Watchmen

Written by Alan Moore

Illustrated by Dave Gibbons

Watchmenstoryfocuses on the emotional and psychological short comings of ordinary people becoming superheroes. The world of the Watchmen is a parallel Earth where the Americans had won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still the President, and superheroes actually exist.

The plot revolves around the violent homicide of a retired member of the Watchmen known as The Comedian, a pathological murdering ex-superhero himself. Rorschach and Nite Owl of the Watchmen regard his demise as a conspiracy to eliminate the remaining members, as superhero behaviour had now become illegal.

The conspiracy turns out to be an inside plan to nuclear annihilate the major cities of the world, and it’s up to the Watchmen to save the Earth. Join Dr Manhattan, Ozymandias, The Comedian, Silk Spectre II, Rorschach, Nite Owl and many more in an epic adventure spanning over three and a half decades from 1939 to 1985.

Written by award-winning recluse British author Alan Moore and illustrated by award-winning illustrator Dave Gibbons, the Watchmen itself won a Hugo Literary Award in 1988.

Grand Central/DC Comics

408 pages

Colour

Paperback

Citation: Moore, Alan (writer) & Gibbons, Dave (illustrator). Watchmen, New York: Grand Central/DC Comics, 1987.

Watchmen (2009)

Director: Zack Snyder

Stars: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer

Wanted

Written by Mark Miller & JG Jones

Illustrated by Paul Mounts

Wesley Gibson is a loser in life. His boss employed a better person to do his job, and his girlfriend is running around with his best friend.  That’s what happens when your abandoned mother raises you as a passive weakling. All this changes one day when a woman named Fox enters his life.

Fox is a member of the Fraternity, an international organisation of elite supervillians that secretly rule the world. Until this point, Wesley was unaware that his estranged father was a member of the Fraternity and used the Killer as his pseudonym until he was murdered by an unknown person.

Professor Solomon Selzer , an eccentric scientist and head of the North and South American branches of the Fraternity, helps Wesley grasp his hidden abilities by encouraging him to shoot the wings off flies.

Wesley soon learns of the long war between superheroes and supervillians that his father fought in years before. After winning the war and forming the Fraternity, the supervillians used magic and cutting-edge technology to erase the public memory of the revolution. Wesley is soon plunged into secret and violent inner-sanctum of the Fraternity.

Top Cow Productions

192 pages

Colour

Paperback

Citation: Miller, Mark, Jones, JG (writers) & Mounts, Paul (illustrator). Wanted, New York: Top Cow Productions, 2007.

Wanted (2008)

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Stars: Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschym

V for Vendetta

Written by Alan Moore

Illustrated by David Lloyd

Set in dystopian post-nuclear war Britain, V for Vendetta imagines a possible world where a totalitarian white-supremacist government called Norsefire has taken control of the country after executing all of its opposition in concentration camps. ‘V’ is the only one to have survived and escaped.

Secret police called ‘Fingermen’ patrol the streets dispatching punishment to anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. One evening a teenage girl named Evey ‘Eve’ Hammond is detained by a group of Fingermen, but she is saved by ‘V’ before they have a chance to rape and murder her.

‘V’, a dark enigmatic anarchist revolutionary who wears a Guy Fawkes mask, has declared war on the Britain’s oppressive regime using his vast knowledge of stealth hand-to-hand combat, explosives, covert chicanery, computer hacking.

Eve, who has also been greatly affected by Norsefire, joins ‘V’ and eventually succeeds him in the struggle against the police state. Eric Finch, the chief of Scotland Yard (which is now known as the Nose), is assigned to track down ‘V’. Finch, a utilitarian and ethical individual, must in the end face his guilt over his own involvement in Norsefire’s barbarity.

Vertigo Comics

296 pages

Colour

Hardcover

Citation: Moore, Alan (writer) & Lloyd, David (illustrator). V for vendetta, New York: Vertigo Comics, 2005.

V for Vendetta (2005)

Director: James McTeigue

Stars: Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, John Hurt, Stephen Fry.

300

Written by Frank Miller

Illustrated by Frank Miller & Lynn Varley

Frank Miller’s 300 is a fictionalised account of the leading up to and the Battle of Thermopylae, told from the perspective of Leonidas the Brave, King of Sparta. In 480 BC, Leonidas assembled three-hundred of his greatest warriors.

He was preparing for what was considered a suicide mission to cut-off the Persian King Xerxes’ planned invasion of Greece via the ‘Hot Gates’ (or Thermopylae). Before the battle Leonidas declines to draft an eager hunchback named Ephialtes, who pleaded to be recruited, because he could not lift his shield high enough.

