I'm 40 and I've been collecting comic books since I was about 9. My favorite characters are Spider-Man, Superman, and Batman. I like a lot more but when it came to modern day comic books I got to the point where I only read those three, but I've reached a point where I have decided with Marvel and DC to just read back issues and luckily there are a ton of back issues that I haven't even touched yet. For instance I recently found a bunch of 70s Conan comic books in a bargain bin.
My question is does anyone have any indie/Manga recommendations? It seems like Marvel and DC for the most part want to hire people who are clueless about or hate comic books (the lady doing the She-Hulk show as well as the guy hired to do the Superman movie come to mind). I think I may start supporting Alterna Comics as well.
Thanks in advance.
That is a very dangerous question. Manga covers every genre, so it's a little necessary to focus in on a specific genre. The conventional superhero genre isn't actually all that common in Japan. The virtuous hero type story tends to be shojo, girls manga.
So, the box standard super hero manga is Dragonball (specifically Z). It's a parade of ever escalating fights.
Then there's the subversive super fighter manga, One Punch Man, where the hero is so strong he suffers from lack of purpose from having no worthy opponents.
And the dark super fighter manga, Fist of the North Star, where basically everyone is built like a brick shithouse and can make their shirts explode by flexing.
And the even more darker super fighter manga, Battle Angel Alita, where landing a punch frequently results in people exploding.
Having read through at least 15 volumes of this, I'm calling bullshit on that manga being referred to as dark.
...
How about messy? That work better?
I guess? My baseline for "messy" or "dark" is Berserk. Alita is downright bubbly a lot of the time and the mess is just robot parts flying apart rather than mortal injuries.
In a series where multiple characters have various bullshitty ways of cheating death (none more so than Alita).
Come to think of it, Five Star Stories has that same problem.
You might enjoy Now and Then, Here and There. It's dark and horrible in a good way. Some guy said it gave him serious depression.
So I take it those are written for adults? Thanks!
Well, let's expand the terminology.
Shojo manga is targeted at school girls.
Josei is aimed at women teenage and older.
Shonen is for boys under teenage, and Seinen is basically all audiences but usually teenage and older guys.
Dragonball is definitely Shonen. Alita and Fist of the North Star are definitely seinen, and One Punch Man falls on the edge.
But that's just a tiny, tiny edge of manga. The norm in Japan is story lines that end, and there's a lot of diversity in stories. Some recent ones that come to mind include:
Fire Force - About a paramilitary group of pyromancers who fight fire elementals.
Goblin Slayer - Some edgy dark shit about a guy who is really, really committed to killing all goblins everywhere.
But those are all just fighting hero manga, and I'm not really even a fan of those because they don't have giant robots.
Which ones have giant robots? Wow you are right there is a to. Of Manga
Okay so mecha....
The ten ton gorilla franchise of mecha is Mobile Suit Gundam, of which there are quite literally dozens of individual storylines.
Gundam Origin is probably the easiest starting point for that one.
It's funny because I was about to say "How come you guys just don't recommend him some Warhammer 40K stuff for the giant mechs?" and then I remembered how Games Workshop went woke.
sigh
a bit late to this but im going to have to correct what that guy said. but shonen and shoujo is more for teens.
My Hero Academia - Superhero high school but in Japan. Popular with kids these days.
Dungeon Meshi - D&D cooking
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid - modern Japan slice of life
Tanya the evil - CAPITALISM HO! Isekai genre.
Kengan Ashura - typical fighting genre, does not make sense
Berserk - 80's fantasy, avoid the 3D anime unless you enjoy cringe
Black Lagoon - literal 80's action flick, has a manga and anime
Blame! - cyberpunk
Beware that most American localised manga imports are woke and have shitty Tumblrite translations. Tumblrite translations and shitty translations are also a problem with certain translation groups even on piracy online readers.
If you want to support authors, you should typically import from Japan directly.
Tanya is hardly Racette. She's not even Tear. "An economist's take on magitech World War 1" I think it a little more accurate.
I second the Dungeon Meshi recommendation, it's one of my favorites. It starts off feeling like a gag manga. The first few chapters are mostly just the crew encountering monsters, which are then turned into a gourmet dish, with jokes scattered throughout.
But, it slowly develops it's characters and plot, until eventually, you'll be reading for the story more than the funny gags. And the story is really good. I highly recommended it.
Thanks! I’m going to print this out.
Pluto - Detective story in a world with humans and heavily integrated robots.
