I’ve never been a big comic book fan. Haven’t been able to get into anything really. But Manga? Man. I’ve read a lot of manga. Here’s what I want to do today. I want everyone to recommend their favourite manga/comic book. I’m looking for something to read! Help me out!
My recommendation?
Man, it’s tough. When people ask me to recommend one single manga I usually go with Naoki Urusawa’s Pluto: a noir-style reimagining of Astro Boy. That plays to people’s nostalgia whilst also being an astoundingly well-written mystery manga.
But depending on the tastes of the person I might also recommend Vagabond, which has the best art of any manga ever written/drawn. That makes sense since it’s by Takehiko Inoue, who might be the best manga artist who ever lived.
Basically, any manga by those two is worth your time: Slam Dunk, REAL, Vagabond, Pluto, Monster, 20th Century Boys.
What are your recommendations?
Comments
76 responses to “Off Topic: Recommend A Comic Book/Manga”
Slam Dunk is my favourite hands down.
Loved the first 13 volumes of GTO but it went downhill after that.
Death Note was cool too.
Criminal – Ed Brubaker
Saga – brian k vaughn
Promethea – Alan Moore
Just one? Damn, I should read properly.
Promethea, easily Alan Moore’s best Comic book, also some damn fine art from Jimmy Williams III.
I’ll check Promethea out, The Ballad of Halo Jones was one of my absolute faves.
I’ve yet to read it. Looks good.
Word of warning Promethea has been labelled “preachy” by many, so if you dont like philosophical ramblings on the meaning of life then read some Bendis. 🙂
Nice. I just asked my wonderful comic store to grab me vol 1 of Saga last week.
Samurai Executioner
The Dark Knight Returns
I can only recommend western comics. 3 come to mind.
Saga – bloody amazing, well worth a read. Sci-fi love story adventure epic. My current favourite
Fables – really interesting take on fairy tale characters who’ve been ousted from their kingdom and are living in the ‘real world’. Wolf Among Us is based on this
Astonishing X-Men Vol 1 & 2 – Don’t need any prior knowledge of X-men continuity to get into this. First comic written by Joss Whedon, great story line, humorous and amazing art. Any 90’s animated series fan needs to read this. Don’t bother with the later volumes.
Saga is great.
Fables is great until about comic 90, i think the author run out of idea’s so it gets kinda crap when he introduces the “literals”
Invincible is a good read, it does a strange thing, its an ‘original’ works by the author of walking dead. but it compresses all of the era’s and changes to the way super heroes have evolved over the last 50 odd years and does it in one story over 5 years… its very cool.
All of these plus Y The Last Man.
Invincible is great. Often overlooked as ‘yet another superhero comic’ it is a clichéd setting with anything but clichéd story lines.
Archie.
Now the more important question: Betty or Veronica?
Por que no los dos?
One-Punch Man. It is an amazing manga.
Came here to see if anyone had put this up yet.
One-Punch Man is just fantastic. Hilarious manga. 100% recommend.
If you like One-Punch Man, I’d also recommend checking out the original version(assuming you’re reading the version with more professional art) as well as Mob Psycho 100, written by the same author. Chapters for the original One-Punch Man are still being released and are quite far ahead of the remake, and Mob Psycho 100 is just as hilarious as One-Punch Man, definitely worth a read.
On the shelf beside me… a lot of Usagi Yojimbo, the Sam & Max collection, Calvin and Hobbes. I’m happy to recommend them all.
And The Phantom. He was my superhero of choice as a kid, and deserves more love.
Sex Criminals.
I always feel embarrased reading this (I’m so bashful!) but it is very funny
What are you, 5? It’s just sex. What’s so bad about your old man talking about seeeex. I had seeeex.
Haven’t read manga in quite a while, so my recommendations would likely be cliche by now… but Hagaren, Ruroken and Vagabond (although I prefer Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel, Musashi, to the manga interpretation) are among my favourites.
For something more light hearted, Ranma 1/2 is my cliche suggestion that everyone’s already read; Genshiken is my go to suggestion that (afaik) fewer people have already read.
Speaking of Eiji Yoshikawa, you should read his autobiography if you haven’t already. It was translated by James Clavell (of Shogun fame) and is a really interesting life story. It also tells you a lot about modern Japan and why so many Japanese people really struggled to deal with the transition from isolated nation to global community member
I’d have to go with Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.
