"Cross Cultural" comics and manga recs list (along with a few novels and anime)
I'm pretty much a big, fat lurker in comics and manga fandom, so I have no idea if anyone's done what I'm doing right now... But for those who aren't all that big on one or the other side of the fence-- and yes, there's a pretty big fence between both groups and has been for a good number of years -- recently, the on and off topic in the blogs and online was the good old manga versus comics debate. Which is better, what's the difference, etc.
Anyway, between the flames and meta and wotnot, I noticed that there's been people who started to ask for comics recs, or manga recs and the person doing the asking is getting names/titles from people who very obviously don't read their genre of interest. I think a lot of female readers trying to get into comics have had that problem? You know, where the guy tries to get you to read what he likes, but not at all what you would generally like to read at all? I kinda started slapping myself in the face when someone who adored From Hell got recs like, "Fruits Basket and Prince of Tennis ARE THE CUTEST MANGA EVAR!", or "Yami no Matsuei is the deepest thing you'll ever find!".... and the same thing happening vice versa. Someone who only reads fluffy manga gets slapped with something filled with death and heavy text and not a lot of fun...
I suppose people are well meaning. It's only natural that people like to rec what they like and wish to share their own joy. But if you come across someone who doesn't want to read what you enjoy reading, what's a person to do? I kinda tend to glom onto just about anything, no matter the genre-- so I decided to make a color coded list. You know... 'If you like this comic, you may like this because it's got this content and this style of art. Or, if you like this manga, you'll probably really like this comic because it's totally your thing.'
In a way, I guess you can call this my Primer Into The Other recs list. Hopefully... people will find this helpful.
(Recs list for artist reference coming later)
---------------------------------
All the manga titles I've listed have been either licensed and translated by a US company, or are scanslated. Same with anime.
Feel free to make your own reccomendations to me? Though, I may not necessarily add it to the list if I feel it doesn't fit anywhere. (Or I just might make another list.) I'm very open to suggestions. This current list is pretty much off the top of my head, and there's a lot that I've seen or skimmed, or had some contact with that I can't remember the name of.
Keep in mind that, depending on which story arc, many of the mainstream American comics tend to have a little of every type of genre. How much a specific story is in what genre is also highly dependent on the particular writer chosen for that series of issues. If you want to rec something from any of the superhero story arcs, please mention the artist, writer, issue and trade#. Also, try to make sure that the arc is fairly standalone and a reader coming in without any knowledge of the backstory won’t be completely lost.
In the list, I have also included anime that I feel have been done better than the manga, and in some cases, even the original or spinoff novels. (because Japanese media tends to be totally in bed with each other)
You will also notice that I am ommiting a lot of the Superhero comics from the Science-fiction section. While pretty much 90% of them have some sort of sci-fi element, I don't quite count them as total sci-fi stories. Err... Unless you have some very specific issues/story arcs in mind.
There are titles that I felt were somewhat borderline, so you will see them repeated in more than one category.
Much thanks to vonbrigthi whose tastes = mine own, and whom helped me a great deal with fleshing out my list. Same to dutchoven. :P And thanks to quixotic_sense for edits.
THE KEY
* there's some sort of media offshoot, whether it's a novel, anime or movie
# I've never read it, though I have seen pages/issues.
teal is for comics
greenish is for manga
orange is for media/novel
Lists to be updated as I get recs in. :)
ART/SCRIPT TRANSITIONING
Stories with even scripts and art that might transition over better for those who have difficulty with “ugly/too realistic/too frozen” or “unrealistic/over stylized and big eyes” artwork. Before anyone says it, for media that depends so much on what you see, visual style and pacing is important and a very legitimate issue. If your eyes can't accept or make sense of what you see, there's no use reading it, is there? (hence why current Shoujo isn't necessarily a very good springboard for someone who tends to read stories structured on a 9 block grid.)
