Welcome to Forbidden Planet International Graphic Novels
Hello and a warm welcome to the Forbidden Planet International Graphic Novels website. Here we will endeavour to bring you as wide a variety of graphic novels as possible, from the classic to the newst writers, from the bestsellers to the more unusual independents.
We also want this site to reflect the opinions of our readers and so we present you with the first batch of Top Ten Graphic Novels as picked by some of our staff, friends and by some comic-loving authors. We will be adding more to this feature as we go along, so please do check back regularly. We would also welcome your own top tens or reviews of individual titles, so please do send them in.
Gary Seawards TOP 10 Graphic Novels of ALL TIME EVER
Why did I pick the books on this list? Because all of these make me think. They challenge expectations, exploring and expanding on visual and literary traditions while showing us life from new angles.
Juliet E McKenna is the highly successful author of numerous popular fantasy novels, including the Tales of Einarinn series and the Aldabreshin Compass series (the next installment, the Western Shore, is due in September 2005).
I could populate this entire list with Alan Moore works but shall confine myself to just two. League, in my view, outdoes From Hell and even Watchmen for breadth of imagination, creative audacity and sheer storytelling verve (I point you, as an example, to the scene in volume 2 where Mr Hyde takes his revenge on the Invisible Man).
Plus, it has a witty streak a mile wide, and the exuberant, intense styling of artist Kevin O'Neill matches the mood and subject matter perfectly. The movie might have been one of the worst ever made, but the comic is simply superlative, perhaps one of the best ever made.
This other piece of "late" Moore shows the Sage of Northampton at his most mind-bendingly brilliant. Not content with just telling the tale of a girl who finds out she is the latest incarnation of a mythic-archetype superheroine, Moore spins this premise into a study of magick and the kabbalah which manages to sustain itself almost without narrative, relying instead on the transcendent wonderfulness of its ideas and execution (the double-page spread based on a Möbius strip springs to mind). Incandescent artwork from J.H. Williams conveys every square inch of Moore's massive vision. Never has a spiritual journey looked so ravishingly beautiful.
Thirty years on, Howard the Duck still makes me laugh and the political points it scores seem no less valid today. It's quite remarkable to think that Marvel published the title at all: a non-superheroic satire centred around a talking, cigar-chomping, misanthropic duck.
There must have been something weird in the Bullpen coffee back then. Writer Steve Gerber and artist Gene Colan have huge fun all the way, and there's even an issue (#16) which self-referentially makes a virtue of the fact that Gerber missed a deadline and had to scratch up a script out of nothing. He gets away with it, too.
Bone is in many ways traditional fantasy. It has all the staples: a magical kingdom, an imperilling evil, an orphaned princess who does not know the truth of her origins, and even dragons. But the three central characters, the Bone cousins, are weird, cartoony, Schmoo-like creatures, visually at odds with the naturalistically depicted world around them - a conceit that could only be pulled off in comics - and are rounded, conflicted individuals who manage to become heroes almost in spite of themselves. Writer/artist Jeff Smith has composed a 1,000-page epic which succeeds in breathing new life into old tropes.
Grant Morrison, over the years, has produced his fair share of classics: Doom Patrol, Animal Man, The Invisibles. He has also produced his fair share of overrated disappointments: Arkham Asylum, The Filth. With We3, he's taken his writing skills to new heights.
An apparently simple tale of a trio of surgically-enhanced super-weapon animals - think The Incredible Journey meets Universal Soldier - this three-issue miniseries packs in more action, suspense, tragedy, pathos and inventiveness into its short run than the majority of comics do in a year. Art by the peerless Frank Quitely, also at the top of his game, is a distinct bonus.
The Authority reinvigorated that old comics standby, the superhero team. Warren Ellis's opening year-long stint proved that not only was there life in the old concept yet, but that Ellis himself was at last, belatedly fulfilling his creative potential. As a group, his Authority have well-defined characters, limitless powers, and a whole heap of attitude.
They kick ass and do not take prisoners. Mark Millar successfully picked up where Ellis left off, his work undermined when Frank Quitely jumped ship and a series of long hiatuses and dodgy fill-ins ensued. None of which, however, can detract from the relentless, iconoclastic joie de vivre of the first 18 issues or so.
Better known for the immense, kaleidoscopic Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo also wrote and drew Domu, a neat little black-and-white chiller set in a sprawling Tokyo apartment block. There are telekinetic kids here as in Akira, and veins-popping-out-on-forehead psychic battles, but to my mind Domu has the edge over Otomo's more famous work. It's tighter, more straightforward, scarier, less bombastic, focused, fiercer.