Superman goes into retirement after a new wave of heroes show that his ideals aren’t wanted anymore. It’s one of the best examples of Superman done right and the art is goddamned fantastic to boot.
Batman Eternal is finished in April and I find it to be a mighty fine read.
Agreed, so glad I got in on issue one. It’s been one heck of a ride.
Lone Wolf & Cub is fantastic, as were the 1970s Japanese films based on it.
Samurai Executioner is done by the same guys, Kojima and Koike, you should check it out.
That does look pretty good, I’ll definitely check it out.
lone wolf and cub are great books well worth a read
Blade of the Immortal.
…and Akira.
oh and also Siegfried (alex alice) is amazing but not not exactly manga.
Plawres Sanshiro!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plawres_Sanshiro
Old school japanese manga about a boy’s journey to become Plastic Model Wrestling champion.
Plastic model Wrestlers are basically small remote controlled robots made by their owners and entered in a “battle to the death”.
Grew up watching this when i was growing up in greece.
Anything written by Mitsuru Adachi is great!
Its mostly older stuff (first original manga was done in 1978) and the themes are mostly sport related, lots of humour.
I also liked Rurouni Kenshin (also known by the horrible American name Samurai X), Berserk, Hajime no Ippo, Mx0 to name a few others
Bring tissues if you’re reading an Adachi manga. Guy wrote great comedy and great tragedy
Sex Criminals, Saga, Girls, Alex + Ada, Sam & Max, Chew, SEX, Maximum Ride…
All of these are definitely worth your time.
Metroid 2002 manga (a good backstory for 1 of thee most iconic bounty hunters)
Madam snowblossom (the manga that inspired kill bill, with a samurai hunting down the people that killed her family whilst enacting justice & being an assassin, warning: contains yuri)
Pokemon adventures (a very good manga series that shows you a darker side of pokemon whilst showing little known details of the series)
Samurai x (a samurai manga that has 1 of thee most feared samurai of all time who has been struggling to keep his peace)
Ghost in the shell (a classic cyberpunk manga, warning: contains yuri)
Batman vs judge dread
a good crossover in which judge death teams up with 2 of thee most feared people in the dcverse: scarecrow and jokerBlack Cat.
I’ll have to disagree there, it started off good but went to the crap halfway through. Then the author just ends the series in the most stupid of ways.
Now he’s doing To Love-Ru, which IMO is a pretty stupid series (that’s raking the money in though…)
For someone who likes random whimsy: Axe Cop.
For someone who likes Adventure Time: Bravest Warriors (yes, there is also an AT series as well).
For someone who is an otaku: Genshiken.
For someone who likes sex and violence: Tenjho Tenge.
For someone who likes something light and innocent: + Anima.
For someone who likes the weird and twisted: Anything by Junko Mizuno.
For people who like Legend of Korra: Fullmetal Alchemist.
For someone who likes Twilight: Hellsing.
Good Lord, why would you recommend Hellsing to a Twilight fan?! You’d traumatize them.
…Ohhhhh.
Axe Cop! Genshiken! +Anima!
You sir win my internet for having these in the same post 🙂
The Ballad of Halo Jones, it is old, but should appeal to yr Scottish sensibilities, and it is one of the best reads I ever had, and I loved the Artstyle. Definitely find it in black and white.
I seriously recommend Atomic Robo on the western comic side, especially since they’re now posting all the previously published stuff online for free: http://www.atomic-robo.com/
On the Manga side, I found myself enjoying Drifters, by Kouta Hirano. A really kind of weird manga by the guy who created Hellsing, about various historical figures ending up in a medieval fantasy world after death, and the continuing war going on. And it has a Mitsubishi Zero vs a Dragon.
Ok so nobody has said Junji Ito yet, surprising and nobody has said Transmetropolitan either.
So for horror manga you can’t go past Junji Ito, in particular Uzumaki is amazing.
For comics my favourite has been the transmet series for a while, the art is awesome, the story is both intriguing and funny, it’s just really good all round.
Transmet FTW. Read it people!