One Punch Man About a hero that's somewhat strong, in a city where super heroes and monsters regularly fight
Ghost in the Shell Follows a special agent/forces group in a future where cybernetic implants are common. Written in the 90s.
Planetes - About a team of that clears debris in Earth's orbit, preventing it from impacting human vessels.
Berserk - Great art and story, grim-dark, but the artist takes long breaks, so it's still not done 31 years later.
Nichijou - Innocent & quality comedy
Blade of the Immortal About an immortal swordsman and the girl he decided to protect in her attempt to avenge her parents. Set in feudal Japan. Won an Eisner.
Mushishi - About a traveller that specialized in Mushi, "other" beings
Bakuman. - Manga about making manga, by authors of Death Note. Aimed at shounen (young male) audience, but still neat.
Heterogenia Linguistico linguist getting his first field experience communicating with netherworld races (werewolves, lizardmen). The races aren't standard human but look different, they have different languages, cultures, biological capabilities, and understandings.
If you want physical copies, and a local store doesn't stock a manga you want, or can't order it, there's https://www.rightstufanime.com/, which has free US shipping over $75.
I've picked up Pluto and Heterogenia Linguistico, thanks. I only started reading manga a couple years ago, so it's nice trying out recommendations.
I've been curious about the other works of the author of Monster, but I wrote it off as a fluke after being disappointed with a few random ones I tried. Pluto isn't putting me off, so I'm thinking maybe the author only excels at writing mystery type stuff. The art style (character design) is very refreshing.
Not to knock the content, but I'm surprised at the manga being recommended when the anime has such superb animation. Though the OP did specifically ask for comic format.
Pluto is set in a more realistic version of the Astro Boy universe, so he had Osamu Tezuka to rely on, I think Tezuka's son might have helped as well. He likely also had stories about security agencies from the real world as well (and other fictional stories using them). Astro is in this, but only a bit character, with the main character having none of Astro's powers, and serving a different role.
I read his 20th Century Boys, and enjoyed it, but after 10 volumes, I gave up. The ending was probably good, but it's felt like it was trivializing prior events to pad its length, and there was another 12 volumes to go. Enjoyed Billy Bat as well, but I started to get the same feeling, so I abandoned it sooner.
For Nichijou, it was like you said, he asked for comic/manga recommendations. All the manga I listed aside from Heterogenia have good anime, with Berserk's only good anime being the 1997 OLM version. If it was just anime (with Super Hero theme), I could list more, like Darker than Black also known as "Chinese Electric Batman," though the sequel falls short. There's The Big O which was made by the same animators as Batman Adventures, and has a number of similarities, except for the Giant Robots. Was supposed to be 3 seasons, but cut at the last minute to 2. There's also Inuyashiki a fun, dumb 1 season super power anime about a youth and old man are that accidentally killed by aliens, then "revived" in alien war robot bodies. Astrofighter Sunred isn't officially translated, but it's a good parody on the villain of the week power rangers-type show aimed at an adult audience (those that have to work, and go grocery shopping). Worth watching if you have the means.
Nichijou also has a follow-up Helvetica Standard that is only in manga form.
Do you know anything similar to Heterogenia Linguistico? I just caught up with online chapters, and it ended up being a lot better than it started. I enjoy linguistics, but get little out of raw academia, so this scratched a difficult itch.
I've already gone through basically everything listed in this thread, mostly due to anime availability. I'll try Astrofighter Sunred later today.
I'll be saving Pluto for a single long reading session. I could never really get into Astroboy; am I gonna be missing a lot of references?
There shouldn't be any problem reading Pluto with bare minimum if any knowledge of Astro Boy. Any prior knowledge is at most a bonus, the story is self contained. The feel and details have also been changed to better match the author of Monster.
For manga similar to Heterogenia: I can't remember much, so I'll add cultural difference ones too.
The closest that I know of is not a manga, but a visual novel called The Expression Amrilato. The MC randomly transitions into an extremely similar parallel world, but where people speak a modified Esperanto. Much of the game is about learning the language, apparently padded out with g-rated yuri. I haven't played it, so I can't say how good it actually is.
The currently airing anime Fumetsu no Anata e / To Your Eternity is about a completely blank slate mimic, that has to learn and gain an id from scratch. This includes not starting with any concept of speech, (or even food). It's Also just a good, original show. The manga original is rated highly, but I haven't read it. If you watch it, you may want to not watch the opening song (starts ep 2) because it's visuals are clips of future episodes.
I was summoned by the demon lord, but I can't understand her language is a fluffy comedy where a guy is summoned by a young demon lord but can't speak the world's language.
