Topic: Anyone got any comic/manga/manwha/graphic novel/etc. suggestions?

[TatteredSeraph]

Nope, Trinity Blood is its own thing.  The anime version's pretty good as well, it often ends up as a background thing to have on when working on cross stitch.  The general premise is post apocalyptic, far future Europe where the Vatican are the main seat of power for humanity, at war with the vampire nation in Constantinople.  Trouble brews all round with a terrorist group called Rozen Kreutz.  There's a huge amount of referencing real historical figures, such as Cardinal Caterina Sforza, the Medici family, the d'Este family, etc.  Catherina leads an elite squad of special Vatican agents called the AX - the Ministery of External Holy Affairs.  One of the leads is Father Abel Nightoad, a buffoon of a priest who's very gentle, and loves milk tea with 13 sugars. 

Hellsing is brilliant.  The original tv series started off following the manga, but diverged after it rewache dthe point where the manga was up to.  The relationship between Sir Integra Hellsing, and her vampire servant Alucard, top vampire extermination agent of the organization, is brilliant.  Only real downside is Crispin Freeman's increasingly Americanized accent in the Ultimate OVA, which follows the manga very faithfully.  Watch the original series, then read the manga, and Hellsing; the Dawn (the incomplete prequel), then watch the Ultimate OVA, which got the same cast back for the main characters. 

Going back to Death Vigil: the trade paperback is either just released, or out at the end of this month.  It's a series that needs more love.  I've been following it since before it was even released.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman, which I mentioned earlier, is a classic series, if you haven't read it before.   

If you're a fan of Avatar: The Legend of Aang and The Legend of Korra, I've heard very good things about the graphic novels which follow on.

@Shiroi: I've watched Black Butler, hated series 2, but the Book of Circus and Book of Murders follow on ova seires have been superb.  They follow the manga much more closely, and are a lot darker than the previous series. 

A final recommendation I've just thought of, after looking at my bookshelf again.  'I Kill Giants'.  It's a single-volume graphic novel which will make your heart melt.  It's one of the best comics I've ever read, it's beautiful, and one of the most emotional.

[Claimh Solais]

I know of a couple graphic novels that I personally liked. The first is Dark Wraith of Shannara by Terry brooks. It's the only novel of his series that is in graphic format, and graphic format alone as there is no novel adaption. The art was done by Edwin David and while it's anime, the style kinda stands out from the rest of the recent artistic genre.

As for comics I would recommend Adam Warren's take on the Dirty Pair. I only have the updated relaunch of Sim Hell, however it was a good read for me. Adam's art style of the time it was first printed I find more likable then the stuff he's doing now. Marval comics' Maximum Carnage is also another one I rate highly, though the art style does change somewhat through out the book. But I guess it's because they were going through different artists at the time it was being serialized.

If you like any stories of the Lovecraftian realm then you also might want to check out Neonomicon by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows. It's dark and gritty but in that H.P. Lovecraft way.

Dark Wraith of Shannara, that's like The Shannara Chronicles, right? I've been pretty interested in it since the new TV show they're coming out with looks pretty cool. Do I need any prior knowledge of the books or can I jump into this one and still find my way?

Dirty Pair looks pretty fun, I think I'll check it out.

Maximum Carnage is definitely one I'll look at. Spider-Man is my favorite Marvel hero, and I love the whole stories between him, Venom, and Carnage.

Neonomicon is likely something I'll look into. Love Alan Moore's work.

Berserk is a deep, magnificently illustrated manga, but it is very long running (34+ volumes) and looks likely to never be finished. For something more light Hellsing is a very fun take on the Dracula myth set in the year 1999. It's self-contained within 10 volumes which are very affordable now. But it is over-the-top violent and many would find its more extreme exploitation content offensive. Both series are printed in English by Dark Horse.

PS- "The Long Halloween" is a terrific must-read for any fan of Gothic noir Batman.

I really enjoy the Berserk anime and the movies they came out with recently. For being a manga that started in the late 80's, I'm actually surprised there are only 37 volumes out right now. Manga like Naruto started in 1997 and there are 70+ volumes of that. Is Berserk on a kind of hiatus right now, or is it just simply ongoing?

I've actually been planning on buying The Long Halloween. I love Batman stories in general, even the really campy '66 comic series.

