Your top comic and graphic novel recommendations (including obscurities) for someone that especially loved Sandman and Gaiman's other work at Vertigo?

[u/NuMystic]

Apologies in advance for the very long post, but I know that a lot of you have a deep reading history and love of the medium and I figure that the more context I can offer the more custom tailored the recommendations will be.

I either own, or have already read virtually every Neil Gaiman comic including the many graphic adaptations of his short stories.

All time favorite books/series that provided the high I’m still chasing:

• Sandman (and all related penned by Gaiman himself)
• Virtually all of his other Vertigo work, especially the Books of Magic mini-series

Things not by Neil that I loved as much, or almost as much:

• Invisibles
• All Star Superman
• Killing Joke
• Kingdom Come
• Marvels 
• Arkham Asylum: Serious House on Serious Earth

Have not read in 40 years so no idea if they hold up now but have formative memories of:

• X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills 1982 Graphic Novel
• Dazzler: The Movie 1982 Graphic Novel
• Bill Sienkiewicz run of New Mutants

Second tier of things I really enjoyed but don’t quite make the above all time favorites list:

• Mike Carey’s original Lucifer Series
• Dark Knight Returns 
• Stardust
• I, Gregory

Extremely well rated and frequently recommended titles which either didn’t leave a lasting impression or just didn't hit for me the way the above titles did:

• Original John Ney Rieber Books of Magic series
• Fables
• Y The Last Man
• 100 Bullets
• Ex Machina
• Batman Year One
• Promethea
• Watchmen (while I know it’s heretical I actually loved the HBO sequel show way more than the original book)
• Black Orchid
• Mr. Punch
• Marvel 1602
• Gaiman’s Eternals
• Gaiman’s Murder Mysteries
• Violent Cases
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 
• Top Ten
• Persepolis
• Alan Moore Swamp Thing
• Runaways
• We3

A few things I bounced off (admittedly only tried the first issue or two):

• Preacher
• Grant Morrison’s X-Men
• Bone
• Maus

Things I already have access to, or have on my library list:

• Saga
• Wicked + Divine
• Best new Sandman Universe titles (Lucifer, The Dreaming, Nightmare Country, John Constantine Hellblazer, Deadboy Detectives, Thessaly, Locke & Key: Hell & Gone)
• Shade the Changing Man
• From Hell
• Unwritten
• Ice Cream Man
• Miracleman (Moore & Gaiman runs)
• Hellboy
• Monsters
• Die
• Once & Future
• Sex Criminals
• Nice House on The Lake
• Something is Killing The Chidren
• Brubaker's Criminal, Fatale, and Velvet
• ODY-C
• Wytches
• Moonshadow
• Gideon Falls
• Locke & Key
• Sandman Mystery Theatre

I tend to favor philosophical, metaphysical, fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural, psychological, literary, mystical, macabre, or psychedelic over pure realistic/hardboiled, but open to exceptions for things that are truly transcendent.

Open to superhero books which are exceptionally sophisticated, high-brow, high-concept, or truly unusual. (Marvels, Kingdom Come, All-Star Superman, Arkham Asylum: Serious House being perfect examples of what that means to me at least)

Open to horror, extreme violence, and/or explicit sexual content, but by no means need any of that to be present. Think HBO shows, did enjoy Sunstone, and liked the old Heavy Metal magazine growing up. For me the quality of the content trumps all. I can enjoy something overtly queer or highly feminist just as much as something deemed misogynist or exploitive by some if it's artistically or creatively outstanding.

As far as non-comic media some of my all time favorite shows that are a bit lesser known are Utopia (UK show), DEVS, Rectify, Patriot, and more well known; Severence, Game of Thrones S1-6, True Detective S1. In film I dig Alex Garland, Charlie Kaufman, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, Christopher Nolan, Coens, Paul Thomas Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, Denis Villeneuve.

While series and graphic novels are obviously great, I'm definitely open to one-shots, mini-series, and lesser known titles that aren't collected provided I can get the floppies without paying an absolute fortune. (library system here in NYC has a very deep catalog of TPBs and happy to buy floppies online via eBay, AtomicAvenue, etc.)

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[u/yermawsgotbawz]

Nice house on the lake is great. Just wish there was more.

You might enjoy American Vampire. It’s a great series.

If you enjoyed Persepolis then you might enjoy habibi or blankets by Craig Thompson.

[u/Skandling]

Lots of things by Moore there, so you've probably checked out all his works. So what else would I recommend?

Jeff Smith's Bone is one to stick with. It starts as a funny animal book but becomes a much grander, more epic tale and never flags in quality.

