Recommend me obscure comic books and manga!

[Queen Michael]

I'm a huge fan of sequential art in all its forms and since I want to read all the good stuff and not just the best-selling good stuff, I'd like you to recommend me comics and manga that's really darn good but isn't very widely known.

A few guidelines:

1. It's not obscure just because it's not Watchmen-famous or One Piece-famous. Make sure it's actually obscure.

2. It needs to be obscure in its particular genre (unless the entire genre is obscure, like for instance Swedish humor comics, or avant-garde manga). I know that not a lot of people today read collections of classic Little Orphan Annie strips, but among fans of old newspaper comics absolutely everyone knows about them.

3. Nothing by a famous creator is truly obscure. Sure, OMAC might not be the most famous Jack Kirby comic, but it's still a Jack Kirby comic and I promise you I've heard about, or will hear about, anything made by any famous comics creator. (Note: This rule doesn't apply to manga, only American comics.)

4. Ignore all my guidelines if the comic you have in mind is just too darn good not to recommend.

 

[madwarper]

Hyakushou Kizoku - You know Fullmetal Alchemist? You know the author/illustrator behind it has also made Silver Spoon, a slice of life manga about an agricultural high school? Well, she also made a documentary-style manga (Hyakushou Kizoku) about how she went from working on her family farm to be a mangaka and farm life in general.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Cat Street and Orange yane no chiisana ie (Little house with an orange roof) are entertaining slice-of-life manga.

Definitely not shonen though.

 

[Queen Michael]

Definitely not shonen though.

...your point being? Sorry if I'm coming off as rude, I just don't get your point.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Definitely not shonen though.

...your point being? Sorry if I'm coming off as rude, I just don't get your point.

Just what most people think of when they think of manga.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Dorohedero or something. Manga about a dude with reptile head trying to find the dude that gave him the reptile head. The artist helped out with Gantz or something if I remember correctly. It's damn weird, might be worth checking out.

Blame!: Manga about a dude in a Hudson Sphere or whatever it is called journeying to the top. Awesome drawings.

Ubel Blatt: Some kind of elf's adventures, graphic as hell, expect rape and gore. Reminds me a bit of Berserk.

Vinland Saga: VIKINGS!

Sun-Ken Rock: Asian dude goes to Korea to find the love of his life. Ends up in a gang instead and tries to take over Korea.

Ichi 1 something: Possibly the most grotesque manga I've ever read, check it out if you find it, but it comes with a warning.

 

[Muspelheim]

Although I'm not entirely sure, there must be an english version of Moebius & Jodorowsky's The Incal.

What is it? A series of Science Fiction comics, available bundled up into one big book. Is it any good? Damn yes, it is.
What is it about? An idiot private investigator, fond of whining and soliciting robot prostitutes, gets involved in a strange plot, much larger than himself that will take him and his pet bird beyond the furthest stars.

I believe they've been published in both the US and the UK rather recently, when it recieved a recolouring. Worth checking out if you can find it. If you can't, French isn't terribly difficult to read.

It's worth it for admiring Moebius' craftsmanship alone.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-12ruN9yhHKQ/UECMGBizqWI/AAAAAAAAASY/0k8xGOck2bk/s640/Incal1_01bis.jpg

 

[DeepReaver]

Empowered by Adam Warren, It is somewhat famous in certain circles but it really needs more exposure for being a smart, funny superhero comic series.

 

[KOMega]

This might not be obscure enough, but I liked Franken Fran.

It's a manga and its got a lot of gore-y stuff if you like that. (I do!)

It's a bout this doctor girl who decides that she must keep her patients alive no matter what. [sub]no matter what[/sub]

 

[Pappytech]

Vinland Saga: VIKINGS!

This, all the way. Vinland Saga easily has some of the best art I've ever seen in a manga, not to mention great fight scenes, a moving story, and solid, memorable characters.