After two days of ferocious fighting, the Spartans had strongly held off the multitudes of the Persian Army.  During a break in battle, Xerxes offers Leonidas privileges and wealth in return for his army’s surrender.Leonidas declines. As the war continues Ephialtes betrays his king to Xerxes, with dire consequences for the Spartan army and its allies.

300 won three Eisner Awards in 1999.

Dark Horse Comics

88 pages

Colour

Hardcover

Citation: Miller, Frank (writer/illustrator) & Varley, Lynn (illustrator). 300, reprinted edition, Milwaukie, Oregon, USA : Dark Horse Comics, 1999.

300 (2006)

Director: Zack Snyder

Stars: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Domonic West, David Wenham, Vincent Regan, Michael Fasbender.

Tank Girl 1

Written by Alan Martin

Illustrated by Jamie Hewlett

Tank Girl lives in and travels around post-apocalyptic outback Australia creating mayhem with Booga, her mutant kangaroo boyfriend (and Dame Edna Everage fan), in an armoured tank.  Previously working as a bounty hunter, Tank Girl fell out with the law when she shot a greatly honoured officer who she accidentally thought was her father; and for not delivering colostomy bags to President Hogan, Australia’s future head of state, before an important international trade meeting.

Tank Girl’s hardcore anarchic missions involve a heavy cocktail of boozing, chain-smoking, substance abuse, sexual depravity, violence, farting and hair dyeing. The comics are presented in a disorganised punk art form, using a variety of visual techniques such as collage to deliver chaotic and unconventional, and sometimes psychedelic, storylines.

Strictly adults only

Titan Books

128 pages

Black & white

Paperback

Citation: Martin, Alan (writer) & Hewlett, Jamie (illustrator). Tank Girl 1, deluxe remastered anniversary edition, Bankside, London : Titan Books, 2009.

Tank Girl (1995)

Director: Rachel Talalay

Stars: Lori Petty, Ice T, Naomi Watts, Jeff Kober, Malcolm McDowell.

The Spirit: The New Adventures Archive

Written and illustrated by various writers and artists.

After being assumedly killed, a young detective named Denny Colt is buried in Wildwood Cemetery. He had actually been placed in suspended animation by an arch-enemy known as Doctor Cobra. On awakening he takes full advantage of his recently acquired anonymity.

Changing his identity to The Spirit, he quickly establishes a hideout in the crypt where he was once buried. Dressed in a blue suit, gloves, felt hat, small mask and red tie, The Spirit uses his rewards from catching criminals to fund his exploits against villains such as Sand Serif and Octopus,

Aside from his side-kick Ebony White, The Spirit’s only other ally in Central City is Police Commissioner Dolan, who is aware of his true identity. The Spirit also holds a special place in his heart for Ellen, Commissioner Dolan’s feminist daughter.

The Spirit first appeared in the 1940s, and was originally created by comic book demigod Will Eisner. Eisner is considered so much of a major influence of the graphic novel format, he has a coveted annual award ceremony named in his honour.

The New Adventures Archives has long list of various contributors including Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and Eddie Campbell,to name a few.

Dark Horse Comics

200 pages

Colour

Hardcover

Includes cats

Moore, Alan (writer) & Gibbons, Dave (illustrator), et al. The Spirit: the new adventures archive, first edition, Milwaukie, Oregon, USA : Dark Horse Comics, 2009.

The Spirit (2008)

Director: Frank Miller

Stars: Jaime King, Gabriel Macht, Eva Mendes, Samuel L Jackson, Scarlet Johansson, Arthur the Cat.

Sin City, Volume One: The Hard Goodbye

Written and illustrated by Frank Miller

Marv, with a face disfigured by heavy scarring caused during military service, regards himself as ugly and stupid, a two-time no-hoper that no woman would ever consider. He also suffers psychotic hallucinations through a mental illness which sometimes causes him to become unscrewed.

Enter Goldie, a classy prostitute who picks the self-deprecating Marv up in a local bar and seduces him.  A few hours after they make love Marv finds Goldie’s lifeless body. There’s not so much as a bruise on her unblemished skin, and the cops are on their way.  Marv is now the predator and the prey as tries to unravel the homicide of a woman he only spent one night with in a crooked city named Basin City… or better known as SIN CITY!

