Secret Identity

Set in the real world, SECRET IDENTITY examines the life of a young Kansas man with the unfortunate name of Clark Kent.All Clark wants is to be a writer, but his daily life is filled with the taunts and jibes of his peers, comparing him to that other Clark Kent — the one with super-powers. Until one day when Clark awakens to discover that he can fly…that he does in fact have super-strength. But where did these powers come from? And what’s he going to do about it?

Why we like it

A slightly quieter and introspective reflection on what it means to be Superman.

The Dark Knight Returns

It is ten years after an aging Batman has retired and Gotham City has sunk deeper into decadence and lawlessness. Now as his city needs him most, the Dark Knight returns in a blaze of glory.

Why we like it

Frank Miller’s hugely influential take on Batman, this set the precendent for the versions of the character that we’ve seen over the last ten years.

Hawkeye

SHIELD recruits Clint to intercept a packet of incriminating evidence – before he becomes the most wanted man in the world. Matt Fraction pens a Hawkeye thriller that spans the globe…and the darkest parts of Hawkeye’s mind.

Why we like it

What do superheroes do on their day off? If Hawkeye’s the example we’re going by, the answer is mostly ‘make bad decisions’.

Invincible

Mark Grayson is just like most everyone else his age. The only major difference being that his dad is the most powerful superhero on the planet. And, Mark seems to be inheriting his father’s powers. See Mark thwart super-villains, alien invasions and all sorts of craziness, as he gets the hang of all this super-heroing stuff.

Why we like it

Superheroes done right for the 21st century.

Saga

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

Why we like it

The top-selling three comics of 2015 were all volumes of Saga. Weird, sexy and touching, Vaughn effortlessly hits all the same high notes he managed with Y the Last Man, but in space.

Transmetropolitan

After years of selfimposed exile from a civilization rife with degradation and indecency, cynical journalist Spider Jerusalem is forced to return to a job he hates and a city he loathes. Working as an investigative reporter for the newspaper The Word, Spider attacks the injustices of his surreal 23rd century surroundings.

Why we like it

Warren Ellis’s cyperpunk opus, a perfect example of someone writing about the present by writing about the future. Furious and hysterical.

Ex Machina

Brian K. Vaughan uniquely combines big city politics and superheroes in this criticially acclaimed series. Set in our modern-day world, EX MACHINA tells the story of civil engineer Mitchell Hundred, who becomes America’s first living, breathing super-hero after a strange accident gives him the power to communicate with machines. Eventually Mitchell tires of risking his life merely to maintain the status quo, retires from masked crime fighting and runs for mayor of New York City, winning by a landslide after the events of 9/11.

Why we like it

The Mayor of New York can talk to machines. Sounds fantastical, but there’s something very grounded about this post 9/11 sci-fi political thriller.

Infinite Vacation

Welcome to the Infinite Vacations, where alternate realities are up for sale, and buying and trading your way through unlimited variations of yourself is as commonplace as checking your e-mail.

Why we like it

OK yeah, so we can’t deny it’s a sci-fi book, but that’s not where this one shines; what if you could go back and talk to the cute person in the coffee shop that you never got up the guts to approach?

The Sculptor

David Smith is giving his life for his art―literally. Thanks to a deal with Death, the young sculptor gets his childhood wish: to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands. But now that he only has 200 days to live, deciding what to create is harder than he thought, and discovering the love of his life at the 11th hour isn’t making it any easier.

Why we like it

Scott McCloud’s magnum opus on creativity and inspiration, this story is ultimately about a young sculptor falling in love.

Spider-Man loves Mary Jane

With her circle of friends and recent relationship left in disrepair, MJ is on the market once again! But who will she choose to be the next object of her affections: Peter Parker, her bookish-but-sweet tutor and newly-minted friend, or that dangerous, exciting crimefighter in red and blue tights, Spider-Man?

Why we like it

Spider-Man from MJ’s perspective. Less villains, but just as heroic.

Strange Embrace

David Hine’s tortured modern gothic tale of madness, death and sexual longing. The world of Strange Embrace is one of pain and sorrow, obsession and damnation — a world that twists and pollutes the lives of all that enter it.

Why we like it

A story from different perspectives with ever-mounting tension… This book will stay with you.

Bedlam

Fillmore Press was once Madder Red, a homicidal maniac and criminal overlord who ruled the city of Bedlam. Now he’s been cured of his mania, and says he wants to help protect the place he once terrorized ― but can he be trusted?

Why we like it

What if the Joker tried to reform? Nick Spencer has an answer, but you might not like it…

Locke and Key

Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them…. and home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all…

Why we like it

Written by the son of Stephen King… and the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. The spooky tree with the face on it thats branches keep tapping on your window when you’re trying to sleep.

Saga of the Swamp Thing

Before WATCHMEN, Alan Moore made his debut in the U.S. comic book industry with the revitalization of the horror comic book THE SWAMP THING. His deconstruction of the classic monster stretched the creative boundaries of the medium and became one of the most spectacular series in comic book history.

Why we like it

One of the books that changed the medium forever, Alan Moore’s muti-Eagle Award-winning prosaic saga bears comparisons to Dante’s Inferno and Milton… but with more plants.

Hellblazer

John Constantine is dying. As a sorcerer literally haunted by the demons of his past, John is no stranger to mystic bedevilment or supernatural horror. But it’s his chain smoking that ultimately brings death to Constantine’s front door. John Constantine has lung cancer. Though condemned to hell, Constantine continues to laugh in the face of this all-too-serious world.

Why we like it

The exemplary hard smoking cocky detective who’s appeared under a million different names across a million books.

The Walking Dead

The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living.

Why we like it

The hit comic that spawned the hit TV show. Zombies! Shock deaths! More zombies!

