How are these any better than Liefeld?

October 7, 2013 12:41 PM

I'm just getting back into comics now that I've moved near a friendly local shop, but I'm having trouble finding ongoing series that I would want to have in my subscription pull. I'm not against superheroes per se, but it seems like everything from the big 2 is just full of cocks and guns and gritty art direction. Could you help me find some current comics that fit my bill? Preferences below:

I am keeping up with Saga, of course. I also just bought the first Atomic Robo trade. I like both of those. I am planning on starting Adventure Time as well.

What I'm looking for:

- A genre story (superhero, scifi, fantasy)
- expansive story, minimal fighting
- surrealism is a bonus
- I like clean art direction, like neat lines and colors. Basically, if Moebius were alive and doing a monthly, I would get it.
- Currently (or soon to be) published and sold in store or on comixology.

posted by Think_Long to Media & Arts (31 answers total)

It doesn't fit the "minimal fighting" part, but I strongly urge you to give Mark Waid and Chris Samnee's Daredevil a try. It bucks 30 years of Daredevil history by not being grim-n-gritty noir, the art is fantastic (and in Samnee's usual clean, flattened style), and it's just great superhero-ing.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:45 PM on October 7, 2013 [3 favorites]

Bro, bro, bro, bro.... Hawkeye, bro.
posted by entropicamericana at 12:47 PM on October 7, 2013 [15 favorites]

Prophet is no joke amazing. Brandon Graham (Multiple Warheads, King City) and Simon Roy rebooted the pretty terrible Image book as a sprawling, heavy metal-esque space opera. There's a couple of different artists on it that trade off to keep a solid schedule, so 4 may come and go, but it's got your 3 in spades. Highest possible recommendation.
posted by Oktober at 12:51 PM on October 7, 2013 [4 favorites]

Prophet, despite being technically a direct Liefeld descendant - right down to keeping the original book's numbering - is emphatically not his actaul work, and it is absolutely astonishingly stupendously amazingly great. I cannot praise it enough.

Saga is definitely also right down your alley.

Fatale is not your preferred art style, but you may want to give it a gander anyway; horror-noir that involves an immortal (?) femme fatale with a mysterious link to unthinkable-horror cultists a la Lovecraft.
posted by Tomorrowful at 12:55 PM on October 7, 2013

East of West
posted by Dick Laurent is Dead at 1:04 PM on October 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

I would also recommend Prophet, it's wonderful. Although it has quite a rotating cast of artists, not all of whom I would describe as having a clean line.

Also just in case you never stumbled across it last time around, Carla Speed McNeil's "Finder" has expansive stories, clean art, minimal fighting (by comic standards) and is the best thing that has ever been a thing. And it's been reprinted in Omnibus by Dark Horse. I also think Dark Horse Presents has been serializing a story.

(also I love Hawkeye but it is like 100% fighting :) )
posted by selfnoise at 1:10 PM on October 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

Have you tried Fables?
posted by Etrigan at 1:13 PM on October 7, 2013

Bandette, currently exclusive on Comixology.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 1:16 PM on October 7, 2013

East of West may not be the best title out there, but it is easily me favorite. Ticks all your boxes although it may have slightly more fighting than you like but it's hard to tell 6 issues in.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:22 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Young Avengers is also quite good.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:23 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Captain Marvel, FF, Saga, and seconding Young Avengers and Hawkguy, bro.
posted by dipping_sauce at 1:40 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

2nding Hawkeye, buy the TPB (and Saga of course)
posted by blue_beetle at 1:44 PM on October 7, 2013

No cocks and guns but you're enjoying Saga? *cough*

I'm liking Ultimate Spider Man with not-Peter Miles Morales as the webswinger.

Also Hawkeye (you expected something else here?) and I disagree that it's 100% fighting by any means. But maybe I got the comics out of order.

I love Powers but it might be a pretty steep onboard curve (or less appealing if you weren't there from go; I have no idea.) Some violence but pretty minimal in service to the story.

