/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2574046]

Graphic novels are /lit/. Which do you recommend? pic related

[Anonymous No.2574054]

I think you mean comic books.

[Anonymous No.2574059]

>>2574054

there's a definite distinction between the comic book and the graphic novel in the same way that genre fiction is by and large separated from the concept of the novel in academic circles

[Anonymous No.2574062]

Chris Ware
/thread

[Anonymous No.2574065]

Is Maus good? I've only read Watchmen and I've been meaning to read a few more graphic novels.

[Anonymous No.2574073]

>>2574065

yeah, its very good

[Anonymous No.2574081]

>>2574073
sorry for this question but is it jewish propaganda? are the jews portrayed as saints and the nazis as devils?

[Anonymous No.2574082]

The League of Extraordinary Gentle
V for Vendetta
Sin City
Batman: The Dark Night Returns
Batman: The Dark Night Strikes Again
Sandman
Swamp Thing
Hellblazer
Y the Last Man

[Anonymous No.2574093]

>>2574081
There's plenty of graft and thievery among the Jews in the book, and I think there were a few sympathetic Nazis as well.

[Anonymous No.2574446]

There was a good lengthy thread on this topic a few weeks back. Rather than making a list, I'll just post a link to that thread in the archive:

http://fuuka.warosu.org/lit/thread/S2522762

[Anonymous No.2574450]

>>2574059

Except academics who have studied the field at all seem to hate the term "graphic novel". The term is used mostly by people who don't know much about comics.

[Anonymous No.2574459]

>>2574081
Nobody really comes off very well, Poles included.

[Anonymous No.2574462]

>>2574062
This, and Dave McKean's "Cages." Mazzucchelli's adaptation of "City of Glass" is also superb.
>>2574450
I always hated it because it sounded like, "novel with training wheels." A lot of people who make comics seem to dislike the term, as well. Alan Moore prefers calling them comic books, and even Will Eisner, who popularized the term, never really seemed that crazy about it to me. The whole thing really existed because "The Seduction of the Innocent" made comic books a dirty word, and the people whose job it was to make them where seen as the equivalent of dope peddlers.

[Anonymous No.2574464]

Road to Perdition.

Gonna cop crap for this, but I rate the manga Monster as well.

[Anonymous No.2574465]

>>2574450
I can see the reason why someone would possibly hate the term graphic novel because it sounds really full of itself. Nonetheless I see them as a valid form of art and literature. Some of the stories presented in them are really pushing the boundaries of what a story can be and I think that some people should give it credit.
Look at Will Eisner's work over the years. He singlehandedly created the term and the style which is still studied today.

[Anonymous No.2574466]

Sites about comics usually just seem to call them either 'comics' for single issues or 'trade paperbacks' for the collected volumes. 'Graphic novels' is a term I've really only seen in places that don't specialise in comics. I suspect it's to make the concept more enticing to people who might think every comic is some superhero-cape stuff for kids.

[Anonymous No.2574468]

>>2574462
Only read The Hunter out of those. Was decent enough crime story although the solitary tough guy who kills without remorse thing is kinda cliched.

Been told that Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth is worthy.

[Anonymous No.2574473]

>>2574468
>Only read The Hunter out of those. Was decent enough crime story although the solitary tough guy who kills without remorse thing is kinda cliched.

That's the unfortunate fate of an influential story. The Richard Stark novel that The Hunter is based on was published in 1962, and its story elements have been re-used many times since then by other books and movies.

[Anonymous No.2574474]

>>2574059

The only people that use the term are people who are too pretentious to actually read "comic books", too pussy to tell their friends that they read "comic books" or trying to market their stuff to those kinds of people.

Seriously. It's as loathsome a term as "manual photographs" would to be paintings.

[Anonymous No.2574476]

>>2574468
Jimmy Corrigan's great, but good luck. Whole lotta feels in that one.

[Anonymous No.2574477]

Love & Rockets

[Anonymous No.2574481]

>>2574462

>Mazzucchelli's adaptation of "City of Glass" is also superb.

That shit right there is what got me into comics.

Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp is probably even better. The year it came out people hadn't heard about Mazzucchelli for more than a decade. Then it's like he walked into a room full of people and slammed his book of the dinner table and gave everyone a mean glare and pimped his way right the fuck out.

Only like a handful of people knew that shit just got real.

