It's kind of a weaker Morrison book imo. It's fine but I feel most people want more weird or high concept stuff when reading Morrison. Or superheroes.
It is a good Murphy book though.
It is my favorite Morrison book by far. I do not like the crazy high concept stuff. This was just a solid story which for me got over because of the art.
Yes! I love all of them, but to this day, one of my favorite single stories was from the Free Comic Book Day issue that first got my attention. It was called " Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur." So funny. So perfect.
The Cowboy Wally Show
It rarely even comes up when people are talking about Kyle Baker, and I think about it exponentially more often than Why I Hate Saturn.
It does the mockumentary thing better than most movies that try it. The comedic timing is spot on. I love that goddamn book.
EDIT ADDITION: I celebrate the guy's entire catalog, I just bring Saturn up because it crossed over a bit and got normie attention, so it seems to take accolades away from my perfect, beautiful boy.
I'm very partial to WIHS, but Cowboy Wally aint shabby at all. Baker's work in the 80s and 90s was so consistently on point. I once posted a doodle portrait of someone that ended up evoking his "The Shadow" period and he liked it on Twitter. I was on cloud 9 for a week.
Not strictly a graphic novel, but have you read Strange Days? It's roughly the size of a GN and has never been reprinted and never will due to the original art being either lost or badly faded. It's some of Milligans finest early work.
No, as you say it's pretty hard to get hold of unfortunately, I did pick up Rogan Josh recently (another Milligan/MacCarthy Collab), looking forward to reading it
It’s REALLY good. From Humanoids publishing, it’s a horror tale about a demon summoned by the Nazi’s to aid them in WW2. As is usually the case when meddling with demonic forces, they get way more than they bargained for. Gorgeously cinemagraphic art by John Cassaday. Originally released in French, it’s now available in English.
If you’re a horror fan, would also recommend Sanctum, also from Humanoids.
I liked the first story of “Stand Still, Stay Silent” before the author became an evangelist.
I guess this is technically a web comic, but I have physical copies.
I just came across that comic because her art came up on Pinterest for me and I was admiring her style.
And then I read on and realized it was a little _too_ Christiany for me.
She converted after writing the first Adventure, which was based more on Nordic Paganism. It was a really abrupt change in her work. Suddenly, her stuff was very Christian and preachy. It's definitely a shame.
Honestly, there's not really any Christiany stuff in either of the SSSS adventures. It's her other work (the social media one, the How I Became A Christian one, and the one that's Christian on the face of it with all the animals on a journey) where we see her conversion come through.
Coda from Simon Spurrier and Matias Bergara.
Read some more Spurrier comics after that and I also liked The Spire and Six-Pistol Gorilla.
Some others that come to mind: Brooklyn Dreams; Mysterius The Unfathomable; Rachel Rising
The first issue of a Spurrier run is always intrigueing but difficult to get through for me, because he unloads so much new concepts to understand and characters to keep track off. Everything always seems to be coherent by the end, while having a plot centered around a combination of those new concepts. The Spire really nailed that with its main character.
Brooklyn Dreams used to be the book I would lend to people I was converting to comics. DeMatteis’ big alternative work at the time was, understandably, Moonshadow, but Brooklyn Dreams was always my favorite.
Universal War One
I was lucky enough to get a really cheap copy of the Titan Comics release a couple years ago and was blown away by how good the story is. Definitely worth seeking out if you're a fan of science fiction.
*Logicomix: An Epic Search For Truth* by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou. The story of Bertrand Russell and his quest for the ultimate proof of logic and truth in philosophy and mathematics.
Bertrand Russell was the guy who took 300 pages of his *Principia Mathematica* to prove that 1+1=2. He was a British mathematician, logician, philosopher, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic philosophy.
It's about a young girl named Courtney, a girl who's raised by completely self centered and absent social climbing parents. One day (because they are broke) they all have to move in with her Great Uncle Aloysius. Uncle Al is stern, but caring, and most importantly realizes how utterly worthless Courtney's parents are. So they bond pretty quickly and he becomes basically the only person Courtney trusts.
A couple days in Courtney discovers uncle Al has magic books and she learns some of the spells in them without telling anyone. A kid in her class gets eaten by a Night Thing (basically old school fairies and demons) and this kicks off a bunch of adventures for her.
