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GV10 [Results]: Best Non-Big Two Comic: Check Page 3!

DJ EebsDJ Eebs Moderator, Administrator admin
edited April 2015 in Graphic Violence
Our next category is Best Non-Big Two Comic.

This category is for your favorite comic NOT published by Marvel or DC in the past ten years. So, anything from Image, or the independents, a webcomic, if you want...go wild. And...let's go ahead and allow Marvel and DC imprints like Vertigo or Icon here, as well. Note: licensed comics aren't eligible for this, they just had a category. This one's probably going to be packed, either way.

Rules

1) Nominate as many comics as you want! There's no limit, but this isn't meant to be comprehensive. Nominate the stuff you really like.
2) We're going to go back to needing three nominations again, because there are likely a lot of possible nominees for this and I want to keep it sane.
3) Remember, this is your place to make your case for your favorite comic. Voting will be in a Google form, as usual
4) And: keep it civil. This isn't a place to be shitty to each other.

Alright, and nominations are open...NOW

Put your nominations in BOLD TEXT. You don't need to all caps them, though

DJ Eebs on
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Posts

  • ZonugalZonugal (He/Him) The Holiday Armadillo I'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered User regular
    I will gladly nominate Afterlife with Archie.

    Ross-Geller-Prime-Sig-A.jpg
  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    Saga

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I would like to nominate Prince of Cats by Ron Wimberly

    Down-With.jpg

    It's a version of Romeo and Juliet done with a solid mix of hip hop and samurai films set in 1980s NYC and it is an absolutely perfect mix of all of its elements

    There's a lot of other things I could nominate here, and will assuredly be voting for, but this is one of my favorite comic books in years

  • ElderlycrawfishElderlycrawfish Registered User regular
    edited April 2015
    HPnLaUr.jpg

    Nominating Atomic Robo.

    Also Rat Queens, Sex Crims, and Manifest Destiny.

    Seconding Afterlife with Archie and Saga.

    Edit: oh yeah, due to its glacial publication pace, technically Planetary fits in the window, so I'll throw that in too.

    Elderlycrawfish on
  • Martini_PhilosopherMartini_Philosopher Registered User regular
    So I have a list. In no particular order:

    ODY-C
    Manhattan Projects
    Bitch Planet
    Chew
    Rat Queens
    The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
    Sex Criminals
    The Wicked + The Divine
    Saga

    All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
  • BionicPenguinBionicPenguin Registered User regular
    Seconding Rat Queens, Saga, and Sex Criminals, which will almost certainly be my top three.

  • DelduwathDelduwath Registered User regular
    WildStorm was technically an imprint of DC, although apparently it maintained a separate editorial group. How should we count that, then?

    I'm asking because if Planetary is allowed, then I'm voting for it 5 times. It's one of my all-time favorite, and personally-important, comics ever. Oh, I just re-read the OP. If we're allowing imprints, then yes, I am seconding Planetary with all of my being.

    I will second Atomic Robo.

    I will nominate:
    The Wicked + The Divine, for referencing olden time mythology in a very literate and academic way, while at the same time weaving it into modern pop mythology; for doing such a great job of getting across what it feels like to be a creative person; and for doing the best job I've seen in a while of representing what it's like to be a young person, and having a communication breakdown - a language gap - with your parents.

    Daytipper - For making me tear up at every chapter, for giving me something to include in every single Graphic Violence Secret Santa present I send out, and for making my grandma go "I didn't know that comics could be like this" after she read it.

    Three - For giving me a different perspective on the Ancient Greeks than the one I grew up with, and for educating me on Ancient Greek helmets.

  • Mike DangerMike Danger "Diane..." a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered User regular
    Ex Machina is mostly inside the 10-year window, right?

    Steam: Mike Danger | PSN/NNID: remadeking | 3DS: 2079-9204-4075
    oE0mva1.jpg
  • M-TeeM-Tee Registered User regular
    I'm hoping more members will post previews and write-ups. I've been eagerly anticipating this thread to find new comics.

  • BalefuegoBalefuego Registered User regular
    I'm planning to actually stump for my nominees so I won't be making my post until I get home.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Lindsay LohanLindsay Lohan Registered User regular
    Thirding Saga, and Sex Criminals

    Nominating Lumberjanes because it's an amazing book that deserves more credit for being awesome.

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    does MAX count as a marvel imprint?

  • DJ EebsDJ Eebs Moderator, Administrator admin
    I think MAX is tied in a little more closely with Marvel itself than say, Vertigo is with DC (at least pre-new 52)

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    boo!

