I am taking a friend of mine to a comic book store today, he's a rapper who wants his cd turned into a comic book and no, when I say rapper I dont mean anything like 50 cent.

So we're going to a comic book store today to buy some comics that will show him the kinds of things comic books can do outside of the superhero world. I need some suggestions on stuff to get.

I'm a neil gaiman fan so you can avoid his comics, those are a given.

I like to point out "Box Office Poison" by Alex Robinson as a well written novel about regular people doing regular things that just happens to be in a graphic format.

Ditto with "Safe Area Gorazde" as non-fiction journalism in a graphic format.

Most likely not what your friend will ultimately be doing, but it might give him an idea of how the medium can be altered to suit any purpose, really.

quote:

Originally posted by aitapata:
I like to point out "Box Office Poison" by Alex Robinson as a well written novel about regular people doing regular things that just happens to be in a graphic format.

Ditto with "Safe Area Gorazde" as non-fiction journalism in a graphic format.

Most likely not what your friend will ultimately be doing, but it might give him an idea of how the medium can be altered to suit any purpose, really.

Those both sound very very appropriate acctually. Thank you.

His cd is about a guy who basically just lives a normal life in a urban enviroment. a charecter he created named christopher smart, whose dad is in prison for smuggling drugs, and christopher smart basically just tries to avoid confrontation with people around him and deals with his dad bein gone and him not having anybody to really look up to.

Yay! In the event neither are at the comic store, you can get a glimps here and here

Thanks.

They didnt have either

Next time you go, look for Fables or Preacher. Both good. Fables is particularly fun - fairy-tale people living in modern day. Preacher is...darker. and mature.

quote:

Originally posted by megsish:
Next time you go, look for Fables or Preacher. Both good. Fables is particularly fun - fairy-tale people living in modern day. Preacher is...darker. and mature.

I acctually did pick up an issue of fables out of just plain curiousnses.

-100 Bullets
-Sin City
Both for the hyperviolent pulp crowd

-Why I hate Saturn
-The Cowboy Wally Show
-King David
-Birth of a Nation
Comedies by Kyle Baker (Off-kilter 20-somethings, television personalities gone horribly awry, Biblical, and racial/political shared with co-creators, respectively)

-The Compleat Moonshadow
A child's tale told for adults

-Maus
Biography of a holocaust survivor

-Stuck Rubber Baby
Growing up gay in the civil-rights era south.

-Love and Rockets
The Hernadez brothers tell stories of complicated women on a sci-fi tinged earth.

Cous Cous Express
Couriers
White Out
100 Bullets

All but 100 Bullets are black and white, pretty sure all are graphic novels rather than collected episodes in TPB. There's another I would recommend for really out there style and story telling, but the name is escaping me at the moment. I'll look tonight and try and report back.

I also thought Preacher was really good. I'll reccommend Immortal which is a movie not a comic book *shrug* but it's made after a good French comic book trillogy by E. Bilal. One of the best authors in European comics. The movie is in English and it's now on DVD. And it features a certain god with an eagle head :P

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
Cous Cous Express
Couriers
White Out
100 Bullets

All but 100 Bullets are black and white, pretty sure all are graphic novels rather than collected episodes in TPB. There's another I would recommend for really out there style and story telling, but the name is escaping me at the moment. I'll look tonight and try and report back.

100 Bullets is collected episodes with an overarching story thread... I think the rest are all GNs. (100 Bullets is currently on issue 68 of what is a planned 100 issue story)

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
... all are graphic novels rather than collected episodes in TPB.

Huh?? are you trying to say the volumes are not part of larger stories, i.e. self contained? Trying to differentiate TPB from GN makes no sense to me at all since one is a form of the other and neither term implies if the story was first serialiazed or not.
by the by, I too suggest White Out (which also has a sequel book JP)

quote:

Originally posted by GMZoe:

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
... all are graphic novels rather than collected episodes in TPB.

Huh?? are you trying to say the volumes are not part of larger stories, i.e. self contained? Trying to differentiate TPB from GN makes no sense to me at all since one is a form of the other and neither term implies if the story was first serialiazed or not.
by the by, I too suggest White Out (which also has a sequel book JP)

Yeah yeah, I know, for some reason I've just always considered GNs to be self-contained stories or something that wasn't previously sieralized, and TPBs as a collection of something that was serialized. TPB is the physical format, right? And GN is the genre or something like that? Like all TPBs are GNs, but not all GNs are TPBs? Anyhoo, yes, all I was trying to do was denote those that were a collection of serialized books and those that were published as an original single volume.

And White Out and White Out: Melt are good books.

TPB just refers to the shape and binding. GN is the fact that it's a longer comics story in a single volume, and often used to snootify comics (recall Neil's anecdote where he was told "oh, you don't write comics, you write graphic novels!" as if there was such a big difference).
Anyhoo, White out and the sequel were originally serialized by Oni Press, just fyi

Well see, shows what little I know. I guess I should have known that they were serialized at one time. Still, good reads through and through.

I'd have to give another big nod to Fables.. I'd say it's the best Vertigo title since Sandman..

Also, Y-The Last Man isn't bad, but it can get a bit boring and slow...

I'd also recommend, if your a fan of 'zombie-horror', the Walking Dead series.. It's really cool..

And, another title not quiet in the 'superhero' realm is the new Army of Darkness set of mini-series starring ASH from the Evil Dead movies.. Pretty damn good, and is holding true to the look, feel, and sarcasm of the movies..

Let's see, what else....? Aside from a couple others, that's about all the 'non superhero' titles i'm collecting at the moment...

Still haven't gotten to check out the Teenagers from Mars series.. I'd like to give it a look..