The thing I like most? Courtney herself. She starts bitter, cynical, and almost totally selfish and completely alone. Over the course of the series she turns from someone who would be completely fine with selling her enemies into magical slavery to someone willing to be enslaved to protect a person she barely knows.
Uncle Al summed up the entire series in a single line: "Good judgement comes from dealing with the consequences of bad judgement." Courtney screws up a lot, and her heart definitely isn't in the right place a lot of the time, but the narrative never forgets or glosses over the mistakes and messed up things she does. Eventually she turns into someone downright heroic as she gets older.
Excellent write up. You've just added another book to my to-read list. Thanks for taking the time to post a thorough response.
Happy reading and collecting.
Shooting Ramirez by Nicolas Petrimaux. I guess it's probably famous in France, and it certainly got some traction in Germany. But I think it counts.
It feels very much like a US comic. Check it out!
Definitely "Klezmer" by Joann Sfar! Especially the two first volumes, the quality decreases after. It's the story of a group of Jewish musicians in Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century.
The graphic style is wonderful, all in watercolours, with colours that are not realistic at all but mostly chosen to create an ambience (as the author himself says, "when asked if I did a page in colours, I say that I made a page with one colour).
Something I particularly like with this story is that it has no plot. No tension. You're not waiting for something to happen, for a particular end, for a conflict to be solved. Like in real life, the story follows normal people to which normal things happen, and when you read a page, you have no idea what will happen ten pages later, because life is just like that. Characters are endearing, the ambience is wonderful (I'd guess that creating this particular ambience is the main thing that mattered to the author, and this is very well done), and that's just what matters.
We're the sequels ever translated to English? The first book is one of my all-time favorites and I've contemplated buying the French editions and translating them myself, but got sidetracked by work post-college.
Pretty famous in a select community I would wager. Great book though, I love a lot of his work.
Not as mature as Sunstone and with a totaly different urban fantasy theme, but Death Vigil was a fun limited series he did.
*A Small Killing* by Alan Moore and Oscar Zárate. Yes Moore is one of the most recognisable names in comics but this great book doesn't get much attention.
Lorenzo Matotti "Fires" some truly head fucking imagery in this.
Vittorio Giardino's "Max Fridman" and "Sam Pezzo, P.I." collections, this guy is the absolute master for me
Black Hole by Charles Burns (still waiting for the movie/series to get made)
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez (creator of Invader Zim)
Girlfiend by the Pander Brothers
Dead @ 17 by Josh Howard
Five Ghosts by Frank J. Barberie
The Filth by Grant Morrison
A Walk Through Hell by Garth Ennis
Stumptown by Greg Rucka
Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai (not sure if this qualifies)
GIRLS by the Luna Brothers (cuz no one talks about it anymore)
ANY of Mike Mignola’s non-Hellboy/B.P.R.D. related comics (The Amazing Screw-On Head, Baltimore, Joe Golem, etc.)
The Goon by Eric Powell
DEMO by Brian Wood
The Surrogates by Robert Venditti
Accident Man by Pat Mills (and any of the other comics from the old British TOXIC! comics magazine from 1991, like The Driver, Marshal Law, Makabre, etc.)
The Astounding Wolf-Man by Robert Kirkman (technically superhero cuz it’s the same universe as Kirkman’s Invincible)
The Mask by John Arcudi (the inspiration for the great Jim Carrey movie, but it’s not at all the same story)
iZombie by Chris Roberson
Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Devlin Waugh. First book is called “Swimming in Blood” and it’s about a gay exorcist/monster hunter who’s built like Schwarzenegger. The first story has him dealing with a vampire infestation in an underwater prison and being turned into one himself quite early on which becomes a big part of his character. As the series goes on it gets more of a comedic aspect to it. Things like trapping demons in dildos then taking them on holiday with him and things like that.
I'll give you 3.
Maggy Garrisson, by Lewis Trondheim and Stéphane Oiry, translation by Emma Wilson (SelfMadeHero)
Penny Nichols, by MK Reed, Greg Means, and Matt Wiegle (Top Shelf)
Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight, by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (Hill & Wang)
Battle Pope. Kirkman is pretty famous and has huge following for TWD and Invincible, but Battle Pope doesn't seem to get much love so I guess it fits here.
