You voted and now we begin our countdown of your votes for the top original graphic novels of all-time! These are graphic novels that were not serialized as comic books before they were released as graphic novels.

Enjoy!

50. The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire (2012)

Jack is a literal underwater welder in this graphic novel written and drawn by Jeff Lemire. His father, a diver who searched for "treasures" had drowned years earlier and now that Jack's wife is expecting their first child, Jack is dealing with the pressures of impending fatherhood and he begins to crack when he seemingly discovers an old watch that had been one of his father's discoveries while he is doing his underwater welding...

He becomes obsessed with the watch, and it becomes a magical sort of nexus point where Jack tries to get to the bottom of the mystery of what happened to his father and what truly led to his dad's death. He travels to the past and the future along the way. Of course, this obsession strains his current marriage and the pressures of becoming a father make Jack want to re-visit how much he is like his own dad. He feels like he is trapped in the same small town that will inevitably turn himself into his father and, if he is not careful, he might be right.

49. Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (1995)

Will Eisner released Dropsie Avenue (subtitled "The Neighborhood") in 1995. It was the final book in the "Contract With God" trilogy, which was more of a trilogy in tone than actual plot or anything like that.

The concept of the book was deceptively simple. Follow a single block in New York City through a few hundred years. The people on Dropsie Avenue change, but what stays the same is the general prejudices that define pretty much all of modern society, namely lots of fear of foreigners or the "outsiders," even as the outsiders become the insiders themselves they, of course, distrust the next batch of immigrants.

Take, for instance, the way that the Irish residents of the area treat the German immigrants coming into the area around World War I...

Never not evocative, Eisner's artwork really sells the character interactions beautifully. The plot is a simple one, but often universal themes ARE simple, ya know?

48. Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley (2014)

Bryan Lee O'Malley followed up his epic Scott Pilgrim series with this clever graphic novel that follows a young woman who owns a restaurant and is in the process of starting a second one. However, she has her share of troubles in her life, like when she makes out with one of her workers and it inadvertently leads to one of her servers getting severe burns on her arms. Katie tentatively recalled some half dream of a sort of troll that offered the ability to reverse "mistakes," and Katie finally takes her up on it and changes reality...

Of course, for anyone familiar with reality alteration stories would tell you, once you change one thing, there are a whole lot of other dominos that could also fall and soon, Katie learns the terrible secret behind this whole magical reality-alteration.

It's a heartfelt look into the regrets that we have in our lives, but with a fun and magical twist to it.

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47. Blackmark by Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin (1971)

Blackmark was an attempt by Gil Kane to try to do a whole new approach to comic books that sadly did not work out. Had it been a hit, who knows how different the comic book marketplace would have looked like in the 1970s. Kane cut a deal with Bantam Books where he would deliver EIGHT books in a line of comic book paperbacks. 120 pages of art and story for 75 cents. The deadlines were brutal on Kane, who had to still fit in his regular comic book assignments to keep the proverbial lights on.

Kane came up with the idea for the comic, but Archie Goodwin scripted the book (also, Neal Adams and Harvey Kurtzman helped Kane hit the deadlines in the latter stages of the project). It is about a post apocalyptic Earth where a woman agrees to have her body altered so she becomes the host for the knowledge of a dying wizard-king. In exchange, he also alters her body so that she can bear children. Her son gained all of the knowledge she was implanted with, as well.

When he is a young boy, raiders murder his family and he vows revenge...

He ends up as a gladiator, known as Blackmark because of a black birth mark that he inherited from his mother. He shocks everyone by literally slaying a dragon...

He begins a revolt, and using the knowledge stuck in his head, he learns that he can pilot some amazing crafts...

He leads a successful revolt, but it sets up a sequel...

The sequel never came. The project was canceled while Kane was finished with Book Two and in the middle of Book Three. He later sold the story to Marvel for their magazine comics, and he later reprinted (in a reformatted way) the original Blackmark tale, as well.

(Thanks to my pal Edo Bosnar for sharing these scans online a while back - I've only read Blackmark in its later Marvel reprints, not the original trade paperback format).

46. Joker by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo (2008)

In this striking graphic novel by Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo and Mick Gray, we follow the Joker on his first day out of Arkham Asylum, through the eyes of the driver assigned to take him around town (while secretly working for one of Joker's rivals, but will his driver be won over to the Joker's side by the end of the story?). Azzarello re-envisions the criminal world of Gotham City in this dark but enthralling tale. And Bermejo? Well, he delivers a visual masterpiece...

Bermejo's vision only coincidentally mirrored Heath Ledger's take on the Joker in The Dark Knight, released earlier that same year. Bermejo's design came first.