Recommendations for good western non super hero comics?

[Ibrinar]

I thought as manga reader I should try branching out into western stuff. I like super powers well enough but am not really all that interested in starting with the whole Marvel or DC stuff, so non super hero stuff.

Looking for something with overarching story arc, can be somewhat episodic but not only (unless it is mainly good comedy). I guess I know plenty web comics so I guess I mean the kind that got known via print media. Not counting webcomics, newspaper comics and childhood stuff like asterix and obelix I haven't read much. Sandman and um guess I also read some french comic whose name I can't remember because it was one a manga site (school setting with powers and many non humans in the cast (or was it mainly?) well whatever). So whatever gets recommended is probably unknown to me.

[Fyraltari]

I thought as manga reader I should try branching out into western stuff. I like super powers well enough but am not really all that interested in starting with the whole Marvel or DC stuff, so non super hero stuff.

Looking for something with overarching story arc, can be somewhat episodic but not only (unless it is mainly good comedy). I guess I know plenty web comics so I guess I mean the kind that got known via print media. Not counting webcomics, newspaper comics and childhood stuff like asterix and obelix I haven't read much. Sandman and um guess I also read some french comic whose name I can't remember because it was one a manga site (school setting with powers and many non humans in the cast (or was it mainly?) well whatever). So whatever gets recommended is probably unknown to me.

{scrubbed}
EDIT https://s1.qwant.com/thumbr/0x380/b/f/2b928dd4e16a433d1639c4bfa43d3961ef2db3b961001316fc 19628584b9e4/96636_c.jpg?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bedetheque.com%2Fm edia%2FCouvertures%2F96636_c.jpg&q=0&b=1&p=0&a=1

I's mostly episodic but there's an overarching plot loosely tying most books together.

Franco-Belgian comics are generally more thought of as each album being a complete story unlike manga or american comic books who tell their stories over a gazillion issues, so you'll have a harder time finding what you are loooking for there.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Non super hero, western but not necessarily American...

It's probably too episodic for your taste, but Michel Vaillant just might work. It's a racing comic. I haven't read too much of it myself, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think that while there is somewhat of a focus on formula 1 many if not most comics feature some other form of racing as the main subject instead, like Nascar, rally or setting the land speed record. Aside from the protagonists having the busiest race schedule ever and winning a lot the adventures are relatively grounded in reality, but with some stuff like a mysterious baddy throwing around bribes and sabotages here and there thrown in.

[Zarrgon]

Well, I'd guess The Walking Dead and Sin City are two of the really obvious ones.

And Locke & Key, Sandman, Preacher and Archie.

The 'Nam from Marvel.

[Darth Credence]

Definitely second Locke and Key. You said you don't mind powers, but not into DC/Marvel, so I'm going to recommend Joe Hill's The Cape (the author's name is on there because it most certainly is not the short lived TV show). Powers, but not at all a Marvel/DC, or even Image or Valiant type superhero.
But for anyone who is on this site and is looking for comics, I have to go with Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. The elevator pitch was Star Wars meets Game of Thrones. It's won so many awards, for best continuing series, best writing, and best art. Really, really good series.

[Wraith]

I will second Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman. Exquisitely well written, wonderful art, and each story-line is very different from the last so there's a variety of themes and subjects to engage with.

In a similar vein, I would also recommend Sandman's spinoff Lucifer. Lucifer Morningstar, aka, The Devil, cameos briefly in the Sandman and in doing so realises he's sick of ruling Hell. So, he packs up and moves to LA where he opens a nightclub - the single most powerful being in all creation just wants to be left alone to play the piano, but then one of his brothers turns up asking for a favour.....

For something very different, Transmetropolitan by Warren Ennis. We follow reluctant journalist Spider Jerusalem in the run up to the presidential election in the year 3000 or so, and explores the effects of hyper-capitalism and what governmental and society corruption will look like in a few generations from now if we don't start to think about what we're doing.
Full of fantastic technology that might as well be magic, you're not left wondering where the author's political opinion lies but its expressed in a very artful way.

I'll also add another vote for Saga, an extremely good star-crossed-lovers-in-space story. Although I admit my bias, as I was reading the first issues roughly around the time that my daughter was born so the themes of family and parenthood are undoubtedly aimed directly at me.

