Many people, when they think of comics, imagine guys in tights with capes. And, truth to tell, the superhero genre is a pretty dominant one in the mainstream. However, just because a comic is about superheroes doesn't mean that it isn't smart and interesting. The titles that appear below are those that would be considered "mainstream" comics, and in my opinion they do interesting things within that broad category. To see which of these titles we have in the Palomar College Library, CLICK HERE.
Warren Ellis & John Cassady, Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth
Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale, Batman: The Long Halloween.
Frank Miller, Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns
Alan Moore, Batman: The Killing Joke
Matt Wagner, Batman: Faces
I've often said that Batman is my favorite fictional character. After all, he's a vigilante who is avenging the deaths of his parents by putting on a bat suit and stalking the streets at night. What's not to like? Anyway, these graphic novels represent, for my money, the most interesting incarnations of the Batman.
Darwyn Cooke (with Dave Stewart), DC: The New Frontier, Volumes 1 & 2
Cooke is my new favorite artist; he's got a gorgeous retro style that perfectly captures the time period depicted in these books--the 1940s & 1950s. The story covers the "changing of the guard" as heroes of the JSA made way for those of the JLA. In this sweeping adventure, however, we see them all pull together to stop a force that threatens to destroy the world (well, what else would they join forces for?). Cooke's writing is every bit as sharp as his line, and he's supposed to be doing a new "Spirit" series (based on the famous Will Eisner character) in 2006. Again, it seems like a perfect match of style and story.
Warren Ellis and John Cassady. Planetary
These three volumes, All Over the World, The Fourth Man, and Leaving the 20th Century, are the first two collections of the ongoing series. The story centers around the Planetary team, three skilled individuals whose job it is to uncover the "secret history" of the planet. In the world of Planetary, this history is really the history of popular culture. Though a knowledge of comics, pulp fiction, and B-movies certainly enhances one's enjoyment of this series, it is by no means necessary.
Neil Gaiman (writer) and various artists, the complete Sandman (Preludes and Nocturnes, A Doll's House, Dream Country, Season of Mists, A Game of You, Fables and Reflections, Brief Lives, World's End, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake); ten volumes total.
I don't think it is an overstatement to say that Neil Gaiman's Sandman is one of the greatest works of literature produced this century. Delving into and fusing various cultural myths, Shakespeare, pop culture, and many other elements, Sandman is an extraordinary body of work that can be read, reread, and enjoyed many times over. The main character is Dream (Morpheus) of the Endless (his siblings Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, and Destruction). Very briefly, these volumes tell of Dream's trials, his rule of his kingdom, and his eventual abdication of that kingdom. However, such a brief description completely undermines the subtle treasures--both textual and visual--that await readers of these works.
Hy Bender, The Sandman Companion
This book is a must-have for any fan of the Sandman series. Each chapter takes an in-depth look at a separate graphic novel collection, pointing out its unique features, hidden meanings, connections to the rest of the series, etc. The book also features interviews with Neil Gaiman and most of the artists who have worked on Sandman.
Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale, A Superman for All Seasons, Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk: Gray
The first of these books is is an oddly moving retelling of Superman's origin. It is broken into four parts, each one corresponding with a season and told from the perspective of a character close to Superman. The three other books are part of a recent cycle that Loeb and Sale have undertaken to "reimagine" the origins of these three Marvel mainstays. As always, their work is brilliantly rendered.
Mike Mignola, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, Hellboy: Wake the Devil, Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom, Hellboy: Conqueror Worm, Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Other Stories, and Hellboy: Strange Places
Hellboy, a creature summoned from the beyond by the Nazis during World War II, is not your average crime fighter. For one thing, he has a really huge right hand. For another thing, he has horns on his head. Sort of. These graphic novels represent the collected Hellboy saga in both long narratives and short stories. They're told with a sense of adventure and humor, but what really grabs your attention is Mignola's brilliant artwork, which makes incredible use of blackness.
