Comics/Manga worth reading?

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Hi there.
Was thinking in this the last few days. So wanted to see what others might recommend. Really into the Verigo stuff: Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, 100 Bullets, Fables, The Sandman, among others. Besides Vertigo, any quality stuff of this caliber?

Cant think anything of Marvel, their material seems kind of ...superficial (like a diet Pepsi, could be a good analogy). Was thinking about Fantastic Four.

As for manga, heard good things about sword of berazerk. Really appreciate the animated version. Besides this i can't think of anything that drags my attention.

Looking for worthwhile stuff that scapes the general awareness also.
 
Well, if you haven't read them, the manga's for many popular Anime's are good reading. Quite often fleshing out the universe more.

Just finished Hellsing and going through History's Strongest Disciple - Kenichi now.

Hellsing would be the easier one to get into. History's Strongest Discple - Kenichi is very Japanese with a Japanese sense of humor that westerner's might not get if they don't have at least a passing familiarity with Japanese culture.

Regards,
SB
 
Nausicaä of The Valley of Wind, Akira, Domu, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Appleseed, Battle Angel Alita/Last Order, Aqua Knight. There's so much more (vast understatement), but these are those I've enjoyed.
 
Some already mentioned, I'll add a few more: (no particular order)
Mai the Psychic Girl, Crying Freeman, Sanctuary, Gantz, Blame, Tough, Vagabond, Death Note.

Some funny ones:
Hajime no Ippo, Slam Dunk, Yakitate Japan, Hikaru no Go.

I'll post some more when I remember them.
 
One other that just came to mind (mostly because the Anime just sorta ended without a continuation in sight :() is Twelve Kingdoms...

Regards,
SB
 
As for comics, I normally like the Franco-Belgian comics. Try 'XIII' for starter, I think recently Marvel may have released it in English.
 
Great kids books to be sure (or to read for nostalgia's sake) but I doubt Yoko Tsuno is what he is looking for.
 
Blah. Yoko Tsuno's no more a "kids book" than, say, Spirou or Tintin is, unless you've grown stodgy with age, in which case you most likely don't appreciate comics anyway.
 
Been spending so much money on comics these past couple months, it's stupid. (More than I really can afford, honestly.) First off, the two final volumes of the complete Elfquest; in total four gigantic phonebook-sized, thick slabs of paper. (The first two volumes I bought maybe a year ago, or close to anyway, together with Grendel: Omnibus, which is also four thick volumes, and Fall of Cthulhu Omnibus - which was a fairly boring affair sadly, and I never managed to get through it.)

Then Zenith, which is an awesome-excellent late 1980s Brit superhero comic from venerable publication 2000AD, scripted by Grant Morrison and drawn most excellently in pencils/ink by Steve Yeowell. These are four hardcover collections, although I'm still waiting to procure volume 3 (they had forgotten to re-order - shame! Shame!) Also: hardcover books of Mike Mignola's Hellboy: Weird Tales, Abe Sapien: Dark and Terrible volume 1, and B.P.R.D. 1946-1948. Then the first four softcover volumes of Judge Dredd: The Complete Casefiles; chronological re-prints of the entire series from the first issue.

I'm still reading the first volume, and there's been loads I haven't read before. The next few volumes will have bunches of duplicate stuff because I have a bunch of Titan Books softcover collections from the 1980s (most of which I bought myself in Torquay when I was there in 1987 or 1988, I can't quite remember which.)

Finally, a really beautiful hardcover book with a nice transparent clear/blue plastic sleeve, titled "The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superhero Women", and Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicles. An origin story/prequel, you would say in today's parlance. :p

Other stuff I've been gathering over the past few years is the entire Hellboy Library Edition series (6 volumes), as well as Hellboy in Hell Library Edition, first two volumes of Preacher: Absolute Edition, and third and final volume destined for this coming spring (which will be really exciting, despite me having owned the entire series already for almost 20 years now... :p)

Also Charles Burns' X'ed Out, The Hive and Sugar Skull. A most glum tale indeed. Seriously, if one suffers from melancholy/depression, one should consider NOT reading because of the content. I had trouble with these; it's a fascinating tale, but full of suffering and mental illness and broken people; especially the main character. The hardcover books are very pretty though, and the ligne claire-inspired art is fantastic.

