I'm not thinking the super-greats (Fables, Watchmen) that most comics folks have come across, just good, solid titles that surprised or entertained you. We live in a world in which online purchase of really odd stuff is possible, and many of the big publishers are now digitizing their back issues and folks might like some places to start. Short-run titles (or those that died early) or specific arcs in longer titles are preferred.

Some examples:

Foolkiller (Marvel, 1990) A 10-issue miniseries. An everyman's journey through antiheroic darkness in an economic and world-political climate that reflects our own in many ways. Good writing, gritty, human.

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld (DC, 1983) 12-issue miniseries. A surprisingly solid fantasy in a coherent world. Great villain. The good guys suffer some loss and have to make some tough choices.

Order of the Stick
Teen Girl Squad or Trogdor

@Diplomat: Wow, my son has been watching that cartoon nonstop for almost two months. It actually is pretty good, but even my main man Eric is starting to grate . . .

Livewires (Marvel, 2005) A six-issue series, available as a graphic novel subtitled "Clockwork Thugs, Yo!" A bunch of top-secret black-ops androids are tasked with taking out other Marvel top-secret black-ops projects. There is an unfortunate attempt at street android slang, as the titular "yo" suggests. (Instead of a variant of the N-word ending in "a," the androids call each other "my mecha." Bleah.) The first chapter of the GN has so much exposition about the characters they might as well have gone a step further and said, "This is a graphic novel! Y'know, words and pictures artfully arranged and printed on smushed-up trees, my mecha!" Overall, however, it is a fun, exciting and occasionally moving read.

Squadron Supreme is one of my favorite limited series. More later, posting so I don't forget about the topic.

It's been a long time since I read it, but I really enjoyed Camelot 3000 (12 issue miniseries) back in the late 80s.

Y the Last Man is pretty good.

Also, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (by Bryan Talbot) and it's sequel series, Heart of Empire, were really fun, multiverse hopping stories.

Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius is a great Oni Press series written by Judd Winick that is pretty accurately described as "Dexter's Laboratory Meets South Park." And it has a surprising amount of heart to it, too.

1/0 is a good webcomic, with 1000 installments.

Order of the Stick for sure.

Elementals, originally by Bill Willingham (later went on to do Fables). The Realm is good. The original Grendel by Matt Wagner featuring Hunter Rose. I also like Mage by Matt Wagner.

Nice to see another oots fan out there :)

Sad to see his comic series slow waaaaaay down. plus the plot has been dragging by for an eon.

You bastards. I just spent the last hour reading OOTS instead of doing important stuff.

If you like OOTS, Volume I of Erfworld (originally hosted on the giantitp.com website) is very good. It's all about fantasy wargame theory, with a decent plot and fun world to boot.