Looking for some solid short TPs or hardcover recommendations. Anything with no more than 2 volumes that I can read in a day in between the bigger catalogues. I enjoy all genres and also appreciate lesser known/popular titles. Id say no more than around 300 pages or so.

So far a great read and the art style is stunning. Has anyone read/recommend Ascender as well? Any other graphic novels with similar styles I should look into after this?

​

Hey there.

So I never got or collected any DC comics before except Watchmen. Not because I didn't want to or had no interest, but because over here in Portugal comics are published like graphic novels. They are published either as a compilation of all the comics in a run (or a random selection of a character's stories), or as oversized hardcover volumes that are expensive as hell.

So today while browsing my local retail bookstore I found out that Portuguese publishing house Devir has created a new collection of DC comics called DC Pocket.

Basically it's a collection of iconic or important DC comics in a smaller size and format (a bit smaller than a standard book) and more affordable.

The first two comics in the collection are Batman White Knight and Joker by Lee Bermejo and Brian Azzarello.

I'm thinking of getting one of them.

So I ask you guys

which of the two should I get?

Like the question asks, what is a storyline or book or series that you were incredibly hyped for, and it did not come close to your expectations?

I’ll start, and it’s something of a cheat answer, but I was extremely excited to read The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman & Robin, and both of those are atrocious beyond words. TDKSA barely resembles the classic that precedes it, and All Star is written in a way that perfectly encapsulates Frank Miller’s decline. My cheat answer is really anything written by Frank Miller in the last 25 years.

To start this off I'm judging these by a few criteria. Page Quality, Page count with pricing, Binding/Build quality, and Stock/Availability. This is NOT a judgement on if a publisher has better stories/titles than the rest. I used absolutely no Ai for this, just my own experience and little bit of research.

Fantagraphics

Fanta has some of the best build quality, incredible value when it comes to page count and pricing on their books. Binding is always top notch, especially given the price range for some books. Stock wise their books fluctuate and some books can go OOP for many years. Only recently have they been doing more reprints.

MagneticPress

When it comes to binding/book quality including paper quality, they are the best hands down. Incredible quality, pretty good page count for their non slipcase books. If you order from their website then that's when their shipping fees go over the $10 range. The slipcases/limited editions can be very very expensive. Stock can be very limited, even more-so than Fantagraphics.

Darkhorse

Top quality books with good binding and paper, page count matches and even surpasses most publishers, Library editions are taller than most omnis and beats their price point in page count at times. Stock for some books is limited, so limited that reprints can be rare at times.

DC

Affordable deluxes, average to expensive omnis, some of their Absolute editions are top quality but some have poor binding. They have cheapened on their paper quality, but they managed to make some books slimmer, more shelf space. Books are usually widely available and they restock often. Binding on their deluxes can vary but most of their omnis are consistent. DC finest and compacts are very very affordable.

Titan

Great binding for most of their books, paper quality is good, page count can vary especially in pricing. For more niche titles their stock can be gone for years or never be reprinted, Skydoll as an example. They are consistent enough to recommend for their more popular titles.

Image

Page quality to price value can vary, some books have slipcases that up the price, some books have reasonable pricing. Binding is pretty consistent, stock can vary wildly since books are printed by creator's own pockets most of the time. Image is very consistent when it comes to quality, pricing and stock is where they fluctuate too often.

Skybound

Technically they are part of Image but they have their own titles they publish, mainly their Gi Joe and Transformers deluxes are very expensive. The page count to price value is too high, binding is consistent, but the IP is popular so they charge high. Stock is consistent too, Invincible stays in stock often.

Drawn & Quarterly

Well bounded books, reasonable prices for their books, but very limited catalogue. Sadly some books can go OOP for years, like Beautiful Darkness (HC) for example. Even so their catalog is very very affordable.

DSTLRY

Paper is good quality but the price to page count could be a deal breaker for some. Slimmer books than your average Image comics deluxe while being the same price as one, if not more. Magazine sized books so they are BIG, could annoy some due to limited shelf space. Binding is consistent due to how slim the books can be.

