Many great indie books have come out over the decades, particularly in the 70's and 80's, many legendary non-big 2 comics were published.
What Are Your Favorites?
The ones that come to my mind are Eastman and Laird's TMNT, Hellboy, Nexus, Cerebus, Elfquest and The Rocketeer, though it's hard to have a favorite!
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01-05-2021, 07:55 PM #1Comix Addict!
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What Is the Greatest Indie Book Ever Created?
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01-05-2021, 08:52 PM #2The Spirits of Vengeance
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^^^Great list! But don't forget Jeff Smith's Bone
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01-06-2021, 05:24 AM #3Astonishing Member
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Savage Dragon
TMNT
Bone
Cerebus
The Walking Dead
Maybe Spawn
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01-06-2021, 06:07 AM #4Extraordinary Member
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Are we limiting it to American comics?
Limiting it to books I have read, these would be my top 50 in no particular order
Bone by Jeff Smith
At the Mountains of Madness Vol. 1 and 2 by Gou Tanabe
Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore
Love and Rockets by Los Brothers Hernandez
Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini
The Incal by Jodorosky & Moebius
Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima
Maus by art spiegleman
A Contract with God trilogy by Will Eisner
Fax from Sarjevo by Joe Kubert
Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco
Berlin by Jason Lutes
Den by Richard Corben
The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens
Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower
Finder by Carla Speed McNeil
Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
Hellboy/BPRD by Mignola and friends
Concrete by Paul Chadwick
A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran
Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido
Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt
Criminal by Brubaker & Phillips
The First Kingdom by Jack Katz
Essex County by Jeff Lemire
Understanding Comics/Reinventing Comics/Making Comics by Scott McCloud
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot
Mouse Guard by David Pedersen
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa
Infinite Kung Fu by Kagan McLeod
Dignifying Science by Jim Ottaviani & friends
Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks
Strangehaven by Gary Spencer Millidge
RASL by Jeff Smith
Sculptor by Scott McCloud
Palestine by Joe Sacco
Metabarons by Jodorowsky & friends
Astro City by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson & Alex Ross
March Books One-Three by John Lewis & friends
My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
Descender by Jeff Lemire & Dustin Ngyuen
Sin City by Frank Miller
Moby Dick adapted by Bill Sienkewicz (Classics Illustrated #4)
Journey by William Messner-Loebs
Blueberry by Moebius and Charlier
Tintin by Herge
Yossel by Joe Kubert
Last Day in Viet Nam by Will Eisner
Octavia Butler's Kindred adapted by John Jennings & firends
-MLast edited by MRP; 01-06-2021 at 06:38 AM.
Comic fans get the comics their buying habits deserve.
"Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato
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01-06-2021, 06:54 AM #5Astonishing Member
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So many to list.
But one of the best creative teams had got to be Brubaker/Phillips. They’re yet to give us a bad book and seem to only be getting more and more impressive as they go on.
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01-12-2021, 03:30 PM #6Mighty Member
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Nobody's said Stray Bullets? NOBODY?
You are my favorite thing, Peter. My very favorite thing.
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01-15-2021, 09:05 AM #7Mighty Member
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I'm not sure if every Europeans comic listed count as independent, as they might be part of big editorial houses in their country of origin or they appeared in magazines that were pretty popular back then (this is my genuine ignorance, I really don't know).
Originally Posted by MRP
Great list by the way.
Mine would be (and thinking of comics like Tintin as independent even if I don't really know if they count):
-Blueberry
-Tintin
-Blacksad
-Thorgal
-Metabarons (ironically, I don't care much for The Incal, except for Moebius outstanding pencils and the original coloring)
-Maus
-Persepolis
-Asterix
-Hellboy
-From Hell
-Understanding Comics
-TMNT
-The Crow
-Mafalda
-El Eternauta
-Corto Maltese
-Is the magazine that published Berserk in its early years independent? And what about Akira? If they count as independent, add them to my list
And many others I'm probably forgetting aboutLast edited by Chubistian; 01-15-2021 at 09:08 AM.
