comics chatty (non-buffyverse! shocking, I know)

[angearia]

My urge to read ALL THE THINGS is re-awakening, and I've decided I want to venture forth into reading more comics besides my Buffyverse monthlies and the occasional X-Men issue. I'm planning on hunting down library copies of some of these works, simply because I price-shopped on Amazon and I'm pretty sure dropping a few hundred dollars on comics is

Comments

[rebcake]

Yes to Sandman and Watchmen, though both are very dense, art and story-wise. No to Frank Miller. (I liked his Daredevil run, when he introduced the character of Elecktra, but fun and women-friendly he is not.)

I keep hammering away at this, but you must read Love & Rockets by The Hernandez Brothers. Start with the early-ish things (it's been going for 30 years). "Mechanics" and "Death of Speedy" by Jaime H. and "Heartbreak Soup" by Gilbert H. are often taught in college lit classes. These guys rule at strong female characters, as well as characters of color. (Some of Gilbert's later stuff is hard to take, though.) There is a guide on where to start here

[angearia]

Thanks for all the recs! Yeah, the rec I read of Dave Sim's Cerebus included categorically defining it as misogynist, but I'm nonetheless curious (though it's not at the top of my list and at the rate I'm accruing titles I might never get to it).

I still think I'll give Frank Miller a shot, if only because I grew up with a major love for Batman, and I wanna see how this ~great~ comic sits with me.

Thank you so much for bringing me lots of ladies! I'm not too familiar with any of these names, so it's a huge help to me. ♥

[rebcake]

Ack! I forgot French-Canadian Julie Doucet and French cartoonist Claire Bretecher. Ms. Bretecher is the most amazing 2nd wave feminist cartoonist of them all!

There's also the New Yorker regular, Roz Chast, who doesn't do comic books per se, but is a fantastic storyteller in her chosen format.

[rahirah]

I read about half of Cerebus, back when it was coming out. I can sort of recommend it up until the point when Sim went completely batshit. (You could see the batshit rising in the middle of Church & State II, IIRC, and by the time "Reads" came out, it had grown from a trickle to a raging torrent, and I gave up.) The first few story arcs had moments of inspired loony satire, but I wonder how well they hold up for anyone who wasn't a fan of comics in the 80s.

It's probably worth reading just as an iconoclastic achievement of comics art, but feminist it ain't.

[superkappa]

So, for ones people haven't mentioned, I highly recommend checking out the "Strangers in Paradise" series by Terry Moore. It has some of the best developed characters I've seen in comic books in a long time, with really interesting webs of complicated relationships. And female mobs and gangs and stuff! The main character, Katchoo, is one of my all time favorite characters.

[angearia]

Oh, this sounds perfect. I love it when comics appeal to a non-traditional audience -- aka LADIES. Thanks so much for the tip!

FEMALE MOBS + GANGS = YES.

[superkappa]

This also really appeals to the LGBT audience too, and not in a heavy handed sort of way, if that makes sense. It's pretty awesome.

[angearia]

Yeah, I was just reading up on it. It sounds like it deals with bisexuality? (Katchoo's in love with her girl friend, but also has feelings for a guy friend?)

I am intrigued. That's so rarely done well.

[darthmarion]

So yes to Persepolis, Watchmen and Runaways! I hope you will make a little post if you read the last one, I love it!

If you're interested in other Marvel franchises, Civil war isn't too long and has every Marvel superheroes (almost). It's cool, not great but cool.

For slightly different superhero styles, I'd recommand to try Hellboy, visually different, with a good premise.
And the Goon if you like Hellboy.

[angearia]

OH HAI! I didn't know you were such a comics afficionado. And I think I will do a post after reading -- it seems like there's a lot of us comics fans here. COOL.

[darthmarion]

That would be great! ;)
I'm actually discovering comics since not so long! I'm picking ideas in this thread now, some of those seem great!
I don't know if you can find these french/belgian comics, but they're great:
Universal war one (some sort of realistic scifi with time travel)
Sillage (space opera with a young heroine)
De cape et de crocs (with wolf and fox musketeers)

[ceciliaj]

THE GUILD COMICS TIMES A THOUSAND.
Plus...
Aline Kominsky-Crumb's Need More Love is a graphic memoir and also semi-comprehensive introduction to the women of the underground comix movement, starting in the early 1970s. It reproduces a lot of her work from back then, and also includes some great current stuff. Highly recommended.
I'm assigning Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings in my class this fall because it's one of my favorite graphic novels. The main character is a man, but he is surrounded by awesome ladies, so you might enjoy :).
Ariel Schrag's The High School Chronicles of Ariel Schrag is amazing, but it depends how into autobiographical/diary-style comics you are.

Enjoy and post many reviews!!!! :)

[angearia]

BUT OF COURSE, WHAT ELSE WOULD I READ? How many are published so far?

Your recs, tho, so awesome. Women underground comix movement? SO THERE.

I shall post reviews! :D

[ceciliaj]

There is the three-part Codex prequel, a Vork one-shot, a Tink one-shot, and a Bladezz one-shot, which is possibly my favorite yet! SO MUCH AWESOME.

[rhi_silverflame]

Okay, since it seems that people have pitched Fables to you but you're not interested because of Bill Willingham -- and I don't blame you at all there, since he is really the opposite of loved by a lot of the Stephanie Brown fans in DC fandom -- a similar sort of series that might interest you is Mike Carey and Peter Gross's The Unwritten.

It's basically brain candy for the lit geek, based entirely around the concept of literature influencing the collective imagination and therefore reality -- a little bit of the Fables concept mixed in with Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books and a bit of Harry Potter. Plus Lizzie Hexam is a pretty kickass character.

Greg Rucka's Batwoman: Elegy trade is part of the Batman-verse, yes, but works very well as a standalone series. Kate Kane and Renee Montoya are nothing if not absolutely kickass female characters, plus the artwork in the book is stunning. (Going off that, I'd recommend Greg Rucka's The Question: The Five Books of Blood and The Question: Pipeline trades that focus on Renee Montoya