Frank Miller's first Daredevil run does not seem dated even today, and by the standards of 'eighties comics was in a class of its own. Big, intricate storylines were conveyed in a blocky, spacious, Manga-influenced art style (enhanced by Klaus Janson's scratchy inks) and Miller managed to define certain Marvel characters for all time, such as the Kingpin, Black Widow, and of course DD himself. He also introduced the world to Elektra, who, never mind how many times she's been killed, is just too cool a creation to stay dead.
Originally from Paradox Press, a DC imprint, came this series of oversized tomes, each of which explored a set theme in one- or two-page chunks, written by a single writer and illustrated by a plethora of artists. As factoid fun, the Big Books are hard to beat, and the range of subjects is nicely diverse, from freaks to thugs, scandal to death. Best of the bunch? Urban Legends, Conspiracies, and The Unexplained.
It seems a bit too easy to cite Hellboy as my tenth choice, but it's just too enjoyable a book not to. It's also profoundly innovative and unconventional, so much so that one can hardly credit the widespread success it has had.
The reason, I feel, is principally Mike Mignola's inimitable, highly stylised art, but also the character of Hellboy himself - gruff, plain-spoken, a roll-up-his-sleeves kind of hero who just happens to be a red-skinned, eight-foot-tall demon, the Beast of the Apocalypse no less. The stories are imbued with folkloric references and Gothic gloom, and there's a palpable air of malevolence offset with humour and cynicism. More than ten years since it started, Hellboy still manages to surprise and amuse at every turn.
James Lovegrove is a lifelong reader of comics and author of numerous excellent SF novels, including Untied Kingdom, the Foreigners and the recent Worldstorm. His next novel, Provender Gleed is due in September 2005.
The gravitas of Joe Sacco's Palestine mixed with the humour and appeal of a child's eye-view of a world that increasingly fails to make sense. This is a life-story narrative that grips like a vice and delivers the - in these times - vital message that theocracy as a mode of government is a really, no I mean really bad idea. Little Marjane is growing up in Iran before, during and after the Islamic revolution - and it ain't a lot of fun.
There is no other like it. Along with Alan Moore's Watchmen, Dark Knight ushered in a whole new era in the way superheroes were portrayed. A man who's seen his parents murdered in front of his eyes as a young child and now dresses up as a giant bat to commit acts of brutal retributive violence by night - yeah, seems like an eminently balanced member of society...naht!!!!!! An early showing of the noir power that Miller would later mine in his brutal Sin City series.
With superb characterisation and a wry but gripping storyline, Alan Moore takes us on a casually encyclopaedic reference tour of both nineteenth century pulp literature and the cultural milieu of turn of the century imperial Britain.
The whole thing offers wide-ranging subliminal social comment and a cunning critique of current trends in cultural imperialism. The British are, quite simply, Best, and it is their manifest destiny to rule the globe. Sound vaguely familiar? With painstakingly detailed and beautiful artwork by Kevin O'Neill, this is outstanding work. Volume 2 follows on with great gusto, but somehow never quite attains the same elegant power.
Mike Carey's Lucifer series picks up on characters and assumptions laid out by Neil Gaiman in the Sandman, but never succumbs to the same languid neoVictorian/teen Goth flounce. This, the second collection in the series, is probably the strongest. It features a cast of thousands, landscapes from Hell to Heaven and everything in between, as well as some superb sideline short stories, all of which are woven with masterful skill back into the main narrative.
Once again, outstanding work from Carey with artists Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly and the weirdly disturbing Dean Ormston. This collection is the fourth in the series and builds to a beautifully orchestrated climactic battle and aftermath, while casually handling themes such as belief and worship, power and responsibility, retribution and debt. The quality of the series actually went rapidly downhill after this, which makes the strength of this one even more bittersweet. While all four collections up to this point are well worth owning, the following two aren't (though you might want to read them just to polish off a few loose ends).
Opus the orphaned penguin, Steve Dallas the sleazeball lawyer turned heavy metal band ("Deathtongue") manager and a whole slew of other middle American eighties misfits populate the wickedly sharp satirical landscape of this collection. Dealing with themes as disparate as the War on Drugs, Zygorthian warships from outer space (you'll see) and Mary Kay cosmetics, the book features a stack of brilliant short strip ideas as well as several long running stories including a surprisingly emotional Gotterdammerung as Breathed finally winds up his strip and retires his characters once and for all.
Another Victorian outing for Moore, this time unrelieved by any of the wry humour or colour of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Quite brilliant and easily the equal of any prose novel, From Hell deals with the myth and history of Jack the Ripper with a reach that spans not only the events themselves but metaphysical implications reaching centuries into both the past and future.
