100 Graphic Novels

#32: The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye

dcerva — Sat, 15 May 2010 01:52:52 +0000

I first heard of this book when I downloaded the first trade paper back on my phone. After reading it I was very excited to read on. I started to hear more about this story and learned that it was a long running series that is currently still going. This is a great story about the possible end of humanity… kind of. Basically what has happened is: there are thousands of zombies everywhere, they bite a normal human and that person also becomes a zombie. They move slow and are not intelegent but they do sometimes attack in packs, and do to the growing number of them they can be difficult to fight off. So now we have small colonies of humans who have not yet been infected that group together and try to survive. Noone knows if there are other suvivors or if there is any larger power out there trying to solve the problem. This first book is mostly character development and setting the theme of the series. I really liked this book but I think the series will get better as it goes on and gets into more suspenseful situations. The art is this book is good, very simple black and white but very good, however the artist changes after this book. My rating ****

#31: Kingdom Come

dcerva — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:13:20 +0000

This was a book I had heard of and knew was a big piece of comic literature, but for a long time I put off reading it. I love reading anything with Alex Ross’s art, even if the story stinks. This story is about the end of the world, all the classic heroes are older and for the most part retired. When the threat of newer, younger heroes who don’t as much value the lives of those they protect are out of ethical control our favorite golden age heroes are forced back into action to try and restore peace. The only problem is there are other people of great authority who have other goals on agenda. This book was much much more that I expected! I was blown away with Waid’s ability to write in such a down to earth and realistically/believable way, his writing mixed with the photo-realistic art of Ross surpasses the “chessy” feel present in a huge majority of graphic novels. This book has made my top 10! Anybody who is a fan of Justice League or anyone who enjoys a good action drama will love this book. My rating *****

#30: All Star Batman and Robin

dcerva — Mon, 03 May 2010 03:14:37 +0000

When I first saw that Frank Miller and Jim Lee were teamed up on writing this series I was instantly excited to dig in. After reading a few reviews I began to wonder if I would be let down. This book has gotten a lot of flack due to the experimental way it has been written. This is not your typical Batman story – popular idea of Batman makes him a brilliant strategist and a lot rougher around the edges that all the other superheroes in the DC realm. This Batman created in Miller’s story is very, very… I repeat very extreme. He is more mad that sane and seems to have no moral boundary when it comes to fighting crime or interacting with others. I have to be honest… I loved it. I think anyone who reads this book with an open mind, realizing it is more a comical parody than a serious drama will like it also. I don’t think Miller was trying to redefine Batman as a raging lunatic, but simply experimenting with the idea of a Batman who is one step away from total insanity. This isn’t my favorite Batman story but it is a refresher from normal Batman stories. This was an interesting look at the origin of Robin and the early years of Batman through a new pair of eyes. Jim Lee’s art in this is absolutely amazing, as always. Lee just keeps getting better and better. My rating ****

sorry

dcerva — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:03:57 +0000

Sorry but I’m afraid I will have to put this blog into a temporary hiatus due to my current lack of spare time and overload of school work. I do plan to continue with this blog and hope to pick up again shortly.

#29: Blankets

dcerva — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:53:02 +0000

I originally had purchased this book as an attempt to get my wife into graphic novels. I had heard a lot about Blankets and I knew it was widely celebrated among “non-superhero comics.” I decided to start reading a few pages to see if I would be interested and, to be honest I couldn’t put it down! This is a simple little story about growing up and all the associated pains. The author Craig Thompson, is telling the story as the main character and all his young experience with his own religious beliefs, falling in love and self-realization. This is a great story that anyone will be able to relate to in some way or another. There are a few instances in the book that kind of made me think :WOW, I cant believe it really just said that. This book is very real and hides absolutely nothing, it talks about and shows everything with absolutely no filter, so beware before handing it to anyone besides and adult. The art in the book is really wonderful! This is the best black and white comic art I have ever seen; the art is so expressive and unique. I love the artistic value of this book, both visually and in story format. This type of story may not be the one everyone wants to hear or hopes to relate to, but it is by far one of the best demonstrations of talent in the graphic novel genre. I can’t say too much about the plot without ruining the reading experience so trust me just go pick it up or check it out. My rating *****

