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I want my mind blown, regularly.

 
  

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01:35 / 21.09.04
Ever since i read The Invisibles i've been reading good, and even brilliant graphic novels, but i want my MIND BLOWN AWAY just like when i read Grant's Invisibles, so i'm asking for help, because i'm in need of a fix.

I have stuff in mind, a lot of it, but i'm not sure what will do the trick or not, so please offer me some suggestions.

So far i'm reading Grant's JLA and am going through American Dreams at the moment, it's good and am thinking that i'll be really happy with it as it goes on. Some of the stuff that i think will do the trick :

Sandman
The Authority
Doom Patrol (Grant's run)
Transmetropolitan
V for Vendetta
Hellblazer
Preacher
Planetary
Promethea

Will this do the trick? Obviously there's others, i can't think of them right now though. What else is there? Preferably mind blowing with magick if possible, if not it's ok, i just need a bit of guidance. Maybe i'm doomed and will have to make my own comic in order to get my rocks off.

Oh yeah, Batman Dark Knight, will that work to some extent? Also, is Warrens Global Frequency all collected in the one TPB?

Thanks for answers to any of these. Also, the one thing that DID really hit me that i remember clearly was Hellsing in the black and white graphic novel format, it was....i can't think of a word, but i'm after the rest of them, i only read the first one.
 
 
osymandus
04:39 / 21.09.04
Well youve got most of them there . (But only Ellis Authority , Millers is just bland to be honest.)

A few more , Maus 1 and 2 , The Metabaron series.

JLA Vs Avengers for pure geeky fanboy mindblowing ;-)
 
 
Mark Parsons
05:10 / 21.09.04
TechnoPriests
The Incal
The Airtight Garage
The Filth
The One
Cerebus (all of it: beware, it may/will offend)
Little Nemo
 
 
Mark Parsons
05:17 / 21.09.04
Whoops. Forgot FROM HELL.
And maybe Moonshadow
Hard Boiled (!)
DK2
Violent Cases
Old Starlin Warlock reprints
Old Lee/Ditko Dr. Strange
Chaykin's American Flagg (a must)
The Adventures of Luthor Awkright (***!!!) God, how did this end up last on the list! Skip the rest and get it now!
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
07:18 / 21.09.04
I think you will find Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth a useful corrective.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
07:28 / 21.09.04
Otherwise, from the list you've given, I'd say:

Sandman
The Authority


No, both of these will make you really annoying, given the levels of susceptibility you've demonstrated so far. The second in particular is to be avoided until you've had the chance to read and think a little more deeply and widely about politics and world events.

Doom Patrol (Grant's run)

Probably the best bet. It has enough "woah man weird man crazy shit man pass the bong" moments to grab your attention, but may yet teach you the value of good storytelling, interesting characterisation and emotional resonance.

Transmetropolitan
V for Vendetta
Hellblazer
Preacher


See my comments on Authority above.

Planetary
Global Frequency


Patchy, like even the best Warren Ellis, but good fun. Also relatively harmless as an influence.

Promethea

I've never been able to get into this, but I suspect you might like it. Bit similar to a lot of what you've already read, though - why not branch out? Try something new?

The Dark Knight Returns

Good, but please try to remember it's only a comic, Finn.
 
 
XXII:X:II = XXX
07:39 / 21.09.04
Drawing solely from my own collection:

One of my favorite mindfucks in sequential graphic form is Peter Milligan & Brendan McCarthy's Rogan Gosh: Star of the East. It definitely bears reading and rereading. I don't know whether it's currently in print.

Dean Haspiel's Billy Dogma is also a great read. The characters therein are constantly evaluating themselves as archetypes within postmodern, often surrealistic situations. Haspiel himself is a character therein called "Jack Flashback," though he occasionally refers to Billy as "God."

Douglas Rushkoff & Steph Dumais' Club Zero-G is sort of like The Invisibles For Beginners: it doesn't require of its readers a broad knowledge of esoterica, theology, philosophy, literature, history and conspiracy theory, but in the end equation it takes the same tack: you are the author of your own destiny, and the story you are reading, for all its fantastic occurrences, is true and you can play an active role in its direction if you only decide to try. I wish there were more stories out there with that message.