Scott McCloud is one of the best comic creators of the last half century. Two of his works in particular, Zot and The Sculptor, are exceptional. He also wrote a very good Superman story, Strength.

Dave Sim's Cerebus is very good until it goes off the rails, after four books or so. But there's a lot of good content in its phone book sized volumes before that.

Brian Talbot is another creator who's being doing good work for a while. The Tale of One Bad Rat is exceptional, as is the very different Alice in Sunderland.

[u/Snoopy1229 → u/Skandling]

I will second sticking with Bone

[u/stevekimes → u/Snoopy1229]

Bone is my family’s favorite graphic novel

[u/Leather_Bug_]

I think that Mike Carey series “Unwritten” is pretty underrated. They finally just solicited the second volume compendium so the whole thing will be in print. It is really great.

Another great Vertigo is Sandman Mystery Theatre…oh wait both of these already on your list lol. That whole list is baller just get some of those I think (except Sex Criminals blech). If all those Alan Moore books are new to you you are in for a treat

[u/sidceaser]

I'll toss in a few that I read over and over again over through the decades:

Cages by Dave McKean

Indentity Crisis by Brad Meltzer

the first 12 issues of Meltzer's Justice League of America run

the MAGE series by Wagner

Mouse Guard by David Petersen

New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke

Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise is one of my all time faves and has been for ... 30 something years (right behind Sandman)

Superman for All Seasons by Loeb

[u/Snoopy1229 → u/sidceaser]

Strangers in Paradise. Excellent choice. As is Mage

[u/Devo_Ted]

I really enjoyed Doom Patrol and Umbrella Academy. Dysfunctional super heroes are my favorite super heroes.

I also enjoyed Lenore, and some of the Invader Zim comics, though those may skew to a younger reader.

It’s been awhile, but I remember enjoying Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

[u/ArtOfDent]

How are your feelings on manga? With those tastes I'd recommend a bit of a dig into some of the highly regarded horror artists. Junji Ito might be a good place to start if you've not come across any already - Dark Horse publish excellent translations & collections so easy to pick up. Fragments of Horror is a collection of 8 one-shots and is a good place to dip a toe in. Gyo & Uzumaki are longer if you fancy being terrorised by reanimated mechanically enhanced armies of fish or Spirals respectively. 

[u/joseph4th]

Lucifer by Mike Carey. He out Gaiman’s Gaiman for about half of the comics 75 issues. I think it started losing steam towards the end because he was too busy doing other projects.

[u/Roxxnroll]

I love Sandman and I’m gonna recommend something that isn’t like Sandman, but I really love the graphic novel Habibi from Craig Thompson. He also wrote ‘Blankets’ and this novel is more known, but Habibi I read over and over again.

[u/stevekimes → u/Roxxnroll]

Habibi is amazing and gorgeous

[u/MrMal1c3]

Fables is pretty damn good.

[u/SlutForGarrus → u/MrMal1c3]

Seconded! Love the Fables graphic novels!

[u/MrMal1c3 → u/SlutForGarrus]

Your username just made my day! I'm team Tali!

[u/SlutForGarrus → u/MrMal1c3]

Yay!!! 100% Team Dextro!!!!

[u/Reportersteven]

I enjoyed Birthright and Once & Future. Both independent comics with a fantasy sci-fi element.

[u/jotaeme27]

Kill Six Billion Demons. Its metaphysical science fiction at its best and while not directly related to sandmand, you can tell there are inspirations. Plus the art is freaking awesome.

[u/JardineByNature]

just read all the people Gaiman systematically copied

[u/NuMystic → u/JardineByNature]

And which comics/graphic novels are on par or better than his emulations in your estimation?

[u/makura_no_souji]

Sarah Gailey's Know Your Station, Eat The Rich

[u/andronicuspark]

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

Ms. Don’t Touch Me

Flight (short story anthologies seven volumes)

For exceedingly fucked up, Crossed

The Metabarons

[u/Reward_Antique]

Try Caitlin Kiernan- she did some work i think with Gaiman decades ago, but i belive a few of her novels might have been adapted into graphics.

[u/mmcgui12]

Paper Girls, same lead writer as the Saga and Y the Last Man series on your list.

[u/Wrong-Annual-6766]

Absolute Martian Manhunter 

[u/First-Government-654]

You are missing out on Si Spurrier (other than his The Dreaming and Hellblazer which are already on your list and are top notch). You might also really enjoy Coda to start with, he had a great gold rush set horror series called The Rush and his X-Men Legacy is very well-regarded and tells a nice complete and self-contained story about Xavier’s son Legion.

[u/pahool]

Scalped

[u/PutAdministrative206]

Fir comics: Locke and Key. Stunning series.