Ghosts and visions, Masonic conspiracy and arcane architecture, painstaking historical research - Moore takes them all in his stride and makes it seem effortless. From Hell grades a little lower in my top ten than League Vol. 1, but only because it seems at times to lose itself too much in overly obsessive background detail and period trivia. This is clearly a man at work on a project of the heart.
Utterly, utterly unrestrained violence both verbal and actual define the start of this renowned variation on the theme raised by Tony Kutschner's 1993 play Angels in America - to wit, that God has quit his creation and can't be found. But in Ennis and Dillon's savage, black humoured rampage through archetypes from Jehovah to John Wayne and back, this is a man- (or God-) hunt, not a lament, and every character deployed is armed to the teeth.
Featuring a hard drinking Irish vampire, a rogue preacher with a power greater than heaven in his voice and an indestructible undead gunman straight out of a Sergio Leone movie. Had a body count that made even me blink.
Here's Frank Miller again, this time unencumbered by any established character baggage, as he lays out the underbelly of American society in brutal black and white (and yellow). Similar themes to the original Sin City graphic novel, but more polish and a more coherent central character. Basin City's grizzled detective Hartigan has a heart condition and only a handful of hours left 'til he retires. Oh, and an eleven year old girl to save from a psychotic sex-crime kidnapper. The best of the Sin City series, it just doesn't come any more intense than this.
Sandman isn't really my taste - for all its extensive erudition and fascinating trivia, it's a bit too languid and teen-Goth oriented, and all too often breaks down into unrelated short stories in which the Sandman himself features as little more than a "now-a-word-from-our-sponsor" afterthought.
Season of Mists breaks this mould decisively - there's real narrative bite, and a story worthy of graphic novel length. Gaiman takes a fascinating and original central concept - what would happen if Lucifer got fed up with running Hell? - assembles a broad cast of finely drawn characters and then patiently works the story through to its varied and wide-ranging consequences. Achingly beautiful.
Richard Morgan exploded onto the scene with his debut novel Altered Carbon, which won a Philip K Dick award. Market Forces is on the shortlist for the 2005 Arthur C Clarke awards, while his current novel, Woken Furies has just been released. His first foray into comics writing, a Black Widow mini-series, was collected into graphic novel form to great acclaim in Spring of 2005.
I love graphic novels for the way they can out-perform big-budget movies with their ability to stage any scene, no matter how outrageous, because it's no more costly than the mundane scenes. I also love the outrageous sense of humor some of them display, and the sheer wealth of talent working from different traditions. To me, something like Bone, with its slapstick humor and sympathetic characters is worlds apart from something as intense as Moonshadow or as intense and loony as The Nikopol Trilogy, but they all share one thing: amazing imaginations and amazing visions.
Jeff VanderMeer is a much-lauded SF author and creator of the remarkable city of Ambergris, which even Michael Moorcock has praised. His wonderfully unusual and unique City of Saints and Madmen was published in March 2005 in the UK and was one of our featured Book Picks.
Now reprinted in an (almost) complete edition Gilbert Hernandez' colossal work stands as modern comics at their storytelling best. Not for Hernandez the experimentation that has many other artists lauded more for style over content. Here the story is the thing and what a grand story it is. Whilst it has the occasional false step mostly this is a truly mesmerizing work. Set in the little Mexican town of Palomar it covers the lives of both a massive cast of characters and the town itself.
The story hops back and forth through time and presents many facets of all the main characters Luba, Pipo, Guadelupe, Toco and many others. We see them love, often in a vividly carnal way, laugh, lose and die amongst other things. All the while the town becomes imbued with their legends, the actions of both living and dead in some small way changing their surroundings with each happening. Gilbert's line is cartoony rather than polished but little is wasted and each character has a look and feel which quickly presents them as individuals. A wonderful book filled with the laughter and melancholy that shapes lives. VERY highly recommended.
Alan Moore's most overtly political work isn't everyone's cup of tea but probably my personal favourite. It takes a scenario where Orwell's 1984 is realized on the streets of modern Britain. V is fighting back against the state threatening to deaden and crush its own people. A sprawling polemic aimed squarely at the Thatcher government in power when it was written, it also ultimately shines as a message of redemption and salvation. David Lloyd's art expertly portrays the claustrophobic nature of the story. A masterpiece.
Last published in English by Catalan Communications and sadly currently out of print this is one of the best ever hard bitten Noir comic stories. Volume 1 featured the wonderful art of comics genius Alex Toth and later volumes fell to Jordi Bernet who provided a consistently great piece of work.
Sánchez Abuls stories of a hitman and his adventures are often shocking and brutal and filled with sexual situations. Rumour has it that these volumes are due to be reprinted soon. Don't miss them this time round.
