By Casey Brazeal
I’ve reviewed a couple comics for this site, but I want to talk about a greater number of books. So moving from the rifle to the shotgun approach,I’m recommending a whole mess of books at once.
Presented below is a list of books that I think are very good or great.
Non-Super Hero Books
Blast Furnace
Persepolis
Golem’s Might Swing
Laika
Daytripper
Scalped
An Army of Lovers Will be Beaten
Queen and Country
Criminal
Understanding Comics
Blankets
I Kill Giants
Essex County
Parker
Super Hero Books
Astro City
Irredeemable
Batman Year One
Batman Dark Knight Returns
Zot
Umbrella Academy
Batman: In Darkest Knight
Notes and Caveats:
- This list is not exhaustive but it should be a good start. If a book does not appear on this list it doesn’t necessarily mean I wouldn’t recommend it, it could be that I either read it too long ago to remember the book well, or more likely haven’t read it at all. Also note that some on going series are mentioned without selecting individual books, this can be read as a blanket endorsement for the whole series.
- Looking at the two categories the list looks very non-superhero dominated, but if I broke out the other genres: Crime, Memoir, Horror, etc it would look a lot more balanced.
- There’s no Alan Moore on this list, I didn’t do that to be provocative, I really just read Watchmen too long ago and don’t have a passionate recollection of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if a reread made me love it all over again. The only thing of his I have read recently is his work on Swamp Thing which is good, but not very good.
About the author:
For interviews, music, and other interesting stuff, please visit Casey at his blog North and Clark.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice list, Josh. As an addition – and parallel to Irredeemable – I would add Incorruptible. If you enjoyed Criminal and enjoy Noir with a superhero bend I would try out Sleeper.
Kirk, I haven’t read hardly any of these, this is Casey’s post, but I’ll give those a try.
Kirk, I love Criminal, I have paged through some of Incorruptible, but haven’t read any of the trades yet. It’s on the list. Along with Waid’s newer stuff on Daredevil.