Comic / Graphic Novel Recommendations

I've read some stuff by Alan Moore, Joss Whedon, and Brian K. Vaughan. I liked Y: The last , by Vaughan, which is a post apocalyptic story that ranges 10 volumes. If you want something shorter, Pride of Baghdad was a 1 issue story by Vaughan about four lions that escaped a zoo during the US v Middle East war war in the 90's or so. Based on a true story.

I've read none in the near past.  As it relates to comics, it could potentially be many things, I'm not sure.

Watchmen and V for Vendetta (particularly if you are interested in British politics) are predictable, but splendid. Some other choices:

Asterios Polyp, Blankets, Ghost World, City of Glass, Sex Criminals, Saga, and anything by Lynda Barry (she's hilarious). 

Oh, and The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, obviously. 

I liked the most recent run of Hawkeye, very interesting.

Lumberjanes and Kaptara!

You might enjoy Persepolis, which is an autobiographical comic about an Iranian woman's life from the eve of the revolution to I think the 90's. I can't remember quite when the end point was, but volume 2 definitely ended before Mohammad Khatami was president, otherwise it would have probably been more optimistic.

Oh, and if we extend this to manga you could give Eden a try. I wrote a review of it over on the manga thread, but basically it's a post-cyberpunk story about the world after a pandemic has ravaged it and the New World Order has been erected by the usual suspects. It's the only comic I know of that invites the reader to read Chomsky in the appendix. Essentially a leftist critique of neoliberalism but with cyborgs and Gnosticism.

All of the suggestions here are great so far! I'll also add I Kill Giants, which is touching and just wonderfully done and is being adapted into a movie.

Revival is a great series with several trade paperbacks out so far. It's a zombie/supernatural Southern noir.

Paying For It is an intersting read.

Nobody mentioned either Sandman nor Watchmen so yeah, there's your two obvious staples.

I'd also like to mention Chew, going in I thought I'd probably hate it but it grew on me because while it is dark at times, it's also very light in a way and humorous to boot.

Guys, there's a severe lack of Warren Ellis here... He's done a lot of stuff, but here's a few possible entry points:


Transmetropolitan - Political journalism satire... think Hunter S Thompson Of The Future with better/worse drugs and a gun that makes people shit themselves. Considered a classic for good reason.
Global Frequency - Rescue Fiction: 1001 people worldwide, experts in various fields, called on by a mysterious ex-spy when bad shit happens. 12 issues, good entry to Warren's voice.
NEXTWAVE: Agents of HATE - Marvel actually let him take the piss out of their entire back catalogue.
Freakangels - post-apocalypse/flooding of London, a group of psychic kids who caused the end of the world try to survive. An easy entry because it's a free webcomic, here. 
Planetary - Superhero archaeologists, trying to understand why their world is a strange as it is... and to keep it that way. Riffs off of everything from Sherlock Holmes to Godzilla.
Injection - One of his current series, full of British folk strangeness.

If you’re looking for nonfiction Logicomix, a comic biography of Bertrand Russell pre-WWII and overview of early twentieth century analytic philosophy, is superb.

For old, Golden Age comics that might turn your nostalgia black: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (2009) - Second volume of Collected Works by Fletcher Hanks.

Thanks for the recommendations I missed since, uh, October! I'd forgotten I'd started this!

Pissy lament and thread torpor roiling. Check out Ranxerox. Whenever it comes out in North America.

The Death of Stalin graphic novel - the one that the upcoming Armando Ianucci movie is based on - is currently 99 cents as an ebook on Amazon/Comixology.