I finished reading Watchmen not too long ago and I thought it was pretty good. While I used to read comics when I was younger, Watchmen was the first I read in a long time. From my search online, the most some of the more popular ones seem to be Watchmen, the Sandman, and the Dark Knight Returns. Granted, you can find recommendations anywhere, but I figured I'd see what yall had to say.
Batman The Long Halloween is a must read. V For Vendetta is great, much better than the movie. These aren't exactly graphic novels perse, but I'd recommend getting the first volume of Gotham Central , it's about life as a police officer in Gotham City. Y the Last Man is a 60 issue series about a young man and his monkey who become the last male mammals left on earth after some strange occurence kills all the males on the planet at the same time. I would say if you pass a B&B or a Borders on the way home, if you have the time, just start reading it til you get through the 3 issues in volume 1. You should be hooked.
The Dexter novels the series is based on... http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/dexter/aboutbooks.html
A few that I've liked: 1.) Sin City 2.) Batman: Hush (kind of in your face entertaining) 3.) Justice (Volumes 1-3) At first I just marveled at the photo realistic artwork, and thought the story was a little convoluted, but by the third volume I was very into the story. 4.) Also liked Identity Crisis by the novelist Brad Meltzer, which is a Justice League of America comic. He does a great job rooting the DC Comics World in reality. Kind of like the Watchmen, but with familiar superheroes. Also was pretty controversial, dark, and depressing. 5.) Currently reading another Justice League comic by Meltzer called The Tornado's Path, which seems equally good. 6.) Ex Machina - another original comic by Brian Vaughan, who also wrote Y: The Last Man (which I highly recommend). Kind of an interesting take, because it mixes a superhero comic with politics (the superhero becomes mayor of NYC after saving one of the WTC buildings on 9/11). 7.) Also the few Buffy Season 8 comics I've read have been pretty good.
Might I suggest this? Spoiler http://olganza.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/kim_kardashian_playboy.jpg[/img]
I'd say a comic book is usually a one issue comic, like you would typically think. A graphic novel can be a longer comic all written at one time, or a series of single issues that have a very tightly knit story arc and are often later put into a single book upon conclusion of the series.
Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman Zombie tale with great characters and arc. I got into it because someone on here said it was good. I look forward to every new issue.
A comic book would be an issue (or one part) of an ongoing (usually continuous) series. A graphic novel is a longer story that usually stands on it's own. Kinda like the difference between Terminator movies and the tv show Sarah Connor.