And finally, Y: The Last Man, also by Brian K. Vaughn who wrote Saga. A mysterious virus suddenly kills every male creature on the planet, save for an aspiring stage magician/actor named Yorrick and his pet monkey Ampersand. Post-apocalyptic science fiction, though without zombies or the likes and very entertaining.

[Radar]

If you can get your hands on it, then I recommend Thorgal - great graphics, well written, serious stories and a good balance between mundane and supernatural mostly taken from nordic mythology.

Invincible by Pascal Jousselin - the only true comic book superhero. There are many that play around with the medium, but noone does it so fluently.

Some other I wish was more easisly available, but I do not know, if it was ever translated to English: Funky Koval - just check the art at least, since the style is unique.

[Lethologica]

Let's throw some horror into the mix with Monstress, where monsters with too many eyes intrude on a steampunk fantasy setting...
https://i1.wp.com/smashpages.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Monstress-haven-900x470.jpg?fit=900%2C470

and Black Monday Murders, which is what would happen if Old Ones ran Wall Street.
https://cdn.imagecomics.com/assets/i/releases/10627/the-black-monday-murders-5_26aad6ee12.jpg

Maus is, roughly speaking, the Schindler's List of comics. Being a comic of mice, cats, and pigs keeps it powerful but bearable.
https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2012/07/Maus.jpg

Web-turned-print comic FreakAngels follows a dozen twenty-something psychics struggling to safeguard a post-apocalyptic community in Britain. Also being adapted by Crunchyroll sometime this year, or so I hear.
https://mlpnk72yciwc.i.optimole.com/cqhiHLc-3pP-tZNU/w:683/h:384/q:75/https://bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/freakangelshc2.jpg

The Last Unicorn is originally a novel, but no less wonderful in comic form. One of my favorite opening paragraphs of all time, and just beautifully written from beginning to end.
The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-6NLKPtM6OQg/TY0DdOUo4eI/AAAAAAAAA_0/E3iAC1H3bvk/s1600/LastUnicorn-03-04.jpg

[Man on Fire]

I thought as manga reader I should try branching out into western stuff. I like super powers well enough but am not really all that interested in starting with the whole Marvel or DC stuff, so non super hero stuff.

Looking for something with overarching story arc, can be somewhat episodic but not only (unless it is mainly good comedy). I guess I know plenty web comics so I guess I mean the kind that got known via print media. Not counting webcomics, newspaper comics and childhood stuff like asterix and obelix I haven't read much. Sandman and um guess I also read some french comic whose name I can't remember because it was one a manga site (school setting with powers and many non humans in the cast (or was it mainly?) well whatever). So whatever gets recommended is probably unknown to me.

If you read Sandman, it has a lot of spinoffs that are of pretty good quality, two the Dreaming series, 3 different Lucifer books (Mike Carey's Lucifer, in particular, is amazing), 2 Death miniseries, Furies, several Books of Magic titles, House of Whispers.

Still in Vertigo we have some standalone titles:

Bill Willingham's Fables is a story of residents of Fairy Tales living in hiding in New York, if you played Wolf Among Us it is a prequel to the comics. It more or less branched into its own universe.

Transmetropolitan is a post-cyberpunk story of a Hunter S. Thompson-Esque journalist who is a horrible person but also does his most damn to do the right thing. Surprisingly politically relevant despite how ridiculous it is.

It is hard to tell if the Invisibles is a superhero series. It is a lot of thins, but mostly it is a story of a team of rebels fighting a secret war against secret forces of order trying to reshape the world to their liking. Matrix owes this series a lot.

Hellblazer is the story of John Constantine, a man who knows how to piss off entire heaven and hell. I recommend picking up his current, amazing, book and then work your way back through his classic series.

A number of standalone Vertigo miniseries - High Level (post-apocalypse), Goddesses Mode (adventures in virtual reality), American Carnage (white-passing FBI Agent must infiltrate white supremacists group), Hex Wives (Stepford Housewives meets the Rosemary's Baby)

Now going to independent, we have Image Comics, which has since 2010's been walking away from superhero comics for many different genres. You may have heard of the Walking Dead, which had near 200-issues run, but there is much more:

Saga is a science-fantasy adult comedy about a pair of soldiers from opposing sides of galaxy-spanning war who fall in love and run away, trying to escape two sides of the conflict that don't want their story to be known.

