Top 10 Comics to Share With Your Boyfriend And/or Girlfriend

It's been a bit of a crazy week for comics, what with Starfire becoming a walking, talking blow up doll, so Comics Bulletin decided to show off some books that are a little more appealing to both genders.

• 10. Young Liars

  

  Young Liars is perhaps the most accessible work by comics' own Quentin Tarantino, David Lapham. Essentially the story of a group of twentysomethings who are various degrees of fucked up, Young Liars may be violent and vulgar and highly sexual, but it's also a fun romp, full of bold, bright colors and '60s inspired art, as well as excellent musical choices and fashion. Think of it as True Romance in comic form, except with crazed detectives, a Memento-like female heroine and even more sex.

• 9. Alias

  

  No, not an adaptation of the tv show. Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos created Alias in order to explore the street level of the Marvel Universe, specifically through the perspective of superhero private detective Jessica Jones. Alias helped kick off Marvel's MAX line, which was meant to be a place where top notch creators could tell stories that were more like what one would see on HBO, with the violence, nudity and language to match. But what really made Alias work was how well Bendis and Gaydos showed off the human element of Marvel, exploring what made Jessica give up superheroics and how being surrounded by super powered beings can mess with every day people's lives.

• 8. 20th Century Boys

  

  20th Century Boys is a manga that spans several decades, following a group of kids who made a pact as friends and created a Book of Prophecy, which depicted a future apocalypse scenario. As adults, they return to each other after noticing the startling similarity between real situations currently going on and events they predicted in their Prophecy. It's an epic sci-fi work that features bizarre cults and possible armageddon but it's mostly about the bond of friendship and how we change over time, forgetting what's really important.

• 7. Palomar

  

  As one of the most important creations to come out of the legendary Love & Rockets, the ongoing epic of the town of Palomar is perhaps Gilbert Hernandez's signature work. Fantagraphics collected the main Palomar stories into an eponymous volume and it remains the greatest entry point for Love & Rockets, showing off stories like "Human Diastrophism" which highlights the way Hernandez is capable of blending seemingly disparate elements like magic realism and horror as a serial killer is at large in the town. The stories in Palomar are a large part of why Love & Rockets helped prove that comics could and should be taken seriously when they're done well and the way that the town is used similarly to the settings of the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, specifically Chronicle of a Death Foretold, have enabled the work to remain almost unmatched in comicdom for its epic, literary scope.

• 6. Ultra

  

  Ultra may unfortunately get occasionally described as "Sex and the City with superheroines," but the work is so much more than that. The Luna Bros. break-out work, Ultra remains a unique series that shows how well-written and developed female lead characters can truly make a series stand out. Focused mainly on seven days in the life of the heroine Ultra, the series tackles everything from the single life to celebrity to, of course, fighting evil. The Luna Bros. have gone on to even more ambitious projects since, but Ultra remains a fan and critic favorite for a reason.

• 5. Box Office Poison

  

  Like an exceedingly great indie dramedy, Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison is driven by its expert characterization and clever humor. Centered around a group of people of varying backgrounds all living in New York City, Box Office Poison explores everything from the publishing world to the complexities of relationships to the slacker lifestyle to the unfair practices of comic companies in the Golden and Silver Ages. It's a massive work that never feels boring or slow, with its several hundred pages positively breezing by thanks to Robinson's wit and the stylistic excursions the book takes, including "interview" segments between chapters.

• 4. FLCL

  

  The manga of FLCL may have been released after its popular anime counterpart, and may not have the acrobatic style of the show, but it's a unique work that uses minimalist art to tell the story of a highly imaginative high schooler trying to deal with the pending doom of adulthood. Naota is just your typical teenager who feels like an outcast, but all of that changes when he winds up in the middle of an interstellar conflict and starts growing robots out of his forehead. Gaigax's story for FLCL is entertainingly insane, but it's also ominous and emotional, and Hajime Ueda's art may even be better at showcasing those latter elements than the show. Even for non-manga fans, FLCL is easy to recommend, as it's an especially stylish work that utilizes an unique concept in unexpected ways.

• 3. Phonogram

  

  Phonogram was the breakout work of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, a truly incredible series that featured "phonomancers," or people who use music like magic. Gillen and McKelvie show off a dizzying knowledge of indie music in its pages but the series never felt intimidating or encyclopedic, instead functioning as an examination of the complexities of fandom on the whole. Thanks to McKelvie, it was also incredibly stylish, with phenomenally fashionable characters and impeccable background work. The first volume concentrated on a battle for control of an entire generation's defining musical taste while the second focused on a group of stories all taking place in a night out at a club. It's one of the rare comic series that feels unquestionably cool and vital, a treat for fans of any stripe.

• 2. Runaways

  

  To this day, Runaways remains one of superstar writer Brian K. Vaughan's most popular works, a series that truly "gets" what it's like to be young and fearful of the future. Centered around a group of teenagers who discover their parents run an evil cabal that controls Los Angeles and is trying to sell humanity in order to gain immortality, Runaways takes the basic idea of "What if your parents actually were evil?" and twists it into one of the best contemporary comic series about youth. Vaughan and artist Adrian Alphona's run on the title remains the best, though Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Joss Whedon picked up after Vaughan and provided an entertaining if somewhat disappointing storyline.

• 1. Bone

  

  Jeff Smith's masterpiece Bone just might be the most accessible comic series of all-time. Part Sunday strip funny, part fantasy epic and part children's story, Bone is a work with few peers, that follows the Bone cousins as they find themselves stuck in the middle of a world shattering conflict. Smith's gorgeous artwork allows the book to be immediately appealing to any reader, but it's his deft characterization and expert pacing that allow the series to bloom into something even more grand. It's a work that can be enjoyed by literally everyone, from children to teens to adults and everyone in between.