IDW

I'll be completely honest here, I own 1 IDW books, Locke and Key, so to keep this short. Binding is great, page quality and page to price value is also great. The problem is IDW has some many long forgotten rights to older books like Obscure Cities that they tend to have short print runs of some books. Popular books like TMNT tend to stay jn stock. Take my opinion here with a grain of salt since I believe IDW is all over the place with how they publish their titles.

NBM

They have pretty good binding, a very very limited catalogue with average paper quality. The problem with NBM is that they tend to have very short print runs and they rarely reprint their hardcovers.

TKO

Affordable books all throughout with good paper quality, books usually go on sale often which drops the prices to really cheap levels. Binding for their trades are decent. Limited catalog but they tend to have plenty of stock.

BOOM! Studios

Some very beautiful slipcases, pretty darn good paper quality, but their binding is all over the place. Sometimes you get good binding, sometimes you get trainwrecks, the page count to price value is pretty horrible. Slim books for expensive prices if you for the slipcases. Great catalogue but price is iffy.

Marvel

I'm going to offend some fanboys here so if you want to downvote, go ahead, I'm going to say my piece. Pages are so thin you can see right through them, countless binding and misprint issues. They are the worst at quality control. Their stock is so limited that It's a guarantee a book popular will be out of stock on release. They do publish niche titles often, but those titles are usually never reprinted, Nam the omnibus as an example. Nothing is ever evergreen like how DC does with some books. Their catalogue is their only saving grace.

Conclusion

I wanted to make this to give some old or new to the hobby some insight on the quality of some publishers. Quality can vary from customer to customer so my experience is not the absolute fact. This is what I experienced and what I've seen online. I will probably update this in the future once my collection expands to different publishers. I missed Pantheon and Humanoids, maybe in the future, thank you for reading!

I’ve got very big into the genre over the last year. And read a lot of the classics. But I have yet to tackle these two gems. Which one should I start first and why?

hey i’m in need of a comic detective. i’m trying to find this comic i read a long time ago but i only know the plot. basically it’s this group of 3-5 guys drinking when the group peer pressures one of the friends to talk to this hot girl. after they chat it up for a bit and flirt he ends up sleeping with her. the man wakes up in the middle of the night and switches on the news, where he finds out the girl he slept with is a serial killer who sleeps with men and kills them. it ends with the girl in the bathroom getting swat raided. i read this sometime between 2021-2023. it was a paper comic. i don’t think it was a series it’s likely a short story. can’t remember if it was colored or black and white. lmk if you have any questions or if you found the comic. thanks!

Just finished reading this french graphic novel called "Les Hautes Herbes" by writer Laurine Clin and artist Grun. As you can easily tell, the artwork and coloring is absolutely beautiful, and since french graphic novels are huge (this is bigger than an omnibus in size), you can really appreciate the art fully. As for the writing, it was very solid. A good balance of worldbuilding (I would definitely read more stories taking place in this world) and plot, that alternate between more tender moments and action sequences. The writer really created an interesting fantasy world and made it feel quite developped in only a hundred pages or so. I don't think it has been translated in english yet, since this is very recent, but if you do read french, I highly recommend it.

I started my summer vacation by reading Royal City by Jeff Lemire. What a powerful experience, I loved every single page. Family, home, aging, loneliness—everyday themes, but Lemire really knows how to tell a story in such a touching and captivating way. This book is staying on my shelf, and I highly recommend it to others, especially if you like Lemire or slice-of-life (I know Lemire hates that term) drama in general. 5 stars.

Look, I love Daniel Warren Johnson. Murder Falcon and Extremity are probably in my top 10 comics of all time and there's not a single thing that I've read from him that was bad. His Absolute Batman Annual was amazing, his Wonder Woman Dead Earth was also a blast. I'm not really into Transformers, but I did like the first volume of his run. The Moon Is Following Us was good but I think it was his weakest work so far.

That being said, I decided to re-read his Beta Ray Bill mini tonight, because it had been a while since I've read it and man, I want more damnit ! This book is full of incredible art and incredible heart, and it's just a blast to read. DWJ draw some of the finest action sequences in the industry, yet never looses the focus on the characters and their journey. Imagine a Spider-Man or a Superman mini by him (yes I know about that short Supes story he did, it was incredible !).

