The Best Graphic Novels

My friend Scott got(unfortunate rhyme) me back into reading comics a few months ago. The past few years I would read roughly 5 a year, but now I read a lot. I devour them because they are a quick and ultimately fulfilling read, they deal with science fiction much of the time, when they are about everyday life I find them more relevant than actual books, they deal with basic morality and mythology.

Next are the best of the best, the finest reads I've discovered (with the help of my friends Scott and Travis, and my own amblings through the shelves of my local comic shops.)

Blankets:





At just over 600 pages this is a mammoth of a comic. But this is more than a comic, this is a memoir of adolescence the likes of which John Hughs would be proud of. Based largely on the teen years of indi-comic writer/illustrator Craig Thompson Blankets deals with some harsh issues. Scary parents, religious fervor and then doubt, first loves, and sexual awakening. Like many people I dismissed the comic medium as schlock or pure escapist entertainment. Blankets was the first "comic" I ever read that transcended those near sighted judgments. This is literature, pure, deep, and true. When people called Clint Eastwood's film Million Dollar Baby "truthful" and "honest" I was annoyed because I didn't really know what that meant. I went back and reread Blankets to discover that meaning was held within its illustrated pages. This is honesty at its boldest and most meaningful. Yeah its angsty, but so are the days of a teenager.

Grade: A+

Superman For All Seasons




Told in four parts (each of the year's seasons) and from a different person in Superman's life perspective comes a really touching rendering of the Man of Steel. Superman is dissected by his adopted father, the love of his life, his greatest enemy, and the love of his adolescence.

Each depiction shows a man distant from those he loves, weighted with the world's problems, inwardly seeking answers to questions no could could ever imagine. "What does it mean that I can fly?" "How can I best serve mankind?" "Who do I love?" And from his onlookers, "What motivates the Man of Tomorrow, and why am I infatuated with him?"

This is a deep book and a perfect companion to Superman Returns and Richard Donner's original film. I picked it up because a quote on the back cover called it something to the effect of "John Ford meets Superman". No truer words could have been chosen. Set in a lushly imagined widescreen landscape of Smallville and the crowded skyscrapers of Metropolis this is Superman in scope.

Grade: A+


The Walking Dead (All Volumes)



What happens after the zombie movie ends? Does everyone live happily ever after? Not here. The Zombie Apocalypse has come and well, it sure hasn't gone. The survivors are doing just that, surviving, and no one is coming to rescue them. They huttle together in RVs, homes, and anywhere shelter can be afforded. No one is safe, not even the comic's "stars". If a zombie takeover did happen it would probably play out exactly as this comic is written. I can't put it down when I'm reading it, and I just want to devour the pages as if I were a zombie and each book was a fresh corpse. Violent, dark, and unrelenting, everyone is at stake in each panel.

Grade: A+

Maus



The Holocaust written as a comic. Jews are mice and Nazis are cats. The cartoonish way this tale is spun is no less terrifying and tragic. The cartoons lend an otherworldly feel where such atrocious acts are magnified by their absurdity of context.

Grade: A






Red



Warren Ellis is a god in the comics world, here is a short but fabulous way to acquaint yourself. Red is an ex-secret agent, black ops. His work was the unspeakable kind, the kind the government does then never in a million years takes responsibility for. Now, Red is old, tired, and according to the new head of the FBI a hazard to keep alive. Written in three fast paced and action packed issues, Red comes to grips with his choices, his life, and the government who won't take responsibility for him. Amazing stuff for only a few pages and a truly excellent way to meet Warren Ellis.

Grade: A+




Planetary (Series)



What if Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, and all the other fictional characters you love were real. And what if a secret society of super power endowed archeologists studied and reported on these characters a'la the X-Files. Then you'd have Planetary, Warren Ellis' greatest achievement. At times its so detailed and sneaky that it goes over my head, others are just jaw-droppingly brilliant. When Mr. Snow enters Frankenstein's castle in search of a secret map it sent me back to my Monster Squad days. Ellis prays on your sense of nostalgia and throws mystical clues to the history of such amazing creations as Godzilla, Tarzan, and hundreds of other fictitious romantics. My favorite issue deals with Batman, and every iteration Batman has.

Grade: A+

Torso



Brian Micheal Bendis is one of my most favorite writers. He does incredible two person dialogue and writes excellent crime fiction. His artistic style is fascinating as it uses photos and real images blended with his drawings to create a really surreal paneling. Also, he does a lot of motion. Meaning he almost animates the action to feel like camera moves in a film, highly cinematic in other words.

Torso feels like the movie Se7en. It’s a dark cop versus killer story, but set just after Al Capone’s capture. We follow Capone’s nemesis Elliot Ness, newly crowned Safety Director of Cleveland, Ohio. Ness took a politicians desk job, although a hero for his take down of Capone, Ness wants a quiet life. Cleveland, as you probably suspect affords him none of this as the Torso killer surfaces. Ness is pitted against the mongrel in a political move by himself and the city of Cleveland. It’s an absolute must read for comic fans and crime story lovers made more interesting by the fact its based on the real life unsolved mystery Elliot Ness lived through.

Grade: A+


Jinx



Bendis strikes again. Romance between a bounty hunter (Jinx) and her… bounty (Goldfish). Yeah, very original, but its helped by a heaping dose of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’s plot. Its pretty unabashedly stealing from the classic western film, but it does so in such an interesting way I don’t care.

Grade: A






Goldfish



Bendis brings Jinx’s love back to Cleveland for revenge. Goldfish returns after years missing from the Cleveland underbelly. Turns out, an old girlfriend and partner has risen to the tops of Cleveland’s crime syndicate, she is also raising their child, hidden from Goldfish all these years.

Goldfish has a plan, and it involves a gun, and a killing spree. Excellent crime fiction, lots of action, and ruthless women.

Grade: A+




Carnet De Voyage



Craig Thompson is my actual favorite comics writer. His book Blankets is a masterpiece as I’ve already told you, and this book is fascinating in more ways than I can count. This is a journal of Thompson’s trip to Paris on a book signing tour with Blankets, and then a research trip to the Eur-Asia/Middle East. What I thought might be a novelty of a read turned out to be one of the best “comics” I’ve ever read. It is not a comic at all actually. There are no panels, just sketches, doodles, and anecdotes on friends, hotels, experience, and what life is like around the world. Partly responsible for me leaving the country, this book is everything I want my life in Europe to be. Cheers Craig on a triumph.

Grade: A+

I’ll post more someday.