The Mezzanine

Despite your Whedon disclaimer, I actually quite liked Fray. It is very Whedon, but mostly in the good ways. Both te characters and worldbuilding are colorful and intriguing.

Second the Sandman rec, although I've actually only read the first two volumes. It's big epic stuff with the Gaiman imagination ramped up to 11. (It doesn't start finding its feet until the end of the first volume, though; it gets much stronger in volume 2.)

Also, I'm told FreakAngels is good, although I haven't dug into it yet - post-apocalypse, grumpy twenty-somethings with superpowers, and FREE.