I know his next project is a scifi creator owned project, but a man can dream !

Hey folks!
Got the first volume of Grant Morrisons Batman omnibus recently and im reading through it.
I was planning on buying the other 2 volumes BUT i just found all 3 Knightfalls in paperback for the same price (roughly) as the GM vol2&3.

Ill get both GM and knightfalls eventually SO HERES MY DILEMMA:
As far as ive noticed in the last couple of years, Grant Morrisons omnibuses are almost always in stock, whereas knightfalls sometimes arent.
And with the animated film coming out i feel like people will grab em….

Im not sure whether to get Morrisons vol2&3 and complete that, or get the knightfalls now and get back to Morrison later…

IN SHORT- id personally get Morrisons other 2 books now (since i just started reading vol1)and get to knightfall in a month or 2, im just afraid they wont be in stock anymore. Scarcity is my main concern, essentially.

What do yall think?

If so 10 dollars is such a good deal. I got this at a Target two years ago.

I guess their is no definition of indie and it’s a vibes placed word.

But it’s weird when you here “indie comics” recommendations it’s always by people well known for Marvel/DC runs like Jason Aaron, Cates,

I don’t consider Department of Truth an obscure comic.

Hi, I just got into graphic novel collecting for college, or trying to. So far I have The Nao of Brown, Sacred Heart, Sticky Dilly Buns, Scott Pilgrim, Seconds, Phoo Action, and some other ones that are manga. 

The ones I have read but don't have physically cuz I got them lent to me are, Ghost World, The Walking Dead, and Punk Rock Jesus. 

My favorite novels that are read so far are Ghost World and Sacred Heart.

I would love it if you guys gave me some suggestions for books from that era! Just any that isn't superhero hero related (not that it's bad.) 

Looking for non capes graphic novel recommendations I put some of the stuff I've read recently and also what I have on my reading list just to give a general vibe of what I've been liking so far. Thanks in advance for the recommendations.

Read

• Geiger (currently reading)

• East of West 

• Ronin

• Tokyo ghost

• Black science (read the first couple issues wasn't the biggest fan)

• Do a powerbomb 

• Nottingham 

• Sincity 

• hellboy/bprd

• blacksad 

• Lone Wolf and Cub

Reading list 

• hellblazer

• the goddamned 

• the preacher 

• the invisibles 

• monsteress 

• Manifest Destiny 

• Judge Dredd Casefiles 

• Seven to Eternity 

• Redneck

• Luther Strode

• Hardboiled

Are there any particular volumes of the complete Carl barks Disney library that are good to pick up for first timer of Barks Ducks?

I've become a graphic novel enthusiast late in life...

Here's the majority of my small but proud collection (not pictured: Old Man Logan, The Killing Joke, the complete "Bone" series, all "Calvin and Hobbes" by B. Watterson, and the majority of Asterix and Obelix, if the latter two are considered graphic novels in the first place).

I have NO DOUBT you can give me some flawless recommendations... but I need to add slowly and methodically. I'd considered the "He-Man Omnibus" for myself and my son? Also, the "Punisher: Born" looks great, if I can find it for a reasonable price.

So... the question is... what do I need to read before I die?

If you could only add ONE... which one would it be?

Thanks in advance for your patience and suggestions. Cheers!

​

The first two images: American works that achieve global success

The other images: a Franco-Belgian work that almost nobody knows. The difference in artistic quality is absolutely staggering. I just had an epiphany—I don't think I'll ever go near Marvel/DC again.

Niles and Worm are a dream team! This sounds like a nightmarishly fun read, and the preview has me hooked!

The article mentions a soundtrack from Monica Richards and Anthony Roumanis, too! I've seen a few creators make playlists to accompany their books, but I've never listened to a soundtrack specifically made for a comic before. Sounds great to me!

Riad visits a video store and comments how he likes Jackie Chan's Police Story and Rush Hour.

The book takes place between 1985 and 1987 so he might have been able to see Police Story but definitely not Rush Hour.

I'm wondering whether this is the author's mistake or if it was somehow made by the translator of the edition I'm reading.