Comics and Graphic Novels

In 2026 I decided to investigate comics/graphics novels (choose your favourite parlance). This is one genre that I have not really ever explored. It was something of an omission, because as a child i used to love Tintin and to a lesser extent Asterix and some of the related books (Lucky Luke springs to mind). It had been decades since I had any real contact with the format, so I went into the world by reading recommended lists and, more or less, picking at random from those lists.

The list of recommendations is longer than the list of read books. But here is the current state of play.

Read

Previously

• Tintin
• Asterix
• Lucky Luke (a little)

Current run

• Akira 1 & 2
• Pluto 1
• Its lonely at the centre of the earth
• Preacher 1
• Watchmen
• Black hole
• Final cut
• Goliath
• Maus

On the list

• Akira

  Katsuhiro Otomo

  Neo-Tokyo, psychic children and biker gangs; six volumes of escalating apocalypse. The book that opened the format to the West.

• It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth

  Zoe Thorogood

  Six months of the author’s own life drawn as it happened, the style shifting with her state of mind.

• Gaston Lagaffe

  André Franquin

  Franco-Belgian office-slacker gag strip. Arguably the funniest draughtsmanship in all of BD.

  Jonny Greenwood suggestion

• Preacher

  Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon

  A Texas preacher possessed by a divine entity goes looking for a God who has walked off the job. Profane road-trip western.

  Jonny Greenwood suggestion

• Saga

  Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

  Space-opera Romeo and Juliet with a galactic war around it. Ongoing.

• Persepolis

  Marjane Satrapi

  Growing up through the Iranian revolution and into European exile, in stark black and white.

• Palestine

  Joe Sacco

  His first comics journalism: the occupied territories in the early 1990s.

• Jimmy Corrigan

  Chris Ware

  A lonely man meets the father who left. Architecturally precise page design, emotionally brutal.

• March

  John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell

  John Lewis’s civil-rights memoir in three volumes, from the lunch counters to Selma.

• From Hell

  Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

  Moore’s Ripper theory as a 500-page annotated argument about the birth of the 20th century. Chapter 4 is the reason to read it.

• The Sandman

  Neil Gaiman

  The anthropomorphic personification of dream, across 75 issues and every genre going. Start at vol. 2, The Doll’s House.

• Fun Home

  Alison Bechdel

  Her closeted father, his death, and a childhood re-read through literature. The high-water mark of the graphic memoir.

• Daytripper

  Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá

  Each chapter ends with the same man’s death, at a different age.

• Building Stories

  Chris Ware

  Fourteen separate printed objects in a box, with no prescribed reading order.

• Clyde Fans

  Seth

  Twenty years in the making; two brothers and the slow death of an electric- fan business.

• Black Hole

  Charles Burns

  A plague among 1970s Seattle teenagers that mutates the body. Sex, shame and adolescence as body horror.

• Daytripper

  Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá

  Each chapter ends with the same man’s death, at a different age.

  Standalone, 10 issues in 1 vol. Vertigo/DC, 2010.

• Building Stories

  Chris Ware

  Fourteen separate printed objects in a box, with no prescribed reading order.

  Standalone — a box of 14 separate printed objects. Pantheon, 2012.

• Clyde Fans

  Seth

  Twenty years in the making; two brothers and the slow death of an electric- fan business.

  Standalone. Serialised in Palookaville 1997–2017; collected Drawn & Quarterly, 2019.

• Black Hole

  Charles Burns

  A plague among 1970s Seattle teenagers that mutates the body. Sex, shame and adolescence as body horror.

  Standalone, 12 issues in 1 vol. Kitchen Sink / Fantagraphics, 1995–2005; collected Pantheon, 2005.

• Asterios Polyp

  David Mazzucchelli

  An architect’s life after a fire. Every character is drawn in their own visual language, and the languages collide.

  Standalone. Pantheon, 2009.

• Blankets

  Craig Thompson

  Evangelical Midwest childhood and a first love, over 600 pages of snow.

  Standalone. Top Shelf, 2003.

