GRAPHIC Novels (Super Edit)

ninjai · January 2011

Are you a fan of art AND narrative?

On this subforum, I've seen a lot of threads about characters, plotlines, and genre's of comic, but not one for ART, without which comics wouldn't exist!

I've never been a very avid comic reader because I keep finding stuff like this to not be appealing to me (design-wise and all the loud colors...).

I find this series to be endlessly unique and inspiring, and I also dig this, dark and moody.

(not just the story, but the tone of the images)

I find the typical "Super Hero" art style to be very copied and way too literal in its interpretation of life. And think that the grandiose 80's action movie cover stylings and this has been beaten to death(<<that's 4 different links - we all know luke was not that muscular)

So, lets discuss some of the more artistic comics (illustrators/graphic novel artists/sequntial artists) that are out there. (Not to say that other comics aren't good, but focusing more on the illustrations and design)

Examples:

Gagne

Matthew Forsy

Preview 2

this

Witch_Hunter_84 · January 2011

There's an independant series I became a fan of back in 2005 called Archaic. I thought the art and story were equally intruiging and the overall Slavic mythological themes the series dealt in also helped to reel me in.

Check out the gallery. See if it's up your alley.

Grifter · January 2011

You don't like Invincible? What's wrong with you?

Flight is great but it's less of a series and more of a bunch of anthologies.

Comics that I've enjoyed over the years include but aren't limited to:

Lucifer
Preacher
The Umbrella Academy
Kingdom Come
Fables
The Authority
Wildcats 3.0
Planetary
Transmetropolitan
Fear Agent

TexiKen · January 2011

Casanova
Daytripper
Umbrella Academy
Wizard of Oz/Wonderful World of Oz
Mini-Marvels

These are all series that have a lot of the story and art that you would like. Not traditional art styles but flow with the story. Although you should check out All-Star Superman just to see one of the best modern superhero stories and its execution.

Munch · January 2011

ninjai wrote: »

*GASP* I'm a fan of art AND narrative!

I haven't seen a Sequential ART thread on this subforum.

This is an incredibly obnoxious way to start your post, and basically an intimation that the rest of this forum is comprised of drooling fanboys that just like dem dere purty pikshurs of superpeople what's beatin' up on each other. So, good job on that. Still, here's some books that have non-traditional art styles and stories, which you might enjoy.

-Daisy Kutter: A steampunk western by Kazu Kibuishi, one of the main guys behind the Flight anthologies.

-King City: The story of a boy getting over a girl, in a futuristic city where aliens, luchadores, ninjas, and Lovecraftian horrors run wild.

-Won Ton Soup: A space-trucker participates in a cooking competition that puts Iron Chef to shame.

-Orc Stain: An orc that's very much unlike the traditional Lord of the Rings/D&D stereotype attempts to navigate his way through a world ruled by savagery.

-Parker: The Hunter/Parker: The Outfit: A flashy noir comic set in the past, adapting the novels of Donald Westlake/Richard Stark.

-Viking: Essentially a crime book, set in the days of vikings. It has a very dark, moody art style.

-Hercules: Knives of Kush and Caliber: I haven't read either of these past the first issue, but they've got that painted art style you seem to like.

-Automatic Kafka: A robot that used to be on a superhero team, struggles to find purpose after the team disbands. It's drawn by Ashley Wood, who again has a dark, non-traditional style.

This would be easier if you told us what genres you enjoyed. Sci-Fi? Fantasy? Romance? Pulp adventures? Crime?

Hensler · January 2011

ninjai wrote: »

*GASP*

I also find the typical "Super Hero" style comic to be offensive in its stylistic rigidity and literal interpretation of the human form, structures, etc, and its grandiose 80's action movie cover stylings and this (<<that's 4 different links - we all know luke was not that muscular)

Question =

Any suggestions for reading material? I kind of backed myself up into a very narrow nitch looking for an illustrated narrative.

Well, I found your post offensive and borderline trolling, but I'm going to give you a suggestion anyways. There is a little known writer/artist named Robert Liefeld whose work you should check out. It seems to be what you are looking for.

cardboard delusions · January 2011

I'm so glad you're back.

jkylefulton · January 2011

Based on your descriptions, I think you'd enjoy the work of Charles Vess and Mike Mignola.

jkylefulton · January 2011

Oh, and you should pick up Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY, because everyone should read that stuff.

TexiKen · January 2011

jkylefulton wrote: »

Oh, and you should pick up Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY, because everyone should read that stuff.

But that's just superheroes being awesome with an excellent story every issue!

admanb · January 2011

TexiKen wrote: »

jkylefulton wrote: »

Oh, and you should pick up Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY, because everyone should read that stuff.

But that's just superheroes being awesome with an excellent story every issue!