Salaryman ga Isekai ni Ittara Shitennou ni Natta Hanashi is an isekai about a salaryman who becomes a manager under the world's Demon King. He has to help unite the races under the king, which means he has to understand them, and solve their issues.
Arakawa Under the Bridge is about a weird/surreal characters that live in their own mini society under a bridge, with the MC being part of the regular world. No language barrier, but conflicts with different ways of being.
Natsume's Book of Friends doesn't deal with linguistics, but a teen figuring out his place in the world after being repeatedly abandoned as an orphan because he can see Yokai. The Yokai have fundamental differences, like perception of time, and what drives them, and what they're capable of.
Maoyu: Archenemy and Hero "Become mine, Hero" "I refuse" is an economics manga where the human hero and the archenemy demon lord secretly pair up to solve the issues of their combined peoples. It was originally a light novel, and there's two other versions of the manga, including this one. There's an anime as well, which once more has another art style.
I also read a manga about a character from Tokyo learning about one of the dialects in japan. I can't remember the name, or specific regional dialect, but it was like how colloquialisms in Australian or Irish/Scottish can at times be its own language.
Thanks, I will look into these.
"My favorite characters are Spider-Man, Superman, and Batman."
Good choices. Superman is one of the most wildly misunderstood (by modern audience) characters in comic book history... Odd because everyone knows who he is and what he looks like. (I'm mainly referring to the idea that Clark Kent is a disguise when Superman is in fact a humble, ordinary guy who is also an alien with insane superpowers.)
I also can't do Marvel and DC and focus on back issues. Too many garbage books at $5 and creators who openly hate comic fans.
Here's a couple "comics gate" associated guys who make comics. https://www.indiegogo.com/individuals/3778633/campaigns https://www.indiegogo.com/individuals/18535473
Boom Power Rangers
It sounds like Todd McFarlane is launching a Spawn universe. I haven't kept up with Spawn (I think I stopped around #170-190) but potentially interesting.
I checked in around the big anniversary issue milestone a while back. It was decent, but was certainly suffering from the same ‘exploded storytelling’ that everything else is these days.
If you do end up looking into the manga genre, I highly suggest "Full Metal Alchemist" and its accompanying anime "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood". It is considered a classic and is one of the few mangas that actually land the ending well.
I do not suggest Attack on Titan. Legit was going to be one of the best mangas ever with deep, complex topics and gore until the author dropped the ball with the last arc and the ending invalidating literally everything.
I thought the secret continent tweest was pretty amusing.
It was a pretty good twist and it sets up the later arcs well. Honestly, if you ignore the shitshow at the end, it pretty much a 9.5/10 like Game of Thrones.
Haven't kept up with Titan, but it sounded like he had a planned ending, then started to change it near the last moments to please fans / make it happier. I haven't been spoiled about the ending, so I'm not speaking with knowledge of what was actually chosen.
Well the anime is concluding next year so hopes that there is an anime original ending or they flesh out the ending
Manga recommendations?!
I'd love to help, but I definitely have trash taste.
So instead I'll go through the other replies, and echo ones I thought are good recommendations, with a short spoiler-free comment.
Goblin Slayer: They keep just enough realism in a high-fantasy adventure setting to keep things tense and to keep tactics interesting.
Gundam: Find a guide as to how to get into it, if you like comics I'm sure you're familiar with "100 multiverses, here's a guide as to how to introduce yourself to the franchise", but many of them are very good, and it's the keystone of the "giant mecha" genre.
Battle Angel Alita: Not just a semi-successful and bizarrely-hated-by-SJWs movie, it's a whole big story! Definitely one of the older works on here, though, so take a gander at if the art style is alright with you.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Probably as close to a western superhero manga as you'll get theme and tone-wise, even if no one is going out to save innocents. You got buff super men (and women) beating the shit out of other buff super men (and women), where the good guys pick posies by the riverside and the bad guys rape puppies, but they still include occasional morality dilemmas and whatnot. Very western comic style: The villains are villains, the heroes are heroes, every two dozen issues the hero changes.
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For my own suggestions... If you can get past the shojo ("girly comic") art style, Code Geass is an excellent modern-ish era mastermind/war/superpowers/giant-mecha/romance story. The genres shouldn't mix, but they do quite well.
And then ONLY AFTER BEING WELL-ACQUAINTED WITH MANGA... "Kill la Kill." It uses a lot of Japanese anime/manga tropes and plays with them, so there wouldn't be as much enjoyment of it without that background knowledge.
