what do you define as a "graphic novel". I mean for example Maus was a daily/weekly comic strip,t hat was then published into a compilation book, which you have now read. "graphic novel" , in today's sense is just a fancy word for collected comic book, and 95% are just series being released in volumes (for the most part). There still are writers who release the traditional idea of a graphic novel; I'd suggest anything by Drawn and Quarterly, http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/ , they have a lot of great writers. And probably closer to the style you are looking for. Ghost World, is one of my favourite graphic novel's, it also had a movie adaptation which wasn't half bad. Transmetropolitian whhich was jsut reccomended, was a Vertigo monthly comic book, which is now collected in volumes , which probably won't be ur cup of tea.

 

Alan Ford!
(Don't know if it's available, though.)

 

Sin City for sure.

And what do you have against manga anyway? Alot of them (lovehina and trigun specificly) are damn good, better than most american graphic novels infact.
I hope it isn't racism or something like that preventing you from wanting manga, cause you will miss some truly amazing shit that way.

 

Rereading his list I have to agree with what you said.
And I must say, I do understand where you are coming from, but rest0re, give some of the manga orc posted a chance, I recommend most of them as being really good. Really good. Really really good. Just not as good as love hina or trigun. (joke)

 

I love the story... but the cliffhangers are killing meeeee... I've hit the wall, and now I have to wait for months for a new chapter and then a fan translation

 

iam really fed up with typical manga/superhero stuff. i read something and i found it extremely shallow. but there are ofcourse good manga or gekiga.. but i think most of it is not translated to english.

 

Yes, the only manga translated to English are the kiddie superhero / pretty princess stuff, usually backed up with the currently airing anime (again, kiddie stuff). Publishers don't want to invest moneyz into translating serious manga, because that would limit the target audience, and wouldn't be a guaranteed success, only a possible success, and that's not a guaranteed money back. So they don't do it.

 

i dont know those titles but i think best japanese stuff i read is barefoot gen.. its really really touching.
edit: i give wikipedia links
adolf osamu tezuka
barefoot gen

 

Yeah, Sandman's pretty awesome, I read most of the first volume. My dad owns a about a bajillion comic books, and that was one of the many that I read. The rest of these that I shall now recommend were also pulled from his collection.

All of my recommendations could technically be called "Superhero" graphic novels, which is really because the are, but they are a lot more mature feeling and just have better storytelling than your everyday comic book. So I'd say:
V for Vendetta
Watchmen
Top 10 (all of the different volumes and series, though some can be a pain to track down...I Still haven't read Top 10: 49'ers...)
Astro City
Almost anything by Alan Moore...

Some of those are very centered around Superheroes (mainly Top 10 and Astro City, Watchmen and V for Vendetta center around more of "superheroes" rather than flat-out superheroes, if ya know what I mean) but aren't shallow at all with very engrossing stories.