Frank Miller, Daredevil: Born Again, Daredevil Visionaries, Vol. II, Elektra Assassin, and Daredevil: Love & War
Frank Miller first burst onto the landscape of comics with his work on Daredevil, first as an artist and then as a writer. His Daredevil stories introduced a new level of psychological complexity to superhero comics. They also introduced his character Elektra, a lethal female ninja (and onetime Daredevil love interest). These collections represent Miller's best work with these characters. The last book is a two-in-one combing Miller & Bill Sienkiewicz's Elektra: Assassin and Daredevil: Love & War. Sienkiewicz's surreal, idiosyncratic style is every bit as engaging as the narratives themselves.
Peter Milligan: Human Target and X-Force/X-Statix
Milligan is one of the most interesting mainstream writers working today. His ongoing Vertigo series, Human Target, had its beginnings in the first two books pictured above. The "Human Target" is master of disguise Christopher Chance, who assumes--in all ways imaginable--his clients' identities in order to help them out. The books (and series) raise interesting questions about what makes us who we are. Milligan also wrote the recently ended series X-Statix (which began as X-Force), a snarky and incisive (read: not too commercially viable) take on mutants. If Alan Moore's Watchmen provides, among other things, a realistic look at a world with superheroes, Milligan's X-Statix shows us what those superheroes would probably be like in this age of media saturation and global consumerism.
Alan Moore, Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Watchmen, Saga of the Swamp Thing, Swamp Thing: Love and Death, Swamp Thing: The Curse, Swamp Thing: A Murder of Crows, Swamp Thing: Earth to Earth, Swamp Thing: Reunion, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volumes 1 & 2
In 1986, Moore wrote a two-part story that takes place ten years after Superman's death and explains how the Man of Steel met his end. It's a marvelous story in which Moore pays tribute to the various characters in the Superman mythos, and it all ends in a perfectly satisfying way. This title is out of print, but worth looking for (especially if you're a Superman fan).
Watchmen is a landmark achievement in American comic books, and everyone who has written superhero comics since its publication owes something to his (re)vision. In this book, Moore both deconstructs and reinvents the superhero mythos in one fell swoop. Along the way, he makes some pointed social commentary, provides brilliant architectural design of pages, and inserts imaginative "bridges" between the various chapters.
Issues 20 - 64 of Swamp Thing represent, to me, one of the most stunning achievements in modern comics. These issues were authored by Moore during the 80's, and his time represented no less than a revolution in horror--and mainstream--comics, demonstrating just how literate the oft-maligned form could be. What is more, the illustration work by Stephen Bissette, John Totleben (who also worked with more on the very excellent Miracleman series), and Rick Veitch set new standards for comic book art. The story centers around Swamp Thing, an elemental whose path crosses (and recrosses) with the supernatural as he searches to understand his identity and destiny. All of these issues (with the exception of #20) have been collected in the above six graphic novels, which should be a part of any comic collection.
Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a fascinating adventure narrative that recasts certain heroes from classical literature as a crimefighting team in turn-of-the-century England. Like most of Moore's work, it is accessible and rewarding from a number of levels. If you've seen the crappy movie allegedly based on volume one, you owe it to yourself (and Moore) to read the far superior source material.
Grant Morrison, Animal Man, JLA, New X-Men, All-Star Superman
Morrison is one of the most prolific writers working in the mainstream today. He did stints on all of the above titles and really took them to another level. His work on Animal Man in the 80s and 90s was especially interesting as he took the comic into bold metafictional and deconstructionist territory. Morrison's most recent masterpiece is the 12-issue All-Star Superman (drawn by Frank Quitely, his most interesting illustrator), collected in two graphic novels.
Steven Seagle, It's a Bird
Seagle's book is a fascinating study of Superman in the guise of autobiography. Seagle, the main character, is offered the job of writing Superman, but his hesitation (caused in part by his deep fears about a hereditary illness) bring on illuminating insights about one of our most enduring cultural icons.