Lots of stuff being re-issued in Swedish/hardcover as well these days, including tons of francobelgian stuff such as all of the Valerian and Laureline books (which I have procured), Yoko Tsuno (still ongoing at an unbearably slow rate), lots of Spirou stuff, Thorgal... So much. I don't have money for it all. :p Still waiting for a proper re-issue of Franquin's Gaston; these are perhaps the most hilarious single-page strips ever created.
 
The "new" french Elric by Julien Blondel.
The Nikopol Trilogy.
Hellblazer if you liked Sandman.

Then the classics: V for Vendetta, From Hell, The Walking Dead, 30 Days of Night, Blood Rayne.
 
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Been intending to start in on Hellblazer for like...20 years or something like that, lol.

Btw, just realized I was hella slow to get onto the B.P.R.D train; the first hardcover collection came out in 2012, and they're ludicrously expensive trying to get hold of now in new condition. FEH! :(

Serves me I guess for being dumb and slow...
 
The talk about Marvel stuff in the movies thread made me remember an interesting book I bought ages ago; some time in the early 1990s; '93 perhaps. It's Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D; a big, thick wad of paper which was originally published back in '89 I read now on the inside of the cover, so the individual issues are therefore even older than that. Not sure when the first issue might have come out. (Wikipedia says: june 1988. So I'll take that as gospel truth then. :p)

This is old-style Nick Fury btw, when he was still a white guy with silvery temples who smokes cigars (not entirely PC these days. The cigars, I mean...) He's an overall more hands-on, slugger-y kind of guy compared to Sam Jackson-style Fury, but still a pretty smart, wily fella compared to most people.

Anyway, I was reminded again about this book when "Winter Soldier" first came out, and then again by "Civil War"; I'd like to think that both of these movies were in a way partially inspired by this old story*, which tells a tale of how SHIELD has rotted out from inside, and then has a high-ranking operative go AWOL and trying to bring it all down. In this comic it's Fury himself, and in the movies it's Steve Rogers/Cap Merica.

It's a pretty epic and well-written yarn; not "Watchmen"-level storytelling perhaps, but certainly very entertaining while reading it. Anyone else remembering this comicbook?

*Yes, I know "Civil War" is based on a storyline from contemporary marvel titles, but ideas often get recycled and regurgitated, moulded and re-shaped into a slightly different form... The idea that there could be some DNA shared deep down doesn't seem quite so far-fetched to me! :p
 
Was finally able to procure Zenith: Phase III (had previously bought Phase IV) the other day, so I could start reading the second half of the saga. DAMN. The story is friggin' creepy, bordering on apocalyptic, with a positively Shyamalanesque twisty ending. Very very wicked stuff. I wonder if the way the story went was planned out from the very beginning. Could well be, honestly. Also, when you read superhero comics, you expect the hero to be, well, heroic. *cough* Well, Zenith totally isn't like that. Lol.

This must absolutely be one of the best superhero comics I've ever read. Truly great stuff. Both script and art are so well done. I totally love it. Very glad I was finally able to collect the whole series, after so many years. I first stumbled on Zenith in, I dunno, the early '90s maybe? I read part of what is phase II and III in what I seem to recall as borrowed comicbooks (translated into Swedish), ending just before the shit REALLY starts hitting the fan. Then, a huge gap of nothing, then I managed to buy a few Titan Books softcover collection volumes, making up all of Phase I and II, and then another huge, huge gap of nothing until I discovered these volumes exist - and quite by accident too.

Zenith is so lovely late '80s, and in phase IV, early '90s. Hehe. I love it. Awesome stuff.
 
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