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Western Comics Thread

This is a thread to discuss the many comics available in the Western Hemisphere. None of that weeby anime crap here! Only good ol' comics from (the) AMERICA(n continent and europe).

A few comic series that I'm currently reading:


  • CHEW
  • Justice League Dark
  • Green Lantern: New Guardians
  • Freaks' Squeele
  • Animal Man
  • Swamp Thing
  • Night Force
  • Ultimate Spider Man
  • Adventure Time


A few of my all-time favorite Western comics:

  • Maus
  • House of Clay
  • Scott Pilgrim
  • Simon Dark
  • Secret Six
  • Teen Titans (pre-reboot)
  • The Boondocks
  • Zits
  • Archie
  • Why Are You Doing This?
  • The Left Bank Gang
  • The Walking Dead
  • Watchmen
  • The Sandman (Neil Gaiman)
  • Anya's Ghost
  • American Born Chinese


Anyways, acceptable things to talk about:

  • Comic strips
  • Comic book series
  • Graphic novels
  • Manga-style comics that are Western
  • Webcomics (keep to a fucking minimum. there's already a thread for for webcomics)


Unnacceptable things to talk about:

  • Manga
  • Manwha
  • Any comics that are not Western

This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 07 May 2012 - 11:59 PM

  • #1
  • 28 April 2012 - 02:54 AM
I really enjoy the DC elseworlds publications.

My favorite being the best of them all, because it has crazy russian terrorist batman in it.

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  • #2
  • 28 April 2012 - 04:45 AM
I've read each volume of The Walking Dead, and I like it, yet it's starting to get a wee bit repetitive (keep in mind I said "volume", not "issue", so if anything new has happened since the release of volume 15 I wouldn't know about it). I've read the first book of Scott Pilgrim, but haven't gotten to the others yet. I bought The Watchmen after the movie came out, but for some reason I haven't read it yet :P

Some other comics I used to read when I was younger were a lot of the Dark Horse Godzilla and Aliens comics. I'm also a sucker for Jay and Silent Bob, so I have the Tales from the Clerks complete comic collection thing.

This post has been edited by ChewySmokey: 28 April 2012 - 05:33 AM

  • #3
  • 28 April 2012 - 05:29 AM
  • wacko
  • Knows more about BCB than Taeshi
    Member
I suppose I'll list a few of my favourites over the years.

Comic strips:

  • Calvin and Hobbes
  • FoxTrot
  • Get Fuzzy
  • Pearls Before Swine

Webcomics:

  • Bittersweet Candy Bowl
  • CRFH
  • Penny Arcade
  • Sinfest
  • Something Positive
  • xkcd
  • Gunnerkrigg Court

Graphic novels:

  • Finder
  • Bone
  • Blankets

This post has been edited by wacko: 28 April 2012 - 05:35 AM

  • #4
  • 28 April 2012 - 05:35 AM
Tijuana Bibles, best in the west.
  • #5
  • 28 April 2012 - 07:15 AM
  • Taeshi
  • one hot bitch
    Administrator
wacko: I notice you read Blankets.. yet I see no sign of Habibi........

this is something you must fix.....

this is something every one of you must fix......

(Persepolis is pretty good, way better than the movie, by the long mile. I was so heavily disappointed by the movie, maybe it was the dubbing or I don't know but it just failed so miserably to capture the book sifhdkfhdfdkg)
  • #6
  • 28 April 2012 - 11:04 AM
I've read some of the DC titles. Though nothing recently. Identity Crisis was awesome.

Also these two vv

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  • #7
  • 28 April 2012 - 11:24 PM
I remember when Monster Allergy was a really bad Saturday Morning cartoon.
  • #8
  • 29 April 2012 - 12:03 AM
The comic was way better with more drama and mystery. It's also darker with slight horror.
  • #9
  • 29 April 2012 - 12:41 AM
Finder and Fables are must read comics.
  • #10
  • 29 April 2012 - 01:56 AM
I enjoy Fables. I don't really care for the last few story archs, though. The fight against the Literals was mildly interesting, though.
  • #11
  • 29 April 2012 - 02:06 AM
I'd peg Persepolis as more Iranian than Western.
  • #12
  • 29 April 2012 - 04:38 AM
We're reading Persepolis this year for English, I finished it in about an hour. It's pretty good.

