I love alternive comics. For most of my life I read the same old Marvel
superhero put the bad guy in jail and wait for him to bust out again. I was
awaken around the time Image got together. Soon I was buying both Marvel and
Image and may wallet got really smart really fast. I had to decide which books
I liked the best and I went with creator owned. Ever since then I have been
buying all sorts of comics from Dark Horse, Calibur, Lightning, Hall of
Heroes, and meany more.  What alternative comics do you like and why?

115 responses total.

There is a limited selection of alternative comics here in the small town of
Gladstone, MI so the only comic that I can find around here that would be
considered alternative is the oh-so-cool Bone which is one of my favorite
titles..

A new comic that just came out at the october motor city con is Poe. It is
aan extremely cool story that explores an interesting life for Edgar allen
Poe by using his own stories that I would recommend for those who can get a
hold of it.

I love alternative comics. I feel that they just give you some much more then
the normal comics. When the mainstream comics target children 5-16 they tend
not to be very intelligent. When you have a comic that pushes the limit like
alternative comics stories, they can lead you to worlds that you can only
dream of. Art gets creative and unique. These comic are the food for the soul.
I have been trying and trying to introduce myself to more alternative comics
for a while now. While I'm still learning about the true art of comics, I have
found some that I love and treasure. Here are some examples of those which
I believe are the toast of the industry.
   I have found that anthology comics have more to offer. While their stories
are smaller, they provide a wide variety of stories. If you don't like one
story, there is another one you will absolutely love. I started first with
Dark Horse Presents. It has two to four stories in each issue. What I like
about this is while getting a totally unique story, you'll also get some great
comic talent doing one shots, like Frank Miller, Walter Simmonson, Art Adams,
Paul Chadwick, etc. Another anthology that I just started getting this month
is Negative Burn from Calibur. This is the kind of comic that I've been
looking for and I feel foolish for not picking it up earlier.  It has 64 pages
and 12 stories. It has any style of art and story from sports, comedy, horror,
sci-fi, historical, abstract and even illustrated poems. Now I have to pick
up the first 41 issues. I also picked up Wretch from Calibur which is a bunch
of erie and cool stories of this Wretch which is somekind of mystical
protector. 
   At Hall of Heroes there were a lot of good comics that went big and went
to bigger companies. I try to collect every Hall of Heroes title. My favorite
is CreeD is weird and hard to explain. Creator Trent Kaniuga's style is
reminisce of Todd McFarlane and Sam Kieth. He made a two issue mini-series
in which I was the only one to buy it at Dave's when it first came out. Now
at Lighting Comics, Creed is growing in success. Trent describes the series
by saying, "Well, it's based on a concept that early Indian times they had
this thing called a dream catcher. They believed that the good and bad dreams
would flout around in space... You would hang it over where you slept and it
would all the bad dreams... Mark Farley (CreeD) is a kid about thirteen years
old. Mark is a dream cleaner. He cleans out the evils from the dream world."
Other cool titles are Snowman, and Vortex which which have moved to Enity.
   I also like stories from Dark Horse that may be a little mainstream in art,
but the stories take a left turn on 28th street (whatever that means, a friend
said that once). Stories like ones from Legend and Blanc Noir along with
titles like Nexus and Grendels Tales. From Image, I find alternative comics
like Hellshock (Issue #1 Vol.2 (which took two years to perfect) is the BEST
comic I have ever read), Astro City, Strangers in Paradise (The second best
comic I have ever read), Leave it to Chance, Bone, A Touch of Silver (despite
the title it's pure gold), The Maxx, and Big Bang Comics.

     I'll just rattle of a list of independent titles and their companies for
now. These are the independents I really enjoy.

From Caliber: AKA Goldfish, Jinx, The Bandy Man, Negative Burn, The Marquis,
Walk Through October, Kabuki, Young Dracula, Renfield.

From Cheese Comics: Poe.

From Helikon Comics: Galaxion, Vagabond.

