Trying to get into reading more comics to improve my drawing of comics-do you have any you recommend?
Read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, it'll basically give you a massive amount of theory that you can then bring into practice while both drawing and reading.
As for recommendations, I admittedly have capeshit taste (I've lately been trying to read a lot more manga than I ever have, really love Centuria's art) but here are some of the most formative comics for me in terms of broadening my understanding of sequential art and visual storytelling. I think what matters more than the recommendations themselves is explaining exactly what they taught me:
Concrete (1987-2010) by Paul Chadwick: hands down the most influential comic series I've ever read. Breathtaking black and white art, incredible depth to every illustration, and I love Paul's principled use of thought balloons in an era where they were starting to get replaced by captions. Shoutout to my high school library for having these. I think about the time lapse from these specific pages literally all the time:
We3 (2004) by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely: Frank Quitely is a beast in general but he and Grant's work on We3 is famous for dissecting art in a way that controls the flow of time like almost nothing else.
Calvin & Hobbes (1985-1995) by Bill Watterson: I've been a fan for my entire life and the thing is that nobody was pushing the boundaries of the real estate afforded to a newspaper comic strip like Watterson. The simple, little things like when he does and doesn't include a background, panel border, or speech balloon taught me a lot about subtlety, as well as his use of the silent beat and the pacing toward a punchline.
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-1987): I know that this is like recommending Citizen Kane for better or worse, but if you really study its use of the nine-panel grid, you'll come away with an understanding of just how much can be said with "simple" page composition and the very purposeful interruption of a pattern. Comics are a gestalt, and you need to be aware of how each panel relates to the ones around it, how each page does the same.
The Question (1987-1990) by Dennis O'Neil, Denys Cowan, Tatjana Wood, et al: maybe one of my favorite complete comic book runs of all time, the gritty pencils of Denys Cowan and the gorgeous colors of Tatjana Wood are seared into my brain forever. The moody elegance with which action is drawn in this series, too, was inspiring. There's such a great demonstration of pacing of the little movements, pose by pose, across a lot of scenes like the one below. Never a dull shot.
Absolute Martian Manhunter (2025-ongoing) by Deniz Camp, Al Ewing, Javier Rodriguez, and Jahnoy Lindsay: it cannot be said enough. Everybody needs to be reading this fucking book. Pick it up right now.
Amazing Spider-Man #229-230 (1982) by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr.: I already talked about in this post (which dissects some Dungeon Meshi pages, too) but these are possibly my two single favorite comic book issues ever, in terms of them being a master class of action storytelling. God, I really do have a lot of affection for 1980s capeshit, huh
