This is not intended as a comprehensive list, just a few titles we’ve enjoyed and consider essential classics of the comic book medium.
GREAT GRAPHIC NOVELS
Some recommended reading.
Some recommended reading.
Copyright ©2008 Dave Morris Leo Hartas Martin McKenna. All rights reserved. No material from this website to be used without express permission of the rights holders.
The Sandman: Dream Country
Includes the first part of Gaiman's take on Shakespeare's creative bargain with Morpheus in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which won the World Fantasy Award for best short story. The stories are all standalones: "Calliope", "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" and "Facade". As an interesting bonus feature, the book includes the annotated script for "Calliope".
The Sandman: Fables and Reflections
Nine great stories. A man terrified by his nightmares of falling. Haroun al-Rashid selling the dream of Baghdad to preserve its beauty. The start of Gaiman's great heart-rending saga of Orpheus. And there's old Baba Yaga in her chicken-legged hut.
Kingdom of the Wicked
By the talented British author-artist team Ian Edginton and Matt Brooker, aka D'Israeli . The story has some similarities to the Sandman classic "A Game of You" <http://www.amazon.com/Sandman-Vol-Game-You/dp/1563890895> but not in any sense a rip-off. They're both interesting and very different explorations of a theme (like The Matrix and Dark City, say) worth reading as companion pieces.
Summer Blonde
The far end of the comics spectrum from something like Watchmen. Adrian Tomine's stories of urban alienation often don't really quite go anywhere - but in the most intriguing way.
Shortcomings
Another superb, disturbing, elusive graphic novel by Adrian Tomine. Jonathan Lethem said: 'Shortcomings is as deceptively simple and perfect as a comic book gets.' And Nick Hornby said: 'Reading a comic book suddenly becomes as rewarding as reading good contemporary fiction. Tomine has both talent and a writer's eye for the truth.'
Ghost World
Good though the movie is, the original graphic novel is much better. Daniel Clowes describes it as the examination of "the lives of two recent high school graduates from the advantaged perch of a constant and (mostly) undetectable eavesdropper, with the shaky detachment of a scientist who has grown fond of the prize microbes in his petri dish". So there you go. If Adrian Tomine is disquieting, Daniel Clowes's stuff is like being trapped in an elevator with a raving madman. In a good way.
The Golem's Mighty Swing
Golems, baseball, racial intolerance, the Great Depression and the American Dream. But it's not just the great combination of themes or the way James Sturm tells the story, it's the marvellously simple drawings that pack such movement and flow.
The Rainbow Orchid
Characters who come to life will make a story come to life; the readers take them to their hearts and will follow them through all kinds of scrapes. This is the beating heart of Garen Ewing’s beautiful adventure series The Rainbow Orchid. It stands out from other graphic novels because you feel like you are joining an extended family of well-rounded characters. In an epic plot involving family fortunes, life-or-death wagers, ancient secrets, skulduggery, cults, myths, loyalty and betrayal, Garen never loses sight of the importance of grounding us in the characters’ reactions to all these events in which they’re embroiled. And his deceptively simple ligne claire style evokes the 1920s setting with charm and verisimilitude. This is a truly worthy successor to Tintin, a series of adventure books with a sparkling sense of warmth, wit, depth, intrigue and fun.
The Death of Speedy
One of the best Love & Rockets stories - which makes it almost the best you're ever going to read in comics.
Includes the first part of Gaiman's take on Shakespeare's creative bargain with Morpheus in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which won the World Fantasy Award for best short story. The stories are all standalones: "Calliope", "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" and "Facade". As an interesting bonus feature, the book includes the annotated script for "Calliope".
The Sandman: Fables and Reflections
Nine great stories. A man terrified by his nightmares of falling. Haroun al-Rashid selling the dream of Baghdad to preserve its beauty. The start of Gaiman's great heart-rending saga of Orpheus. And there's old Baba Yaga in her chicken-legged hut.
Kingdom of the Wicked
By the talented British author-artist team Ian Edginton and Matt Brooker, aka D'Israeli . The story has some similarities to the Sandman classic "A Game of You" <http://www.amazon.com/Sandman-Vol-Game-You/dp/1563890895> but not in any sense a rip-off. They're both interesting and very different explorations of a theme (like The Matrix and Dark City, say) worth reading as companion pieces.
Summer Blonde
The far end of the comics spectrum from something like Watchmen. Adrian Tomine's stories of urban alienation often don't really quite go anywhere - but in the most intriguing way.
Shortcomings
Another superb, disturbing, elusive graphic novel by Adrian Tomine. Jonathan Lethem said: 'Shortcomings is as deceptively simple and perfect as a comic book gets.' And Nick Hornby said: 'Reading a comic book suddenly becomes as rewarding as reading good contemporary fiction. Tomine has both talent and a writer's eye for the truth.'
Ghost World
Good though the movie is, the original graphic novel is much better. Daniel Clowes describes it as the examination of "the lives of two recent high school graduates from the advantaged perch of a constant and (mostly) undetectable eavesdropper, with the shaky detachment of a scientist who has grown fond of the prize microbes in his petri dish". So there you go. If Adrian Tomine is disquieting, Daniel Clowes's stuff is like being trapped in an elevator with a raving madman. In a good way.
The Golem's Mighty Swing
Golems, baseball, racial intolerance, the Great Depression and the American Dream. But it's not just the great combination of themes or the way James Sturm tells the story, it's the marvellously simple drawings that pack such movement and flow.
The Rainbow Orchid
Characters who come to life will make a story come to life; the readers take them to their hearts and will follow them through all kinds of scrapes. This is the beating heart of Garen Ewing’s beautiful adventure series The Rainbow Orchid. It stands out from other graphic novels because you feel like you are joining an extended family of well-rounded characters. In an epic plot involving family fortunes, life-or-death wagers, ancient secrets, skulduggery, cults, myths, loyalty and betrayal, Garen never loses sight of the importance of grounding us in the characters’ reactions to all these events in which they’re embroiled. And his deceptively simple ligne claire style evokes the 1920s setting with charm and verisimilitude. This is a truly worthy successor to Tintin, a series of adventure books with a sparkling sense of warmth, wit, depth, intrigue and fun.
The Death of Speedy
One of the best Love & Rockets stories - which makes it almost the best you're ever going to read in comics.
Tiny Tom Fish-Head and Wavy Davy Dali from Kingdom of the Wicked.
