Do you guys read comics?

[JonTripp (Jon)]

Hei,

I’m curious to know if somebody does enjoy reading comics.
I don’t mean only superhero ones, but the “Ninth Art” in general.
Personally, I started reading “Disney Italia” comics when I was 6 and never stopped, because I love the mix between visual art and literature that they can create.

Here are some of my favourites artists and works:

• Craig Thompson: Blankets - Beautiful Graphic Novel. Love his art style and the storytelling. He really gets deep into topics as faith, the search of meaning and love. Also, he’s a great guy and a dreamer! You can see something here
• Gipi: Various Works - He’s an italian artist, one of the best comics writers in the country at the moment. His style is very unique and he usually tells stories regarding his past, give him a try. You can see something here
• Bryan Lee O’Malley: Scott Pilgrim, Seconds, Lost at Sea - Well, he’s pretty famous. I think you will find his works very cool. You can see something here
• Will Eisner:: Various Work - He’s basically the father of the Graphic Novel how we have it today. He was the first to try and create a literary work inside comic strips. Recommended to everyone. You can see something here
• Don Rosa: The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck - Well, he’s written the most “meaningful” stories with Disney characters. Love it! You can see something here
• Alan Moore: Various Works - He’s also well known. V for Vendetta and The Killing Joke are two of my favourites. He works with lots of artists, so you should check his works out!
• Moebius: Various Works - His art says everything. A genius. You can see something here
• Katsuhiro Otomo: Akira - I will start the Japan section with him. He’s one of the main reason why animes are so spread also in the West. Check out the manga of his masterwork, it is way more complex and complete than the movie. You can see something here
• Inio Asano: Goodnight Punpun - You may find his works a little bit too “hard”. Yet, I think he is one the best still around. You can see something here
• Yoshihiro Togashi: HunterxHunter - If you like Shonen Manga, he’s the best in my opinion. Too bad he just can’t finish a work. You can see something here

There are many others that I would recommend, even some that I didn’t read yet, like:
Blacksad, Maus, The Sandman, XIII, Preacher, Daytripper, Hawkeye (the “new” one), Hellboy, Bone, Slam Dunk and many others!

Let me know folks!

[Splash (She/They)]

I love comics! Actually in the process of drawing one of my own based on my dream journal
Comics are a great art form that I’m quickly falling in love with. As someone who feels like I can express myself better in drawing than writing it marries narrative and visuals quite well. One thing it has over movies is that you can take comics at your pace. Sometimes I spend several minutes enjoying the art in some webcomics I read, most notably Lackadaisy, which is a webcomic I’ve followed for a number of years now (they’re actually in the process of making an animated short for it!).
Lackadaisy follows a group of characters trying to run a speakeasy in prohibition era St. Louise. The creator manages to balance humor and intrigue quite well, not to mention the stunning art. Also everyone is cats. It’s a free webcomic too!

I’ve head about Blankets being a great autobio comic when I was doing some research on comics, but I haven’t read it (yet?)
But I have read some Scott Pilgrim! The movie has a very special place in my heart (the scene where Knives dyes her hair is something I related to on a spiritual level HAHAHA) and someone I shared the movie with bought me the first 3 books.

My girlfriend has all of Goodnight Punpun. I haven’t read it but she says it’s a pretty heavy read. Lovely art though.

As I’m working on drawing some comic style stuff from my journal, I decided to seek out comics that feature dreams. My favorite that I found is Lucid Memories. Although romance isn’t my genera at all, the dream scenes have a nice atmosphere to them.

Slightly tangential, my favorite podcast is one called Comic Lab, where two comic artists talk about making comics (and making a living from comics). It’s aimed more at comic creators, but I suspect anyone who wanted to learn about what goes into comics might enjoy it as well!

[JonTripp (Jon)]

@Splash

I love comics! Actually in the process of drawing one of my own based on my dream journal
Comics are a great art form that I’m quickly falling in love with. As someone who feels like I can express myself better in drawing than writing it marries narrative and visuals quite well. One thing it has over movies is that you can take comics at your pace.

Hey, that’s really great! Good luck with your project, sounds very interesting.
I agree a lot with you with the “pace” peculiarity, you can really focus on details and get lost in the art, happens all the time.

@Splash

Sometimes I spend several minutes enjoying the art in some webcomics I read, most notably Lackadaisy, which is a webcomic I’ve followed for a number of years now (they’re actually in the process of making an animated short for it!).
Lackadaisy follows a group of characters trying to run a speakeasy in prohibition era St. Louise. The creator manages to balance humor and intrigue quite well, not to mention the stunning art. Also everyone is cats. It’s a free webcomic too!

This one is very similar to Blacksad. Also the tone of the story (from the few pages I’ve read) seems similar. Usually I go more for authors that have an editor and a publisher behind but I’ve recently started reading free comics online published by indipendent authors, and I have to say that some of them are pretty great! I use the “Webtoon” App.

@Splash

But I have read some Scott Pilgrim! The movie has a very special place in my heart (the scene where Knives dyes her hair is something I related to on a spiritual level HAHAHA) and someone I shared the movie with bought me the first 3 books.

The movie is one of the few based on comics that is actually good!

@Splash

My girlfriend has all of Goodnight Punpun. I haven’t read it but she says it’s a pretty heavy read. Lovely art though.

Yeah, it does get pretty heavy, but I think describes perfectly how down can you descend into depression and desperation.

Well, I am glad there is someone else that appreciates this form of art
I’ve been with comics since I was little and they gave me a lot, in all kind of ways.
Hope you will find more of them that you can relate to in your journey!

[EllyEve]

I’ve read Blankets! Very moving memoir. Also Persepolis, although it’s a rather heavy two-parter considering that it has to do with war and revolution (also a memoir).

Of course I’ve read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, and at least one by Alan Moore (From Hell, but I really want to read Promethea by the same author.)

While this video goes on for a fairly long time, its analysis of Batman’s relation to the Gotham supervillains inspired me to think up of a superhero story by turning people who annoy me in real life into supervillain alias versions of them. This can define the superhero in the same way that, for example, Mr. Freeze might have begun as an aesthetic standard-issue supervillain, but then when he gets the motivation for why he does evil things (such as rescuing his wife from a terminal illness) then we find out that he is a “shadow” of Batman who also cannot let the past go especially when it involves family deaths. The Riddler shares Batman’s intellect but uses it for evil, The Scarecrow has Batman’s sadism and posturing but uses it for evil (taking on a persona that scares people), Poison Ivy is very self-righteous about the way the world should be just like Batman is but she uses her self-righteousness for evil, so in a way parts of the superhero of the story are represented by every supervillain that they’re moved to battle.