Superhero films became extremely popular at last few years. The theme is developing very fast due to modern technologies. Today those DC Comics and Marvel characters step out of their comic pages and become more real than ever. These days a movie franshise about superheroes is even more popular than a traditional book. Sometimes their original appearances are just totally forgotten.
And while Hollywood tries to shoot as many popular stories as they can, there is a group of characters less popular that those traditional ones we know. Those heroes and comics are not usual, and that is what makes them special. While all of us love Batman or Watchmen, some other characters can help us develop and strengthen our passion for comic books.
There are a significant number of them, and we don’t have enough time to read all those books. For example, The Maxx is a tough thing to deal with in case you need to focus on your study or day job. By the way, Edubirdie can help you combine reading comics, studying in university or even having a job that is not related to comics. At the same time, those are not the best comic books of all time, so their series are very limited. So, here is a list of those you should try first and do not waste your time for sure.
The Sandman
The Sandman series should be the first on our list as it is the most complicated and intricate. First published by DC in 1989 the series became one of the most well-known among non-superhero genre. The story takes place in 1916 and tells about Dream. He is one of those called Endless ruling the world of dreams. The main point about this comic series tells about Dream and his struggle to recover his totems of power. The plot sometimes is a crossover between other DC universes. For example, one of those totems Dream tries to return is kept by a Justice League supervillain Doctor Destiny.
Nowadays The Sandman is no longer published by DC. Since 1993 this comic is one of the popular series of Vertigo. The main writer is well-known British writer Neil Gaiman. The Sandman along with The Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns is on the list of New York Times bestsellers. Also, it is the only comic book series that received World Fantasy Award. Some critics consider The Sandman as the comic book for intellectuals.
Descender
Descender is a product by the third most popular company after DC Comics and Marvel, Image Comics. It is an exciting story of a young robot and his complicated life as an outlaw creature. The story goes over his struggle to save all life while all androids are outlawed and hunted by bounty hunters almost on every planet. Robot boy’s name is TIM-21, and he is not the regular comic book character for sure.
The plot was written by award-winning Jeff Lemire. The author made Descender a real odyssey causing real feelings based on the old but still actual story – a man versus machine. But in this case, we sympathize to an android more than a human. The entire story goes epic as two worlds collide providing us with a new and amazing science fiction piece of art.
Scott Pilgrim
This is a diverse and exciting limited six volumes series published by Oni Press since 2004 till 2010. Scott Pilgrim is a Canadian character as his author Bryan Lee O’Malley. The main point about this comic book goes round its simplicity and realism. Scott is just a regular lazy 23 years old guy from Canada. He is a bass player in a band, works at boring day jobs for a living, and plays video games. His girlfriend is a high school cutie, and the life seems to be so simple for him.
The world went upside down for Scott when he met dangerously attractive delivery girl Ramona Flowers. Pilgrim falls in love, but to be with the woman he has to fight seven her ex-boyfriends in battle. The series got so popular that in 2010 just after the last volume published, the film adaptation called Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was released. The movie starred actor Michael Cera as the main character. Besides that, Scott Pilgrim also got his video game adaptation called Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game available for Xbox and PlayStation.
Rachel Rising
Another non-superhero genre star. Rachel Rising was first published in 2011 as the horror product by Abstract Studios. Here you will find everything from horror to mystics, love, and revenge, fear and humor. And there is even more for you to learn while reading this book. The story tells about a young girl Rachel Beck who found herself in a shallow grave in the middle of nowhere. She was strangled, but she does not remember anything about her murderer.
That is the start of the whole story. Rachel is trying to find out anything about her murder and the person who killed her. She moves back to her small town of Manson and asks her aunt and close friend to help her. As the investigation goes, Rachel finds out that the bloodline leads to a bedridden serial killer. When Rachel killed her murderer but got shot by him at the same time. She dies once again with the hope it would be the last time. But after a while, she wakes up from the dead again in the morgue.
Sky Doll
Did you hear about Italian comics? Well, Sky Doll is the best point to start reading Italian stories and non-superhero genre at the same time. The series was first published in 2000 and created by Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa. Sky Doll is considered an international best seller and is also known in English adaptation as Meet Noa. Besides that, English version was published by Marvel.
The story tells about female android with very naturalistic appearance. She or it, as you wish, has no rights at all. Androids were created to serve humans, but everything changes for Noa when she meets two so-called “missionaries.” Cyborg finds out that has powers and will to live a full life without her masters. She wants to be something more than just a toy and robotic servant
Solid list, I still need to find Sky Doll issue 1.