Bill Sienkewicz's Stray Toasters, while a fairly straightforward narrative, switches perspectives and styles so often that the whole thing is a fantasmagoric rollercoaster ride. Psychosexual dynamics in the family is on trial within, and the "hero" of the story gets a very strange reward for his actions.

Steve Darnall & Alex Ross' Uncle Sam is probably the least favored of all of Ross' comic projects, though also his most ambitious, as it condenses American history, warts and all, into a literal patchwork quilt, and asks whether the lofty ideals of the American experiment outweigh the reality of its execution. Lots of trippy, brutal imagery, as it's seen through the eyes of someone who may either be the real Uncle Sam, or may just be apeshit.

Leland Purvis' Vox isn't a single narrative, and those inside aren't necessarily related, other than being all by the same person, but all have some element of unusual circumstances, ranging from escapees from a retirement home for top secret-clearance government ex-officials, to a friend who's gone off the deep end and planted some sort of lethal devices all over a town, to a man who swims through the air while he dreams but risks drowning, to a manifestation of Odin beating a man until he remembers he's the imprisoned spirit of Loki. When published in single form these stories did only lukewarm business, but collected together you get a real sense of the level of experimentation Purvis was trying. He now has a series called Pubo, and just did the art for some graphic biography, the subject of which currently escapes me.

/+,
 
 
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07:58 / 21.09.04
Thanks for all these! I have the feeling i'll be deeply in your debt when i've gone out and got some of them.

No, both of these will make you really annoying, given the levels of susceptibility you've demonstrated so far. The second in particular is to be avoided until you've had the chance to read and think a little more deeply and widely about politics and world events.

Ha, that made me laugh when i read that. I've read a Transmet book (Gouge Away) and it was brilliant, but i've been checking out other stuff since and haven't got back to it, i really should do though. I honestly think it was The Invisibles that blew my head off so much and i just got so excited about everything for a while, i really can't see anything doing something like that to me ever again. I just hope i'm proved wrong, and that i can put the mad energy into something other than being a tard on the internet so much next time around.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions, there's a lot more than i expected.
 
 
_Boboss
08:37 / 21.09.04
'Thanks again for all of the suggestions'

even the really, really patronising ones?

try: Krazy Kat by george herriman - there's probably a big book of this in the local library. dizzying stuff.

try: Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth by pat mills, mike mcmahon and others - where the punky, anarchic morrison style that you like was given an early dry run by another comics magus. quite recently reprinted over here i think, shouldn't be too tough to track down.

try: Rogan Gosh by peter milligan and brendan mccarthy. proto-flex by the greatest artist british comics have seen. getting hold of it will probably require a bit of internet hunting or begging.

try: keeping an eye open for the name 'Will Eisner' if you see anything with his name on, and can afford it, get it.

try: Swamp Thing by alan moore, steve bissette, john totleben and others. excellent super-horror, very easy to get reprints in the library, waterstones or whatever.

try: promethea by alan moore and j h williams3. this is easy - you'll just really like it. please try not to go overboard when it makes you think you are an ancient expert in kabballah and the tarot. but it's one of the best-drawn comics i've ever seen, and will appeal to both your cosmicity and firemania.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
12:36 / 21.09.04
Marvel Boy!! Grant's first real BIG mini-series at Marvel, and probably the first mini-series in the Ultimate Universe, except Marvel didn't want to admit it.

The Essential Howard The Duck. Forget the movie, forget anything not written by Steve Gerber...a stronge, satiric 70's comic that you will not believe was a mainstream success.

Elektra Assassin. When Graphic novels became hip and cool in the late 80's, this one was mentioned, but didn't get the mainstream success that Dark Knight, Watchment and Maus did. It should have.
 
 
chaos_15
12:56 / 21.09.04
I've been falling in love with Powers in a big way. I never know what to expect from it. If you like good and diferent super-hero or crime-fiction stories read it. You'll love it.

Try GM's Flex Mentallo if you can find it. It's great.

Ed Brubacker's Sleeper. It's one of the best comics out there but it just doesn't the right attention. Thankfully, DC's allowing the trades to come out.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
13:03 / 21.09.04
Surely "I want my mind blown in a highly irregular fashion"?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
13:12 / 21.09.04
Marvel Boy!! Grant's first real BIG mini-series at Marvel, and probably the first mini-series in the Ultimate Universe, except Marvel didn't want to admit it.

He's read it. God, has he read it.
 
