"Graphic Novel" or "GN" began being used in the '80s to distinguish higher-priced, squarebound standalone narratives not intended to be reviewed by the Comics Code Authority (CCA). GN is tossed about a bit loosely these days, but generally means the same thing, though it's also applied to softcover/hardcover collections.Originally Posted by Dave (in MA)
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers is awesome stuff. I assume you also read/collected a Last Gasp anthology called Death Rattle. It featured work by Corben, Wood and other notables, along with artists exclusively found in underground stables like Jaxon and Griffith.
Exactly!
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
Spot on.
I liked Marvel until the 90s and the gold/silver/bronze covers and the monthly creation of ten more X-Men.
Image is VERY good these days. Very good. Go ahead and give them a try. They've out vertigo'd Vertigo.
Dark Horse publishes excellent stuff. BUT...the only issue is they won't get on board with comiXology and have their own reader...which isn't so great.
I'm not much of a collector, either. I read comics for entertainment. Re-sale isn't part of the equation...
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
IMHO, Promethea was/is a major ass-kicker! Actually, all the America's Best Comics stuff was great. Top Ten, Tom Strange, Tomorrow Stories... The first part of League of Extraordinary Gentleman was classic. Second part...not so much...although Mr. Hyde sodomizing the Invisible Man was noteworthy...
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
Although I spent the 70's & 80's in North am, I must say that I was never able to adapt to the "Comics" from that side of the pond, especially the Marvel/DC superhero crap (sorry, no offence, but to a lot of Europeans, that kind of comics is really junk, like McDonald's is as well)
Sure I read the newspaper comic strips (even liked a few >> Hagar, Calvin, Bloom County, Garfield, etc...), but the actual Marvel comic books, I was never able to read through one of them in its entirity. I believe DC comics are published under the Panini Comics in Europe, though.
But being of Belgian stock, the "bande dessinée" was definitely my thing, though there is so much more to it than Tintin, Smurfs or Asterix... And I'm still an avid BDFB (bande dessinée franco-belge) reader , but to give you titles of series you've never heard of is not likely to be any help to any of you. (I can if you guys want to)
To me, the first universally recognised graphic novel was Maus (mid-80's), and nowadays the term is often used for B&W mid-sized format and lengthy (above 100 pages). Dropforge has an acurate definition as well. I don't agree too much with Bill's definition, though.
Yeah, Crumb, Eisner were maybe what I liked best from North Am poduction...
In the late 90's , I started liking Seth, Chester Brown, Rabagliatti, Tomine, etc...... but to be honest, I grew out of it fairly quick, because all these guys are able to do is talk about them and their navels.
I do keep an eye on some modern US comics series like Scalped, 100 Bullets, Watchmen, Sandman, Walking Dead, etc.... Never been able to bring one home... just doesn't appeal to me... It's all too gorey...
But I haven't seen or heard of any that Bungalow mention...
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Sandman - nothing else even approaches.
I love Sandman but plenty is on par. For a contemporary comparison, Morrison's run onAnimal Man was third-wall pushing great.
And, yeah, Image was responsible for some of the 90s dreck, but they are easily the best publisher going. Saga, The Manhattan Projects, Walking Dead, East of West, Sex Criminals. That's a good roster of monthlies, and there's three or four more that I have on my "wait for trade" list.
Oh. And for good 90s Image, be sure to check out The Maxx. IDW has the remastered version as a monthly right now.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
Pretty much the same here, although I totally despised Marvel. My DC favorites were Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern and Blackhawk(criminally underrated!) I sold a lot of my collection in the 80's for a down payment on a house, but kept some sentimental favorites as well as beat up issues that they wouldn't pay much for. I kept all the 80-page "Annuals" of Batman(some of which have stories back to the 40s), Flash, World's Finest and a few Superman, and also bought several of the 500 p B & W DC reprints which came out in the mid-2000s.
Aside from DC I'm a big fan of newspaper characters Flash Gordon(Mac Raboy era 1948-68)and the Phantom(Wilson McCoy era). The Phantom never had a strong comic book deal here, so the best place to get reprints is from Australia where his is the most popular character going
Love Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, and just about everyone who wrote HELLBLAZER for its first hundred issues or so.
My first love was and remains the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I hope to complete my collection soon. (I can actually complete it because I decided that - for me, at least - the Legion ended for good with Zero Hour and the reboot.)
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
I've buying Saga in graphic novel format as each volume comes out. Man, that is one helluva ride.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Isn't there already an anime thread.
I was a total fanboy - buying 50+ titles a month - from about 1985-1991. Quit cold turkey for three years before getting back into it on a much smaller scale - 6-8 titles per month - from about 1994-2001 (or whenever James Robinson's "Starman" ended). Then quit cold turkey a second time for about five years before getting back into it sometime around 2006. I've never bought any monthly comics in this third phase of collecting though; I wait and buy everything in graphic novel form instead.