Yes but it is sequential ART.

Linespider5 · January 2011

I dig this thread.

DouglasDanger · January 2011

Your OP makes you seem like a snob and a jerk.

Two of my favorite books have unique art-- King City and Orc Stain. Casanova and Incognito are both good. Hellboy, BPRD, Parker...

Blame is really, really good. So is Biomega. Have you read biomega?

You may want to check out Fear Agent, it has a neat concept, good writing and great art. It is also awesome and really depressing at the same time. Another comic that alternates between kicking ass and being really depressing is Scalped.

Linespider5 · January 2011

I think you guys are being too hard on this man. I mean, I'd say 94% of what we do in here more has to do with characterization discussions, plotline speculation, publisher intrigue and the creators themselves. Aside from character redesigns, failure-level illustration work or 'this is a cool moment' or what have you, we don't actually have a comic art thread, focused specifically on the art of comics, rather than scenes, character triumphs, etc. It's worth considering at least.

admanb · January 2011

Linespider5 wrote: »

I think you guys are being too hard on this man. I mean, I'd say 94% of what we do in here more has to do with characterization discussions, plotline speculation, publisher intrigue and the creators themselves. Aside from character redesigns, failure-level illustration work or 'this is a cool moment' or what have you, we don't actually have a comic art thread, focused specifically on the art of comics, rather than scenes, character triumphs, etc. It's worth considering at least.

The fact that his goal is reasonable doesn't make his approach less douchey.

ninjai · January 2011

admanb wrote: »

Linespider5 wrote: »

I think you guys are being too hard on this man. I mean, I'd say 94% of what we do in here more has to do with characterization discussions, plotline speculation, publisher intrigue and the creators themselves. Aside from character redesigns, failure-level illustration work or 'this is a cool moment' or what have you, we don't actually have a comic art thread, focused specifically on the art of comics, rather than scenes, character triumphs, etc. It's worth considering at least.

The fact that his goal is reasonable doesn't make his approach less douchey.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't realize it would come across that way. I actually thought it would be funny

I'll go back and change it, but:

I do really appreciate all the recommendations! A lot of those look really promising.
We should turn this into the sequential art thread, like what linespider said, seeing as there hasn't been one yet.

SUPER EDIT!!!

I edited my main post, hopefully its less offensive now. I honestly thought it would get a laugh, I had no intention of offending anyone. Sorry

ninjai · January 2011

jkylefulton wrote: »

Based on your descriptions, I think you'd enjoy the work of Charles Vess and Mike Mignola.

These are my favorite so far. And Casanova is looking good from a quick google search.

Vess has a unique take on the super hero thing. Pretty cool.

This is pretty amazing.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAaa... Robert Liefeld Yes, I've heard of him.

I Love This Guy! He did the soldier short in Flight 3. Fantastic. And I'm a sucker for steam/cyberpunk. Gonna have to pick that one up.
On second thought, Munch, everything you recommended looks fan-goddam-tastic. The Automatic Kafka looks especially awesome. Thanks for the suggestions.

As for you question at the end, I don't have a preference for genre, I enjoy sci-fi, steam/cyberpunk, high fantasy, hard science fiction, hard boiled noir, action, fusion genres and whatever else.

This is Yes!

Algertman · January 2011

The OP is trolling then post SNIKT!

OK man, whatever.

ninjai · January 2011

Algertman wrote: »

The OP is trolling then post SNIKT!

OK man, whatever.

In case you didn't notice I also posted this...

And what's wrong with snikt?

Its the art/artist I'm talking about here. Its better than posting http://www.valar.ru/gallery/0408/abara_c02_p29.jpg it doesn't seem like a place thats very receptive of manga.

But I'm not here to talk about manga, I'm here to talk about good art in comics. So I put it up.

You guys like your "troll" word. Thats such a fucking 90s tactic. Get over it, I'm here to talk about comics,
not be an asshole. And how could what I edited my OP to be considered trolling? It's as neutral as I could come up with...

Hensler · January 2011

Done.

ninjai · January 2011

/facepalm

This looks great, and the wonderful world of oz too, and I have no idea what's going on here but I want to find out!!!

DouglasDanger wrote: »

Blame is really, really good. So is Biomega. Have you read biomega?

I'm a huge fan of tsutomu nihei specifically. I own those both in japanese and english, and if you're unfamiliar with ABARA I highly recommend it. Its hard to find a lot of his one shots too, cuz they get published in obscure japanese magazines.

Will have to check out your other two recommendations also

Glad someone else reads Nihei.

edit: I'm a fan of fear agent now. Adding to my cart on amazon.

May have to look into scalped. Its got some intriguing images on google, it didn't immediately grab me though.

ninjai · January 2011

how is chew?

cardboard delusions · January 2011

WHAT! Buy it, buy all three trades now! It's so good, well written and excellent art.

