A few more mainstream recommendations:



Marvel started a pretty nifty graphic novel line, in 1982, beginning with The Death of Captain Marvel. Jim Starlin basically capped off his cosmic masterpiece, with Mar-Vell finding that it wouldn't be Thanos or some other villain who would kill him; it would be cancer. Starlin takes us through the stages of grief, has all of the greatest minds of the Marvel Universe come together and fail. Captain Marvel, a character begun to secure a trademark on a good name, with an uneven history, was allowed to go out with dignity. Even the Skrulls paid tribute to him. It is a powerful work, slightly marred by a unnecessary metaphoric battle; but, probably Starlin's best work.

New Mutants introduced us to the next generation of X-Men and did it in a pretty exciting manner. It had been a while since we had the first new, young X-Man, in Kitty Pryde, and here Chris Claremont began exploring the mission of Xavier's School, to help gifted students, whose gifts are beyond academic. It's not as powerful as Claremont's other X-Men graphic novel, of the period; but, it's a fine piece of work.

God Loves, Man Kills is powerful, allowing the characters to directly address prejudice, especially spawned by a religious authoritarian figure, who spouts hatred and bigotry. It probably overdoes some elements; but, it has some great scenes and really showcased Brent Anderson's talent. Of course, it would factor heavily into X2.

Daredevil is Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz at the height of their talent, on Marvel's hottest character of the time. It's not as gonzo as Elektra Assassin; but, it delivers the goods.



Futurians is a favorite of mine. Dave Cockrum gets to strut his stuff, with his own pseudo-X-Men. In the future, a group of scientists attempts to alter the past by sending back genetic info, which grafts itself to the DNA of a group of people, who then feel a compulsion to use those abilities to benefit mankind. On parcel went further back than expected, creating the man who will become Avatar, an immortal who brings centuries of experience and tactical thinking to the team. The team also gains the aid of a creature who lives in the sun and has the power of a goddess. As you can see, it doesn't break new ground and the X-Men analogies abound; but, this is Cockrum's more swashbuckling take on the material. Fans of the earlier new X-Men issues could rejoice to a return of that more fast paced, action/adventure approach, before subplots overwhelmed things. Cockrum ended up taking it to the indie scene and ended up regretting it, as he felt he probably could have had more life with it at Marvel. Maybe so. The graphic novel starts things with a bang.



After leaving the X-Men book and Marvel, Claremont got to play in some favorite sandboxes and one of those was Star Trek.  He crafted a terrific graphic novel, aided by Adam Hughes' art, and brought together favorite characters from across Star Trek history and pitted them against a common foe. The one downside is that enemy is yet another Claremont retread of Alien (something he beat into the ground, in X-men). However, the personalities help elevate it above another bug hunt and it was nice to see the Star Trek universe handle something like that.



In the wake of Dark Knight, Year One and the hype for the Batman movie, a cottage industry was formed: the Elseworlds books. It began with a nifty historical piece, Gotham by Gaslight, by Bryan Augustyn and Mike Mignola. The premise is simple, Batman takes on Jack the Ripper. Mignola captured a lot of attention for this and Augustyn creates a damn good Victorian adventure, with a Batman to match. The Batmobile is a horse, the costume created from a fencing vest and cloak. Knives take the place of batarangs. This really takes Batman to his roots: those of Zorro and Sherlock Holmes.

The book was followed by an inevitable sequel (Master of the Future), with Eduardo Barreto on art. This one draws inspiration from Jules Verne, as Batman takes on a science villain, who shares much with Nemo and Robur. It wasn't as popular or as highly regarded; but, I love the thing. It's steampunk, before that became a cliche.



Enemy Ace: War Idyll, by George Pratt, features Hans Von Hammer, a dying old man, living in a sanitarium, in Germany.  He is visited by a journalist to be interviewed; but, the conversation moves beyond Von Hammer's life. The journalist is an American Vietnam veteran, who carries his own memories of horror and survivor's guilt. Together, the men share their experiences and their grief for those who didn't make it. It's a powerful work, beautifully painted by Pratt. It was nominated for the Eisner and Harvey awards and was once part of the reading list at West Point.



My last two are from a mainstream creator, but published elsewhere. The better known is Fax from Sarajevo. This book deals with Joe Kubert's friend and business partner, Ervin Rustemagic. Rustemagic was head of Strip Art Features, a company which packaged and sold comics properties to publishers throughout Europe, and who were part of a partnership with Malibu, under the Platinum Editions label. There has long been a thriving comic scene in Yugoslavia, with tremendous work done throughout the region. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, wars broke out between the newly independent republics, including Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Rustemagic and his family lived and worked in Sarajevo, when the fighting broke out. Rustemagic's offices were destroyed, taking multiple pieces of original art with it, including works from Hal Foster, Kubert, Alex Raymond and more. Rustemagic works to get his family out of the war zone and updates friends via faxes. Kubert illustrates the harrowing; but, ultimately happy story in the style you come to expect, from a veteran of war comics; but, it has a personal connection that goes beyond Sgt. Rock or Enemy Ace.



