Fantastical Comics, Graphic Novels and Mangas

[Eldacar]

A few weeks back, I rediscovered my old childhood interest of reading Comics, when I visited the local ComicBook Store for the first time. I reread some old french and belgian ones and also got into Mangas. And since I love fantasy as a genre, I would like to know from you, if you could recommend any good (maybe even Tolkien inspired) fantastical Comics, Graphic Novels or Mangas and if you want to, maybe tell us what you like about them.

 

[Olorgando]

There actually is a three-volume comic of "The Hobbit", and a German translation of it, too, see this thread:

TH as a comic strip

I recently came across a copy of TH in the form of a comic strip from 1990 - and a very good one too. I generally dislike comic strips but this work impresses with the quality of its narrative. It stays very very close to the original text (no Tauriel nor Alfrid at all, if you see my point...)...

thetolkien.forum

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

My favorite manga series is this post-apocalyptic ecological SF/Fantasy:

It's from the 80s-90s, and has been reprinted many times, in several formats, including this two-volume hardcover set:

Miyazaki made a film of the first part in the mid-80s:

 

[Eldacar]

Really interesting that you brought up Nausicaä. I've been pondering for some time now, if I should buy it, since it keeps showing up on Google searches on the subject but ComicBook Stores here in Germany seem to have some troubles ordering single issues and the Box set is €80 ($85). Quite a bit of money to spend. But now that you mentioned it, I looked it up on the website of my (regular) bookstore, and they of all places seem to have single issues, even though I have to wait two weeks for them to arrive. Anyway, I'll try it out.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I also recommend the film, which was finally acquired, mostly restored, and redubbed by Disney in 2005, but also including the original with subtitles, for purists.

Both manga and film were very influential on both mediums, but in other areas as well, such as video games like Final Fantasy. Nausicaa's glider, the mowe, was particularly inspirational:

In fact it led a guy to design and build one! I posted a clip here:
Post in thread '🎶 The Official TTF Music Thread! 🎶' https://thetolkien.forum/threads/the-official-ttf-music-thread.28781/post-553636

 

[Tyelkormo the Fair]

You can never go wrong with AOT. I really liked Death note too, when I started watching the anime. I didn't finish it because I got busy.

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

I really liked Death note too, when I started watching the anime.

I can recommend the Death Note manga series. It's a sort of detective/horror story set in the modern day with some supernatural elements (gods of death). I found the plot engaging, and the characters unusual and interesting. It's not something I'd describe as a typical fantasy story, and it's very dissimilar to Tolkien's stories. Very different feel. The anime is really good too, though it simplifies the plot somewhat (as it must).

It's the type of story that asks a question, 'What if something like this happened?' and follows it on to a conclusion. Though it examines the morality of the characters, I wouldn't say the story itself has a single, obvious moral or message.