Manga to Comics
Superman-Shazam - First Thunder (Judd Winick and Josh Middleton)
Cable & Deadpool (Fabian Nicieza)
Nextwave (Warren Ellis)
Fables (Bill Willingham)
The Pride of Baghdad (Brian K. Vaughan)
Superman: Secret Identity (Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen)
Kabuki (David Mack)
Re-Gifter (Mike Carey, Marc Hempel, Sonny Liew)#
Scott Pilgrim (Bryan Lee O'Malley)#
Polly and the Pirates (Ted Naifeh)
Comics to Manga
Blade of the Immortal (Hiroaki Samura)
Vagabond (Takehiko Inoue)
Jiraishin/Ice Blade (Takahashi Tsutomu)
Monster (Naoki Urasawa)
BLAME! (Tsutomu Nihei)
Slam Dunk (Takehiko Inoue)
20th Century Boys (Naoki Urasawa)
Eagle: The Making of an Asian American President (Kaiji Kawaguchi)
Death Note (Tsugumi Ohba)
SERIOUS HISTORICAL fiction/Political based stories
From Hell (Alan Moore) Jack the Ripper, very text heavy
MAUS (Art Spiegelman) WWII Holocaust
Road to Perdition* (Max Allan Collins, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Steve Lieber, Yosef Rubenstien) 1920s Prohibition
The Four Immigrants Manga : A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924 # (Henry Kiyama) Possibly more historical than it is fictional. Written/created in the time period being documented. I'm counting it as a "comic" because it's format may not be recognizable as what is generally considered "manga" today, it was created in the US and meant for an American bilingual audience.
ADOLF# (Osamu Tezuka) WWII Holocaust
Vagabond (Takehiko Inoue) how a wandering vagrant became Miyamoto Musashi
Phoenix (Osamu Tezuka) (sort of-this one might be stretching it) The creation of the world
Rose of Versailles* # (Riyoko Ikeda) French Revolution
Ravages of Time # (Chan Mau) One of the many adaptations of the historical classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms-a wartime story of ancient China
Eagle: The Making of an Asian American President (Kaiji Kawaguchi) Follows a Japanese American to the Presidency. Sort of a West Wing with an Asian American lead.
Emma*# (Kaoru Mori) Tells the life of a maid during the Victorian era.
And I also just noticed that almost every single one of these are award-winning stories.
COPS/DETECTIVES/MYSTERY/Serials
Gotham Central (Greg Rucka and various others) Gotham City has Batman… but it also has fully functioning police/legal system that still wants to do its job despite all the freaky types running around
Scene of the Crime# (Ed Brubaker)
Kane# (Paul Grist)
Ruse (Mark Waid) mysteries with mystical elements
Jiraishin (Takahashi Tsutomu) A Shinjuku homicide detective and his cases. Picked up by TP for a couple volumes under the name “Iceblade” and then dropped. Look for scanslations.
Ghost Hunt* (Shiho Inada and Fuyumi Ono) A group of religious types, paranormal researchers and espers solve mysteries involving strange events harming regular people
SERIOUS CHARACTER DRAMA WITH PERSONAL FOCUS
Mr. Punch (Neil Gaiman and Dave Mckean)
Blankets (Craig Thompson)
The Enigma (Peter Milligan, Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh, and Duncan Fegredo)
Superman: Secret Identity (Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen)
Ghost World* (Daniel Clowes)
Kabuki (David Mack)
Same Difference (Derek Kirk Kim)
Paul Auster’s City of Glass
Honey + Clover* (Chika Umino)
Ping Pong (Taiyo Matsumoto)
GO! GO! Monster! (Taiyo Matsumoto)
Helter Skelter (Hiatari Ryoukou)
Red Garden (GONZO)
SINGLE HERO/CHARACTER DRAMA with events focus
While most stories have events and character change, this category is for the stories more about the characters and their existence/state of mind through events and how they develop, rather than a problem being fixed (though they often go hand in hand). Slight shade of difference with narrative tone.
Y the Last Man (Brian K. Vaughan)
Superman: Secret Identity (Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen)
Superman: Red Son (Mark Millar)
The Enigma (Peter Milligan, Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh, and Duncan Fegredo)
Various stories by Enki Bilal
The Sentry (Jae Lee)
Creature Tech (Doug Tennapal)
Monster* (Naoki Urasawa)
20th Century Boy (Naoki Urasawa) (?) This is an odd one. Like the Red Pony and many other stories, the “main character” I’m thinking about doesn’t actually physically show up until way later in the series. It’s a mystery where the development is through other people’s eyes.
