Book picks similar to
The Amateurs by Conor Stechschulte
comics
graphic-novel
graphic-novels
fantagraphics
Magical Beatdown (Volume 2)
Jenn Woodall
Watch in awe as she swiftly disposes of street harassers with her impressive array of magical weapons. Printed in fluorescent pink and blue ink on thick matte cover-stock. This book can be read on its own or as part of the series.
Rachel Rising, Volume 1: The Shadow of Death
Terry Moore - 2012
Horrified, she digs her way out and goes looking for her killer in the little town of Manson. What she finds is a trail of death following her and more than one blood-chilling suspect. Rachel Rising will haunt you for life... and death. Collects issues #1-6.
Spider-Man Noir, Vol. 1
David Hine - 2009
The year is 1933, and New York City is not-so-secretly run by corrupt politicians, crooked cops, big businesses... and suave gangland bosses like New York's worst, the Goblin. But when a fateful spider-bite gives the young rabble-rouser Peter Parker the power to fight the mobster who killed his Uncle Ben, will even that be enough? It's a tangled web of Great Depression pulp, with familiar faces like you've never seen them before! By "Hardboiled" David Hine, Fabrice "The Spider" Sapolsky, and Carmine "Carbine" Di Giandomenico! Collects Spider-Man Noir #1-4.
Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter
Darwyn Cooke - 2009
Betrayed by the woman he loved and double-crossed by his partner in crime, Parker makes his way cross-country with only one thought burning in his mind - to coldly exact his revenge and reclaim what was taken from him! Richard (Donald Westlake) Stark's groundbreaking Parker books are adapted for the first time as a series of graphic novels by Darwyn Cooke. The initial graphic novel brings to life the first Parker book, The Hunter, which introduces readers to the dangerous anti-hero's cold and calculated world of criminals, thugs, and grifters.
Monsters
Barry Windsor-Smith - 2021
Bobby Bailey doesn’t realize he is about to fulfill his tragic destiny when he walks into a US Army recruitment office to join up. Close-mouthed, damaged, innocent, trying to forget a past and looking for a future, it turns out that Bailey is the perfect candidate for a secret U.S. government experimental program, an unholy continuation of a genetics program that was discovered in Nazi Germany nearly 20 years earlier in the waning days of World War II. Bailey’s only ally and protector, Sergeant McFarland, intervenes, which sets off a chain of cascading events that spin out of everyone’s control. As the titular monsters of the title multiply, becoming real and metaphorical, literal and ironic, the story reaches its emotional and moral reckoning.Monsters is the legendary project Barry Windsor-Smith has been working on for over 35 years. A 380-page tour de force of visual storytelling, Monsters’ narrative canvas is both vast and deep: part familial drama, part political thriller, part metaphysical journey, it is an intimate portrait of individuals struggling to reclaim their lives and an epic political odyssey across two generations of American history. Trauma, fate, conscience, and redemption are just a few of the themes that intersect in the most ambitious graphic novel of Windsor-Smith’s career. Monsters is rendered in Windsor-Smith’s impeccable pen-and-ink technique, the visual storytelling with its sensitivity to gesture and composition is the most sophisticated of the artist’s career. There are passages of heartbreaking tenderness, of excruciating pain, and devastating violence. It is surely one of the most intense graphic novels ever drawn.
Girls: Conception
Joshua Luna - 2005
One night, he bumps into a mysterious woman who will change his life... and maybe even the world.
Hex Wives
Ben Blacker - 2019
They must be tamed.” A malevolent conspiracy of men brainwashes a coven of witches to be subservient, suburban housewives. But it’s only a matter of time before the women remember their power…HEX WIVES from writer Ben Blacker (co-creator of The Thrilling Adventure Hour) with art by Mirka Andolfo (WONDER WOMAN, SHADE, THE CHANGING GIRL) will debut in October
The Lie And How We Told It
Tommi Parrish - 2018
Parrish’s emotionally loaded, painted graphic novel is is a visual tour de force, always in the service of the author’s themes: navigating queer desire, masculinity, fear, and the ever-in-flux state of friendships.
Northlanders, Vol. 1: Sven the Returned
Brian Wood - 2008
See why Entertainment Weekly calls it "a well-reserched, richly realized world that illuminates politics and culture without getting bogged down in history-book stuff."
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil
Stephen Collins - 2013
By which we mean: orderly, neat, contained and, moreover, beardless.Or at least it is until one famous day, when Dave, bald but for a single hair, finds himself assailed by a terrifying, unstoppable... monster*!Where did it come from? How should the islanders deal with it? And what, most importantly, are they going to do with Dave?The first book from a new leading light of UK comics, The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil is an off-beat fable worthy of Roald Dahl. It is about life, death and the meaning of beards.(*We mean a gigantic beard, basically.)
Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey: Uncle Gabby
Tony Millionaire - 2004
After spending thousands of Sunday afternoons gazing at his grandfather’s collections of old newspaper comics, he picked up a pen and started drawing monkeys with striped tails and top hats. He now writes and draws the comic book Sock Monkey as well as the weekly strip "Maakies," which has won him three Eisner Awards and has been animated for Saturday Night Live. He lives in Pasadena, California with his wife and daughters.
Clive Barker Omnibus
Gabriel Hernandez - 1999
With no shortage of sprawling high-concept, spine-chilling thrills, and inspired art, the Clive Barker Omnibus is a great launching point into his dark universe.
The Creep
Jonathan Case - 2013
The police don't care - not about his death or the death of his best friend two months earlier. The dead boy's mom seeks help from an old flame that's employed as a detective. What she doesn't know is that he suffers from a physical deformity that manifests at midlife. Will the detective's freakish appearance get in the way of uncovering the terrible secrets of these two teenagers? This collection features additional art by Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Ryan Sook, and Tonci Zonjic.Collects issues #0-#4.
Swamp Thing: Twin Branches
Maggie Stiefvater - 2020
One is quiet and the other is the life of any party, but they are inseparable. For their last summer before college, the two leave the city to live with their rural cousins, where they find that the swamp holds far darker depths than they could have imagined. While Walker carves their names into the new social scene, Alec recedes into a summer school laboratory, because he brought something from home on their trip—it’s an experiment that will soon consume him. This season, both brothers must confront truths, ancient and familial, and as their lives diverge, tensions increase and dormant memories claw to the surface.
Red Sonja, Vol. 1: Queen of Plagues
Gail Simone - 2014
even if it means leading a doomed army to their certain deaths! Who is Dark Annisia, and how has this fearsome warrior accomplished what no god nor demon has been able to do: force Sonja to her knees in surrender? An epic tale of blood, lust, and vengeance, Queen of the Plagues takes Red Sonja from the depths of her own grave to the heights of battlefield glory. Collects issues 1 to 6. Featuring Gail Simone's Red Sonja #1 script!