Expert? Me? Nahhh

“And watch out for Molly. See if she does anything unusual. There’s something I don’t trust about the way she exploded and then came back from the dead like that.”
― David Wong, John Dies at the End

Alright, alright I might be a very slight expert in “science fiction and fantasy” novels. But saying I am an expert in something makes me sound pretentious as hell. So lets just say I have read a hell of a lot across all sub-genres of sci-fi and fantasy, I used to run my own book club, and I cried when I got to hug Neil Gaiman. Like literal tears. Take what you want from that and I won’t feel like a douche. With all the reading I have done in sci-fi/fantasy, I feel like maybe I have tapped the genre for awhile. I have wanted a new challenge.

Become an “expert” in graphic novels you say?! Challenge accepted my friend. Last year I set a goal for myself to read 50 graphic novels. What that actually means is that I read 50 and than the series following the first book. Turned out to be a whole lot of freaking books. There were really… really bad ones. Twilight.

Why did I do that to myself?

And some exceptional, incredible, not enough epithets in the english language for how good these books are, ones. Saga, and Transmetropolitan I am looking at you. It is a crying shame how much maligned this genre is. Ohhhhhhh comic books… how deep. You can suck it.

So of course, because if you haven’t noticed my not so buried neurosis about lists, you are starting to now. I found a list and started working on it. I want to finish it this year. I’ll write some posts about my favorites and see if I can turn a few of you to the dark side of comics/graphic novels and become and semi-knowledgeable person in the process.

My list as well as my running tally on all books that I have read can be found here:

My Goodreads Awesomeness

Here is the particular list I have been following as a primer. Best Graphic Novels

1. Watchman
2. The Complete Maus
3. V for Vendetta
4. The Sandman – Vol. 1
5. The Complete Persepolis
6. Batman – The Dark Knight Returns
7. Batman – The killing Joke.
8. Blankets
9. Y – The last man.
10. Batman Year 1
11. Fables – Legends in Exile.
12. The Walking Dead – Vol. 1
13. Scott Pilgrims Precious little life.
14. Bone
15. Fun Home – A family tragicomic
16. Saga vol. 1
17. Sin City Vol. 1
18. Ghost World
19. Batman the long Halloween
20. Preacher – Vol. 1
21. Death Note – Vol. 1
22. Transmetropolitan – Vol. 1
23. From Hell
24. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Vol. 1
25. Batman Arkham Asylum
26. The Arrival
27. Black Hole
28. American Born Chinese
29. Hellboy Vol. 1
30. Asterios Polyp
31. Akira Vol. 1
32. Locke and Key, Vol 1.
33. 300
34. Jimmy Corrigan – Smartest kid on Earth
35. Kingdom Come
36. Superman: Red Son
37. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
38. Habibi
39. Marvel 1602
40. Daytripper
41. Death the high cost of living
42. Marvels
43. Allstar Superman
44. Saga of the Swamp Thing
45. Pride of Baghdad
46. Astonishing x-men Vol. 1
47. Runaways Deluxe Vol. 1
48. Asterix the Gaul
49. Palestine
50. The Umbrella Academy Vol. 1
51. X-men The Dark Phoenix Saga
52. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
53. Stardust: Being a Romance among Fairy
54. Batman: Hush Vol. 1
55. The Absolute Sandman Vol 1
56. The Lone Wolf Club, Vol 1
57. Chew Vol. 1 Update 2-23-16
58. Buffy the long way home
59. Stitches
60. Epileptic
61. Fullmetal Alchemist
62. A contract with God
63. The Crow
64. Planetary Vol. 1
65. We3
66. Anya’s Ghost
67. 100 Bullets
68. Identity Crisis
69. Pyongyang – A journey into North Korea
70. Batman Dark Victory
71. Persepolis vol 1 and 2
72. The invention of Hugo Cabret
73. Astro City, Vol. 1
74. American Vampire, Vol. 1
75. Shortcomings
76. The Dark Tower, Vol. 1
77. The Ghost in the Shell, Vol. 1
78. The complete Essex county
79. Promethea Vol. 1
80. I kill Giants
81. The Ultimates
82. The Maxx, Vol. 1
83. Goodbye, Chunky Rice
84. Mouse Guard Fall, 1152
85. Fire and Flight
86. The Invisibles
87. Ex Machina Vol. 1
88. X-men days of future past
89. Safe Area Gorazde
90. DMZ, Vol. 1
91. Squee’s Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors
92. Embroideries
93. Wolverine: Origin
94. The Rabbi’s Cat
95. Top 10, vol. 1
96. Blacksad
97. 30 days of night, Vol. 1
98. Ronin
99. Castle Waiting, Vol. 1
100. One Hundred Demons

Whew big list, right? I think it is a good place to start. Honestly, I will be no kind of expert when done with it. But, I will have a greater understanding of the genre and can move forward from there. I also notice some Fabbbbbbulous books /series that unfortunately didn’t make the cut. Namely, The Boys by Garth Ennis.  Good Times to be had. If you have any books that you think might be interesting, I would love to hear about them. I am always on the lookout.