I just occurred to me, that while I have heard of them, I've never actually read one. They seem interesting. Suggestions for a noob please! I might grab one off amazon.

Comics.

Watchmen
V for Vendetta
The league of extraordinary gentlemen.

In fact, google 'Alan Moore' and start from there.
Sandman is a good call too though.

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Good place to start.

In addition to the ones already mentioned, I offer from my bookshelves:

Bone by Jeff Smith, is cutesy and funny and epic all at once, I think I'd call it my favourite.

Sin City by Frank Miller, extremely noir and stylish, also known in film version obviously

The dark knight returns by Frank Miller, also film adapted but the graphic novel is still outstanding

Preacher by Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon,  a crazy outrageous epic western story with vampires and angels and inbred religious figures and goddamn awesome characters all over, includes a bonus guest appearance by Bill Hicks, just to illustrate the awesomeness of it

Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis, I've invested in these books twice due to losing the first set in unfortunate moving-circumstances, and it was all worth it, because Warren Ellis is the coolest man and the only thing cooler is his character Spider Jerusalem, or possibly his two-headed cat; Spider writes a column named I hate it here, which should give you some idea of the general tone of things

The Invisibles by Grant Morrison is also... extreme, in just about every way, but satisfyingly so -  I'd say more about it but I just have no idea where to even begin, haha

and for something completely different
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - about as far from the traditional graphic novel style and plot as you can get, this is a sombre autobiography describing an Iranian woman's childhood and adolescence and identity within Islam and Europe,  from an illustrator point of view it does some very cute things, otherwise not something I'd recommend unless you have at least a passing interest in the subject.

I knew you'd likely have some input I went with the initial suggestion first so Enter Sandman, and we'll see how that goes.

Uljin wrote on 09/02/09 at 00:49:05:

I don't know if I am because I have never read a comic other than an online comic thing. I watched some cartoons as a kid. Never watched Anime, Never read graphic novels. Only "superhero" stuff i have ever seen is what was on CITV, old TV series or movies.

Skar wrote on 09/02/09 at 11:49:25:


Mark Millar takes over writing after the 2nd volume and runs it into the floor alas, it was cancelled shortly after as sales fell rather rapidly.

Warren Ellis recently released "Crecey" an adorably painted history lesson disguised as a graphic novel.  Well worth reading.

There's also a few classical Hellblazer, drawn by Dave McKean and written by Neil Gaiman that are -very- worth investing in.  ( So are a few of the azzarello (spelling?) things, but I ramble)

Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight"  sort of redefined the comics industry in it's day, unfortunately people chose to reproduce rather than emulate the things that made Watchmen (Moore et. al) so groundbreaking.

Matt Wagner's "Grendel" (Black, white and red)  started a new series of teamworks, but I'd recommend getting the things where he wrote the manuscripts rather than the followups.  If nothing else so for the way it ties styles of artists together with the story told from the various angles of characters.  (Different artists from different viewpoints, and so on)

Jhonen Vasquez -  Johnny the Homocidial Maniac, aka. "Z?" is another extreme, going towards the humorous bizarre and ultraviolent rather than taking the medium seriously.