Will a noir genre qualify? Fatale, if so.
posted by phearlez at 1:50 PM on October 7, 2013

I'd have said that The Unwritten would be a good fit but it wraps up this month. On the other hand, it relaunches in January with a new #1 so it might be worth keeping an eye out for in the future.

Also new issues of Astro City are being published so it is a good time to be alive.
posted by MUD at 2:05 PM on October 7, 2013

I'm less of a fan of Hawkeye than others here. It's OK, but kind of muddled, in my opinion. I do have two TPBs, though, for what it's worth. You might want to read the first TPB rather than buying everything at once.

I am enjoying short series more than ongoing series these days. Maybe because you can buy the whole thing in TPB format and just read it. King City by Brandon Graham has problems but is pretty solid. Macho posturing (and some cocks) but not a lot of out and out violence, and he definitely has a Moebius-via-Vaughn-Bodē vibe to his art. I am amused by Paul Grist's Jack Staff, although he seems to have given it up for now. Moore's Promethea might be up your alley.

There is also a lot of interesting YA comics coming out. Kazu Kubuishi's Amulet is up to 4 or 5 volumes, and it's a rather charming coming-of-age story with kids from the real world getting carted off to a fantasy land. I just read Over the Wall by Peter Wartman is a very cleanly-drawn comic with minimal violence.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:05 PM on October 7, 2013

It's no longer an ongoing series, but Jeff Smith's RASL just came out in a full-color hardcover.

MIND MGMT, maybe? I have friends with similar taste who like it.

Paul Pope's Battling Boy is (finally) out this week. That's just a stand-alone (well, more or less) graphic novel and "all-ages" but it's Paul Pope and it's awesome.
posted by darksong at 3:21 PM on October 7, 2013

This is easy. Morning Glories and Manhattan Projects. With Saga, they are the three best comics on the stands and three of the best comics in years. They fit your criteria to a tee. Manhattan Projects is a little gritty but it makes up for it with surrealism, just like Saga. They might be impenetrably difficult to jump into in the middle, so pick up the trades from the beginning on Comixology.

In terms of Big Two comics, Daredevil, Hawkeye, and Wonder Woman are good.
posted by painquale at 4:34 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: No cocks and guns but you're enjoying Saga? *cough*

ha ha, yeah. Just to clarify - by 'cocks and guns' I don't really mean it literally. I'm just trying to avoid a lot of the books that seem hyper-masculine and obsessed with badassery, judging by their covers.

Thanks for the suggestions, all.
posted by Think_Long at 4:49 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Saucer Country - X-Files meets West Wing.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:50 PM on October 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

Nthing Daredevil, Hawkeye, FF, and Prophet.
Adding any of the Hellboy-verse mini's, they all have a certain baseline quality of craft, plot, design, and fun.

Unfortunately the artists whose work most closely resemble Moebius:

Frank Quitely (Jupiter's Legacy - guaranteed to have cocks/guns/guncocks/cockguns and NOT in a cool Cronenberg style homage)
Geoff Darrow (Shaolin Cowboy - a bit of the old ultra-violence)
Chris Burnham (just finished a great run on Batman Inc, but hasn't solicited any interiors yet)
Juan Jose Ryp (Clone - I must confess I haven't read anything about this yet)

are doing guns and/or cock books. Or at least books that are tailing towards that end of the spectrum. Don't get me wrong, I love these guys and will continue to support their work.

Although Shaolin Cowboy may be enough a genre-departure for you to forgive it it's excesses. Give it a flip through, the first issue of a new mini-series from Dark Horse comes out this week. Better yet, take a look at this, it'll sway you one way or another.
posted by lilnemo at 5:13 PM on October 7, 2013

There's only one not-Saga answer to this. Revival.
posted by youcancallmeal at 5:25 PM on October 7, 2013

Ditto East of West. Very genre, very surreal.

From the Big 2:
I've been enjoying Young Avengers. Very much genre, gets very surreal when dealing with the Big Bad(s).