#28: X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga

dcerva — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:38:34 +0000

This is arguably the most popular of all X-men books — the story of how Jean became the Dark Phoenix. Let me start by saying that Clarmont generally has a bad rep for “running the X-Men into the ground,” he however is the author of this widely celebrated story. Since this book is a bit “older” it has that same “need to catch you up at every issue ” feel. Clarmont repeats the same information over and over, just to make sure that anyone who started reading in the middle of the story will be able to understand, which is fairly typical of comics that are not of recent decade. This story is pretty self-explanatory: it starts with the normal Jean we all know and love and slowly Scott and Professor X start to notice some unusually and extraordinary lengths to her power. This story can also be fun for some newer fans of X-Men because some very important characters make their first appearances during this book. I have to say that of all the X-Men stories out there, this is by far my favorite! The only thing that I didn’t exactly love about this book is that Claremont is very repetitive and “wordy” in his writing: it becomes very monotonous to get through all his word bubbles as he says so much to say so little. I think that when a writer is trying to explain everything in words it takes away from the art of the panels, lets not forget that a comic book is a combination of text and visual art. The art in this book is good, old school but good. I really liked this story and the reader can tell that this book was a huge reference for the film X-Men The Last Stand. My rating ****

#27: Maus 1: My Father Bleeds History

dcerva — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:57:23 +0000

Its is hard to research popular comic books without coming across Maus. This book has received tons of hype and awards including being counted among Time Magazine’s 10 all time best graphic novels. Maus is the story of a young Art Spiegelman (writer and artist) interviewing his father who happens to be a jewish survivor of the Nazi holocaust. The way this story differs from every other holocaust survivor tale is first that it is fully illustrated and also that Spiegelman decided to portray different human races as different kinds of animals. The animal characters and comical side relief of Art and his father keep such a terrible and depressing story ever interesting and bearable. Maus is a very well written story that captures plenty of human emotion, even though no humans are involved. What I found to be most interesting about this book was that it is focused on more than one thing – we have at work here the history and first hand witness of the holocaust, but also much focus is drawn to the main character’s personality traits and how the effects his relationships with different people today. The art in this book is good: very simple black and white, my only complaint would be that at times it was a bit hard to tell one Jew from another, since they are all mice. All in all anyone who likes history or biographies of interesting people and who want to see how well this can be portraying in comic form should not hesitate to pick this up! My rating ****

#26: Batman: Dark Victory

dcerva — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:24:29 +0000

I absolutely loved Long Halloween: part 1 of 3 in Loeb and Sale’s take on the early years of Batman, so I decided I needed to continue on. Let me start by saying that this story picks up right where Long Halloween left off and continues with yet another murder mystery involving the Italian crime families of Gotham City. I would have to say that this book is quite a bit more complex than the first and takes many more twists and turns in the plot. Basically what we have here with Dark Victory is a new and unknown serial killer striking on every holiday of the year, only this time the victims are local police officers. Gordon and Batman once again race frantically to stop the holiday killings before the next death while also mourning the “loss” of their friend and partner Harvey Dent. This book is wonderfully written and perfectly dramatic to keep the reader on the edge of their seat the whole time. Loeb and Sale have done it again! Last but not least Batman finds himself aside a young new companion willing and probably a little too ready to enter into the ring as hit sidekick, behold the entrance of the 1st Robin. My rating *****

#25: The League of Extrodinary Gentelmen

dcerva — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:29:03 +0000

I had actually seen this movie before reading this book and wasn’t very impressed with the screenplay or acting very much. I have to say this book is tons better than the film — the film doesn’t really follow the book’s story at all. This book, another by Moore, is about a group of fictional characters from older english literature: Captain Nemo, Jekyl and Hyde, etc., who are working together as sort of a black ops group for the English government. Once again, in such a short time, Moore developes very three dimensional characters who make a very ficticious world so real. The real glory of this book is in all the literary references: every single place and every single person in this story is someone from classic english fiction. Anyone who reads this book will enjoy it, however anyone who reads this and knows a great deal about English literature will absolutely love it, its kind of like an inside joke that you want to be in on. The art in this book is different from most, but is fitting for the story content. My rating ****

#24: V for Vendetta

dcerva — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:06:25 +0000

I haven’t really been a fan of Alan Moore’s work in the past so I wasn’t expecting a lot from this book when I picked it up. Let me just say that this book blew me away; absolutely some of the best scripting I have ever seen! V for Vendetta is about another one of Moore’s alternate futures, this time the idea is that Germany won WWII and England totally fell apart. In the story a very radical reform has taken place and England finds itself under a Fascist rule; the head chancellor is a very authoritarian minded leader. Any black, jew, muslim, homosexual or rebel of any kind are forced into prisoner camps and tortured until dead. Our hero, the “terrorist” code name “V” is actually a survivor of one of these camps and with his brilliant mind, lust for revenge and reform he stands up against England’s government. The plot of this story is absolutely phenomenal and the characters are so richly and emotionally three dimensional. The only things that I wished was different was some of the artwork. I actually liked the eerie feel and the faded color, I think it gave the book good emotion depth, but at times it was hard to tell certain characters from each other. There is not a lot of contrast with panel size, just about every page has 8 or 9 panels which does get monotonous. However since the writing was so well done I was able to seriously over look the small things that didn’t fit my fancy and move this book up into my top 5 favorites. All in all really good *****