When I got into comics I specifically avoided Marvel and DC because they have such an enormous backlog. As a result I can probably sit here and rattle off some good ones for you. Off the top of my head Bomb Queen is a series you should check out. Kind of an interesting approach to super hero genre from the perspective of the villain, with zero punches pulled for delicate sensibilities of the offended. We might be here a while as I rummage through my backlog.
Princess Ugg by Ted Naifeh - it only ran for two volumes but it remains one of my favorite comics. Good art, good humor, an adventure where the exotic landscape is civilization and it's one of the few comics that has moved me to tears. There's some rather melancholy moments in it. Really anything by Ted Naifeh is usually worth a look at least.
For manga, just pick up Berserk. Honestly, if you can only get one manga it should be that one. The artwork is insanely detailed with a dark fantasy story that benefits immensely from having one crazy man doing the entire thing. You will wait years between volumes though. God I hope he finishes the story before he dies.
Death Vigil by Stjepan Sejic - sort of Cthulu meets the grim reaper by way of post mortem super heroes. The main driver here is the author's excellent wit and sense of humor. Since it's entirely the author's creation you get to really see him shine and the characters are endearing. Highly recommend this one.
Freak Angels - the world ended by way of flooding and it's because this handful of idiots has super powers. Something of a character drama I think? Very compelling premise/world building. It scratches that itch of "I want to know what happened and what's going to happen next". I think the webcomic version might still be kicking around if you want to save money.
Gunnerkrigg Court - I can't give you a good summary, perhaps someone else here can give it a go. Suffice it to say, I devoured the webcomic years ago. When it showed up on Comixology I did not hesitate to throw money at purchasing it. It is that good; Probably better.
Injection - mythology and the internet team up to invade the real world...or something. It was a strange trip but I think it died on the vine. Maybe skip this one, but the concept was really engaging.
Junior Braves of the Apocalypse - some boy scouts deal with the zombie apocalypse. It was well executed, though I don't think it concluded.
Looking for Group - you're either a fan of this guy's work or you're not.
Monstress - gorgeous art. Little girl has elder god monster inside her and it eats people. Low fantasy world with air ships and regional wars between humans and Arcanics. A rather serious tone to the whole thing but I've been enjoying it as it releases for three volumes now.
Next Town Over - another one that started as a webcomic and I picked up on Comixology. It's a steampunk/fantasy western following a very dark lover's spat as far as I've been able to piece together. Definitely worth a look.
Pinocchio Vampire Slayer - if you're not intrigued by the name alone I can't help you. It exists and it was worth my time and money.
Shadow Girls - Mother/Daughter duo hosting an elder god while a rival elder god fuck with them and their town as they try to figure out what the hell's going on. This one did not conclude but what is there is worth exploring if you can still track it down. It started life as a webcomic.
Sorcery 101 - Some jackass is learning to be a wizard mostly because the dick of a vampire he's beholden to thinks it'd be funny. He's dealing with a divorce, he's a school teacher as his day job and his buddy's a werewolf married to a mage. Their daughter growls as much as the family dog. Adventures and womanizing ensues.
Spinnerette - Basically if peter parker were a ditzy blonde instead. Comedic super hero stuff with a dash of fan service, or at least not being shy about making women hot. If you're looking for super hero genre that can laugh at itself this is probably your jam.
Sunstone - Lesbian BDSM Romance. You'll actually genuinely end up enjoying it for the story and character development as much as for the cheesecake. Another gem from Stjepan Sejic.
The Wastelands: Rahu - an interesting character sketch of a piece. Follows a lonely outcast through the wilderness while offering glimpses into his past. Short but interesting
I have more but I think those are probably the ones most worth mentioning. Do let me know which of these you end up checking out and what you think of them.
I know that looking for group is reportedly better than the other guy's comic least I could do.
Thank you! That is a lot to start with. I’ll look for Bomb Queen first
I expect quarterly progress reports.
Also you're quite welcome. I've spent the better part of the last seven years preparing to answer this exact thread with my comic purchasing habits.
I sure miss how females were drawn back then. Visually appealing for male audience hehe.
I’d agree on checking out the old stuff from Marvel and DC. I still have yet to read Frank Miller’s Daredevil stuff, and I’m happy I’ve got that to look forward to in the future. Even your average run-of-the-mill title by a lesser known creative team is probably going to look like a masterpiece compared to what’s being put out these days.
Check out classic 2000 AD stuff, too, if you never have. As to French (or Belgian, as is sometimes the case), I often prefer classic stuff, too. Tintin, Lucky Luke, Asterix. May be too lighthearted for some now, but checking out a few stories will be a bit of an education, if you are not familiar with them already. I’m no expert, but most of the modern French comics I’ve tried have been kind of dull and pretentious.
