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Anyone like graphic novels? What are you reading?

34 replies

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 26/11/2023 16:45

Many years ago, pre-children, i used to love graphic novels and read tons. I got into them with Sandman in my teens, and read loads over my 20s, from Preacher to The Invisibles, Hellblazer to Gloom Cookie. (I also have a degree and MA in English Lit for anyone worrying about my reading habits, i just really like the combo of art and story in graphic novels).

my kids are now old enough that i have occasional flashes of free time. in a fit of nostalgia went looking for a new graphic novel to read, but everything out there seems to be either

  1. 2D superhero marvel/dc stuff which struggles to be interesting;
  2. real life accounts of depression or abuse or similar struggles which are not my bag in graphic or standard novels; or
  3. ULTRA violent, and to a certain extent misogynistic.

Vertigo publishing which used to do quite a bit i wanted to read has closed down, and no one else seems to be trying to market to the “intelligent, literate, adult, and women-friendly” market.

the only good graphic novels i’ve read recently are some of the “Phoenix Presents” ones my 9yr old DS gets from the Phoenix comic, and they are great but marketed at 9-12 yrs old.

what is everyone else enjoying at the moment?

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SandcastleQueen · 26/11/2023 22:07

Not gonna lie, I mostly read Bunny vs Monkey these days 😁
But also currently reading When Stars Are Scattered by Omar Mohamed & Victoria Jamieson, which is a really good autobiography.

I usually go for offbeat humour so would always recommend:
Rat Queens
Bad Machinery
Scott Pilgrim
Chew

There's a great comic shop, Page45 in Nottingham, which does a monthly recommendation, all sorts of great graphic novels to get inspiration.

LifeofBrienne · 26/11/2023 21:49

Not a graphic ’novel’ but an autobiography - Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi is a must-read (the film’s good too!) www.waterstones.com/book/persepolis-i-and-ii/marjane-satrapi/9780099523994

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RubaiyatOfAnyone · 26/11/2023 21:41

@JingsMahBucket ooh, thanks. I’ve just read the teviews of that and it looks fabulous. On the list!

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JingsMahBucket · 26/11/2023 19:20

I highly recommend Kindred as a graphic novel. It was originally written by Octavia Butler and was then visualized 30 years later in 2017.

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RubaiyatOfAnyone · 26/11/2023 19:05

@FizzingAda that looks a good one, thank you, i shall give it a go.

if you like classics, may i also recommend “Poems to see by” by Julian Peters which illustrates famous poems. It made me love T S Elliot’s The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” which i hadn’t been gripped by before.

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RubaiyatOfAnyone · 26/11/2023 19:02

@Burgerqueenbee thank you! I hadn’t heard of the Wicked & the Divine - just ordered to the first volume to try.

i did used to read Saga and had completely forgotten about it, so i’m excited to see they’ve published some more since i thought it had finished.

i don’t think - post children - i could stomach horror comics, as i seem to have a really low gore threshold now, but i’m going to look into the titles you listed and have a good nosy. Thank you for so many new ideas!

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FizzingAda · 26/11/2023 18:37

I recently bought my first graphic novel, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. I read the book a long time ago, and it was also serialised on r4. It's a political story written in the early part of the last century I think, about a team of painters and decorators and their exploitation. Quite a famous book. I saw an artist had done the drawings, so I bought it.
i used to read graphic classic comics as a child, Wuthering Heights etc etc.

Burgerqueenbee · 26/11/2023 17:12

Saga? Or The Wicked and the Divine?

I'm a fan of horror type ones as well as sci-fi, favourites include Postal, The Beauty, Nailbiter, and Wytches. These are all a few years old now, I don't get much reading of any kind done at the moment with 2 under 3!

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