Best Media Tie-In Graphic Novels
Plus, previously unpublished extras and bonus materials make this mighty tome one that's required reading for Scottaholics everywhere!
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Bryan O'Malley's run pokes fun at the banalities of life while making you feel like a twenty something kid again."
"Same great story, except this time it's in glorious color."
"I am a huge fan of anamaguchi who did the most for the game for the ps3 and xbox360 and I scrambled around the web to find a code for this rare digital title..."
"This is a great start, yet you can notice the attempts at making this story flow, it starts out roughly introducing each character, I can honestly see where O'Malley is heading with a very straight forward narrative, and I'm glad it works."
"The art style, characters, dialogue... everything drew me right into the world of Scott Pilgrim."
"Fun goofy read, with fun dialogue and cool artwork."
"I found out about this series through the movie, as many people did."
"Arrived on time and in perfect condition."
Collects Darth Vader #1-6. He is known for his creator-owned comic Phonogram , created with artist Jamie McKelvie, published by Image Comics, and for numerous projects for Marvel Comics, such as Journey into Mystery and Uncanny X-Men.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It's a good story and the art is beautiful."
"Just not as strong as the main series."
"Great product at great price."
"Nicely done by the author."
"Delivered in great condition!"
"Fits somewhat within star wars canon."
"Very good art."
"My favorite character in the Star Wars franchise, Darth Vader does not disappoint!"
(Among other things, three major cast members―Schroeder, Lucy, and Linus―initially show up as infants and only "grow" into their final "mature" selves as the months go by. The book itself is beautifully packaged, the strips printed large and clear on high-quality paper and accompanied by an in-depth essay by David Michaelis, a 1987 interview with Schulz, an introduction by Garrison Keillor, and even an index of characters and subjects. From the start, Schulz had some of the ground rules in place: the ensemble cast whose faces appeared only in profile or three-quarter views, the sophisticated language from the mouths of babes and the absence of visible adults from their world. Even more odd, the strip's unique hilarity hasn't quite developed yet; most of the humor here is very mild and generally stems from the characters being little kids playing with each other and fooling around with grown-up roles. All the characters show hints of the personalities they'll grow into, and Schulz's clean, magisterially expressive line falls into position by the end of the strip's second year.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"People don't seem to know that the original comic strips looked pretty different from how we've come to know charlie brown and the gang. BOTTOM LINE: Charlie Brown and the gang were not always quite a wise in these first two years, but they're still spectacular."
"In addition to the first two years of the comic, there is some interesting supplemental material -- a biographical essay and an interview with Schulz, both of which help shed light on him and his amazing career."
"Before Charlie Brown developed into the lovable loser, and before Snoopy and Woodstock took over the strip, this collection of the first two years is an excellent compilation of PEANUTS."
"What's more, there is an excellent introduction by Garrison Keillor, a summary of Schulz's life by David Michaelis, who would go on to write the definitive Schulz biography, and a lengthy interview with the great cartoonist himself."
Best Science Fiction Graphic Novels
Collects Darth Vader #1-6. He is known for his creator-owned comic Phonogram , created with artist Jamie McKelvie, published by Image Comics, and for numerous projects for Marvel Comics, such as Journey into Mystery and Uncanny X-Men.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It's a good story and the art is beautiful."
"Great product at great price."
"Nicely done by the author."
"Delivered in great condition!"
"Fits somewhat within star wars canon."
"Very good art."
"My favorite character in the Star Wars franchise, Darth Vader does not disappoint!"
"If they don’t make this into a movie then they truly underestimate the power of the dark side this book is amazeballs."