Watterson came, blew the daily and Sunday newspaper strip to smithereens, stayed 10 years and retired to the quiet life in Mexico. For those 10 years Calvin and Hobbes wasn't just the best newspaper strip it was probably the best comic of any type, anywhere.
Of course it was sentimental at times, even a little trite now and again but overall a work of towering genius. Even now you can't help laughing even tho' you've read the strips so often before. Totally indispensable. Soon to be reprinted in a huge collectors hardcover set.
It's a little hard to realize the impact that Peanuts has had on cartoons and to some extent on life in general. It was always there for nearly 50 years, a trip into the down-home philosophy of the small cast of Peanuts characters. From the eternal loser Charlie Brown through Lucy, Linus, Schroeder and of course Snoopy all of lives lessons were played out here, against the backdrop of the life of a bunch of little kids.
The Fantagraphics reprint series is giving everyone a chance to watch the strip grow year by year and follow the growth of the characters in beautiful hardcover volumes no real comics fan should be without. Scratch a modern cartoonist and you will find a little bit of Charles Schulz beneath the surface.
Before I worked selling comics I read them as a kid - and this was for me the pinnacle of Superhero comics when I was 8 - 10 years old, in many ways it still is. Re-reading these now I can see the naivety and occasional ridiculous nature of the storylines but who cares if Jack occasionally drew one too many faces that looked a little like each other, these were fantastic.
Kirby took the FF on a wild ride through their most glorious stories, introduced in these comics are The Inhumans, Galactus, The Silver Surfer, Black Panther and so many more. It spans galaxies, it produced some peoples favourite comic ever "This Man, This Monster" and Stan still managed to make them funny too. A rose tinted specs 10 out of 10.
The other half of the Love and Rockets brother double act Jaime's book Locas is even bigger than the Palomar volume. Jaime's stories are less focused than those of his brother but have many moments to wonder at. Essentially (with a few meanderings of into Sci-Fi storylines) this is the story of a group of friends growing up in a run down SoCal town.
Whilst the stories standout moment is the long "The Death of Speedy Ortiz" there is much to be charmed by in the characters of Maggie, Hopey, Penny and Terry even when the stories are slight and whimsical. What really recommends this book tho' is Jaime's wonderful artwork. A style laden with heavy blacks and searing whites which make him one of current comics best cartoonists.
Milo Manara is revered as one of Europe's master comic artists. His way with the female form especially is nothing short of wonderful. However, many of Manara's works lack a proper narrative script to hang their enchanting visuals on, but not here. This was the first partnership between Manara and the great Hugo Pratt (writer of the Corto Maltese books - which only just missed this list themselves) and the result is a masterpiece of concise visual storytelling.
The story is set amongst a group of settlers in Indian country in the early days of America. Both an interesting historical look at the tensions that abounded at the birth of a nation and a great story packed with action, passion and occasional horror this is quite simply nearly a perfect comic. Sadly long out of print - search high and low to find a copy. If you love comics - it's worth it. And someone, hurry up and reprint the thing.
A Collection of Krigstein's fantastic 50's work. You can tell pretty early on, as his artistic eye develops, that comics weren't just a way to put food on the table for Krigstein; they were an artform and he treated them that way. Even if the stories in this collection are often slight 8 page westerns, romances or crime tales each is lavished with beautiful art. His style mostly clean and modernist occasionally leans to the semi-abstract as in "In the Bag" or "War Horse" - but always seems to reflect a grasp of wider design elements.
It's impossible, for instance, not to see reflections of the wider design world in his work - like the modernist work of Ray and Charles Eames in "More blessed to Give". To fully appreciate the artist you need to buy both "B. Krigstein Comics" and the illustrated biography "B. Krigstein" which contains many of his most famous strips such as "Master Race". Both are lovely, lavishly printed, hardcover books and I can't see these ever being reprinted if and when they sell out, if you love comics art and want to know just how good it can be you owe it to yourself to own these. Absolutely fantastic.
The Kat loves the mouse, the Dog loves the Kat and the mouse simply throws bricks at everyone - does it mean he loves them also? Hard to describe, sometimes a little too obscure for its own good, this is a wonderful, often very funny romp through the surreal and the obtuse. Many will find it a little hard to get into - but for those who do, Krazy Kat will remain a treasure all their lives.
Whilst as much as 80 years old - many of these strips feel like they could have been written yesterday. Fantagraphics are reprinting all the strips in chronological order. The September volume starts to reprint the colour Sunday strips - if you want to dip in - there is no better place to start.
