Hollaback and Comics Query

[mizarchivist]

So, a brief list of Stuff.

-/+ training for new web site editing interface
+ microfilm reader repair guy coming in today after setting up an appointment yesterday afteroon (woah! That's service!)
++ book repair power point with many images done
+ willing outside editors for the rec. management project
- angry guy swearing at me on the way to work. Don't bloody well ruin my day by swearing at me for NO reason, buddy.
+ calling up the prominent Beacon Hill printing company, whose shirt he is always wearing to let them know. They knew who I meant and they sounded somewhat mortified. Hah.
+ rollerblades zoom! I rotated the wheels last weekend and they go so much better now
+ sushi tonight
- the sun's receeding from the days. I can feel it every morning when I struggle to wake up
+ I can start to wear pants and real shoes again without heat prostration!

OK- Comics. My mom is slated to teach the art side of a graphics novel class at the community college in the winter. Isn't that the coolest ever?!
She needs a reading list so she can get a full scope of what's out there and what's good. The only one she has right now is Jeff Smith's Out of Boneville. I've told her about Sandman and Fray already.Tell me what your all time favorites are and why she should read it.

Edit: Mom says: "Totally awesome!  It will take me a year to look at everything.  I think I will forward this to my co-professor.  Thank everyone for their most wise responses. I would myself, but I am not on the livejournal thang"

Comments

[fraterrisus]

"maus", for the way that the art reinforces the powerful message of the story. so long as you don't mind reading about the holocaust.

"ghost in the shell" if you want to touch on manga-style.

[catya.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Maus, and Watchman, and also there's a sandman book done in japanese style that's really interesting.

I don't think I've seen Ghost in the Shell on paper.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

"ghost in the shell" if you want to touch on manga-style.

-Ooo, good choice. Masamune Shirow is one of the giants of manga.

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

I was just about to say Maus, and also, I remember BD Geoff really liking a graphic novel named Maxx, about a psycho bunny.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

-She's teaching the art side? 'Kay . . .

• Watchmen, partly because it's one of the masterpieces of the genre, and because of its intense use of repeating visual motifs.
  
• Moonshadow (sometimes Compleat Moonshadow) is very pretty.
  
• Marvels is a fully-painted example of "superhero realism".
  
• It could also be useful to compare Marvels with some of the original stories that it retells. Any Fantastic Four collection that includes FF #48 ("The Coming of Galactus") would do.
  
• Something by Eisner (the guy who invented the term "graphic novel"), such as Contract With God or The Best of the Spirit.
  
• The definitive texts on creating graphic novels are Eisner's Comics and Sequential Storytelling and McCloud's Understanding Comics.
  
• She's probably going to want some manga in there for contrast, but I'm not the one to recommend something. I tend to pick manga on the basis of how many giant robots it has.

[doeeyedbunny.livejournal.com]

Dude, you totally forgot Frank Miller and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. How could you?! I should confiscate your comics.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

I should confiscate your comics.

-I think you'd have to make two trips . . .

you totally forgot The Dark Knight Returns.

-I considered it, but I decided that while it had a groundbreaking story, I wasn't so certain its art qua art was revolutionary.

(Though right now, on reflection, I'm changing my mind.)

[isabelluna.livejournal.com]

I know it's a movie now, but "V for Vendetta." It was truly groundbreaking when it came out in the late '80s. BTW I think one of the extras talks about how the drawing was made to look cinematic, etc.

Obviously I'd second the Sandman. "Dream Hunters" in the japanese style Sandman.

[mizarchivist]

Right- dream hunters, the one catya also mentioned. I picked that up from the library not that long ago and was just... *wahhhh/melt/loooove*

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Okay, the obvious have been mentioned-- Watchmen (changed the way superheros are presented-- also very clever for its use of a 3x3 grid on EVERY SINGLE PAGE, a complex storyline, and the use of other media within the story to make a point about the actual story [the pirate story]), Bone (esp. the first book-- wonderful comic pacing, great cartoony art), Sandman-- not so much for the art as for the use of the mythic framework within comics (although there are places where the art is amazing, a lot of it is mid-90's comicky-- also, start a few of the collections in, rather than at the beginning-- "The Doll's House" or "A Game of You").

From my mighty shelves:

Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" is worth looking at, or even worth using as a textbook.

Love and Rockets, by los Bros Hernandez-- 2 parts to this, the "Heartbreak Soup" Palomar stories, and the "Locas" stories of young punks. Beautiful art, great characters. Check out the softcover collections especially, unless you want to drop the bucks on the giant collected hardbacks.

"Cerebus," by Dave Sim-- okay, so he goes batshit crazy somewhere in there, but the "Church and State" storyline is a masterpiece of comic art and storytelling. Also "Jaka's Story." Pretty amazing stuff for a book that started out as a parody of Conan starring an aardvark. Beware of anything beyond book 6 or 7 of the collections, because, as I mentioned, he goes batshit insane.

"Transmetropolitan," by Warren Ellis-- how to do a comic without superheros and be very very successful.

More modernly:

"Blankets" and "Good Bye Chunky Rice" by Craig Thompson are beautifully drawn and told stories that will make you all sniffly.

Jeffrey Brown's stories are all told through tiny cartoony inked panels, and he is unflinching in examining his relationships and his life. "Unlikely," "Clumsy," and "Any Easy Imtimacy" are great, and are worth examining.