But man I am ADDICTED to Archie's Mega Man adaption you wouldn't believe.

As for webcomics Awkward Zombie and Bear Nuts are my personal favorites.

I just can't get into the DC/Marvel comics, cartoony, fun, playful over-exaggerated styles appeal to me more than big muscular men with a plethora of chest-hair, and the superwoman who have a waist as thin as a pencil along with a chest as big as dump truck.
  • #13
  • 29 April 2012 - 04:41 AM
  • wacko
  • Knows more about BCB than Taeshi
    Member

Taeshi said:

wacko: I notice you read Blankets.. yet I see no sign of Habibi........

this is something you must fix.....

Given that I've also read Good-bye, Chunky Rice, I should probably pick up Habibi sometime.

Also I enjoy Astérix and Tintin, in French as well as English. I've read some of Hergé's other work, and some Titeuf besides, so I've got a bit of influence from les bandes dessinées. Comics are regarded as an art form in France, so if you go there, you'll find that bookstores will devote an entire wall to them.
  • #14
  • 29 April 2012 - 04:51 AM

View PostJerk, on 29 April 2012 - 04:38 AM, said:

I'd peg Persepolis as more Iranian than Western.


I thought it was originally published in France, though?
  • #15
  • 29 April 2012 - 05:30 AM
Why did I ever think this was funny?

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  • #16
  • 29 April 2012 - 06:32 AM

View PostKaxbe, on 29 April 2012 - 05:30 AM, said:

I thought it was originally published in France, though?

It's been awhile since I read it, but isn't the story by an Iranian woman about living through the Iranian Revolution? Even so, it's not anglocentric western and not sinocentric eastern (anime and so on). Here's what I'm trying to say: calling Persepolis western would be like if I moved to China, wrote about America and had critics label it "eastern." I don't think the label is arbitrary because there are definitely separate traditions branching out from distinct cultures, but we're getting to the point where we're so eclectic that traditions are starting to converge.
  • #17
  • 29 April 2012 - 06:47 AM

View PostCaptainBaconMan, on 29 April 2012 - 06:32 AM, said:

Why did I ever think this was funny?

I know what you mean. I used to find a lot of his books to be funny when I was younger, but now I can't seem to figure out why. I figure it's some of shock value, like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac or The Happy Noodle Boy... or just terrible taste.
  • #18
  • 29 April 2012 - 07:07 AM
Persepolis bitch moved to France when she was a teenager and seemed to get a lot out of it, culturally. I think it'd be fair to talk about it as a French-Iranian (Francoranian? Francapersian?) work.
  • #19
  • 30 April 2012 - 06:08 AM
  • Taeshi
  • one hot bitch
    Administrator
Well the problem is who's going to make a "country-specific comics thread" to make Persepolis something to mention so I rather mention it here, unless someone wants to make a "general comics thread" (don't)
  • #20
  • 30 April 2012 - 12:02 PM
I just put "Western Comics" because it seemed like a broad enough term. I doubt we need a "superhero comic thread", an "indie comic thread", etc. Just wanted a thread where we don't talk about manga.
  • #21
  • 30 April 2012 - 01:32 PM
Why not go to my home state of Missouri for a nice webcomic that few people have heard of?

Edmund Finney's Quest to Find the Meaning of Life is the funniest comic no one is reading. It's got a distinct wackiness to it, like if Monty Python and the Gary Larson did a bunch of drugs and worked on a comic together.

Posted Image


And then there's The Far Side itself, an infamously weird single panel comic strip; Non Sequitor, one of my favorite still-running newspaper comics, and that's about all I can think of at the moment.