I REALLY like Hawkeye--it is definitely not big on ultra-masculinity. Not surreal, but tight and honest. Very clean art. The guy behind Hawkeye is also behind the other major Marvel trip to the surreal--Fraction's run on FF (not Fantastic Four, which is the main series) is golden. I was laughing out loud during the shrink-ray issue, and I don't even know who most of the people are.

Wolverine and the X-men. Set in the school with Wolverine as a frustrated administrator. Try issue #17 (the Doop issue) and if you like it, branch out. Unfortunately, there is a huge X-men crossover event right now (Battle of the Atom) and W's quality has dropped. So you may want to hold off on adding it to your pull until February.

I'm not a Marvel girl, but I am really happy with Marvel right now.

Not from the big 2:

Sex Criminals. Sci-fi/crime, nominally, although the first issue wasn't much of either. A woman discovers that time literally stops when she has an orgasm. Despite the premise, the first issue was touching and sweet--dealing with her history with sex and sexuality, in a very honest, very mature way. Also an uproarious scene in a bathroom.

I've heard AMAZING things about Clive Barker's Next Testament (what if the world was created by a demiurge, a false creator-god, who then came back, was upset at how fall he has fallen, and goes to town on the universe for shunning him). This is less the 'hooks and claws and intestines' Clive Barker and more 'the void begins to look back'. It's co-written by Millar, who also is working on Jupiter's Legacy, another well-reviewed superhero bender that's out right now, but I can't testify as to whether JL is too macho for your tastes. But I CAN say that among those who see two Millars--one character-driven and pensive, the other "aaahhh I will ruin everyone's life and be so fucking gritty", JL is apparently much more of the former. Art by Quitely helps, too.

Completed, but free online: Freakangels (entire run available online for free). Sci-fi based on twelve super-powered kids in Britain.

It's on hiatus, damnit, but! there's going to be a reprint coming out this Wednesday of some hard-to-find stuff from Multiple Warhead's early run. (There are some caveats--read the article, but it looks like this will include some 'erotic' content).

Also heard good things about Trillium, a sci-fi miniseries that's about halfway done. Unfortunately, there's two problems here: 1) you missed a few issues and 2) you really don't want to buy this digitally as it tells different stories based on whether the book is rightside up or upside down. If your shop can order back issues, great; otherwise, wait for a trade.

Pretty Deadly looks like it'll might be up your alley--not out yet, but surreal genre western. Coming out in October.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 7:53 PM on October 7, 2013

Oh, and in answer to lilnemo and Clone--my boyfriend just dropped it from his pull. Doesn't come recommended.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 7:56 PM on October 7, 2013

OMG Lazarus (future dystopian sci-fi) is teh awesome.

I'm also quite fond of Stumptown (gritty female PI detective noir) and The Sixth Gun (occult western), both from Oni Press.

DH offers up Superior Foes of Spider-Man, and is waiting anxiously for Velvet.

Actually, pretty much anything by Brubaker/Phillips: Sleeper, Incognito, the Criminal series, and (as mentioned above) Fatale.

Also, got the first issue of Rat Queens last week, hilarious, foul-mouthed DnD sendup.

Also, also, the epic spy series Queen and Country, written by Greg Rucka, drawn by various artists.

And I heart Carla Speed McNeill's Finder series so hard.
posted by mon-ma-tron at 9:36 PM on October 7, 2013

I'd nth Hellboy and the associated BPRD. The story telling is superb, the art as well. While there is fighting, it's not the sole purpose of the book, and for the most part, a lot of the fighting is pretty hopeless. The scope is immense, yet incredibly personal, and it's pretty rare to find a series so willing to follow the logical chain of events so far down the line. With Xmen and JLA, the destruction caused by eldritch monsters and alien races is nearly always never mentioned again. In Hellboy, well, it's essentially the end times, and the world pretty much resembles it. Very well done, with stories with endings that stick, losses that resonate years later, and character growth that feels right.