Monstress is a beautiful dark fantasy series in a world of lovecraftian horrors and talking cats.

Luther Strode Trillogy which consists of Strange Talent of Luther Strode, the Legend of Luther Strode and Legacy of Luther Strode is a story of a scrawny teenager who buys a training set that turns him into an outright superhuman...and makes a target of a secret society of superpowered serial killers.

Nailbiter - there is a small town in America that has produced several serial killers over the years. An FBI agent, the local sheriff, and her ex-boyfriend turned last of said killers, titular Nailbiter, try to figure out its mystery.

Paper Girls is basically Stranger Things but with time-travel.

Orc Stain - unfinished sadly series about an Orc thief who is only a relatively normal person in a world dominated by Orcs that have taken the obsession with their, as they call it, gronks, to a new extreme. Worth for amazing art and just how weird this world is.

Fell is a short-living but brilliant detective series about weird mysteries.

Phonogram - 3 miniseries in a world where music can give you magic powers.

Die is a dark, gothic take on Narnia - a group of kids entered magical world through an rpg. It left them traumatized for life. Now they need to return there as adults.

Morning Glories is about a group of teenagers sent to a mysterious, near mind-breaking school where they need to uncover its secrets to escape.

The Wicked + the Divine is the opposite of Phonogram fro the same creators - it concerns a group of artists with godlike powers and influence over the world who have been granted these gifts for a limited lifespan.

Pretty Deadly is a horror western with strong influences of folklore

Revival is a "rual noir" set in a town where dead suddenly came back to life.

Wayward is a story of Irish-Japanese girl moving with her father in Japan and how she discovers world of Japanese mythology and folklore still living in hiding.

Lazarus is set in a dystopian future where America has been divided by a group of rich families that rule it with an iron fist.

Rat Queens is a humorous take on D&D-esque fantasy.

Birthright is an "another world" fantasy story from a different perspective - a little boy goes missing and returns one year later as an adult, claiming he's been on an adventure in a magical world.

B*tch Planet is a science-fiction take on Orange Is New Black, focusing on a planet-sized women prison in a galactic dystopia and stories of women trapped in there.

Kill of be Killed - a demon saves a man's life and promises him to prolong it one month for every person he kills.

Leave It To Chance is set in an urban fantasy world and centers around 14-years old Chance Falconer, a member of a family that for generations battled supernatural threats. However, her father refuses to train her, leaving her to have to face the supernatural on her own.

Chew is a detective story of a detective who can experience murder by...eating pieces of dead bodies.

Deadly Class is set in the '80s and tells of a school for teenage assassins

Fatale is Raymond Chandler meets H.P. Lovecraft.

Descender and its sequel Ascender are stories of far future and a robot struggling to survive in a world where androids are outlawed.

Cassanova centers around a thief who is blackmailed to participate in "world-wide game of espionage"

Mage Trillogy consists of 3 series - a Hero Discovered, a Hero Defined and a hero Denied, all following adventures of a young man in a world full of magical threats.

Black Science is a science-fiction story about discovering means to travel through alternate realities and then adventurous ways in which the scientists who tried it need to go home

Mice Templar is basically a high fantasy series with chosen one destined to overthrow an evil king...except they're all mice.

Nowhere Men is a story of a team of four scientists who have reshaped modern culture in a similar way the Beatles have.

Oblivion Song is a fantasy post-apocalypse set in a world obliterated by creatures out of fantasy, focusing on survival in destroyed Philadelphia.

Sex Criminals - a group of people discovers how to stop time while having sex....and decide to use this to commit robberies.

Wytches is a horror story about a family being targetted by mysterious, vaguely human hags.

Prophet #21-45, the original series was a horrible superhero comic. The revival in issues #21-45 is a pretty damn good sci-fi Conan.

Outcast is a story of a man whose family has been involved with multiple posessions by demons trying to find out why.

[gomipile]

Alan Moore's V for Vendetta should qualify. V is more of a reconstruction of a classic Count of Monte Cristo style hero than a superhero. Also, no one else in the comic is even near a superhero archetype, so it's definitely not a superhero world.