If you like fighting/ action with weapons which is less techy and more swords try the manhwa Blade of Heaven. It's serious with humour, and I personally really like it.

I might look into Blade of Heaven. I like the artwork and the first book is only a cent on Amazon. lol

I've read a lot of Batman, but if I could recommend a Batman story that not a lot of people talk about, it would be The Cult...that one's pretty great. Very different. Just so much violent, creepy imagery...kind of feels out of place for a Batman story, but in a good way.

I just picked up my first Daredevil, it's called Father. Really liked it. I can see myself getting into Daredevil pretty easily if there are more like that one. Didn't quite know what to expect from it, so I was pleasantly surprised.

I also liked the original TMNT run...just started that a while ago, too.

The Cult is the one with Deacon Blackfire, right? Been a bit curious about him since his inclusion in Arkham Knight. Had no idea he even existed before that.

I think I wanna get into Daredevil, especially after watching the Netflix show. Frank Miller's done some work with the character so I can probably work things out from there.

Which one is the original TMNT run? The one by Kevin Eastman, or..? I have no idea where to start with that series but I've always wanted to read it.

The only manga series that I'm faithfully following right now is Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler).
Don't watch the anime except for season 1, but even so, the manga is still way better.

Trinity Blood is also nice.

I thought the anime for Black Butler was dreadfully dull. It just kinda seemed to drag on. I felt the same way about the manga, though I've only read the first volume. My sister says it picks up in the second volume. That true at all? I'd be willing to continue it if so since I really like the art.

I've never really liked Trinity Blood's manga. I felt the artwork portrayed most of the cast as way too feminine, and it sometimes seems like the characters enter random seductive poses for no reason at all (like Dietrich licking the peanut butter off his finger in the first volume). I've read the Rage Against the Moons: From the Empire novel, and quite liked it. The anime adaptation is pretty fun, too, though I've only watched the first three episodes.

Hellsing is brilliant.  The original tv series started off following the manga, but diverged after it rewache dthe point where the manga was up to.  The relationship between Sir Integra Hellsing, and her vampire servant Alucard, top vampire extermination agent of the organization, is brilliant.  Only real downside is Crispin Freeman's increasingly Americanized accent in the Ultimate OVA, which follows the manga very faithfully.  Watch the original series, then read the manga, and Hellsing; the Dawn (the incomplete prequel), then watch the Ultimate OVA, which got the same cast back for the main characters. 

Neil Gaiman's Sandman, which I mentioned earlier, is a classic series, if you haven't read it before.   

If you're a fan of Avatar: The Legend of Aang and The Legend of Korra, I've heard very good things about the graphic novels which follow on.

A final recommendation I've just thought of, after looking at my bookshelf again.  'I Kill Giants'.  It's a single-volume graphic novel which will make your heart melt.  It's one of the best comics I've ever read, it's beautiful, and one of the most emotional.

I've pretty much decided yes on Hellsing, since people recommend it to me a lot.

Sandman is one I've been meaning to pick up for the longest time. My girlfriend's got the first book, so I think I'll borrow it from her to check it out first.

As far as Avatar and Korra, I've never watched the latter series, and I've only watched a few scattered episode of the former when I was younger. I've heard a lot of good about those books, too, but man. They're pricey. The Avatar books are running around $40 per book at my local store.

As for I Kill Giants, it's definitely one I'll look into. I like the more emotional kinds of books -- like The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud. It's easily one of the best books I've ever read and it's got some pretty tear-jerking scenes in it, complete with amazing art.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! There's some pretty neat-looking stuff in here.

[Ratty]

I really enjoy the Berserk anime and the movies they came out with recently. For being a manga that started in the late 80's, I'm actually surprised there are only 37 volumes out right now. Manga like Naruto started in 1997 and there are 70+ volumes of that. Is Berserk on a kind of hiatus right now, or is it just simply ongoing?

I've actually been planning on buying The Long Halloween. I love Batman stories in general, even the really campy '66 comic series.

