µB brought up dave mckean, who is just generally gorgeous. it's pretty pricey, but his book Cages is a pretty huge work that shouldn't be overlooked.
anything art spiegelman has been connected with is key reading. of course there's Maus, but in the right places you can find back issues of his magazine Raw, which was amazing. some of the best alt-writers/artists garnered a lot of recognition for their work in Raw (charles burns, kaz, the guy who did amy and jordan [can't remember his name right now because i'm a bitch]).
someone hit or miss for a lot of people is craig thompson, i've gotten into a lot of arguments over his book Blankets. i think it's great, but there's a lot to talk about with it (a good sign of awesome art?). also, his book Goodbye, Chunky Rice is truly BEAUTIFUL.
i'll also be a huge proponent of winsor mccay for my entire life. the Little Nemo in Slumberland collection is super expensive as of now, but if you want a good introduction to his stuff, there's a paperback collection of his previous work, "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend". for someone drawing and writing comics at the beginning of the 1900's, he was inarguably producing work well before his time. amazing stuff.
i'll probably come back with some more later.