Also, the tone and subtext of the comic is somewhat different from the film. So, it's very much still worth reading even if you've seen the film.

[TeChameleon]

If you don't mind classic-style superheroes, minus all the baggage that DC and Marvel have accumulated, Kurt Busiek's Astro City is very, very good. A lot of it is short character-driven vignettes, looking at life in the titular (superhero-laden) metropolis... in fact, the first collected volume is called 'Life in the Big City'.

Jeff Smith's Bone is a great, albeit slightly offbeat, fantasy epic. It starts off silly and veers into, well, epic territory fairly quickly as the peaceful setting the outsider characters (a trio of cartoony-looking 'Bones') is revealed to have rather more going on than first meets the eye.

Utterly mad comedy is the name of the game for Sergio Aragones' Groo the Wanderer, which has the rather noteworthy distinction of being an independent title with the same creative team (barring one change of colourist in the earliest days of the book) for the last thirty-eight years. Groo is a parody of the Conan-style Barbarian; the greatest living master of the blade, utterly undefeatable in battle (as in, if he gets involved in major open-field combat, the most likely end result is both armies dying), with a generally kind heart, utterly fearless... because he's too dumb to understand he should be afraid. Combine that with truly awful (or possibly just ridiculous) luck, and he tends to spread absolute chaos wherever he might wander. Also some of my all-time favourite art, with a cartoony, loose style that at first glance belies the fantastic level of detail in every square centimetre of panel space.

Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo may seem like an odd suggestion at first glance, but it is a Western comic, created by an artist born in Hawaii and published by Dark Horse (Stan is also the letterer for Groo the Wanderer). Set in an alternate feudal Japan, it tracks the journeys of Miyamoto Usagi, who happens to be a cartoon bunny with his ears in a topknot. Again, at first glance, cartoony, but the art is elegant and expressive- some of the best black-and-white work I've encountered over many years as a comic fan. While the characters are funny animals (you may actually have seen Usagi cross over with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), it is a deeply researched glimpse into Shogunate-era Japan, with occasional side-trips into the folklore and myth of that time. Fascinating, beautiful, and a lot of fun.

[Razade]

It's not Western but you should look into Shamo and Vagabond. Two of the greatest manga ever written. Neither are shonen, neither involve super powers. The art in both are expressive, the stories genuine and deep.

For a Western comic, look up Digger. It's about a wombat that digs tunnels and finds a world beyond her understanding.

[Yora]

I throw Hellboy into the ring. And also support the recommendation of Sandman.

For something rather different, I really like the Knights of the Old Republic Star Wars comics.

And Dark Horse Conan.

[Fyraltari]

Paracuelos is about life in the social centers for children in Spain under Franco. Warning: it will make you cry.

There’s also Persepolis which tells the story of the author growing up in Iran.

[el minster]

I recomend Amulet and Cleopatra In Space.

[thompur]

I'll second "Bone" and "Groo, the Wanderer", and also recommend "Strangers In Paradise", a slice of life dramedy with dashes of crime thriller.

[moonfly7]

American vampire can be kind of episodic depending on the issue, but regardless it's still wicked awesome. I probably like Sweet as a character way more than is healthy, but it's a very fun read.

[understatement]

These can probably be read in one sitting, but maybe:

I Kill Giants -- a young girl believes herself to be a giant-killer

Nimona -- a villain teams up with a shapeshifting girl

[Velaryon]

I don't think you can go wrong with anything by Gene Luen Yang. I haven't read everything he's written, but everything I have read has been excellent.
I'd recommend starting with American Born Chinese, which is kind of about a Chinese American student trying to fit in at school, but also manages to tie in the story of the Monkey King from Journey to the West.
From there, I'd also recommend Boxers and Saints, a duology about the Boxer Rebellion in China with a bit of a supernatural twist. One book tells the story from the side of the Boxer rebels, while the other side follows a Chinese girl who found more of a home with Christian missionaries than with her own people.
I also loved The Shadow Hero, which is a reimagining of an obscure WW2-era superhero named The Green Turtle as a Chinese-American superhero taking on the triads that killed his father and terrorize his neighborhood.

Six-Gun Gorilla by Simon Spurrier is pretty good. the titular gorilla is not actually the main character, but he does show up and cause plenty of carnage. The story has some pretty solid themes and surprising depth considering the name.

