This weekend I swapped comic book recommendations with a few folks. Today I was emailing someone a few of my favorites and thought “I should just put this up on the blog.”
So to call out a few comics I’ve enjoyed:
– Sandman – the classic Neil Gaiman books that make it “okay” to be a comic book fan for me.
– Transmetropolitan – a gonzo journalist in a 21st century Gibson-esque world.
– Powers – about how police and the rest of the world might deal with people with superpowers.
– Fables – wonderful graphic novels about a world where fairy tales bump up against our world.
– Lucifer – originally a spinoff from Sandman, but satisfying in its own right. It’s about the devil.
By the way, I recently went through a phase of finding some fun web comics. At the risk of sending folks down a deep rabbit hole, consider these links as starting points:
– Nedroid
– Widdershins
– Stand Still – Stay Silent
– Broodhollow
– Hamlet’s Danish
– Cyanide and Happiness
– Loading Artist
– Berkeley Mews
How about you–what comics or web comics do you like? Certainly stuff like xkcd or Penny Arcade can be fun, but I’d be interested to hear about things off the beaten path a bit.
On the short-form, web comics side, Kate Beaton’s http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=1 is a must read. Wonderful send ups of historical events and characters, modern culture and just plain silliness. She also has the BEST eye for expressions in the business.
The Perry Bible Fellowship (http://pbfcomics.com/) is now pretty much defunct but up there with Hark too.
I’m not going to get started on long-form/print comics or I’ll be here all night 🙂
Hi Matts, i like comics but i prefer daily comic strips. My own website: http://www.guille.tv For now it s only in spanish, but in 2015 i will add english section. Do you like if i draw your caricature? :)) and what about the Best Comic strips ? … Garfield? 🙂
You’re welcome to draw my caricature if you’d like–that would be interesting to see. 🙂
hey, well i just draw my fisrt sketch … http://www.guille.tv/matts1.jpg im going to paint it and maybe animate it a bit 🙂
Heh–thanks for doing this!
Skin Horse is a good one. GrrlPower if you like superhero comics. Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether. Darth and Droids.
Get the whole stack of Cerebus “phone books” and you won’t stop until Boxing Day.
1. Kabuki from David Mack for layered storytelling and brooding issues as backdrop http://www.amazon.com/Kabuki-Circle-Blood-David-Mack/dp/1887279806
2. For rainy day reading of father and son on redemption journey – Lone Wolf – http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Wolf-Cub-Omnibus-1/dp/1616551348
Saga is great! The Nightly News too!
Jonathan Hickman is amazing! Nightly News is one of my favorites too. Amazing big concept writer. Have you read “Pax Romana”
I just stayed up till 3:30 last night reading the Sleeper series. Very good. Especially if you liked Transmetropolitan. Check out Queen and Country too. Love and Rockets is my all time favorite though in a completely different vein.
Transmetropolitan may be my favorite, so thanks for these suggestions, Todd!
Tiny Titans!
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tiny_Titans
Good choice!
Thank you for your list. I am first time on your blog. Excpected to read all stuff about what are we SEO’s doing it wrong and now I reading this. 🙂 Nice to see the some funny stuff here. Regards, Matija
Dresden Kodak is an incredibly fun, intellingent and challenging read. Highly recommended.
http://dresdencodak.com/
The Unwritten is a pretty interesting series as well, it’s written by Mike Carey, the guy from Lucifer, and they did a crossover with Fables because they share a similar premise.
Also, though it is a pity that is discontinued, Nowhere Men is one of the best volumes I’ve read this year.
Oooh, I’m on a big Mike Carey kick right now! Have you read The Girl with all the Gifts? It’s amazing.
Why has nobody — including you Matt — mentioned Calvin & Hobbs? Whenever I see anything on ‘best’ comic books, this one always gets a mention near or at the top… and I wholeheartedly agree that it always should! Or is this not quite the kind of comic book you were thinking of?