From Dark Horse: Dark Horse Presents, Grendel Tales.

From Aeon: Those Annoying Post Bros., The Comix of Two Cities (based on the
Resident`s Mole Trilogy albums), Savage Henry, The Desert Peach.

From Crusade: Manga Shi, Lethargic Lad.

Oh, I forgot other Caliber titles. (As you can guess, I'm a big Caliber fan.)
I also like Caliber's New Worlds anthology, Calibrations (their $.99 comic),
and the Raven Chronicles (better than the X-Files comic).

If you want to reach back through the years, I also enjoy early issues of
American Flagg (First Comics), Grendel (Comico), Fish Police (Fishwrap Press),
Stig's Inferno (Vortex), and Cerebus (Aarvark-Vanaheim). I know Cerebus still
comes out, but it's what introduced me to independent comics and for that I'm
eternally grateful to Dave Sim for showing me there's better comics than what
DC and Marvel put out (I'm not including Vertigo here).

These are only a few independent comics I enjoy. If you want to know more
about these, feel free to ask.

I do have one question David. Can we consider Image to be an independent
company since they are the 3rd largest company? I would agree that with
Jim Valentino's comics, Bone, A Distant Soil, and Homage Studios comics,
there's a lot of innovative work out there. But since most of Image's
output is still superhero comics that are quickly becoming mainstream, is
Image an independent comic company in general?

Those Annoying Post Bros. :)  they were in an issue of the Mirage
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comic.. hey!! that's an alternative comic, isn't
it? wahoo!!! there were certainly enough bizarre stories in it :P

First thing, two forgotten comics on my list are Lethargic Lad and Mister
Blank from Sirius. Second thing, Image is hard to define. I would say that
independant doesn't mean no superheros. I would definatly catalog Image's
first few years as Independant. Now, I'd have to question. DC and Marvel are
not indepenant because they're multi-million dollar corporations. Since Image
isn't one solid company it's hard to question. I would say that Jim
Valentino's bunch of black and white comics, Erik Larsens group of creator
owned comics (big bang, Hellshock, Firstman, Headhunters, A Distant Soil),
Sam' Kieth's The Maxx, Homage is still probley consited indepenant while
titles from Wildstorm, Top Cow, TMP, and Highbrow are proubley not. There was
this one interview with Dave Sim where he tryed to describe what is self
published comics. Even Sim couldn't define it. If you really have to start
defining it wiether they self publish or if there is a publisher. But for the
sake of this item I think we can talk about Jim's titles and maybe Homage's,
but lets keep the Image talk in the Image News item.

yeah. who wants to hear about Image anyway? :P

oh yeah.. I like The Tick comics as well..

I do!

Hey Mike you stole my caliber fan title I introduced you to quite a few of
those authors. But definitely if you like vampire stories you should not only
check out YOung Dracula for the story it has some amazing artwork as well the
story is by gary reed and the artwork is by david mack (of Kabuki fame). For
those of you who haven`t seen the comics Renfield by Galen Showman and Gary
Reed they are losely based on Dracula but mainly they deal with Renfield
trying to become a vampire and is set in Renfields point of view. Walk through
October is a very calm and interesting story about a story tellerput out by
I believe his name is Mark smith (i'll check and tell you letter) Mike says
it is alot like starchild. I would suggest that if any of you read the comic
and see this man at a con let him know how you like it. He sstarted it at
first with doing his own artwork they only let him put out one issue. Now they
have found a new artistt and are going to attempt to restart it from a
different point in the story (the author is known better from the starman
comics but walk through October is his baby).I will leave caliber for now and
say. . .
That the black orchid comic from DC vertigo is a worthwhile read. I have read
some of the sasme comics as mike has and agree with him.

umm.. you don't count.. :P

Why don't I count???

you don't count as a person that wants to read about Image.  I think post #10
was referring to post #8.. :P

That's still not a reason why I don't count. Give me reasons! Why I ask! Why?

you just don't count dave. you're a worthless human being and you dress
weird.. (how do i know how dave dresses?)