Niourk by Olivier Vatine is an interesting one. It's about a child on a post-apocalyptic Earth where the oceans have dried up and humanity has fallen back to being primitive hunter-gatherers. Among other things, he eats someone's brains, tames a grizzly bear, and develops strange powers.

[Mr_Fixler]

I have been reading a lot of non superhero comics recently. In no particular order here are my recommendations from what I have read. Happy to go into more depth or answer any questions.

100 Bullets

A crime noir story set in modern day. People of various (usually low) situations are presented with a gun, 100 bullets of untraceable ammunition, and a dossier on the person responsible for their situation. Starts off as an anthology type story and over time a lot of the pieces start coming together.

Curse Words

A wizard is sent to Earth with orders from his dark master to suck the power from this world. He ends up thinking Earth is pretty cool and sticks around. Over the course of the comic he defends Earth against his former master and minions. This one can be a little silly/funny at times but overall pretty fun.

The Wicked + The Devine

Every however many years, a pantheon of Gods are reborn. They have powers and rely on fame and adoration to fuel them. The powers part is fairly minimal as this one is more of a murder mystery as someone is killing the current pantheon.

Saga

Is a really interesting space Romeo and Juliet style story. A lot happens and there are a lot of twists. I wish there was more of it as I feel it was an improvement on the writer's other big work which is...

Y the last man

It has already been mentioned but I would recommend it. After some crazy virus? Curse? Other? Kills every male on the planet, a young man Yorick and his pet monkey depart on a cross-country mission to find his girlfriend. And save the world too I guess. It's a great story, I just personally think it took a bit too long to tell. A lot of "side quests" if you will.

Preacher

A violent and crazy journey through the United States South. Basic premise is a Texan preacher gets the "voice of god" which can command people do follow his commands. He is not the best guy and has a troubled past which catches up with him often, but he tries to be a good person. He teams up with his ex girlfriend and an Irish vampire to literally find God. Not for the faint of heart.

The Boys

This was the authors attempt to "out-Preacher Preacher" on the crazy violence and not okay content. Spoiler. He succeeded. This one might be to super powery for you as it is very much on a knock of comic universe. Superheroes are generally conceited jerks, uncaring about their collateral damage. "The Boys" keep them straight and knock heads when they misbehave... which is a lot. I know this wad made into a show, but I haven't seen it.

Hellboy

It has been slightly more in the mainstream and around a lot longer. But the comic is a lot different than the films. The bringer of the end of the world decides he would rather hunt monsters, ghosts, and the occult.

[Rogar Demonblud]

For a shorter series (due to rights issues), John Rogers Fell's Five series from IDW (collected in three trades). If you watched and enjoyed Leverage or The Librarians, you know what you're getting. Khal and O-Chul should team up for paladin adventures across time and space.

[truemane]

These threads are almost self-defeating, since you'll never be able to rad (let alone find and afford) everything everyone recommends.

All the same, I'll throw in Craig Thompson's Blankets which is one of the two or three most moving pieces of art I have ever experienced. All of Thompson's work is exceptional. But that one really hit me deep deep in the feels. I own it but I haven't re-read it.

[Fyraltari]

Niourk by Olivier Vatine is an interesting one. It's about a child on a post-apocalyptic Earth where the oceans have dried up and humanity has fallen back to being primitive hunter-gatherers. Among other things, he eats someone's brains, tames a grizzly bear, and develops strange powers.

I remember reading the book it was adapted from when I was little.
That was weird.

[HandofShadows]

Most things by the GREAT Will Eisner. "A Contract With God" and while "The Spirit" being two main ones. While the main character of the Spirit is a crime fighter, he's a normal human and the stories tend to be realistic as well and dark and gritty.

[Ibrinar]

These threads are almost self-defeating, since you'll never be able to rad (let alone find and afford) everything everyone recommends.

All the same, I'll throw in Craig Thompson's Blankets which is one of the two or three most moving pieces of art I have ever experienced. All of Thompson's work is exceptional. But that one really hit me deep deep in the feels. I own it but I haven't re-read it.

Shouldn't take more than a few months if I wanted it read everything. I won't of course and just pick some. But there are usually interesting suggestions.

