Webcomics seem to tread this territory more often than print comics, but does anybody know of a good comic book that has very little "action?"
I really like "Alec" by Eddie Campbell (the artist on Alan Moore's From Hell). It's slice of life stuff about the artists own life, more or less. Stories about ordinary people and places. It is English though (and Australian), so some cultural stuff may be lost or hard to follow.
"Concrete" by Paul Chadwick is very good.
I don't think that either are currently being published, but the Trades are well worth getting.
Love and Rockets is the granddaddy. I think you can start almost anywhere and follow the lives of the characters fairly well.
Maze Agency (which wasn't being published last time I looked) has a little action. It's primarily a detective comic.
Lots of great, non-action titles are published by:
Fantagraphics (http://www.fantagraphics.com/)
Top Shelf (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/)
Oni (http://onipress.com/)
Slave Labor (http://www.slgcomic.com/)
Drawn and Quarterly (http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/)
If you like you like tech humor in a comic strip format, I really enjoy Userfriendly.org. The artist is taking a hiatus right now, but his archives are available.
Maybe Nightly News by Jonathon Hickman, or Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore.
Automatic Kafka by Joe Casey and Ash Wood was another great one I loved.
Funhome is a personal favorite, it is self contained and the art and scripting is top notch, she has a sense of time in her storytelling that rivals Kurt Vonnegut or Alan Moore in how she mixes past and present by relevance.
Same with the Palomar series, amazing art and story by Gilbert Hernandez.
http://www.theconnoisseurs.com/palomar.html
Lastly check out The Nobody by Jeff Lemire, a very low key and subtle scary story.
http://www.theconnoisseurs.com/thenobody.html
Mike Allread's "Red Rocket 7" is only somewhat actiony and one of my favourite graphic novels.
Strangers in Paradise (already mentioned but bears it again)
Ghost World (more or a graphic novel)
I can think of a few Vertigo series... House of Secrets (the one made in the late 90s), Scene of The Crime (more of a detective series than an "action" comic), Transmetropolitan (was not really action based although, its kinda graphic)
Oh... and The Sandman series of course by Neil Gaiman should be mentioned. So should it's spin off "The Dreaming"
and Death: The High Cost of Living and Death: The Time of Your Life.
Beanworld by Larry Marder. Cerebus (after the first trade and before the author became completely crazy).
Works by Jir? Taniguchi, Seth, Mu?oz and Sampayo, Christin and Bilal, Schuiten and Peeters, Emmanuel Guibert, Dupuy and Berberian, etc. (Some of these authors might not have much work available in English, though.)
I second The Nightly News. I'll also throw in Hickman's Pax Romana and Transhuman.
Knights of the Dinner Table. Occasionally has fights break out, but its a comic about gamers (as in pen and paper RPG games, mostly), so usually the only action is talk about what their characters are doing.
Daytripper, a current Vertigo title by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba is well worth a look.
And I second "Alec" by Eddie Campbell - they were absolutely great.
Quote from: DrMike2000 on March 10, 2010, 03:07:18 AM
Daytripper, a current Vertigo title by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba is well worth a look.
Wow, I wanted to read and review
DayTripper (along with
Days Missing), but my schedule is preventing me from doing such things. How would you rate that series thus far, Dr. Mike?
Currently, 3 issues in, it's great. The distinctive art style of the brothers Moon and Ba works really well here.
The writing's much tighter and punchier than I expected. Yes, it does have a meandering wistful feel to it, but its very focussed and feels carefully thought out. I'm not 100% sure what's going on, and I like that. The plotting is awesome. The characters are OK, but nothing stellar. The hero Bras works as a basic every man. If you've ever been young, a bit unsure of yourself, not quite as cool as some of the people you know, and maybe a bit directionless, you'll recognise bits of yourself in him.
I'd give it 4 stars out of 5 easily. Its probably the best Vertigo title I'm getting at the moment. Yep, better than Milligan's Hellblazer even.
I highly recommend it (to anyone who isn't too busy testing Amazanauts to read comics *cough!*)
I'm hating Daytripper... because I'm not reading it until it comes out in trade and every month the positive reviews makes me regret not picking it up in singles.
Some more goodies:
Black Hole: ok, it has some action, but by action I mean weird nightmare sex.
Persepolis: both the graphic novel and the movie are great.
I read the first issue of Daytripper a few weeks back and really liked it. Thanks for the reminder, I'll pick up issues 2 and 3 tomorrow.