Best Art Book Graphic Novels
30 step-by-step demonstrations showing how to draw faces and figures for a variety of ages and body types Inspirational galleries featuring 101 eyes, 50 ways to draw hands, 40 hairstyles, 12 common expressions, 30 classic poses and more! Since being selected for Entertainment Weekly 's "It List" in 1998, Crilley has published nearly twenty books across his many popular series and developed a massive internet following for his drawing demonstration videos earning him a spot as one of the top 25 Most Subscribed to Gurus on YouTube.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I've watched lots of Mark Crilley's tutorials, but there's something special about seeing the drawing printed on the page in front of me, there as a reference. The written instructions give tips about showing the gender, age and personality of the characters. There's information about inking drawings, laying out panels and adding speech bubbles and sound effects. Everything included in the book is great and it's absolutely packed with helpful information on every page, but I do think the author has even more to offer and I'd love it if this turned out to be the first part of a series. One final note: There's no nudity in this book; all figures are drawn either fully clothed or wearing simple underclothes."
"my daughter and niece draws these even before the book."
"I bought this for my son who loves to draw."
"I'm currently going to University for Art, so I already have a bit of training in drawing, but I don't think this would be very hard for absolute beginners to understand."
"I've been wanting to grab this book for ages, but the paper copy was cost-prohibitive for me at the time."
"but what i think of this book is that the art isn't very "eye-catching"."
"I saw other books with more pages, but this seems to be newer."
"In these 30 lessons that are described in the book, it's different!"
Best Mystery Graphic Novels
Presented for the first time with stark, stunning new coloring by Brian Bolland, BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE is Alan Moore's unforgettable meditation on the razor-thin line between sanity and insanity, heroism and villainy, comedy and tragedy. This is a no-holds-barred take on a truly insane criminal mind, masterfully written by British comics writer Alan Moore. The Killing Joke provoked fury among many readers who lamented the disposal of Barbara Gordon as a mere pawn to testosterone; yet Gordon reinvents herself later as superinfohacker Oracle, poster girl for disability empowerment (see Birds of Prey, LJ 7/08).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Playing the Arkham video games by Rocksteady made Batman really stand out."
"The book reveals how he was once sane but turned insane due to personal reasons (read the book)."
"Before reading The Killing Joke, I've ready V for Vendetta and Watchmen. Both are other graphic novels written by Alan Moore. I had no idea what to expect, but a friend of mine did call this (in his opinion) the greatest graphic novel of all time. They're all awesome, so of course I was gonna love Batman in this story too. This story isn't so much about Batman fighting bad guys as it is about proving the joker wrong. Batman (and Gordon) are pushed to their limits as they not only try to stop the joker, but prove him wrong. One thing I liked from another comic, Batman: Hush, was the use of other DC characters to progress the story, but I really liked how The Killing Joke told another amazing story with less character in less pages."
"But that's just me, and don't get me wrong, some of his pictures have an absolutely incredible amount of depth, you can just see layer after layer of the character. This book is an absolute gem, Bolland and Moore play off one another to absolute perfection, one of the best comics I've ever read."
"The events in this story felt much more real than other superhero comics/graphic novels that I have read in the past."
"Incidentally, the bonus story 'An innocent guy', was pretty good as far as it went, but seemed to lack a real resolution."
Best Romance Graphic Novels
Witness the beginning of a grave-crossed love and the prequel to the Erma web comic series, as we meet the parents of the ghostly little girl in their younger years and how they came to know one another.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"BABY ERMA IS SOOOOO CUTE!!!"
"I am a Beetlejuice-loving, October born, macabre immersing madman and this makes me come as close as is possible to 'squee' with my male homosapien vocal chords."
"I enjoyed the prequel to Erma webcomic in how her parents met."
"The Erma cartoons are fun, creepy, mysterious."
"It's a nice background to the Erma stories."
"I’ve been a fan of Erma for a while and was naturally curious about her parents ."
"This book shows how it all began and some insight to the upcoming stuff."
"Fantastic start to a wonderful girl and her creepy relatives."
Best Erotica Graphic Novels
Two women deal with modern themes of sex, relationships, and fetishism in this erotic romantic comedy.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As a 7-year member of the bdsm subculture and a submissive/masochist in my own 5-year power exchange relationship, I cannot praise Sunstone enough."
