Compiled by Joe Keatinge: There are a lot of summer reading lists out there! We here at Neon Monster are happy about it, but sometimes feel they cover the same ground. That said, given our wonderful and unique clientele, we’ve painstakingly created a list featuring a number of books that may have not made the other lists. We wanted to focus on books specifically for you, the Neon Monster customer. That said, don’t look for a lot of books you’ve already seen widely praised. There’s no Bone on here, no Watchmen, no Blankets. However, these are all titles we feel are easily worth the same type of attention those much loved titles are already getting.
So, with that said, grab yourself a refreshing lemonade, a comfy chair and check out what we’ll be reading this summer.
1) I Kill Giants, written by Joe Kelly, illustrated by JM Ken Niimura, Image Comics
We’re starting off by breaking one of our rules.
I Kill Giants has been seeing a good amount of praise lately, including an Eisner nomination and being declared one of the YALSA ‘s Top Best Graphic Novels for Teens in 2010. However, considering how this collection has become my go-to book for anyone interested in checking out what comics is capable of, it only felt right to begin this list with it.
Writer Joe Kelly will be a name familiar to a lot of comics fans for his work on Amazing Spider-Man and Deadpool, among others, but I’ve always felt his creator-owned work is where he excels most. Whether it’s his never completed, but personally beloved series with Chris Bachalo, Steampunk, or his more recent work with Image Comics including Four Eyes and Bad Dog, Joe seems to be enjoying it more than anything else.
No work exemplifies this more than I Kill Giants, a seven-issue mini-series he completed last year with European artist JM Ken Niimura. While Niimura has been seen since with work at Marvel or Image’s PopGun, at the time of I Kill Giants’ release he was brand new to the American public and his art style threw me for a loop. Even now I’m at a lost to find artists to compare him to. That’s Niimura for you.
I Kill Giants is obviously a very personal work for both creators, taking on subject matter just about anyone can relate to. It stars a young girl named Barbara Thorson, who may or may not be the world’s greatest giant slayer. However, it quickly becomes apparent something far more troublesome is at play. Something much more grounded in bittersweet reality.
If you’re new to comics, coming back or are looking for something different, I cannot implore you enough to read I Kill Giants. This book alone is worth a full list. You won’t be disappointed.
2) George Herriman’s Krazy + Ignatz in Tiger Tea, written & illustrated by George Herriman, IDW
While I personally consider Krazy + Ignatz to be the greatest comic strip of all time, I can also see how it’s a hard one to get into. Besides the fact Fantagraphics alone has put out thirteen volumes collecting the series (with a fourteenth on the way), its madcap and bizarre style can sometimes be off putting to the new reader. The series is well known for its complete lack of a narrative beyond the ongoing love affair between Krazy Kat, the brick-throwing mouse Ignatz and the protective Officer Pupp. However, that’s as coherent as it ever got as the strips never continued in an obvious fashion. Except once…
In 1936, already over twenty years into Krazy + Ignatz’s run, Herriman began the multi-part “Tiger Tea” storyline in which Krazy attempted to save her friend’s failing catnip company by discovering a new substance, Tiger Tea. This Tiger Tea enabled the drinker to get an extra burst of energy, in effect making them into “mini-tigers.”
As soon as word gets out of the Tiger Tea’s effects just about everyone from Ignatz to Pupp is eager to get their hands on it, but Krazy ends up hoarding it all for herself. As the old saying goes, “hijinks ensue.” Like the Tiger Tea itself, I find this volume to be the perfect gateway drug to Krazy + Ignatz on a whole. That said, if you’re just looking for a solid, self-contained read, you’ll be very satisfied.
I also want to note this is part of IDW’s Yoe! Books line, as overseen by Craig Yoe. The line, specializing in classic reprints of some of comics’ greatest cartoonists, also includes The Complete Milt Gross, Dan DeCarlo’s Jetta, Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics and The Art of Ditko. All are as recommended as Tiger Tea.
3) Doom Patrol Vol. 1-6, written by Grant Morrison, art by Richard Case, Vertigo
Before Batman & Robin, Before Final Crisis, even before JLA, writer Grant Morrison got noticed in this revitalization of DC’s struggling series, Doom Patrol.
Originally created in 1963 by writer Arnold Drake and illustrator Bruno Premiani, The Doom Patrol was known from the get-go as the strangest superheroes in the DC universe. Led by their wheelchair bound Chief, Niles Caulder, the Doom Patrol consisted of the Cliff Steele, The Robotman, Rita Farr, the Elasti-Girl, and Larry Trainor, The Negative Man.
By the time Morrison was given the series’ reins, the book ended up in a very different direction, going from the most bizarre comic to hit the stands to a comparatively generic superhero title.
Morrison, a vocal fan of the Drake/Premiani run, made it his goal to take the series back to its surrealistic roots. With artist Richard Case, Morrison took the series from shelf stinker to cult favorite by cleverly revitalizing characters like Robotman to adding new spins such as the hermaphroditic Rebis, the multi-personality disturbed Crazy Jane, the controversial Flex Mentallo and my personal favorite, the sentient roadway, Danny The Street.
The Doom Patrol modernized its roots to avoid the standard superheroes-fight-supervillains motif and instead focused on making sense of their very strange world. Whether it was the Brotherhood of Dada’s Painting That Ate Paris or the absolutely frightening Candlemaker, the Doom Patrol never did anything the standard way. Along with Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol paved the way for DC’s mature readers line, Vertigo, and eventually inspired such beloved hits as Garth Ennis’ Preacher and Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan.
4) The Book of Mr. Natural, written and illustrated by R. Crumb, Fantagraphics
With an awful lot of attention being brought to underground comics Godfather, R.Crumb’s Book of Genesis, I feel it’s worth going back to his roots and his arguably most famous creation not bastardized in an animate feature, Mr. Natural.
Despite there being numerous past collections of Crumb’s many Mr. Natural stories, Fantagraphics has gone back and reprinted many of them in a definitive hardcover volume from his very first appearance all the way through a strip Crumb himself almost thought too disturbing for publication.
Mr. Natural primarily follows the likely fraudulent guru and his unwitting disciple, Flakey Foont, in a series of misadventures (or perhaps non-adventures) which take potshots on everything from politics to sex to, more often than not, religion and the search for meaning.
This most recent compilation is the finest presentation of the Mr. Natural strips I’ve ever seen and is a must-buy for any Crumb fan whether they’ve been there since he first made his appearance in Zap or are coming on board with The Book of Genesis. Either way, this is not to be missed.
5) Blacksad, written by Juan Diaz Canales, art by Juanjo Guarnido, Dark Horse
American fans of European comics more often than not have their heart broken.
Whether it’s the long out of print library of Moebius or something more recent like Jodowsky’s Metabarons, those hoping to find their favorite titles translated in English can often end up frustrated.
For the last several years, one European Holy Grail was Canales and Guarnido’s detective noir thriller, Blacksad. Since the collapse of its original English-language rights holder, fans have clamored for its return and it wasn’t until very recently Dark Horse was able to mend their broken hearts.
This new edition collects both of the volumes originally in print along with an all-new third volume, Red Soul, into one hardcover edition remastered to the Guarnido’s specifications.
Blacksad is the dream book for any fan of noir classics such as Double Indemnity or Will Eisner’s original run on The Spirit. It ingrains itself into the 1950s America it pays homage to, with its titular detective, John Blacksad, investigating an anthromorphic world of conspiracy, “Red Scare”, murders and nuclear secrets. Don’t let the animal looks fool you, this is no Disney tale. Blacksad is a self-contained master class in what comics – European or otherwise – are capable of.
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