Some Recommended Comic Book Titles

Ryan Wilson, who runs the CD/DVD/Comics section at the Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, New Hampshire, gave a presentation to the New England Children's Booksellers Advisory Council (NECBA) last month. For the presentation, Ryan compiled an "opinionated list" of those titles that he felt would be a strong foundation for any bookstore's comic section. The following is Wilson's list of recommended comic book titles.

By Ryan Wilson

Understanding Comics and its sequel Reinventing Comics (Perennial Currents) by Scott McCloud. These two comics are a great foundation for any collection. They are also highly recommended reading for all of you who are interested in starting a comic section in your store. They will give you insight into the history, the art, and the language of comics. Really well done.

ALL-AGES COMICS

Bone (nine book series) by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)
Easily, the greatest all-ages series ever done! This is the Lord of the Rings of comics, with a funny bone. It mixes simply drawn main characters with a world of rich complexity. Get anyone of any age to read just one, and you'll make a fan out of them.

Amelia Rules (ongoing series) by Jimmy Gownley (I Books)
Gownley has created a Peanuts type gang of kids with modern day problems. Deftly explores divorce, friendship, poverty, and many other serious and not so serious problems, with great humor. Amelia is like a more subtle and intelligent Nickelodeon show. In fact, actually it soon may be a Nickelodeon show.

Courtney Crumrin (ongoing series) by Ted Naifeh (Oni Press)
The young witch protagonist in this series would send Harry Potter packing. This is a dark little world that's more Tim Burton than Rowling. Naifeh has created a humorous, adventurous, and very unique take on the kind of story you thought couldn't be told again.

Peanutbutter and Jeremy's Best Book Ever by James Kochalka (Alternative Comics)
Peanutbutter is just about the cutest little cat you'll ever meet, especially when she puts on a hat and tie and pretends to work at her owner's business. Jeremy, well he's a grouchy, mean, and generally jerky crow who lives outside the window. You wouldn't imagine it, but through their silly antics, this cat and crow actually tackle some serious issues.

Sandwalk Adventures by Jay Hosler (Active Synapse)
Charles Darwin has mites in his eyebrows. Well, actually, we all have mites in our eyebrows, but his can communicate with him! During his daily sand walks he learns to accept the mites and even teaches them about his studies and theories. This presents Darwin and his hilarious eyebrow mites to young readers in a very approachable way that won't ever clue them into the fact that they're learning.

Parables: An Anthology by Michel Gagne (Gagne International Press)
Gagne presents a slew of far-out fables and tender tales using a cute little fox and the bizarre assortment of creatures that he so loves to draw.

Owly (series) by Andy Runton (Top Shelf Productions)
You will never see a more emotional rendering of the adventures of an adorable little owl. There are no words in this comic, but none are needed. This is comic beauty in simplicity at its finest. This comic will introduce you to Owly, your new favorite character. The full-length Owly collection will be out this fall.

All adaptations of classic literature by P. Craig Russell
Russell is an amazing comic artist and he has taken it upon himself to adapt some classic pieces of literature into stunning comics. They are all very well done.

All the Little Lit series, edited by Art Spiegelman (HarperCollins Juvenile Books, Joanna Cotler)
These comics are horribly large in size, and do not fit easily on any shelf, but they tell darn good stories, usually by award-winning writers and illustrators.

For more great all-ages recommendations, please visit a Web site called Sequential Tart and read the series of articles written by Rebecca Salek called "Comics For Everyone" In general, you can get lots of intelligent and trustworthy information from the women at www.Sequentialtart.com.

YOUNG ADULT (YA) AND ADULT (A) COMICS

Blankets (YA) by Craig Thompson (Top Shelf Productions)
This is without a doubt one of the finest examples of the potential of the comic medium. I challenge anyone to read this beautiful and moving 300-plus-page tome of a graphic novel, and continue to dismiss comics as a lowly medium. I have not recommended this to anyone who did not immediately realize that they have just read one of the finest coming-of-age stories in recent years. This is a must for any store with even just a few comics.

Berlin: City of Stones, Book 1 (A) by Jason Lutes (Drawn & Quarterly)
An amazingly well-researched and precisely drawn comic about the intertwining lives of a varied group of people who all live in Berlin right after WWI. Easily one of the finest pieces of historical fiction I've read lately, with or without pictures.

Mother Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier (YA) (Dark Horse Comics)
This is the true "heartbreaking work of staggering genius." A mother dies leaving her husband and young son to fend for themselves, but, without her, the father begins to drift off into his own imaginary world trying to find her and bring her back. Can the son take care his father and himself? Or will people figure out that the father is no longer really there for him and separate these two, who have only each other left? You'll want to read it and find out.

