 | Same Difference & Other Stories by Derek Kirk Kim
Buy used from: £5.38 This introduced me to alternative comics, and still remains my favourite comic book. See: www.lowbright.com
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 | McSweeney's Quarterly Concern: Issue Number 13: Comics Issue No. 13
Buy used from: £13.85 A definitive anthology of contemporary comics culture. Do yourself a favour - buy it!
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 | Krazy and Ignatz: 1929-1930 - A Mice, a Brick, a Lovely Night by George Herriman
Buy new: £9.16 / Used from: £9.93 Officially named greatest comic strip of the twentieth century. Need I say more?
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 | Quimby the Mouse by Chris Ware
Buy new: £10.19 / Used from: £9.98 Giant tabloid pages, tiny pictures, one great book.
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 | Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District by Ben Katchor
Buy new: £9.33 / Used from: £5.69 Detailing the nostalgic minutiae of a surreal NY-esque city. Dream-like and addictive.
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 | Amphigorey: Fifteen Stories by Edward Gorey
Buy new: £7.89 / Used from: £6.00 A collection of picture books: haunting, lyrical, humorous, surreal, macabre and, overall, entertaining.
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 | The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book (Calvin and Hobbes Series) by Bill Watterson
Buy new: £9.06 / Used from: £3.43 Possibly the best and most popular syndicated daily strip of the late 20th century. Sadly missed.
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 | Unlikely by Jeffrey Brown
Buy new: £7.06 / Used from: £4.59 The second of Brown's 'girlfriend' trilogy. Spontaneously drawn and achingly honest.
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 | The Frank Book by Jim Woodring
Buy used from: £209.88 A majestic book for a fantastic comic - mostly wordless, classically cartoony yet visionary.
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 | Love is Hell: a Cartoon Book by Matt Groening by Matt Groening
Buy used from: £0.01 I bought this, and then bought the next six. Before The Simpsons, Matt Groening's weekly comic masterpiece.
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 | Fair Weather by Joe Matt
Buy new: £8.99 / Used from: £10.75 One of my personal faves. An unsentimental account of a childhood weekend.
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 | Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
Buy new: £7.75 / Used from: £7.35 How could I not include this? It has recieved widespread recognition from the alternative and mainstream press, and deservingly.
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 | The Book of Leviathan by Peter Blegvad
Buy new: £12.99 / Used from: £5.01 Probably the most original British newspaper comic strip ever.
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 | Underworld 5: My Little Funny by Kaz
Buy used from: £16.93 Brilliantly drawn, and pulls off urban social commentary and vulgar, bawdy hilarity simultaneously.
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 | Both by Simone Lia
Buy new: £5.49 / Used from: £2.50 A little-known work by two British cartoonists that defies explanation. Truly original.
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 | Blankets by Craig Thompson
Buy new: £14.48 / Used from: £12.74 The defining graphic novel work of our time. Actually justifies the words "epic" and "masterpiece".
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 | The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
Buy new: £10.16 / Used from: £8.96 An account of the Holocaust like no other. Simply drawn, harrowing, and intensely personal.
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 | American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar - Stories by Harvey Pekar
Buy used from: £8.50 Apparently the "first literary comic book". The first time pure autobiography was translated to comic form, and thus highly influential.
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 | Bone: One volume collection: Vol 1 (Bone Series) by Jeff Smith
Buy new: £18.46 / Used from: £18.65 Bound to become a future classic - cute and exciting in a Disney-esque fashion, and at 1300 pages, a real cartoon epic.
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 | Notes from a Defeatist by Joe Sacco
Buy new: £8.95 / Used from: £4.75 A compilation of Sacco's earlier pieces before his seminal journalistic works, Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde.
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 | Amy and Jordan by Mark Beyer
Buy new: £12.91 / Used from: £18.70 Possibly the most idiosyncratic drawing style ever, loaded with urban despair and lonely existentialism.
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 | 32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-comics by Adrian Tomine
Buy used from: £4.99 The formative self-published works of one of our generation's most venerated cartoonists.
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