“Maus” is a really good historical comic if no one has mentioned that yet. Depressing as hell if memory serves though. Its the story of some Jews in a concentration camp during WWII as told with Mice and rats and toehr fuzzy rodents.
Really great, the arts a bit odd and soemtimes haed to keep track off but I really enjoyed it.
The only comic series I have been really into so far is Garth Ennis Crossed, I mean it’s perverse and weird but that’s Ennis. I love the story telling and the fact that he puts an end of the world scenario into a real life perspective.
And here I thought that I was the only one who could never get into Morrison’s writing. Anyway, I have a comic suggestion The Essential Howard the Duck by Steve Gerber. It may take place in the Marvel universe but it is one of the most unique comics that I have ever read.
Fortunately, anime/manga appears to be dying down in the United States. Most of the “fans” don’t purchase any of it. That’s why they block the aisles at your local Borders and Barnes & Noble all day, reading the books for free. They’ll go online and just watch free fansubs instead of buying DVD’s.
Tack on the fact that the publishing companies have just been dumping mounds and mounds of series, only which a small percentage is worth reading or watching, and then have the gall to charge you 30 bucks or more for only a handful of episodes of a cheap cartoon or 15 dollars for a black-and-white book no bigger than your hand. They got greedy! The two series that sell well at all in the US are Naruto and Bleach, and both of those suck anyway (it’s just Dragonball Z again but with Children or Swords).
Only mangas worth owning (for men): Akira, Berserk, Death Note, Oldboy, and Battle Royale.
Jason Aaron’s “The Other Side” is a great war related graphic novel. It is about an American soldier and a Vietnamese soldier both leaving home to fight in the war. It shows how both cultures treat war and how both people react to being in war. It is a great read and is some very haunting and disturbing story telling. Don’t think gross out, but mostly disturbing in how war is horrible.
Not pirates but some great viking stories are Northlanders and Viking (yeah, Viking). Both are very good reads and are still being released in single issues. Northlanders has been going on for a while now, but Viking is on issue 3. Viking is also very interesting just because it is not only great writing and artwork, but the format of the book is more like a Golden age comic, basically just an oversized issue compared to current day comics. Plus, it is creator owned and is written by a pair of fairly new writer and artist.
Im making my own comic… look at the link… YOU TOO SPOONY… its not a superhero one so it will be very interesting… Its about assassins and lust and good stuff…
You too spoony?!?!?! Why does everyone hate garth ennis’s recent works? more specifically, why does everyone hate the boys? Am i the only that finds funny and innovative storywise (not a big comic guy so maybe there’s already a comic like this but i still find this series to be hilarious and entertaining)
hey. just saw your video saying about war time or pirate comics? i doubt im the first to suggest it, but MAUS by Speigelman… i love it! its one of my prized possessions…
I don’t know if anybody has mentioned it before, but if you look for an alternative on superhero comics I’d like to point out DDP’s HACK/SLASH. It’s a comic about that one girl that always survives a slasher flick striking back and hunting down slashers. It got plenty of gore and yeah, it features some T&A, but maybe you should pick up the first Trade Paperback, called First Cut, just to check it out.
Hey this is my first time commenting but ive been a fan for quite some time. You said you wanted to hear about comics that aren’t about superheros? Well i just got done reading Maus. Its a true story about the holocaust in world war two, through the eyes of the narrators father. This comic is done much differently than most in that there aren’t humans drawn, but animals. The Jews are mice and the Nazis are cats, along with other various nationalities with different animals. This is one of the best stories i have ever read and it is one of the most compelling I have seen. I believe you would be interested in this comic. The authors name is: Art Spiegelman. Trust me this is a great read.
You seem to have a strong opinions on Spiderman. I’ve always been a causal Spiderman fan in the past but you’ve sparked my interest. Sounds like the J. Michael Straczynski run was pretty good. I’m going to check it out.
