I read the first arc. It's slow, and the separate story threads don't have enough connection or room to breathe. It's hard to meaningfully advance 4 separate plots with 22 pages a month. I wouldn't rank it as a must-read.
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Comic recommendations for you fine folk here! Sci-Fi, horror, fantasy and more.
- Thread starter Corpsepyre
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I read the first arc. It's slow, and the separate story threads don't have enough connection or room to breathe. It's hard to meaningfully advance 4 separate plots with 22 pages a month. I wouldn't rank it as a must-read.
Thanks, the first book is pretty cheap right now on amazon. Ill put it on the backburner for now. Premise looked pretty interesting as well as the art. I have too much to read right now anyway, books, comic books and books for work... Not enough time in the day
Amazing space opera. Less famous than Jodorowsky's Incal comic that he did with Moebius, but I actually like The Metabarons more. The art is incredible and while it's still a weird book and pretty fucked up as per usual for Jodorowsky, it's much easier to follow than The Incal and the characters are fleshed out much more.
You can get the entire series in hardcover for $40 on Amazon right now. Well worth it.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
I'm surprised Saga isn't in the OP. That's the comic that got me back into comics.
8BitsAtATime
Member
I was just about to say where's Saga.
Corpsepyre
Banned
Left it out as I believe a lot more people would be familiar with it. Wanted to mention some of the newer ones. It's great though.
Vampire On Titus
Member
King City, written and drawn by Graham, is great too.
I fully co-sign this req.
I just started reading this after it was recommended in this thread and so far so good. An interesting mash up of a couple different post apocalyptic genres with a ton of body horror and gore. It'd be interesting to see someone try and make a TV show on something like this as the runners and other creatures the Spread makes are far more horrifying and threatening than an army of the walkers from the Walking Dead.
+1 on Prophet. Really unique.
Commanche Raisin Toast
Member
Welp, I'm hooked on Spread.
Not even finished with the first volume and already bought the second. It's exactly what I've been looking for to round out my reading variety.
Thanks!!!!
Not even finished with the first volume and already bought the second. It's exactly what I've been looking for to round out my reading variety.
Thanks!!!!
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
Requiem Chevalier Vampire is up your alley. I have enjoyed that series a lot from a couple of years ago.
I remember reading a few chapters of that in Heavy Metal. What a fucking insane vision of the after life and probably one of the most extreme depiction of a vampire based society in any form of fiction.
RichiRamjag
Member
so glad I found this thread. Gonna jump on some of these.
VARIA
Member
I loved Crossed, will definitely check out your other recommendations
Amazing space opera. Less famous than Jodorowsky's Incal comic that he did with Moebius, but I actually like The Metabarons more. The art is incredible and while it's still a weird book and pretty fucked up as per usual for Jodorowsky, it's much easier to follow than The Incal and the characters are fleshed out much more.
You can get the entire series in hardcover for $40 on Amazon right now. Well worth it.
I feel the same way. The Metabarons is such an underrated gem.
I'll recommend Space Riders which is a about Capitan Peligro, Yara & Mono who travel in a Skull-ship called The Santa Muerte and have adventures. It's a psychedelic tribute to Jack Kirby and its a breath of fresh air in a sea of comics that take themselves too seriously. Artstyle is in a league of its own.
torre_avenue
Banned
17. Deadly Class (IMAGE)
'It’s 1987. Marcus Lopez hates school. His grades suck. He has no money. The jocks are hassling his friends. He can't focus in class, thanks to his mind constantly drifting to the stunning girl in the front row and the Dag Nasty show he has tickets to. But the jocks are the children of Joseph Stalin's top assassin, the teachers are members of an ancient league of assassins, the class he’s failing is "Dismemberment 101," and his crush, a member of the most notorious crime syndicate in Japan, has a double-digit body count.
Welcome to the most brutal high school on Earth, where the world’s top crime families send the next generation of assassins to be trained. Murder is an art. Killing is a craft. At King’s Dominion High School for the Deadly Arts, the dagger in your back isn’t always metaphorical, nor is your fellow classmates' poison.