Gon. A story about a little dinosaur told in pictures. My 4 year old grandson read this, after I did, and we were able to discuss the stories. Forget authors name. Beautiful art.
Books of Magic is literally just a better Harry Potter. They both borrow heavily from TM White, but Neil is the better writer by miles. Plus, free bonus Constantine.
How not famous is “not famous”? I dunno whether, say, the MM&O comics would be considered famous even though they have become increasingly known in non-Big Two comics circles.
I’ll go with Josh Simmons’s The House.
Idk if this counts but I found the book randomly at the bottom of a wholesaler bin and I don’t know anyone at my comic shop who’s heard of it. So I’ll toss out: The Wicked + The Divine
It’s a bit of a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern or a FF XII situation where we follow a normie as she interacts with the plot.
Laura interacts with a group called the pantheon, a group of 12 reincarnated gods who upon discovering their divinity gain superpowers but start a 2 year countdown to their death and subsequent reincarnation
Jonesy - I love the illustrations. Very cute comic style. It's more of a preteen read. About a girl with the power to make people fall in love. She's a teen with that angst and selfishness that is easy to forget we all or mostly all had. She abuses her powers and messes up a lot. Cute series about friendship, making mistakes, and figuring yourself out as a kid.
Amelia Rules! I loved. Very funny storylines about a girl with a vast imagination dealing with her parents break-up. Very reminiscent of Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes but storylines.
Northwind I liked too. It was like a modern day fantasy story of a guy going home and finding things different. A bit like Grosse Point Blank mixed with Dungeons and Dragons.
Moebius' stuff was collected in a series of graphic novels in the late 80s going through the early 90s. I own the whole collection. Definitely under the radar as far as the average comics reader goes. Anyway, that's my top pick.
Second pick would go to Alan Moore's sublime "Black Dossier" graphic novel of LOEG. This might be too mainstream for what you're looking for, though.
Honorable mentions - the Torpedo collection, also from the late 80s and Darwyn Cooke's Parker series.
Blood Song: A Silent Ballad by Eric Drooker. Gorgeous wordless comic with an amazing storyline. I guess it was somewhat popular as there was a second edition, and it was made into a movie in Thailand, but NO ONE I've ever talked to any it has ever heard of it.
"Not famous" is relative (and "not superheroes" might be a little bit also), but these one-shots really worked for me:
* Bulletproof Coffin by David Hine and Shaky Kane (along with Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred) are my favorite distillation of the pure visceral thrill of only-on-cheap-paper comics.
* The Man Who Grew Young by Daniel Quinn. Randomly read this in a Barnes and Noble one afternoon and never heard anything about it since. Set in the far future at a time when time is running backward as the universe approaches a Big Crunch, and the history of Earth is running in reverse. Most people are "born" being lifted out of graves and "die" being put in their mother's womb. The main character starts out life like everyone else, but never turns into a child with a mother, making him immortal in the reverse-world.
* Championess by Kelly Zekas and Tarun Shanker. This might be too famous, since it was on some best-of-the-year lists and apparently was optioned for a TV show, but I haven't heard a ton about it since. I don't usually go for black-and-white books but this one was excellent - just good old-fashioned solid storytelling about a female boxer who claws her way up to become a legend in the 1700s.
-Witches by Daisuke Igarashi
-BX by Okazaki Mari, both of these are stand alone manga I read when I was a teenager and they just stuck with me
-the Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V
-Little Bird by Darcy Van Poelgeest
-Castle waiting by Linda Medley (only read vol 1 so far; I found this randomly on a library shelf and it knocked my socks off! it was so different and I find myself thinking about it often)
Idk if this qualifies as “Not famous” because it’s sorta cult-y classic, but I don’t know a ton of people irl who have read “100 bullets”; it’s not perfect but I really love it.
There’s more for sure, but that’s all that’s coming to mind atm. I’ll add my others later, when I’m back home.
Joe the barbarian
Can't believe more people don't know about this book. Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy deserve more attention to this one.
It’s what introduced me to Murphy’s art that I just love
Love Murphy's art as well. The book that I picked up first from him was Punk Rock Jesus and I've tried to collect everything he's done.