[Mr_Fixler]

Also many local libraries have online catalogs of comics, movies, books, etc. to check out. Some branches have trade paperbacks too.

Everything on my previous post I have read for free via my library.

[Misereor]

If you can find it, I can recommend The Black Moon Chronicles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Moon_Chronicles).
Very well drawn fantasy epic, based on the author's hillariously stereotypical D&D campaign.

[Velaryon]

These threads are almost self-defeating, since you'll never be able to rad (let alone find and afford) everything everyone recommends.

All the same, I'll throw in Craig Thompson's Blankets which is one of the two or three most moving pieces of art I have ever experienced. All of Thompson's work is exceptional. But that one really hit me deep deep in the feels. I own it but I haven't re-read it.

Libraries can be of a lot of help here. Most have built up graphic novel collections, and even if they don't have it, many can try to get it from other libraries. Every title I mentioned in my post is available at my library, and I recognize a good number of other people's suggestions from our collection as well. And we're at best a mid-size library with a fairly small collection.



I remember reading the book it was adapted from when I was little.
That was weird.

I was actually quite surprised to learn that it was based on a story from I think the 1950s. The comic really felt like something that would have been written within the last couple years.

[DreadPirateH]

I will also recommend Transmetropolitan and Fables as have already been mentioned.

I'd also recommend Rat Queens, a post-modern fantasy comic about a party of female adventurers. The ladies are foul-mouthed monster-slaying badasses. There's a voodoo-priestess cleric who rejects the Lovecraftian eldritch god her people are bound to, a halfling rogue who seems to subsist on nothing but drugs and candy, a dwarf fighter who shaved her beard before it was cool, and an elf wizard with a very dark past involving deals with the devil.

Another good one is East Meets West a weird Western graphic novel about Death (of the Four Horsemen) who has abandoned the other three and a conspiracy to bring about the end of the world. A little bit six-guns shooting, a little bit king fu fighting a little bit mysticism, a little bit future-tech.

[Eldan]

Something a friend recently gave to me which I like a lot (I mean, it's nowhere near the absolute top like Sandman or Hellblazer, but it's really good) is Chew. It's a weird, absurdist, quite foul-mouthed comedy crime investigation thing.

So, it's a world built entirely around food. It's set in a world where chicken is outlawed due to a new mutated super bird flu that killed 20 million Americans. It follows a police detective named Tony Chu, who is chasing down a murderous ring of fried chicken smugglers. He has the psychic powers to get an impression of the life and death of any food he eats, so eventually he is hired by the Food and Drugs Administration, which is an international ring of secret super agents in this universe, to chase down strange murders, a possible vampire, a strange mutated plant from a foreign country that tastes exactly like fried chicken, Area 51, a cult of secret chicken worshippers, North Korean agents and the greatest chef in the world, who can make food so good, it kills people from sheer joy... a lot of really weird stuff, basically.

[deltamire]

I'll toss in Shutter, a series about a young woman struggling to find her place ten years after the death of her father in a very strange, half futuristic half urban Earth that's populated with not just humans but all sorts of nasty things. Weird and funny and has talking mobster lions with Irish accents. I've only read the first volume (comics are expensive here, alas, and my library isn't quite up with the times for graphic novels) but it's been a blast so far.

I'm on the fence about recommending Deadly Class, because while it's got art and writing to die for - a school of assassins from all across the crime syndicates of the world with the backdrop of Reagan's 80's America is pretty hard to do, and it pulls it off stunningly - it becomes a little insufferable with how it feels like the main character is this close to calling everyone normies. Either way, it's definitely a good example of how text heavy and conceptual, graphic art can create a fantastic mood.

On a lighter note (Shutter is pretty gorey, and Deadly Class really, really wants you to know that it's constantly on drugs, not to mention all of the other . . . Stuff) Noelle Stevenson's work is pretty good. Her first book Nimona is squishy, funny, and plays with all sorts of fantasy tropes. Lumberjanes is a Gravity Falls-esque story about a group of campers at a summer camp for go-to lady types who come across a mystery in the woods involving horrible yet adorable monsters. Chaos ensues. If you're looking for humour-focused, character based relatively episodic stories with not much trauma, you can't go wrong with Stevenson's work.