Join writer RICK REMENDER with rising star WESLEY CRAIG (Batman) and legendary colorist LEE LOUGHRIDGE (Fear Agent) to reminisce about the mid-1980s underground through the eyes of the most damaged and dangerous teenagers on Earth.'
If you read one book, make it this one. Seriously, Deadly Class is one of the most underrated comics out there today. It's absolutely gorgeous in its art, the story is full of tension, grabs you and refuses to let you go. Every moment, every action feels hefty and momentous in Marcus's character development. It is absolutely phenomenal comics and deserves a lot more praise and attention.
EDIT:
Even though a lot of the initial excitement for the series has worn off, WicDiv is still really intriguing and I'm a sucker for Jamie McKelvie's art. I'd recommend it if you are into music, and would love to read about what it would be like if hero worship was a lot more literal. Especially read issue #13.
Zeus Molecules
illegal immigrants are stealing our air
Just going to add the two series that I feel are glaringly missing so far. Both of them are done so they are perfect binge series.
Fear Agent by Rick Remender. I still think this is one of his best image books and displays a lot of his writing strengths we see in other series like X-Force and Deadly Class. It starts as a space Pulp but evolves into a story about loss and what one man would be willing to do to get what he's lost back.
Written by Stephen Kings son it only takes a few issues for it to become pretty clear he's inherited his fathers dark sense of storytelling. Honestly looking back if someone had said his father wrote it I wouldn't have been surprised at the least. It's dark, disturbing, violent, and in the end deeply sad, but there's enough hope mixed in there to make it worth the read. Beyond that it's also a dark take on all the stories about regular teens becoming magical heroes.
Fear Agent by Rick Remender. I still think this is one of his best image books and displays a lot of his writing strengths we see in other series like X-Force and Deadly Class. It starts as a space Pulp but evolves into a story about loss and what one man would be willing to do to get what he's lost back.
Written by Stephen Kings son it only takes a few issues for it to become pretty clear he's inherited his fathers dark sense of storytelling. Honestly looking back if someone had said his father wrote it I wouldn't have been surprised at the least. It's dark, disturbing, violent, and in the end deeply sad, but there's enough hope mixed in there to make it worth the read. Beyond that it's also a dark take on all the stories about regular teens becoming magical heroes.
Commanche Raisin Toast
Member
One of my favorite series. I got a keyhole tattoo on the back of my neck a few years ago actually.
RoninChaos
Member
Subbing.
Zeus Molecules
illegal immigrants are stealing our air
That sounds like a great tattoo.
For more crazy Kirby inspired space opera, there's Godland.
Also from the same artist, Transformers vs. G.I. Joe
More_Badass
Member
Just picked up these series. Heard good things. Thanks for that Nameless thread, Corpsepyre. That's where I learned about it
Union Carbine
Member
I used to have some of those in French. Loved them. Will check on Anazon. No chance they're available digitally?
Amazing space opera. Less famous than Jodorowsky's Incal comic that he did with Moebius, but I actually like The Metabarons more. The art is incredible and while it's still a weird book and pretty fucked up as per usual for Jodorowsky, it's much easier to follow than The Incal and the characters are fleshed out much more.
You can get the entire series in hardcover for $40 on Amazon right now. Well worth it.
More_Badass
Member
So unfortunately I found Nameless to be disappointing. The world was intriguing, the body horror and unsettling imagery were effective, but the story was so inscrutably surreal that it kind brought down everything else. I enjoyed it as a gruesome visual spectacle, but as a story, it didn't do anything for me
Prophet is amazing.
