Thanks to a friend who recently put me onto some great books, my interest in comics has been revived. "The Walking Dead", "Girls", "Y The Last Man", "Blues Man", and "Balck Hole" I just can't get enough of. There are comic book forums on the web, sure, but I though it'd be interesting to ask here since we all already have a common interest in music.

What are some of your favorite comics/graphic novels, mainstream or independent?
What would you recommend to someone who wasn't already a fan?

Watchmen is good, very good, but it is also heavily grounded in the 80's. I think for us who grew up in the 80's it is good for some Cold War nostalgia, but I think a lot of kids who were born after that period will miss the point all together.
Another great Allan Moore classic is From Hell. Best Jack the Ripper story ever

Hellboy is another great read. Mignola has captured the pulp feel of some of the Golden Age comics, but has also managed to keep in modern.

i can´t say anything about "watchmen" but it has to be good because you hear so much about it. one of its forerunners was "the one" by rick veitch, and that is outstanding. another mini by rick veitch and alan moore is "1963", and it´s also good fun to read no matter if you like or hate superheroes. it´s kinda homage / persiflage / mockery of all the silver age comics and what they contained, like fanmail and the special kind of advertising you can find in every comic-book from the 1960s.

I just started reading comics so I've started out just reading old goodies. I'm almost through with The Watchmen and I really like old Swamp Thing.

Oh yeah and I love Gon.

I really love Hellboy and all it's spinoffs.

I love the underground stuff other have mentioned too.

For mainstreem superhero stuff, Marvel's Immortal Iron Fist has been fantastic.

The Goon is great.

I read a couple issues of Invincible and I did like it, so you're right it's worth checking out even if you're not a fan of tights, capes and masks.

I worked in a comic shop for about five years, so I picked up a bunch of shit. I did the whole superhero thing when I was a kid but grew out of that by late teens. I did get into the underground comix, with Crumb, Los Bros Hernandez. Maus by art speigleman is amazing. The stuff by Harvey Pekar is really good too. The guy who played Pekar in American Splendor really nailed it. I also really like stuff by Evan Dorkin. He did Milk & Cheese, Dork, and a few other things.
There is some neo-noir stuff by Brian Michael Bendis that is fucking awesome. Goldfish, Jinx, and Torso have amazing writing. His master of American dialog is breath-taking. There are some Vertigo noir titles, like 100 Bullets, Preacher, and Transmetropolitan that are also worth checking out.
Towards the end of my career in comics retailing, I was very interested in Golden Age creators like Will Eisner, Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta and Windsor McCay. Just really studying the history of comics and it's impact and reflection of American culture. I also started getting into some Japanese comics. Mostly samurai epics like Lone Wolf and Cub and sci-fi epics like Akira.
I had a bad falling out with the owner of the store I wroked at. He turned out to be a huge liar and a cheat, and fucked me over good. Since then I haven't really paid too much attention to the scene anymore.

Black Hole is fucking great as well as Walking Dead.... I know you said you weren't that into superheroes, but Invincible, also by Kirkman is amazing and I could easily see someone who wasn't into superheroes being into Invincible. I'm also really into Charles Burn's earlier stuff that's recently been realeased in some very large trade paperbacks (Skin Deep, Big Baby and El Borbah are all worth cheching out especially if you like Black Hole and garage punk).

Gilbert Hernandez has three issues of a little series out called Speak of the Devil, which so far has been my favorite thing I've read by any of the Hernandez brothers.

A review of Hard Boiled I read said about the same thing Dave and I have to agree with you a compelling story is vital. Part of the reason I was disappointed with the above mention "After The Cape" was mainly because there wasn't enough development in the story. Even though it was a mini series, Wong just kinda threw everything at the reader pretty quickly, then expected them to care about the characters. That always drives me nuts.

I'll add J.R. Williams and Julie Doucet to my growing list artists to check out.