The only thing: it can be very, very confusing to work out the reading order. Everything ties in, all of the Hellboy, BPRD, Lobster Johnson, Lord Baltimore, and Witchfinder stories really do intertwine, and are all separate books with each story as its own four-to-five issue mini-series.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:18 AM on October 8, 2013

Response by poster: Can I dive in with any of the Hellboy family that's currently sitting on the monthlies shelves, or do I need to start with the trades? I've always been fond of Mignola's style, but its been going for so long.
posted by Think_Long at 6:25 AM on October 8, 2013

Could you help me find some current comics that fit my bill? Preferences below:

I favourited a lot above (ANYTHING BY WAID!), new Astro City, Hawkeye, Young Avengers, East of West, Saga...) but something like Comics Should Be Good. If nothing, it could be a good clearing house (of ideas).
posted by Mezentian at 8:42 AM on October 8, 2013

One thing that you might consider is simply abandoning the pull list. I'm seeing more of a trend toward limited-length arcs in comics, which may be due to any or all of the following factors: a similar trend in other serial media, such as TV programs; the popularity of trade paperback collections; wanting to give new readers an easy "jumping-on point" for the book, which mitigates against years-long intertwining arcs in the old soap-opera fashion; giving a sales boost from diehard fanboys who have to have all the #1 issues. There's also the matter of some titles having a revolving door WRT creators, especially with DC right now. Maybe your LCS has modified how they do the subscription pull in response to this, maybe not. It's worth asking them about; maybe you could combine a close perusal of their ordering guide with previews from some of the comics news sites.

Some individual titles to consider:

Locke & Key. Joe Hill is making a big name for himself in horror/fantasy fiction, and this comic is incredibly good.

Just about anything by Greg Rucka. There is quite a lot of fighting in his books--he tends more toward thriller/military/police-type stories--but he always turns in a solid story. If nothing else, pick up his Batwoman TPB, with art by the incredible J.H. Williams III, who worked with Alan Moore on Promethea.

Nthing: Finder, Brandon Graham's Prophet, Brandon Graham's King City, Hawkeye.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:06 PM on October 8, 2013

Re: Hellboy

Its probably a good idea to start with a couple of trades. All though to be honest, there is a tendency for successively published stories to be set in totally disparate time periods. Bottom line, each mini can be read on their own and be an enjoyable experience. Having foreknowledge of prior stories can add another layer of meaning or enjoyment, but (mostly) shouldn't detract from the story. Whadda yaknow? Continuity! That works!
posted by lilnemo at 3:04 PM on October 8, 2013

Oh Crap!
The Luna Brothers!

Check out :
Girls: "In a shocking turn of events the mystery woman will change the lives of Pennystown irrevocably, and raise more questions that answers: Who is this girl? What does she want? I she a blessing, or a curse?" The high concept of this book reads like a Stephen King pitch, but it goes to some very interesting places.

The Sword: "The Sword is a modern-day fantasy series that follows Dara Brighton, a young woman whose life is destroyed by three powerful strangers. Her journey begins when she discovers a unique sword." The closest comic I can compare this to is Matt Wagner's Mage. Which is pretty high praise in my book.
posted by lilnemo at 3:16 PM on October 8, 2013

Regarding the Hellboy mess, one thing they are really, really good about is helping you to find out when and where referenced events took place. Pretty much any time a character refers to a previous event, there will be a little text box at the bottom telling you what issue/story the reference is from.

Currently, though, I'd go back to the trades rather than the single issues. I'm pretty sure one of the ongoing BPRD minis is subtitled 'Hell on Earth' because, well, that's how bad things have gotten, and there's a lot to unpack. Here's a list of stories in the order of publication, but handily noted with the year the story takes place.

I'd say the main thrust of the ongoing story got started in the first BPRD series, the Hollow Earth, and then again in Plague of Frogs. If you pick up and of the early collections (the Chained Coffin, etc) and like them, I can almost guarantee you'll like the series.

Dark Horse seems to have a particularly good online store for digital comics, and they Hellboy collected stories are usually sold at discounts, unless you're looking for proper paper comics.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:52 PM on October 9, 2013