Are they art? Dunno, but I read a few of them recently. If anyone has any suggestions of good ones then let me know. Here are the ones I enjoyed:
- Shortcomings – Adrian Tomine. Guy worries about the size of a certain part of his anatomy while trying to find his way amongst bi-sexual Californian slackers. Side-splitting. Really liked it a lot.
- A Contract with God - Will Eisner. Epic tales set in New York. A cut above the rest. All his stuff is brilliant.
- Asterix in Britain, Asterix in Belgium - Goscinny and Uderzo. French classics. Set in the time of Caesar.
- Preacher – Garth Ennis. Violence, cowboys, vampires, crazy plot lines. Total escapism. Great fun altogether.
- Akira - Katsuhiro Ōtomo. Post-apocalyptic Tokyo. Gripping sequential art.
- Palestine – Joe Sacco. Guy from Malta walks around the Palestinian Territories and records what he sees. Heavy going at times, but good.
- Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware. Clever stuff, although I’m still not one hundred percent sure about it.
- It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken – Seth. A beautiful object, but I draw the line at a comic about a guy who is obsessed with collecting comics.
- Watchmen – Alan Moore. Quite clever for a superhero story.
- Sandman – Neil Gaiman. Good stories, but all that fantasy doesn’t really do it for me especially.
I've read two, after struggling to overcome the phenomenally nerdish associations. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel was surprisingly good. Gay girl ponders her own development, and the life and influence of her gay dad. It's pretty gay. A lesbian bildungsroman, if you will.
ReplyDeleteThe other was a graphic adaptation of an existing novel - Paul Auster's City of Glass. It was entertaining, and made me feel like less of a dork because of its literary provenance.