Goth-Friendly Comics

Guess who's a terrible, terrible procrastinator? I'm not going to apologise for how long it's been because that won't make it better - posting more, however, just might. From now on I'm going to try and post every Monday, I've got a couple of posts ready so we'll see how that goes. If you want to read more about something or less about something else, or simply have suggestions for something completely different, be sure to let me know in the comments or via e-mail



This is the third post in my series on goth-friendly aspects of (pop) culture. I will probably write more of these and I have a couple of topics planned, but if you have any suggestions, you should definitely let me know.
I have picked this topic not because I know much about comics and graphic novels (to be frank, the opposite is true) but mostly due to my experience with the immensity that is geek culture. Being a goth, a geek and a dozen other things, it's not always easy to find the perfect crossover between my interests. This post is to help my fellow geek goths to find comic books and graphic novels that they might like.
I realise some of these might be hard to come by so have some unsolicited advice: bookfinder.com is the shit. I also haven't included webcomics but maybe I'll recommend a couple of those some other time; in the meanwhile you can use this list although I'm not entirely sure how up-to-date it is.

Gloomcookie
The Gloomcookie series, written by Serena Valentino and illustrated by Ted Naifeh, begins as a series of stories that initially seem far apart, but soon start to intertwine as the plot unravels. Gloomcookie has a strong fairytale vibe with many dark(er) elements and its portrayal of the goth subculture through its likeable and less likeable characters is just delightfully cynical. The art is cute and spooky and generally fun to look at which makes up for the writing not being absolutely perfect. Generally, Gloomcookie's atmosphere is great to be submerged in for at least a couple of hours.
Lenore
Lenore is a 'cute little dead girl', and that pretty much sums up her character. She's not your regular little girl and she's also not the nicest person around but damn, is she hilarious. Lenore has short adventures in which she meets ghosts and befriends other, even stranger creatures. The art is very simple and reminds me a bit of Tim Burton's style. Generally the Lenore comics are very quirky and light-hearted - they're also easily read apart from each other so there's no need to read them in the right order. 

Will O' the Wisp - An Aurora Grimeon Story 
Will O' the Wisp is a graphic novel written by Tom Hammock and illustrated by Megan Hutchison. Both the story and the art are unapologetically dark, which I can only applaud. It's much more a full story with an exciting plot and interesting characters with fascinating backstories. For those interested in folk magic, the tradition of hoodoo also plays an important part in the development of the story and it's fascinating to learn more about that, along with the main character Aurora.
The art is generally rather beautifully dark and melancholical with some gore included here and there. For a full review of this graphic novel, click here

Oh My Goth!
Oh My Goth! is a series of comics drawn and written by Aurelio Voltaire. If you are familiar with the man's music, the song The Vampire Club is one big reference to these comics.
The Oh my Goth! series is one of my personal favourites. It's extremely funny in its satire of teenage goths as well as its depictions of demons, aliens and vampires. As if it wasn't hilarious enough already, goth clichés are mocked all through the book (think silly nicknames, vampire goths, Bela Lugosi, etc). The plot is not extremely inventive or deep, but the humour is simply fantastic and the drawings are quite stylised and nice to look at. 

The Sandman
I have already recommended one of Neil Gaiman's books in my post on goth-friendly novels so I am now going to repeat myself here and recommend his graphic novels. The Sandman series is quite dark and much more profound than any of the works I have mentioned here. It is much more a 'serious' graphic novel with a well-developed plot, stunning images and characters that speak to the imagination. The story is full of intertextuality and flashbacks and -forwards. The story is very thrilling and it's hard to put down. This would be ideal if you are actually looking for something more profound and 'serious', if you will, but even if you are just looking for some pretty pictures to look at, I couldn't recommend this series enough.

Be sure to let me know if you missed your favourite, I would love to read more graphic novels and comics like these.

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