If there's one thing I love most about comics (and games too, they're good at this) is the sense of discovery they can inspire. The best books are great at this, movies too, but without the constraints of budget and limits of reality, comics and games can really bring a world to life on such an epic scale and scope due to their art. Prophet is an absolute masterclass in worldbuilding. There's an overarching story, but it's almost irrelevant. This is perhaps one of the best examples of "It's about the journey, not the destination" since perhaps Inkle's 80 Days
Prophet brings these weird alien civilizations to life, giving them culture and history and personality in a few concise lines, a matter-of-fact tone, and such wonderful art. A fungal caste race in a mold city grown from a living space ship that's planted roots into the earth. A caravan of organic farmers working on the backs of massive beasts traveling through a wasteland of long-abandoned machines.
But I really wanted to dive into a sci-fi series after being disappointed by Nameless, and decided to check out Prophet. Only got the first volume intitially, but after about 20 pages, I bought all the volumes
Prophet is amazing.
If there's one thing I love most about comics (and games too, they're good at this) is the sense of discovery they can inspire. The best books are great at this, movies too, but without the constraints of budget and limits of reality, comics and games can really bring a world to life on such an epic scale and scope due to their art. Prophet is an absolute masterclass in worldbuilding. There's an overarching story, but it's almost irrelevant. This is perhaps one of the best examples of "It's about the journey, not the destination" since perhaps Inkle's 80 Days
Prophet brings these weird alien civilizations to life, giving them culture and history and personality in a few concise lines, a matter-of-fact tone, and such wonderful art. A fungal caste race in a mold city grown from a living space ship that's planted roots into the earth. A caravan of organic farmers working on the backs of massive beasts traveling through a wasteland of long-abandoned machines.
It's great stuff.
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
Comixology has them.
Corpsepyre
Banned
Oh, that's sad. I found the story to be quite engaging, even though I must admit it took me a few re-reads to fully grasp it. Articles online helped as well. I started digging deeper into the mythology, and found several interesting tidbits regarding the overall theme.
I'd recommend you pick it up again sometime and dig into it.
Also, do give this a look when you can.
http://joup.co/beneath-panels-2-nameless/
http://joup.co/beneath-panels-3-nameless/
http://joup.co/beneath-panels-5-nameless/
SomedayTheFire
Member
I stopped reading Low after 3 issues. I had a big problem with what happened in the third issue. Will hop on some of these though, look like good recs.
I'm reposting this from last months What Are You Reading Thread. Its a novel not a comic book but there is a lot of great artwork to go along with a really crazy story that goes some very strange places.
Just finished reading Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea
Was a pretty good read and something a little different. I finished it in a single sitting Sunday afternoon so its definitely a page turner that constantly kept throwing newer and weirder sights and events at the characters. Imagine a fusion of the weirdness and cosmic Horror of HP Lovecraft combined with the underwater adventures of Jules Verne.
The basic gist of the story without giving too much away is that its the late 1950's and a brand new, state of the art, experimental submarine is launching from France for its maiden voyage. Its crew consists of sailors and scientists and everything is going to plan. They head out to the open ocean and begin to dive and that's were issues begin to pop up. They can't stop their descent and keep going down further and further with the men aboard unable to do anything to avert their course.
They basically come to terms with their impending death as at the speed their going and the depths they're hitting the sub will smash into the seafloor before it ruptures from the titanic pressures around them. As they watch their descent on the read outs they count down the final distance to their demise... except nothing happens. They not only pass where the seafloor should have been but their descent continues without them able to do a thing about it. Then things start to get weird, really weird.
I don't want to get into too much more detail but lets just say things continue to escalate within the story and paranoia, fear, religious fervor and the like hit the crew hard and that's not even dealing with the odd phenomena they start to encounter and the even stranger sea creatures. It would make a wonderful movie if someone gave it a decent budget and the book itself has some great illustrations in it.
CaptainofIndustry
Member
Oh, I completely forgot about this title. I definitely need to check this out.
Girls by The Luna Brothers (image is NSFW)
I...I can't even describe the concept without spoiling/ruining the impact. You have to stick with it. It is absolutely ridiculous but it somehow ends up being engaging and god damn terrifying on many levels.
