Yup. No thread yet about good ole' fashioned, red blooded American comics.

Okay but really, I just started getting into comics/graphic novels with my partner. When was the last time you were in a comic shop and tried browsing material that wasn't superhero related? There is *so* much crazy shit out there, SO MUCH, and not just fucking, like, Sandman by Neil Gaiman and The Watchmen. For those that don't know shit about comics (like me), basically it goes: single issues are released monthly, and commonly five issues at a time are collected as "trade paperbacks." So you can buy easily digestible, multiple chapters of a comic at a time. What I'm finding is that compared to TV and film, the budget and staffing of comics is a lot smaller, so there's a *whole lot* more really creative, outlandish, high quality fiction on the playing field. Like check this out, this is what I'm reading:

Chew: Tony Chu is a special crimes investigator for the FDA. He is a "cibopath", meaning he can take a bite out of pretty much anything, and get a "psychic impression" from it, getting useful insights into a crime the food may have been involved in. Pretty out there, great characters, long running, award-winning series.

Sex Criminals: Newer series. Two people discover they each share a weird power. Whenever they orgasm (via beating off of having sex), time freezes for a short period of time. What do they do with this weird power? Rob banks. Then shit gets complicated.

Y: The Last Man: Classic older series, haven't read much at all yet. A crazy virus ends up killing every single person on earth with a Y chromosome (the dudes), except for one dude. THIS IS HIS STORY.

Hawkeye: Hawkeye, of The Avengers - these are the stories of what he does on his day off. Really sweet, minimalist style and color palette. The style of this series is really *nothing* like a typical superhero comic. Same writer as Sex Criminals, it feels very fresh, cool, it's well written, great characters. Super slick. [url=http://nerdymindsmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hawkeyemondaydec17.jpg]Check this out.[/url]

Tooth and Claw: This series is just starting. Think Redwall kinda - this kingdom in the Sky, inhabited by all sorts of crazy magical animal people of all species. They try to summon the great hero of legend, but then shit hits the fan, their kingdom comes crashing down to the ground, and now they have to start over and figure it out. [url=http://www.needtoconsume.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/toothandclaw-insert-2.jpg]Gorgeous art.[/url] A little high fantasy and slightly overwrought, but it's very promising.

The Wake: Underwater survival horror turns into a generation-spanning tale of human struggle. Yeah it kinda shits the bed toward the end, but the art was fantastic!

Seconds: Big fatty one shot by the author of Scott Pilgrim. Solid, contained story, beautiful/cozy/cute art. Overall a pretty great experience.

To read: Asterios Polyp (big fatty one shot about an old dude). Daytripper (collected series of stories about a writer dude. themes include: life/love/pursuit of happiness).

[img]http://www.angryasianman.com/images/angry/chew06.jpg[/img]

I work at a school that teaches English to international students, and we have been thinking about getting some graphic novels around to try to get some of our students interested in reading (mainly our Saudi students-- not all of them, but the vast majority I have spoken to, express an extreme hatred for reading. Appreciation for reading isn't really stressed much in their culture, as it is here). We're hoping that something with illustrations to aid comprehension for lower level students, and less text (but still with depth of content) might be a way to get them into reading for pleasure...

I am not really familiar with graphic novels myself (not yet, anyway). I'm not really sure if any of the ones you mentioned would be interesting for the group we're dealing with now (20-something year old Saudi women), but if anyone has any recommendations, I would love to hear them.

webtoons.com has a wide selection of (Korean-to-English) comics that are broken down by age groups and stuff.

Saga is a really great series. I believe it's written by the guy who did Y: The Last Man. Fiona Staples does some beautiful illustrative work--seriously. It's mind-blowing.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img538/3899/jJH77C.jpg

That image seems a little too big for a post so I'll just leave the link.

I go through phases where I get into comics and stop sometimes. Most recent stuff I've liked is the new Ms. Marvel which is really worth checking out. I've also been reading a bit of Dark Engine which is kind of eh. I mostly like it because the main character kind of reminds me of what I had in mind for what a D&D character I played for a while looked like.

[quote="h2orowe"]I go through phases where I get into comics and stop sometimes. Most recent stuff I've liked is the new Ms. Marvel which is really worth checking out. I've also been reading a bit of Dark Engine which is kind of eh. I mostly like it because the main character kind of reminds me of what I had in mind for what a D&D character I played for a while looked like.[/quote]

My partner is the superheroey one of us, and she's/we're reading Ms. Marvel too. So thrilled to see that project smash the charts!