirk's recommendation, I read THE FRANK BOOK by Jim Woodring. (I almost keeled over when I discovered my local library had a copy). It took me a while to get into it, but I finally fell into a groove. I won't go so far as to say I understood it, but I enjoyed it. Woodring has a truly bizarre vision. They got Francis Ford Coppola to write the introduction. I would love to know how that happened.
 
Doctor Munoz, that article on Oesterheld was fascinating. Makes me wish I was bi-lingual so I could read a copy of Mort Cinder. And even though I'm a Miller fan I agree with the writer's assessment of 300.

And just to get Alan Moore's name mentioned on this thread once more I don't think anyone's mentioned his Swamp Thing work yet.
 
Some great recommendations here - thanks to all of you who have posted suggestions. This has given me a lot of good ideas about which titles I need to be looking for.

Glad to see that bendk was able to check out Jim Woodring's The Frank Book. I didn't like Woodring's stuff at all when I first ran across it in the pages of Heavy Metal years ago, but it's grown on me over the years, and now I think he's a real genius - the Frank stuff is especially amazing.

For anyone else who is curious, there are some Frank animations available on the web at the URL below (they use RealPlayer instead of Flash, so you'll need to have that installed). Definitely worth a look if you're curious about the strange world of Jim Woodring.

http://www.seattle.gov/arts/showcase/peephole/
 
Forgot to mention Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run. The Brotherhood of Dada, Danny the Street, The Decreator and all other manner of surreal superheroics. The first few stories (Crawling From the Wreckage and The Painting That Ate Paris) have been reprinted in trade paperback. Hopefully the rest of the series will be too.
 
I've discovered many recent favorites published by Humanoids/DC, www.humanoids-publishing.com. Unfortunately DC recently terminated its partnership with Humanoids, but they plan to keep their previously published books available. Still no word on who'll take over the distribution after July.

I've got to list Alexandro Jodorowsky as my favorite writer/creator. His films (Fando & Lys, El Topo, Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre) put me in a state of zen; his graphic novels fill me with giddy delight. Take the METABARONS, for instance: there's a plot twist on every page, some so mind-boggling I've had to restrain myself from whipping the books across the room. The gorgeous artwork is by Jaun Gimenez who some of you may be familiar with. The METABARONS is a spin-off of an earlier comic J. created with Moebius, called The INCAL.

Another spin-off, the TECHNOPRIESTS, is a violent and truly surreal tale centered around a young boy's ambitions to become the galaxy's greatest video game creator. When I first read about this book I was turned off, but upon viewing the artwork and reminding myself that it was after all a Jodorowsky novel I picked it up and read it thrice in one day. There are vampire trees that inhabit entire planets, shark-headed pirates... someone gets raped by a comet (you read me right!) and then goes through the pain and torture of birthing the flaming offspring...

My favorite Jodorowsky, however, is a two volume collection called SON OF THE GUN. It's about a man who was born with a tail, brought up by a transvestite midget prostitute who substituted a gun barrel for a pacifier. This man grows up to become, first, a s h i t disturber, then the right-hand man to the president of Mexico. The story gets pretty messed up from there on... The artwork is rendered by George Bess, who also collaborated w/J. on another two volume collection called the WHITE LAMA. It's the polar opposite of SOTG, still packed with violence, but overall it's an uplifting tale, compared to the dark, depressing and depraved nature of SOTG.

Some other suggestions from Humanoids:

Deicide
Sanctum
Hollow Grounds

A suggestion for something published by Fantagraphics:

Black Hole by Charles Burns. It's about an STD that only affects teens, that turns them into mutants.

And one from DC/Vertigo:

Shadows Fall, written by John Ney Reiber, painted by Jon Van Fleet. Basically it's the story of a man who loses his shadow after a little girl dies in his place. While he lives out a horribly mundane life his shadow roams the city taunting people towards suicide so it can feed on their souls. Kinda Ligottian...

P.
 
Stu";p="1946 said:
Forgot to mention Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run. The Brotherhood of Dada, Danny the Street, The Decreator and all other manner of surreal superheroics. The first few stories (Crawling From the Wreckage and The Painting That Ate Paris) have been reprinted in trade paperback. Hopefully the rest of the series will be too.
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Absolutely! Plus, the Antigod itself has a relatively Ligottian air. (Its cult is led by puppets. C'mon!)
 
One of my absolute favorite comics series is Cerebus, by Dave Sim. Cerebus "phonebooks" (as they are affectionately called, because the compilations tend to be huge) can be a bit on the pricey side (expect 25 to 40 dollars depending on the length of the story arc). As I have the whole series, I've not seen if Amazon carries it or not, but I know I've mainly been only able to find it in comics shops or rather large bookstores. Sim recently finished the 300 issue last year, I believe, and he'd been getting it out with his own publishing company since '77. Check it out.

Also recommended: 100 bullets by Brian Azzarello, anything by Chris Ware (Acme Novelty Library), and Cages by Dave McKean.
 
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