If you enjoyed it, I'd recommend The Sword although it didn't have the same impact and I wouldn't classify it as horror nor sci-fi.
edit: Actually, The Sword kinda goes towards the fantasy route so I'd go with that.
I...I can't even describe the concept without spoiling/ruining the impact. You have to stick with it. It is absolutely ridiculous but it somehow ends up being engaging and god damn terrifying on many levels.
If you enjoyed it, I'd recommend The Sword although it didn't have the same impact and I wouldn't classify it as horror nor sci-fi.
edit: Actually, The Sword kinda goes towards the fantasy route so I'd go with that.
Corpsepyre
Banned
Wow. This.....looks good!
cbrotherson
Member
What a great thread (and really heartening to see, especially as a small press comic book writer) - helping cheering me up through illness.
Lots of amazing recommendations, so can't really add much else, but I'd suggest:
Criminal - pulpy noir
Letter 44 - thought provoking sci-fi
Fables - fairy tales in modern day/politics
Pretty Deadly and East of West - both post apocalyptic style Westerns
Sorry I can't pretty them up with pics, but I'm sure you guys have heard of most of these anyway...
If a pub eventually picks up anything I work on, hopefully one day we'll be among these greats
Lots of amazing recommendations, so can't really add much else, but I'd suggest:
Criminal - pulpy noir
Letter 44 - thought provoking sci-fi
Fables - fairy tales in modern day/politics
Pretty Deadly and East of West - both post apocalyptic style Westerns
Sorry I can't pretty them up with pics, but I'm sure you guys have heard of most of these anyway...
If a pub eventually picks up anything I work on, hopefully one day we'll be among these greats
More_Badass
Member
Mind if I ask what you're working on? Genre/summary/etc?What a great thread (and really heartening to see, especially as a small press comic book writer) - helping cheering me up through illness.
Lots of amazing recommendations, so can't really add much else, but I'd suggest:
Criminal - pulpy noir
Letter 44 - thought provoking sci-fi
Fables - fairy tales in modern day/politics
Pretty Deadly and East of West - both post apocalyptic style Westerns
Sorry I can't pretty them up with pics, but I'm sure you guys have heard of most of these anyway...
If a pub eventually picks up anything I work on, hopefully one day we'll be among these greats
It was a really surprising read for me as I bought it based on the cover I have in my post and the title. It turned out to be a really creative and strange book that both has some great paranoid people moments as the crew realizes something is seriously seriously wrong with their situation aside from the fact they cant stop descending and a lot of the stuff and things encountered by the sup were really cool, weird, and sometimes totally unexpected.
cbrotherson
Member
Sure, no problem - will try and put something together (I'm away from a PC for a couple of days)...
More_Badass
Member
Cool, definitely interested
And yeah going back to your comment about being a small press comic book writer, I only started reading comic books last year. Like really reading them. I had dabbled here and there, had a few volumes of Ultimate X-Men and Spiderman, knew that Spawn and Hellboy and Kickass were based on comics. But I always had that "comics are mostly superheroes and not really anything for adults" attitude. Which is ironic because that's kind of how my parents are towards video games, and I'm always trying to explain with examples like The Last of Us and Gone Home and SOMA
So when I finally started digging into comics, and discovered the vast vast ocean of indie comics and Image and Vertigo and all the sci-fi and horror and noir/crime series from them and smaller companies, it was an eye-opener. Much like when I discovered podcasts, it was like there was this whole new medium I knew nothing about, waiting to be explored
So yeah, guys like you, keep up the awesome work.
I'm deep into Prophet and Stray Bullets now, and they're both amazing.