• The Arrival

  Shaun Tan

  Wordless. A migrant arrives in an impossible city and has to learn everything from scratch.

  Standalone, wordless. Lothian (Australia), 2006; Scholastic (US), 2007.

• Y: The Last Man

  Brian K. Vaughan

  Post-apocalyptic story where all male mammals die except one man and his monkey. Gripping premise, excellent execution.

  Series, 60 issues in 10 vols, complete. Vertigo/DC, 2002–08.

• Transmetropolitan

  Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

  Gonzo journalism in a dystopian future. Hunter S. Thompson meets cyberpunk.

  Series, 60 issues in 10 vols, complete. Helix / Vertigo, DC, 1997–2002.

• Sin City

  Frank Miller

  Hyper-stylized noir in stark black and white. Brutal and beautiful.

  Series, 7 vols, complete. Dark Horse, 1991–2000.

• 100 Bullets

  Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso

  Conspiracy thriller about untraceable bullets and moral choices.

  Series, 100 issues in 13 vols, complete. Vertigo/DC, 1999–2009.

• Criminal

  Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

  Modern noir stories about criminals, losers, and the underworld.

  Series of self-contained arcs, ongoing. Icon/Marvel 2006–11, then Image, 2019– .

• Locke & Key

  Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez

  Mystery/horror about a house with magical keys. Genuinely creepy and emotionally resonant.

  Series, 6 vols, main run complete. IDW, 2008–13.

• The Walking Dead

  Robert Kirkman

  Very different from the show. Character-driven post-zombie-apocalypse survival.

  Series, 193 issues in 32 vols, complete. Image, 2003–19.

• The Incal

  Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius

  Psychedelic sci-fi that influenced everything from Blade Runner to The Fifth Element.

  Series, 6 albums, collected in 1 vol. Les Humanoïdes Associés (France), 1980–88. English: Humanoids.

• The Airtight Garage

  Moebius

  Visually mind-blowing work from the French artist Moebius.

  Standalone. Serialised in Métal Hurlant, 1976–79. English: Marvel/Epic, later Dark Horse and Humanoids.

• Astro City

  Kurt Busiek

  Explores what it’s like to live in a superhero world from ordinary people’s perspectives.

  Series of arcs, long-running. Image, then WildStorm/DC, then Image again, 1995– .

• All-Star Superman

  Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

  Superman distilled to his mythic essence. Beautiful and moving.

  Standalone, 12 issues in 1–2 vols. DC, 2005–08.

• Habibi

  Craig Thompson

  Epic tale set in a fictional Islamic landscape, exploring love, religion, and storytelling itself.

  Standalone. Pantheon, 2011.

• Pyongyang

  Guy Delisle

  Memoir of two months spent in North Korea. Eye-opening and darkly humorous.

  Standalone. L’Association (France), 2003. English: Drawn & Quarterly, 2005.

• Safe Area Goražde

  Joe Sacco

  Comics journalism masterwork about the Bosnian War.

  Standalone. Fantagraphics, 2000.

• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

  Hayao Miyazaki

  Epic environmental manga, deeply philosophical. Seven-volume masterwork by the Studio Ghibli director.

  Series, 7 vols, complete. Tokuma Shoten (Japan), 1982–94. English: Viz Media.

  Edition: box set available with all 7 hardcover volumes.

• Monster

  Naoki Urasawa

  Psychological thriller with complex moral questions. A doctor’s quest to stop a serial killer he saved.

  Series, 18 vols, complete; 9 in the Perfect Edition. Shogakukan (Japan), 1994–2001. English: Viz Media.

  Edition: Monster: The Perfect Edition (9 deluxe hardcover volumes — this is the edition to get).

• Pluto

  Naoki Urasawa

  A reimagining of Astro Boy that’s dark and philosophical. Murder mystery about robots and humanity.

  Series, 8 vols, complete; 4 in the 2-in-1 edition. Shogakukan (Japan), 2003–09. English: Viz Media.

  Edition: Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka 2-in-1 editions (4 volumes total, large format).

• Promethea

  Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III

  Very philosophical exploration of magic, consciousness, and creativity. Visually stunning and intellectually dense.

