Growing up I was never a comic book reader. They just never appealed to me in the way they seemed to for generations of other kids. I wasn't a fan of superheroes and am even less so now, considering their proliferation in mass-produced film (I work at an art-house theater). I did spent a fair amount of time in comic stores growing up, however, because it was those places that stocked all the AD&D books and paraphernalia I was into. Ones I couldn't afford (which was often on a child's allowance) I would spend hours sneaking peeks and reading pages from, whilst ducking the grumpy clerks there who would scowl at me. I was also briefly heavily into Ral Partha figurines which I loved to buy and paint.
Having said that I have read a few...though "graphic novels" or collected issue compilations would be more accurate by the time I read them.
MAUS is at the top of my list, my parents having bought it after we visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC when I was a teenager. Before that I never would have thought the comic format could possible tell a story like this with any pathos or taste, but Art Spiegelman proved me wrong. I've thought of looking at his "Shadow of No Towers" except that I'm sick to death of anything to do with 9/11 remembrances or the like.
Ghost World, which I was led to as a result of my love of the film adaptation. It didn't disappoint. Great slice-of-disaffected-teenage-life in a suburban wasteland of anywhere, USA.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and
Gloom Cookie were two other series I read in my early 20s and enjoyed at the time, mostly because of the way they satirized the goth subculture of which I was tangentially connected to in my own circle of friends. They were amusing for what they were.
The Walking Dead, which is now a hot commodity these days with the AMC adaptation. It's pure pulp fiction, greyhound bus station rack reading. It wasn't high art by any stretch, but a good way to kill a couple of slow afternoons when in the mood for a zombie-apocalypse story. Robert Kirkman must be able to draw zombies in his sleep by now.
That's about it, really. Someone pushed Watchman on me years ago but I didn't like it.
HoneyBakedHam: I feel so alone...
Am I really they only guy who reads straight contemporary fiction?
You're assuredly not alone (www.bookslut.com , www.kirkusreviews.com , and www.therumpus.net are on my internet daily rounds), however I choose to answer within the confines of the OP's question, like most other posters.
