Manga

[Bruce]

No comments on how it sucks.
If you dont have anything to help with, don't post please.

I know nothing of the material and am interested in learning.
Titles that you would recommend and possible links for art and other information please.

Titles I read are
transmet
cerebus
Sandman
bone
frank miller
Hellboy
Alan Moore
Strangers in paradise
A lot of Top Shelf book
A lot of indies.
Chris Ware
...

you get the Idea. I have (but doen't have a huge love for) spandex. Just have been mainly interested in a great story. I'm also interested in a story that goes somwhere. I tried Loan Wolf and cub but dropped it after the 9 vol. because it didn't feel like it was going anywhere.
Also tried Blade of the Immortal and had no real interest. A buddy of mine would like me to finish what is out there though first with blade before giving up. I'll probably go back.

I'm interested in horror titles for Manga. Need information on those.i want to see how they handle pacing and suspence.
Question about something like Ringu or Battle Royal that are out in Manga form. Are they before the movie? Or were the movies based on the books?

Also you sould know that I don't have the money or the interest in the Anime. Just the comic form. so don't compare the two please. Just interested in the comic.

This is it for the Manga lovers. You have someone that is an american comic lover asking for the knowledge to step into your world.
For me, or anyone else that is interested, this is your chance to get us in.
Were a blank slate.
Please help.

[Spectre-7]

Both Ringu and Battle Royale films were based on novels, sadly not manga. I've been intending to read Battle Royale for a while, but haven't gotten around to it. Something about reading prose translated from another language has always seemed sort of distasteful to me, for whatever reason.

I'm gonna get back to you on recommendations... I need a while for that question to stew.

[MC Fumunda]

I've really only read Blade of the Immortal (which I couldn't recommend any higher) and Parasyte.

I liked Parasyte a lot, but I had a hard time finding it. It's a cool story about an alien parasite mistakingly taking over a teenaged dude's arm. There's lots of really funny moments in it (like when his whole arm turned into a gigantic raging boner when this girl the dude liked was talking to him) and really crazy actiony moments when there's battles with the parasites that managed to do their job right and take over the whole human. The aliens eat people and can shapechange and stuff. It's wicked cool.

[Carter]

Akira. Make this number one on your hit list. It's six volumes long at nearly 30 bucks each, so if you're feeling kind of broke, get Domu instead. Same author, very similar stories, except Domu is only one book. Akira is much better than the movie because it makes sense and has a really good, emotionally satisfying ending. It's also probably as good a segue from American comics that you're going to find.

Blade of the Immortal. Also somewhat expensive, but super rad. I think there's 14 volumes so far at about 15 bucks a pop.

Orion. It's all the Masamune Shirow-y goodness without the hard to chew footnote laden granola of his newer stuff. Personally, this is my favorite book of his, even though a lot of other people are going to point you to Appleseed or Ghost in the Shell. Unless you're horny for ultra super realistic sci fi, don't start with GitS. It's nothing like the TV show. Don't fall for the lies. Even though the art is freaking amazing, it's nearly unreadable.

Great Teacher Onizuka. It's about a guy that decides to be a teacher so he can bone high school girls and take three months off a year. He's my hero.

Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka. Any volume since they skip around in time and only kind of interlace. Easily my favorite comic of all time. It's too hard for me to summarize since I'm kind of dumb and not good with the English, but it's seriously so so good. Look it up on the Internet.

Tons of other stuff, but this is a good cross section to get 'er done.

[Spectre-7]

Holy Crapola! I didn't realize anyone else read Orion. I also hardily recommend this series. It's rather short, but is one of the most interesting and oddly realized sci-fantasy settings I've run across. It does have its fair share of Shirow footnoting, though.

[Carter]

Holy Crapola! I didn't realize anyone else read Orion. I also hardily recommend this series. It's rather short, but is one of the most interesting and oddly realized sci-fantasy settings I've run across. It does have its fair share of Shirow footnoting, though.

Jesus Christ, the footnotes in Orion are dwarfed DWARFED by those in GitS 2. I gave up reading and just went through the comic like a flip book and looked at the thongs.

[Justice41]

I think I have the complete run of the original Epic comics AkiRa books not the DH ones. I also have the Orion huge, fat, b/w, book. Studio Proteus stuff. Mia the Mystic is really well drawn and has an interesting story. Hey Bruce I'll sell you my entire lot of Akira's,If'n your interested.(I need to get rid of my comics as it is. Well everything except the thousands of Autographed books that is). Think it's about thirty books or something like that. I also have the complete run of Lone wolf and Cub put out by Now comics not the DH release, which I hear is better done. I really like Japanese comics but like american comics I prefer the more realistic stuff. That Mia the Mystic has some really nice pages.
I have 5 of those Sword of the Immortal books. Great artwork and really interesting stories.

[Inkthinker]

For Horror, I'd suggest Hellsing (for gory vampire horror), Berserk (for gory gothic demon horror, plus towards the later volumes Miura's artwork has become inhumanly gorgeous), or Domu (for spooky suspense horror). I've read and really enjoyed all three...

If you wanted to pick one of those, Domu is a can't-miss masterpiece. It's by Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of the massive Akira. It's a single-book story, though, so you can consume it in one gulp. His artwork is some of the best ever, combining a Darrowesque obsession with detail and a brilliant sense of cinematic pacing and composition. It's from Dark Horse, and shouldn't be hard to find at all.

Berserk starts as a horror, then reverts to a gritty war story with horrific tinges, builds into a political thriller, and then in about two more books suddenly reverts back to horror, descends to some truly disturbing depths, and begins a long journey towards something else that, so far, has translated into about 260 "issues", collected in 29 volumes (8 of which have been released in the US).

The artist of Hellsing loves ink. And ripping people up. And nazi vampires. Take a look and see what you think.

* * *
Shirow was one of the first mangaka I ever followed. I've read all of the books published in English, and I often find it worthwhile to actually struggle through and grasp the content, because he has some very interesting ideas (for instance, nearly a decade ago he predicted that terrorism would be the subject of international conflict). Given advancements being made in biotechnology and robotics, I wouldn't be surprised if his vision of cyborgs (organic brains encased in robotic bodies) comes to pass in another 50-60 years.

[Carter]

Oh, yeah. You were asking specifically about horror. heh.

3x3 Eyes. It's not horror like a ghost movie, but supernatural all the same. Truth be told, I can't think of anything as far as manga goes that would equate with a horror movie as we know it in America. There's shit tons of stuff with demons and vampires, and most of is really horrible mall manga aimed at 12 year old goth girls.

[Carter]

(for instance, nearly a decade ago he predicted that terrorism would be the subject of international conflict).

Actually, it was nearly 20 years ago. Appleseed first hit in the second half of the 80s. The first OAV came out in 1988, even. I can't find an exact date (all my stuff is in storage for now) but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say 86?