How coould I forget it? It's brilliant!

I've read Jimmy Corrigan (see OP), A Contract With God, The Arrival and A Drifting Life. I'm not sure if I've read Our Cancer Year, but if so, it's been long enough so that I could re-read it. I've often seen Exit Wounds and thought I had read it, but thinking about it now, I'm confident that I haven't. I've only read The Property by Rutu Modan.

Concrete by Paul Chadwick looks interesting but seems hard to come by (300 EUR for a used copy on Amazon.de!). Thanks for all the suggestions, especially Alec seems to fit the requirements quite well.

Look into mail forwarding. Once you reach a critical mass of books you want from the US, order all of them at once and have them packed in a single shipment. I got almost all of this shipped from Pittsburgh to Moscow for $32.

For $32 shipping costs, I assume? Still too much from my perspective. I'm not that much of a collector, I'd get a heart attack from seeing the total bill of all the stuff in that one big package from the US that I'd have to order to 'save' money. I can barely even justify paying $32 for a single book itself. But thanks for the suggestion anyway, after all it's now your fault that I'm the stingy old miser that I am. :D

Thanks to Leroux for asking this and to all the people who has suggested things.

I've been quietly reading your posts and I'm bookmarking this for later.
:)

Update:
I got my e-book. Everyone in the thread should buy it, too. The e-version is a zip archive with ordered tifs inside, so rename it to .cbz to avoid spoilers and stuff.

EVERYONE CAN BE MAGICAL

You're welcome. ;)

At some point when the thread slowly dies down, I might add a few more recommendations of my own, seeing that there appears to be an interest on the part of others, too. Or collect all the suggestions in the OP.

I'm always hesitant to single out one post in a question thread and mark it as solution, as most of the times no one post has the definitive answer and many posts in the thread are very helpful. In this thread too, I've appreciated every single answer and I made a note of every suggestion with the intention of checking out all of the ones I didn't know. And yet, in a way there is a definitive answer, because Seconds is the book I ended up buying for now, and so far I'm very happy with the purchase. This is a graphic novel that wasn't on my radar yet (although I've read Scott Pilgrim, or parts of it), and that perfectly fits with all of my requirements and is fun to read, and the hardcover edition is beautifful enough to justify putting it on my shelf. Thanks! :)

you are absolutely welcome. Have fun, and happy reading! :)

*Rise from the grave, my thread!*

Rotting old corpse, same old question. I was wondering, has anyone read or heard of any more recent graphic novels during the last years that would fit the description? I haven't been keeping up much with new releases. Quick rehash for those who don't read OPs:

* should be single volume, not serialized
* preferably 250+ pages
* generally, I seem to have a preference for more thoughtful, personal stories over action, adventure, fantasy, superheroes etc. (not exclusively, but tendentially)
* I usually set great store in the drawings, ideally they should be nice too look at, not just functional, and play or experiment with the form
* for examples of what I'm looking for, see this list
* brownie points if it's from the last 5 years or so

Any new suggestions?

My tastes lean heavily towards fantasy, superheroes etc. but I've got a few ideas for something you might enjoy too.

Tale of Sand - basically Jim Henson's "lost" movie he never got to make realised as a graphic novel. However, don't think it's some Muppets project, or even Labirynth. It's far, far weirder than that. The art is great, and the whole thing is just superbly unique and fascinating.

Little Nemo Return to Slumberland - I mention it more for the art than the story, as the story is pretty basic but the art is just stunning. Pretty much every frame is something you'd gladly hang on your wall.

Batman: Death by Design - the story is just ok - enjoyable but not mind blowing. Again, it's the art that makes it a must have in my opinion. It's Gotham and Batman at their most mesmerising, making even Burton's gothic version of the Dark Knight pale in comparison. It's like if Fritz Lang got to make a Batman movie, but without any technical or financial limitations.

Yes, not quite what I was looking for, but they all look interesting in their own way. Especially the Jim Henson story. I'll try to see whether I can get a hold of them in one of the local libraries, thanks!

You might also check out [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incognegro_(comics)]Incognegro[/url]. It's a bit older than what you're asking for (2008) and only 130 pages, but on the other hand it's not fantasy or superheroes so might be something more in your ballpark.

Oh, and It's a Bird! it's a great graphic novel, very personal, semi-autobiographical story about the author, struggling with Huntington's Disease running in his family as he is to start writing the monthly Superman comics. It may sound like a weird idea, but the way his struggle with the disease and with writing and understanding the iconic superhero intertwine is really fascinating and really well written.

Cool, thanks!