If you liked Watchmen, you'll love...

[baldassbat]

So my wife and I just recently read The Watchmen graphic novel and we both liked it a lot. I've read a few Star Wars graphic novels over they ears, but nothing like the Watchmen.

I would like to get my wife something like this for Christmas, but I don't know where to go from here. Can anyone recommend another graphic novel that she might like, knowing she liked the Watchmen. We liked the V for Vendetta movie and I think that was a graphic novel first. We both big fans of dystopian literature.

Suggestions? Please.

[kiggidykev]

Dark Knight Returns/Stikes Again are pretty decent, as is the Sin City series. And yeah, pick up that V For Vendetta book if you'd like a nice spin on the movie's story.

[culturedog]

V For Vendetta is another solid Alan Moore series, though with a markedly different illustrative style. Most of his other stuff, like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Batman: The Killing Joke and the mammoth From Hell is also fascinating.

There's also a fantastic new coffee table book about The Watchmen. It's loaded with sketches and hand-drawn Moore notes and gets into the nitty gritty of the series from conception to fruition. That would also make a solid Xmas gift for any fan of the book.

My favorite recent series is Ex Machina, and while it's not a completed book a la Watchmen, there are a good five or so compiled volumes available at any given bookstore / comic shop.

[HMXDave]

I second Dark Knight Returns and the Sin City series.

Sadly, there aren't a lot of graphic novels like Watchmen.

V for Vendetta is good, but I wasn't a huge fan of the graphic novel. Whoever lettered it should be shot.

[HyeJinx1984]

Ronin by Frank Miller

[PuckJunkie]

I don't know if it counts as a graphic novel, since it's really a trade-paper bound collection of the original comics, but you should check out Gaiman's Sandman series. It's not Watchmen - what is? - but it's different, not worse. Very creative, original, and dark. You might like it.

[baldassbat]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll definitely look these up. I might have ahrd time seeling her on Batman because she'll just assume she needs to be up to speed on the normal comic. I've heard of Ronin, can't believe I forgot Sin City (I think she liked the movie-is it bad that a husband doesn't know these things right off the bat), and the Sandman series sort of rings a bell. Also, From Hell. Was that made into a Johnny Depp movie.

I hated the LXG movie but maybe the comics would be better. She's an english lit major so she should be into stuff like that.

Also, what is Ex Machina about. I recal Deus ex Machina translates to something like "God/ghost in the machine".

[benson111]

God Loves, Man Kills (more fully, Marvel Graphic Novel #5: X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills) The best Graphic Novel of all time!


If you want to look for good ones i reccomend this site!
http://www.mycomicshop.com/graphicnovels

[culturedog]

Also, what is Ex Machina about. I recal Deus ex Machina translates to something like "God/ghost in the machine".

Ex Machina is an awesome series from Brian K. Vaughan (Pride of Baghdad, Y The Last Man, TV's Lost) about Mitchell Hundred, a man who becomes the world's first superhero after an incident leaves him with the ability to communicate with machines.

In this alternate reality he even stops United flight 175 from crashing into into the WTC south tower on 9/11 and is later elected mayor of New York City because of this.

The story expertly bounces back and forth within its time line, so the present day mayoral politics are weighted with older events before and after his transformation into "The Great Machine".

The realism of it reminds me of Watchmen quite a bit actually. The plots are great, the artwork is great, and it is highly addictive. I just found out that volume 7 is out, so I have to run and get that tomorrow.

There's also a first volume of a deluxe edition out too, that compiles the first 11 issues in one large book.

[baldassbat]

So many great suggestions. I've looked up all of them and now I think I'm addicted to graphic novels without actually seeing them.

All the Batman suggestions sound great. He's always seemed like a character with a lot of missing potential. I know there are some stroylines that really got into the gritty darkness of his character and his relationship to the Joker. I'll probably invest in some of those stories for myself.

Sin City looked intriguing but there's so much of it. Even if I found a good place to start I'd turn into a completist and want all of them eventually.

I've added From Hell, Watching the Watchmen and Ex Machina to my gift list for her on Amazon. I'll probe her discreetly (that sounds so dirty talking about my wife) as to what parts of Watchmen she liked best. That should help me decide. Knowing her, I think Ex Machina will be the ultimate choice. But that could be me projecting my own interest.

Also, I noticed the Y The Last Man was only mentione din connection to the writer of Ex Machina but it was not recommended independently. Anyone read this one? Thoughts?

[hmxhenry]

Batman: Dark Knight Returns is epic, and one of the few comics I'd put on the same level as Watchmen. When they both hit in 1986 they changed the face of comics as we see them today. Frank Miller once said that Dark Knight was the death of the super hero comic, and that Watchmen was the autopsy. DKR is also a brilliant standalone effort, so you won't be lost if you're not familiar with the Batman mythos. It's very accessible.

Kingdom Come draws VERY heavily from Watchmen, but it relies very very heavily on DC history. Casual comic fans can still enjoy it, especially for Alex Ross's beautiful paintings, but it's definitely geared more towards DC historians.

While Watchmen is Alan Moore's high water mark, you should certainly look into the other works of his that people mentioned. Batman: The Killing Joke is one of the best examinations of a pop culture icon. V For Vendetta is very political and very bleak, but in a very 1980's British kind of way. From Hell reads like a text book on Jack The Ripper, but with minimal illustration. Interesting, but kind of hard to read. Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing is also very interesting super hero horror stuff.

You could do a whole lot worse than getting sucked into purchasing all the Sin City trades. The Long Goodbye and That Yellow Bastard are the high points, and the nice part is that you can read them in any order that you'd like since they're all stand alone stories.

Y The Last Man is really, really good stuff. It's also especially popular with women readers, which is certainly a rarity with most comics. If you love the dystopia of Watchmen, you'll like Y. It follows the last man on Earth as he struggles for five years to make his way in a world that has all but collapsed with the death of the rest of the make population. Lots of sci fi, lots of politics and gender relations, but a nice dose of action and humor as well.

Ex Machina is a great title, but it operates on a much much smaller level than Watchmen. I'd equate it to West Wing for super heroes. Bang up dialog, and I do love Tony Harris' pencils, but it's certainly an unconventional superhero comic in that there's no villains or fights and problems are usually solved with diplomacy and arcane bits of political trivia.

Look at anything that Vertigo is putting out right now. Hell, look at anything Vertigo has ever published. DMZ is post apocalyptic stuff set in a war torn Manhattan. Preacher is a a religious / horror / love story about a preacher possessed by the Word Of God and his hunt for the Lord, along with his hitman girlfriend and best friend who happens to be hard drinking Irish vampire. Sandman is an epic fairy tale that draws from Shakespeare as much as it does traditional super heroics. Hit up Vertigo's site and I'm sure you'll find something that strikes your fancy.