Ten Great Graphic Novels Being Sold on Amazon for Under a Dollar

Two of my previous articles, Ten Great Graphic Novels Being Sold on Amazon for a Penny & its sister article were somewhat popular, so I looked to write a third entry, but I found that there are many great graphic novels that, while costing more than a penny, were easily affordable and should be considered must reads for a comics fan (in my ever so humble opinion). And so for those of you with slightly deeper pockets, I present to you, 10 great graphic novels being sold on Amazon for under a dollar.

The Milkman Murders  By Joe Casey & Steve Parkhouse. In a reverse perfect Donna Reed existence, a housewife who is trying to keep her extremely dysfunctional family happy is raped by a wandering lunatic driving an old fashioned milk truck. Parkhouse's art blends with the script brilliantly. The perceived grime and filth is everywhere. Each character is foully drawn that you can smell the grime and BO wafting off of them.

Uther The Half Dead King   By Bo Hampton & Dan Abnett. This is the story of King Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon, a brutal military leader whose character is often used as a foil of Arthurs own golden age. The story deftly mixes Arthurian legends with English history. He is presented as a man shaped by his times. He had the ability to survive the times, but not to tame them, and that ultimately cost him his life.

Silk Tapestry and Other Chinese Folk Tales: Songs of Our Ancestors Volume 2 

By Patrick Atangan. Three beautifully illustrated short stories from Chinese mythology. In The Silk Tapestry, an old woman's last hope to live well is in the completion of a magical tapestry, which opens to paradise. In Sausage-Boy and his Magic Brush, a boy's magical paintings that come to life attracts a greedy woman. In The Creation Myth of Pan Gu a lonely spirit sculpts the Earth from a cosmic egg in hopes it brings him some company.

Age of Bronze- A Thousand Ships  By Eric Shanower. This is part one of the Trojan war, specifically all of the events that lead up to the launching of the 1,000 ships after Helen of Troy. As you can see from the bibliography, the author put an intense amount of research into creating the right look and facial constructions for the time period. All mythical elements have been removed from the tale, except as being told as stories within stories themselves, and a logical reasoning has been applied to the mythic tale.

Aetheric Mechanics By Warren Ellis & Chris Deier. A short but filling work. Ellis follows the trend of mixing up various 19^th Century genres and characters together to create a wide world, but this one has an interesting twist and an ending that makes this story great. Highly recommended.  

AKA Goldfish  By Brian Michael Bendis. Bendis’s breakout comic. The story of a wronged grifter coming back to town to take revenge on all those who had wronged him, plus one other reason. The story is fast paced and compelling, deftly mixing humor and tragedy into a brutal crime noir tale.

The Birthday Riots By Nabiel Kanan. The story of a once progressive middle aged man who now has been worn down and corrupted by the realities of life. He is an advisor to a man running for mayor and tells him not to focus on the needs of lower class, as it will not get him as many votes- an exact opposite of who he used to be. This is a low key tragic tale of man stumbling through the wreckage of his now tattered morals and caught up in an actual riot, a partial result of his own actions.  

London's Dark  By James Robinson & Paul Johnson. An interesting tale set in London during the blitz. A man is murdered during an air raid and, after his body is found, the police naturally assume he was a victim of the Germans. Later on his mother goes to a psychic to contact her dead son, only to have him tell her that he was murdered. Things get out of control from there. The art is stark and realistic, perfectly capturing a sense of grime and grittiness of the time.

Silent Invasion: Secret Affairs & Red Shadows  By Michael Cherkas & Larry Hancock. The Silent Invasion is one of those rare books that was truly ahead of its time. Coming out in 1986, it was a black-and-white comic, well before black and white comics were fashionable. It dealt with a secret government conspiracy, involving aliens, well before the X-Files popularized the idea. The Silent Invasion was a victim of its own originality, and never got the recognition that it deserved. It is a paranoid cold war thriller that revolves around reporter Matt Sinkage who after having an encounter with aliens, cannot convince others of their existence. This collects them first two, of four, volumes.



         Hope you’ve found something of interest here. And as always you can check out my What I’ve Been Reading Page for any more suggestions. Enjoy and Caveat Emptor!


For more weirdness try Across the Wounded Galaxy by Rex Hurst