Recommend me obscure comic books and manga!

[homerbert]

Nelson

40 of the best and Brightest UK comics creators each do a short story about a girl, each in one day in her life a year apart. So like the book One Day, but with tons of different styles ranging for cutesy cartoony to obtuse art comic and everywhere in between. You'll know a few of the creators, like Philip Bond, but most of them are obscure. All really talented though and for something that's clearly 40 different personal short stories, it's a remarkably fluid and cohesive life story. Superb stuff.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nelson-Rob-Davis/dp/1906653232

Eoin

 

[Queen Michael]

Nelson

40 of the best and Brightest UK comics creators each do a short story about a girl, each in one day in her life a year apart. So like the book One Day, but with tons of different styles ranging for cutesy cartoony to obtuse art comic and everywhere in between. You'll know a few of the creators, like Philip Bond, but most of them are obscure. All really talented though and for something that's clearly 40 different personal short stories, it's a remarkably fluid and cohesive life story. Superb stuff.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nelson-Rob-Davis/dp/1906653232

Eoin

First of all, I agree. I bought it this year, at the end of February, and it was really good. But I'm also a tad confused -- What do you mean with "Eoin?"

EDIT: Ah, I get it... It's your signature. Sorry, I'm a bit slow sometimes.

 

[ninjapenguin1414]

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

Irredeemable is indeed really good but the idea isn't that its a realistic Superman title more so just "what if Superman decided to kill everyone and rule the world" It's around 800 pages and I read it in two days. It's a really good read for anyone whose a fan of superhero comics and even if you don't like superhero's it's good.

 

[quantumsoul]

Eden: It's and Endless World. A Post-post apocalyptic cyberpunk story. It's can get pretty dark at times but nothing felt gratuitous to me. It's pretty rare but if you like cyber-punk stuff you'll like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden:_It%27s_an_Endless_World!


These two not as obscure.

Priest. It's a Korean comic about a half-possessed priest killing zombies and fallen angels in the old west. Nothing at all like the movie. It's worth it for the artwork alone.

Monster. It's about a Japanese surgeon living in Germany trying to kill a serial killer he's somewhat responsible for. While being on the run himself. Saying more would spoil the first volume too much. The story has a good mix of light and dark. What I like is how genuinely good a person the main character was without realizing it.

 

[hazabaza1]

Hmm. That's hard.

The most "obscure" thing I can think of (in that I've never heard anyone else mention it without actively looking for discussion) is this Manga called... well the name seems to change a lot. It's either O-Parts Hunter or 666 Satan. Been a while since I read it but it's a fairly silly shonen-esque thing about this kid with a mad ass boomerang that changes its perceived size based on how evil the person looking at it is. Or something. I think he was raised by a wolf or something too and from what I can recall there's this completely flat girl who after the obligatory timeskip gets fucking giant titties or something.

It's been a while.But I remember liking it.

 

[Queen Michael]

Eden: It's and Endless World. A Post-post apocalyptic cyberpunk story. It's can get pretty dark at times but nothing felt gratuitous to me. It's pretty rare but if you like cyber-punk stuff you'll like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden:_It%27s_an_Endless_World!


These two not as obscure.

Priest. It's a Korean comic about a half-possessed priest killing zombies and fallen angels in the old west. Nothing at all like the movie. It's worth it for the artwork alone.

Monster. It's about a Japanese surgeon living in Germany trying to kill a serial killer he's somewhat responsible for. While being on the run himself. Saying more would spoil the first volume too much. The story has a good mix of light and dark. What I like is how genuinely good a person the main character was without realizing it.

I've tried each of these, and all of them were good. Right now I'm working on Monster, and when I'm done with that I'll be moving on to Eden.
Hm... Moving on to Eden... Good name for a novel.

 

[Queen Michael]

Parasyte, I found it randomly and thought "why not, I can burn a few hours" I read some chapters and was hooked, it really drags you into the story.
[...]
I really do recommend it, I know you have so many already, but this is something that really did surprise me.

Thanks, but I've already read it. I finished it three years ago. And in case you were wondering, the answer is yes, it does stay as good for the entire series.

 

[Marik2]

snip

Maybe a manga called Otoyomegatari might be up your alley? It is about the daily lives of people in 19th century Central Asia and has really beautiful detailed clothes and artifacts.

And theres some manga out there about the journey of Buddha and Pre-Islamic Arabs, but the names escape me....

 

[V8 Ninja]

Alright, let me take a crack at this; Chikyu Misaki. The plot revolves around a teenage girl finding a strange cousin of the Loch Ness Monster that can transform into a small boy. While that sounds like the premise of a light-hearted comedy/feel-good manga, there's lots of other actions occurring in the series, from criminal activities to potential love affairs. It's also a relatively short read, only rounding to three manga books worth of content. I recommend it very much so.

 

[Queen Michael]

snip

Maybe a manga called Otoyomegatari might be up your alley? It is about the daily lives of people in 19th century Central Asia and has really beautiful detailed clothes and artifacts.