This post has been edited by Carcharocles: 30 April 2012 - 02:05 PM

  • #22
  • 30 April 2012 - 02:00 PM
  • wacko
  • Knows more about BCB than Taeshi
    Member
I was thinking about the comics I read as a kid. I read a ton of Archie comics. I also loved reading Donald Duck. Carl Barks was truly the Duck Man, his stories always had an engaging way of drawing you into the misadventures of Donald and his three nephews. I also enjoyed the Duck stories by Don Rosa and Daan Jippes. I didn't like Mickey Mouse as much, I guess I just didn't have an appreciation for Floyd Gottfredson's work.

I also inherited a small batch of comics from my dad. Many of them were Western-themed. I didn't have much of an appreciation of them as a kid, since I wasn't interested in the subject material, but now I enjoy these old comics.


SuitCase said:

French-Iranian (Francoranian? Francapersian?)

On dit en français "franco-iranien".
  • #23
  • 30 April 2012 - 07:48 PM

View PostShada, on 29 April 2012 - 04:41 AM, said:

I just can't get into the DC/Marvel comics, cartoony, fun, playful over-exaggerated styles appeal to me more than big muscular men with a plethora of chest-hair, and the superwoman who have a waist as thin as a pencil along with a chest as big as dump truck.


What about batshit insane antagonists?

Posted Image

You should read The Killing Joke.

This post has been edited by CaptainBaconMan: 01 May 2012 - 01:21 AM

  • #24
  • 01 May 2012 - 01:20 AM
I was definitely one of those kids that never read the newspaper and stole just about all the comic pages and the entire comic section for Sundays. Part of me wishes that I invested some of my money in actual comic books instead of manga, because you can read all that shit online these days and my manga is practically useless now, argh. I've been collecting manga since I was eleven (currently twenty-three).

A lot of the series you've mentioned in your list are on my will-eventually-read-and-maybe-own list. I do however own the entire series of Calvin and Hobbes as well as some Garfield books. I've read quite a bit of Sonic as well.

Maybe in the future when I make more money I can invest in some comics..though I'm not sure what I should do with my manga, haha.
  • #25
  • 07 May 2012 - 10:15 PM
  • wacko
  • Knows more about BCB than Taeshi
    Member
Invest? Comics are not for investing. They are for reading. :smirk:
  • #26
  • 07 May 2012 - 10:19 PM
Posted Image

so these masterpieces were in the one dollar bin at the comic book store for some reason
  • #27
  • 07 May 2012 - 11:21 PM
Comic strips:
-Garfield
-Zits
-Blondie

Webcomics:
-Bittersweet Candy Bowl
-Roomies
-El Goonish Shive
-Las Lindas
-Rascals
-Twokinds
-Yosh
-Caribbean Blue
-iMew
-Sandra and Woo
-Kevin & Kell

Graphic Novels:
-Scott Pilgrim
-Bone
-Slash/Hack
-Powers
-Superman: Earth One
  • #28
  • 07 May 2012 - 11:54 PM
Haha, perhaps not the correct term to use..yes, naturally, comics are for reading. I don't intend on investing for monetary gain, obviously.
  • #29
  • 08 May 2012 - 01:20 AM
superhero comics suck now why do people bother with them
  • #30
  • 08 June 2012 - 05:47 PM
  • wacko
  • Knows more about BCB than Taeshi
    Member
I was never much into superhero comics/cartoons/movies. Dunno why, they just never appealed to me.
  • #31
  • 08 June 2012 - 06:02 PM
Get Fuzzy
  • #32
  • 08 June 2012 - 07:03 PM

View PostSeppucrow, on 08 June 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

superhero comics suck now why do people bother with them


i still read them because there are characters that are still around that are interesting enough to read up on. pre-DCreboot, i was reading Secret Six, Blue Beetle, Zatanna, and Batgirl. the characters introduced in them were all interesting in their own ways. for example, Secret Six, which focused on a group of villains who would work as mercenaries for hire. that series reinvented a C-list Batman villain into a powerhouse, introduced a contortionist who could kill you by strangling you with his ribcage and a badass killer queen with a taste for Victorian fashion, and gave an incredibly amount of character development to a character who has always been "in-between" and never really a bad guy or a good guy. also, the mythos for both DC and MARVEL are interesting once you get into it. it's interesting to see how the universe plays out.

right now I'm reading Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Justice League Dark, Dial H, Batgirl, Birds of Prey, World's Finest, Avengers Academy, X-Force, and Young Avengers. i like superhero comics because of the creative teams involved. a good team produces some really amazing shit.