Seems like a Spiderman video would be a natural for you. Any plans? Talk about why you like spiderman. What makes him special from other superheroes? Who were the best writers and artists? Which are your favorites? Best stories? What has been most disappointing? Maybe a multi-parter?
I see empowered there, Do yo like Adam Warren style?
nice collection, you put mine totally in shame.
Also, Do you have read Geoff Johns last run whit green lantern? I’m assuming it because of the blackest night thing whit linkara
I recently was on a very small comic/cartoon/art convention becuase a friend of mine was doing art comissions there and a smaller stand selling one comic book catched my eyes. The comic was called “Dreamkeepers” and I decided to pick up the first issue since it looked really quite fascinating. And indeed, it was. The next day, I came back and bought the second issue. It’s pretty much done by only two people and one comic takes ages to come out but… Wow! The story is absolutely fantastic, fascinating and thrilling. It’s not a superhero stroy but reather an adventure, a bit like a cartoon movie, but a lot darker at times. Ontop of that, the artwork is vibrant and sometimes even really out-world-ish. At least I felt that way. If you want, I can donate the two issues so you can check it out.
Noah, or anyone else on here, maybe you can help me you are better versed in the comic world than i, i have and LOVE a small few page “preview” insert of a black and white comic called “December” i cant find it now to give you the writer but its about an undead man that is powered by a car battery? id like to know if it ever was published as a series OR if the writer did anythign else ive tryed Wiki to no aveal pelase if anyone knows anything email me at Natethanastyninja@hotmail.com
thank you in advance,
Nathan
P.S. Build the other shelf ALREADY haha
PPS sorry for the spellign and grammer, blame the beer , lol
Also, check out scott pilgrim, it’s loser canadian indie-rocker love story, with a lot of “magic realism” (I don’t like the term for that genre, but it’s the only thing that seems to fit) and video game logic to the setting.
I would love to hear you ramble more about other comics, maybe with linkara, because he’s a pretty cool guy too.
Amen to the Spider-Man related remarks…..although I would have to disagree about Stracynzci ( or however you spell it) I though the OTHER storyline sucked, and i think he was ruining Spidey too… as was Quesada….GOD I hate that guy. although, i did like him having organic webbing. im a huge spidey fan (have been since one year old, am now 16 and its not likely to change) but if there was one thing the spider-man series always had that i thought was weird/annoying, it was a lack of organic webbing. I guess it was because when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko first created the character, the idea of someone who could do that was to weird. I’m pretty sure that if the character was invented now, he would have it. Why go to the trouble of making a guy get all the powers of a spider, when the one thing he doesnt inherit is a spiders signature, its webbing. always thought that was odd. Im afraid i cant relate to most of what youre saying, not because i disagree, but because I have always been more a fan of superhero type comics, and tend to stay away from shorter lived graphic novels and things. that being said, I am quite interested in the watchmen so…..yey watchmen :)
great….review? of your comics haha…..VIDEO, thats the word i was looking for….yea great video
yea….no one gets spidey right these days…..Marvel has screwed them all up. They need:
1)to kill any character that was around before the 80s and LEAVE THEM DEAD
2)a massive reboot
3)superhero retirement
or
4)combining some of (1) and (3) ….(but i think (2) would be best)
crap…now im ranting on your vid…sorry…keep doing what you do
…when i was reading Transmetropolitan I couldnt help but think
that Warren Ellis was trying to give us a comic
series about Hunter S. Thompson except his name just happened to be
Spider Jerusalem instead of H.S.T.
go ahead read any…any Thompson book and tell me I’m wrong
I read Transmetropolitan and really loved that “Fuck you all, I’m a journalist”-attitude of Spider Jerusalem. Nextwave was just as awesome, having a much thinner story, but way more fighting scenes with robots and gorillas and dinosaurs.
I liked the Watchmen-Comics, too and I heard the pirate story will be in the ultra-version of the DVD (which will be some hours longer). I’m really looking forward to that.