[Anonymous No.2574501]

>>2574468

Reading Jimmy Corrigan is like watching paint dry and about a few minutes into drying, the paint realizes it's own mortality, solitude and inability to create anything that will truly last. Then at the final moments of it's wet existence it accepts the lack of wetness as being merely a stepping stone for another form of existence where time becomes a meaningless concept as the state of the paint will become rigid and unchanging until it gradually starts to flake and scatter in the wind to be spread across the world.

[Anonymous No.2574533]

>>2574501
Most accurate description of Jimmy Corrigan I've ever heard.

[Anonymous No.2574536]

>>2574082

Funnily enough, most of those are graphic novels by OPs definition.

>The League of Extraordinary Gentle
>V for Vendetta
>Batman: The Dark Night Returns
>Batman: The Dark Night Strikes Again (nigga what? seriously? don't ever recommend this horrendous book ever again)

Limited series. Basically, these are published over a set period of time over a set number of issues and then the writer and artist tries to keep to the deadlines and wrap the story up in the alloted issues.

>Swamp Thing
>Hellblazer

Continual series which has been going strong for decades now and has gone through loads of writers and artists. The only difference between these and for example X-Men is that they are published by Vertigo where people go to write shit that takes itself seriously.

Hellblazer is one of the few titles which rarely decends into crap for very long. Pretty much any run of Hellblazer is worth reading in my opinion. It's like X-files or something, some stories are better than others but when you find it at 3am you don't really care that much about silly stuff like plotholes.
My personal favorite runs are probably Dangerous Habits and Hard Time though I wouldn't say that these are the ones I've enjoyed the most while reading, problem is that I've read pretty much every single issue of Hellblazer and a lot of it has sort of become a large mush over the years.

>Sandman
>Y the Last Man

Continual series which eventually ended because the writer sort of wanted them to. Sandman was probably the first case of this happening, like ever. At it's peak it outsold every other title at the time and then Neil Gaiman wrote the final chapter and walked away with his pockets full of cash and spent the rest of his days writing children's stories and fantasy novels.

[Anonymous No.2574541]

>>2574046

I found that book somewhere on my university, thought about keeping it, but I put it in the lost and found section

[Anonymous No.2574547]

obligatory

[Anonymous No.2574551]

[Anonymous No.2574556]

>>2574551

Ah, Alex Ross, of the few people that draws covers that actually matches the art on the inside.

[Anonymous No.2574568]

>>2574462
>No Transmetropolitan

[Anonymous No.2574579]

Well, the obvious

Anything done by
>Ozamu Tezuka
>Robert Crumb


Also:
>Persepolis
>Chronicles (they are several) by Guy Delisle
>Ghost World
>The Sandman

Try to stay away from superheroes, unless the writer is Grant Morrison or Alan Moore. Also Will Eisner maybe.

Enjoy http://comicalt.blogspot.com/

[Anonymous No.2574580]

>>2574481
I'm using this.

>>2574474
> "manual photographs" would to be paintings
Making sure this isn't real, then using this if not.

[Anonymous No.2574581]

>>2574579
Kurt Busiek, Neil Gaiman, and Mark Waid also wrote stellar capeshit. Brubaker and Rucka have Gotham Central, which is a cop serial set in Gotham; opinion is divided on whether it truly counts as capeshit, but for me as long as there is doubt it isn't.

[Anonymous No.2574585]

>>2574581

Yeah I like a lot the work or Mark Waid and agree with you but I'm afraid of going full /co/ here

[Anonymous No.2574589]

>>2574082

Funnily enough, most of those aren't graphic novels by OPs definition.

>The League of Extraordinary Gentle
>V for Vendetta
>Batman: The Dark Night Returns
>Batman: The Dark Night Strikes Again (nigga what? seriously? don't ever recommend this horrendous book ever again)

Limited series. Basically, these are published over a set period of time over a set number of issues and then the writer and artist tries to keep to the deadlines and wrap the story up in the alloted issues.

>Swamp Thing
>Hellblazer

Continual series which has been going strong for decades now and has gone through loads of writers and artists. The only difference between these and for example X-Men is that they are published by Vertigo where people go to write shit that takes itself seriously.

Hellblazer is one of the few titles which rarely decends into crap for very long. Pretty much any run of Hellblazer is worth reading in my opinion. It's like X-files or something, some stories are better than others but when you find it at 3am you don't really care that much about silly stuff like plotholes.
My personal favorite runs are probably Dangerous Habits and Hard Time though I wouldn't say that these are the ones I've enjoyed the most while reading, problem is that I've read pretty much every single issue of Hellblazer and a lot of it has sort of become a large mush over the years.