Andi Watson has developed a super-minimal line art style that also manages to be very expressive. Check out "Breakfast After Noon."

Seth, "It's a good life if you don't weaken" is non-fiction, or maybe it isn't, about nostalgia.

And finally, Eddie Campbell is an interesting sort of fellow. He worked with Alan Moore on "From Hell," and has written a bunch of books of his own, from the Bacchus series (which is pretty weird but lots of fun) and a series of autobiographical books about "Alec," a thinly-veiled authorial insertion. "Alec: How to be an artist" is a history of the underground comics scene in England in the 80's as viewed by Eddie Campbell himself as he made his way through it, meeting and working with Alan Moore and others who were just starting out around then. I can't recommend his books enough.

...if you need more, ask...

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

Elfquest. The Pinis have been quietly revolutionizing comics for almost 30 years, most of it as independent artists. I would be willing to loan your mom my second set of the first four graphic novels. Particularly because it's a great way to see how an artist's (Wendy Pini, in this case) work matures over the first 20 issues of a work.

Their big thing: They took the idea of elves as beautiful ethereal creatures and flipped it.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

I second Transmet; mangosteen can wax rhapsodic over it.

Looking at the suggestions so far, they're mostly American-style comics. I'll work up a quick list of some manga, if she wants to go that route.

Also, if she wants to have fun with manga, here's a good set:
New Hope (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569713626/ref=pd_bxgy_text_b/002-7802879-1084042?ie=UTF8)
Empire Strikes Back (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569713901/sr=8-2/qid=1156428908/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-7802879-1084042?ie=UTF8)
Return of the Jedi (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569713944/sr=8-3/qid=1156428823/ref=pd_bbs_3/002-7802879-1084042?ie=UTF8)

as manga. I've linked to volume 1 in each 4-volume set. "star wars manga" gets you the listings in Amazon.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

Here's a manga list and link from our young, manga-addicted LA. She says she can't read anything that doesn't have good art.

http://messageboard.tokyopop.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-95.html

I personally like these series the best:

Mars by Fuyumi Souryo - the artwork is sparse and beautiful, the main characters are lovely lovely creatures

Boys Over Flowers (or, Hana Yori Dango) by Yoko Kamio - the faces are particularly expressive, lots of shading and I love how the artist completely fills in each panel

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Tayaka - one of my favorites, the artist has great range - the characters are all different ages and diff. nationalities, the scenery varies from the beach to gardens to inside houses

Love Hina by Ken Akamatsu - each character has such a different personality, and it shows in the way he draws them - great action scenes

Ragnarok by Myong-jin Yi - I have no patience for reading shonen (boys) manga, but the artwork on this is just gorgeous - complex stuff

[mizarchivist]

Hey, Fruits Basket! I actually know what the devil that one is at least (via shadesong and elayna)
I'm really looking forward to seeing what Mom does with this class.

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

For the pure art value, Akira, by Katsuhiro Ootomo, also belongs in this list. The art in it is postively gorgeous. Another series I bought for just the art (as I bought it in the original Japanese, which I cannot read) is Gunnm, by Yukito Kishiro -- which became Battle Angel Alita when Viz translated it.

A favorite American comic artist is Phil Foglio. His style is readily identifiable, but the reason I like him best is because of all of the little things that can be going on in any given frame. Any of his works will have various frames with multiple little things stashed in them here and there. In a similar vein, and probably an inspiration to Foglio, is the father of modern manga, Tezuka Osamu. He has any number of interesting stylistic additions to frames, which are fun to look for even if you can't read the story. The series of his that I'm most familiar with is Blackjack, but any other of his series will have a similar degree of artistic asides.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest the dark brooding style of Dave Sim's* "Cerebus", just about anything by Robert Crumb for having a gritty focus on details other artists intentionally ignore (I recommend Complete Crumb Volume 8; at his best when at his worst), and to lighten up the mix the vivid coloring techniques of Wendy and Richard Pini's 'Elfquest'.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

ANd yet you wouldn't suggest Larry Marder's "Tales Of The Beanworld" ("A most peculiar comic (book?) experience")?

(There are 4 trades that collect 20 out of... 22? 23? issues. The comic as a whole has a 'how can we make our world out of these simple graphic elements' thing going as part of the story.)

(It's his user-icon for this post, MizA)

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

Hm, another one for the dark-and-brooding style is the currently-running webcomic Digger (http://www.graphicsmash.com/series.php?name=digger), by Ursula Vernon. (Subscription required for all but the current page.)

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

it might also be worth having a chat with BD Geoff (who used to-is still-is he? date Doris). I know that he's big on the graphic novel genre. I only remember that he liked Maxx and Sandman (Maus was introduced to me by an entirely different ex), but he might know even more that are worth a look.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I just started on Fables, and on Y: The Last Man. I don't know anything about the art, but the stories of both of those are really interesting and different, and that's why I got sucked into them.

[missionista.livejournal.com]

I second Love and Rockets.

[chillguru.livejournal.com]

well most folks have definitely covered a lot of the big ones. i must suggest David Mack's Kabuki (http://www.davidmack.net/). there are a number of graphic novels, of which i can highly recommend the first, circle of blood, and the most recent, alchemy, both of which have very distinct styles.

[kazmat.livejournal.com]

I think Dave McKean's work should definitely be looked at. It's so different (and freaky).
http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/

I love Violent Cases, Mr. Punch, etc.