Utena* # (Chiho Saito) looks very shoujo. I think it’s shoujo? Err, not really a romance… There are two mangas. One that the anime and movie was adapted off of, and a manga that was later adapted off the movie. I’m not sure which one it was that was picked for translation.
Paradise Kiss (Yazawa Ai) Romance (sorta: This, like the following “Nana” is less about the romance that it’s about the girls’ development through the events in their lives-it just so happens that love is one of the main events. Of course, this is my personal opinion. The romance features so heavily that it can easily be the other way around...)
Nana (Yazawa Ai)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind* # (Hayao Miyazaki) Never read the manga, but I've seen Miyazaki's sequential work before and he's very solid. Considering how good the movie is, I assume the manga will be similar.
Phantom Memory Kurau (BONES)
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (anime and novel) the anime has the distinction of excellent animation, a bizarre first episode and a very novel broadcast where the episodes where shown out of order. (the story made perfect sense even when out of order and I believe the US company releasing the English version was able to fight for a DVD version with the original broadcast order. The Japanese DVDs have the episodes in the order they’re supposed to come in.)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
GENERAL DRAMA/stories about life where stuff happens (none or low sci-fi/fantasy elements and isn’t about the introspective navel gazing)
General or serious
Mail Order Bride # (Mark Kalesniko)
Sexy Voice and Robo (Iou Kuroda)
BECK and the Mongolian Chop Squad (Harold Sakuishi)
BECK and the Mongolian Chop Squad I don’t know how they’re dealing with the dub, but in the Japanese version, the Engrish is truly cringe-worthy. I still think it’s worth watching, though. Especially if you’re into band/music stories.
Humorous
Gokusen* (Morimoto Kozueko) Josei school drama. It’s very badly drawn, but the story makes up for it in spades and you can actually see the artist improving from volume to volume which is strangely gratifying. I DON’T recommend either the anime or the live dramas.
GTO* (Fujisawa Tohru) came before Gokusen, but with a male lead
Bad Company (Fujisawa Tohru) past history story about two adult characters from GTO as gang kids
Honey & Clover* (Chika Umino) art students, life, love, purpose and existence. The manga is incredibly whimsical and the anime has buckets of atmosphere, great music and wonderful acting. Up to you which you go for.
Rokudenashi Blues (Masanori Morita) On one hand, it’s about highschool boxing. On the other, it’s about gang kids punching their way into a better future. It’s also a highschool drama.
ACTION ADVENTURE without Ensemble
Daredevil (chapters that are written by Bendis, drawn by Maleev)
Cable & Deadpool (Fabian Nicieza)
Invincible (Ryan Kirkman)
Global Frequency# (Warren Ellis)
Demo# (Brian Wood)
Ex Machina (Brian K. Vaughan)
Trigun* (Yasuhiro Nightow)
Parasyte (Hitoshi Iwaaki)
Rurouni Kenshin* (Nobuhiro Watsuki)
Samurai Jack (Cartoon Network) Beautiful animation style that may seem simplistic/ugly at first... but is actually suprisingly complex. Incredible soundtrack. Pop culture references. Suprising level of violence and solid story telling that DOES occasionally go deeper than one would think it would.
ACTION ADVENTURE/Ensemble/Team
Younger crowd
JLA and Batman toonverse comics*
W.I.T.C.H. (Elisabetta Gnone)
Naruto* (Masashi Kishimoto)
One Piece (Eiichiro Oda) *
(note: even though I say these two stories are geared more towards the younger teen/tween crowd, they do have their own dose of surprisingly violent and mature themes whereas the toonverse comics tends to gloss those things over.)