Sex Criminals
Y: The Last Man
The Boys
Transmetroploitan
Sandman
Bomb Queen
Bitch Planet
Vagabond was good until he the 100 or so chapters of growing rice 😛
Lol. I know what you mean, but somehow I actually enjoyed that. This manga overall was so fucking good. But the waiting, ohhh the waiting :/
Ive read so far every issue of The Walking Dead comic book which I’ve found is much more entertaining then the TV series.
Also I’ve just started reading my first manga, Gangsta which is made by a relatively new artist and I’m loving it, already read through the first two volumes and ordered the next 4 from amazon last night.
I also really like The Walking Dead comic books (I’m not quite all the way up to date though), but I don’t mind the TV show. I feel the comic has advantages in that it can get away with being darker, and the pacing helps a lot. I find the TV show drags on a bit sometimes.
Watchmen
V for Vendetta
Dark Knight Returns
Fables
The Killing Joke
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson. I always read it during the US and AU federal elections.
It’s going to be a great year for bastards.
Anyone else read Y:the last man?? It’s about every man in the world dying suddenly except one guy and his monkey….it’s pretty good. Also kickass and the walking dead are enjoyable reads but I think everyone knows they be should reading them.
Deadly Class – Everyone should read this comic.
Saga
The Dark Knight Returns
Secret Avengers
Black Science
Green Arrow Year One
Uncanny Avengers
If you want a mature story with great themes, check out Y The Last Man
The final issue holds the dubious honour of being the only comic that has ever made me cry. It is hands down my favourite comic series of all time.
My favourite too. I felt so empty when it finished. 😛
I recommend The Lesser Evil, and its sequel Peaceful Tomorrows (which was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award).
I also have a soft spot for anything by Brian K Vaughan. Y The Last Man, Ex Machina and Saga in particular are all fantastic titles.
Ubel Blatt, has great sword fights!
Its not afraid of showing lots of blood, and a bit of ecchi content too.
Don’t forget to give the warning that it kinda similar to Berserk, both story-wise and RL-wise.
Epic fantasy story where the author seems to love taking extended breaks and would most likely grow too old before finishing the story. Don’t stop me from reading it though…..
Birthright is only a couple of issues in and it’s pretty cool.
If you want something different but awesome, all of the Blacksad series!
Got to shout a few of my favs here:
Watchmen
Y the Last Man
V for Vendetta
Hellboy
Walking Dead
Extraordinary League of Gentlemen
Transmetropolitan
Just make sure you’re enjoying these in print!
A bunch I’d suggest have already been mentioned, but Transformers More Than Meets The Eye & also Robots in Disguise haven’t been mentioned yet. MTMTE especially. So good.
Berserk
Hellboy.
Manga: Eternal Sabbath, Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Saikano, Cromatie High School, Paradise Kiss, Blade of the Immortal, Parasyte, Lament of the Lamb
Western comics: Transmetropolitan, Nextwave, Ultimate Spider-Man
If you love your 80’s movies Boom studio’s has a couple of quasi sequels running for Robocop, Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York. All are a decent read.
At the moment my love is for Annihilator –> https://www.comixology.com/Annihilator/comics-series/25430?ref=Y29taWMvdmlldy9kZXNrdG9wL2JyZWFkY3J1bWJz Brilliant Grant Morrison sci-fi real world horror thriller. Great art from Frzer Irving really brings it to life.
Manga wise I agree with Mark. Pluto is amazing. Akira is also the MUST read.
I’m really surprised no one’s mentioned Monster (another amazing Urasawa series) yet. The main character’s a surgeon who has to go on the run when a former patient whose life he saved turns out to be a serial killer – and frames the main character. So he sets out to uncover the truth and uncovers a lot of long-hidden secrets along the way. I’m not quite doing it justice, but needless to say, it’s classic Urasawa in both plot and style.
Oh, and Full Metal Alchemist, that’ll always be on my all-time favourites list.
Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer AKA Hoshi no Samidare – well rounded series, balancing comedy and serious just right.
To suggest a few manga title that aren’t shounen:
Kodocha – Sana’s Stage
Saikano: The Last Love Song on the Little Planet
Bunny Drop
Fruits Basket
Cardcaptor Sakura
Someday’s Dreamers
Alien 9
Also, anything by Natsumi Ando or Arina Tanemura.