 
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17:13 / 21.09.04
Yeah i've read Marvel Boy, as Arms House has just shown. It was amazing. Actually, that touched The Invisibles in places, and i would of loved to see Marvel Boy 2, but i can't go there because i should keep my anger in check at the moment. I've even got the 'Varr' in my username too.

Anyway cheers for all of these, the only problem is wondering what to get next. I think i need a little time away from the 'big 2' at somepoint though, and will probably try something from elsewhere after i've got some of the ones mentioned above. (or many many of them) What's the best work some of you can think of outside of DC and Marvel? I'm thinking Darkness, Witchblade and Magdelena so far, anything else? Oh and Halloween Man!

That Technopreists sounds like it will be just the type of thing i'm looking for aswell, thanks for that furioso, and obviously for the others.

I think i'll be coming back to this thread for a long time.
 
 
Billuccho!
21:17 / 21.09.04
V for Vendetta is good, but it didn't blow my mind. The same goes for Dark Knight Returns, which may be the best Bat-comic of all time, and which really is a darn good super-hero book, but which isn't necessarily mind-blowing. I loved the dickens out of it, though... possibly because I was 12 or 13 or so when I read it. But I've since gone back to it, and it's as good as ever.

The last really mind-blowing thing I read was Flex Mentallo a few months ago. Good luck finding it, though (although there's always illegal/immoral downloading!) The comic nearly got me high... I had a mild headache going into the book and came out a different person. Very much worth the experience, if you can get it.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
21:21 / 21.09.04
I'm thinking Darkness, Witchblade and Magdelena so far, anything else? Oh and Halloween Man!

Jimmy Corrigan.

Optic Nerve.

Black Hole.
 
 
Eloi Tsabaoth
21:29 / 21.09.04
Can I once again suggest The Tale of One Bad Rat by Brian Talbot? Not exactly mind-blowing as such. Just good.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
21:29 / 21.09.04
WHAT ABOUT SOCK MONKEY, GODDAMMIT???

Regharding Black Hole- be warned, it's not finished yet. That's why I never bothered reading past about issue 4... I found it too frustrating. Once it IS, though, I'm so there.

Regarding Witchblade... umm... maybe best not.
 
 
John Brown
21:57 / 21.09.04
I'll second Sock Monkey. Also, in no particular order (and with no guarantee that you can find them all):

Watchmen
From Hell
Cages
Stray Toasters
Exit
Grendel (issues 1-40)
 
 
Simplist
22:48 / 21.09.04
I find periodic threads like this both useful and discouraging. Someone usually mentions at least one or two titles I haven't come across before, which is of course cool. But seeing all the usual suspects popping up in everyone's lists, I'm struck by how relatively few really great comics are actually out there, and disheartened by the fact that I've already read the vast majority of them...
 
 
sleazenation
23:15 / 21.09.04
Read Persepolis.

If you don't get much out of it now wait a few years and try again.


Oh and City of Glass - that one is guaranteed to blow your mind
 
 
sleazenation
23:26 / 21.09.04
Simplist

- i'd say the sameiness of such lists points to the unadventurous habits of most comic fans - there are plenty of good comics out there - but few comic shop regulars are exploring too far off the beaten track - How many people here have read Joe Sacco's recent work The Fixer? or Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, a comic that is getting great acclaim from people who have read it.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
23:55 / 21.09.04
Berlin: City of Stones, by Jason Lutes. It collects the beginning of his black and white comic, and it's brilliant. It works with the very European Herge-esque style of the art with the harsh tales of the Weimar Republic. Some brilliant moments.

You might also consider his other work, _Jar of Fools_. It got me because of the con artist / escape artist elements, and again you have a really clean art style with some fairly strange ideas and a situation worth reading.
 
 
I'm Rick Jones, bitch
00:53 / 22.09.04
You need Akira. All six phone-book sized volumes of it.

Tetsuo
 
 
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02:02 / 22.09.04
Even if i have the DVD next to me?
 
 
Enamon
02:32 / 22.09.04
You can't compare the anime to the manga. The DVD is like the comics but circumcised. And when I say that I mean that the cartoon is simply the foreskin. If the story in the cartoon never made much sense to you (what with all the different characters and their roles not explained) then read the comics. Each volume is HUGE and there are 6 of them (if I recall correctly). It's a great story albeit a bit pricey.
 