"The Batman is Gotham City. I will watch him. Study him. And when I know him and why he does not kill, I will know this city. And then Gotham will be MINE!"-BANE
"We're monsters, buddy. Plain and simple. I don't dress it up with fancy names like mutant or post-human; men were born crueler than Apes and we were born crueler than men. It's just the natural order of things"-ULTIMATE SABRETOOTH
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01-15-2021, 09:13 AM #8Astonishing Member
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I have the impression that the English versions of successful comics never appear in big editorial houses… Originally Posted by Chubistian
“Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.” Goethe
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07-03-2021, 09:11 PM #9Astonishing Member
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I never liked the term indie comics. It's way too broad. I understand it getting used to describe third party publishers in Ameirica like Dark Horse or Image, but Manga and Euorpean comics shouldn't fall under that category because books like Lone Wolf & Cub and the Incal are those respective industries' mainstream. Originally Posted by MRP
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07-04-2021, 05:39 AM #10Astonishing Member
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That makes sense, I was thinking, if you have a million dollar industry making movies about your stuff, you are an industry.
Did anyone mention Mike Allred’s Madman? There is a new collection from Darkhorse and it’s so good from issue one.
I like the term third party publisher. One comic I read on Eclipse that blew my mind way back when, Miracle Man. I know it’s by Alan Moore but for about ten years it fell like an underground book. Speaking of which, what about Zapp! Comics and all those artists. Would EC comics count?Last edited by Johnny Thunders!; 07-04-2021 at 06:49 AM.
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07-04-2021, 07:25 AM #11Extraordinary Member
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If we are talking strictly publishing and not other media exploitation of the properties, neither DC nor Marvel are mainstream for comic publishing anymore. They may be the most popular in the niche direct market, but their product does not have any where near enough mass market penetration or visibility to be considered mainstream. Mainstream comic publishers in the 21st century are publishers like Scholastic and the graphic novel imprints from the big book publishers that put out product like the Telgameier books and Dog Boy that are available in the mass market and sell to readers everywhere in the US not just in the limited places that have direct market retail outlets. Originally Posted by Timothy Hunter
However, when using Indy to refer to comics in the US, it usually has nothing to do with mainstream or non-mainstream it is simply a shortcut for saying any publisher that is not Marvel or DC, even when some of those publishers outsold Marvel and DC by a wide margin for long stretches of the period from '38-present (Dell in particular for most of the 40s-early70s outpaced both National/DC and Timely/Atlas/Marvel in sales).
-MLast edited by MRP; 07-13-2021 at 05:59 AM.
Comic fans get the comics their buying habits deserve.
"Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato
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09-20-2021, 11:13 AM #12Incredible Member
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I don't think "Image" is really an "indy" but I realize others may disagree. Originally Posted by DanMad1977
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09-30-2021, 07:23 AM #13Extraordinary Member
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What is the current accepted American Comic Book term for: Indie
Since I began reading i the mid 80s I came to understand Indie as anything non-Marvel/DC
That held true enough through the 90s I felt.
Then post-2000s there was on occasion a division in what indie meant. Dark Horse and Image had been around so long folks didn't consider them Indie.
I'd now add in Publishers like Dynamite, IDW, Boom, Valiant and Zennescope. All are known names with recognizable brands. Their market share is smaller but I don't think of them as Indie. Take IDW for example, they have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that no argument began as Indie but has grown from it's roots at Mirage-->Image-->Mirage 2.0--->IDW and its a billion dollar empire owned by Nickelodeon. Hardly Indie anymore.
Walking Dead at Image, that isn't Indie, its an empire.
There are still super small publishers like Scout, Titan, Bad Idea(closing I hear) now those I'd call Indie but none have titles I'm overly familiar with."Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" - Optimus Prime
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09-30-2021, 07:42 AM #14Uncanny Member
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Anybody want to add in Tales of the Beanworld?
Dark Horse is collecting them these days, but it started out as an independent that then hooked up with Eclipse Comics back in the day.
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01-14-2021, 05:00 PM #15Amazing Member
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Yup, Bone is the best. I've read it about ten times. It's astoundingly good. Originally Posted by K7P5V
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