[gomipile]

Oh, how did I forget to mention Valérian and Laureline? It's very much a classic, and has been incredibly influenetial in science fiction literature ansd cinema.

[Clertar]

I would recommend Mike Mignola's Baltimore, an occult thriller-action-horror comic set in post WW1 Europe, amidst a global epidemic of vampirism. The two omnibus volumes have just come out.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Ben Fleuter's "Sword Interval" is available both in print format and as a Webtoon (https://www.webtoons.com/en/supernatural/sword-interval/list?title_no=486). Straddling the line between urban fantasy and regular fantasy, with a solid dose of action-horror thrown in, it follows rookie monster-hunter Fall Barros. She's been in witness protection for most of her life, after an undead warlock known as The Hierophant killed her parents, but has recently decided "to hell with that"; from now on she's facing her problems down with shotgun and baseball bat in hand. The art is great, and the monster design in particular is very cool and unique. The story is also very good, and is either just finished or almost there (I'm a bit behind).

[Caledonian]

Watchmen is a deconstruction of superheroes and superhero comics. It's also a serious piece of art in its own right - my local library has it shelved in the general stacks, not its comic section.

I'm not sure whether recommending it violates your intended restrictions, but it IS very good, to the point that I'm willing to take the chance of mentioning it. Apologies if you'd rather not have it recommended.

[Giggling Ghast]

You know, if you like Japanese-flavoured works, you might enjoy Kaijumax by Oni Press. Imagine the TV series Oz, except it takes place on an island, all the inmates are giant monsters and all the prison guards had the same powers as Ultraman (the slightly infamous Japanese TV series of the same name).

I personally also enjoyed Kill the Minotaur by Image Comics, a reworking of the Greek myth about Theseus and the Minotaur in which the monster and the labyrinth both have alien origins. Not for everyone, as it gets very gory.

[farothel]

If you like steampunk/detective stuff, then Lady Mechanica can be interesting. There are multiple stories, each story going over 2 to 3 books, which you have to read in order, but the order of the stories is less important.

There is also the Chronicles of the Dragon Knights. This is about a world were dragons sometimes appear and they warp the surrounding landscape and people. Only Maidens are exempt and so they have formed the Orders of the Dragon Knights to combat the dragons, but they also get involved in politics and stuff like that (even though they don't want to for the most part).
The books are sort of linked together, but except in one or two cases only in a historical sense (events in one book happened a long time before the events in another and get referenced as an historical event). All books except maybe one or two can be read separately and in any order you want.

Then there is the works of Arleston:
-Langfeust of Troy/Langfeust of the Stars/Langfeust Oddyssee: this is a more fantasy setting on the world of Troy (except the Stars series, that's SciFi) where everyone has one particular psionic power (some are great, like melting steel, some are stupid, like making people itch) and they have loads of adventures.
-Trolls of Troy: on the same world, but now focussing on a family of Trolls (and one adopted human). More of a comedy.
-Ythak: not on Troy, but good nevertheless. It's about a group of people getting stuck on an unknown planet and trying to survive. SciFi/fantasy mix.
All these have to be read in order.

[Xyril]

In the time of the pandemic, I'm not sure how things stand, but if you ever have a chance, I'd recommend going to one of the Free Comic Book day events and grabbing some of the random things that aren't obviously DC/Marvel or kids stuff. Maybe ask for a bit of help. Usually they will have some flagship stuff superhero series (JLA, Spider-man, Savage Dragon, etc.), manga and western classics (Ninja Turtles, Pokemon, Archie, etc.), a few big multi-media franchises (Star Trek, Star Wars, Buffy), and Disney stuff. Once you eliminate those, find something with an art style or title you like, and take a chance on it. This is pretty much how I was introduced to Lady Mechanika, which Farothel mentioned, and a few others like The Dark Age. I never would have thought to look for them by name, and my general tastes are different enough that the internet advertisement algorithms don't generally put them on my radar, but the cover art was really compelling and I decided it was worth checking out an issue. I wouldn't say that it's a universal rule, but I would say that in general the Free Comic Book Day offerings are probably good exemplars of their respective genres, and produced by some of the more accomplished authors and illustrators, so it's probably a good place to get your feet wet if your goal is as broad as "exploring Western comics."

