laughable books can be a hard to get into , what with their year of serial storytelling and convoluted continuity . as luck would have it , there are pot of one - and - done graphic novels out there . Here are some of the best four - color gateway drugs .
In peck these book , I tried to head off clean from the über - obvious ( Watchmen ) and those books about familiar superheroes ( Dark Knight Returns ) . We screw ourselves some ness here at io9 , but the mass medium goes beyond up , up , and aside . Also , I need to keep the option low-cost , self - contained , and accessible — you should be capable to see all of these books at a fair price online . And with these stand - alone stories , all you require is one hitting .
Orbiter by Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran ( 2003 )
In the close future , Kennedy Space Center has been abandoned after the Space Shuttle Venture disappear in orbit . 10 years later , the Venture give to Kennedy … covered in constitutive skin . What happen to the crew ? For a Warren Ellis book , Orbiter is surprisingly free of scatologically florid abuse , chain - smoking protagonists , and imperil eviscerations . It ’s also one of his more hopeful Word of God and offers an extraterrestrial tale distort with — dare I say ? — humanism .
Black Hole by Charles Burns ( lastly compile in 2005 )
Burns ’ graphic novel take on a decade to finish , but it was worth it . In the suburbia of Seattle , stripling who are infect with a mutagenic Venus’s curse are exiled to the woods . We do n’t know where “ The hemipterous insect ” came from , but we do acknowledge that growing up sucks a lot more when you sprout an additional mouth on your throat . Robert Burns will be back in October with his Tintin - inspiredX’ed Out . speak of which …
Tintin in Tibet by Hergé ( 1958 )
The Tintin series dabbled in skill fiction — Flight 714 harness ancient astronauts , The Calculus Affair featured superweapons , and this book stars an adversary most abominable . But antagonist is too abrasive of a Holy Scripture , as the book has no villain . In this dangerous undertaking , Tintin searches for his old friend Chang , whose plane has crashed in the Himalayas . Easily the most beautiful Tintin Bible in both visuals and narrative , Tintin in Tibet is a rumination on loneliness , ritual killing , and the powerfulness of Leslie Townes Hope against a merciless frozen backdrop . It ’s the most ripe and approachable Tintin tale by far , and the story ’s just contingent on the male child reporter ’s prior adventure .
Heavy Liquid by Paul Pope ( 1999 )
Somewhere in late 21st one C New York City , a man name “ S ” is stream a mysterious metal into his pinna canal . This metallic element is n’t on the Periodic Table , but it gives you one helluva buzz … and that man in the Picasso masque is one of several dodgy characters who need it . Paul Pope builds a future that ’s not much different from our own , bar the 30 - minute transatlantic flight and DoD robots . Pope ’s nontextual matter get the story all the more credible — he depicts the shadows and crimp of reality like no one else in comicdom .
wonder Boy by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones ( 2000 )
Marvel Boy is a superhero comic that remixes 1960s Marvel figure of speech with Grant Morrison ’s best eminent concept weirdness . Gamma - powered superintendent - soldiers ! Living corporations ! Mind - control saliva ! You do n’t postulate to make love anything about the Kree Empire , S.H.I.E.L.D. , or the Marvel Universe whatsoever to appreciate James Bond - esque vicious billionaires in Iron Man armour . The titular Marvel Boy is a fixture of the 616 Universe today , but his modern appearances have almost nothing to do with this shimmering pappa montage .
Ronin by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley ( 1983 )
Ronin does n’t get the love of other Frank Miller books , which is a commiseration . The moving-picture show ’s been in development hell for a while now , but no matter . This pictorial novel about an ancient samurai loose in dystopian New York City evokes both the grittiness of 1980s comic strip and a future tense where human evolution ’s go haywire .
Enigma by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo ( 1993 )
One of the earliest titles from DC ’s Vertigo line , Enigma is one of Peter Milligan ’s finest works . Murderous supervillains from Michael Smith ’s childhood comic are coming to life . Who ’s doing this ? What control condition does the comic ’s author have over these fiber ? And what does this have to do with Michael ’s sexuality ? This funnily sweet book is filled with enough metatextual metahumans to live up to any Vertigo aficionado .
I shoot down Giants by Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura ( 2008 )
Barbara Thorson is a D&D have a go at it 5th grader who makes some rather bold claims about her titan - slaying abilities . This does n’t endear her to her schoolmate , but when elements of her phantasy set out to pervade the real world , Thorson must make good on her jactitation . This here ’s a trippy and charming add up - of - old age apologue .
Comicspaul popeRoninTintin
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