Chicago Tribune has a list up of the ten best graphic novels for Halloween.Sans covers and editorial blurbs, here's their list:
1. Batman: The Long Hallow
2. Sandman: Master of Dreams
3. From Hell
4. The Books of Magic
5. Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing
6. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
7. Hellblazer
8. Marvel Zombies
9. 30 Days of Night
10. Hellboy: Seed of Destruction
It's not a bad list. I like that it is geared towards easy-to-find, mainstream stuff as it means that curious Tribune reader who isn't already into comics should have no trouble finding copies. A list of popular and widely known titles may better serve the role of introducing newer readers to the medium than a more esoteric list.
That said, if one didn't have the goal of bringing in new converts, but of preaching to the choir, what would you recommend?
Here's some October-friendly comics that I think horror fans might find interesting. It isn't a "best of" so much as a "check these mammer-jammers out of." In no particular order:
1. The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye (Kirkman/Moore)
2. House (Simmons)
3. Recess Pieces (Fingerman)
4. Essentials: Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 1 (Conway, Goodwin, Fox, Wolfman, Colan, Palmer, Kane)
5. The Wicked West (Livingston, Tinnell)
6. Cat-Eyed Boy, Vol. 1 (Umezu)
7. Monster Zoo (TenNapel)
8. Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities (Powell, Holtz)
9. Pigeons from Hell (Hampton)
10. The Marquis: Danse Macabre (Davis)
Anybody else got any good Halloweeny titles to recommend?
4 comments:
Cool, some comics to look for. I've pretty much stuck with my regular rotation of about 3 titles for a while now and I've only read one book from each list.
I'll concur that Tomb of Dracula was a good read and especially for Gil Kane's artwork, which suits the subject matter perfectly. And being reprinted in black and white is just icing on the cake. It's also great to see the original Blade character.
From the Tribune list, I'm not too crazy about 30 Days of Night. To put it bluntly, I find Steve Niles' writing pretty horrible. I actually picked up a later instalment for the art by Bill Sienkiewiez but found the storytelling even sloppier.
Screamin' Spacey,
Though we used to disagree on Niles, I'm beginning to comes around to your way of thinking. I suspect that 30 Days of night will always have a spot on best-of-horror lists if only for its historical importance in helping rejuvenate horror comics. But it isn't aging well.
How about anything by Richard Sala? Peculia is a surreal damsel in distress while "The Chuckling Whatsit" is a complex mystery filled with terrible characters.
Shon,
An excellent addition to any list. I really should have added some Sala and Burns' Black Hole before adding stuff like the Powell and Holtz book.
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