There’s some interesting Italian stuff, like Diabolik, but very little of it has been translated to English, and I don’t think it’s readily available. Mort Todd, who worked at Mad or Cracked years ago is publishing the old Killing photo comics as “Sadistik,” but I think only 6 issues have been done. They’re a riot, but photo comics are very 60s European, and may not be everyone’s thing.
Old comic strips (can you tell I like old stuff yet?) like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, The Phantom, Dick Tracy, can be cool, too. Most of those should be pretty accessible to give a try without much or any money down.
Some manga series I would recommend:
One Punch Man - A parody of traditional superhero stories, but in a way that is both very funny and can be quite emotional.
Liar Game - A story about a secret gambling ring. Focused on the themes of doubting and trusting people.
Kaiji - Another series about gambling, with a headstrong protagonist who doesn't really know when to stop.
Death Note - Where a highschool kid gets a book that lets him kill people by writing their name in it. It's heavy on psychology and mystery.
Monster - About a doctor who gets suspected for murder and needs to hunt down the real killer.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - A long series where each part has a different protagonist from the same family. Lots of fighting using supernatural abilities.
Seconding Monster. Great phycological manga and delves into what the commies were up to behind the iron curtain. They did try to do what the manga explains at one time or another and a certain orphanage was based off the real world Torgau a "home" for 'difficult children' aka the kids of executed dissidents, would be defectors and anti communists.
For western comics:
Sandman Mystery Theatre about a guy that goes around in a gas mask and a sleeping gas gun to solve crime in the 1930s. A retelling of a non-powered DC hero from the golden age.
Fear Agent Sci-fi story about an alien exterminator.
Astro City is a series set in a city with large numbers of super heroes and villains. I've only read a few volumes, and they followed different heroes stories, so they felt more-or-less independent from one another. Can't say anything about whether any of the other, or more recent volumes are full of it
Y the Last Man was good when I read it eons ago. About the last man on earth after an apparent virus took out all the other human males. This was written back when that "the approved message" didn't considered that a good thing. Not sure what I'd feel if I read it now with the modern baggage, but probably still good.
I've given up on western comics, and haven't read any in a while, so that's unfortunately the best I have. Ironically I used to go out of my way to read comics with female leads, or comics that seemed different, but did less and less as I didn't want to risk potential radiation poisoning, until I just couldn't care anymore.
I'll second Berserk, Blame!, One Punch Man and Blade of the Immortal.
Off the top of my head, some more (mostly older) stuff I haven't seen mentioned yet:
-Lone Wolf and Cub
-New Lone Wolf and Cub
-Path of the Assassin
-Nausicaä of the Vallley of the Wind
-Akira
-The Monkey King
Weeb central lol
Anyway for indie comics I highly recommend The Walking Dead, even if you’ve seen (some of) the show, the comic is its own world, and imo is/was way better than the show (haven’t kept up with either lately though)
I read the walking dead. Much better than the show. I’m honestly surprised the comic book ended with a good father.
Is it over? Huh maybe I should try and finish it, I stopped somewhere around issue 80 I think
Sorry for spoiling! Yea I used to buy it and when they announced it was ending I had gotten tired of the show so I decided to finish the comic book and I haven’t watched the show in 3 years
Cool! Thanks!
There are other things out there besides just comic books. Duranty's manga list is a good place to start but I'd also look at other books you can find as well. things like art books that Dark Horse put out regularly I've been looking at, The downside is that they very in price, recent one put out by EA on Bioware is like $15 but this Breath of Fire one in english is like $80. The Homeworld one was a backer exclusive for the fig campaign and is like $500.
I love Artbooks. All of these are on exhentai, search $artbook and misc or other.
Second is try looking at French comics. I'm not into it myself but the art is good and Razor likes it so it's worth a mention. It's Titan Comics that imports and translates the Elric series he likes. Also found a Good List from 4chan, most of these look translated.
I’m a heavy book reader as well. I’ve heard razorfist talking about French comics. Wasn’t there a movie based off of French comics?
Elric in particular no, because like Neuromancer it's stuck in dev hell because of how many connections the Witcher ripped off from it, for example the phrase "Conjunction of spheres." As for french comic movies, again not really. You get the occasional one like an animated Asterix movie a few years back but I don't really keep up with it.
Valeriam and the thousand planets iirc
Shuūmatsu no Valkyrie - really good fights, and a interesting story with good characters, imagine different gods fighting with important humans.