I would recommend Vietnam Journal if you are looking for a somewhat historical war comic. I believe that its publisher, Apple Comics, had several war stories series like Blazing Combat and even a Desert Storm Journal that came out in the ’90s.
Also, Chester Brown’s work is really quite interesting if you are looking for historical comics; his Louis Riel biography was epic.
For historical-based comics, definitely check out the old DC war comics, like Sgt. Rock, The Haunted Tank, The Unknown Soldier, etc. I would also suggest getting the collections of War comics done by EC in the fifties, like Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. They are considered some of the best comics in history. In that same vein, Fantagraphics has released the complete collection of stories from Warren Publishing’s Frontline Combat.
For horror comics, go with EC Comics, like Tales From the Crypt, etc. A lot of great stories. Same for science fiction comics. Dark House is releasing the complete Creepy and Eerie Magazine out in hardback. Great work. Good stories and phenomenal artwork. Along the horror line, I’ve heard Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula is phenomenal.
Either than that, try going with Howard the Duck by Marvel, the seventies version written by Steve Gerber. It is one of the most unique comics ever written, and beautifully drawn by Gene Colan. Funny, heartfelt, and, in my opinion, one of the best comic book series of all.
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“Maus” is a really good historical comic if no one has mentioned that yet. Depressing as hell if memory serves though. Its the story of some Jews in a concentration camp during WWII as told with Mice and rats and toehr fuzzy rodents.
Really great, the arts a bit odd and soemtimes haed to keep track off but I really enjoyed it.
need to check out the orginals to transformers and gijoe
funny i like the transformer show better but the comics sucks
i didn’t really gijoe and the comics is pretty good
The only comic series I have been really into so far is Garth Ennis Crossed, I mean it’s perverse and weird but that’s Ennis. I love the story telling and the fact that he puts an end of the world scenario into a real life perspective.
I loved Planetary, and I recommend you check it out.
And here I thought that I was the only one who could never get into Morrison’s writing. Anyway, I have a comic suggestion The Essential Howard the Duck by Steve Gerber. It may take place in the Marvel universe but it is one of the most unique comics that I have ever read.
a pirates comic ?…heeee..what about one piece ?
Fortunately, anime/manga appears to be dying down in the United States. Most of the “fans” don’t purchase any of it. That’s why they block the aisles at your local Borders and Barnes & Noble all day, reading the books for free. They’ll go online and just watch free fansubs instead of buying DVD’s.
Tack on the fact that the publishing companies have just been dumping mounds and mounds of series, only which a small percentage is worth reading or watching, and then have the gall to charge you 30 bucks or more for only a handful of episodes of a cheap cartoon or 15 dollars for a black-and-white book no bigger than your hand. They got greedy! The two series that sell well at all in the US are Naruto and Bleach, and both of those suck anyway (it’s just Dragonball Z again but with Children or Swords).
Only mangas worth owning (for men): Akira, Berserk, Death Note, Oldboy, and Battle Royale.
Personally I’ve been a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. Been meaning to check out the spin off series also. Definitely a good read.
What about Sgt. Rock comics and The Unknown Soldier from WW2?
Jason Aaron’s “The Other Side” is a great war related graphic novel. It is about an American soldier and a Vietnamese soldier both leaving home to fight in the war. It shows how both cultures treat war and how both people react to being in war. It is a great read and is some very haunting and disturbing story telling. Don’t think gross out, but mostly disturbing in how war is horrible.
Not pirates but some great viking stories are Northlanders and Viking (yeah, Viking). Both are very good reads and are still being released in single issues. Northlanders has been going on for a while now, but Viking is on issue 3. Viking is also very interesting just because it is not only great writing and artwork, but the format of the book is more like a Golden age comic, basically just an oversized issue compared to current day comics. Plus, it is creator owned and is written by a pair of fairly new writer and artist.
