Graphic Novels

[colcool007]

Have recently purchased MAUS and while it is an American Graphic novel (which has rightly been accorded critical acclaim and I thoroughly recommend to anyone whether they are a comic fan or not), it prompted me to think what Graphic Novels other people would recommend.

For myself, I would like to recommend Charley's War, a true brit GN, Give Me Liberty, a pure bred Frank Miller US GN, Preacher, written by Garth Ennis and wonderfully illustrated by Steve Dillon so that it just qualifies as a UK GN. There are a few others like Captain Britain and Camelot 3000, which although released by US companies have a UK-centric story and have in part UK creators.

Any thoughts?

[Gary Northfield]

Off the top of my head, if you enjoyed Maus, then you should check out Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Joe Sacco's Palestine.
Other favourites of mine that are worth checking out:
Hey, Wait by Jason
It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken by Seth
Isaac The Pirate by Christophe Blain
Dungeon by Sfar, Trondheim and many others
Paul Has A summer Job by Michel Rabagliati
Good-bye Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson
Sock Monkey by Tony Millionaire
Hellboy By Mike Mignola, in particular Conqueror Worm and the Chained Coffin

I've got a bit of a hangover, otherwise I'd go into the reasons why you should
buy them. But really, you can't go wrong with any of those.

[Lew Stringer]

Just a few of my own recommendations:

The James Bond and Modesty Blaise albums. Top notch British newspaper strips.

The EC Archives: Newly coloured hardback collections of 1950s EC comics. Shot from original artwork so you can see every line.

Trigan Empire hardback collections: Bloomin' expensive but every collector should own one. Again, shot from the original artwork (where possible).

Springheeled Jack: David Hitchcock's superb graphic novel.

Battle Royale: If you want one example of ultra-violent adult Manga, this is the series to collect. 15 volumes of mental mayhem that makes Action look like Jack & Jill.

Bone: Huge doorstep of a book collecting the entire series by Jeff Smith.

EDIT: Saturday night. Just realized you're talking about graphic novels, not any old collection. Sorry. Should have read the topic correctly!

I'll get me coat.

Lew

[philcom55]

Has anybody seen Bryan Talbot's astonishing Alice in Sunderland yet? I know people are ready to call anything a 'tour de force' nowadays but this actually seems like the genuine article!

- Phil Rushton

[colcool007]

Saw it in Borders book shop in Swindon, but had to choose between Bryan Talbot's book and Maus. I thin we know what happened there then. Have to give credit to Borders, one of the biggest comic sections that I have seen in any bokshop, but the prices are getting really high for GN.

[Dave Windett]

Hi

For what it's worth I would recommend -

Jack Staff - Paul Grist
Owly - Andy Runton
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck - Don Rosa
The Tale of One Bad Rat - Bryan Talbot
Leave it to Chance - James Robinson and Paul Smith
The Dreamer - Will Eisner
Halo Jones - Alan Moore and Ian Gibson

Dave

[Lew Stringer]

Has anybody seen Bryan Talbot's astonishing Alice in Sunderland yet? I know people are ready to call anything a 'tour de force' nowadays but this actually seems like the genuine article!

- Phil Rushton

Yes, I bought a copy from Amazon the other week for a reasonable price. The book looks fantastic, and I would have included it in my list above but I haven't read it yet.

Lew

[chrissmillie]

Have to say, I thought Camelot 3000 was awful. Especially so soon after Watchmen. Now there's a graphic novel!

Sorry Dave.

Chris

[David McDonald]

Camelot was not very good, but its still worth the price of admission for the only substantial Bolland artwork other than Dredd. It originally started publication years before Watchmen, but did have eratic publishing.
The collection may have come out After the publication of the Watchmen collection.

As for Graphic Novels the Strontium Dog Collection From Rebellion comes highly recomended.
Troubled Souls by Ennis and McCrae is also worth a look for a different perspective on Norn Iorn. Pity Ennis now dosent rate it, dosent look like it will ever be reprinted.
The Silver Arm By Jim Fitzpatrick is worth a look, not a comic as such, its a page of text and a page of art, like some of the Hellboy comics. This is what some of the Slaine stories for 2000AD was based on

David

[chrissmillie]

"Troubled Souls by Ennis and McCrae is also worth a look"

Crisis and Revolver were incredibly under-rated. Straitgate, Third World War, Dire Streets and all those lost classics.

Chris

[colcool007]

Have to say, I thought Camelot 3000 was awful. Especially so soon after Watchmen. Now there's a graphic novel!

Sorry Dave.

Chris

To me, Camelot 3000 was a brilliant update on the Arthurian legends, but everybody has their own opinion.

Crisis and Revolver were incredibly under-rated. Straitgate, Third World War, Dire Streets and all those lost classics.

Agreed. And the Dan Dare story was a unique take. Much better than the Dan Dare story used in 2000AD IMHO.

[HighAndMighty]

I'll second the recommendations of Persepolis and Watchmen (which re-defined and reintroduced me to comics).

I'll also offer up:
Ice Haven
Spiral Into Horror: Uzumaki(Japanese horror- but occasioanly very Hammer Horror/Tales of the Unexpected in its outlook)
Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth

3 very different styles, 3 very good comics

Can anyone recommend any good British Graphic Novels?
Is V for Vendetta as good as it's cracked up to be?

[Shaqui]

Have to say, I thought Camelot 3000 was awful. Especially so soon after Watchmen. Now there's a graphic novel!

To me, Camelot 3000 was a brilliant update on the Arthurian legends, but everybody has their own opinion.

Have to agree with Col - I was never one for US DC comics but friends of mine persuaded me to look at the first issues of 'C3000' and I was blown away by Bolland's artwork, which I knew from '2000AD'. I was also pretty impressed by the storyline, and new takes on the old characters.

Still have my original twelve issues.

[Dave Windett]

Can anyone recommend any good British Graphic Novels?
Is V for Vendetta as good as it's cracked up to be?

I thought it was pretty good when I read it, but that was years ago,don't know what I would think of it now.

Other British Graphic novels worth trying -

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright - Bryan Talbot
True Faith - Garth Ennis and Warren Pleece

and I know I mentioned it before, but have a look at Paul Grist's Jack staff. I love the mixture of marvel style super heroes and thinly disguised versions of classic British adventure characters. He also manages to throw in the Walmington-on-Sea home guard and Steptoe and Son for good measure.

Dave

[Brendan McGuire]

I would unreservedly recommend V for Vendetta. It feels a little dated in some repects, but reflects some of the fear of Britain's lurch to the political right a lot of people felt at the time.
There is a sequence near the beginning that I feel just HAD to have been inspired by Will Eisner's "Showdown". I mean the fight in the dark between The Spirit and The Octopus. The use of light and shadow in VfV is nothing short of masterful.