True North Country Comics presents Derek Evernden’s top 10 go-to comic book and graphic novel list.

Derek has over 10 years of professional illustration, graphic design and art direction experience. He has nine years of fine art training including a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Derek is well experienced in traditional and digital illustration with a background in advertising art direction. He’s also the creator of @bogartcreek daily cartoons.

Here’s the top 10 go-to comic books and graphic novels from Derek Evernden:

1) Alone by Christophe Chabouté
“A very quiet book about a recluse living in a lighthouse. Love the patience the author shows with pacing, and the art is economical and elegant at the same time. Just incredible in scope and execution.”


2) Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales,  Juanjo Guarnido 
“I love noirish detective fiction – this is like Zootopia meets Raymond Chandler, with absolutely insane artistic virtuosity.”


3) Criminal series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
“In particular: 3A) Lawless 3B) Coward 3C) Bad Night. Again, satisfying my love of crime stories, Brubaker is a master at leading you along a mysterious path and keeping you guessing all the way, and Phillips’ use of shadows to reveal only what you need to see from panel to panel is the perfect compliment.”


4) The Park Bench by Christophe Chabouté
“Chabouté manages to tell a wordless story about the ‘life’ of a park bench that is deeply moving. No easy feat!”

5) Sin City: The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller
“Blacksad and Criminal were preceded by Miller’s hard boiled masterpiece – it’s the first time I’d seen a book that read almost as quickly as a movie, and that showed how much you can express by leaving information out of a frame. Plus the action is just badass.”


6) Essex County Trilogy: Vol 1: Tales From the Farm by Jeff Lemire
“One of the only comics to make me cry. It shares the same economy of line and composition as Chabouté’s work, and the ending gets you in the gut.”


7) The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
“This one’s a novel with sections that are full page illustrations, so more ‘graphic+novel’? Glorious cross hatched graphite illustrations that bolster an already incredible narrative. A different way to marry-up words and pictures that works brilliantly.”


8) Palestine by Joe Sacco
“Sacco takes you on a gonzo-journalist journey into Palestine. Taught me more about life there than any news broadcast ever has. Amazing that he can make such serious and frankly depressing subject matter so engaging.”


9) Violent Cases by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
“McKean’s art was unlike anything out there save for that of Bill Sienkiewicz when this was published and it still stands out. This is one of the first times I encountered a graphic novel where the author was talking to ‘the camera’ throughout. And of course it’s got crime and gangsters and mystery, so right up my alley.”


10) The Reapers of Love and Other Stories by Bernie Wrightson
“Early works by Wrightson in the short horror story genre all collected in one volume. Nuff said!”

You can discover more about Derek on Instagram at @bogartcreek and online at https://www.derekevernden.com/

Here’s the link to Renegade Arts Entertainment where you can order book two:
https://renegadeartsentertainment.com/product/bogart-creek-2/

You can check out Derek’s Patreon page for early access to jokes a day early and view behind-the-scenes process videos of his drawing, with commentary.  https://www.patreon.com/bogartcreek