Good Comics for People Who Don't Like Comics?
-
Hello, my name is Thenomain and I'm looking for advice.
I like sequential art, I like illustrated stories, but I just don't like "comic books". I like the occasional story (Red Son, Mage, The Maxx, Rat Queens), but I don't want to need to know enough about all of it to know what authors or artists to follow. I just want to pick up something from time to time that I know I can enjoy, and not invest a lot of mental time worrying about the rest.
Is this Humble Bundle worth it for someone like me? :: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/creator-showcase-comics-bundle
Thanks.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
Do you have a local library system that would let you use something like Hoopla to check stuff out digitally for free?
-
Have you tried Archie comics?
-
@fatefan said in Good Comics for People Who Don't Like Comics?:
Do you have a local library system that would let you use something like Hoopla to check stuff out digitally for free?
While I personally found Hoopla to be a PIA to use, it's great for taking a look at what's out there. Most libraries these days are also developing graphic novel collections, too.
-
What kind of movies do you like? What kinds of books? There's comics in pretty much every genre imaginable, just like any other form of narrative media.
-
@fatefan said in Good Comics for People Who Don't Like Comics?:
Do you have a local library system that would let you use something like Hoopla to check stuff out digitally for free?
Looking at their website? No. But doing an explicit search for it? Yes!
@VulgarKitten said in Good Comics for People Who Don't Like Comics?:
Have you tried Archie comics?
Why would I want to read about your home town?!
@Roz said in Good Comics for People Who Don't Like Comics?:
What kind of movies do you like? What kinds of books? There's comics in pretty much every genre imaginable, just like any other form of narrative media.
Movies: My Dinner With Andre, Superman (Christopher Reeves), Bringing Up Baby, Up, Inside Out, Singin' In the Rain (Danny Kaye, my hero), X-Men 2, Logan, Total Recall, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Evil Dead 3 (Medieval Dead), Ladyhawke, The Producers (movie and stage plays), All Of Me (but not The Jerk, which was good but isn't a favorite), almost any telling of Cyrano de Bergerac, Love's Labor Lost (this one, which stars the guy from Hackers who also plays and voices Shaggy nearly everywhere in the past decade), Fight Club, Pulp Fiction (but not Reservoir Dogs, sorry), Blade Runner (Director's Extended Cut only), The Matrix, Raiders of the Lost Arc (all three of them, really), WALL-E, Star Wars (original trilogy), Blade Runner, Fargo, Kill Bill (Volume 1 more than Volume 2, but they're both good), Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail, The Princess Bride, Twelve Monkeys, La Femme Nikita. The Muppet Movie (original).
Books: I've only recently fallen out of endless gushing over anything Terry Pratchett, but his writing style is still among my favorite. Obviously also Douglas Adams, tho I haven't read Catch-22 for some reason. Neil Gaiman I like but I find his short form stories to be more engaging than his longer works (tho of what I've read of his outside "Snow, Glass, Apples", Neverwhere's my favorite). I likes reading the Nero Wolfe books (by Rex Stout) because I really liked the TV show, tho I normally don't like how most mystery novels drone on. Note a few noir-era movies above; it's not that I don't like mysteries.That said, I really liked "Who Censored Roger Rabbit" which was entirely different than the movie, all in good ways. I seem to have saved all of the Gregory Maguire I've bought, though I like Wicked the most; I did learn quite a lot from "Mirror, Mirror" vis a vis a more historical way to view dwarves. I've read all three "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" books and only enjoyed the first; the second two seem far too obviously a Marty Stu situation. Come to think of it, I read quite a few "The Cat Who..." murder mysteries. Hm. William Gibson. China Meiville, tho I haven't read anything but his Bas Lag series, "Un-Lun-Dun" which was fun, and his short story anthology specifically for "The Taint" which is perhaps the single best short story I have read alongside "Snow, Glass, Apples".
Comics: I own two "Flight" compilations (one and two), three "Rat Queen" books, a whole lot of "ElfQuest" older stuff that I kind of wish I could get off my hands but I still appreciate the original story. I also own the bible-bound compiled story of Bone by Jeff Smith. I can't remember if it's signed, but it is numbered; it's both a fantastic story and I enjoy supporting a local. Also the ones I mentioned above (The Maxx, Mage, etc.).
I read a crap-ton of web-comics, but the one I would throw money at the most would be Kill Six Billion Demons.
I'm probably forgetting quite a lot.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
@Thenomain said in Good Comics for People Who Don't Like Comics?:
@VulgarKitten said in Good Comics for People Who Don't Like Comics?:
Have you tried Archie comics?
Why would I want to read about your home town?!
Preparation? Which one am I, Betty or Veronica? More to the point, which one are YOU???
-
All-Star Superman. You need to know next to nothing if you've already watched any Superman movie. It's a complete story, fully contained, told from beginning to end.