DouglasDanger · January 2011

Chew is awesome. One of the best comics I have read in the past two years.

Hensler · January 2011

You might like the style of Sean Phillips and Brubaker in their Criminal series.

Or the paints of Dan Brerenton, the best of which are in his Nocturnals books.

TexiKen · January 2011

I think it might be because you initially made the point that straight up superhero comic art isn't that good and that kind of limited the discussion, because it was too restricting of a medium that is at least 50% superheroes. If we just go for a general art in comics, that can work better. And Wolverine Snikt, if memory serves, had a pretty bad story, which would be the 90's mentality of art over story (the art is good, but that alone can't sell works anymore).

For instance, this is one of my favorite pages ever, because of the art style Stuart Immonen used for Superman: Secret Identity works perfectly for conveying Superman in our world and seeing what will become the start of a brave new world:

This page works not only with the copy, but also works without words if read with the rest of the issue. Going from Superman being a speck above the rural landscape (his beginnings) to Clark having that light-bulb moment of what he just realized, it is near perfect in its execution. Yet that is pretty standard superhero art. Does perfect execution of a certain "normal" style lend it anymore weight than someone being experimental and missing on some key points (for instance, Ashley Wood is experimental but I can't tell what's going on in half of his drawings).

Munch · January 2011

You could really do an entire post about Stuart Immonen. Guy's crazy talented.

DouglasDanger · January 2011

Immonen is one of the most talented artists. His work in Nextwave was incredible, especially that issue were he flawlessly mimics some other very famous artists.

cardboard delusions · January 2011

I just got Nextwave for Xmas, I love Immonen, one of the reasons I get New Avengers.

jkylefulton · January 2011

Immonen and Busiek really need to do some more Superstar/Shockrockets.

Hensler · January 2011

TexiKen wrote: »

, which would be the 90's mentality of art over story (the art is good, but that alone can't sell works anymore).

Unfortunately, Dark Knight being last month's top book indicates the opposite and that the 90's are on their way back.

ninjai · January 2011

I had this big elaborate post typed up with individual responses to a lot of you, but IE's shortcuts are retarded, and accidentally refreshed the page...

So this is the short of it.

Yeah, SNIKT didn't have the best story, but I'm a fan of the artist. Pretty much all of his artwork is amazing, and his 3 (4, but the newest one [Knights of Sidonia] sucks 3 issues in) main publications are phenominal.

ABARA (favorite, also not published in English)
Story of a creature called the Gauna destroying the world and man must protect the world against his will.

BLAME!
Killy goes on an epic 10 part quest looking for survivors of an ancient race.

BIOMEGA
A creature infects the human race and changes the world forever in a cyberpunk apocolypse.
NSFW (Blood)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iPliLYHc76g/TCSkl6yFbAI/AAAAAAAADO4/QpwBi2xIJAs/s1600/Biomega+Vol.1+-+Pag.Int.jpg

I also recommend (in order of preference):

Halo Graphic Novel: Breaking Quarantine
SGT Johnson's escape from the flood.
This has some Grad A-mazing art in it, but I can never find it online. I can only find the same page and a half. SOOO Good. And his rendering of the flood is downright creepy.
Its worth the 30 bucks just for HIS short. But there are 4, and lots of great art in the back.

DIGIMORTAL (One Shot)
A hyper fanatic technological cult threatens peace in a city.

Winged Armor SUZUMEGA (One Shot)
(spoilered for HOOJ)

NOiSE (published through tokyo pop)
Child murders are running rampant and a cop must put a stop to it in the distant future.

Zeb Noid (One Shot)
Two races clash, with a misterious outcome. (really short)

Antimatter · January 2011

if something is NSFW you link it
images load behind spoilers

ninjai · January 2011

Antimatter wrote: »

if something is NSFW you link it
images load behind spoilers

rgr fixed.

Thanks for the recommend on CHEW, it looks fabulous! Amazon was recommending to me yesterday

Incognito looks great. Wish I had that kind of money.

TexiKen wrote: »

I think it might be because you initially made the point that straight up superhero comic art isn't that good ...

I didn't mean to come accross like that, (Lord knows they're all better artists than I am!) I just meant that the typical heroic poses/super hero costume art isn't my preference. Which is why the venture brothers is so funny

Edit: Searching for Nextwave, I came across this. It made me lol

I think I may be a fan of this Stuart Immonen guy.

wwtMask · January 2011

Immonen is one of maybe 3 artists whose work I will check out even if I don't like the subject matter. Besides being a great storyteller, the dude is a fucking machine at the drawing table. He can put out pages as fast, if not faster, than Bagley.

Penny Arcade

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