Good point! Along with The Far Side and Bloom County, I think these comics don’t get the credit they deserve because they pre-date the web!
Doctor Pool ~ its a fan-based comic that combines Deadpool with Doctor Who!
Also, Gintama is a great ready but its a manga (not too sure if you wanna put that in the same category)
The Oatmeal’s running comic is good: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running
Matt does a great job of explaining what it’s like to run. 🙂
Hi Matt:
I could not comment in this post, so I am posting a comment in this latest post!
https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/video-crawl-dates-in-the-google-cache/#respond
So, my question is why after 8 years, we still don’t see the cache/crawl date for PDFs!!
When I was a little kid (Polish-born here) I have always wanted to read all of those colorfull US comics – our where a little bit dull and sad in the communist kind of way 😛
Now when I have opportunity my wifey always say – you to old to read comics! But if i show here that you read them, she will definitelly change her mind!
Hi Matt,
It’s so awesome to see you talk about comics as it’s one of my passions along with search!
Great choices in comics. Transmetropolitan is an amazing comics and one of Ellis’s best! I also like “Fell” and “Planetary” by him
Here are some of my favorites of all-time
“Y The Last Man” by Brian K. Vaughan
“Saga” by Brian K. Vaughan
“Preacher” by Garth Ennis
“Superman: Red Son” by Mark Millar
“Asterios Polyp” by David Mazzuchelli
“Batteling Boy” by Paul Pope (also all-ages)
“Chew” by John Layman & Rob Guilory
“Criminal” series by Ed Brubaker
“Fatale” by Ed Brubaker
“Velvet” by Ed Brubaker
“Northlanders” by Brian Wood
“V For Vendetta” by Alan Moore & David Lloyd
“We3” by Grant Morrison
“Proof” by Riley Rossmo
“Petrograd” by Tyler Crook
There is more … but that’s it for now. 🙂
Cheers,
Amir
So much good stuff in here–thanks! We3 is a favorite of mine. 🙂
graphic novels and comics I have enjoyed:
100 Bullets – took a bit to get into, seeming at first like a generic crime comic, but extremely well written.
Y: The Last Man – very well done, quite engrossing.
Bone – looks like a children’s comic, but that doesn’t mean it lacks depth and excellent characters.
Akira – if you’ve seen the anime, the manga is even better, fleshing out the huge world and adding lots of events before and after the film takes place.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – volumes 1 and 2 of this are so incredibly clever. So many references to classic stories, and extremely well done.
On a webcomic front, I’m currently addicted to Demon (http://www.shigabooks.com/) – can be frustratingly slow to develop, and a bit disgusting at times, but utterly compulsive.
Ooh, I loved Bone and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Y: The Last Man has been hard for me to get into, for some reason.
Someone just turned me on to Bookhunter: http://www.shigabooks.com/bookhunter.php and that was SO GOOD, so I’m rapidly turning into a Jason Shiga fan.
Hi Matt,
I’m a big fan of comic books and i prefer to read marvel superheroes. This is the best comics of all time, invading TV and movies over the last decade. I actually have huge collections of marvel cards, movie and toys. I don’t settle only in reading books instead i’m always present watching recent marvel entertainment movies.
here https://comicstore.marvel.com/collections
Hi Matt,
What about the Franco-Belgian classics? Fun and wit.
Asterix (though the English translation is dreadful inadequate in the puns).
Hergé’s Tim
Lucky Luke
Spanish: Mort & Phil (Mortadelo y Filemón)
In case you want to improve your German (I doubt the existence of a translation) ;), add Strizz, Rudi and (c) TOM. Good luck.
PS: Nickname was “spammy”, right. Now, using the proper name is “duplicate”. Hmmm 😉
Hi Matt,
Have you read the “Moon Knight” by Warren Ellis? Not as popular as his Transmetropolitan series, but is also a pretty good one.
Have found some good suggestions for winter reading… THX