Prior to the events in Fax from Sarajevo, Kubert published another graphic novel, via Platinum Editions: Abraham Stone: Country Mouse, City Rat. The story is set at the turn of the century and features a young man's journey to the big city. It's been a long time and my memory is hazy; but, the book allows Kubert to indulge in a bit of pseudo-western and urban adventure story. I recall the art, more than anything. Kubert really got to strut his stuff here, more than he had in a long time. It's better known in Europe, where superheroes don't dominate and I stumbled across it in my local shop, back in 1991, thanks to the owner, who ordered it in, where it sat on display, ignored in favor of X-Men and such. I saw it and saw Kubert's name and art and snapped it up. Kubert came back to the character in two issues at Epic, where the hero ends up in the early days of Hollywood, as well as with Pancho Villa (who also ended up in Hollywood). Good stuff and one of Kubert's lesser known works.



Harvey Kurtzman returned to Marvel (he did the Hey Look comics, for Timely) and got to do a hardcover graphic novel. Well, really, it's Kurtzman basically doing a Mad take on Marvel characters. It's not quite the genius of the Mad comic books; but, it's a slice of fun.

Yeah, I would tend to agree with that assessment of Strange Adventures.  It was a bit uneven, though the Silver Surfer parody was pretty good.  Harvey was having health problems around this time, which might factor into it.  Within a couple of years he did one of those videos that Stan Lee hosted, with Harvey and Jack Davis as guests, and Harvey is visibly in bad shape.  he spoke in a very halting manner and never moves from the table.  He die not long after.

This time, I am recommending a whole series of graphic albums...



Valerian (or Valerian & Laureline, if you prefer).

Valerian first appeared in 1967 and charmed and thrilled audiences right up to Jean-Claude Mezieres retirement of the series, in 2010. The series focuses on Valerian, a spatio-temporal agent of the Galaxity. Basically, he's a troubleshooter who works across time and space, for an intergalactic empire, whose homebase is a massive city-planetoid. Laureline was an 11th Century peasant girl who accompanies Valerian back to the 28th Century, where she is trained as a spatio-temporal agent and becomes valerian's partner. In the early stories, Valerian is the hero and Laureline is more of a supporting character. As the series progressed, Laureline stepped out as the more capable and level-headed of the two, while Valerian was something of a dim bulb. The earliest stories were standard good vs evil space opera; but, political, social and ecological concerns started mixing into the stories, thanks to writer Pierre Christin (who also collaborated with Enki Bilal), and the series grew into something bigger. Through it all, it maintains a sense of playful fun, while also slipping in some allegory and adventure.

The series was first translated in the US, by Dargaud USA, the American branch of Dargaud International, the publishers of Asterix, Blueberry and the magazine Pilote. They published the volumes Ambassador of Shadows, World Without Stars, Welcome to Alfolol, and Heroes of the Equinox. Dargaud closed down their US branch and switched to licensing their material for translation.



In 2004, Byron preiss' iBooks published Valerian: The New Future Trilogy. The genesis of this was the release of Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. The movie features Bruce Willis as a cab driver who gets caught up in the battle of good vs evil. Valerian creator Jean-Claude Mezieres worked as a conceptual designer on the film, along with Jean "Moebius" Gireaud. The film had halted pre-production when Besson went to Hollywood to do Leon (aka The Professional). During the hiatus, mezieres went back to work on Valerian, producing the story Circles of Power, which featured a cab driver, who aids Valerian and Laureline. luc Besson liked the image of the floating cab and scrapped the original story of a robot factory worker and replaced him with a cab driver. The movie was a hit and byron Preiss secured the reprint rights of Circles of Power and the two preceding stories, which form a bit of an arc. valerian and Laureline are now operating without the resources of the Galaxity, which added a new wrinkle. many elements in the three stories mirror The Fifth Element, though there are plenty of differences. A common factor, though, are Mezieres designs for various alien races.



In recent years, UK publisher Cinebook has been reissuing the Valerian albums, from the beginning, in English.



Cinebook has published 15 of the 21 volumes, with two more on the way in April and June, as well as the hardcover Valerian: The Complete Collection, Vol1, which reprints City of Shifiting Waters in its entirety, as well as Empire of a Thousand Planets and the iintial story, bad Dreams, which is seeing its first English translation.