Magic Knights Rayearth* (CLAMP) I personally loved the animated OVA 3 episode series. I didn't get to see much of the manga, but I saw enough of it to notice that the regular TV series had been adapted pretty faithfully off of it.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nickelodeon) Has a few kiddish moments, and some weird pacing here and there, but it's actually something I would call "all ages" without being so dumb that as an adult, I feel stupid watching it. (A problem I find in a lot of so-called "all ages" stories these days), a cast of real characters with strengths and faults irregardless of race or gender. No default white people. Female characters that are actual characters, rather than someone relegated to being "The Girl" or "The feminist", both of which I find incredibly off putting. Real Kung Fu.
Lighter mature fare (or stuff with a wide tone range)
Top 10 (Alan Moore)
The 49ers (Alan Moore) in the same Universe as Top 10
Runaways (Brian K. Vaughan)
Wildcats Volume 2 + 3 (Joe Casey and Sean Phillips)
Blue Beetle (Keith Giffen and John Rogers, and artist Cully Hamner)
The Highwaymen (Adam Freeman, Marc Bernardin)
Annihilation: Star-Lord (Keith Giffen)
Bleach* (Kubo Tite) There is a significant tonal shift from the manga to anime due to word choice changes and various other presentation issues. I find the manga more believable, edgier and better paced.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures* (Hirohiko Araki) completely over the top blood and fight scenes
Cowboy Bebop
Serious
The Authority (Warren Ellis)
The Losers (Andy Diggle/Jock)
The Inhumans (Jae Lee)
20th Century Boys (Naoki Urasawa)
Full Metal Alchemist* (Hiromu Arakawa)
Red Garden (GONZO)
Despite the level of blood (which some think elevates maturity level) I actually wouldn’t recommend manga series like Naruto or One Piece to people who like the Authority because that sort of book is a bit more….mature themed? Someone who regularly prefers that sort of story may find some of the Shonen Jump titles a little young. FMA and 20th Century Boys are at a similar level of maturity, JoJo is in a class of its own, and BLEACH, while young, has a level of trendy pop culture attitude and sarcastic humor that I think would be refreshing and entertaining to more than one age group. While Naruto and One Piece are very firmly Jump manga house style, Bleach manages takes those common manga Jump clichés and twists them around a bit. (It’s slightly more self aware) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures is also a Jump title, but like I keep telling everyone, it’s pretty much in a class of its own. You’d be surprised at some of the things Jump seems to think is appropriate to market at the “young boy” crowd. D:
List 2
List 3
Anyway, between the flames and meta and wotnot, I noticed that there's been people who started to ask for comics recs, or manga recs and the person doing the asking is getting names/titles from people who very obviously don't read their genre of interest. I think a lot of female readers trying to get into comics have had that problem? You know, where the guy tries to get you to read what he likes, but not at all what you would generally like to read at all? I kinda started slapping myself in the face when someone who adored From Hell got recs like, "Fruits Basket and Prince of Tennis ARE THE CUTEST MANGA EVAR!", or "Yami no Matsuei is the deepest thing you'll ever find!".... and the same thing happening vice versa. Someone who only reads fluffy manga gets slapped with something filled with death and heavy text and not a lot of fun...
I suppose people are well meaning. It's only natural that people like to rec what they like and wish to share their own joy. But if you come across someone who doesn't want to read what you enjoy reading, what's a person to do? I kinda tend to glom onto just about anything, no matter the genre-- so I decided to make a color coded list. You know... 'If you like this comic, you may like this because it's got this content and this style of art. Or, if you like this manga, you'll probably really like this comic because it's totally your thing.'
In a way, I guess you can call this my Primer Into The Other recs list. Hopefully... people will find this helpful.
(Recs list for artist reference coming later)
---------------------------------
All the manga titles I've listed have been either licensed and translated by a US company, or are scanslated. Same with anime.
Feel free to make your own reccomendations to me? Though, I may not necessarily add it to the list if I feel it doesn't fit anywhere. (Or I just might make another list.) I'm very open to suggestions. This current list is pretty much off the top of my head, and there's a lot that I've seen or skimmed, or had some contact with that I can't remember the name of.
