Graphic novels for adults who like to read?

yoo will not make friends saying stuff like this i bet. and i bet hardcore comicheadz could name a million good ones or more. there are so many...

i'm no help though. i am from the daze of barefoot jen. and den!

Tintin.

Ed the Happy Clown by Chester Brown, if you can find it. his other stuff is good too.

Blood of Palomar.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman series has allusions up the ass, if that's what you mean by "people who like to read."

Avoid Alex Robinson at all costs. That guy is a dick. Also fucking Strangers in Paradies. No go diggy die. But I also thought your list there was pretty dire 'cept for Persepolis and Maus. Like Ghost World was about boring bitches, Chris Ware had terrible characters and antiseptic drawings, Blankets is my least favorite form of autobio. "I fell in love once in high school." They're all like that.

I also found that line condescending.

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/corben/corben_den.jpg

"House of Leaves" read like a graphic novel but with all words and no pictures.

Corto Maltese is essential too, but from what I've gathered the albums are pretty hard to get in English.

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SSHHHH! by Jason. Wordless, could be overly sentimental for your tastes.

Cages by Dave McKean. Fancy art, great dialogue, arty. Expensive and gigantic, though.

Queen & Country is an espionage/political thriller, think Bond, Jane Bond, but the Casino Royale kind (i.e. infinitely more grounded in real reality than other examples of the genre, thanks in large part to voluminous research).

(Aside to ILC refugees: is it obvious who I AM NOW?)

Sandman only if you are pompous. Otherwise, mostly indulgent.

Also, while you use "graphic novels" in the right context, call them for what they are: comics.

Well I would say that, wouldn't I? It's not really what you're looking for but I still want people to read it!

I must find Corto Maltese, Tuomas always mentions them! Tintin is brilliant if (I hate to say this as a massive fan) dated.

I find this stuff annoying too but I think the book is still worth a lookthrough. I really don't think it was even mostly autobio either.

Anyway I will second or third or whatever Fun Home, I also was a sucker for The Rabbi's Cat from last year especially but everything I've read by Joann Sfar. Did anyone read Shenzhen, I liked Pyongyang but from a flipthrough in the store this looked a lot like a LOT less interesting.

The second Clowes novel Abbott's talking about it "David Boring" btw.

Not the stupid comic-booky type shit.
-- RIYL Christiane F. (MyNameIsActuallyStev...), December 17th, 2006.

We have a winner?

Also: Ed the Happy Clown, which is like Kafka on laughing gas.

Foreign Exchange by George Dardess is also recommended, it's sort of a coming-of-age psychodrama with a very interesting surreal twist.

If you like French fiction about urban life and relationships and thirties crisis, the "Monsieur Jean" series by Dupuy and Berberian is highly recommended. I think there's at least one book available in English (was it called "Get a Life"?).

If you know German or happen to find the couple of English translations available, I'd highly recommend stuff by Ralf König. His books are pretty explicitly gay (lots of male nudity, sperm, S/M, etc.), but he's probably the best comic artist today depicting sex and relationships, and he's pretty unique in that his stuff is highly funny and highly touching at the same time. A recent book where one of his major protagonists was diagnosed HIV positive was maybe the best piece of fiction I've ever come across on the subject: serious but absolutely non-gloomy and non-preachy.

MILO MANARA. Click and Butterscotch.

Can I solicit ILC refugee opinions on Kevin Huizenga, I thought Ganges 1 was oh-kay, REALLY liked the story with the priest in whatever Kramers Ergot I read one afternoon at the Virgin Megastore, and I wonder if I should buy Curses

By the way, Persepolis I thought was great, the second novel even more so. I have to say thought that Embroideries (I think it was called) really was amazing for capturing a group talking.

The "I act straight most of the time" part was deliberate, because I don't really believe in definite sexual identities. If I was to say I'm "bisexual" it would connote something different than how I feel. I'm interested in girls most of the times, but there have been times I've lusted after boys too; this, however, doesn't mean I'd subscribe to a "bisexual" identity.

But not Tom Cruise.

I always liked Crumb's stuff about sex even tho it's not sexy 90% of the time.

You might really like American Splendor.

I don't understand what this is reference to. The idea of shunning a system of 3 definite sexual identities and not being comfortable devoting yourself to a label? I'm not entirely grasping how such a gesture instantly becomes one of attempted rebellion and earth-shattering originality.

This whole thing/thread is becoming mildly offensive and I'm going to try to sidestep any long, ranting diatribes about homosexuality society and all that.

I really wish Dan Savage was here to save the day.

I'm guessing you're fairly new here? Apart from the whole "abou homosexuality society and all that." welcome to ILX!

Not the stupid comic-booky type shit.

Moron.

did anyone ever see the howard cruse comic about the little kid who won't fight back and the bullies beat him to death and they ask him why he didn't fight back and right before he dies he writes in his own blood on the sidewalk: I...AM...A...Christian...

god i loved that. at least i think it was cruse. did i just dream that whole thing?

