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What was the worst graphic novel you have read?
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Ronyell
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Jun 06, 2012 09:05PM
What was the worst graphic novel you had read? Mine's so far would have to be X-Men: Curse of the Mutants: Mutants vs. Vampires since there's not much of a story going on in either stories. The only story I actually like was Chris Claremont's story on Storm becoming a vampire.
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NYKen wrote: "Ronyell, I am going to delete the second thread, which is a double/copy of this initial post of yours okay.As for the worst... it was over a decade ago, and I think it was Aliens or Predator vs P..."
Thanks! I didn't mean to create two copies! I haven't read those comics before, but they do sound bad.
This is really hard to answer, but it's a really good question.After all, there's so much bad stuff. lol
Staying in topic with what Ken is saying, the last really awful comic I read was Aliens Vs. Predator Omnibus Volume 2.
I think I talked about it here some time ago. A collection of really pointless comics, both because of the stories and the art. It's obvious that companies like Fox don't give a damn about their properties when they license them to make such bad comics.
Before watchmen ... it's not complete but so far it's just really terrible.
I make it a point to only read graphic novels that are highly recommended on goodreads, so my misses are very rare.That being said, I thought Y: The Last Man was pretty awful. It was very shallow and foolish.
Amir wrote: "I make it a point to only read graphic novels that are highly recommended on goodreads, so my misses are very rare."I do the same thing whenever I'm reading graphic novels. If I see that the graphic novel is highly rated, then I'm most likely pick up the graphic novel.
Gosh, probably Frank Miller's Dark Knight sequel. I can't even remember its title, but it sucked ragged donkey butt.
Civil War, by Mark Miller. Utter muck. I tend to avoid mainstream Marvel and DC anyway, with some exceptions, as they almost invariably seem to assume their audience has an average IQ of about 60, but the idea was excellent and so I gave it a spin. A few hours of my life I'll never get back - this was tripe.
Monologues for the Coming Plague
felt just awful for me. I couldn't actually motivate myself to finish it. I read maybe three-quarters and couldn't imagine the final pages justifying what preceded them.My distaste for Anders Nilsen's book was so strong that it took a lot of convincing to get me to give Big Questions a chance. Big Questions was fantastic and *almost* makes me wonder if I was just in a terrible mood when I read Monologues—almost.
The Kingdom. I didn't like it at all on it's own merits, and on top of that it reduced one of my all time favorite stories (Kingdom Come) to being a mechanism to bring back the multiverse, which had caused so much confusion continuity-wise they had a massive crossover TO GET RID OF IT in the first place (Crisis on Infinite Earths).
Mike wrote: "The Kingdom. I didn't like it at all on it's own merits, and on top of that it reduced one of my all time favorite stories (Kingdom Come) to being a mechanism to bring back the multiverse, which h..."The Waid/Kitson Planet Krypton one-shot was good, but the rest of the series was unspeakably horrible. And the Hypertime concept is possibly even less loved than spider clones.
I would go with Revolver by Matt Kindt. I gritted my teeth and finished it but wrote a highly negative review of the book which was very cathartic.
I recently read Neonomicon by Alan Moore and I couldn't believe that Moore can came up with something as gross as this. I think somewhere in the middle, Moore completely lost track of what he had in mind. I hate this book.
Amit wrote: "I recently read Neonomicon by Alan Moore and I couldn't believe that Moore can came up with something as gross as this. I think somewhere in the middle, Moore completely lost track of what he had i..."Was it all the monster sex?
Yes, The bizarre set of events happening in the tunnel.
Amit wrote: "Yes, The bizarre set of events happening in the tunnel."I quite liked that part. It had an eerie cult vibe to it and rather than save the heroine at the last minute Moore threw her to the wolves (or sea monster as it were). It was pretty good horror, like an x-rated X-Files episode.
Last night I was working through The Legend of Drizzt-Neverwinter Tales and thought it was just awful. I've never read the R.A. Salvatore books, but I've had some curiosity regarding the world due to my obsessive playing of the Lords of Waterdeep board game.The story seemed silly and the art wasn't to my liking. I did appreciate the bonus D&D module in the back of the book,though :)
Well so far I thought League of Gentlemen: Black Dossier was pretty bad. Far to to dry and tedious. But I mean Alan Moore's bad is still most people's good.
Lichen wrote: "Well so far I thought League of Gentlemen: Black Dossier was pretty bad. Far to to dry and tedious. But I mean Alan Moore's bad is still most people's good."I'm with you there. All those dreary prose passages where Moore thinks he can write at the same standard as Woolf and Wilde and Shakespeare were agony to get through. In the end I just skimmed and skipped.
I've tried a couple times to get throught The Black Dossier. No success as yet.
Sam wrote:I'm with you there. All those dreary prose passages where Moore thinks he can write at the same standard as Woolf and Wilde and Shakespeare were agony to get through. In the end I just skimmed and skipped. Hmmm, that did seem a bit odd to me. I was thinking "Isn't it a bit arrogant to think "HA! I'm so good I can write just like Shakesphere did!"
Seth wrote: "I've tried a couple times to get throught The Black Dossier. No success as yet."
There's too much text for my liking. The graphic novel medium really wasn't meant for wordy type novel paragraphs.
But my unadulterated love of Alan Moore will forgive these slight problems.
La Perdida by jesica abel, green candles and probably american vampire.
@Rattoni - Oh man, six years ago, my wife and I took La Perdida on our honeymoon (¡in Mexico!) in our stack of poolside reading. Worst honeymoon book ever.