The Unwritten

Tom Taylor’s life was screwed from go. His father created the Tommy Taylor fantasy series, boy-wizard novels with popularity on par with Harry Potter. The problem is Dad modeled the fictional epic so closely to Tom’s real life that fans are constantly comparing him to his counterpart, turning him into the lamest variety of Z-level celebrity. In the final novel, it’s even implied that the fictional Tommy will crossover into the real world, giving delusional fans more excuses to harass Tom.

Why we like it

Mike Carey, award-winning novelist, explores the nature of fiction in a series that takes us into all of our favourite classic novels. A must-read for Harry Potter fans and pretty much everyone else.

The Umbrella Academy

In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children were spontaneously born to women who’d previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children; when asked why, his only explanation was, “To save the world.”

Why we like it

The debut book from My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, who proves himself, rather irritatingly, to be multi-talented as he takes us on a quirky, sad adventure.

Fables

When a savage creature known only as the Adversary conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, all of the infamous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile. Disguised among the “mundys,” their name for normal citizens of modern-day New York, these magical characters created their own secret society that they call Fabletown. From their exclusive luxury apartment buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, these creatures of legend must fight for their survival in the new world.

Why we like it

One of Neil’s personal favourites, all of the characters from fairytales with have been exhiled to New York. A pleasure to watch unfold, as characters we grew up with crop up in unexpected guises and places!

From Hell

A gripping, hallucinatory piece of crime fiction about Jack the Ripper. Detailing the events that led up to the Whitechapel murders and the cover-up that followed, From Hell has become a modern masterpiece of crime noir and historical fiction.

Why we like it

Another black and white book, yet this and Sin City couldn’t be further apart. From Hell is Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s interpretation of Jack the Ripper. Intended not as a historical document, but more as a commentary on the end of the 19th Century, the two creators weave a more nailbiting How-Done-It than most who-done-its.

Sin City

It’s a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town. But Marv doesn’t care. There’s an angel in the room. She says her name is Goldie. A few hours later, Goldie’s dead without a mark on her perfect body, and the cops are coming before anyone but Marv could know she’s been killed. Somebody paid good money for this frame…

Why we like it

Pure testosterone, broody monologues, outrageous violence. Smoke, blood and whiskey in gorgeous two-tone black and white.

100 bullets

This dark and intriguing Eisner Award-winning series features a mysterious agent named Graves who approaches ordinary citizens and gives them an opportunity to exact revenge on a person who has wronged them.  Offering his clients an attaché case containing proof of the deed and a gun, he guarantees his “clients” full immunity for all of their actions, including murder.

Why we like it

A complex, global crime thriller packed with complex and unique characters.

Fatale

Secrets, lies, horror, lust, and monsters from the time before time all collide in Fatale. In present day, a man meets a woman who he becomes instantly obsessed with, and in the 1950s, this same woman destroys the lives of all those who cross her path, on a quest for… what?

Why we like it

Classic pulpy noir, but with more tentacles…

Garfield minus Garfield

It’s Garfield–as you’ve never seen him!

Why we like it

Garfield has been removed from Garfield, and no disrespect to Garfield, but this makes Garfield minus Garfield better than Garfield. You can read it for free on the web.

Superior Foes of Spider-man

A sleeper-hit series starring some of Spidey’s deadliest baddies. Boomerang and his fellow villains prove that with terrible powers come terrible responsibilities…and Spider-Man will soon learn that with superior villains come superior problems – hilarious and highly recommended.

Why we like it

Nick Spencer has gone on to do massive things at Marvel, but this is still our favourite. A new version of the Sinister Six is put together, but there’s only five of them, nobody’s got each other’s back and nothing goes according to plan. Makes fun of superheroes and their tropes without ever becoming a lampoon.

Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin, cheeky, hyperactive and mischievous, and Hobbes, his cuddly toy tiger who, as far as Calvin is concerned is very much alive and kicking, are two of the most loveable and hilarious characters to grace the comic strip in years. Sit back and enjoy…

Why we like it

Bill Watterson’s daily cartoon about childhood. Covers deceptively complex topics such as war and mortality through child’s play

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

London, 1898. The Victorian Era draws to a close and the twentieth century approaches. It is a time of great change and an age of stagnation, a period of chaste order and ignoble chaos. It is an era in need of champions.

Why we like it

A Victorian romp through literature, enjoyable both as straight pulp fiction or as a kaleidoscopic love letter to fiction itself. Later volumes may require a dense knowledge to catch all of the references or, you know, access to Wikipedia…

Preacher

Merging with a bizarre spiritual force called Genesis, Texan Preacher Jesse Custer becomes completely disillusioned with the beliefs that he had dedicated his entire life to. Now possessing the power of “the word,” an ability to make people do whatever he utters, Custer begins a violent and riotous journey across the country. Joined by his gun-toting girlfriend Tulip and the hard drinking Irish vampire Cassidy, the Preacher loses faith in both man and God as he witnesses dark atrocities and improbable calamities during his exploration of America.

Why we like it

Violent yet thoughtful, funny yet gritty – Preacher is a firm favourite of fans around the world and was some of Ennis’s finest work.

This is the saga of Yorick Brown – the only human survivor of a planet-wide plague that instantly kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome. Accompanied by a mysterious government agent, a brilliant young geneticist and his pet monkey, Ampersand, Yorick travels the world in search of his lost love and the answer to why he’s the last man on earth.

Why we like it

In turn funny, heartbreaking, action packed and extremely human, Yorick’s journey through a changing and developing world is both exciting and nuanced. The series so impressed the creators of TV’s LOST that they brought writer Brian K Vaughn onboard to create some of that series’ best loved characters and episodes.