  • SorceSorce Not ThereRegistered User regular
    Empowered
    What started as a super-hero sex comedy has developed into so much more. The comic follows it's titular heroine, Empowered, as she struggles to make a (positive) name for herself in the super hero community instead of being one of it's larger jokes. Despite being an associate member of the world's premiere Hero Team (the SuperHomies), Empowered gets little to no respect from her teammates, has body issues stemming from an overly tight supersuit, along with it usually becoming non-functional the more it's damaged. Emp has a support system though, from her ex-henchman boyfriend Thugboy, her kunoichi best friend Ninjette, and the Caged Demonwolf, a multidimensional energy being trapped in the bondage gear on her coffee table who usually provides running commentary since he can't actually move on his own.

    sig.gif
  • BalefuegoBalefuego Registered User regular
    Ugh this is really hard, I'm trying to cut myself down to a personal list of 5 because it'd be silly to nominate stuff I wouldn't even vote for but I'm stuck at 8 right now even with already having made some hard hard cuts.

    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    nominate East of West.

    In 10 issues Hickman builds a world that's deep and layered but also incredibly messed up, and 8 issues later goes even further with the main story. It's a fantastic world, with Nick Dragotta's art working everywhere, from the ominous feeling of everyone who isn't a Texas Ranger to monsters we see peppered throughout, and there's a robot dog, too. Who is also a gun.

    Seconding Manifest Destiny and Manhattan Projects

  • DelduwathDelduwath Registered User regular
    How did I forget to nominate East of West.

    Seconding East of West.

  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Saga, for obvious reasons.

    Stray Bullets, because it's goddamn amazing. Bad people collide with messed up people smash headlong into decent people in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    2000AD, home of Judge Dredd. An anthology comic that has been around for decades giving basically every British name in the industry their start. It has it's ups and downs, but it's a tremendously important comic for nuturing talent, and pushes out little masterpieces all the time. Recent triumphs include Brass Sun, the end of Nikolai Dante, the Dredd epic that saw his city almost destroyed and the gorgeous Stickleback.

  • SixshotStrikerSixshotStriker Registered User regular
    edited April 2015
    Nominations

    Atomic Robo
    The Goon
    The Sixth Gun
    The Wicked+The Divine

    SixshotStriker on
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
  • WiseManTobesWiseManTobes Registered User regular
    G-Man

    Steam! Battlenet:Wisemantobes#1508
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    second G-Man!

  • UnbrokenEvaUnbrokenEva HIGH ON THE WIRE BUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered User regular
    edited April 2015
    seconding the heck out of Prince of Cats

    that is a book I own two copies of specifically so I can lend one of them out

    edit: also thirding Afterlife With Archie

    UnbrokenEva on
  • HermanoHermano Registered User regular
    edited April 2015
    Locke and Key
    Uber

    Thirding Wicked and Divine, East of West,Planetary

    Hermano on

    PSN- AHermano
  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I will second Locke and Key

  • HermanoHermano Registered User regular
    Just going to throw Nowhere Men out there too, still love that book


    PSN- AHermano
  • UnbrokenEvaUnbrokenEva HIGH ON THE WIRE BUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered User regular
    seconding Lumberjanes and Uber, fourthing The Wicked + The Divine

    and now that I've nominated or supported 5 books and that list doesn't include Saga or Sex Criminals I don't know how the hell I'm going to handle the voting

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    I would like to nominate Y: The Last Man, which ran from 2002-2008 and thus falls into this ten year window.

  • THESPOOKYTHESPOOKY papa! Registered User regular
    edited April 2015
    Ex Machina is mostly inside the 10-year window, right?

    Almost entirely, yeah

    Ex Machina also gets my nomination as well as Saga and Y: The Last Man and wow there's a fucking trend going on here isn't there

    Rat Queens, too

    THESPOOKY on
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  • UnbrokenEvaUnbrokenEva HIGH ON THE WIRE BUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered User regular
    THESPOOKY wrote: »
    Ex Machina is mostly inside the 10-year window, right?

    Almost entirely, yeah

    Ex Machina also gets my nomination as well as Saga and Y: The Last Man and wow there's a fucking trend going on here isn't there

    Rat Queens, too

    what, no Private Eye?

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    Saga
    Rat Queens
    Hellboy/Hellboy in Hell
    B.P.R.D./B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth
    Abe Sapien

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    edited April 2015
    I'd like to nominate Uber

    WWII has influenced many, many comics indeed. From the old war comics written during WWII, to the issues of Superman where he asked the reader to buy war bonds and contribute to the effort, to the origins of Captain America, one of the most famous superheroes of all time. But how many of them really looked at the war? Really tried to express to us what it was like, the mud, the blood, the horror, the cruelty, the heroism, the plots and plans and schemes, the battles and slaughter?