Well, it was steady releases for a while and then the author slowed down. Probably because of burnout, because he'd been doing it for so long. So now there can be massive chasms between updates. But another likely reason is the amount of detail in the art. When I say it's magnificently illustrated I mean it, it's also meticulously illustrated. It's been said that Miura will work on a single page for many hours, make one mistake and throw the whole thing away. Look up some random pages of the manga and you're likely to be impressed by the level of detail, which got more and more intense as the series wore on.

[TatteredSeraph]

If you like emotional sucker-punch stuff, then I Kill Giants will be right up your street.  It's powerful stuff.    You should have seen the daze that I was in as I finished it.  I then went and blubbed to my friend who bought it for me.

Avatar is one of those series which seems casual enough and unconnected for a casual viewer, but if you sit down and watch the whole thing, it really isn't.  The climax of Book 3 of Aang had my in tears.  Korra is a rather different beastie, with Book 3 in particular of that being heavy-hitting and *grim* for something supposedly a 'kids' cartoon.  There's one fight in particular which is a pure fridge horror moment that leaves you blinking and thinking 'Did that just happen?!'.  The full series is available online to watch.   I only got into Avatar two years ago now.


As a side note recommendation that's just come to mind as well.  If you're up for a recommendation for a book rather than comic/graphic novel, and like emotional stuff, my mate Pete Brunton's written a very good novel which he's currently releasing serialized online.  It's called 'The Stolen Child', and is the first book in his wip series 'Exiles'.  http://exilesthestolenchild.com/about-the-book/  It's beautifully written.  The link is to the introduction, but all of the currently released chapters are available in the menu in the top right hand corner, under the 'table of contents'.  It's meant to be 'YA', but some of the concepts in it are pretty dark.
(For ref, Pete's the friend who recommended I Kill Giants to me.)

[JR]

The Cult is the one with Deacon Blackfire, right? Been a bit curious about him since his inclusion in Arkham Knight. Had no idea he even existed before that.

I think I wanna get into Daredevil, especially after watching the Netflix show. Frank Miller's done some work with the character so I can probably work things out from there.

Which one is the original TMNT run? The one by Kevin Eastman, or..? I have no idea where to start with that series but I've always wanted to read it.

Yup, Deacon Blackfire was in The Cult. Kinda surprised he's in Arkham Knight...it's weird to me that they pulled a one-shot villain from 1984 or whenever, but he was a pretty good one in that story.

The original TMNT run is the Eastman/Laird one on their Mirage label. They have volumes called TMNT Ultimate Collection that were produced on big hardcovers. Really nice books. Kinda pricey (around $35 each new with 6 volumes total), but the background they give on the creation of the whole thing is pretty cool. Especially the concept behind Casey Jones...that was pretty funny.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Shiroi isn't Trinity Blood a sequel to another manga?

I know it is the comic version of a light novel series of the same name.

I thought the anime for Black Butler was dreadfully dull. It just kinda seemed to drag on. I felt the same way about the manga, though I've only read the first volume. My sister says it picks up in the second volume. That true at all? I'd be willing to continue it if so since I really like the art.

I've never really liked Trinity Blood's manga. I felt the artwork portrayed most of the cast as way too feminine, and it sometimes seems like the characters enter random seductive poses for no reason at all (like Dietrich licking the peanut butter off his finger in the first volume). I've read the Rage Against the Moons: From the Empire novel, and quite liked it. The anime adaptation is pretty fun, too, though I've only watched the first three episodes.

As I've said, don't watch the Black Butler anime. The manga is great and trust your sister.

Duh. It is a shoujo manga. Pretty is the base here. hahaha.
The Trinity Blood Novels are even more awesome than the mangas. They are darker and much more "graphic" in words. I just have a few novels though and I can't find the rest of the English translated versions.

When I go to Japan again, I might grab some Kurousa-p vocaloid music inspired mangas/novels.

[TatteredSeraph]

Some of the issue with the English translations of the light novels and manga for Trinity Blood Shiroi is that Tokyo Pop, who were publishing them, went bust.  Apparently, some of the later volumes of the manga have been publushed in Australia.... I think.  But acquiring them is a nigthmare.  I've just been reading online.

[zangetsu468]

@Shiroi All I know is I loved the anime until the last few episodes where there was all this history about the main characters that was not explained in the series. I ended up looking it up online to try and understand those last few episodes and was disappointed that it wasn't included in the story.