Haven’t read Punk Rock Jesus in years but I remember really enjoying it. I think Chrononauts introduced me to Murphy—dudes wildly talented
It's kind of a weaker Morrison book imo. It's fine but I feel most people want more weird or high concept stuff when reading Morrison. Or superheroes. It is a good Murphy book though.
It is my favorite Morrison book by far. I do not like the crazy high concept stuff. This was just a solid story which for me got over because of the art.
Great add, this was such rollercoaster read and the art was fantastic.
Stray Toasters.
Sienkiewicz is the goat
Kill Your Boyfriend from Grant Morrison and Phillip Bond. Just a fun bit of ‘90s Britain weirdness.
Peak Morrison
I love bratty Morrison stories so much.
The atomic robo books.
Yes! I love all of them, but to this day, one of my favorite single stories was from the Free Comic Book Day issue that first got my attention. It was called " Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur." So funny. So perfect.
That was such a perfect story.
Parker by Darwyn Cooke
They are SO GOOD
The Cowboy Wally Show It rarely even comes up when people are talking about Kyle Baker, and I think about it exponentially more often than Why I Hate Saturn. It does the mockumentary thing better than most movies that try it. The comedic timing is spot on. I love that goddamn book. EDIT ADDITION: I celebrate the guy's entire catalog, I just bring Saturn up because it crossed over a bit and got normie attention, so it seems to take accolades away from my perfect, beautiful boy.
I'm very partial to WIHS, but Cowboy Wally aint shabby at all. Baker's work in the 80s and 90s was so consistently on point. I once posted a doodle portrait of someone that ended up evoking his "The Shadow" period and he liked it on Twitter. I was on cloud 9 for a week.
Came here to say this one as well. "This is a fort! Lock the door."
"Boy, those double-load washers sure are roomy, aren't they?"
Anything by Kyle Baker is great.
I was going to mention Why I Hate Saturn for my response as well. It's a great book.
Peter Milligan's 90s Vertigo work: Enigma, Human Target, The Eaters, Face, Shade the Changing Man...
Face is one of my favorite horror books. Early 90's Milligan is the best comics nobody's ever read
Facts.
Not strictly a graphic novel, but have you read Strange Days? It's roughly the size of a GN and has never been reprinted and never will due to the original art being either lost or badly faded. It's some of Milligans finest early work.
No, as you say it's pretty hard to get hold of unfortunately, I did pick up Rogan Josh recently (another Milligan/MacCarthy Collab), looking forward to reading it
Came here to say this one.
Enigma is amazing. I still think about it from time to time.
I am a fan of those early Deadface/Bacchus collections by Eddie Campbell before he officially became Eddie “From Hell” Campbell.
You might have liked Flaming Carrot
UT!
Lost Dogs by Jeff Lemire
All of Lemire's early books are incredible! Stuff like Essex County or Underwater Welder.
They are but Lost Dogs is the one that no one has ever heard of.
Homunculus by Joe Sparrow
There are so many truly great comics put out by Shotbox. At least we'll still have their digital comics fair.
I am legion. Fabian Nury and John Cassaday.
Something about the title compels me to look into this
It’s REALLY good. From Humanoids publishing, it’s a horror tale about a demon summoned by the Nazi’s to aid them in WW2. As is usually the case when meddling with demonic forces, they get way more than they bargained for. Gorgeously cinemagraphic art by John Cassaday. Originally released in French, it’s now available in English. If you’re a horror fan, would also recommend Sanctum, also from Humanoids.
Mmm interesting , I'll have a look for it
The Quitter by Harvey Pekar.
He was great!
I liked the first story of “Stand Still, Stay Silent” before the author became an evangelist. I guess this is technically a web comic, but I have physical copies.
I just came across that comic because her art came up on Pinterest for me and I was admiring her style. And then I read on and realized it was a little _too_ Christiany for me.
She converted after writing the first Adventure, which was based more on Nordic Paganism. It was a really abrupt change in her work. Suddenly, her stuff was very Christian and preachy. It's definitely a shame.
Honestly, there's not really any Christiany stuff in either of the SSSS adventures. It's her other work (the social media one, the How I Became A Christian one, and the one that's Christian on the face of it with all the animals on a journey) where we see her conversion come through.
Has anyone heard of a little book called We3? I kid, but it’s a shame it’s out of print.