Empire of a Thousand Planets is notorious among a certain circle as having many scenes and concepts which found their way into Star Wars, a few years later. It includes a helmeted figure, who turns out to have a scarred face underneath (which also was done with Dr. Doom), Valerian sealed in a block of amber, and valerian's ship, the XB982 bears more than a bit of a resemblance to the Millennium Falcon and the graphic novel features scenes of the craft which mirror shots in Star Wars...



It has been said that one of the Lucasfilm designers, working on the prequels, had a complete set of the French valerian albums, that he kept nearby, while working on the films. Mezieres was never exactly happy; but, he poked fun at it, rather than fight an unwinnable war...



Oh, and Laureline wears an outfit much like Leia's, in World Without Stars. You could easily make the same connections with other works of sci-fi and illustration, including Frazetta's fantasy paintings and 50s movies, not to mention Flash Gordon.

Leaving all of that aside, Valerian is a wonderful world of adventure, humor, exotic worlds and lifeforms, and two layered and intriguing heroes. One can only hope that Besson does them justice in his film. So far, all I have seen are the visuals, which capture the look (as best it can); but, the tone remains to be seen, let alone the characters. The Fifth Element had much of the same tone, so there is hope. however, it's all here in the books.

One of my personal favorites is Heroes of the Equinox, where Valerian competes against other heroes, in a race to reach an island, to help repopulate a planet. The other heroes are thinly veiled analogs of Marvel characters, including Thor, the Hulk and Dr Strange. The whole thing is a bit of a delightful romp, with a cute ending.

If you love sci-fi and comical adventure, you must read this series.

Cinebook has been my go-to publisher for the past few years. I've enjoyed everything I have read from their line and they have something for everyone, young and old, male and female, name a genre. Here are a few special favorites:



Spirou and Fantasio have been around quite a while. Spirou was the mascot of Spirou magazine, an elevator operator, whose adventures were created by Rob-Vel. He sold the character to the publisher and it has continued ever since. In the 1940s, Jije took over the character and introduced Fantasio, a reporter. The pair came to greatness under Andre Franquin, who took them on their greatest adventures and introduced the Marsupilami. The character underwent an update in the 70s and a couple more, including one by Yves Charland (creator of Freddy Lombard) which wasn't completed. Eventually, it was fully modernized by Tome and Janry. It is this duo that Cinebook has mostly featured. After a handful of Tome and Janry books, Cinebook started reprinting the Franquin classics and now alternate between the two.

Much like Tintin, Spirou & Fantasio travel the globe, having adventures and covering news stories. However, their adventures are moore rooted in the fantastic and they tend to have a wilder tone. The satire is broader, especially under Tome & Janry. They frequently parody movies and other pop culture, such as the Godfather, in Spirou in New York. Franquin sticks with more traditional adventure but kept the humor quotient high. Marsupilami became a favorite, as this wild creature made for great visual gags (and a terrible American mis-mash of a cartoon). If you enjoy Tintin, you may enjoy Spirou & Fantasio.



Lucky Luke is the cowboy, created by Morris and scripted by Rene Goscinny (Asterix) until his death, and several others since. Morris passed away in 2001 and Achde has continued the series. Cinebook has published 63 volumes, with 2 more on the way, by summer.

Lucky Luke is a cowboy who wanders the West, righting wrongs and having adventures. Along the way he meets the famous and infamous, with the greatest infamy coming from the Dalton brothers, who get meaner as they get shorter. Luke rides his faithful horse Jolly Jumper, and is occasionally accompanied by an overzealous dog, Rantanplan. Luke is faster than his own shadow, as can be seen in a cartoon on the back of most volumes. In the classic years, neither Luke nor Jolly Jumper were without their trademark cigarettes; but, bowing to pressure, they now chew on a blade of prairie grass. The stories are light-hearted fun, written for kids but thoroughly enjoyable for adults. The plots are a bit repetitive; but, what can you expect after well over 60 years?

Lucky Luke was adapted into several cartoons, including 1971's Daisy Town, which was distributed by Disney, in the 80s and a cartoon series, with Hanna-Barbera. Terence Hill (They Call Me Trinity, My Name is Nobody) played the character in two movies and a tv series; and, Jean Dujardin (OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies and The Artist) played the Lucky Luke in a rather surreal take on the character.



The Scorpion is fantastic swashbuckling adventure, set in 18th Century Rome, where the the intrigues of the Vatican take center stage. These are really beautifully drawn and filled with action.



Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate returns 20 years later, to take up a voyage for Lady hastings, whose husband has found a legendary treasure city in the Amazon. Plenty of pirate fun, fights, double-crosses and jungle adventure follow. Really great art, too.



