You can only take 5 comics to a desert island. What are they?

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you can pick single issues, compilations, whatever - but don't just pick a bunch of "complete" crumb/barks/blah blah sets, let's be creative here!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 4 September 2005 11:05 (twenty years ago)

#1 The Frank Book by Jim Woodring

Sorry if this breaks the rule, but I'm not going anywhere without it.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Sunday, 4 September 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

for about 15 years of my life i probably woulda said watchmen for sure but i think i've finally gotten sick of it (for a long time it was one of the only comix i owned so i re-read it approx. 3,000 times)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 4 September 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

It's the Beatles Effect - when everybody and their uncle constantly says 'THIS is the best thing ever', it does lead to the thing in question getting old fast, even if it is as good as they say it is. (Not that the Beatles are, but the analogy stands.)

Watchmen is one of the greatest structuralist works in comics, but Alan Moore's surpassed it since in terms of quality, most notably with From Hell - not even to mention the works of other creators.

― Vic Fluro, Sunday, 4 September 2005 17:33 (twenty years ago)

1. Cerebus "High Society"
2. Batman Year One
3. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
4. Any Peanuts anthology. I don't have a favorite one, really.
5. Ninja vol. 3 by Brian Chippendale

― Ian John50n (orion), Sunday, 4 September 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

i replace league of extraordinary gentlemen with gotham central vol. 2, actually.

― Ian John50n (orion), Sunday, 4 September 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

Joke answer: Quimby the Mouse because the pages are so big that I could probably fashion a sail out of them.

Milligan/Allred, X-Force (Has it all! Heartbreak! Pomo spandex hijinx! Space aliens!)
McKean, Cages (It's long, and it's about being trapped)
Mignola, Hellboy: Right Hand of Doom (For the classness of the eponymous story, and "PAMCAKES"!!!)
Allred, Madman: The Exit of Dr. Boiffard (pointers on how to survive on a deserted bloated brain floating in the ocean)
Smith, Bone (if I could choose but one volume, Out From Boneville, for its boundless optimism which SAVED MY LIFE ONCE.)

And little to do you know, I managed to sneak Year One with me as well.

― TemporaryLeeee (templeee), Sunday, 4 September 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

the smithsonian collection of comic book comics (or of newspaper comics, i can't decide)
peanuts treasury by charles m. schulz
ghost world by dan clowes
essential fantastic four vol. 3 by lee and kirby
the death of speedy by jaime hernandez

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 4 September 2005 21:38 (twenty years ago)

Watchmen
Essential FF 3
Tintin in Tibet
Jaka's Story
Destination Moon + Explorers on the Moon (counts as one, don't ask me to justify it.)

― chap who would dare to thwart the revolution (chap), Sunday, 4 September 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

jaka's story, eh? that's where i fell off the boat. i could never justify spending $25 to further my addiction.

― Ian John50n (orion), Sunday, 4 September 2005 23:36 (twenty years ago)

tintin in tibet is a good choice, but if i had to take a tintin book i think i'd pick the castafiore emerald. i think i have a fondness for narratives that just sort of wander around to no particular end.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 5 September 2005 04:08 (twenty years ago)

Castafiore Emerald is technically superb and very funny, but a little too arch for my tastes. As for Jaka's Story, for me it's the high watermark of Sim's narrative technique - inventive, elegant, beautifully paced and far and away the most tightly structured of the Cerebus books.

― chap who would dare to thwart the revolution (chap), Monday, 5 September 2005 12:32 (twenty years ago)

P.S. I take it you're a Big Lebowski fan then, J.D.?

― chap who would dare to thwart the revolution (chap), Monday, 5 September 2005 12:37 (twenty years ago)

jakas story is where i got on the boat. issues wise that is.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 08:39 (twenty years ago)

i actually haven't seen it!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

You should, it's definately the Castifiore Emerald of the Coen's ouvre, only the archness doesn't bother me because they always were arch bastards.

― chap who would dare to thwart the revolution (chap), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)

hey cerebus fans...I have a really stupid letter in one of the issues of Jaka's Story.

anyway....I can only think of recent things, and the Flagg because I just posted on that thread...

1. Gilbert Hernandez-Poison River
2. Daniel Clowes-The Death Ray
3. Howard Chaykin-Hard Times (American Flagg book 1)
4. Charles Burns-Black Hole
5. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book 2

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 9 September 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

6. The Swamp Thing Pogo tribute issue...

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 9 September 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

1. Krazy Kat--the 1926-1935 omnibus
2. The Frank Book
3. Promethea vol. 5
4. The Marvel Masterworks hardcover with all the Lee/Ditko Dr. Strange stuff
5. DESTROY!!

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 10 September 2005 00:02 (twenty years ago)

5. Ahem. I mean "Locas."

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 10 September 2005 01:03 (twenty years ago)

If I have to settle for things between one pair of covers:
Essential Howard the Duck
Essential Fantastic Four #3
Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez
Locas by Jaime Hernandez
and there was a good more-or-less best-of collection of Calvin & Hobbes, I believe. Or that Krazy Kat thing, of which I hadn't heard - is that like 10 years of Sundays in one book? If so, I have to have that, of course.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 10 September 2005 11:30 (twenty years ago)

The hardcover 1926-35 Krazy Kat compilation is great, but it ain't cheap. ~$83 with p&h. Available only directly from Fantagraphics.

― M. V. (M.V.), Saturday, 10 September 2005 11:38 (twenty years ago)

1923-34, I mean

― M. V. (M.V.), Saturday, 10 September 2005 11:41 (twenty years ago)

shit, 1925-34

need to sleep...

― M. V. (M.V.), Saturday, 10 September 2005 11:42 (twenty years ago)

I won't buy it, as I am buying all the two-year books anyway.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 10 September 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

You see, I'd pick Palomar but Gilber left out Poison River, because it's the story of Luba before coming to Palomar. But to me it kinda puts some of the story, and definately much of the later Palomar and just post-Palomar stories in perspective.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 10 September 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

All my L&R books are in storage in France and I want to read them so badly :(

― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:29 (twenty years ago)

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