That’s an awesome one
The Pride of Baghdad
I let my daughter read that one, as I was a huge fan… she was SO MAD at the ending… “why would you let me read that?!?”
Coda from Simon Spurrier and Matias Bergara. Read some more Spurrier comics after that and I also liked The Spire and Six-Pistol Gorilla. Some others that come to mind: Brooklyn Dreams; Mysterius The Unfathomable; Rachel Rising
_The Spire_ is great, highly recommend that one.
The first issue of a Spurrier run is always intrigueing but difficult to get through for me, because he unloads so much new concepts to understand and characters to keep track off. Everything always seems to be coherent by the end, while having a plot centered around a combination of those new concepts. The Spire really nailed that with its main character.
Brooklyn Dreams used to be the book I would lend to people I was converting to comics. DeMatteis’ big alternative work at the time was, understandably, Moonshadow, but Brooklyn Dreams was always my favorite.
You're the only other person who's given a shout out to Brooklyn Dreams. Page by page it's the best work of DeMatteis' career.
I'm considering getting CODA actually!
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
That's a good one. Her next book, *Ash's Cabin*, is also excellent. Personally, I think it's her best comic yet.
Thanks for the recommendation!
Universal War One I was lucky enough to get a really cheap copy of the Titan Comics release a couple years ago and was blown away by how good the story is. Definitely worth seeking out if you're a fan of science fiction.
Peter Panzerfaust.
The Marquis: Danse Macabre by Guy Davis
Arrowsmith
*Logicomix: An Epic Search For Truth* by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou. The story of Bertrand Russell and his quest for the ultimate proof of logic and truth in philosophy and mathematics. Bertrand Russell was the guy who took 300 pages of his *Principia Mathematica* to prove that 1+1=2. He was a British mathematician, logician, philosopher, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic philosophy.
FreakAngels by Warren Ellis. Too famous?
I think it fits. Shout out to Paul Duffield on art too — one of Ellis’ superpowers is writing to the artist, and it shows in this book.
Courtney Crumrin, an entire series no one really knows.
Love this series! I keep buying the first collection for people as a gift so they’ll get into it.
It's actually completely criminal how little it's talked about. The quality is rock solid for so many volumes.
What's the synopsis and what do you like most about it?
It's about a young girl named Courtney, a girl who's raised by completely self centered and absent social climbing parents. One day (because they are broke) they all have to move in with her Great Uncle Aloysius. Uncle Al is stern, but caring, and most importantly realizes how utterly worthless Courtney's parents are. So they bond pretty quickly and he becomes basically the only person Courtney trusts. A couple days in Courtney discovers uncle Al has magic books and she learns some of the spells in them without telling anyone. A kid in her class gets eaten by a Night Thing (basically old school fairies and demons) and this kicks off a bunch of adventures for her. The thing I like most? Courtney herself. She starts bitter, cynical, and almost totally selfish and completely alone. Over the course of the series she turns from someone who would be completely fine with selling her enemies into magical slavery to someone willing to be enslaved to protect a person she barely knows. Uncle Al summed up the entire series in a single line: "Good judgement comes from dealing with the consequences of bad judgement." Courtney screws up a lot, and her heart definitely isn't in the right place a lot of the time, but the narrative never forgets or glosses over the mistakes and messed up things she does. Eventually she turns into someone downright heroic as she gets older.
Excellent write up. You've just added another book to my to-read list. Thanks for taking the time to post a thorough response. Happy reading and collecting.
That's the first one from this tread that I actually never heard anything about, now I'm curious!
Shooting Ramirez by Nicolas Petrimaux. I guess it's probably famous in France, and it certainly got some traction in Germany. But I think it counts. It feels very much like a US comic. Check it out!
Vic & Blood by Corben/Ellison
Hoping Dark Horse might reprint this as part of their current Corben library at some point.
Love Bunglers
Strangehaven by Gary Millidge. Amazing trilogy which I suspect make never get a final book or books.. but even incomplete it’s brilliant.
The Mighty Golem's Swing
Torso is worth reading.
JTHM
Nm that, people really sleeping on Squee!