"There are subtle differences in the art from the online to book version and the extras are fantastic. If you havent read it, the art is AMAZING and detail is breathtaking, the characters are deep and truely human none of that cliche boxed character type crap you find in other stuff and the story is beautiful."
"The only flaw this series has it wasn't very long, and only three days have passed so far."
"I started reading Sunstone on Stjepan Sejic's side DeviantArt account (shiniez) and fell in absolute LOVE with the comic... so I decided to purchase the tidied-up, published version for myself. I love Stjepan's drawing and art style and am a HUGE fan of his work. He puts so much detail into his comics -- from the unique speech bubbles, the amazing plot, the wide-range of expressions he's able to convey in his characters, to the stunning full-page masterpieces. Sunstone is truly a creative spin on the erotic genre that is usually associated with one of the most horrid cliche BDSM books of all time (*cough* Fifty Shades of Grey *cough cough*). It's beautiful, gorgeous, sexy, alluring, jaw-dropping, elegant, intimate, aesthetic -- *insert more positive synonyms here*. So if you're looking for huge (unrealistic) boobs and a whole book full of raunchy nude women -- hit that back button, buddy. Sure, you could say that it's on the brink of falling into the risque category, but the scenes are perfectly balanced, straddling the line between being racy and intimate."
"I've been a fan since the early illustrations first started popping up online, and the official graphic novel does not disappoint."
Best Fantasy Graphic Novels
Plus, previously unpublished extras and bonus materials make this mighty tome one that's required reading for Scottaholics everywhere!
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Bryan O'Malley's run pokes fun at the banalities of life while making you feel like a twenty something kid again."
"Same great story, except this time it's in glorious color."
"I am a huge fan of anamaguchi who did the most for the game for the ps3 and xbox360 and I scrambled around the web to find a code for this rare digital title..."
"This is a great start, yet you can notice the attempts at making this story flow, it starts out roughly introducing each character, I can honestly see where O'Malley is heading with a very straight forward narrative, and I'm glad it works."
"The art style, characters, dialogue... everything drew me right into the world of Scott Pilgrim."
"Fun goofy read, with fun dialogue and cool artwork."
"I found out about this series through the movie, as many people did."
"Arrived on time and in perfect condition."
Best Superhero Graphic Novels
Collecting Incredible Hulk Vol. Monsters and heroes... and the Incredible Hulk!
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you loved the cartoon this is worth a read!"
"After I finished I got World War Hulk because I wanted more."
"One of the best HULK stories ever, like it's crazy (Hulk having sex LOL) but great read and really does a great job making the HUlk come alive as a character."
"This e-comic anthology is complete including minor related stories."
"Fun read - collection of the Planet Hulk comics...no wonder he was "ticked" when he made it back to Earth."
"Great story line."
"This is a must read for those who like dark stories."
"I may have built the hype up in my mind before reading Planet Hulk and I was extremely disappointed in the story as a whole."
Best Horror Graphic Novels
From his apocalyptic origin in World War II England to the modern-day case of the sole survivor of a doomed Arctic expedition, Hellboy must battle vampire frog creatures and worse in his debut miniseries. Ottakar's Outland Magazine Issue 31, Autumn 2004 : "Rather like an X'-File' investigating the 'X-files', the lantern chinned, wisecracking Hellboy is one of the most endearing heroes to have emerged in comics for a long time, coming across as fresh, inventive, and, above all, highly entertaining."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This includes the story on which the first Hellboy movie is based on along with two short stories and a gallery of arr."
"A really great read."
"The first volume was great, and I am looking forward to further reading."
"Holy crap this thing is huge!"
"This is probably one of my favorite comics ever, the writing and dialogue are both great, and the artwork is fantastic."
"Hopefully someone will combine the series or more soon so we can enjoy it."
"This is the way the Hellboy books should be read, the larger (then the original comic book size) print and vibrant colors will make your eyes bleed with joy."
"Great read."