Who doesn't count whats going on i`m confuuuuuuuused
. 

I think we're getting way off topic here Luke. As a fairwitness you got to
make sure that all of the people are keeping within the subject and in the
right item or confer. As for my weird clothing, it has nothing to do with
alternative comics. Although I wouldn't mind a Mr. Blank t-shirt. As a
fairwitness and a member of bbs comics I do count in conversations in
alternative comics. Heck, I made the item we are talking in. Now, if you send
me that check you owe me I will have money in my bank, there for I will
nolonger be worthless. Now, I'm sure that you can come up with an actual
alternive comic the talk about in this item.

One correction: Mister Blank is put out by Slave Labor, not Sirius. The
reviewer in Vault of Midnight's magazine screwed up the name of the company.

Also, I'm a Caliber fan. Tanya is the Caliber groupie. If you want to meet
her at a con, look for her by any Caliber table. More likely than not, she'll
be there.

I think I forgot to mention Starchild. It's the best fantasy comic I`ve read.
The first story involves a magic garment that can alter reality through
telling a story. It's a very good read and has a timeless quality that so
few comics have.

I just got this one comic called Jet last Wednesday. It rocked. It was done
by an artist that could actually pull off the anime look with still having
american influences (am I in the right item... well it was a alternative comic
though). It was really cool and made me smile... not many books make me smile
anymore. This little book sold out before the end of the day on Wednesday.
Lucky I saw it in Previews and ordered it. If you get ahold of this book, buy
it! I t was really great.

It is true more often than not if you go to MotorCity con you will find me
at the Caliber Table the guys most often hand out free cards if not posters
of the upcoming books. I'm looking for the Issue of Marquis that has just come
out by Guy Davis if anyone has read it I would like to hear what they think.

If you love CreeD and you know *I* do, you'll love the CyberFrog/CreeD
crossover. CreeD creator Trent Kaniuga and CyberFrog creator Ethan Van Sciver
first meet each other at Hall of Heroes where they both made there start.
Since then they have gone to bigger companies; CreeD to Lightning and
CyberFrog to Harris, and had a rival that has been pretty messy. But since
the reader demand is so big, they are doing a crossover. Van Sciver will do
his half in July at Harris and then Kaniuga will tell his side at Lightning
in August. DeathFly and Disorder team up to wreak havoc (don't all villians
wreak something) in the Dreamworld which spills out into the real world. Good
fun shall be had with these books.

Well, strangely enough, I stopped collecting comics when alternative stuff
made a stab into the market, about a decade-and-a-half ago, even though they
were what really made reading comics worthwhile.  I still believe that holds
true, today.
 
I'm being fairly selective in my return to collecting, and all of the titles
I collect now are alternatively published.  My picks, so far:  _Strangers
in Paradise_, _Bone_, _Kabuki_, _Hellshock_ (2nd series), and _A Touch of
Silver_.   

When I first started collecting, my favorite alternative comics were
_Elfquest_ and _Nexus_.

I'm real happy to see that alternative comics are back in force, this time
around.  Long live good art!

Apparently, I'm told that the first _Hellshock_ was pretty lame.  But I was
recently shown the new series (only up to #2 at Image) and, folks, this stuff
is amazing...all painted...powerfully written (after a self-imposed research
hiatus)...not to be missed.

I'm told that the first hellshock was beyond great.

I really like the first mini-series of Hellshock, although by compairing the
new with the old, it was crap. The thing was that Jae Lee had an idea and he
forced it into a comic with little developing. A lot people complained because
it came out late and the first issue was half pin ups. Many people didn't like
that fact that they were getting half a story. But, hell those pin-ups looked
cool! I say the old mini-series is worth picking up. The second volume is a
bit of a prelude to mini so don't ignore it completely.
   Resently I was dragged to a bunch of garage sales with my mom. I was
looking through some old record when I saw in the corner of my eyes some long
boxes... COMICS!!! I found some Concrete, the American Flagg! tpb, and NEXUS.
I found vol.1 #3, all 80 issues of vol.2, and The Next Nexus mini-series, all
for only $10!!! What a deal! Over the past two months I read Nexus and I fell
in love with this series. This series has never skipped around the issues.
Even lately it took some risky moves with protraying several Deities in
Nexus:God Con. Nexus was revolutionary in creator rights and printing (it was
onne of the first American comic to use a better quality paper and full
color seperations). I highly recumend this series.