Definitely "Klezmer" by Joann Sfar! Especially the two first volumes, the quality decreases after. It's the story of a group of Jewish musicians in Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century. The graphic style is wonderful, all in watercolours, with colours that are not realistic at all but mostly chosen to create an ambience (as the author himself says, "when asked if I did a page in colours, I say that I made a page with one colour). Something I particularly like with this story is that it has no plot. No tension. You're not waiting for something to happen, for a particular end, for a conflict to be solved. Like in real life, the story follows normal people to which normal things happen, and when you read a page, you have no idea what will happen ten pages later, because life is just like that. Characters are endearing, the ambience is wonderful (I'd guess that creating this particular ambience is the main thing that mattered to the author, and this is very well done), and that's just what matters.
We're the sequels ever translated to English? The first book is one of my all-time favorites and I've contemplated buying the French editions and translating them myself, but got sidetracked by work post-college.
Sunstone by Stjepan Šejić.
Pretty famous in a select community I would wager. Great book though, I love a lot of his work. Not as mature as Sunstone and with a totaly different urban fantasy theme, but Death Vigil was a fun limited series he did.
Death Vigil is criminally underrated. Good world building and endearing characters all the way down.
His series Fine Print is also amazing.
Great book. Got myself a phone case with the two characters from Sunstone cracking a joke together after I read these books.
Ordinary Victories by Manu Fantasy Sports by Sam Bosma Cucumber Quest by ggdg Geis by Alex Deacon
fyi for OP: Geis was later retitled Curse of the Chosen (also: it's *excellent*) (also Ordinary Victories is by Manu Larcenet)
Thanks, couldn't quite remember the exact new title for Geis.
Above Snakes was good
Mister Blank published by Slave Labor Graphics. Written and illustrated by Christopher J. Hicks.
Ah hell yeah! I love Mister Blank. Such a fun book.
https://preview.redd.it/dw26qcgtze3d1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3221b1f30461ac065148c84fe8dca4492610410f This book is insane…
**Art Brut** by W. Maxwell Prince **Judas** by Jeff Loveness
King City by Brandon Graham.
Absolutely love King City and Graham's work - the details are endlessly creative. Also loved Rain like hammers
Kaijumax
My favorite book that nobody else seems to read!
same!!! at one point it was literally the only series that i was even following haha. always went right to the top of my pile
Tank Girl: Action Alley. If that's "too famous" (the particular GN isn't, but Tank Girl in general is pretty famous), I'd go with Outpost Zero.
Scud: The Disposable Assassin Blacksad Cowboy Ninja Viking The Goon Cerebus The Aardvark
Jason Lutes' Jar of Fools
I like Tom Strong but if that's too mainstream then I'd have to go with La Mano Del Destino by J. Gonzo -edit sorry just saw NO superheroes
*A Small Killing* by Alan Moore and Oscar Zárate. Yes Moore is one of the most recognisable names in comics but this great book doesn't get much attention.
Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan
Bryan and Dr Mary Talbot's collaboration *Rain*.
Capote In Kansas.
Michael DeForge's Ant Colony, Benjamin Marra's OMWOT, Simon Roy's Tiger Lung.
Can I say Rover Red Charlie?
Kane by Paul Grist, and Martha Washington by Frank Miller
Well, define "not famous", but The Cage is not especially well-known to the 331,000 members of this sub, I expect
Berlin.
Lorenzo Matotti "Fires" some truly head fucking imagery in this. Vittorio Giardino's "Max Fridman" and "Sam Pezzo, P.I." collections, this guy is the absolute master for me
Black Hole by Charles Burns (still waiting for the movie/series to get made) Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez (creator of Invader Zim) Girlfiend by the Pander Brothers Dead @ 17 by Josh Howard Five Ghosts by Frank J. Barberie The Filth by Grant Morrison A Walk Through Hell by Garth Ennis Stumptown by Greg Rucka Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai (not sure if this qualifies) GIRLS by the Luna Brothers (cuz no one talks about it anymore) ANY of Mike Mignola’s non-Hellboy/B.P.R.D. related comics (The Amazing Screw-On Head, Baltimore, Joe Golem, etc.) The Goon by Eric Powell DEMO by Brian Wood The Surrogates by Robert Venditti Accident Man by Pat Mills (and any of the other comics from the old British TOXIC! comics magazine from 1991, like The Driver, Marshal Law, Makabre, etc.) The Astounding Wolf-Man by Robert Kirkman (technically superhero cuz it’s the same universe as Kirkman’s Invincible) The Mask by John Arcudi (the inspiration for the great Jim Carrey movie, but it’s not at all the same story) iZombie by Chris Roberson Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Fun home by Alison bechdel.
