The Great List

It's a list of Great Things!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Great Comics

Let's start easy.

You owe it to yourself to read these immediately.

Great Comics


  • From Hell: Not for the faint of heart. It's about Jack the Ripper, and it shows. At the same time, it is about patterns--of history, of the psyche, of literature. IMPORTANT NOTE: Read the endnotes! They bring the book to a whole other level!
  • Jimmy Corrigan: Not for the first-time comics reader. It is difficult. Another Ulysses, here. It's a punch in the gut.
  • Maus: Best Holocaust book ever. Maybe the best comic ever. Pulitzer Prize winner for a reason.
  • Quimby the Mouse: Kind of like what would happen if Chris Ware (read: cynical and depressing as hell) got his hands on Krazy Kat. Dark and affecting.
Good Comics

  • American Born Chinese: Very, very funny, and more complicated than it looks. And it also looks very pretty!
  • American Elf/The Sketchbook Diaries: Taken one at a time: eh. Taken all together: wonderful. Carlos doesn't get what all the fuss is about, so beware if you're not one for sweetness.
  • Blankets: A good intro to literary comics. Very accessible, very beautiful, and with enough depth to keep the literary snobs occupied, at least for a little while. Plot: Teenaged Evangelical learns about sex, basically.
  • Dinosaur Comics: I didn't get them at first, because taken one at a time they are just okay. Read all together, in order, it is genius.
  • Fun Home: At last, a complex comic memoir! Sadly, it took me awhile to find this book, because I was looking in the comics section and the literature section, only to find it hidden away in the back gay and lesbian section--which, incidentally, was between the drama and erotica sections of the Borders. Take from that what you will.
  • xkcd: Well, you all know this one. It's lovely. What more can I say?
  • Mister O: Hilarious. Like the best and darkest Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
  • Watchmen: Best superhero comic of all time. Not that I'm that well read in the genre...

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