Keep in mind that, depending on which story arc, many of the mainstream American comics tend to have a little of every type of genre. How much a specific story is in what genre is also highly dependent on the particular writer chosen for that series of issues. If you want to rec something from any of the superhero story arcs, please mention the artist, writer, issue and trade#. Also, try to make sure that the arc is fairly standalone and a reader coming in without any knowledge of the backstory won’t be completely lost.
In the list, I have also included anime that I feel have been done better than the manga, and in some cases, even the original or spinoff novels. (because Japanese media tends to be totally in bed with each other)
You will also notice that I am ommiting a lot of the Superhero comics from the Science-fiction section. While pretty much 90% of them have some sort of sci-fi element, I don't quite count them as total sci-fi stories. Err... Unless you have some very specific issues/story arcs in mind.
There are titles that I felt were somewhat borderline, so you will see them repeated in more than one category.
Much thanks to vonbrigthi whose tastes = mine own, and whom helped me a great deal with fleshing out my list. Same to dutchoven. :P And thanks to quixotic_sense for edits.
THE KEY
* there's some sort of media offshoot, whether it's a novel, anime or movie
# I've never read it, though I have seen pages/issues.
teal is for comics
greenish is for manga
orange is for media/novel
Lists to be updated as I get recs in. :)
ART/SCRIPT TRANSITIONING
Stories with even scripts and art that might transition over better for those who have difficulty with “ugly/too realistic/too frozen” or “unrealistic/over stylized and big eyes” artwork. Before anyone says it, for media that depends so much on what you see, visual style and pacing is important and a very legitimate issue. If your eyes can't accept or make sense of what you see, there's no use reading it, is there? (hence why current Shoujo isn't necessarily a very good springboard for someone who tends to read stories structured on a 9 block grid.)
Manga to Comics
Superman-Shazam - First Thunder (Judd Winick and Josh Middleton)
Cable & Deadpool (Fabian Nicieza)
Nextwave (Warren Ellis)
Fables (Bill Willingham)
The Pride of Baghdad (Brian K. Vaughan)
Superman: Secret Identity (Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen)
Kabuki (David Mack)
Re-Gifter (Mike Carey, Marc Hempel, Sonny Liew)#
Scott Pilgrim (Bryan Lee O'Malley)#
Polly and the Pirates (Ted Naifeh)
Comics to Manga
Blade of the Immortal (Hiroaki Samura)
Vagabond (Takehiko Inoue)
Jiraishin/Ice Blade (Takahashi Tsutomu)
Monster (Naoki Urasawa)
BLAME! (Tsutomu Nihei)
Slam Dunk (Takehiko Inoue)
20th Century Boys (Naoki Urasawa)
Eagle: The Making of an Asian American President (Kaiji Kawaguchi)
Death Note (Tsugumi Ohba)
SERIOUS HISTORICAL fiction/Political based stories
From Hell (Alan Moore) Jack the Ripper, very text heavy
MAUS (Art Spiegelman) WWII Holocaust
Road to Perdition* (Max Allan Collins, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Steve Lieber, Yosef Rubenstien) 1920s Prohibition
The Four Immigrants Manga : A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924 # (Henry Kiyama) Possibly more historical than it is fictional. Written/created in the time period being documented. I'm counting it as a "comic" because it's format may not be recognizable as what is generally considered "manga" today, it was created in the US and meant for an American bilingual audience.
ADOLF# (Osamu Tezuka) WWII Holocaust
Vagabond (Takehiko Inoue) how a wandering vagrant became Miyamoto Musashi
Phoenix (Osamu Tezuka) (sort of-this one might be stretching it) The creation of the world
Rose of Versailles* # (Riyoko Ikeda) French Revolution
Ravages of Time # (Chan Mau) One of the many adaptations of the historical classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms-a wartime story of ancient China
Eagle: The Making of an Asian American President (Kaiji Kawaguchi) Follows a Japanese American to the Presidency. Sort of a West Wing with an Asian American lead.
Emma*# (Kaoru Mori) Tells the life of a maid during the Victorian era.
And I also just noticed that almost every single one of these are award-winning stories.