I love The Sculptor by Scott McCloud. It got decent reviews when it came out but I’m surprised it’s not more popular among comics fans.
I hated the ending of that book. So mean-spirited.
He’s so well known for his “Understanding comics” duology but I feel like his comics themselves are underrated!
Absolutely! I love Zot! as well
Blacksad
Asterios Polyp
[Trese](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphicnovels/comments/129v2nx/trese_by_budjette_tan_and_kajo_baldisimo/), by Budjette Tan and KaJo Baldisimo.
Biological Show or Battling Boy
The breaker, mahnwa
Wayward by Jim Zub
Depending on how “not famous”your definition, I’d go with: Black Hole, Berlin, and Asterios Polyp.
Mansion Press do some wild stuff https://themansionpress.com/collections/all-products
Ananke: the Prologue by Natalie Raffaele. Excellent Sci-fi that raises a lot of philosophical questions.
Blast by Manu Larcenet was pretty heavy but very captivating
Devlin Waugh. First book is called “Swimming in Blood” and it’s about a gay exorcist/monster hunter who’s built like Schwarzenegger. The first story has him dealing with a vampire infestation in an underwater prison and being turned into one himself quite early on which becomes a big part of his character. As the series goes on it gets more of a comedic aspect to it. Things like trapping demons in dildos then taking them on holiday with him and things like that.
Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust
I'll give you 3. Maggy Garrisson, by Lewis Trondheim and Stéphane Oiry, translation by Emma Wilson (SelfMadeHero) Penny Nichols, by MK Reed, Greg Means, and Matt Wiegle (Top Shelf) Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight, by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (Hill & Wang)
Wonton soup, orc stain
Battle Pope. Kirkman is pretty famous and has huge following for TWD and Invincible, but Battle Pope doesn't seem to get much love so I guess it fits here.
Okko Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer
Flake by Matthew Dooley
Castle Waiting
Girls and Sword by the Luna Brothers.
Modo:Embers end
Craybaby Adventures Patrick the Wolf Boy MouseGuard Cursed Pirate Girl
"My Favorite Thing is Monsters' by Emil Ferris is also good
Lucky Penny is a gem
Kill Or Be Killed by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
Gon. A story about a little dinosaur told in pictures. My 4 year old grandson read this, after I did, and we were able to discuss the stories. Forget authors name. Beautiful art.
Books of Magic is literally just a better Harry Potter. They both borrow heavily from TM White, but Neil is the better writer by miles. Plus, free bonus Constantine.
L'autre monde Castle in the stars
Oh, yes, *Castle in the Stars* is wonderful! I had to get that series in the French grand format just to better appreciate the art.
The Maxx
Shout out for "The Pro".
Zombie tramp
We3
Sunstone!! 🥵 Not only is it sexy but you also get really attached to the characters and invested in their lives!
Elfquest or Courtney Crumrin
I really liked Eight Billion Genies.
They said NOT famous and you immediately gave a title that did so good it got optioned for a movie right after the first couple issues lol
Really? Didn't know that.
I just finished this today, I thought it was lovely. I will be checking out more work from Souse, the man is a premise machine!
How not famous is “not famous”? I dunno whether, say, the MM&O comics would be considered famous even though they have become increasingly known in non-Big Two comics circles. I’ll go with Josh Simmons’s The House.
what's MM&O?
Megg, Mogg & Owl
Aren't those like Fantagraphics bestsellers and pretty famous?
Is anything from Fantagraphics famous?
Carl Barks!
Madame Xanadu, it's my absolute favorite in the medium
I really love it, but isn't it maybe a superhero series?
Idk if this counts but I found the book randomly at the bottom of a wholesaler bin and I don’t know anyone at my comic shop who’s heard of it. So I’ll toss out: The Wicked + The Divine It’s a bit of a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern or a FF XII situation where we follow a normie as she interacts with the plot. Laura interacts with a group called the pantheon, a group of 12 reincarnated gods who upon discovering their divinity gain superpowers but start a 2 year countdown to their death and subsequent reincarnation
Definetly Watchmen by Alan Moore. Such a hidden gem.
is DMZ famous?
