Some Graphic Novel Recommendations

Hello all!
Well, not that there's a lot of you, but I know it's been a while.  Busy with life and all.  I'm currently taking a class on graphic novels and it's exposed me to some great material.  Some I'm familiar with, others I'm not.

First we read Maus by Art Speigelmen.  I've heard of this book and been meaning to read it and found it's a great graphic novel.  It was one of the first graphic novels and defined the genre.  It showed the potential for comics to tell serious stories.  It's autobiographical; Speigelmen tells his story about interviewing his father about the Holocaust.  The artwork is deceptively simple black and white pen and ink drawings.  It's an intensely personal story, but that is part of what makes it so good.  I definitely recommend it.

The second we read I've already read; Watchmen by Alan Moore.  Given the recent announcement by DC to do a Before Watchmen series about the backstories of the characters.  There's a lot of controversy.  Personally, I'm not so sure.  I think there is some potential if they give the material to the right writers and artist, but I'm not sure Watchmen needs a prequel.  The back stories are all there; it's a complete story in and of itself.  As for Watchmen itself it's one of the best graphic novels I've ever read.  The art is beautiful and deep.  Every time I read it I find a million new things.  The same goes for the writing.  It's beautiful.  This comic has influenced me heavily.  It showed me that comics can tell very compelling and complex stories.  If you read comics, even if you stick to just the superhero genre, please read this book.

Most recently we finished Black Hole by Charles Burns.  At first I had a hard time getting past the weirdness of it all, but once I did I saw how good of a comic it was.  Granted, the story is a bit hard to follow since it's not told in chronological order, and the concept behind it is a bit bizarre (a lot of drug induced hallucinations and mutated people).  If you can get past that you get a very intimate look at human nature, especially for adolescents.  It's very real and has characters that you might think remind you of someone you know.  It's definitely an odd comic, but I recommend you at least try it.  It might take a couple reads to get everything (though any good comic you should read more than once).



That's all for now.  Next we're reading Blankets by Craig Thompson and A.D. New Orleans by Josh Nuefeld.  I've been meaning to read Blankets, so that will be exciting.  New Orleans looks good too.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep posting on a regular basis.  Sorry for the long entry, I hope you enjoyed it.