This series has been ongoing, since 1946. It was created by Edgar P Jacobs and features the fantastic adventures of Prof. Phillip Angus Mortimer, leading physicist, and Capt. Francis Percy Blake, late of Her Majesty's Armed Forces and then MI-5. Together, they span the globe, solving mysteries, stopping evil organizations, investigating strange phenomena, and other sci-fi and espionage plots. The art is in the linge claire tradition, like Tintin and other Franco-Belgian works, though more firmly rooted in the world of its time (with much of the sci-fi extrapolated from scientific theory and research). These are thinking heroes, though they are no less bold than the best of the spy/adventurers. This is probably the greatest sci-fi adventure strip in the Franco-Belgian world, mixing the sci-fi world of Flash Gordon & Buck Rogers (and Brick Bradford) with the adventure world of Terry & the Pirates, Steve Canyon, and Wash Tubbs. Cinebook has published all 24 albums of the series.



Lady S features the adventures of a female spy, working for a freelance intelligence group. Her father is a roving ambassador for the US, which takes her all over the globe. Fans of Ed Brubaker's Velvet or Modesty Blaise should enjoy these.



Melusine features the delightful adventures of a young with. These are shorter pieces, written for children; but, with a charming central character. 5 volumes here.



Billy and Buddy are single page comics, featuring the comical exploits of a boy and his dog. These are really cute, with 6 books available.



Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, and Antares are segment's of Leo's sci-fi sagas, recounting mankind's attempts to establish new colonies, on other worlds. Each cycle has several volumes, and mixes sci-fi with great character pieces.

There are so many other great books at Cinebook, including the classic series The Bluecoats, Iznogoud, Thorgal, Buck Danny (just a few later era volumes, not the earlier classics), Cinebook Presents (historical accounts, including the Battle of Britain, the Falklands and the Wright Brothers), Berlin (about a bomber, in WW2), Largo Winch, Wayne Shelton, SPOOKS, Alpha, Damocles, Ducaboo, Col. Clifton, and more. You can find childrens' humor and adventure, espionage, romance, adventure, supernatural, sci-fi, historical accounts, swashbuckling tales and more. You just won't find much in the way of superheroes.

I've often been interested in Cinebook's offerings. but I find their US availability to be pretty difficult.. Amazon seems to stock only random bits.. anyone had better luck? Or have I just not looked hard enough?

Enki Bilal is one of the most acclaimed of the next generation of European stylists (after the initial Metal Hurlant generation) and his work has appeared here, at Heavy Metal and via the DC/Humanoids association.



The Nikopol Trilogy (Gods in Chaos, Woman Trap, Cold Equator, to use the English titles) features a prisoner who returns from space exile to the fascist state that imprisoned him, at the same time a group of space traveling gods have reappeared. The god Horus merges with Nikopol to get around. Together they work against the corruption of the society. The second volume introduces journalist Jill Bioskop, who ends up with the duo. The art is amazing, though the story can get a bit esoteric. Bilal later adapted it into a movie (Immortel Ad Vitam, aka Immortal), which made extensive use of CGI sets and characters, though it never really rises above an artificial look. It also doesn't make the story any clearer. Bilal works more in metaphor in this series.

My personal favorites of Bilal's works are his collaborations with Pierre Christin. Christin is a fantastic writer and his stories touch on real issues and events, while centering around interesting characters. Add Bilal's art and you have great work.



The Ranks of the Black Order (aka The Black Order Brigade) tells the tale of a group of veterans of the Spanish Civil War, who fought for the International Brigade and who learn that a fascist group, the Black order Brigade, who committed atrocities, are alive and spread across Europe. The former comrades come back together to hunt them down, a journey that takes them across Europe and even beyond the Iron Curtain. Great novel of intrigue and obsession.



The Hunting Party features a noted Communist official, who was a mentor to other young Communists, across the Iron Curtain. He is old and infirmed now; but, a grand hunting party is still carried on. One of the members is going to kill him, as he is also responsible for suppression within the satellite states. Again, another great novel of mystery and intrigue, which revolves heavily around the characters.



The Town That Didn't Exist features a group of villagers who get together to dream a utopia into existence. However, not everyone thinks it is a good idea, as entering the utopia means leaving the rest of the world and people behind. Interesting philosophical work, somewhat influenced by fantasy work from people like Winsor McKay (Little Nemo in Slumberland). It was also collected into Townscapes, by DC/Humanoids, along with The Stone Ship and The Voyage of Those Forgotten.



Bilal has more work out there in English, including Exterminator 17 and The Dormant Beast.