Just read Maus (damn) and was wondering about other high quality graphic novels. I’ve heard good things about Watchmen so I might read that next. I’m open to comics, manga -Berserk is good, right? - anything that has pictures and text.
I’ve read Berserk up to a point, and it’s very good. Some others I haven’t read but I see frequently mentioned - Vinland Saga, Vagabond, Blame if you’re more into sci-fi.
I like Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Scud the Disposable Assassin by Rob Schrab.
Sexcastle is one of the funniest comics you can read.
Paper Girls is a great read.
20th Century Boys is a classic manga.
Nightly News was Jonathan Hickmans first comic and he also does the art, it rocks if you like charts and violence.
Any of the books that are by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie- Phonogram, Wicked/Divine, even their Young Avengers
Sex Criminals is a hoot.
Chainsaw Man is the most popular anime at the moment, but the Manga fucking deserves it.
I like to buy copies of the graphic novel “This One Summer” by Mariko Tamaki just to give to friends. This is a much smaller stakes story but it is very intimately and thoughtfully conveyed, with excellent dreamy-but-grounded panelling. Very short volume but tightly written. For manga, I love Berserk like everyone else here but I’ll recommend something a little different since you brought up Maus which is very different and about more personal and meditative themes. The works of Daisuke Igarashi are each the most maturely written and elegantly drawn mangas I’ve read. Children of the Sea is a good one to start with. The most tightly written manga I’ve ever read is called Blue Giant, which although is a much more simple story about a jazz musician, is very confident in its storytelling.
I recently ordered Berserk Deluxe volumes during Black Friday. I read a good chunk when I was younger but never finished. I can’t really say what the themes are, but there’s a lot of blood, guts, and boobs