Oh, I remembered another bad bad baaaad one. Marvel's Pride & Prejudice adaptation. The really not-very-good, stilted scripting (basically, characters trade off on monologues for the duration) is actually very good in comparison with the art, which may just be the most terrible, inconsistent, ham-handed thing I've seen.
How come all those girls in Pride and Prejudice look like they're posing? Ugh, I was going to add the Marvel adaptation of Emma . The art is ridiculous and the characters look lopsided. Plus, as in Pride and Prejudice, the story adaptation is just plain awful.A few pictures and a little text with a "Hope you watched one of the movies for context" feeling throughout.
Notice too how all those girls look like modern American girls (silicone in the lips? nose jobs?). They do not look at all period -- look at the loose hair, the bangs. Some dim effort was made in their clothing (because otherwise the work would completely fall apart) but the artist did the thing they usually do in the movies, apply a modern head to a period body.
I think the most disappointing GN for me was HEAVEN'S WAR, a one-shot which came out some years ago. It was about the Inklings, the circle of British writers that included C.S. Lewis, Tolkien and Charles Williams. They were going to combat evil, and I had such a clear idea of how it was supposed to work that the actual GN (which involved some dim and uninteresting occult combat) did not meet my expectation at all.
Kill Shakespeare volume one was so disappointing I didn't bother with volume two. I feel bad even saying that, because I met the creators at a signing, and they seemed like really nice guys, but man....
Brenda, you are SO right! They've had nose jobs and lip jobs! XD What a telling point. I guess the creators didn't watch any of the films. Also, I read that book about the Inklings and I really disliked it. Its so pretentious an idea that I couldn't wrap my head around it.
The art in Marvel's Sense & Sensibility is very good. It's by Sonny Liew, who did the covers for their Pride & Prejudice. Unfortunately, Nancy Butler does the adaptation of that one too. Fortunately, it's not quite so stilted *and* Liew's art mitigates a lot.
That sense and sensibility adaptation is the only one from Marvel that I bought (in hardcover) and it was solely because of the art. The script is really lacking. They have a chance to take the story and make an "adaptation", their "take" on it, if you will. Sequential art creates a lot of opportunities as far as story telling itself goes. A small sentence in the novel that makes a short scene in the movie can turn into a beautiful new, understated moment in a graphic novel adaptation.
I'm afraid the writers simply don't understand the strengths of sequential art.
However, the art is beautiful and quite unique and I love it for that!
I'm afraid the writers simply don't understand the strengths of sequential art.That's exactly the issue. I actually don't think I've read an adaptation I believe to be entirely successful. To much reliance on word, forgetting that it's in the synergy of art and word that comics have thir power.
My hope for the Inklings book was that they would veer from occult horror over towards the superhero end of the spectrum. I envisioned a secret hidehout under the Eagle and Child pub, accessed by a secret passage behind the Inklings' favorite table in the bar. And then, to zoom around the Oxfordshire countryside, a convertible sports car...
Amir wrote: "I make it a point to only read graphic novels that are highly recommended on goodreads, so my misses are very rare.That being said, I thought Y: The Last Man was pretty awful. It was very shallow..."
I liked Y: the last man until the end, but made a mistake of reading American Virgin right after Y: TLM and found the storyline to be pretty much the same, and boring.
Dominick wrote: "Kill Shakespeare volume one was so disappointing I didn't bother with volume two. I feel bad even saying that, because I met the creators at a signing, and they seemed like really nice guys, but ma..."Me, too!!!! I love Shakespeare and I have read a few GN interpretation that were good. And I thought this concept would be great, but the execution was just a muddle.
Ha. I haven't read any of these. I'm glad :)I WAS going to try Kill Shakespeare and wasn't able to find it, locally. Maybe there's a reason ;)
Scott wrote: "How are they the same? Because they both do a lot of travelling?"They do a lot of traveling in order to find the love of their life, so yeah, the travel bit, coming-of-age bit are pretty much the same.
The "Superman: Earth One" series has my vote for worst Superman series ever written, and "Superman: Earth One, Vol 2" is probably the worst comic book I read this year.
Even though the art was superb the story was lacking.
Mark Millar's "TROUBLE" --- not even sure why i tried
Another sad disappointment was the FABLES spin off about the Literals. Too meta, I suppose, but it was nowhere near as fun as the main FABLES title.
Speaking of Fables, Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland, was probably one of the worst I read in 2012/3. Bad story, bad art, bad inking, bad coloring... just bad
Iron Man, Demon in a Bottle.Although I agree that 1602 is pretty wretched. I wouldn't've finished it if it wasn't for my love for Gaiman.
I like The Kingdom.. Though it's clearly not as good as Kingdom Come, I really don't see what's so horrible about it.
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again is hands down the worst one I've read. Absolutely awful, ridiculous plotline and made worse by the fact that it's the sequel to one of my all-time favorite Batman stories. The only reason I'm finishing it is because I loved the Dark Knight Returns so much.
I thought Pinocchio by Winshluss was pretty darn awful.
'kris wrote: "I thought Pinocchio by Winshluss was pretty darn awful."Awful? Really? Why? :(
Sérgio wrote: "'kris wrote: "I thought Pinocchio by Winshluss was pretty darn awful."Awful? Really? Why? :("
To me it was all shock no substance and I gave up on it ½ way through
Graphic Novel Reading Group
Books mentioned in this topic
The Stand: Captain Trips (other topics)Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland (other topics)
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (other topics)
A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel, Volume One (other topics)
Wanted (other topics)
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