I'm also a big booster of Grant Morrison; maybe The Invisibles is a good place to start with him. Neither too adherent to spandex cliches nor too removed from the escapism we so desperately need. Morrison is usually much funnier than Moore, but that doesn't make his work any less poignant or insightful. The Invisibles is zany stuff involving conspiracy theories and the ultimate battle between chaos and order.

Not a fan of the indie/schmindie self-pitying autobiographical stuff. That said, I liked "Clumsy" by Jeff Brown a LOT when I was seventeen. Not really into the intentionally tasteless/shock/comedy styff either.
The indie stuff I DO like is typified by the Kramer's Ergot anthologies. Dense sometime abstract linework, cluttered-but-intuitive page layouts. See also: Fort Thunder related stuff (NINJA by Brian Chippendale, which just came out a few weeks ago, is fucking amazing and ya'll should buy it. It's a steal at $35 or whatever it costs. The color pages were never in the original releases!) I also think adults who like to read could stand to read Big Questions by Anders Nilsen.

Superhero titles I try to read currently, though I've been falling off: Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Man, Batman, Detective Comics, Action Comics, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men. I think that's mostly it. ON THAT NOTE: Gotham Central is one of the best comic series I've ever read. Essentially it's a crime/mystery series with superhero appearances and touches. The 2nd volume is a very, very good story; I don't want to say much more than that lest I ruin it.) Written by Brubaker & Greg Rucka and cancelled after forty-something issues, alas. All four of the collections released so far are great, so even if you can't find the 2nd one in your local Barnes & Noble, whichever one they DO have will be awesome too.

Also, only Scott's mentioned Cerebus, and rather cryptically. I will throw props to Dave Sim & Gerhard's amazing illustration/cartooning skills. Also, the first six or so volumes of Cerebus are highly engaging, well written and mostly lacking in Sim's latent misogyny. Volume 2, High Society is seem by some (myself among them, depending on who you are) as the one to start with.

When did I say I was trying to be "earth-shatteringly original"? If you think me refusing to come up with an identity for myself is some sort of act of youthful rebellion, and that I need to "make my mind up", I'd say the fault is in your thinking, not mine. I'm perfectly happy the way I am. (And to be honest, I think it's exactly the youthful and rebellious who have a bigger need for identities. When you get older, you're more likely to accept the contradictions in yourself.)

The best straight comic about relationships and sex I've read is probably Minimum Wage by Bob Fingerman, which has a similar relazed attitude towards these things as König does. And I guess Grant Morrison is the best mainstream example of the same.

Dude, did you get the first ish of Welcome To Tranquility (or Tranquility - I forget what the actual title is)? QUALITY GERIATRIC FUN!

Black Hole was great. The plot didn't pay off the way I hoped, but the mood was amazing all the way through.

I was told about it but I haven't been to a comic shop in a few weeks! I am def. gonna grab it, though.

http://www.fortthunder.org/comix/brinkman/random/multi06.jpg

BRIAN CHIPPENDALE'S "MAGGOTS" RIP.

Was there any bigging-up big-upping of the Superman/Batman Annual? FUN MANIC FUN! (Spnx to Douglas for the mention of the Fiddy Two bloggo!)

Aw Huk, I didn't know who Deadpool, Owl-Man, or "Clark Kent" were, but the ish was still fun!

And the collections are REALLY cheap.

And the 2nd one is coming out THIS WEEK!

Moron.

If you truly do take your liking to comic books as seriously as I take my sexual orientation (and all the bullshit that comes with it), I do apologize dearly for insulting you as much as you have me.

(okay, maybe not Maus)

Oooh, and I'll definitely second the Black Hole mention upthread. Charles Burns' best work, totally absorbing from start to finish.

There's this guy. He wears a scuba suit. He hangs out w/ a talking fish that smokes cigars. Shit happens on the moon. And some stuff involving chess.

OTM

I love Powers as an exercise in a genre I love (hard-boiled crime + superheros), despite its occassionally constipated dialogue; same with 100 Bullets. I'm also following The Walking Dead pretty closely.

I'm really sorry about that :-( Re-reading it, I really did sound like such a dick and didn't mean to generalizing like that. It was a stupid/naive thing to say.

And are you talking about like El Topo/Santa Sangre Jodorowsky? Did graphic novels??

No but he made lots of comic books. which you probably wouldn't like.

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(btw I still love Salinger and wouldn't even think of putting Clowes' writing in the same league)

I did wish the movie of Ghost World ended w/Enid buying a hearse & getting roundly mocked.

No, you're wrong. (And she isn't even a muslim.) I mean, of course the reason it got so much attention was that it depicts the Iranian revolution, but that's like saying Maus is only interesting because it's about Auschwitz. They're both still well-made, gripping stories and have a lot more going on than the obvious selling point. Besides, the most interesting part of Persepolis takes place in Europe (in the second book) rather than Iran.

for the literature "literate" comic book "anxious"
there's also the two recentish Jimbo volumes by Gary Panter
Jimbo in Purgatory and Jimbo's Inferno
hey canon-referencing and avant garde art to boot

About 120 bucks i think.