I just took out my (Capitol Comics) "New Color" Nexus to look through, again.
There was some smart writing going on, and the art was pretty cool.  Despite
the similarity to other sci-fi archetypical characters (Flash Gordon, for
instance), Baron and Rude managed to make a unique character and a good story.

er, that's Capital Comics, not Capitol...

To use an example of the good writing in Nexus, when they were at First, Nexus
finaly gotten sick of the dreams, the headaches, and the idea of having to
kill someone for their crime even though they may have repented and decided
to try to make up for their lives, finaly got to old Hellpop (that's Nexus's
real name) so he got an operation to stop the headaches, he used drugs to
excape the world and himself. This story was great because it wasn't preaching
that drug were bad, it was telling a story of a man trying to excape
himself...
   That is just one example of the good story writing Mike Baron doesn't get
enough credit for his writing. I've never seen him write fluff as I've seen
from most of Wizard's top ten writers.

Well, I guess _Kabuki_'s going to Iamge, now.  And David Mack is supposed to
be making an appearance at the Vault, sometime in the near future.

Anybody checking out _Cages_ by Dave McKean?  It's a self-published series
that is extremely visual, judging by #5 of a ten-issue series.  Impressively
done, I might add.

He's the guy who does the covers for Sandman, so it ought to be good.

I'm looking forward to the Cages graphic novel, expensive as it is.

Check out The One Trick Rip-Off by Paul Pope. It collects the 12 part story
serialized in Dark Horse Presents. It's awesone! (No Liefeld pun intended)

You know, i picked up a _Sandman_ graphic novel the other day, expecting
the inside to be like the cover, and I was a little disappointed.  I hope
the story is more impressive. 

And despite the fact that even _Cages_ doesn't feature the same kind of art
seen on the cover (apparently by the same person, as well), at least the art
on the inside is a good deal more experimental than the art on the inside of
_Sandman_.

Well, several of us caught _Spawn_ on the big screen, this week.  Brilliant
concept, nice effects, poor execution...  I'm intrigued by the moral threads
running through the plot, so I think I'll have to check out the comic.

You could always enter your observations in the item :)

So little time, so many items...

Anyone read St. Germaine?  Looks like a cool Caliber comic...

Read it. St Germaine is a good comic, despite the fact that Caliber made a
Raven Chronicles spin-off (along with The Red Diaries). Poor Manny Chancu.
Every time they want a character from another Caliber book, they always
pick him. But, I digress. The artwork is great. The story is intriguing.
I highly recommend it.

Other things I've read and loved:
-Johnny the Homicidal Maniac graphic novel: my first exposure to Jhonen
Vasquez's work is great. I can't wait to read Squee.
-Mythography #4: This fantasy anthology is still one of the best out there.
-Eightball: Although I don't relate well to some of the stories, the writing
is great. The "Ghost World" feature in each issue is well worth the price of
the comic.
-Buzz Buzz Comics Magazine #1: I waited a year to get this and it was worth
it. The only complaint I have is that the Moebius story in it is untranslated.
At least French is easier to translate than Japanese.
-The Adventures of Luther Arkwright: Just buy it.

Cool.  I thought it looked pretty good.  I'll check out _St. Germaine_...
 
I've seen _Johnny the Homicidal Maniac_, and the art was intriguing.

Spotted _Mythography_ the other day.  Looked interesting...
 
I now have several issues of _St. Germaine_ in hand.  I haven't had the
chance to get to them, yet, however.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss