Christmas Gift Suggestions
/Christmas List! (What to buy your comics-loving friends & family.)
This week, I thought I’d put together a relatively short list of gift suggestions for your friends and family who love comics, are starting to get interested in comics, or who want to make comics of their own. This is far from an exhaustive list, but they’re all great.
I’ve provided links to buy these books on Amazon, but PLEASE—if there’s a local option, buy them there!
In particular, Little Fish Comics, which I wrote about several weeks back, is closing up for good at the end of this year. If you’re in the area, check with Mike to see if he has any of this in stock. Help lighten his load as the store closes, and get someone a great gift at the same time.
Speaking of Mike & Little Fish, I’ll start this list with his recommendation for a great read for adults:
Alex + Ada
Alex + Ada is a near-future sci-fi comic about a young man (Alex) who is given an incredibly lifelike android companion (Ada) after his fiancé leaves him. He decides to remove the part of her programming that prevents her from becoming sentient, which is illegal, and they end up on the run. As is typically true of comics from the Luna brothers, the writing and art here are both top notch. This comic ended its run in fifteen issues, which you can buy in several short collections or one big one.
Next up, I’ll stick with recommendations from other people: this next one is brought to you by my 11-year-old daughter.
Nimona is a stand-alone graphic novel about the title character, a young woman with shape-shifting abilities, who insists on becoming the sidekick of local bad guy Alastair Blackheart and joining in his battles against the Institution. (Nimona started as a webcomic that writer/artist Noelle Stevenson created as her senior thesis in college. Goals!)
Lydia says ‘it’s the perfect mix of science, weird, cool, evil, funny awesomeness.” So there you go.
Next up is probably my all-time favorite:
Hellboy is a wide-ranging series that incorporates elements of mythology, legend, science fiction, action, and comedy. The title character is the son of the devil, brought to earth during a Nazi attempt to bring about the apocalypse, who is instead raised by the Allies to be one of the good guys. The various collections include longer storylines following Hellboy’s attempts to escape his destiny, as well as shorter ones that are sort of mythological monster-of-the-week episodes.
Hellboy’s creator, Mike Mignola, has largely ceded artistic duties to others and focused on the writing, but it’s always a great read regardless of which amazing artist you’re dealing with.
Seriously: highly, highly recommended.
Marvel’s Star Wars & Darth Vader comics
Pretty much all of the Star Wars-universe comics coming out of Marvel in the past few years have been fun, but these two titles are consistently the best. Both of them are set between Star Wars and Empire, and fill in gaps in really interesting ways. The scene when Vader discovers that he has a son, and that the a Emperor has concealed that knowledge, is powerful.
The last books are for people interested in how comics work, and how to make them.
Understanding Comics, Making Comics, and Reinventing Comics
All three of these masterpieces are by Scott McCloud, and they function as a complete education in comics theory and practice, all done in the form of a comic.
Understanding Comics is an in-depth exploration of the way comics work—how we use them to tell stories, and how and why they work. It’s a must-read for anyone who’s interested in comics.
Making Comics, as the title suggests, focuses on the how-to side, for people interested in creating comics of their own.
Reinventing Comics sees McCloud reflecting on all the ways in which the comics field has been changed with the advent of technologies like the internet, and ways in which it might change and grow in the future.
If you can only buy one, buy Understanding Comics...but just buy them all.
Finally:
Drawing Words and Writing Pictures
This is essentially a complete course in making comics, by husband-and-wife team Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, both of whom are successful comics creators in their own right. Though it’s designed to be used in a group, they always provide variations on the assignments and projects for those working alone. This is a hugely helpful book (even if you don’t decide to do all of the assignments in the order provided) for anyone with any interest in making comics.
That’s it! I hope the list helps you find someone the perfect gift. Merry Christmas!