Plus, a lot of shops use FCBD as an opportunity to promote their shops and comics in general, so they'll often have their full staffs working and answering questions, promotions and sales on some of the more popular series, and sometimes even local artists or authors, as well as a ton of fans ranging from curious to casual to hardcore. There's no better time to get recommendations, plus you can immediately browse/buy if something sounds particularly compelling.

If you want some shorter, more manageable fare, I'd recommended Letter 44. It's a complete limited series, published in three TPBs (the equivalent of something like 30-40 comics IIRC) that's a bit of a sci-fi/doomsday/political-thriller blend. It might feel a bit dated at this point--some of it definitely feels like a response to the George W. Bush administration--but it has a fun premise, is reasonably well-written with a nice art style, and it's a pretty good example of a more indie American episodic comic that written with a full story arc in mind that was able to tie up all the narrative threads at the end. Also, while the first few issues do feel very transparently rooted in certain criticisms of a particular Presidential administration, once the aliens get introduced the political intrigue aspect of the series becomes very divorced from the real-life political controversies of the day, and start to much more closer mirror the sort of conflicts you see in The X-files and other works of the genre--how the discovery of existential threats raise the question of whether secrecy or transparency better serve the public good and drive some individuals to exploit the situation for personal gain.

If you're interested in more stand-alone graphic novels at all, The Last of the Sandwalkers was one of my favorites. It's written accessibly enough for children, but the story and characters have enough depth and complexity to interest adults. The author, Jay Hosler, has written a few similar graphic novels that use science as it's gimmick. This one is about a group of beetles exploring the site of a disaster. The variety of different beetle species become the tropey archetypes for various characters--for example, the older brother is a Goliath beetle who fits very much into the protective, gentle giant stereotype--but their personalities are fleshed out enough to avoid being a bunch of two-dimensional cliches. Their beetle-ness also defines the scope and stakes of the work: The ruined civilization they observed was destroyed by a hale of coconuts, believed to be sent by Beetle Jesus as punishment for something or another.

Also, I have to mention Angel Catbird, by Margaret Atwood. It's a short series of graphic novels that, I suppose, kind of parodies or deconstructs the superhero genre, except sometimes it seems to unironically go all-in on that genre, complete with occasional, obtrusive "The More You Know" PSAs about cats that don't quite break the fourth wall. It's probably not for everyone, but Atwood's writing talents shine through, and if you're a fan, it's definitely fun to see that the award-winning author who often deals is weighty social issues is apparently also a funny, crazy old cat lady.



Watchmen is a deconstruction of superheroes and superhero comics. It's also a serious piece of art in its own right - my local library has it shelved in the general stacks, not its comic section.


At the risk of being a bit pedantic, this is technically published by DC, who somewhat recently have tied it explicitly into their meta-continuity. However, OP should really give it a read despite your general DC/Marvel avoidance. It's great, it absolutely doesn't have the same thematic or stylistic "feel" that defines most mainstream DC comics, and as I remember it, the author originally penned it as a standalone work that happened to be published by DC--and not as a "DC superhero comic"--and when DC published the Doomsday Clock series that explicitly tied the Watchmen universe into the DC multiverse, they did so over his objections.

Speaking of which, I really liked Doomsday Clock, but I also sort of agree that it's existence undermines Alan Moore's whole idea of deconstructing the superhero genre and rejecting the never-ending cycle of spin-offs, sequels, and prequels. I personally love the sprawling sprawling continuity of Marvel and DC, but if that sort of thing is why OP is avoiding DC/Marvel works, I'd say Watchmen will be absolutely fine in that regard. It was written as a finite, self-contained work, and it works great as that. You can ignore Watchmen Begins and everything that comes after--they were written with zero input from the creator, and ignoring them does nothing to detract from the original work.

[Ibrinar]

Yeah something like Watchmen is fine and it is on my list to eventually read. As you say "It was written as a finite, self-contained work, and it works great as that. " pretty much negates one of the main reasons I won't get into the big hero franchises.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Brandon Sanderson, of Mistborn and Way of Kings fame (among many other fantastic books), also wrote a graphic novel by the name of "White Sand". Set in the same multiverse as most of his works, it's nonetheless fine as a standalone (also like most of his works, actually).