Read the first 2 ishes of 'Hard Boiled' some years ago, great graphics, but there wasn't enough of a story to keep me interested....it has to have a good story to keep me interested.
A couple other artists that i like are J.R. Williams (his art is like the Oblivians to music) and Julie Doucet who does Dirty Plotte (as well as stuff in French, her native language, again primitive but very captivating)...there's SO much out there that's good, but like music, 98% of it is garbage...

I think all the EC catalog is out in large format hard cover reprints. I just check them out of the library myself as they are a little rich for my pocketbook. In fact that how I read most of the newer stuff, wait til it comes out as a trade paperback and find it in the " graphic novel" section. I only want to read them, I don't collect anymore.

I have to admit superheros don't really do it for me. "After the Cape" was a mini-series by Marco Rudy & Howard Wong that I heard really good things about. A retired superhero turns to a life of crime to provide for his family... he also has a drinking problem. I believe their in a second part of the series now, the first is available as trade paperback (which I bought and wasn't blown away by). You can read the first few pages of their first issue here Thanks for your other suggestions, I think I've seen EC Archive books that compile "Weird Science" and "Shock Suspense Stories" respectively, but I don't own any YET. Has anyone read Miller's "Hard Boiled"?

Thanks Dave. I'll have to check out some of Burns' other work that you've mentioned. There might not be any Crumb I don't like, everything I've read I enjoyed thoroughly. Maybe it helps that he's a record collector and music nut. "Draw's The Blues" has taken far too long to take it's place on my bookshelf, but I spend most of my money on music, so there are alot of books I that I've been meaning to get for a while. A "complete" Love & Rockets is among them.

Neil Gaiman ,Alan Moore, and Frank Millar ar all doing intersting stuff within the "comic book" format. Read Watchmen, the best look to date, at what a world with superheroes would be like

i love the stuff marvel put out in their heydays: classic storylines, killer artwork and action all the way - at least when you´re into the superhero mainstream. ´nuff said! but probably the best comic books ever came from e.c. in the 1950s. get your hands on everything you can find, like "tales from the crypt", "weird science", "shock suspensestories" or "two-fisted tales". all the titles were reprinted by gemstone publishing in the nineties, i don´t know if they are still available or maybe re-reprinted or something. i guess you have to search for them a while but every single book is worth it!

I started getting into comix in the late 70's, Robert Crumb (still a fave), Robert Armstrong (Mickey Rat), Freak Brothers and all of the other drug inspired artwork from the late 60's. Then in the 80's another wave of underground comix came around with artists like Peter Bagge, John Holmstrom, Daniel Clowes, Hernandez Brothers and Charles Burns, all of which i would highly recommend. Peter Bagge did Hate, Neat Stuff and many other things as well as cover art for some very cool records like the Trogg Tribute LP an A Bone single and many others that i can't think of at the moment.... John Holmstrom did comix for Punk zine and many others. Daniel Clowes has done Eightball, Lloyd Llewellyn, Ghost World (it became a movie) as well as lots of record covers like Supersuckers The Smoke Of Hell. Hernandez Brothers did the highly influential Love and Rockets comix which raised the bar for underground comix when it came out in the early 80's. It lasted for 50 issues, lots of references to the early west coast punk scene and the stories are VERY well written. Charles Burns has done Black Hole (which you mentioned), Dogboy (which has appeared in many comic compilations) El Borbah (again appeared in compilations) as well as many record covers.... Of the above artists, Peter Bagge is a really good place to start. Hate was a serial about a loser named Buddy Bradley (we can all see some of ourselves in this character) who goes through lifes trials and tribulations, trying to avoid the mainstream and at one point even owns a used book and record store. The stories are extremely realistic and very well written and a joy to read over and over again. I used to be heavily into underground comix when i had more spare cash, but now it all goes into records and CD's , so i don't know a lot about the current crop of comix. But most of the stuff i've mentioned is available in better comic stores....if you want more info, give me a shout, i've gone on way too long...