COPS/DETECTIVES/MYSTERY/Serials
Gotham Central (Greg Rucka and various others) Gotham City has Batman… but it also has fully functioning police/legal system that still wants to do its job despite all the freaky types running around
Scene of the Crime# (Ed Brubaker)
Kane# (Paul Grist)
Ruse (Mark Waid) mysteries with mystical elements
Jiraishin (Takahashi Tsutomu) A Shinjuku homicide detective and his cases. Picked up by TP for a couple volumes under the name “Iceblade” and then dropped. Look for scanslations.
Ghost Hunt* (Shiho Inada and Fuyumi Ono) A group of religious types, paranormal researchers and espers solve mysteries involving strange events harming regular people
SERIOUS CHARACTER DRAMA WITH PERSONAL FOCUS
Mr. Punch (Neil Gaiman and Dave Mckean)
Blankets (Craig Thompson)
The Enigma (Peter Milligan, Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh, and Duncan Fegredo)
Superman: Secret Identity (Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen)
Ghost World* (Daniel Clowes)
Kabuki (David Mack)
Same Difference (Derek Kirk Kim)
Paul Auster’s City of Glass
Honey + Clover* (Chika Umino)
Ping Pong (Taiyo Matsumoto)
GO! GO! Monster! (Taiyo Matsumoto)
Helter Skelter (Hiatari Ryoukou)
Red Garden (GONZO)
SINGLE HERO/CHARACTER DRAMA with events focus
While most stories have events and character change, this category is for the stories more about the characters and their existence/state of mind through events and how they develop, rather than a problem being fixed (though they often go hand in hand). Slight shade of difference with narrative tone.
Y the Last Man (Brian K. Vaughan)
Superman: Secret Identity (Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen)
Superman: Red Son (Mark Millar)
The Enigma (Peter Milligan, Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh, and Duncan Fegredo)
Various stories by Enki Bilal
The Sentry (Jae Lee)
Creature Tech (Doug Tennapal)
Monster* (Naoki Urasawa)
20th Century Boy (Naoki Urasawa) (?) This is an odd one. Like the Red Pony and many other stories, the “main character” I’m thinking about doesn’t actually physically show up until way later in the series. It’s a mystery where the development is through other people’s eyes.
Utena* # (Chiho Saito) looks very shoujo. I think it’s shoujo? Err, not really a romance… There are two mangas. One that the anime and movie was adapted off of, and a manga that was later adapted off the movie. I’m not sure which one it was that was picked for translation.
Paradise Kiss (Yazawa Ai) Romance (sorta: This, like the following “Nana” is less about the romance that it’s about the girls’ development through the events in their lives-it just so happens that love is one of the main events. Of course, this is my personal opinion. The romance features so heavily that it can easily be the other way around...)
Nana (Yazawa Ai)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind* # (Hayao Miyazaki) Never read the manga, but I've seen Miyazaki's sequential work before and he's very solid. Considering how good the movie is, I assume the manga will be similar.
Phantom Memory Kurau (BONES)
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (anime and novel) the anime has the distinction of excellent animation, a bizarre first episode and a very novel broadcast where the episodes where shown out of order. (the story made perfect sense even when out of order and I believe the US company releasing the English version was able to fight for a DVD version with the original broadcast order. The Japanese DVDs have the episodes in the order they’re supposed to come in.)
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
GENERAL DRAMA/stories about life where stuff happens (none or low sci-fi/fantasy elements and isn’t about the introspective navel gazing)
General or serious
Mail Order Bride # (Mark Kalesniko)
Sexy Voice and Robo (Iou Kuroda)
BECK and the Mongolian Chop Squad (Harold Sakuishi)
BECK and the Mongolian Chop Squad I don’t know how they’re dealing with the dub, but in the Japanese version, the Engrish is truly cringe-worthy. I still think it’s worth watching, though. Especially if you’re into band/music stories.
Humorous
Gokusen* (Morimoto Kozueko) Josei school drama. It’s very badly drawn, but the story makes up for it in spades and you can actually see the artist improving from volume to volume which is strangely gratifying. I DON’T recommend either the anime or the live dramas.