The Hard Goodbye is the first instalment in Frank Miller’s multi-award winning and greatly acclaimed neo-noir graphic novel series.

Dark Horse Comics

208 pages

Black & White

Paperback

Citation: Miller, Frank. Sin city, volume one: the hard goodbye, 3^rd edition, Milwaukie, Oregon, USA, Dark Horse Comics, 2010.

Sin City (2005)

Director: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino (one scene)

Stars:Mickey Rouke, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson.

Road to Perdition

Written by Max Allan Collins

Illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner

Michael O’Sullivan is a devoted Irish Catholic, a good dad and a loving husband living in Rock Island, Illinois during the Great Depression. Michael is also known as the ‘Archangel of Death’, the head triggerman for the local Irish mafia, the Looney family. His family is unaware of his alter-ego until his eldest son witnesses Michael carrying out a hit.

As a result, John Looney (crime godfather) turns on Michael and orders an underworld execution of the O’Sullivan family. Only Michael and his teenage son survive the attack. Suffering a volatile mixture of grief and vengeance, both father and son must now set out on a foreboding search for brutal revenge.

Author Max Allan Collins wrote the Dick Tracy strip from 1977 until 1993. He has received the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award twice for two of his historical thrillers True Detective and Stolen Away. Award winning artist Richard Piers Rayner spent four years intricately illustrating 1930s America for Road to Perdition.

 

DC Comics

296 pages

Colour

Paperback

Citation: Collins, Max Allan (writer) & Rayner, Richard Piers (illustrator). Road to perdition, New York : Vertigo Comics, 2011

Road to Perdition (2002)

Director: Sam Mendes

Stars: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Tyler Hoechlin, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Red

Written by Warren Ellis

Illustrated by Cully Hamner

Paul Moses is a retired CIA killer who is now living on a government pension, living in the suburbs, and is very bored with what has become a mundane life. The only sparks in his life are letters from a niece who lives in Britain, and Sarah his case worker at the Pension Department office who he speaks to over the phone. Sarah’s life is as inert as Paul’s, with spy novels and her faceless conversations with Paul only filling the void.

One day, three heavily armed masked attackers destroy Paul’s home, but he manages to slay them and escape. Paul soon learns that the recently appointed director of the CIA, Michael Beesley, has become aware and appalled by Paul’s former activities. Fearing public outrage if the information is leaked to the community, Beesley earmarks Paul as RED (Retired Extremely Dangerous) and orders for his assassination.

Now Paul and Sarah, who he abducts and convinces that her life is at risk, must dig into his murky past, and the associates he worked with, to solve the mystery and gain revenge.

Wildstorm Comics

128 pages

Colour

Paperback

Citation: Ellis, Warren (writer) & Hamner, Cully (illustrator). Red, new edition, New York : Wildstorm, 2009.

Red (2010)

Director: Robert Schwentke

Stars: Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Julian McMahon, Karl Urban.

Kick-Ass

Written by Mark Millar

Illustrated by John Romita Jr.

After purchasing a wetsuit on the internet, Dave Lizewski, a regular 16 year old New York high schoolboy, decides to become the world’s real life superhero, but his first encounter with a group of thugs doesn’t go to plan.

A few months in hospital later, Dave sheds his crutches, dons his wetsuit once more to save a man from a beating. This time an onlooker captures the incident on video then uploads it YouTube. Dave becomes an overnight sensation and christened with his alter-ego... Kick-Ass.

Kick Ass soon finds he’s spawned a do-it-yourself  subculture of costumed vigilantes. He forms a super-team with Hit-Girl, Big Daddy and Red Mist to battle Italian-American crime boss Johnny Genovese who has become angered by Kick Ass’ antics. Plenty of “sickening violence” follows.

Kick-Ass received many five-out-of-five reader’s reviews – “If you've ever wondered what it'd be like if some fool... decides to don a superhero costume and prowl the slimy streets in search of mischief, this'll be an eye-popper.” (amazon.com)

Writer Mark Millar cites Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One as his main inspiration for this story.

Marvel Comics/Icon Imprint

216 pages

Colour

Paperback

Citation: Millar, Mark (writer) & Romita, John (illustrator). Kick-ass, New York : Marvel Comics, 2010.

Kick-Ass (2010)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicholas Cage, Mark Strong.

