Science Fiction Comics

[Axolotl]

After hearing about the death of Moebius here a couple of weeks back I went out and purchased a copy of The Incal.

Reading it I realised something, that for all their talk about CGI being able to put anything the director can imagine on screen, Hollywood is still a long way from being able to have the same level of visual originality and coolness that a comic can reach.

So I went out looking for cool science-fiction comics, unfortunately most of the people I know who like comics only really know superhero series so beyond vague recommendations for 2000 AD and Transmetropolitan I haven't gottn very far. So I'm asking this forum for any science fiction comics that they think are good and can recommend.

[Selrahc]

So I went out looking for cool science-fiction comics, unfortunately most of the people I know who like comics only really know superhero series so beyond vague recommendations for 2000 AD and Transmetropolitan I haven't gottn very far. So I'm asking this forum for any science fiction comics that they think are good and can recommend.

I could make your recommendation for 2000AD and Transmetropolitan less ambiguous, if that would help? If you need some good 2000AD collections to look out for, I could do that.

I'm just trying to think... most comics I've read have been superhero comics. cosmic Marvel actually does some pretty decent galactic empires sci-fi stuff. Most sci-fi comics that haven't been from superhero publishers or vaguely in the superhero genre have been tie-ins, like Firefly, Star Wars, Star Trek and 40k comics none of which I found all that compelling. And then almost all the rest has been 2000AD.

Oh, I guess Tank Girl is vaguely Sci-Fi. The comics were fun.
EDIT: The Invisibles too. Sort of vaguely sci-fi, although set in the present. V for Vendetta is another fairly obvious recommendation.

EDIT: Y: The Last Man.
If you're in the mood for some old school pulp-style alien busting, Dan Dare could be fun.
Tom Strong is sci-fi superhero stuff less tied into continuity than mainstream Marvel or DC publications.

[Bastian Weaver]

Well, there are comic book versions of Terminator (I enjoyed Terminator 1984), Logan's Run (several series, I've read Last Day and liked it)... David Gemmell's Wolf in Shadow is not exactly sci fi, it's a postapocalyptic western with some fantasy motives, but it's good. Well drawn, too.

[Brother Oni]

How sci-fi do you want it?

You've got near future scifi in the form of Ghost in the Shell, far future with The Ballad of Halo Jones.
There are a number of Aliens collections that are technically scifi, but that's not their focus.

[Axolotl]

I could make your recommendation for 2000AD and Transmetropolitan less ambiguous, if that would help? If you need some good 2000AD collections to look out for, I could do that.Well the main problem is I already own Transmet and a bunch of 2000AD trades (mainly Nemesis and Alan Moore's stuff).


Tank Girl The Invisibles. V for Vendetta: Y: The Last Man, Dan Dare .Tom Strong Thanks, I'll look into these.


How sci-fi do you want it?Space Operaish ideally, but I'm also looking for cyberpunk or post apocalyptic if it's good.

[Ashtar]

There's the collected Judge Dread and Strontium Dog albums which I find to be an excellent, if weird, form of Brit sci-fi. Yeah, they were published in 2000 AD.

The French comic scene has HK from Trantkat et Jean-David Morvan, a sci-fi tale starting on a mining colony planet. The problem is the real S L O W rate at which they publish them. http://www.bedecouverte.com/1560-2850-thickbox/affiche-poster-bd-trantkat-hk.jpg

[Kindablue]

Space Operaish ideally, but I'm also looking for cyberpunk or post apocalyptic if it's good.

Check out The Ballad of Halo Jones, Ronin, and Akira.

[comicshorse]

Dark Horse did a load of ALIENS and PREDATOR mini-series a lot of which were really good.
Also you might check out ELEPHANTMEN.

[Selrahc]

Thanks, I'll look into these.


Although none of them really fit into the Space Aliens/Galactic Empires model of sci-fi.(Except Dan Dare). They're much more in the realms of speculative fiction.