GTO* (Fujisawa Tohru) came before Gokusen, but with a male lead
Bad Company (Fujisawa Tohru) past history story about two adult characters from GTO as gang kids
Honey & Clover* (Chika Umino) art students, life, love, purpose and existence. The manga is incredibly whimsical and the anime has buckets of atmosphere, great music and wonderful acting. Up to you which you go for.
Rokudenashi Blues (Masanori Morita) On one hand, it’s about highschool boxing. On the other, it’s about gang kids punching their way into a better future. It’s also a highschool drama.
ACTION ADVENTURE without Ensemble
Daredevil (chapters that are written by Bendis, drawn by Maleev)
Cable & Deadpool (Fabian Nicieza)
Invincible (Ryan Kirkman)
Global Frequency# (Warren Ellis)
Demo# (Brian Wood)
Ex Machina (Brian K. Vaughan)
Trigun* (Yasuhiro Nightow)
Parasyte (Hitoshi Iwaaki)
Rurouni Kenshin* (Nobuhiro Watsuki)
Samurai Jack (Cartoon Network) Beautiful animation style that may seem simplistic/ugly at first... but is actually suprisingly complex. Incredible soundtrack. Pop culture references. Suprising level of violence and solid story telling that DOES occasionally go deeper than one would think it would.
ACTION ADVENTURE/Ensemble/Team
Younger crowd
JLA and Batman toonverse comics*
W.I.T.C.H. (Elisabetta Gnone)
Naruto* (Masashi Kishimoto)
One Piece (Eiichiro Oda) *
(note: even though I say these two stories are geared more towards the younger teen/tween crowd, they do have their own dose of surprisingly violent and mature themes whereas the toonverse comics tends to gloss those things over.)
Magic Knights Rayearth* (CLAMP) I personally loved the animated OVA 3 episode series. I didn't get to see much of the manga, but I saw enough of it to notice that the regular TV series had been adapted pretty faithfully off of it.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nickelodeon) Has a few kiddish moments, and some weird pacing here and there, but it's actually something I would call "all ages" without being so dumb that as an adult, I feel stupid watching it. (A problem I find in a lot of so-called "all ages" stories these days), a cast of real characters with strengths and faults irregardless of race or gender. No default white people. Female characters that are actual characters, rather than someone relegated to being "The Girl" or "The feminist", both of which I find incredibly off putting. Real Kung Fu.
Lighter mature fare (or stuff with a wide tone range)
Top 10 (Alan Moore)
The 49ers (Alan Moore) in the same Universe as Top 10
Runaways (Brian K. Vaughan)
Wildcats Volume 2 + 3 (Joe Casey and Sean Phillips)
Blue Beetle (Keith Giffen and John Rogers, and artist Cully Hamner)
The Highwaymen (Adam Freeman, Marc Bernardin)
Annihilation: Star-Lord (Keith Giffen)
Bleach* (Kubo Tite) There is a significant tonal shift from the manga to anime due to word choice changes and various other presentation issues. I find the manga more believable, edgier and better paced.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures* (Hirohiko Araki) completely over the top blood and fight scenes
Cowboy Bebop
Serious
The Authority (Warren Ellis)
The Losers (Andy Diggle/Jock)
The Inhumans (Jae Lee)
20th Century Boys (Naoki Urasawa)
Full Metal Alchemist* (Hiromu Arakawa)
Red Garden (GONZO)
Despite the level of blood (which some think elevates maturity level) I actually wouldn’t recommend manga series like Naruto or One Piece to people who like the Authority because that sort of book is a bit more….mature themed? Someone who regularly prefers that sort of story may find some of the Shonen Jump titles a little young. FMA and 20th Century Boys are at a similar level of maturity, JoJo is in a class of its own, and BLEACH, while young, has a level of trendy pop culture attitude and sarcastic humor that I think would be refreshing and entertaining to more than one age group. While Naruto and One Piece are very firmly Jump manga house style, Bleach manages takes those common manga Jump clichés and twists them around a bit. (It’s slightly more self aware) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures is also a Jump title, but like I keep telling everyone, it’s pretty much in a class of its own. You’d be surprised at some of the things Jump seems to think is appropriate to market at the “young boy” crowd. D:
List 2
List 3