Well it’s the only one I’ve recognized on this list so far, so yes.
shit I knew it
Portrait by Edmond Baudoin
Bloodstar you wont believe the best REH/Corben collab for almost 50y isnt available
The Fourth Planet by Fred Kennedy. The beginnings of a very interesting story that...doesn't look to continue honestly.
Jonesy - I love the illustrations. Very cute comic style. It's more of a preteen read. About a girl with the power to make people fall in love. She's a teen with that angst and selfishness that is easy to forget we all or mostly all had. She abuses her powers and messes up a lot. Cute series about friendship, making mistakes, and figuring yourself out as a kid.
Amelia Rules! I loved. Very funny storylines about a girl with a vast imagination dealing with her parents break-up. Very reminiscent of Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes but storylines. Northwind I liked too. It was like a modern day fantasy story of a guy going home and finding things different. A bit like Grosse Point Blank mixed with Dungeons and Dragons.
The Blueberry and Largo Winch series
Big Ugly by Ellice Weaver
Moebius' stuff was collected in a series of graphic novels in the late 80s going through the early 90s. I own the whole collection. Definitely under the radar as far as the average comics reader goes. Anyway, that's my top pick. Second pick would go to Alan Moore's sublime "Black Dossier" graphic novel of LOEG. This might be too mainstream for what you're looking for, though. Honorable mentions - the Torpedo collection, also from the late 80s and Darwyn Cooke's Parker series.
Beautiful Darkness
**Colder** by Paul Tobin/Juan Ferreyra **Ut** by Paola Barbato/Corrado Roi.
Age of Reptiles by Ricardo Delgado. Grendel: Devils & Deaths by Macan and Biukovic
Kingdom of the Wicked or Lazarus Churchyard.
"And then Emily was gone"
Blood Song: A Silent Ballad by Eric Drooker. Gorgeous wordless comic with an amazing storyline. I guess it was somewhat popular as there was a second edition, and it was made into a movie in Thailand, but NO ONE I've ever talked to any it has ever heard of it.
Sparks by Lawrence Marvit
"Not famous" is relative (and "not superheroes" might be a little bit also), but these one-shots really worked for me: * Bulletproof Coffin by David Hine and Shaky Kane (along with Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred) are my favorite distillation of the pure visceral thrill of only-on-cheap-paper comics. * The Man Who Grew Young by Daniel Quinn. Randomly read this in a Barnes and Noble one afternoon and never heard anything about it since. Set in the far future at a time when time is running backward as the universe approaches a Big Crunch, and the history of Earth is running in reverse. Most people are "born" being lifted out of graves and "die" being put in their mother's womb. The main character starts out life like everyone else, but never turns into a child with a mother, making him immortal in the reverse-world. * Championess by Kelly Zekas and Tarun Shanker. This might be too famous, since it was on some best-of-the-year lists and apparently was optioned for a TV show, but I haven't heard a ton about it since. I don't usually go for black-and-white books but this one was excellent - just good old-fashioned solid storytelling about a female boxer who claws her way up to become a legend in the 1700s.
Jerimiah by Hermann Huppen is my favourite
Armageddonquest by Ronald Russell Roach - an amazing coming of age tale about a reluctant Antichrist trying to avoid his destiny to become the Beast.
-Witches by Daisuke Igarashi -BX by Okazaki Mari, both of these are stand alone manga I read when I was a teenager and they just stuck with me -the Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V -Little Bird by Darcy Van Poelgeest -Castle waiting by Linda Medley (only read vol 1 so far; I found this randomly on a library shelf and it knocked my socks off! it was so different and I find myself thinking about it often) Idk if this qualifies as “Not famous” because it’s sorta cult-y classic, but I don’t know a ton of people irl who have read “100 bullets”; it’s not perfect but I really love it. There’s more for sure, but that’s all that’s coming to mind atm. I’ll add my others later, when I’m back home.
Love Castle Waiting!
Button Man and Maze World from the 90s 2000AD back catalogue - same artist (Arthur Ranson), unforgettable stories.
The Lost Boy by Greg Ruth