Comics that are closest to being good literature?

[gustave dore]

Am I the only one who reads alternative comics on here? Comics have come a long these past couple decades, but are they close to being decent literature yet? Despite what they tell you, Watchmen and Maus are far from being the greatest comics.

[Bartlebooth]

I try to mix in a few comics along with the novels I usually read. I think that some of the best comics earn comparisons to traditional literature. They might not be at the level of the greatest novels or poems, but I think the medium has enough works of considerable merit that comics can be considered "decent literature."

[mortalterror]

1950 Tales From the Crypt by Al Feldstein
1950 Two-Fisted Tales by Harvey Kurtzman
1951 Frontline Combat by Harvey Kurtzman
1954 Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka
1955 Master Race by Bernard Krigstein and Al Feldstein
1967 Corto Maltese: Ballad of the Salt Sea by Hugo Pratt
1968 Mr. Natural by Robert Crumb
1970 Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike
1972 Buddha by Osamu Tezuka
1973 Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa
1974 Heavy Metal by Moebius
1976 American Splendor by Harvey Pekar
1978 A Contract with God by Will Eisner
1978 Batman: Strange Appartitions by Steve Englehart
1982 Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo
1982 Miracleman by Alan Moore
1982 Love and Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez
1982 V For Vendetta by Alan Moore
1982 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki
1983 Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore
1985 Appleseed by Masamune Shirow
1986 Watchmen by Alan Moore
1986 The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
1986 Maus by Art Spiegelman
1987 Batman Year One by Frank Miller
1989 Sandman by Neil Gaiman
1989 Ghost In The Shell by Masamune Shirow
1990 Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro
1990 Berserk by Kentaro Miura
1991 Wolverine: Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith
1991 From Hell by Alan Moore
1991 The Infinity Gauntlet by Jim Starlin
1993 It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi
1994 The Invisibles by Grant Morrison
1994 Marvels by Kurt Busiek
1995 Preacher by Garth Ennis
1996 Batman the Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb
1996 Astro City by Kurt Busiek
1998 Daredevil: Guardian Devil by Kevin Smith
2002 Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn
2002 The Ultimates by Mark Millar
2002 Fables by Bill Willingham
2003 The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
2003 Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar
2004 Punisher MAX by Garth Ennis
2006 Civil War by Mark Millar
2008 A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
2008 All Star Superman by Grant Morrison
2012 Irredeemable by Mark Waid
2013 Injustice: Gods Among Us Year One by Tom Taylor
2013 Uber by Kieron Gillen
2013 Age of Ultron by Brian Michael Bendis

[ladderandbucket]

Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth is worth a look.

I've read and enjoyed a lot of famous graphic novels, but found very few that have truly escaped their genre, or their market. I'm interested in what you mean by alternative comics. Any recommendations?

[gustave dore]

My favorites are Racines by Pierre Duba, Here by Richard McGuire, and Epileptic by David B. Racines is a french comic that never got a release in English, but it has no words. You can get it off Amazon.



I also recommend My friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf. The author was one of Jeffrey Dahmer's only friends in high school, so its quite a valuable document on dahmer. For comic strips, I recommend Krazy Kat. Its considered the greatest comic strip of all time, was ranked the greatest comic of the 20th century by Comics journal. Only the sunday strips have been reprinted though, but the art is beautiful.

[ladderandbucket]

Thanks. Of the books you mentioned I had only previously heard of Richard McGuire's and always meant to check it out.

Just had a browse on Amazon and looking at their 'Customers Who Bought This...' section I see there are a lot of more 'literary' comic books available. Unflattening by Nick Sousanis sounds like a very interesting book.

[UlyssesE]

Sandman by Neil Gaiman. So. Good.

[mtpspur]

The Spectre -John Ostander's run from the 1980s-goes into the morality of being judge, jury and executioner when you have Godlike powers and a mission to punish evil.

[Munshie]

gustave dore

I grew up reading comics, superman, flash etc. (That's nearly 50 years ago!) I had never thought of comics in terms of literature. I read them because i liked the sorylines and the artwork. My mother who herself was originally illiterate until my father taught her to read & write Urdu (and some English.) My mother was always disapproving of comics. She in fact disapproved of any fiction books for us children. She did not consider fiction as worthwhile compared to other school textbooks. But she did read fiction herself!

My wife is the literacy expert and she gives me chapter and verse about how complex a task/skill is involved in reading/decoding comics. It was through comics that I developed a taste for scifi. My son is a very proficient reader but is not at all interested in comics. In fact he reads very little fiction although he has grown up seeing his parents devour books and I have been reading him bedtime stories for many years.

[FenwickS]

Taking a "Graphic Novel" course for my BA I was extremely pleased to be acquainted with David Mazzuchelli's "Asterios Polyp".
I found it to be inspiring in many ways.

[mtpspur]

After thinking about it a bit more--some other suggestions: Don Macgregor's Black Panther run published in Jungle Action; Doug Monech's Master of Kung Fu run, and Marv Wolfman's Tomb of Dracula run-at least the first half for certain -there was a slow decline towards the end but he pulled it out with issue 70 and wrapped it nicely (which lasted about a month -Marvel never lets any character go forever).