As for my own recommendation, I'd have to suggest The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer [http://www.thespectrum.net/manga_scans/?preview=manga_The-Lucifer-and-Biscuit-Hammer]. While there are times when the art isn't what you'd call great, the series has one of the best and most touching plots I've ever come across, and is made especially noteworthy (at least in my opinion) by giving each and every character some amount of development. It's short and sweet, doing more in ten volumes than most other series could do in thirty, and is probably one of the best pieces of media I've ever come across.

Now if only there was an official translation...

Outside of that, anything by Naoki Urasawa. 20th Century Boys, Monster, Billy Bat, even Happy!'s worth a read. I'm not sure how high his stuff would rank on the scale of obscurity, but I'd feel bad not recommending them.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Skeleton Key by Andi Watson perhaps? Interesting art style and weird fantasy/reality mix.

 

[DarklordKyo]

I've heard Irredeemable is pretty good. It's billed as a realistic take on Superman (moreso than Man of Steel apparently).

 

[saintdane05]

Karakuri Dôji Ultimo: No anime based off of it, unfortunately. Created by Stan Lee(!), written and drawn by Hiroyuki Takei of Shaman King fame.

Deep Space Tragedy: Robot rockstars fight the government. Webcomic, translated into issue format.

Ouran Highschool Host Club
<youtube=8CNTxsAGMDU>

The manliest Shoujo manga of all time~!

 

[DragonLordSerge]

Crossed Really disturbing zombie type comic
Iron wok Jan cooking manga and crazy magic cooking powers its funny......
Yubisaki milk tea love/comedy manga

 

[The Lyre]

It's not obscure just because it's not Watchmen-famous or One Piece-famous. Make sure it's actually obscure.

This is quite possibly the most hipster your requirements could possibly get, but I'll give it a shot. I can't really tell what is or isn't obscure though - so, if it doesn't have a Wikipedia entry, I'll assume it isn't well known.

Manga;

Hoshi no Samidare and Sengoku Youko, by the same author, are bizarre but pretty great deconstructions of shonen, whilst still mostly fitting into that genre - not like Madoka, because these actually do it well. Samidare is finished and fully scanlated, Youko is ongoing.

EDIT; Samidare was already mentioned so I'll throw in Homonculus, too. I haven't read all of it, because when I picked it up the author hadn't completed it. It's been a couple years since then and it's apparently now finished.

It's not really obscure but if you haven't read Shin Angyo Onshi you really, really should.

Terra ForMars is something that certain corners of the internet enjoy ironically - it's pretty retarded, but entertaining. I'm never entirely sure if the author is in on the joke or not - like, say, the Evil Dead 2 of manga.

I am a Hero used to be obscure but is relatively well known/award winning now.

Oyasumi Punpun again was a rather obscure title that's getting more attention now.


Comics;


This is even harder because comics are a somewhat smaller industry with a lot of big names rotating on different projects, but again, I'll do my best.

Rather obvious from my avatar. Everyone seems to know that Constantine is a comic book character, but compared to DC's frontrunners, very few people seem to have read anything from Hellblazer.

A bit of a 'cult hit' - The Silencers: Black Kiss. Centred around a group of super-powered anti-villains working for the mafia.

He's a very big name now but Warren Ellis has a lot of older one-off titles like Black Summer that are far less well known compared to, say, Transmetropolitan. No one really talks about them, so I'd consider them obscure.

That's really all I've got - I've got dozens of things I could recommend, but the problem with this request is that, in smaller industries like comics, the truly noteworthy titles always get picked up by someone and rise out of obscurity.

'Hidden gems' are a lot less common in comic books than say, novels or cinema, because there isn't the same saturation of content.

 

[silentNate]

Strangehaven.

"Alex Hunter almost runs over a woman while driving through the British countryside, swerving and crashing his car into a tree. He wakes to find himself in the picturesque village of Strangehaven, where a young woman named Janey Jones convinces him to stay. He finds a spacious cottage to rent and a job as a teacher at the local school, but it soon becomes clear that something is awry in Strangehaven. A secretive cult calling themselves The Knights of the Golden Light have taken over all positions of authority, a pagan coven is plotting something out in the woodlands, the woman Alex saw in the road seems to be haunting his dreams, and no matter how far he drives, the village itself will not seem to let him leave."

