Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

The Greatest Graphic Novel of All Time: Watchmen

<< < (6/13) > >>

40hz:
Any fans of Heavy Metal magazine?
-CWuestefeld (March 04, 2009, 07:49 PM)
--- End quote ---

Still got some from it's first year in the USA. Used to have all of them from the first 5 years. Lost them in a move to a new apartment along with a lot of other stuff that somehow 'disappeared' in transit. But I guess that's to be expected when you have friends of friends of friends helping you move.

Girard/Moebius' Arzach...Bode's Cheech Wizard inspired Sunpot...boy were those ever eye-opening strips for a kid who grew up with the much tamer offerings from Mad Magazine, DC and Marvel comics.



 8)

My all time favorite cover was the punked-out white-haired motor cycle rider decked out in red leather with "Papa Noel" tattooed on his knuckles that appeared on one of the December issues.

I thought the first few years were the best. As time went on it seemed to undergo a transformation from "experimental with a heavy dose of erotic" to "frankly pornographic." I've got nothing against that per sce, but it gets boring after a while. At least it did for me.

I haven't looked at Métal Hurlant's cousin for several years now. Has it gotten good again?

PaladinMJ:
I love graphic novels and Mangas also Drama CD's. Drama cd's are like comics on cd... audio comics.. they are usually independant stories.. or extra info beyond the books etc.. grteat great stuff

wuwei23:
While I have mad love for pretty much everything Alan Moore writes, I think 'Watchmen' is too firmly steeped in comic tradition to be the 'greatest' graphic novel. Amazingly influential, yes. But when large thematic portions of the story are told via a comic-within-the-comic technique (Moore loves his meta-narrative), it can be a big stumbling block to people who aren't well versed in the history of the genre (and I state this from having pushed the book on everyone I know).

Moore's 'V for Vendetta' is an equally powerful yet entirely self-contained work that I have a lot more success in recommending (or did until the film killed any interest in it with it's godawful, pointless changes). 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' is a lot of fun if you have any familiarity with Victorian literature (and also totally destroyed by a godawful film). His 'Lost Girls' is an astounding work of both pornography & literature. 'Promethea' is one of the best occult primers I've ever encountered.

See? Totally smitten with the guy :)

Other more recent works that I can't recommend enough:

* Scott Pilgrim - part slacker romance, part video game pastiche, a totally new style in storytelling
* Barry Ween, Boy Genius - 'Dexter's Lab' meets 'South Park'
* Girls - one of the most original first contact stories I've ever read
* Ex Machina - Superheroes meet 'West Wing'
* Y, The Last Man - Something kills all of the males on the planet but two...
Okay, so some of those are series of trades rather than a singular graphic novel, but they all rock my world.

mouser: did you see that Larry Marder is finally releasing new 'Beanworld' material? There was a Holiday Special released just prior to Xmas, and it looks like Dark Horse is going to re-release the earlier trades as well as continue with new stuff. (I'm really surprised it's with DH given everything he's done for Image over the past decade.)

mukestar:
ooh, havent been on this site for a while, not since the career change. But once i got the mailshot with Graphic Novel and Watchmen , my spidey sense tingled and i had to jump in. (it turned out it wasn't spidey sense, i'd just left my phone on vibrate.)

First of hall i hate the term "Graphic Novel", its comic. "Graphic Novel" was only invented by stuck up critics who refused to acknowedge comics as a platform for serious literature and just couldn't bring themselves to actually say the word "comic".

My opinion is that Watchmen is the most groundbreaking comic, it opened the floodgates so to speak. I personally liked V for Vendetta over watchmen, it had stonger narrative.

My personal favorite is the Sandman series, it was just so different and fresh at the time, and once Death made an appearance your just hooked. I just hope they dont try to make a film and ruin the images in my head.

Apart from that, do the Bash Steet Kids count.

zridling:
Going to buy the Watchmen book for my brother in prison. He's never read a graphic novel. It's time for him to start.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page