In terms of shounen stuff, my tastes in shounen are fairly trashy, so be warned…
Ranma 1/2 (particularly the first half-dozen or so volumes)
Love Hina – most titles by Ken Akamatsu
Hellsing
Lunar Legend Tsukihime
Dance in the Vampire Bund
Rosario + Vampire
Oh My Goddess!
For Western stuff… Red Son. Can’t think of any others offhand.
WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN 😀
SEX CRIMINALS 😀
Graargh I love Urusawa but I also hate him and Pluto is precisely the manga that drove home the reality of the later. Urusawa is a consecrated storyteller and can make you get on the edge of your seat over anything. However, he’s way too enamoured of clever twists and he cannot help himself adding more and more. By the end of his stories, the narrative has twisted so much that the only resolution you get is that of the very few last twists, the older ones hastily and unsatisfactorily resolved mid-way through so he could move onto the newer, or worse, simply abandoned or waved away.
It’s harder to notice in longer-form manga like Monster or 20th Century Boys because manga that long tend to have arcs, time-skips and the evolution of themes is slow enough that you almost don’t realise that it’s happening. But Pluto? Pluto did all that in the course of less than 70 chapters. The twists were dizzying in their speed and the unresolved questions just heaped up visibly. By chapter 50 you already knew that most of the mysteries would remain unanswered, and yet, he was adding more.
Anyhow, a recommendation: Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (or Hoshi no Samidare). A seinen manga expertly draped with all the trappings of a classical shounen, its first chapter is almost parodying in how generic and trite it seems (also, the art takes a bit to get used to). And then, all of a sudden it switches gears, swerves to the left and all of a sudden you are in complete new and wonderful territory. If you like genre-disruptive stuff like Madoka, you’ll appreciate this.
Going on a limb, but I’m going to put forward the Marvel Now! Deadpool run.
The run has had some genuinely funny storylines so far, which is balanced out with actual character development and shows Wade doesn’t always just need to written to be ultra-violent and offensive (although there’s still plenty of that). Three arcs that I’ve loved so far:
-Issues #1-6 “In Wade we Trust”. Bumbling idiot resurrects all of the American Presidents and Wade’s bought in to kill them (“As we can’t have Captain America running around decapitating our Presidents!”).
-Issue #7 “Drinking Game” – It’s a standalone issue, framed as a “lost” issue of Deadpool set back during the classic Iron Man “Demon in a Bottle” era. The art style is lifted straight out of Marvel books from the 80s, but is an equally as funny story to boot. It could’ve been a terrible ‘what-if’ with fart jokes thrown in, however it ends up being a great read.
-Issues #15 > #19 “The Good, the Bad & the Ugly” – Wade’s Weapon X past comes back to bite him, so he ends up running around with Wolvy and Cap to sort shit out. It’s a SeriousPool title, which is a nice change of pace, although there’s still plenty of stupidity to go around.
In reply to @blahjedi above:
I’d also suggest the various Deadpool mini-series such as:
– Deadpool’s Art of War
– Night of the Living Deadpool
– Return of the Living Deadpool
– Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe
– Deadpool Killustrated
And so on…..
is it THAT obvious that I like Deadpool?
People have already put up lots of decent (and obvious) recommendations, so I’ve not incuded the same ones. Here are some others in no particular order.
Manga/Manwha (most of these also have anime adaptations):
– Gintama
– Boku no Hero Academia
– Girls of the Wilds
– Sket Dance
– Naruto/Bleach/One Piece (obvious really, but they’re still really very good)
– Attack on Titan (aka Shingeki no Kyojin)
– Addicted to Curry
– Wagatsuma-san wa Ore no Yome
– Fairy Tail
– The Breaker (and its sequel – The Breaker: New Waves)
– Karate Shoukoushi Kohinata Minoru
– Gamaran
– Dragons Rioting
– Bakuman (a REALLY good read if you want to get an insight into how manga is made. done by the same guys who created Death Note)
– Beelzebub
– History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi
– Kuroshitsuji (aka Black Butler)
– Soul Eater
Western Comics:
– Deadpool mini-series (any of them, there’s quite a few)
– Preacher (oldie but a goldie)
– Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (new series started in 2011, by IDW Publishing – slightly different with a mix of normal turtle whimsy and ninja badassery)
– King: The Phantom (a different mini-series that’s quite a decent read for Phantom fans)
So a decent list.
Just started reading Amala’s Blade, which is really good ^^