Lesser Known Comics as Good as DKR and Watchmen

[byrd156]

I think JLA/Titans The Technis Imperative needs more love. Such an underrated classic.

[dancj]

Also, one guy's grumble...

TDNR isn't on the same level as Watchmen. No one should be grouping them on some level that other comics should aspire to. TDNR is solid, but not on that level.

I'd probably put Watchmen in third place, just behind TDKR and Batman: Year One - so I'd disagree with you on that one.

[dancj]

I think JLA/Titans The Technis Imperative needs more love. Such an underrated classic.

I hated it. I found the book one of the most tedious slogs I've ever made it through. I'm pretty sure if I read it these days I'd give up halfway through it.

[dancj]

As I said above, I think TDKR, Year One and Watchmen do sit a bit above everything else, but other contenders (DC only) are:
Swamp Thing (Moore's run)
Animal Man (Morrison's run)
The Enigma
Preacher
Transmetropolitan
Ellis's Stormwatch
Sleeper
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow
Superman: Secret Identity
Flex Mentallo
WE3
Red Son

[RBerman]

Let's rephrase the question as "Good books that are worth your time and money" rather than "Good as Watchmen," which is sui generis.

Superman: Secret Identity by Busiek and Immomen.
Astro City by Busiek and Anderson (technically not DC)
All-Star Superman by Morrison and Quitely (but it will make more sense if you read Morrison's JLA and DC One Million first)
Swamp Thing by Moore with Bissette, Totleben, and Veitch
Top Ten by Moore, Ha, and Cannon (not DC)
The Sherriff of Babylon by King and Gerads
Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (not DC)

[K7P5V]

Moore's V for Vendetta
Gaiman's Sandman
Ellis' Planetary
O'Neil's The Question
Timm/Dini's Mad Love
Loeb's The Long Halloween
Lopez/Conway's Cinder & Ashe
For The Man Who Has Everything!
Gotham by Gaslight
Master of the Future
The Great Darkness Saga
Cooke's The New Frontier

[BatmanJones]

I hated it. I found the book one of the most tedious slogs I've ever made it through. I'm pretty sure if I read it these days I'd give up halfway through it.

I loved it for the art and the characters that were used. I agree the writing was pretty tedious.

[DevilBat66]

Lots of good ones already mentioned.

Green Arrow: The Long Bow Hunters

ranks right there with the best of them to me. Mike Grell's GA run was my favorite "adult" comic back in the day.

[iron chimp]

Enigma? I semi enjoyed it but lot of people seem to really rate it

The extremist - long time since I've read it but remember it being a crazy book at the time. Best costume in comics if nothing else and some nice Ted mckeever art.

And enemy ace: war idyll. I really rate that book as one of DC's very best books. It was not what I was expecting but it's truly superb in my opinion.

[Thor-Ul]

A little know gem is OMAC (1991, I think) by John Byrne. Byrne is full author and works on black and white. No color. Really an interesting work.

[dancj]

O'Neil's The Question

Good call.

Also from the same era:
The Shadow by Andy Helfer with Bill Seinkeiwicz and then Kyle Baker. Just insane stuff!

[dancj]

I loved it for the art and the characters that were used. I agree the writing was pretty tedious.

I didn't care much for the characters or the (George Perez, but not as good) art, so there's nothing for me in the book.

[kingaliencracker]

The Hawkworld mini, despite screwing up Katar Hol's continuity, was awesome. I don't know if it's Watchmen/TDKR level, but it's really, really good.

[Sandy Hausler]

A few weeks ago I put a trade paperback collection of a 4 issue Deadshot miniseries written by John Ostrander on hold at my library. I was rather reluctant at first, because considering it was published in the eighties, while that period definitely was a great one for comics, there was also a high chance it could've ended up being rather slapdash and dated l. Little did I know truly how superb this aforementioned Deadshot mini was going to be. The characterization was so good that it could have kickstarted a Deadshot ongoing that had decades of potential. Ostrander transformed Deadshot into a character with so much sickening tragedy that it would make Garth Ennis blush. It was that brilliant. Already it is cemented in my mind as one of the greatest superhero comics I have ever read, among the lines of Watchmen, Mike Grell's Green Arrow, and the New Teen Titans.

That brings me to the topic of this thread. What DC Comics that you consider to be up there with the greats, that don't get as much attention as they should?

I can never say enough about the Goodwin/Simonson Manhunter series.

I always liked the original Black Orchid series starting in Adventure Comics and moving into the back of the Phantom Stranger. The later permutations of her (even the Gaiman version) never clicked with me. The Gaiman version was good, but to me it was not Black Orchid.

The Denny O'Neil/Mike Kaluta Shadow series was fabulous.

I liked the Tim Truman Hawkworld mini series. If only they retained it as back story for Hawkman it would have been perfect. But they continued it into a Hawkman book, which blew continuity to bits and I think ruined Hawkman for decades. But standing alone the mini series was great.

[Sandy Hausler]

And Kyle Baker's Plastic Man was superb.