Pretty much all the original issues I collected from the 80s and 90s are long gone with no regrets. I still have the complete run of the aforementioned "Starman", Mike Grell's lengthy run on "Green Arrow", a nearly-complete "Groo the Wanderer" (missing 5 or 6 issues), Bill Willingham's "Elementals", Matt Wagner's "Grendel", and that's about it.
Don't have a whole lot of use for superheroes these days, but I still read Daredevil, Scott Snyder's Batman series is decent, Matt Fraction's Hawkeye is cool, and I still like some of the stuff that Brian Bendis does. Occasionally I still buy new graphic novel collections of vintage Spiderman or Avengers or Hulk stories from the 70s and 80s, but I have no interest in following the current continuity of those characters.
I was reading a lot of Vertigo stuff for a while but they seem to have dried up quite a bit in the past couple of years, and I would agree that Image has pretty much become the new Vertigo at this point. In fact I think "Fables" and "The Wake" are the only current Vertigo titles I'm still reading, but Image has "The Walking Dead", "Saga", "Fatale", "Lazarus", "Thief of Thieves, and "Morning Glories" (although my interest in this last one is waning and I may give it up soon). "Revival" has been recommended to me and I'll try that one next. I thought "East of West" (Image) and "American Vampire" (Vertigo) were both terrible.
I've been a webcomic artist for about seventeen years now; had some of my work published in a Ted Rall-edited compilation but everything else has been self-published. If you're interested, the comic's called Newshounds and I don't provide a link because I'm a bit shy about my work.
Something more "mainstream" that I created: http://somethinghappens.keenspot.com
"Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)
I'll admit that I'm curious to try the recent Archie spin on zombies ("Afterlife with Archie") once it's collected into graphic novel form.
I'll read pretty much anything by Grant Morrison and Alan Moore. Grant's run on 'Doom Patrol' was astounding and Moore - for all that he's a cranky nutter - is still capable of genius like the League of Gentleman - Century trilogy and .Neonomicon'.
I liked the idea behind 'Lost Girls' much more than the execution.
Loved Jamie Delano's run on 'Helblazer', and 'Sandman', of course.
Has anyone read the new Sandman series by Gaiman? Opinions?
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
As a kid I mainly liked the horror comics - The Unexpected, the Charlton titles (Weird Tales) all that stuff.
Also Shazam!/ Captaiinarvel
My younger brother had 100s of Richie Rich's which were fun to read.
I ended up liking him a lot, too. Sweet Tooth was great. Trillium was OK. His art is always interesting. I haven't read Underwater Welder yet.
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
I think something Will Eisner wrote is considered the first graphic novel (???) Not sure. A Conversation with God, maybe?
Maus is good. I've never felt the urge to return to it but I enjoyed it.
I think an older definition of "graphic novel" lines up somewhat with your definition, in a historical sense.
Something like Watchmen, reprinted as a collection, is commonly called a "graphic novel" but TPB is probably more accurate.
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
Really liked MG back in the day, especially The Warlord.
I've enjoyed everything this guy has done, especially Grendel.
I stopped reading this one...I got tired of the one-liners. MF's Immortal Iron Fist was quite good. Warren Ellis' Moon Knight is the only super-hero book I could recommend.
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
I've always thought that Warner Brothers has really dropped the ball on superhero movies because they own two characters (via DC, actually via Fawcett) that are absolutely made for the movies: Shazam! and Plastic Man.
It would make far more sense to try these two characters than to bother with e.g. Green Lantern.
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
The art couldn't be any better...
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
Hellblazer was very good...just stay away from the movie...
If I had to choose, I'd take Warren Ellis over any other modern comics writer. His stuff for Avatar is stellar. Try No Hero or Global Frequency (which might be Image).
I liked LSH when I was young, if only for the gigantic roster! I think the last time I read it the newest characters were Dawnstar, Tyroc and Blok. The LSH has the distinction of including the hero with the worst name of all-time: Matter-Eater Lad. Hilarious.
Although, The Whizzer is bad code name, too. Maybe if he didn't wear a yellow uniform...
I never developed a fondness for Grant Morrison. WE3, one JLA graphic novel, the beginning of his run on X-Men, that's about it. The Invisibles was pretty cool. However, I have to give him credit, All-Star Superman was well done. Superman is a hard character to write and GM did a nice job digging into the mythos and portraying Superman's basic nobility.
For that which is not,
there is no coming into being
and for that which is,
there is no ceasing to be;
yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
Bhagavad Gita
Yeah, Eisner was also among the first GN as well...
But nowadays it's mostly a publishing format.... You take regular Spiderman comics but in b&w , assemble 25 or 30 of them in the right format and give them the right cover (generally soft) and you've got a GN...
In the Belgo-French realm, the publishing house of Casterman published during the 80's some outstanding "romans graphique" through it's monthly publication called (A Suivre) like:
Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese
Jacques Tardi's Ici-Même
JC Forest's Jonque Fantome (Forest did Barbarella in the 60's)
Claude Auclair's Bran Ruz and Sang Du Flamboyant
Didier Comes' Silence
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
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