Im making my own comic… look at the link… YOU TOO SPOONY… its not a superhero one so it will be very interesting… Its about assassins and lust and good stuff…
You too spoony?!?!?! Why does everyone hate garth ennis’s recent works? more specifically, why does everyone hate the boys? Am i the only that finds funny and innovative storywise (not a big comic guy so maybe there’s already a comic like this but i still find this series to be hilarious and entertaining)
No Y: THE LAST MAN? Or do you have any in a box somewhere?
The only manga I can see you liking, Spoony, is Berserk, since you like Conan. Similar sort of thing, extremely epic tale.
hey. just saw your video saying about war time or pirate comics? i doubt im the first to suggest it, but MAUS by Speigelman… i love it! its one of my prized possessions…
about the nazi’s and Jews… using mice and cats.
I don’t know if anybody has mentioned it before, but if you look for an alternative on superhero comics I’d like to point out DDP’s HACK/SLASH. It’s a comic about that one girl that always survives a slasher flick striking back and hunting down slashers. It got plenty of gore and yeah, it features some T&A, but maybe you should pick up the first Trade Paperback, called First Cut, just to check it out.
Hey this is my first time commenting but ive been a fan for quite some time. You said you wanted to hear about comics that aren’t about superheros? Well i just got done reading Maus. Its a true story about the holocaust in world war two, through the eyes of the narrators father. This comic is done much differently than most in that there aren’t humans drawn, but animals. The Jews are mice and the Nazis are cats, along with other various nationalities with different animals. This is one of the best stories i have ever read and it is one of the most compelling I have seen. I believe you would be interested in this comic. The authors name is: Art Spiegelman. Trust me this is a great read.
You seem to have a strong opinions on Spiderman. I’ve always been a causal Spiderman fan in the past but you’ve sparked my interest. Sounds like the J. Michael Straczynski run was pretty good. I’m going to check it out.
Seems like a Spiderman video would be a natural for you. Any plans? Talk about why you like spiderman. What makes him special from other superheroes? Who were the best writers and artists? Which are your favorites? Best stories? What has been most disappointing? Maybe a multi-parter?
I’d be cool to hear your thoughts.
It’d be cool that is
I see empowered there, Do yo like Adam Warren style?
nice collection, you put mine totally in shame.
Also, Do you have read Geoff Johns last run whit green lantern? I’m assuming it because of the blackest night thing whit linkara
I recently was on a very small comic/cartoon/art convention becuase a friend of mine was doing art comissions there and a smaller stand selling one comic book catched my eyes. The comic was called “Dreamkeepers” and I decided to pick up the first issue since it looked really quite fascinating. And indeed, it was. The next day, I came back and bought the second issue. It’s pretty much done by only two people and one comic takes ages to come out but… Wow! The story is absolutely fantastic, fascinating and thrilling. It’s not a superhero stroy but reather an adventure, a bit like a cartoon movie, but a lot darker at times. Ontop of that, the artwork is vibrant and sometimes even really out-world-ish. At least I felt that way. If you want, I can donate the two issues so you can check it out.
Noah, or anyone else on here, maybe you can help me you are better versed in the comic world than i, i have and LOVE a small few page “preview” insert of a black and white comic called “December” i cant find it now to give you the writer but its about an undead man that is powered by a car battery? id like to know if it ever was published as a series OR if the writer did anythign else ive tryed Wiki to no aveal pelase if anyone knows anything email me at Natethanastyninja@hotmail.com
thank you in advance,
Nathan
P.S. Build the other shelf ALREADY haha
PPS sorry for the spellign and grammer, blame the beer , lol
so, what did you think of empowered?
Also, check out scott pilgrim, it’s loser canadian indie-rocker love story, with a lot of “magic realism” (I don’t like the term for that genre, but it’s the only thing that seems to fit) and video game logic to the setting.
I would love to hear you ramble more about other comics, maybe with linkara, because he’s a pretty cool guy too.