If what you're looking for is interstellar space adventure, I would give some of the Cosmic Marvel collections a try.

[Grif]

If you don't mind webcomics, Buck Godot (http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buck.html) is a damn good read. A shame they ended their run after only one major story arc, though I hold out hope the Foglios may pick this up again after Girl Genius.

[Ravens_cry]

If you don't mind webcomics, Buck Godot (http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buck.html) is a damn good read. A shame they ended their run after only one major story arc, though I hold out hope the Foglios may pick this up again after Girl Genius.
Yeah, that was a good one. One problem is that the stories kept getting bigger and bigger. The first story was about an attempted takeover of a bar with some mentally joined clones.

and it ended with humanity almost going extinct and one human/alien alliance dissolving and another reforming.
Just where do you go from there?
Still, it was a fun series and I am glad I read it.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Dark Horse's star wars stuff can be pretty mixed.

Star Wars: Legacy and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic finished a year or so ago.

Legacy was more popular because it was 'darker' and had caused quite a big ruckuss when it got canceled 'early' but it seemed to me that it wouldn't have felt like it should have gone on for later if they hadn't dragged it out and lagged in some places. There were lots of good issues but the pace of the over-all arc didn't keep my interest. Very much a 'let's spend 30 issues on character developement and then 6 issues on finishing up the plot" affair.

Knights of the Old Republic had a lot of art problems (the best artist got snapped up by marvel half way through and the supposed main artist couldn't do a 6 issue arc without taking a break for 1 issue). Some of the early bits aren't that great and the second arc isn't as good as the first one but over all it succeeded in being a decent space adventure story with good characters.

[Sleverin]

So far I haven't seen a recommendation on here for Fear Agent. I had this recommended to me at my local comic store and I've been hooked ever since. It's a modern comic throwback to the Space Age type of science-fiction, complete with bubble helmets and ray guns with fins on the side! It also features different artists and writers each book of the graphic novel, I know the first one is drawn by the guy who does Walking Dead, and personally I really liked the art style.

Personally, I didn't much care for Tom Strong. I read the first book and wasn't really gripped or that interested in the stories, especially since they give him an origin story, jump forward many years in his life and then have him fight these final battles with a bunch of rivals from his past that you don't know about or have any idea why you should care that he's fighting them. I think it was written by Allen Moore (correct me if I'm wrong) but for someone so acclaimed I expected something better than what seemed like sloppy and, honestly, sort of emotionally devoid storytelling.

I have yet to read Dan Dare, though I've been needing to...there's also Doctor Who comics, but hell, why read the comics when you can watch the show? However, I will make one exception with the upcoming Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover, which is not a TV show...so yeah, kinda meandered off of my point here...

[shimmercat]

I second Y: the Last Man, which is very good and post-apocalyptic.

I remember the old Star Wars: Rogue Squadron being pretty decent (from the 90's.)

RASL is what Jeff Smith (the creator of Bone) is doing now, and I was really impressed with what I've seen of it. It's short, though. It's... kinda Quantum Leap-y. So really more spec-fic than sci-fi but still worth mentioning.

And the Flight anthologies have a little bit of everything, but can be very very good. One advantage is that if you check them out and see something you like, you can check to see what else the creator of that short has done. Your library may have them if you don't want to purchase.

[Montanto]

Regrettably there really isn't any good English language science fiction out there these days. Most of what we call science fiction be it Star Wars, Legion of Super Heroes and the various Marvel Space Series are pretty much really fantasy in what appears at first glance to be a science fiction setting. For me this get's very frustrating. Not to say there's not good stuff out there I'm a big fan of a lot of the French Stuff particularly Wake/Silage. It's just there really isn't ENOUGH of it.

[pita]

As far as post apocalyptic goes, Romantically Apocalyptic (http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/) has some of the best art I've seen, even if its plot is entirely incomprehensible.