Graphic Novels > by Author Name (First Letter)

Advantages: Never ever has there been a Batman this violent
Disadvantages: It will take ages to read this all the way through.

The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel is really the Holy Grail of comic books as this stirred up the Batman legacy in such a sufficient manner that it changed to an extent it is what it is today. At the time of its release in February 1986 the sales of the Batman comic started to dwindle, the movies were not even released and the only time Batman was seen was if cartoons and shows were re-run on TV which was damaging the sales potential of the Batman ...
...whole as this was really the first time that a graphic novel had departed from the normal passage of a character and gone off on a completely new tangent, telling a story that for the mid-eighties had an awful amount of violence and involved 13 year old characters who would accompany Batman as his sidekick Robin. The story revolves around a totally different world than what we are used to, gone is the clean cities and bright colours to be replaced ... Read review

Advantages: Very funny with great characters
Disadvantages: None really

...well known words "Jimmy Conway this is your life" are spoken. The problem is that sat in the pub with his weird collection of friends on the evening of his 35th birthday Jimmy Conway is far from famous, in fact he is single, a part time teacher of English as a foreign language to students in the quiet, very windy seaside town of Seaford. To make matters worse it was not Jimmy who rediscovered the letters but his older more successful brother who ...
...to Jimmy's embarrassment. This is one of those stories which actually begins ahead of itself and what you actually get is pretty much the ending of the story and this sees Jimmy Conway about to go on stage in front of thousands and a TV audience of millions and deliver his famous award winning stand up routine. The problem is Jimmy has never performed comedy before in his life and the rest of the story takes you on a journey with Jimmy as he gets ... Read review

Advantages: Beautiful story & characters/ beautifully drawn / dramatic & funny
Disadvantages: None!

'Persepolis: The story of a childhood', is one of the best animated books I have ever read. It is a beautiful memoir about a young girl's experiences of growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution. The illustrations are all in black and white and are beautifully drawn. The story is heartbreaking, yet incredibly funny at the same time. And what makes it so special is that it's all based on truth, history and the experiences of one girl and her ...
...Persepolis and felt it was true to their own experiences of living in Iran and then having to flee the revolution and come to the UK. I can not recommend this book enough. Pure brilliance! And once you've finished reading it, you can get the sequel 'Persepolis 2: The story of a return'. I didn't want the story to end! An animated film has already been made and released in the US, and it should come out in the UK shortly. I can't wait to see it! ... Read review

Advantages: Draws old plot threads to a close.
Disadvantages: Tedious length, pointless distractions and bad jokes.

...notion that Gaiman had left the stretched plotting of his earlier 'Season of Mists' era behind him, 'Brief Lives' instead acts as a rough sequel to some of its events, and puts any and all remaining questions about the Endless to a conclusive rest, with the sole exception of the rather glaring omission: "what exactly are they, then?" There was some valid criticism that my last Sandman review dumped readers in at the deep end without much explanation ...
...overview. Introduced gradually over the course of the comic series, which had by now been in print for three mostly enjoyable years, the seven Endless are not gods, that much is made clear, but are rather seemingly immortal and powerful beings whose function is to oversee seven vital aspects of the universe. The titular Sandman is Dream, though he is rarely referred to as the Sandman, and is known by a multitude of names by different cultures, as ... Read review

Advantages: Individual stories that can be enjoyed in isolation.
Disadvantages: Half the size of the previous publications.

In contrast to the first two collected volumes of Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman,' 'Dream Country' is comprised entirely of individual, one-off stories rather than an extended serial. This interval takes some time out from the developing plot of the series, heading back in time or focusing on the margins, above all being unexpectedly and creatively divergent. This happened to be the first Sandman paperback I read, and although it's more satisfying to ...
...Doll's House' plot that spanned the previous eight issues, Gaiman's stand-alone tales can just as easily be enjoyed in isolation on their own merits, even by readers with no prior knowledge of the Sandman concept. The writer's penchant for introspection is still present, leading to the involvement of characters from elsewhere in the DC canon, but such indulgence is surprisingly limited here, and far less irritating than in the previous volume. Uniquely ... Read review