Right then. Grant Morrison wrote The Invisibles–the character Spider Jerusalem is sort of a homage to The Invisibles’ character King Mob.
I do like Warren Ellis more, however. The constant use of metafiction for the sake of metafiction pisses me off.
Amen to the Spider-Man related remarks…..although I would have to disagree about Stracynzci ( or however you spell it) I though the OTHER storyline sucked, and i think he was ruining Spidey too… as was Quesada….GOD I hate that guy. although, i did like him having organic webbing. im a huge spidey fan (have been since one year old, am now 16 and its not likely to change) but if there was one thing the spider-man series always had that i thought was weird/annoying, it was a lack of organic webbing. I guess it was because when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko first created the character, the idea of someone who could do that was to weird. I’m pretty sure that if the character was invented now, he would have it. Why go to the trouble of making a guy get all the powers of a spider, when the one thing he doesnt inherit is a spiders signature, its webbing. always thought that was odd. Im afraid i cant relate to most of what youre saying, not because i disagree, but because I have always been more a fan of superhero type comics, and tend to stay away from shorter lived graphic novels and things. that being said, I am quite interested in the watchmen so…..yey watchmen :)
great….review? of your comics haha…..VIDEO, thats the word i was looking for….yea great video
yea….no one gets spidey right these days…..Marvel has screwed them all up. They need:
1)to kill any character that was around before the 80s and LEAVE THEM DEAD
2)a massive reboot
3)superhero retirement
or
4)combining some of (1) and (3) ….(but i think (2) would be best)
crap…now im ranting on your vid…sorry…keep doing what you do
–Spider
what’s up with the turkish movie poster in the background? =P
…when i was reading Transmetropolitan I couldnt help but think
that Warren Ellis was trying to give us a comic
series about Hunter S. Thompson except his name just happened to be
Spider Jerusalem instead of H.S.T.
go ahead read any…any Thompson book and tell me I’m wrong
I read Transmetropolitan and really loved that “Fuck you all, I’m a journalist”-attitude of Spider Jerusalem. Nextwave was just as awesome, having a much thinner story, but way more fighting scenes with robots and gorillas and dinosaurs.
I liked the Watchmen-Comics, too and I heard the pirate story will be in the ultra-version of the DVD (which will be some hours longer). I’m really looking forward to that.
In some ways you are pretty lucky in the U.S of A. Here in Sweden, we basicly got Donald Duck, Dillbert, Monty and Nemi…. >:|
I love Transmetropolitan. I think everyone has a little bit of Spider Jerusalem in them.
I would recommend Vietnam Journal if you are looking for a somewhat historical war comic. I believe that its publisher, Apple Comics, had several war stories series like Blazing Combat and even a Desert Storm Journal that came out in the ’90s.
Also, Chester Brown’s work is really quite interesting if you are looking for historical comics; his Louis Riel biography was epic.
Love the site, keep up the good work.
I’v been reading Alien Omnibus and it’s good but they keep changing artists. In the first part of volume 2 the art looks like it’s from the 1970’s!
For historical-based comics, definitely check out the old DC war comics, like Sgt. Rock, The Haunted Tank, The Unknown Soldier, etc. I would also suggest getting the collections of War comics done by EC in the fifties, like Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. They are considered some of the best comics in history. In that same vein, Fantagraphics has released the complete collection of stories from Warren Publishing’s Frontline Combat.
For horror comics, go with EC Comics, like Tales From the Crypt, etc. A lot of great stories. Same for science fiction comics. Dark House is releasing the complete Creepy and Eerie Magazine out in hardback. Great work. Good stories and phenomenal artwork. Along the horror line, I’ve heard Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula is phenomenal.
Either than that, try going with Howard the Duck by Marvel, the seventies version written by Steve Gerber. It is one of the most unique comics ever written, and beautifully drawn by Gene Colan. Funny, heartfelt, and, in my opinion, one of the best comic book series of all.
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