Obscure but anyone having finished the second graphic novel will know that it is an absolute masterpiece in storytelling and art

 

[hornedcow]

The Batman Vampire stuff. It's not particularly obscure and it does sound a little weird, but it's actually a pretty decent read, if you recognise that the melodrama is as much a send up to the original Dracula novel as it is lazy writing.

 

[Ultress]

Not sure how obscure it is but Death Panda a guro manga that bills it self as a romantic comedy.If your can stomach the guro aspect it is truly funny in a cheesy b-movie way.

Living game: a enjoyable romantic comedy that deals with age differences in relationships in a mature way and is also funny

 

[Queen Michael]

Dorohedero or something. Manga about a dude with reptile head trying to find the dude that gave him the reptile head. The artist helped out with Gantz or something if I remember correctly. It's damn weird, might be worth checking out.

I recently got the first five books from the library, and I'm planning on reading them as soon as I'm done with Astro Boy.

Although I'm not entirely sure, there must be an english version of Moebius & Jodorowsky's The Incal.

There is, but I didn't need it since I read the perfectly satisfactory Swedish translation last year. And yep, it's good. Darn good.

This might not be obscure enough, but I liked Franken Fran.

It's a manga and its got a lot of gore-y stuff if you like that. (I do!)

It's a bout this doctor girl who decides that she must keep her patients alive no matter what. [sub]no matter what[/sub]

I started reading this one a while a go; it was good enough to make me keep reading.

Strangehaven.
Obscure but anyone having finished the second graphic novel will know that it is an absolute masterpiece in storytelling and art

At least five years ago, I read the first book, which was the only part the library had. But your last remark piqued my curiosity, so when I go on my trip to Stockholm this Saturday I'll make sure to drop by the library and get Strangehaven. They've got more parts there.

Karakuri Dôji Ultimo: No anime based off of it, unfortunately. Created by Stan Lee(!), written and drawn by Hiroyuki Takei of Shaman King fame.

Ouran Highschool Host Club
The manliest Shoujo manga of all time~!

I've started reading Ultimo, but it's not really my cup of tea. It's okay, but not great. Now, Ouran etc. I really like, and I've read almost the entire series. But I didn't really like the way it got all serious and non-comedic in the later parts. That happens too often with manga. Manga creators seem to have the same attitude towards comedy that Abraham Lincoln had towards slavery: "If you've already got it, I won't tell you to get rid of it, but if you haven't got started with it already you're not allowed to do so now."

Skeleton Key by Andi Watson perhaps? Interesting art style and weird fantasy/reality mix.

...I love you. The Stockholm library has all the parts of this I haven't read, but you have to ask the librarian to go get them for you in the book storage room, so if you hadn't mentioned it here I wouldn't have remembered about it.

This is quite possibly the most hipster your requirements could possibly get

Yup. I'm a huge hipster, so it's kind of appropriate, right?

Rather obvious from my avatar. Everyone seems to know that Constantine is a comic book character, but compared to DC's frontrunners, very few people seem to have read anything from Hellblazer.
[...]

He's a very big name now but Warren Ellis has a lot of older one-off titles like Black Summer that are far less well known compared to, say, Transmetropolitan. No one really talks about them, so I'd consider them obscure.

I read Black Summer two weeks ago. It was good. And I've read loads of Hellblazer. Good stuff, good stuff.

Empowered by Adam Warren, It is somewhat famous in certain circles but it really needs more exposure for being a smart, funny superhero comic series.

Yep, it does. Empowered is one of the best comics I've ever read.

Definitely not shonen though.

...your point being? Sorry if I'm coming off as rude, I just don't get your point.

Just what most people think of when they think of manga.

Ah, okay.

 

[DeepReaver]

Empowered by Adam Warren, It is somewhat famous in certain circles but it really needs more exposure for being a smart, funny superhero comic series.

Yep, it does. Empowered is one of the best comics I've ever read.

Right on, i cannot wait for the 8th book to come out, i had hoped it would be this year but the way things are looking it seems as if it is going to be another two year time gap.