And theres some manga out there about the journey of Buddha and Pre-Islamic Arabs, but the names escape me....

I love Otoyomegatari. And the other manga you're talking about might be Buddha by Osamu Tezuka.

 

[Marik2]

snip

Maybe a manga called Otoyomegatari might be up your alley? It is about the daily lives of people in 19th century Central Asia and has really beautiful detailed clothes and artifacts.

And theres some manga out there about the journey of Buddha and Pre-Islamic Arabs, but the names escape me....

I love Otoyomegatari. And the other manga you're talking about might be Buddha by Osamu Tezuka.

Bingo that is the one, now I need to remember the Arab manga that was on my library the other day. And yeah Otoyomegatari is beautiful and do wonder if things will go bad later on for the people there.

 

[Queen Michael]

Parasyte, I found it randomly and thought "why not, I can burn a few hours" I read some chapters and was hooked, it really drags you into the story.
[...]
I really do recommend it, I know you have so many already, but this is something that really did surprise me.

Thanks, but I've already read it. I finished it three years ago. And in case you were wondering, the answer is yes, it does stay as good for the entire series.

Sweet, I plan to read more soon! Glad to see it keeps being good!

Lets see, there is the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga, one which had almost nothing to do with card games until half way through, it involves people being set on fire and even murder, pretty intense for something that I thought would be harmless card game action(I know Yu-Gi-Oh is popular, but the original manga is somewhat obscure)

You can read it here [http://www.mangahere.com/manga/yu_gi_oh/v01/c001/]!

Thanks for the recommendation, but once again you've chosen a manga that I finished years ago.

 

[Queen Michael]

Parasyte, I found it randomly and thought "why not, I can burn a few hours" I read some chapters and was hooked, it really drags you into the story.
[...]
I really do recommend it, I know you have so many already, but this is something that really did surprise me.

Thanks, but I've already read it. I finished it three years ago. And in case you were wondering, the answer is yes, it does stay as good for the entire series.

Sweet, I plan to read more soon! Glad to see it keeps being good!

Lets see, there is the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga, one which had almost nothing to do with card games until half way through, it involves people being set on fire and even murder, pretty intense for something that I thought would be harmless card game action(I know Yu-Gi-Oh is popular, but the original manga is somewhat obscure)

You can read it here [http://www.mangahere.com/manga/yu_gi_oh/v01/c001/]!

Thanks for the recommendation, but once again you've chosen a manga that I finished years ago.

Gettin real tired of your genre savvy-ness Queen Michael...

Can't think of anything else particularly obscure I have read...

My sis recommends Pandora Hearts and Deadman Wonderland which are supposed to be pretty good.

Oooh, you're improving. Those, I've only read two books each of.

 

[pyrosaw]

1.Love and Rockets, both the "Locas" stories, and the "Palomar" stories. Also, if you can, try and find the original issues. There's a lot of really cool science fiction stuff they don't include in the compalations, like Errata Stigmata, Twitch City, or the "Bang" stories.

2.I also recommend graphic novel "Alias the Cat" by Kim Deitch. While I'm not all to sure about Kim Deitch's other work, this book is freakin great, featuring a complex story set in the 1910's and a present day cartoonist.

3. A lot of Alan Moore's more underrated work. While Watchmen and V For Vendetta were great, Promethea and Top Ten are so overlooked when they are sooooooo freakin good.

4. The Baltimore series, by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. It's steampunk, splatterpunk, alternate future, vampire fiction, gothic, Poe's Red Death GOODNESS!!

 

[Queen Michael]

1.Love and Rockets, both the "Locas" stories, and the "Palomar" stories. Also, if you can, try and find the original issues. There's a lot of really cool science fiction stuff they don't include in the compalations, like Errata Stigmata, Twitch City, or the "Bang" stories.

2.I also recommend graphic novel "Alias the Cat" by Kim Deitch. While I'm not all to sure about Kim Deitch's other work, this book is freakin great, featuring a complex story set in the 1910's and a present day cartoonist.

3. A lot of Alan Moore's more underrated work. While Watchmen and V For Vendetta were great, Promethea and Top Ten are so overlooked when they are sooooooo freakin good.

4. The Baltimore series, by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. It's steampunk, splatterpunk, alternate future, vampire fiction, gothic, Poe's Red Death GOODNESS!!

1. Already read both the Locas compilatons and the Palomar saga. Great stuff.

2. I think the library's got it, I'll give it a look.

3. Top Ten is absolutely fantastic. There's more sheer entusiasm in it than in any of his other work. And Promethea's not bad either.

4. This one, I know the library's got.

 

[FirebirdXR]

I'm gonna have to rec Onepunch-Man

It's a manga that satirizes the whole shounen genre, primarily by having a protagonist that beats all of his opponents with a single punch. It's pretty damn amazing, IMO, and more people need to read it.