>Sandman
>Y the Last Man

Continual series which eventually ended because the writer sort of wanted them to. Sandman was probably the first case of this happening, like ever. At it's peak it outsold every other title at the time and then Neil Gaiman wrote the final chapter and walked away with his pockets full of cash and spent the rest of his days writing children's stories and fantasy novels.

[Anonymous No.2574591]

>>2574585
I'll do you one better.
I enjoy cosmic Marvel.
Egad! I have lost face before mine anonymous contemporaries!

[Anonymous No.2574595]

so worth it

(i'm an atheistfag)

[Anonymous No.2574599]

>>2574580

Sadly "manual photography" is actually a thing in photography but I think even a photographer would get the point unless they are extremely pedantic.

[Anonymous No.2574620]

I'm just about to start reading Watchmen, I'm pumped!

[Anonymous No.2574630]

Hellboy if you like mythology and what not.

Also try Black Hole by Charles Burns. It's really fucking weird.

[Anonymous No.2575364]

>>2574630
>>2574630

[Anonymous No.2575392]

>>2574459

There's also a part in the book where Art's dad gets angry because he picked up a black hitchhiker and Art's wife says some along the lines of, "how could someone like you be so racist?" and I heard in an interview the point of that scene was that just because his father went through a horrible experience like the halocaust it doesn't really make him the most saintly person out there.

Also I highly recommend Fun Home. I guess most of you will get a kick out of all the literary references in it.

[Anonymous No.2575424]

>>2575392
I just read that for my Intro to Lit class. I didn't really care much for the story but I definitely enjoyed the way it was told, all the literary allusions really added depth to the book. It was also pretty funny at times.

[Anonymous No.2575433]

>>2574462
That list seems like it could use quite a bit of pruning.

[Anonymous No.2575437]

>>2575424
Haha, comic books in an intro to Lit class.

Standards are falling all over the place.

[Anonymous No.2575451]

>>2574579
>Persepolis
This, it's fucking wacky.

I highly recommend all of Tatsumi's works (Abandon the Old in Tokyo, Good-Bye, The Pushman, A Drifting Life). They have those sort of kicker endings short stories employ.

[Anonymous No.2575637]

>>2575451
Something about Persepolis rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was the background noise of nationalism, never cared for that. Maybe it was the girl believing in God and also being a Marxist.

[PatchouliAndMarijuana !!j/vDLMdkJUQ No.2575660]

I found this a pleasant and desirable read

[Anonymous No.2575750]

I agree with the "Love & Rockets" and "Fun Home" in this thread. Go read those. And some other stuff:
-Not Simple
-I Kill Giants
-Batwoman: Elegy
-Stumptown
-L'il Depressed Boy
-Daytripper
-Parker
-The Unwritten
-Scalped
-Sweet Tooth

[Anonymous No.2575771]

>>2575750
Not Simple is good for a oneshot but I'm pretty sure Natsume Ono's masterpiece is House of Five Leaves.

ALSO if you liked Not Simple you will probably enjoy the entire catalog of Inio Asano's works. Start with Solanin, then What a Wonderful World and if you're ready for the big feels try Goodnight Punpun. But I'm warning you, these feels will be like none you've ever felt before.

[Anonymous No.2575773]

Inio Asano and Chris Ware

the holy duofecta.

[Anonymous No.2575775]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/775864.I_Killed_Adolf_Hitler
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/692301.You_Can_t_Get_There_from_Here

or anything by Jason, Really.

[Anonymous No.2575776]

>>2575771
Hey hey did you know the next volume of Punpun is out in like a week? We're hoping to release it by like mid May.

[Anonymous No.2575783]

Transmetropolitan is a great comic. I'm a journalism student and the comic and character Spider Jerusalem really spoke to me and made me want to help change the world for the better through awesome journalism.

It's also fucking funny.

[Anonymous No.2575786]

>>2575775
Fuck yes, I love Jason.

[Anonymous No.2575788]

>>2575776
Awesome! Every cliffhanger just gets more and more excruciating. I weirdly kind of want it to be over, even though I love it. I just wish I had all of the rest to read now.

[Anonymous No.2575800]

>>2575392
Most of the literary references in Fun Home flew over my head and I still liked it a lot.

[Anonymous No.2576256]

>>2575771
Thanks a ton, anon.

[Anonymous No.2576265]

I highly recommend the Barefoot Gen series by Nakazawa Keiji. It's the only manga I have read, but it was really good. It was extremely sad, but I think it is just as good as Maus was