dr_d, I realised that's not universally true; I got on very well with the collected Dykes to Watch Out For and with Persepolis. The common factors I can see there are (a) relatively simple monochrome artwork; (b) a relatively high words-to-images ratio; and (c) a political storyline filtered through (d) the experience of a small group of "ordinary" people. I'm not sure which of those factors are the most significant, but I will note that I like Calvin and Hobbes in black and white, but think it looks weird in colour. By way of additional context, graphic novels I have not got on with include Neverwhere (finished it, but felt distinctly "meh" about it despite loving both the book and TV versions) and Sandman (leafed through a couple of volumes on separate occasions and bounced off almost immediately both times, although so many people have recommended it to me that I may try again at some point). Given that, geeks of my friendslists, what other graphic novels should I try?This entry was cross-posted from Dreamwidth, where there are currently
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More specific to your tastes, probably, I'd highly recommend:
• The work of Jason Lutes. I think he actually won an Eisner but no one seems to have heard of him. Jar of Fools is one of my favourite comics of all time—it's a quiet little story about escape artists and magicians, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Berlin is the one he's famous for. It's about intellectuals, artists, and activists in Weimar Germany. You'll cry. His art is as breathtaking as his writing. The guy knows how to do rain.
• The work of Joe Sacco. He's basically a journalist who draws as well as writes. Everything is great—Palestine is his classic, but even his one about obscure rock bands didn't suck.
• If you liked Dykes To Watch Out For, Fun Home and Are You My Mother, by the same author, will be right up your alley.
• Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse, about a young gay white man in the South during the Civil Rights era.
Stuff you maybe would like, or rather stuff that I like and recommend to people in the hopes that they'll like it:
• Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis. It's about a thinly disguised Hunter S. Thompson trying to dodge his publisher's deadlines while exposing political corruption in a futuristic dystopia. The art is generally considered godawful (I honestly don't think it's that bad, but it turns a lot of people off) but the story is just so great that I'll forgive it any aesthetic flaws.
• The Authority, at least Ellis' run. It's about anarchist superheroes who decide that fighting crime is useless when they could be using their powers to overthrow oppressive governments. There is gay Superman and gay Batman and they end up adopting a little girl who can electrocute people with her brain. It's silly and sprawling and has the odd annoying tie-in to other DC Universe stuff, but it's really gun.
• DMZ by Brian Wood. Militia separatist types in the southern US and an increasingly repressive government have a civil war, and ordinary people in New York get caught in the middle. Really brilliant worldbuilding, decent-to-awesome art.
(which is really only any good if u already know superhero comics genre very well)
If you're going to retry Sandman, then I recommend that you start with the volume called Dream Country rather than the first volume. This is because Gaiman is establishing his voice & subverting his medium for the first (& some of the early part of the second) volume.
The first volume is very different in tone (although it has glimpses) - and has to establish the Sandman's presence in traditional superhero continuity (although this is basically because nothing like Sandman existed anywhere close to the mainstream at the time, and the audience had to be led to it).
I can lend you copies of all of the above.