Graphic Novels and Comic Books

Preacher - I have yet to lend this to someone who didn't immediately want to read the entire series, and who did not then LOVE the entire series

Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth - still my choice for best graphic novel ever

From Hell & Watchmen - Alan Moore's best, imho, with Swamp Thing close behind

Love & Rockets - there's a nice series of thick paperbacks out now: start with the one called Heartbreak Soup I'd say.

Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison, starting with the one titled Crawling From the Wreckage - this is my favorite superhero comic since Watchmen. Really kicks into gear in the second paperback, "The Painting That Ate Paris".

And then sensitive arty stuff:

I Never Liked You (by Chester Brown) - the most underrated cartoonist in comics

Goodbye, Chunky Rice (Craig Thompson)

Clumsy, Unlikely (by Jeffrey Brown)

Alright, there is a lot of information already, but I gotta chime in as well here. Maybe you count the ones mentioned more than one time in this thread and base your decision on that. You can spend a lot of money on comics as well, so maybe it is worth checking your library for copies? In Europe this is not too uncommon and you should be able to find at least Maus by Spiegelman.

Other comics I'd recommend:

- Hellboy -> one of the best, if not the best comic on the market at the moment.
- B.P.R.D. -> right up there with Hellboy, great, brilliant and extremely exciting. Well, as exciting as a comic book can get. Often overshadowed by Hellboy, but great variety in characters and storylines. Also some of the most amazing comic artists as Mignola hardly draws anything anymore.
- Fables (and Jack of Fables) -> excellent read, picks up speed in the 2nd TPB. Addicitve.
- Goon -> It has been said before, this is the Ameritrash of comics. Goon, a gorilla-like hitman encounters tentacled mobsters, zombie priests, gold-skinned mad scientists, ghouls and circus freaks.
- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen -> Read TPB 1, don't bother with 2+3 for now.
- Conan by Dark Horse -> Excellent adaptations of REH's novels. It might be worthwhile to check out Solomon Kane and Kull.
- Y - The Last Man -> Another great comic from Vertigo. Better not wait for the upcoming movie with Shia LaPouff, it might kill it for you...
- Bone -> Fantastic as well, you can get the One Volume Edition for a great price, you'll have a lot to read with that.

Most of those are not single shots, but rather a recurring story line. Thus you might need to invest some money, but it is worth it. And you can always trade them away/ sell them after you're finished.

P.S.: You can pretty much forget about the whole recent Marvel/DC stuff. Except for Marvel Zombies, which is fun.

Holy shit. Thanks for the suggestions. This is excellent. Now I print this list up and take it down to the library to see what stuff they carry.

I showed up with about a dozen things in mind to recommend and they've all already been suggested.

I'm gonna throw in one of my fav graphic niovels that hasn't been mentioned so far:

Arkham Asylum.

There's no real in depth explanation-- it just always struck a cord with me.

Asterix: The euro comic.

Commando Comics: The comic for war gamers.

Support your fellow FATties! Check out BERLIN and JAR OF FOOLS by Fortress Ameritrash's own Jason Lutes.

Juniper wrote:

Support your fellow FATties! Check out BERLIN and JAR OF FOOLS by Fortress Ameritrash's own Jason Lutes.

I really need to get BERLIN some day, I think I'll put it in my next amazon order. As I lived in the city for a couple of years it's probably an interesting read for me.

Most of what I would have recommended has already been suggested, but I'll add Inhumans by Jenkins and Lee.

I forgot to add Astro City by Kurt Busiek. It's a pretty cool series that explore what it would be like to live in a world filled with super heroes, but from the people they save or witness them.

Also Mouse Guard. They're just so cute being mice with little swords and cloaks. But then it gets all awesome as they battle snakes and crabs and a plot to overthrow the kingdom.

Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis, in it's lovely Omnibus version. Hands down, my favorite comic ever, and dripping with commentary on modern society. It's basically there was a future Hunter S. Thompson, with two hot assistants....

I would love a movie of this, but it would be way too violent for me to ever watch.

Superman: Red Son - Superman as a baby crashes in the Soviet Union instead of Smallville and grows up to be the people's hero. Its up to Lex Luthor to keep America safe from this communist threat.

Empire - Follows the super-villain Golgoth as he finishes conquering the world while his ministers all plot against each other for more power. Its like the opposite of a super-hero comic and a fun read.

In addition to a bunch that have already been mentioned (and if you are going to read Sandman, try to read it in the absolute editions, especially the first few issues which had pretty poor coloring in the original trades):

Starman - currently being re-released as collections of 17-18 issues (vol.1 an d2 are out now). One of the few decent (in my opinion of course) comics by the big two to come out in the nineties.

FEAR Agent - maybe the best sci-fi comic in recent memory

Queen & Country - a series about a group of British Intelligence operatives. Complete series collected in four volumes. Great books if you are at all interested in the subject matter.

NextWave: Agents of HATE - kind of a fun super hero romp.

Powers - all about regular cops (or not so regular hmmm?) dealing with super heroes.

the Walking Dead - after the zombie apocalypse (don't get attached to any characters)

I'd also second or third the recommendations for Astro City, Jimmy Corrigan, Invincible, the Goon (for lighter reading). If you like Alan Moore, I'd definitely recommend From Hell.

Queen & Country - a series about a group of British Intelligence operatives. Complete series collected in four volumes. Great books if you are at all interested in the subject matter.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that one. Very good.

Powers - all about regular cops (or not so regular hmmm?) dealing with super heroes.

Every time I've picked up an issue of Powers it had a LOT of sex in it. Practically porn. Maybe I just was unfortunate on the issues I picked up, but yeah, lot of sex.

I must be getting old that I didn't remember that when I posted. Yeah some issues have a bit of sex in them, but IMO its not done in a fanboyish way (ie. not too cringeful).

One other strong recommendation would be Jack Staff. It's by a British guy and was originally supposed to just be a storyline featuring Marvel heroes, but ended up being his own thing (sound a bit familiar?). Great stuff. The first trade has the first 12 issue storyline (its black and white).