Oddly enough, I find myself feeling more or less the same way. I was really heading out of comics in general until I started heading further and further out of the usual realm of super hero stuff. Since then I've been incredibly pleased at all the wonderful comics I've found that I've been missing. I still enjoy reading some of my old favourites, though it's in addition to a lot of other wonderful stuff, and I probably would have grown tired of comics had I not found such a great quantity of alternatives.

Sigh, sarcasm doesn't work over the interweb.

Being B&W doesn't stop them from being Superhero books but very few (Batman Black and White and The Phantom a couple of exceptions) are in B&W.

No. Most American comics I read are superhero ones (there are notable exceptions), but none of the non-American comics I read are (i.e. French, Belgian and Japanese stuff mostly).

Everything (non-superheroic that is). Different art, different narration, different genres (from the one-page humorous strip to the fantasy saga).

Some I read that haven't been mentioned yet (all available in English):
- The Originals (Dave Gibbons)
- Planetes (Makoto Yukimura)
- The Incal (Moebius/Jodorowsky)
- The Metabarons (Gimenez/Jodorowsky)
- I Am Legion (Cassaday/Nury)
- Monster (Naoki Urasawa)
- 20th Century Boys (Naoki Urasawa)
- Appleseed (Masamune Shirow)
- Akira (Katsushiro Otomo)
- Blacksad (Guarnido/Canales).

Great post entertainer,

Its interesting to note the first incarnations of Batman in 38-39 were not at all like the boy scout Batman "superhero" we know today.
The first issues of Batman had Batman shooting guns and even in one scene gunning down a crowd of innocent bystanders to kill the criminals fleeing.





This was really important in American comics/cultural history. Fred Wertham was that Brit psychologist who really set back American comics with his "Batman is gay" prounouncements which led to the creation of the "Bat family". Batman can't be gay if he has Batwoman, Bat-hound and Bat-mite on his side. Yes, I said Bat-mite.

It should be noted that even in DC in the sixties writers like Julius Schwartz attempted to revive the DC characters and make them more realistic looking and acting less Leave it to Beaver.

I've done multiple essays on the history of American comics throughout my education (sometimes comparing it to other literary growth movements). I have too much to ramble about.

Between him and Denny O, we have a lot of folks to thank for at least allowing the genres within superhero comics survive. Batman, at his best, is pulp but with the "I hate guns" thing. Personal preference, of course.

I've read a ton of non-superhero comics in my lifelong love affair with comics myself.
Comics in this catagory that I've really enjoyed off the top o my head are:
Stray Bullets
100 bullets
Torso
Jinx
Fire
Fables
the Walking Dead
Bone
the Dark Horse Conan series
Battle Pope
Scalped
the Other Side
Powers
the Escapists
Y the Last Man
Sin City
Lone Wolf and Cub
the Nam'
Give me Liberty
and on the cusp of being a Superhero title:
Zot!
and Nexus!

heh, and that was just off the top of my head!

it doesn't hurt that I've got my book shelf to look at next to me....

Being fair, Wertham was a well researched and respected psychiatrist until he wrote Seduction of the Innocent.
And the last book he wrote was a sort of apology for Seduction of the Innocent.

It is absolutely bizarre how one paranoid a poorly researched book damaged the general publics perception of the medium the way it did with effects lasting to the modern day.

Neat to see how many folks in this thread wrote papers on comics.
I wrote a paper comparing the Watchmen to Hemingway's "hills like white elephants" myself.

I used to read a bunch of non-superhero books, but as Y has ended I guess that leaves Walking Dead. Unless Booster Gold counts (I jest, I love Booster!)

You have some solid taste!
I HUGELY recommend anything Kirkman does, just keep in mind that the last ish Marvel Zombies2 sucks dung.

And you reminded me of a Geoff Johns/Liam Sharpe book from Wildstorm that was a non-Superhero book:
The Possessed.
A damn fine read!

As do you sir. 100 Bullets, DH Conan, and The Escapists are all fine reads. (My wallet couldn't support the two ongoings, though.)