Five Comics to Read Before You Die

If you've never read a modern comic before, not just a Marvel or DC superhero adventure, you are missing out on a very powerful medium of storytelling and narrative. The world of comics changed almost overnight, when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons released the definitive tale of the 'real' superhero in an alternate history of the future in Watchmen. 

Set in 1985, in a world where superheroes are real, the comic crafts a beguiling and complex story which weaves real life events around the arrival of a god-like superbeing, changing the course of events forever. Dave Gibbons, famous for his work on 2000Ad comic stepped out onto the DC stage with his distinctive style to portray Alan Moore's mesmeric storyline. 

The comic was originally released in 12 parts has not been out of print in graphic novel form since. A visual feast, its well worth tracking down a copy of the GN, just to get the full story - as there is almost half as much again missing from the film, along with backstory and articles about each character - and also to compare Snyder's wonder cineamatography against the original film-like linework.

Fans of Dave Gibbons will enjoy The Life and Times of Martha Washington, written by Frank Miller of Dark Knight and Elektra fame. Originally published by Dark Horse as several mini series, this graphic novel collects all the various appearances of the character over a considerable period into one continuous story. 

Charting the adventures of a young black american girl who finds herself growing up in a future ghetto in an America which is run by corrupt presidents and mega corporations, stripping the rain forests to feed the populace with Fat Boy burgers, it is a sharp political and sociological commentary wrapped up in a clever storyline.

Harsh and unflinchingly brutal, the young Martha Washington endures all manner of trials and challenges in her bid to do the right thing and overthrow an oppressive regime.

Another Alan Moore opus, also appearing as a film, but not quite to the successful acclaim as Watchmen. From Hell looks in miniscule and exacting detail at the ripper murders, revolving around the suuspicion of Surgeon in Extraordinary, Sir William Gull. 

Released 25 years ago this month, the original monochrome art has just been painstakingly recoloured by artist Eddie Campbell and is released again in a 10 issue mini series. It will be the first comic I have bought for almost 10 years, but it is an absolute must have. 

Moore's writing is convoluted and sometimes hard to follow without extreme concentration, but the story is convincing and startling in its breafth of vision and revelation. The Johnny Depp vehicle is again a pale imitation of the comic, taking perhaps an eighth of the total plot of the original and spinning it out into a film. Ian Holm's interpretation of Gull in the film is very laudable, but again only realises a fraction of the character revealed by Moore, most of which is based on historical fact. If you have the remotest interest in the Ripper story or just enjoy an realistic and quite unsettling story, the From Hell is for you.

Finally a departure from the standard comic form to the japanese manga style, which has become increasingly popular in recent years. Masamune Shirow is a talented draughtsman and artist, bringing incredibly realistically drawn mechanical designs to the page coupled with a dynamic and fluid style making even the best Marvel artists look staid and awkward. 

Ghost in the Shell has become a complete genre in itself, having spawned three comics, countless anime and video games and  lately a live action film. Scarlett Johanssen does the franchise no favours at all as the dour, stomping Major, who is portayed in the comics as a lithe, super intelligent and intimidating cyborg. These particular volumes are the original japanese, reading right to left, but benefit from having the original Kodansha imprint, rather than the sanitised Dark Horse versions, which omit several scenes of graphic nudity and several important panels of action, in order to allow publication in the US. 

The comic was made into a stunning animation, followed by a sequel, GITS Innocence, which again deviates from the comic, giving a slightly different take on the world of Motoko Kusanagi. The live action film again departs from the original source with a severely dumbed down script to attempt to shoe-horn an expansive and exciting tale of trans-humanism into a simple gung ho action movie. Well worth reading if only for the artwork alone, as in these versions I can't read a word of kanji, but follow the story visually.

From the same author comes a comic tale of a mythological hero figure,  Orion exists  in a world where magic and technology are intertwined. Again, beautiful artwork combines with witty and powerful storytelling for a tale of quantum physics and japanese mysticism in a completely new take on the hero genre.