[TatteredSeraph]

You don't get a huge amount of info, even in the books, regarding Abel's background.  It's half of the mystery.  You get lots of little hints here and there.  One of my fave bits I'm glad was in the manga is the Carthage Iblis, which has a glorious scene not in the anime, say.  Esther's background is the least covered, sadly, in the anime.  Some of the problem is that the novelist passed away during the writing.

[X]

Dark Wraith of Shannara, that's like The Shannara Chronicles, right? I've been pretty interested in it since the new TV show they're coming out with looks pretty cool. Do I need any prior knowledge of the books or can I jump into this one and still find my way?

Yep, it is. This book was the first one I read and as far as I can tell I didn't really need a whole lot of background info to understand the story. You should be fine to pick in up for a read without any prior knowledge.

[Bloodreign]

I almost picked up the 12 re-released volumes of Sailor Moon, then I realized that it was over $130 before tax for all 12 volumes, so I walked out the anime shop saddened. I had just spent a little chunk of cash at the Play N Trade next door, found some good hard to find games there (mainly for Gameboy).

I can actually read the manga online, but it is the older one I believe, with the crappy US renames, so if I do read it, I'll have to replace names with the Japanese ones.

[X]

I almost picked up the 12 re-released volumes of Sailor Moon, then I realized that it was over $130 before tax for all 12 volumes, so I walked out the anime shop saddened.

I own all these, plus Sailor V manga's 1 & 2, and add on to that the Sailor Moon short stories 1 & 2.

[Shiroi Koumori]

But acquiring them is a nigthmare.  I've just been reading online.

yeah. Nothing beats reading from paper. And since I don't want to give myself a giant headache reading the original Japanese novels.... Pssst. Send me the links on PM please.

Some of the problem is that the novelist passed away during the writing.

True. I was one of the fans who mourned his passing. We will never know all of the missing details. Waaaah....

@Shiroi All I know is I loved the anime until the last few episodes where there was all this history about the main characters that was not explained in the series. I ended up looking it up online to try and understand those last few episodes and was disappointed that it wasn't included in the story.

The last few eps were just a way to wrap up a thing that wasn't meant to be wrapped up since the anime diverted from the manga at that point, I think.

Yep, it is. This book was the first one I read and as far as I can tell I didn't really need a whole lot of background info to understand the story. You should be fine to pick in up for a read without any prior knowledge.

Oh I remembered reading that graphic novel and enjoying it even though I never touched any Shannara book before or after.

[Bloodreign]

I own all these, plus Sailor V manga's 1 & 2, and add on to that the Sailor Moon short stories 1 & 2.

I do know the original anime was a big departure from the manga, and the reboot seems to speed along the first two arcs (season 3 is confirmed, just no set date yet) while removing a ton of the original humor found in the manga and the original anime. Just wished the damned things were a bit cheaper, that's a lot of dough to throw down on 12 manga books that would likely be read quite quickly by myself on nights after work. Seeing that does make me want to watch the entire original subbed anime again, plus the movies and reboot (which took months for the original, and a year for the reboot due to it being bi-weekly), but the anime missed Usagi's ultimate form, and the manga mentions Chaos, who was behind the entire line of villains. Season 5 though, not terrible, but easily the weakest season they had.

The new books seem to fix the rename issue I believe, perhaps you could confirm this for me?


Edit: I have since found the corrected manga (names, likely Neptune and Uranus lesbian relationship, which the original translated manga dared not touch back then, but should have), tons of reading ahead.

[X]

The new books seem to fix the rename issue I believe, perhaps you could confirm this for me?

They did. But at the same time there are also notable changes. I've read both the re-release and the online fan translations, and there are some differences in the scripts. I guess the changes aren't that big a deal, they're small when compared to other manga that have been ported to america. As for the anime, I saw the entirety of the series and while it is a big departure from the manga, at the same time it's not so big of a departure. I is a yearly series so obviously it's going to have a lot more then was ever shown in the manga. I've always found season 1 to be the best and that's mainly due to the rainbow crystal story arc that never appeared in the manga. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if the Dark Kingdom did get their hands on all 7 of Queen Beryl's strongest warriors (the ones harboring the seven crystals) and brought fourth that invincible Shadow Youma creature. Or as the american dub had put it 'the distructive Negaforce'.