After our discussion in class today, I wanted to bring to light some comic books that don't reinforce the ugly stereotypes that many think exist in the medium. While there are plenty of superhero comic books (and when I saw plenty, I mean literally millions) that are cliche and promote violence and aggressive behavior, there are also a lot of comic books that have nothing to do with all of that and still tell an interesting story.
Some examples...
"Y: The Last Man" by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra - Perhaps my favorite series of all time. It has no superheroes at all. Basically, everything in the world with a Y chromosome gets wiped out - humans, plants, animals, etc. except for Yorick Brown and his pet monkey. From there, the plot twists and turns as Yorick navigates a world in which he is the last man. Highly recommended.
"Blankets" by Craig Thompson - This book hit me in a way that no other graphic novel has ever hit me. It's an autobiographical behemoth of a book about a young man growing up in Wisconsin and the interactions he had with his family, his church, and the first girl he ever slept with (not in the sexual sense of the word though). I've read it a good 3 or 4 times and some aspect always gets me.
"Fables" by Bill Willingham and various artists - The idea is this: all of the fairy tale characters move to New York. It is completely and totally awesome. All of your favorite characters are there, like Snow White (the deputy mayor of Fabletown), Cinderella (an awesome spy for the Fabletown army), the big bad wolf (who is called Bigby and is the town sheriff), and the frog prince (who starts out as a janitor at the beginning of the series, and grows into something incredible as it progresses). I have gotten tons of people hooked on "Fables". It's addicting and an all around great read.
There are tons of other great examples, but I'll keep it at that. Also, come by Alter Ego Comics on McGalliard tomorrow if any of these titles interest you - I'll be working and I can give more suggestions and hook you up.
Y and Fables are great stuff. Now I"m going to check out Blankets. Thanks for the recommendation.
ReplyDeleteI really like the Flight anthologies. I didn't mean to bring to light only the negative aspects of comics, it's just I get very frustrated when I'm trying to get back into them and all I can find are really negative things. It's hard to navigate to the good stuff if you don't know the territory very well.
ReplyDeleteNo, you're totally cool. I understood where you were coming from, I just immediately thought of like 12 conflicting examples off of the top of my head haha. To be fair though, I read a ton of comics and have been for awhile now, so it's a lot easier for me to think of a lot of examples. The point you brought up is valid though. It's definitely not all good.
ReplyDeleteThe "Flight" anthologies are awesome - I have a couple of those and really dig (most of) it. Another book that I really like and recommend (especially for you, based off of what you've mentioned you like in class) is "Bone" by Jeff Smith. It's a super long story, but they have published a "One Volume Edition" that has the entire story in one book. It's kind of like Disney meets Lord of the Rings. I highly recommend it.