    Uber is really well written, for sure. It's plot and pacing, it's characterisation and atmosphere, is undeniably quality. But there are many books like that on the comic book shop shelves. What makes Uber so special, then?

    It's easy, these days, for us to forget that beneath the crimson capes and gleaming spandex of our larger than life heroes are muscles harder than diamond and stronger than a battleship's engines, that they can fly like bullets and strike like bombs, that their eyes can incinerate flesh and burn bone. It's easy to forget how loud and incredible and terrifying a superhuman might be. When Thor's lightning cracks the sky, people in typical comics don't tend to flinch in terror as the sonic shockwave smashes their eardrums and the sharp chemical scent of ozone assaults their senses, when Spider-Man punches a baddie, we forget that he can lift a dozen tons, his fist is like a metal stamping press, he can pulverish flesh and shatter bones like they are nothing.

    Uber doesn't forget any of that. Uber remembers, because Kieron Gillen realises (from his own education in the dark, more deconstructed side of comics) that a human punched by a man who can rip plate steel doesn't just reel back with a bright sound effect, the effect is far more gruesome and horrible, that this is an undeniably lethal and unstoppable force. But he also realised that this is nothing more nightmarish than we have done to each other with bullets, shells and bombs in a war which saw casualties spiral into the millions, many of them civilians.

    There's something darkly captivating about someone writing a WWII comic including superhumans which is just as brutal and unrelenting as real warfare. Gillen realises that when you can lift a dozen tons, and they can lift a hundred, you can't win. Spider-Man always wins, because he's the hero. But in Uber, that's not the case, that all things being equal victory goes to the more efficient and clever side, but when things are not, victory goes to the strongest. We do not get to see our heroes beat the odds, for we have no real heroes in Uber, just people doing whatever they can to try and win. And when they win, it is not againsts, it is by turning the odds in their favour.

    Uber is a revolutionary comic, in that Uber is one of the very few times when we have seen superhumans in a completely un-sanitised and un-restricted exploration of just how lethally dangerous they might be as a weapon of war. Alan Moore touched on this in Miracleman, of course, but even Alan Moore made his Superhumans all-seeing Gods, not mortal men and women with the foibles we all share, fighting in the most widespread and bloody conflict our species has ever seen. Tanks. Destroyers. Battleships. Armoured in steel skin, eyes flashing as the flare of far off cannons in the night, Uber is about mankind as a weapon, an exploration of harsh, unrelenting and randomly cruel warfare as seen through the lens of superhumans.

    It's not fun, which makes it very much set against the tone of many comics coming out right now. It's not pleasant, it's not uplifting, it doesn't exalt the power of friendship or hold up the values of tolerance and inclusivity. Uber is a comic about war, and how we fight it, and how our wars shape us and our views of the world, even decades after they have finished. It may be one of the best comics written about war by anyone. It's certainly worth a vote.

    Solar on
  • Dizzy DDizzy D NetherlandsRegistered User regular
    Seconding Empowered, Saga, Rat Queens and Daytripper



    Steam/Origin: davydizzy
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    I'll second Uber, I'm behind a few issues but it is everything Solar wrote.

  • Disco11Disco11 Registered User regular
    edited April 2015
    Put me down for Uber, Atomic Robo and Saga.

    All are great and unique but Uber is just brutal on showing the consequences of fighting gods.

    Disco11 on
    PSN: Canadian_llama
  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    @TexiKen I did not know you were reading Uber!

    Good man! Maybe you yanks will show up in the series with some real fight at some point eh?
    RAZOR

  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    John Wayne will be our Super Soldier.

    Oh wait, he already was.

  • Chomp-ChompChomp-Chomp Shonen Princess Registered User regular
    Has nobody nominated Fables yet? I know that I was put off by some of Willingham's weirdo pro-Israel stuff during the Homeland arc, but Fables and it's spinoffs are still gorgeous, fun and generally well written.

    I'll also nominate The Unwritten by Mike Carey. It's meta-fiction to the nth and I genuinely like the pseudo Harry Potter universe it contains. I would read Tommy Taylor books.

  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    Oh yes, seconding Fables and Unwritten.

    Fables is so consistently good I forget about it compared to some of the more recent books that hit like wildfire.

    Man, I thought this would be an easier category but now Ima hella confused how to rank it.

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