-
@Thenomain @VulgarKitten In all seriousness, "Afterlife with Archie" and "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" are two of the best horror comics out right now. https://afterlifewitharchie.com/
Edit to add a few more recommendations:
The Autumnlands
Criminal
Fatale
The Flintstones (yes, seriously)
Monstress
Saga
Southern Bastards -
@fatefan said in Good Comics for People Who Don't Like Comics?:
@Thenomain @VulgarKitten In all seriousness, "Afterlife with Archie" and "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" are two of the best horror comics out right now. https://afterlifewitharchie.com/
Josie and the Murdercats.
Saga
This has been sitting on the top of my "huh, could be good" list for a long, long time, but there are a lot of ways for a Romeo & Juliet Demon Space Opera to go wrong. There are probably a lot of ways for it to go right, tho.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
-
@Thenomain Josie & co. do show up in "Afterlife with Archie," and it's spectacular.
-
And, actually, Thenomain - the Final Quest arc of Elfquest has been pretty good, so far.
-
I mostly pick up graphic novels these days.
Fable is good. It's got a little bit of everything in it, including nods to literature.
100 Bullets is good if you like gritty crime/conspiracy stuff.
And when I go dark, I go dark: Harrow County and Colder are must reads.
-
@Thenomain Love's Labor Lost... the actor you're thinking of is Matthew Lillard. Cereal Killer in Hackers, and yes, Shaggy in both live action Scooby Doo movies (til they rebooted and sent the kids back to high school).
-
Ehnnnn.
I think it depends ultimately on storyline taste and personal asthetic, so grain of salt but I think this is Humble Bundle is 1/2 okay stuff and 1/2 total crap.
I find Locke & Key to be kind of vastly overrated. I know that people like Joe Hill because he's Stephen King's son and Heart Shaped Box got a lot of play but fwiw, I think they could deliver a much tighter story in much fewer issues. L&K feels lack a money grab to me.
The 30 Days of Night Series (original installments) was actually a good turn on the vampire tropes. The later stuff taken over by other writers was kind of lame re-tread.
The rest of it kinda gets a meh out of me, like it won't be hateable but it won't change your life, either.
Other titles I would suggest:
Paper Girls: Has a Stranger Things vibe in a good way (though this series started a year before ST aired on Netflix), set in Ohio in the mid-late 80s with 12 year old girls with a paper route with weird things happening about the subdivision. The writers have a good lock on what its like to be 12 in the suburbs in the 1980s.
Sex Criminals: 2 people realize that when they orgasm, they can stop time. Shenanigans ensue. There's also an accurate and unvarnished but ultimately human take on what its like to have ADHD and major depression and function in the world, which is not something you see in comics a whole lot.
Revival: The dead are coming back to life in Wisconsin. It's a bit like The Returned, if you've ever watched the US or French version in terms of vibe and atmosphere.
The Umbrella Academy: Quirky turn on what happens when you raise superhero kids to be superhero adults but with a lot less hugs and Professor Xavier. Also by the dude from My Chemical Romance, who might be a better comic writer than screamo singer.
East of West: Post-apocalypse, NWO dytopian setting with The Four Horsemen as little kids. The writing is very good and a good ethnic mix, no one is brown and magical which is pretty fucking awesome for me.
Kabuki: David Mack's art is beautiful and the story holds up even though the series came out 15 years ago. Cyberpunk/NWO themes.
The Wicked and The Divine: I tried to read this and hated it. But! I know so many people who love this series and the writing is also really good, I think I'm the one with the problem but we like what we like and don't what we don't.
Wormwood: Gentleman Demon: Wormwood is a little worm demon, he takes over corpses and sort of trundles around in them. He fights crime! Also, its pretty funny.
-
Fables, which has been mentioned before, is quite good. I'll second that. I've heard good things about Saga as well but can't speak from experience.
-
I was always fond of Strangers in Paradise.
“It is better to live doing the things that you like. It is foolish to live within this dream of a world seeing unpleasantness and doing only things that you do not like.” -- Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
-
I second Strangers in Paradise since it's the one that actually got me into comics.
Also (though it seems weirdly out of date as a relic of my younger goth years) the Death the Fine Art of Living book.
-
I was a fan of pretty much everything Dark Horse did in the 90s. You can probably find them in the $1/issue bins these days, or in graphic novel form.
You can't go wrong with Aliens V Predator stuff. I'm working on basing a mush on it, afterall
The Grendel Tales series were also favourites. If you can look for things done by guest authors, I enjoyed them more than the Matt Wagner stories, but War Child was pretty cool.
80s TMNT was a lot of fun. In tretrospect, I'm very surprised that I'm not a furry after being so into ninja turtles for most of my life. These are easy to find in omnibus forms these days.
The Red Star. I don't remember if the story was any good, but I was really into the art style, and picked up random copies to seed RPG campaigns with.
