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.
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.