In my opinion, this is THE list of comics (or "graphic novels for you snoody types", in order. Please note I veer away from anything part of an ongoing continuity, as it's too difficult to evaluate without considering the bookend material.

1) The Dark Knight Returns
2) Watchmen
3) The Walking Dead
4) Batman: Year One
5) Rising Stars
6) Kingdom Come
7) Sin City
8) Maus
9) Supreme Power
10) Garth Ennis's Punisher (Welcome Back Frank, and the Max series in particular)

No Preacher or V for Vendetta or Ys or 100 Bullets?

Funny how opinions differ!

I see that, in your list, except from Sin City and Maus, there are only "spandex" comics.

My personal list would be more like (note that the numbers don't indicate a ranking in any way) :

1/ Strangers in Paradise
2/ Bone
3/ Transmetropolitan
4/ Courtney Crumrin
5/ The Goon

Yeah for me its (this is no particular order really):

1) Transmetropolitan
2) Marvel Zombies
3) Y - The Last Man
4) The Goon
5) Looking for Group
6) Doctor Who (Marvel and IDW)
7) Spider-man Noir
8) Trigun
9) Elric of Melniboné
10) Giant Monster

edit: Aw damn, I forgot to put Astonishing X-Men, Most of Batman, Hellblazer, Spider-Man 2099, and Scott Pilgrim (Apparently Brian Lee O'Malley is from my home town or something, don't know how true that is though).

Some of my favorites:

100 Bullets
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(comics)]300[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(manga)]Akira[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkham_Asylum:_A_Serious_House_on_Serious_Earth]Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth[/url]
Astonishing X-Men
The Authority
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Year_One]Batman: Year One[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_(comics)]Black Hole[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blankets_(comics)]Blankets[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_(comics)]Bone[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cages_(comics)]Cages[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_(comics)]Concrete[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daredevil:_Born_Again]Daredevil: Born Again[/url]
[url=http://marvel.wikia.com/Daredevil:_The_Man_Without_Fear_Vol_1]Daredevil: The Man Without Fear[/url]
The Dark Knight Returns
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_Machina_(comics)]Ex Machina[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fables_(comics)]Fables[/url]
Fray
From Hell
Ghost World
Global Frequency
The Goon
Hellblazer
Hellboy
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Killing_Joke]The Killing Joke[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Come_(comics)]Kingdom Come[/url]
Kraven's Last Hunt
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Long_Halloween]The Long Halloween[/url]
Marvels
Maus
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_(comics)]Planetary[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preacher_(comics)]Preacher[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronin_(DC_Comics)]Ronin[/url]
Saga Of The Swamp Thing
Sam & Max: Freelance Police
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandman_(Vertigo)]The Sandman[/url]
Scott Pilgrim
Sin City
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman:_Red_Son]Superman: Red Son[/url]
Superman: Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?
Transmetropolitan
V For Vendetta
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(comics)]The Walking Dead[/url]
Watchmen
We3
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteout_(Oni_Press)]Whiteout[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(comic_book)]Wolverine[/url]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y:_The_Last_Man]Y: The Last Man[/url]

It seems we are only talking about US comics? No chance for artists like Baru, Gipi, Larcanet, Loisel, Tezuka, Urusawa or Taniguchi?

And even if we stay in the USA there is so much more than superheroes. Where are Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, Jeff Smith, Stan Sakai or Neil Gaiman (I kow he is British)?

My collection is sadly limited, but I do have some favourites, mostly Batman:

1) Arkham Asylum
2) The Killing Joke
3) Watchmen
4) Batman and the Monster Men
5) Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
6) Hellboy
7) Spider-Man 2099
8) Saga of the Swamp Thing
9) Batman: The Long Halloween
10) Batman: Year One

I would politely contend that no list of comics is complete without Alan Moore's Swamp Thing

Promethea people. Don't forget Promethea. There's never been a better apocalypse.

Alan Moore's From Hell is a masterpiece. At something like 550 pages, it's quite long but well worth the read. Just his research alone is fascinating.

I've been collecting The Complete Judge Dredd over the past few years, you can see how he evolves as a character the longer you read. Absolutely fantastic stories with some spanning loads of issues, thankfully in the complete sets you get a full story arc to read and there are no catch up type pages in between.

I also really like The Dark Knight stuff from DC, out of all the different Batman variations Dark Knight series is the stuff to be going for. It is a lot more mature and you see how much of a nocturnal predator he actually is.

Many Alan Moore stuff (watchmen, top ten, lxg part 1 and 2, from hell).

Mike Mignola's Hellboy

All Franquin (except maybe Modeste & Pompon)

Asterix when Goscinny is around

Lucky Luke before Goscinny's death

Greg's Achille Talon

Tintin

All Jean-Marc Reiser

Calvin & Hobbes

Peanuts

Bone

Peyo's Johan & Pirlouit, and the Smurfs up to album 11 (La soupe aux schtroumpfs).

Some one-shots, like Spiegelmann's Maus, and In the Shadow of No Towers, or Jason's Hey Wait.

The Walking Dead

Most Larcenet, in particular Le Combat Ordinaire.

Some Trondheim, in particular Désoeuvré.

Cauvin, Lambil, Salvérius' Les tuniques bleues (antimilitarist series which inspired the game North & South, by the way)

Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese, etc

and, to some extend, Moebius (including the Giraud Blueberry), Maurice Tillieux, the first Petits Hommes by Seron (until around Petits Hommes et Hommes-Singes), Blake & Mortimer, Blacksad, a few Scrameustache, some dose of Tibet & Duchateau (Chick Bill, Ric Hochet), De Cape et de Crocs, and ...that may be all ?

_______

Edit : Oh yes, I love Jacques Tardi.

Ah ah, I love it when my fellow europeans (mostly german, swiss and french) come on this thread and deliver the real good things of the "Franco-belge" school of comics! Way to go guys, I can't agree more with your choices !

I didn't mention them, simply because the title was comics and i tend to be a little on the maniac side when it is about differencing comics, BD and manga ^_^

Pretty good list. I assume under supreme power you mean the whole batch of MAX series'. Also, I think Rising Stars somehow jumped the shark after roughly a third of the series. Still pretty nice, but not what I had hoped for.

Personally,

Preacher

needs to be on every comicbook list.