Wytches, if you haven't read that one. And I've heard that Rachel Rising is supposed to be excellent
Edit: oh, complete. Not sure then. I know what you mean. I can't stand waiting between issues and volumes. I also try to focus on completed series too
cbrotherson
Member
Cheers - much appreciated for the interest and kind words. It's a slog of an industry, not due to the work (it's great fun and I love it, as well as enjoy meeting readers and talking about story/comics/process) but because distribution and marketing is difficult if you're not one of the 'big boys'. So it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. Local shops help but it’s a market where there are lots of small fish like us, swimming in a tiny pond already full of big fish. Even some Image creators struggle to the point of cancellation before their time, so non superhero genres being big sellers outside of Vertigo is only really something which has fully emerged in the last 15 years.
Things are better now than they have been for about a decade, but until the industry finds a better distribution model we’re very limited. I sell far more at conventions than I do in shops, although sales trickle along in London and Birmingham, so I’m grateful.
Anyhoo, Comics! I’ll just post the most recent stuff I’ve been part of:
Magic of Myths – fantasy adventure – artist: Sergio Calvet – currently 2 seasons in a 6 season series
“Eve has been chosen to become a mythological heroine, for an all-important and life-defining mission. She just doesn’t know exactly what this mission is yet…
“Dragged from her life and job as an English literature teacher living in the USA, Eve is thrown into a strange, yet familiar fantasy world full of myths, fairy tales and monsters – often without warning. Forced to prove her skills with magical armour and weapons in a variety of tests and battles, she awaits the time where her stuffy and unusual tutor, Tink, will reveal who and what she’s doing this for...
...but when she finds out, it changes everything... “
Magic of Myths is inspired by the likes of Sandman, Alice in Wonderland and Buffy the Vampire Slayer – a story about stories, how we shape our own tales/myths and the perils of seeking fame/glory without knowing the costs.
It’s been successful enough to lead into our most recent story, a one-shot spin-off called:
Magic of Myths: Faerie – Shakespearian fantasy - artist: Sergio Calvet
“Robin is brutally, desperately, outrageously unhappy.
“Incensed at what she feels is vicious character assassination by The Bard in his play A Midsummer Night's Dream, Robin sets about to put things right – by any means necessary.
“But in her quest to reclaim her identity, this feisty sprite stumbles across a sinister plot that will change the realm of Faerie – and Robin’s life – forever. And sets in motion devastating consequences that will be felt across the entire world for centuries to come… “
This is a story which dovetails into the main series of Magic of Myths. It’s currently our fastest selling book in the series and, along with Magic of Myths, has been used to also help teach kids in schools in the UK about William Shakespeare.
Clockwork Watch – Transmedia steampunk drama – artist: Jennie Gyllblad; creator Yomi Ayeni – currently working on the third and final book in the main series (which started as an Indigogo campaign)
“When British society is promised something new, Her Majesty’s Government appoints a group of esteemed scientists to create a brighter future. They look to an Indian visionary for help. Chan Ranbir, Master Kineticist at Calcutta University - a man with dreams of a world aided by clockwork servants.
“But for the Ranbir family, life is only going to become more complicated - and while their arrival in Victorian London heralds the rise of science, it's at the expense of morality...”
I’m an adapting writer for these as Yomi is the creator who originally wrote them as films (we’re still working to get a film done) – so I was hired to work the screenplays into graphic novels. It’s essentially a story about clockwork servants being created to aid British society during the Victorian era, but they eventually gain sentience and start a civil rights movement – and as such, create a massive and violent schism in that same society as a battle for equality begins. But at the heart of this, is a story of a damaged young boy trying to live up to his father’s expectations while at the same time fighting his way out from his shadow.
This led to a three issue spin off series which I edited and consulted on:
Clockwork Watch: Tick Tock IPA - Transmedia steampunk drama - artist: Jennie Gyllblad; writer: Yomi Ayeni
“A tale of perseverance against the odds, the fight for civil rights, and a history of the Victorian era's first internationally renowned Pale Ale."
I’ve also done stuff for the Dead Roots anthology and some of the Unseen Shadows (novel) universe comics, to name but a few. Hopefully our profiles will grow - we're exhibiting at San Diego Comic Con for our 4th year this July, so please do come over and say hi if any of you are attending.
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