It was so hard to pick just 10 and many classics are left unplugged like Herge's TinTin, Ditko's Doctor Strange, McCay's Little Nemo, Wolfman and Colan's Dracula, Clowes Ghost World, Chaykin's American Flagg and many, many more, but keep watching as I dig up a few gems from time to time. Oh, and go read comics - they're worth it.
Kenny Penman is one of the founders of Forbidden Planet International and has been a comics reader and collector for 30 years now. Kenny will be writing an occasional column for the site called "Did you miss me" pointing out some of the (often obscure) gems that might have gone by you.
Regardless of the Thatcher-Reagan era and Cold War feel to it V continues to be relevant in today's changing, post 9-11 world, despite its 'future' setting (the late 90s) now being in our past. Like Orwell's 1984 or More's Utopia, each generation can re-interpret it in their own way - one of the hallmarks of fine literature in any genre.
An incredible eight-year voyage through worlds past and present, waking and dreamed. Mythic archetypes mixed with layer upon layer of references to world folklore, myth and literature. Sad, funny, touching, horrific, romantic and sometimes absurd. I re-read each volume of this ground-breaking series regularly and always find something new each time; it's a magnificent world that I can't leave completely and wouldn't want to.
The setting is vague but clearly influenced by Weimar-era decadence in Berlin of the 1920s. Stunning artwork draws on that period, using Otto Dix and Picasso-influenced imagery to express Jekyll's desires which he transfers into the monstrous Hyde.
Unlike most adaptations this still stays true to the internalised horror of Stevenson's original classic, while bringing a fresh perspective. One of the greatest horror tale of all time retold in glowing colour but still the stuff of mist-shrouded, nocturnal sweating nightmares. A tale so resonant that more than a hundred years later even those who have never read it commonly use the phrase 'Jekyll and Hyde' personality.
Reputedly the tale was partially inspired by Edinburgh character Deacon Brodie who was a respectable gentlemen, businessman and city worthy by day and gambler and criminal by night. To this day you can drink to this inspiration for Jeykll and Hyde in a pub which bears Brodie's name in Stevenson's home city of Edinburgh, only yards from the Castle, on the very misty streets RLS himself once trod on the way to wine-fuelled assignations.
This makes my top ten because it simply genius; it takes staples of general fiction and the superhero genre and imparts small tweaks to some aspects and brutal twists to others to leave us with a work which is still both a landmark and benchmark for those who followed.
Gaiman's writing and McKean's (who created each single, enchanting, magical cover for the Sandman series) wonderful mixed-media artwork combine in a beautifully sad tale. Utterly gorgeous, deeply moving, a quite unforgettable tale of art, life and mortality. It's the end of the world, but it isn't science fiction; it's a fictional end of the world mirroring the personal, individual mortality of the protagonist; it's the sad, haunting beauty of a requiem by Bach or Mozart; the bittersweet memories when you accidentally find a picture of a long-dead loved one.
I think most fans will have this on their list - it re-invented both the Dark Knight as a more gritty and realistic character and the graphic novel genre. Born in the Reagan-era 80s much of the book remains relevant to modern American (and Western) society.
Brooding, Gothic colour scheme, sarcastic wit, folkloric references, supernatural action and multiple homage-paying to Lovecraft, Hammer, EC Comics and more. Add in one of the most likeable characters who remains a blue-collar, tough guy despite being a huge, red demon, while supernatural hell breaks loose around him and you have one of the best comics' characters in years.
Ellis has emerged as one of the most versatile writers around, but Transmet was his first series which seriously flicked my switch, addressing current societal and political issues through a darkly humorous setting and characters. Disrespectful and proud of it, its like Hunter S Thompson and John Pilger had a radioactive mutant baby.
Like Maus this is a graphic novel even the literati take seriously; many referred to as comic book journalism or reportage rather than a graphic novel. Any title which commanded an introduction by the late Edward Said, one of the most intelligent and erudite figures of the last century has got to be damned interesting.
Real life and the little fantasies which help us get through it; romance and friendship mixed with petty jealousy and the other little things that make up life, served with charm and humour. BOP also has a very special place in the heart of comics fans who are also booksellers and will no doubt recognise themselves!
It is amazingly hard to select just ten titles and I fudged a little by making Hellboy and Sandman one choice - in my defence I would otherwise have filled the list with individual volumes of each! Ask me on any other day and my list would alter a little and with every top ten list we're sent here I see yet another amazing book and think 'how could I miss that from my list?'
Joe Gordon is a life-long readers of comics, books and graphic novels. He works on books and graphic novels online for Forbidden Planet International, the FPI Magazine and the FPI blog as well as contributing to the Alien Online and organizing an SF book group.
