What is the best Graphic Novel ever written?

[Pedro Del Mar]

Some truly excellent work already been mentioned.

One of my all time favourites is Daredevil, The Man Without fear. I can read this again and again.

I definitely wouldn't go as far as saying it's the best ever written but for me it's up there in my top 5.

 

[XibalbaComics]

I would probably say Watchmen. I remember reading it and thinking how the writing and execution elevated the medium to as engrossing as any film could be, while doing things neither films nor books could do by themselves. It was one of the reasons I got into the business of comics myself.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

Watchmen is definitely up there. My top pick is probably Ronin, in which Frank Miller demonstrated everything he could do (or that can be done) with the comics medium, without being hampered by a company's requirements to not sully too much their iconic hero, as he was in The Dark Knight Returns.

Charles Burns, Black Hole.
I don't know if everyone would count it as a graphic novel (I certainly would), but Hergé, The Castafiore Emerald. By far the funniest and most offbeat of the Tintin books.

More as I think of them. (I also like a lot of weird, avant-garde comics that probably no else here has heard of, so it might seem pretentious to list them.) (And I realize this last comment might also seem pretentious, but I swear it wasn't intended as such.) (Well, if you're interested, let me know and I'll list them.)

 

[Hilarious Joke]

(I also like a lot of weird, avant-garde comics that probably no else here has heard of, so it might seem pretentious to list them.) (And I realize this last comment might also seem pretentious, but I swear it wasn't intended as such.) (Well, if you're interested, let me know and I'll list them.)

I'm interested!

 

[CupofJoe]

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It comes from the French tradition of Graphic Novels, although I have it in an English translation. It is the only graphic story that has had me crying, page after page.
Then there is Give Me Liberty, a compilation of the first of the Martha Washington tales by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons. Another great series of stories well told. And the compilation volume came with a postcard signed by Millar and Gibbons [which was nice].

 

[Toby Frost]

Persepolis is extremely good.

If I had to list comic books that I've particularly enjoyed and think have particular merit, I'd include Slaine: The Horned God, The Ballad of Halo Jones and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books. The Planetary series is very nice-looking and does some clever things, too.

But I think the question is impossible to answer. You might as well as "What's the best novel?" or "What's the best book about geography?" I'm a big fan of Frank Hampson's Dan Dare books, but how can you compare his work against, say, Moebius or the giants of American comics and say who's "best"?

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

I'm interested!

All right then.

Pretty much the entire work of Gary Panter, the godfather of punk comics, beginning with Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise, continuing in his "Dante" trilogy: Jimbo's Inferno, Jimbo in Purgatory, and Songy in Paradise. Also, The Asshole, Cola Madnes [sic], etc.

Martin Vaughn-James, first and foremost The Cage (1975, reprinted around 2011), but also, if you can find them, The Projector, Elephant, etc.

Mat Brinkman, Teratoid Heights

Brian Chippendale, Ninja

Anthologies: Coober Skeeber 2, Kramers Ergot (esp. issues 3-6), Abstract Comics: The Anthology,

John Hankiewicz, Asthma, any issue of his comic Tepid you can get your hands on.

Slightly more mainstream:

Anders Nielsen, Big Numbers

etc etc.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Maus

 

[hitmouse]

The Stel et Atana stories, and the John diFool stories by Moebius.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

All right then.

Pretty much the entire work of Gary Panter, the godfather of punk comics, beginning with Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise, continuing in his "Dante" trilogy: Jimbo's Inferno, Jimbo in Purgatory, and Songy in Paradise. Also, The Asshole, Cola Madnes [sic], etc.

Martin Vaughn-James, first and foremost The Cage (1975, reprinted around 2011), but also, if you can find them, The Projector, Elephant, etc.

Mat Brinkman, Teratoid Heights

Brian Chippendale, Ninja

Anthologies: Coober Skeeber 2, Kramers Ergot (esp. issues 3-6), Abstract Comics: The Anthology,

John Hankiewicz, Asthma, any issue of his comic Tepid you can get your hands on.

Slightly more mainstream:

Anders Nielsen, Big Numbers

etc etc.

I'd love to hear a bit about them and why you like them so much? If you don't mind of course!

 

[Staggerlee]

Alan Moore / Jacen Burrows - Neonomicon or
Any of the Sandman by Gaiman of course.

Alan Moore rarely under delivers.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I've read so few. The Killing Joke was very good, and I've managed to read through The Trigan Empire, but one that has always stuck in my mind is Raymond Briggs' When The Wind Blows.

 

[HareBrain]

I've managed to read through The Trigan Empire,

What, all of it?

 

[paranoid marvin]

What, all of it?

Yes - well I thought it was all. It's in a large hardbacked edition by Hamlyn. Having had a quick look on Wiki it appears that it was an edited version.

It's ok in parts but not as good as other sci-fi comic strips of the time (eg Dan Dare).

 

[HareBrain]

Yes - well I thought it was all. It's in a large hardbacked edition by Hamlyn. Having had a quick look on Wiki it appears that it was an edited version.

It's ok in parts but not as good as other sci-fi comic strips of the time (eg Dan Dare).

With a blue four-engined spaceship on the cover? I have that one too, but that's only the very beginning. I'm not sure the rest has ever been released in collected format. It got a lot better -- for my money the 1980s stories drawn by Oliver Frey were the best, but those are the ones I grew up with.

 

[paranoid marvin]

With a blue four-engined spaceship on the cover? I have that one too, but that's only the very beginning. I'm not sure the rest has ever been released in collected format. It got a lot better -- for my money the 1980s stories drawn by Oliver Frey were the best, but those are the ones I grew up with.

Yes that's the one. O;i Frey was one of my heroes in the 80s, as he was heavily involved in the computer magazines Crash! and Zzap!, with some great artwork for both.

 

[HareBrain]

O;i Frey was one of my heroes in the 80s, as he was heavily involved in the computer magazines Crash! and Zzap!, with some great artwork for both.

Yes, I was a Zzap! reader.

I started reading Look and Learn (in which Trigan Empire appeared) right at the end of the Lawrence/Butterworth period. When Frey took over, his art felt amazingly modern and dynamic compared with Lawrence's sixties-feeling work, but I now appreciate them both.

I still have all the issues in a box in my cellar, with almost the complete run of Frey's TE stories. I read through them all last year, and though the plots now seem a little basic, the art hasn't lost anything.

 

[JJewel]

Diff one and have to offer 3 choices ...
Neonomicon by Alan Moore / Jacob Burrows
Sandman (any of them at all)
The Killing Joke by Alan Moore / Brian Bolland