 
Krug
06:07 / 22.09.04
All the regulars are here and out of your list I think V for Vendetta blew my mind like nothing else. From Hell is a nice blowjob too.

I second recommendations for Jason Lutes' Jar and Fools and Berlin. Also if you can find it, get a copy of The Fall, which is written by Ed Brubaker, while not mindblowing is a good short story.

For an eerie quiet suspense story with British sensibilities and stellar characterisation and storytelling, check out the first two books of Strangehaven.

Strangehaven: Arcadia
Strangehaven: Brotherhood.

David Lapham's Stray Bullets starts off as a violent and ruthless crime drama of epic proportions following a large cast of characters but after a year and half's worth of stories, Lapham finds his voice and tells short stories about down and out characters with remarkable precision and some very memorable and evocative panels.

Daniel Clowes is the best living cartoonist and you can find out why by reading either Ghost World or David Boring first (I recommend David Boring).

Paul Hornschemier's "Mother, Come Home" is a staggeringly powerful work that kicks the shit out of Jimmy Corrigan any day of the week. I found Corrigan to be a stunning and engrossing work of incredible detail but lacks the emotional punch I've found in the work of Clowes and now Hornschemier.

I think I should stop now.
 
 
sleazenation
07:03 / 22.09.04
Hmmmm I think that - like the joyous comics threads, people aren't so much posting suggestions of 'mind blowing graphic novels' but more posting 'graphic novels I really like'
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:05 / 22.09.04
Fair point. So, if we are looking for titles that would blow Jack's mind...

Zenith (Grant Morrison)
City of Silence (Warren Ellis)
Strange Kisses (Warren Ellis)
Promethea (Alan Moore)
Miracleman (Alan Moore)

Is that more like it, Sleaze? Much as I'd like to recommend Jack Staff, David Boring and the Desert Peach, I'm not sure I can within the rules of the game.
 
 
_Boboss
08:20 / 22.09.04
city of silence

snigger snigger

you can have my copy if you want fireman.
 
 
sleazenation
08:21 / 22.09.04
I very much see what you mean Haus - which i think comes back to simplist's observation that these lists usually contain the same things. Are we offering suggestions of what we found 'mind-blowing' or books that we what do we think Jack F would find mind blowing based on the graphic novels he has already stated he has found mind-blowing...
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:33 / 22.09.04
Yes... I mean, I think a degree of statistical variance might be allowed - like Akira, which is not necessarily the same *sort* of mind-blowing, but we can still see as mind-blowing... whereas none of his recommendations so far have been of, for example, reality-based stuff like, say, "Troubled Souls", which I found quite mind-blowing in my early teens and only familiar really with Marvel Comics... and what about something like, say "Bacchus", which *might* be mind-blowing, or might just be unwelcome...

Jack, what did you *find* mind-blowing about the stuff you've read so far, and would you like your mind to be blown in a similar or different fashion?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
08:55 / 22.09.04
Yeah, surely the whole point is that most of us, while we know that good comics can have an effect you might call "mind-blowing", also find the term to be incredibly overused and unhelpful and annoying?

Myself, I'm trying to tailor my advice to fit the individual asking. I think it's really vital for his development as a human being that Jack doesn't read anything by Garth Ennis or Mark Millar for the time being. I cannot stress that enough.
 
 
I'm Rick Jones, bitch
09:07 / 22.09.04
What's wrong with Ennis, man? His Hellblazer run is tits, esp the one were he cheers the Pagan Lord of the Dance up by getting him pissed on a friday night. And the one with all the royals.

Just stay clear of Fury.

Akira the manga is a whole other story to the movie - lots of extra bits happen. To be honest I've just browsed it, but the art alone is simply mindblowing and I really want to have the 150 quid to buy it (see: Tetsuo merges with a fucking jet fighter, Kaneda's girlfriend Rebis-es out into space to aim the solar cannon). And it's huge.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
09:24 / 22.09.04
Fury is one of my favourite Ennis works, in that all that macho bravado is thoroughly undercut in the bleakest possible way by the end. If only he was that brave with his own characters.

"What's wrong with Ennis?" is a whole other thread. Like I said, I'm trying to be specific to Jack's need. And he doesn't need to make Jesse Custer or John Constantine as heroes right now, not in his state.
 
  

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