Judge Dredd: Year One

Written by Matt Smith

Illustrated by Simon Coleby & Greg Staples

Judge Dredd is the toughest lawman in Mega City One,a post-apocalyptic city-state spanning the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Dreddis judge, jury and executioner in a bizarre dystopian world of the not-too-distant future. With a population of over 450 million, Mega City One isbrimming with eccentric criminals,colourful characters, robots and radioactivelyformed mutants, just waiting to be busted by Dredd and his autocratic code of justice.

The plot of Year One involves Dredd’s first year as a street judge, and the kids living in Mega City One in 2080 AD acquiring psychic powers that they use to steal cash and bash their bullies. Dredd is challenged by his disdain for psychic abilities and his no-nonsense approach to the law he upholds.

I’m Judge Dredd… I am the LAW!!!

2000 AD &IDW Comics

32 pages

Colour

Paperback

Citation: Smith, Matt (writer), Coleby, Simon & Staples, Greg (illustrators). Judge Dredd: year one, Newark, New Jersey, USA: IDW Comics, 2013.

Dredd (2012)

Director: Pete Travis

Stars: Karl Urban, Lena Heady, Olivia Thirlby, Wood Harris

Jonah Hex Volume One: Face Full of Violence

Written by Justin Gray& Jimmy Palmiotti

Illustrated by Luke Ross & Tony DeZuniga

Jonah Hex is an anti-hero gunslinger/bounty hunter from America’s Wild West. He’s easily identified by the large scar running down the right-side of his face. Armed with a sharp but grim sense of humour, this tough ex-Confederate soldier is guided by his own code by punishing evildoers and protecting the innocent, with death and gunsmokeas his only friends.

Face Full of Violence, is a selected compilation of six separate Jonah Hex short stories.  Hex is hired by a wealthy family to find their kidnapped son who has become involved in a dog-fighting ring; Hex burns down a mining town over a pilfered golden crucifix; Hex’s side-kick Bat Lash helps him track down a corrupt sheriff; Hex turns the tables on a small town politician who tries to frame him for the rape of a local girl who is unable to speak; Hex kills twelve men on Christmas Day to prevent then taking revenge on his latest bounty; A small town gang try to murder Jonah Hex while disguised as nuns.

DC Comics

144 pages

Colour

Paperback

Citation: Gray, Justin (writer), et al. Jonah Hex Volume One: Face Full of Violence, New York : DC Comics, 2006.

Jonah Hex (2010)

Director: Jimmy Hayward

Stars: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, Megan Fox

Hellboy Volume One: Seeds of Destruction

Written by Mike Mignola

Illustrated by John Byrne

In the dying days of World War Two, a frantic Nazi High Command requests Russian occultist Grigori Rasputin to cast an incantation from Hell that would save them from annihilation. While a squad of Allied commandos, under the direction of three paranormal officials, are investigating the ruins of a church in the English Midlands, a small red demon like infant named AnungUn Rama materialises.

After the war, Hellboy was taken to America to be raised by the US Army. By 1994, with bright red skin, manicured horns, a long tail, cloven hooves, a club-hand made of stone and a strong sense of humour, the friendly, but sometimes grumpy, cat loving demon now works as the World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator. Hellboy has battled Nazis and Baba Yaga (a supernatural being from Slavic folklore) many times over the years, but the greatest mystery he cannot solve is his own existence.

Mike Mignola has won dozens of awards over the years for his writing and graphic works, furthermore, Hellboy: Seeds of Destruction won two coveted Eisner Awards in 1995.

Dark Horse Comics

128 pages

Colour

Paperback

Includes cats

Citation: Mignola, Mike (writer) & Byrne, John (illustrator). Hellboy volume one : seeds of destruction, Milwaukie, Oregon, USA : Dark Horse Comics, 1997.

Hellboy (2004)

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Stars: Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selmar Blair, Rupert Evans.

Ghost World

Written and illustrated by Daniel Clowes

Ghost World accounts the daily life of two best friends, Enid Coleslaw and RebbecaDoppelmeyer, after they graduate from high school during the early 1990s. As they roam around, the two girls mock and scorn their small unnamed American town and the people living in it. Questioning their sexuality, their attractiveness to boys and what their future holds a love triangle forms with a mutual male friend named Josh.

As time passes, Enid and Rebecca’s stoic sisterhood begins to wane and a rift develops in their close friendship when Enid makes a decision to leave the town and go to college. Some reviewers have compared Ghost World to Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye.

Fantagraphics Comics

80 pages

Colour

Paperback

Citation: Clowes, Daniel. Ghost world, Seattle, WA, USA :Fantagraphics Books, 2001.

Ghost World (2001)

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Stars: Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Brad Renfro.