This week’s suggestions come from Samuel James Clatterbuck – a good friend and an avid comics book reader. Sammy writes for a comics blog called Comics For Serious.
“These are some comics that are good introductory stories that aren’t, to be honest, bullshit. Non-comics-readers turn to super hero stories like The Watchmen and The Dark Knight that aren’t super hero stories at all. Too many people want to read comics without reading COMICS. These books are from across the board and important to the actual culture, these are the gems that are never noticed, the diamonds in the rough that if people read could introduce them to what’s really going on in comics, not the bullshit.” – Sammy
King City
Brandon Graham is an incredible artist and writer who’s created King City, his own universe with a deep history that is slowly revealed. His art shows his love for graffiti and his writing is rooted in Conan the Barbarian and European space comics, a match made in heaven. Few comics build on themselves the way King City does, if you don’t want to read Marvel or DC, this is the way to go.
Tomb of Dracula
Tomb of Dracula does this rare thing, turning the villain into the main character. The huge essential collects these hard to find, expensive comics in black and white, the inks helped define pop-horror art. One page you hate Dracula for killing an innocent little girl, the next you’re worried that he’ll be killed.
Dragon Ball
MANGA? That’s not cool! It’s for little kids!! If you were to go to Japan do you think they’d have “Y: The Last Man”? No, they’d have stuff like Spider-Man, the major titles. Dragonball is one of those major titles in Japan and for good reason. Toriyama’s art style is one of the most copied but no one can pull it off with his precision, and his huge character cast are all lovable. People sleeping on Dragonball because they are too good for it basically don’t deserve to read it. The first volume gives you Goku’s origin and lots of dick and fart jokes, with some of the best visual narration found in comics ever.
Captain America
Brubaker’s Captain America redefined a character over sixty years old, Steve Epting using dark realistic backgrounds with brightly colored dopey costumes to show how out of place Cap is in our world. If you’re looking for something purely super hero and completely in with Marvel’s continuity while being a stand alone series, nothing is better than Captain America. He’s embarassingly uncool, out of touch with the world but he continues to hold onto his values and be a symbol of pride and respect to everyone in Marvel, even characters like Wolverine. This series shows the sadness of a super hero, plain and simple.
Madman
Madman is a guy in a super hero suit telling the story of Mormon mythology in secret, Mike Allred’s visual story telling and his character’s growth is beautiful. No other creator has the love Allred holds for his creations, Madman and his girlfriend Joe’s lives parallel his own, the relationships he builds in the comic are so real that when he gets angry you feel it, you feel upset him, you become frustrated with him as if he were real. Rarely does this happen in any art form, especially not, you know, funny books.
Tags: comics, Samuel James Clatterbuck