(p.s. pick up the new Aquaman series and the DC series that i already mentioned here. they're great.)
  • #33
  • 08 June 2012 - 09:46 PM
they suck the end
  • #34
  • 08 June 2012 - 10:02 PM
your opinion, dude. but you didn't even back up your shit, so whatever.
  • #35
  • 08 June 2012 - 10:47 PM
i mainly just wanted to poke fun at how extremely unpopular superhero comics are (I wonder why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but if ya want me to throw snowballs i'll send ya an avalanche

first of all superhero comics completely died after Watchmen was created because it was so subversive that it gave Alan Moore so much fame that everyone else wanted to be like them and it explains why superhero comics try too hard to get serious with those huge muscled freaks that wear frilly costumes

the other huge factor though, the distributor of all the comics (even marvel and dc) diamond distribution has a practical monopoly which promotes stagnation

in fact here are some neat articles on how superhero comics came to be like they are now!

of course there are those rare cute exceptions but in general superhero comics more like pooperhero comics *blows raspberries flips u off rides on skateboard and shreds off ur face*
  • #36
  • 08 June 2012 - 11:48 PM
Something I picked up in the past couple weeks was Saga by Brian K. Vaughn. I don't know how many people read his stuff, but I think he's somewhat known because of Lost?...
Anyway I like it, reads more like a sci-fi novel than a comic book.
Scott Pilgrim was fun.
Never really got into Neil Gaiman based comics :unsure:
There was a 6-issue shot of Runaways, written by Joss Whedon, that I still keep as an example of good writing that involves time travel.
I really like stuff by Soleil, could not get my hands on Monster Allergy in the States though, but I loved Skydoll - the art more than the story - and its derivative works.
There is about a billion other things I like, so I'll stop now.
  • #37
  • 09 June 2012 - 01:59 AM
I've finished reading Garth Ennis' Preacher, a comic about a priest who gets possesed by an strange entity that escaped heaven, which results to be the spawn of an angel and a devil. woo!

I also enjoy x-men a lot. I liked Grant Morrison's new X-men a lot and wolverine and the x-men so far

This post has been edited by JPEspinoza: 14 June 2012 - 06:13 AM

  • #38
  • 14 June 2012 - 06:12 AM

View PostKaxbe, on 07 May 2012 - 11:21 PM, said:

Posted Image

so these masterpieces were in the one dollar bin at the comic book store for some reason

I would argue this is a travesty but since you enjoy/appreciate them, all's well.

But seriously, A FUCKING DOLLAR?!
  • #39
  • 03 May 2013 - 05:13 AM
shit, IT WAS 99 CENTS
  • #40
  • 03 May 2013 - 11:07 AM
The French seem to have a talent for comics. Goscinny, Girard, Bilal, Martin, Uderzo etc.

Lots of good comics mentioned here, Watchmen comic was breathtaking. I'm a bit surprised Miller's Sin City isn't mentioned, though. Gaiman and Larson are among geniuses from the new continent. 99 cents for Sandman? Steal.

For the cat lovers I'd recommend kinda-film-noir Blacksad. Sokal's earlier Canardo albums are good read.

Hugo Pratt was a comic artist who deserves a mention. His main character, a countryless sea captain Corto Maltese, a man who cut his own fate line finds himself in all kinds of places in all kinds of trouble with all kinds of people stuck in their place in history. While Pratt's simplistic drawing style might elude a lot of people, the story keeps reader in it's iron grip. Dubbed as master of atmosphere (mood), the comic Indian Summer he wrote and Manara drew is as ugly as only life can be.
  • #41
  • 03 May 2013 - 06:02 PM
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