Edit: I'd also recommend The Breaker, if you're at all interested in mystical-martial-arts-in-modern-day stuff. It's one of the best takes on the concept that I've seen, and I find it rather addicting. Don't have a link though unfortunately.

^_^

I was about to make this suggestion myself.

There also the original webcomic, which looks like it was drawn by a 8 year old with Parkinson's, but the story and humor still hold up surprisingly.

The leap between that and the remake drawn by the guy who drew Eyeshield 21 is pretty outstanding.

Plus, entire length-chapters pointlessly devoted to a single badass scene.

 

[pyrosaw]

1.Love and Rockets, both the "Locas" stories, and the "Palomar" stories. Also, if you can, try and find the original issues. There's a lot of really cool science fiction stuff they don't include in the compalations, like Errata Stigmata, Twitch City, or the "Bang" stories.

2.I also recommend graphic novel "Alias the Cat" by Kim Deitch. While I'm not all to sure about Kim Deitch's other work, this book is freakin great, featuring a complex story set in the 1910's and a present day cartoonist.

3. A lot of Alan Moore's more underrated work. While Watchmen and V For Vendetta were great, Promethea and Top Ten are so overlooked when they are sooooooo freakin good.

4. The Baltimore series, by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. It's steampunk, splatterpunk, alternate future, vampire fiction, gothic, Poe's Red Death GOODNESS!!

1. Already read both the Locas compilatons and the Palomar saga. Great stuff.

2. I think the library's got it, I'll give it a look.

3. Top Ten is absolutely fantastic. There's more sheer entusiasm in it than in any of his other work. And Promethea's not bad either.

4. This one, I know the library's got.

Oh! Forgot, the various works of Jhonen Vasquez! Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, I Am Sick, and Filler Bunny! If you like Invader Zim, you'll love this.(Same cartoonist.)
Oh, and don't forget Kurt Busiek's Astro City. Much like Top Ten in some respects, and I love it's use of religion.
Well that's *cough* Doktor Sleepless *cough* about it.

 

[Crispee]

Anybody else ever read Y: The Last Man? It's an adventure comic series about an escape artist named Yorick and his pet Monkey Ampersand, who discover they are the last male organisms on the planet, with only females in charge of everything after the Genderdice of unknown cause. They must travel across the world with some other people to achieve their respective goals. It's a pretty interesting concept.

Interesting idea but I found it increasingly misogynistic and the whole magical thing just started to annoy me, sorry.

I should've mentioned I've only read the first two volumes, had no idea there was magic involved.

I never got the impression of misogyny myself, it looked to me like a fairly neutral depiction of women.

 

[KOMega]

I'm gonna have to rec Onepunch-Man [http://www.mangainn.com/manga/3027_onepunch-man]

It's a manga that satirizes the whole shounen genre, primarily by having a protagonist that beats all of his opponents with a single punch. It's pretty damn amazing, IMO, and more people need to read it.

Just read all of it. I really like it XD

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Battle Angel Alita, some days it seems like me and James Cameron are the only people who've read it >.> But it's a bizarre, violent, philosophical cyberpunk martial arts epic. I'd recommend avoiding the sequel Last Order though, it's sort of meant to be an End of Eva "real ending" to the series but the original ending is pretty darn good and Last Order meandered so long the artist cancelled it... so it's an unfinished "real ending" that gets really crappy after a few volumes.

Arrowsmith, it's a Kurt Busiek (Marvels) written comic about World War 1 as it takes place in an Alternate Fantasy Earth. It's exceedingly interesting for both History Nerds and people who love Fantasy/Alt-History as it captures both tones with amazing skill. Sadly there's only one trade and the story never actually "ends", but it's still worth reading.

Echo, a pretty darn cool superhero-ish(?) story about a woman who gets... infected? by a prototype battlesuit and the problems that ensue. It's by Terry Moore of Strangers In Paradise psuedo-fame (in the Indie Scene I guess) so the characters are VERY real, which adds a lot to the story.

Sebastian O, it's by Grant Morrison but DAMN is this small and weird, it's a 3 issue Mini-series about an Assassin in a Steampunk-ish London at the turn of the century. If you're familiar with the work of Michael Moorcock it's essentially "Grant Morrison does Jerry Cornelius".

Highroads a World War 2 Adventure Comic about an American Captain, an Ex-Mistress of Hitler, a midget British Actor who specializes in Hitler impressions and en Ex-Kamikaze Pilot. Good luck finding this one, it's so obscure I don't think it's still in print...

Street Angel the tale of Jesse Sanchez, a dangerous martial artist and the worlds greatest homeless skateboarder. It's sort of like if Tank Girl and Scott Pilgrim got married and had the worlds weirdest baby.

and for "Too Darn Good Not To Recommend" I'll throw out Atomic Robo because if you aren't reading it you should be, written by Brian Clevinger of 8-bit Theater Fame, Atomic Robo is essentially Doc Savage... if he were a short, clever robot built by Nikola Tesla who uses old fashioned "curses" like "Horsefeathers".