God's Man (A) by Lynd Ward (Dover Publications)
To me this represents one of the great pieces of artwork of the 20th century, with no exaggeration. Published in 1929 this "novel in woodcuts" was definitely ahead of its time. There are no words to be found in this book, only the most incredibly detailed and powerful woodcuts you can imagine. Read it like a comic and absorb the highly nuanced story, or enjoy each full-page woodcut as an individual piece of art.

Blood Song: A Silent Ballad (A) by Eric Drooker (Harvest Books)
This is a direct descendant of God's Man. Also wordless, also in a woodcut style, but completely modern. A very moving look at the effect money and power has over true freedom.

Tiny Bubbles (A) by James Kochalka (Highwater Books)
Kochalka is the master of the autobiographical fantasy, and this is the comic that got me back into reading comics as an adult. With Kochalka, you know he's writing about his own life and experiences, but he looks like an elf, his best friend looks like a dog, and he has to help a robot go to the bathroom. It somehow all blends seamlessly in elfboy's world. Funny, moving, cute, but definitely not for children.

Barefoot Serpent (YA) by Scott Morse (Top Shelf Productions)
This comic is a love poem to the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Like Kurosawa's films, the true message of this comic is hard to penetrate, but once you do it is highly rewarding.

Hellboy (series, YA) by Mike Mingnola (Dark Horse Comics)
The adventures of a monster-hunting demon that works for the U.S. government. Doesn't sound very deep, and really it's not. But, it is a real fun mix of adventure, world folklore, and pulp. Was recently adapted into a hit film.

Books of Magic (series YA) by Neil Gaiman and others (Sagebrush Bound)
At this point, you know of this from the books that have been adapted from these graphic novels. Well, here's the real deal, and it seems to me that the books didn't live up to the original comics. These are some well-done comics and have a very strong following among fantasy lovers.

Sandman (series YA) by Neil Gaiman (DC Comics)
You are probably well aware of this series and I'm sure you know its esteemed author. Well, this series is a modern classic and is continually discovered and loved by every new group of angst-ridden teenagers to darken its doorstep. Very important for any collection.

OTHER RECOMMENDED AUTHORS OR SERIES

Drawn & Quarterly Collections (A)
A fine sample of interesting comics from around the world.

All Alan Moore Comics (some YA and some A)
He put the superhero world in its place in the 1980s with his now classic Watchmen (A) and continued on to become one of the most highly regarded comic writers around. From Hell (A), his take on Jack the Ripper and London of the late 19th century, is one of the most disturbing and greatest graphic novels ever printed.

All Chris Ware Comics
Reading this guy's intricately laid out, tiny paneled downers may not seem like a good time, but he is a true innovator of the art form. His Jimmy Corrigan: Boy Genius and Quimby The Mouse books are well on their way to becoming milestones.

Superheroes
Well, when it comes to comics, superheroes cannot be avoided. In theory, superheroes are not a bad thing, but they are a troublesome thing. If you have a comic section in your store, you have to have some superhero comics. You can't have a bookstore with no Stephen King can you?

It is impossible to carry a comprehensive collection of superhero books if you are not a comic shop. It's not hard to figure out who the most popular superheroes are, just look at a movie listing or the cartoons your kids are watching and you'll figure it out:

• Spider-Man
  
• Batman
  
• Daredevil
  
• The Hulk
  
• Fantastic Four
  
• Superman
  
• Justice League
  
• X-Men
  

Manga (Japanese Comics)
As with the superhero genre, manga is what will draw people to your comic section, but you have to be much more careful with manga. Just because most manga is the same cute size, and has the similar looking big-eyed characters, does not mean it is all for the same age group!

There is manga of all stripes, and for that reason almost all manga is rated on the back with an age suggestion. There is such a glut of manga right now that it is impossible to say you will do best with this, this, and this. Like superhero comics you kind of have to just test the waters with an assortment and see what sells the best in your area. There are some obvious choices, like manga based on popular cartoons, films, or video games, but, other than that, it is really hard to say.

Here is a list of some of the manga series that have sold well for us.

• Rurouni Kenshin
  
• Naruto
  
• Mars
  
• Inu Yasha
  
• Dragon Ball Z
  
• Ragnarok
  
• Trigun
  
• Buddha
  
• Lone Wolf & Cub (A)
  
• Card Captor Sakura
  
• Uzumaki (A)
  
• Blade of the Immortal (A)
  

In general, the manga publishers that put out the most popular stuff are TokyoPop, Shonen Jump, and Viz.Ryan

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Wilson runs the CD/DVD/Comic section at the Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, New Hampshire. In his nonwork hours, he likes to work some more, as art director and key illustrator for an independent children's publication called the Moo-Cow Fan Club Magazine. He has been an avid reader of comics and graphic literature from the age of 10 (or earlier if you would like to count picture books) and sees no point in his life when he will not be reading books where the words are trapped in little speech balloons. Ryan can be reached at [email protected] and will always be happy to answer questions about comics, or swap recipes.