THE ULTIMATES w: Mark Millar a: Bryan Hitch--an ultra-modern take on the superteam that consists of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk, this has probably the best art of any superhero book out there and is really unpredictable and large in scope. There's only one collection to date, but it's a killer.

Now moving on to altcomix and classic graphic novels:

JIMMY CORRIGAN w/a: Chris Ware--This is the best comic ever made, bar none. It's about this sad middle-aged man's journey to meet his father, which runs parallel to his grandfather's recounting of his own trouble childhood. The art, especially the incredibly complex layouts, is just unbelievable. The Citizen Kane of comics.

DAVID BORING w/a: Dan Clowes--Close in tone to the Coen Bros' darker movies, or David Lynch's less over-the-top, this is a strange noir tale about a man's sexual obsession with a woman during a tense period of terrorist attacks. Clowes's art has this creepy 1950s feel that works perfectly for the story.

WATCHMEN w: Alan Moore a: Dave Gibbons--Supercomplex, realistic, and incredibly involving story of a group of superheroes whose time is almost at an end. Conspiracies, mysteries, politics, sex--it's the highwater mark of the genre in many, many ways. Probably my third-favorite comic ever (after Jimmy Corrigan and...)

THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS w/a: Frank Miller--My favorite comic. Batman returns from retirement to a world that doesn't want him anymore but needs him more than ever. Incredible art, searing satire, heroism on the grandest scale. This book is a juggernaut. The old saw is that if Watchmen performed the autopsy on the superhero genre, Dark Knight is its brass-band funeral. It's awesome.

FROM HELL w: Alan Moore a: Eddie Campbell--The movie version was okay, but it was the equivalent of making a movie of Hamlet that consisted of Hamlet and Laertes training for the duel at the end. The book, on the other hand, is this hugely complex examination of the Jack the Ripper killings, Victorian England, Freemasonry, patriarchy vs. feminism, the occult, and god knows what else. This will really challenge you.

SIN CITY w/a: Frank Miller--beautiful black-and-white comic noir about a huge loser's quest to avenge his lost love. Miller's art is rarely better than it is in this, and the story's got an almost primal momentum. Another favorite.