  Series, 32 issues in 5 vols, complete. America’s Best Comics / WildStorm, DC, 1999–2005.

• Vagabond

  Takehiko Inoue

  Based on the life of legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. Beautiful art and philosophical exploration of the warrior’s path.

  Series, 37 vols; on hiatus since 2015 and unfinished. Kodansha (Japan), 1998– . English: Viz Media.

  Edition: VizBig editions (12 large format volumes). Note: series currently on hiatus, unfinished but still worth reading.

• 20th Century Boys

  Naoki Urasawa

  Sprawling mystery about childhood memories and conspiracy. Another masterwork from Urasawa.

  Series, 22 vols plus a 2-vol sequel, complete; 11 in the Perfect Edition. Shogakukan (Japan), 1999–2007. English: Viz Media.

  Edition: 20th Century Boys: The Perfect Edition (11 deluxe hardcover volumes, includes 21st Century Boys sequel).

• A Bride’s Story

  Kaoru Mori

  Historical manga set on the Silk Road with incredibly detailed art and gentle storytelling.

  Series, ongoing; 15 vols to date. Enterbrain / Kadokawa (Japan), 2008– . English: Yen Press, complete to vol. 15 (December 2025).

• Goodnight Punpun

  Inio Asano

  Dark, surreal coming-of-age story. Emotionally heavy but artistically unique.

  Series, 13 vols, complete; 7 in the Viz 2-in-1 edition. Shogakukan (Japan), 2007–13. English: Viz Media.

  Edition: 7 individual volumes (no box set).

• The Gods Lie

  Kaori Ozaki

  Short, poignant story about childhood and loss.

  Standalone, 1 vol. Kodansha (Japan), 2010. English: Vertical, 2016.

  Four volumes. Photorealist backgrounds against cartoon figures; national history 1926–89 braided with his own war service.

• Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths

  Shigeru Mizuki

  One volume, near-autobiographical: a suicide order in New Guinea. Mizuki lost an arm in that campaign.

Following Tintin and Asterix

• Blacksad

  Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido

  1950s American noir cast entirely with animals, watercoloured to an absurd standard.

• Alan’s War

  Emmanuel Guibert

  A WWII GI’s oral history, drawn over decades of conversations. Restrained line, no drama, enormous cumulative weight.

• The Arab of the Future

  Riad Sattouf

  Childhood in Gaddafi’s Libya and Assad’s Syria, drawn in a ligne claire descended straight from Hergé.

Following Goliath

• Mooncop

  Tom Gauld

  The last policeman on a lunar colony nobody wants any more. Closest in register to Goliath.

• Hey, Wait…

  Jason

  Norwegian deadpan: a childhood accident and the decades that follow. Minimal to the point of austerity.

Following Maus

• MetaMaus

  Art Spiegelman

  The book about making Maus: Vladek interview transcripts, rejected pages, the argument over the mice.

• Breakdowns

  Art Spiegelman

  His formalist early work, including the raw three-page 1972 “Maus” that the whole thing grew out of.

• Footnotes in Gaza

  Joe Sacco

  Two forgotten 1956 massacres reconstructed from survivor interviews fifty years later. His most ambitious book, and the clearest descendant of Maus.

• Barefoot Gen

  Keiji Nakazawa

  Hiroshima, by someone who was six years old and a mile from the hypocentre. Cartoony in a way that unsettles rather than softens.

• The Property

  Rutu Modan

  A grandmother and granddaughter return to Warsaw over a lost apartment. Clean ligne claire, and it refuses every move you expect the genre to make.

• Belonging

  Nora Krug

  Inherited German guilt assembled as a scrapbook of found documents and flea- market photographs. —

If picking three to start: My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Footnotes in Gaza and Sunny. Three different arguments about what the form can do, no overlap with anything already read.

Note: Maus was serialised in RAW, the anthology Art Spiegelman ran with Françoise Mouly through the 1980s — which is also where Black Hole first appeared. Burns and Spiegelman are the same scene, which is a useful thread to pull on.