Awesome Comic Books

For those that don’t know, when I’m not at art shows, I work at a comic book factory. I read about 8 comic books a day. Rusty math skills reveal that this means I’ve read about 2000 comic books last year. Maybe that makes me an expert, or a total nerd, or both. But I’ve seen a lot of comics, good and bad, awesome and terrible.

In my time at the comic book factory, I’ve read a few comics that are really pretty great, which you should check out. These books are not necessarily new, or super-cutting edge, they are just great: these comics are doing it right.

Awesome Comic #1: Infinite Vacation

In this wacky series, artist Christian Ward takes us on a psychedelic trip through a world where alternate identities of a person can be easily accessed. The main character, Mark, can find out who he would have been if he had gotten the one who got away, or what he’d look like had eaten too many cheeseburgers. You get the idea. The linework and parceled color fields make this comic a true stunner. The art is so good that the story is just icing on top of icing. Careful though, the third issue in this series features a villain more terrifying than you can imagine: an alternate version of the main character who is bent on destroying the other versions in the most disgusting ways possible.

Awesome Comic #2: Loose Ends

This comic is a paragon of color use, and color-as-depth mechanics. I blame artist Chris Brunner, mostly for being too good at what he’s doing. The brusque story keeps apace with the abrupt but satisfying color fields. It’s a tough story, with tough characters. The rest, you have to read!

Awesome Comic #3: The Walking Dead

Of course this comic is good. But not just because of the zombie bashing. Writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard handle time and space as elegantly as any silent-film director. I’ve never seen an artist take so much time with story sequencing: it might take three panels for a character to look up, and then down, and then to the side. Each expression is key.  

The zombies become doubly plaguelike: not only do they eat people, but they interfere with character development. Every time a couple of characters are off in the woods, having an important conversation, a zombie will attack on the next page, and we never learn what might have been said. Curse you zombies!

Awesome Comic #4: L’il Depressed Boy

This rather mute, chalky-colored series follows the adventures (or non-adventures) of a depressed young protagonist. The main character resembles a prozac-deprived Little Big Planet doll, and unlike the sugary videogame characters, he goes about, empty eyed, with little hope. He rides busses in total silence, eats chips alone on his couch, and flubs conversations with the opposite sex, who are not sack dolls, but full-fledged human beauties. I keep hoping the L’il Depressed Boy turns into a real boy by the end of the series. His doll form does allow a reader to identify with him more closely, however. Like Art Speigelman says about empty-eyed characters, the reader fills in those Orphan-Annie eyes with their own.

Awesome Comic #5: Gunnerkrigg Court

This rollicking webcomic, produced by British artist Tom Siddell, started as just that, an online enterprise. It has since moved to print form, adopted by the much-lauded publisher, Archaia. This comic has it’s own mythology, intensely shrewd forshadowing, and elegant character design: one gets the sense that Siddell is not a fan of JK Rowling but a version of the author from another universe, just as learned, just as mythic, and just as kind to his lovely creations.  This series might seem a bit too cute for some tastes, but if you look at it enough, you will see true illustrative mastery.

More awesome comics to come! Stay tuned. If you haven't read comics in a while, you should start with these titles!