Graphic Novels: The New Classics

We recently brought you our list of the essential classics of the graphic novel format. In a field that covers virtually every genre imaginable and produces so many titles a year, it’s almost impossible to narrow any list down to just a few titles. And yet here we are, at it once again, with a list of 10 more essential graphic novels. This time, we’re letting you know about newer classics. These are the books released over the past few years that stand head and shoulders above the rest, the best graphic novels in recent memory.

BLANKETS Craig Thompson Top Shelf ISBN: 9781891830433 • Buy from Amazon.com Sparse illustrations flesh out this harrowing tale of two brothers growing up with overbearing religious parents in a small town in Wisconsin. Craig Thompson’s narrative style allows you into his head as he grows from a young boy into a young man and faces the stern disapproval of his father while also trying to protect his brother from the dangers that life can throw your way. When teenage Craig meets Raina at a Christian camp, the story unfolds in a strange yet beautiful way.   Calling BLANKETS a coming-of-age story is too reductive; Thompson covers so much ground in his nearly 600-page novel that it leaves the reader in awe. Perhaps the most astounding effect of BLANKETS is that it leaves you impressed with the maturity of Thompson’s work. The book never gets mired down in the dark and muddy territory it mines; instead, it rises above and soars. Not surprisingly, the year BLANKETS was released, 2003, it won two Eisner Awards, three Harvey Awards and two Ignatz Awards.

THE COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS Marjane Satrapi Pantheon ISBN: 9780375714832 • Buy from Amazon.com With all the discussion of Iran going on in the media, few sources allow a reader such an insightful and thought-provoking portrait as Marjane Satrapi’s wonderful PERSEPOLIS. The Islamic revolution of 1979, when Satrapi was a young girl, is the beginning backdrop of her autobiographical tale, and it sets the stage for the years to come in the author’s life. As she deals with issues of freedom, religion, growing up and becoming yourself --- while her homeland deals with similar travails --- Satrapi paints a thoroughly engaging portrait. She describes her work in her graphic novels (this collection contains both PERSEPOLIS and PERSEPOLIS II) this way: “…this old and great civilization has been discussed mostly in connection with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism…. I know that this image is far from the truth.” The stark black-and-white illustrations, so definite yet so emotive at the same time, powerfully bear this out.

BUDDHA Osamu Tezuka Vertical ISBN: 9781932234565 (Volume 1) • Buy from Amazon.com Osamu Tezuka’s manga series takes a different approach to telling the life story of Buddha. While staying essentially true to the classic story of Buddha, Tezuka varies from it greatly in parts, introducing new characters and turning Buddha into a dashing, daring, sexy hero. And before anyone gets the idea that it’s disrespectful or cheeky, consider that the books --- eight in all, available in either hardcover or paperback --- are done by one of the most respected creators in the Japanese comic industry. His retelling of the story of Buddha is epic in tale, as such a story deserves to be, and fundamentally human through and through. Often, graphic interpretations of religious works tend to be bland and boring, and something that only a hardcore believer would even remotely enjoy. Not so with Buddha; it’s a grand and rollicking adventure for anyone.

HELLBOY Mike Mignola Dark Horse ISBN: 9781593070946 (Volume 1) • Buy from Amazon.com Hellboy was first introduced in a comic book in 1993, and as you can imagine, many collections of those works have been published through the years. His origins begin in SEED OF DESTRUCTION, and his long story continues in several more (WAKE THE DEVIL, THE RIGHT HAND OF DOOM and STRANGE PLACES, among others). Luckily, any book in the Hellboy storyline is a good jumping-on point, as creator Mike Mignola keeps the story open to both old and new readers, never convoluting the tale in the insular way that some older series can develop.   Hellboy is, as his name would imply, a demon, but fortunately, he fights against evil rather than for it. He first came to earth in 1944, summoned by the Nazis as a tool they hoped to use to conquer the world. Instead, he became a force for good and even became a hero in the United States. He joined the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD), and with them he battles against some horrible and horrifying enemies.   While it may sound dark, Hellboy is pure escapist fun of the kind that the comics industry was built on. More that that, though, the books build on classic works of fantasy, including the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe. Mignola has always kept a rare and intelligent sense of humor working throughout all the books. While Hellboy “works” in the superhero vein, its solid foundation in the literary world makes it constantly surprising and more fun than most superheroes ever get to have.

FUN HOME: A Family Tragicomic Alison Bechdel Mariner Books ISBN: 9780618871711 • Buy from Amazon.com Just one look at Alison Bechdel’s mother’s face tells you all you need to know about her marriage. Therein lies the true source of the emotional heft graphic novels can carry: the ability to combine poetic, sometimes wrenching, text with a visualization that drives the point home subtly yet definitively. It’s one of the reasons FUN HOME truly gels, because this is a story of hidden secrets and desires that burn just beneath the surface.   Bechdel, a young girl in this story, details how she grew up the child of a closeted gay man in a small Pennsylvania town. Ultimately, her father died at the age of 44, possibly from suicide. While he lived, he was a troubled and troubling man, and his legacy affects his daughter greatly. When he decides to renovate the family home, he gives Bechdel the grist for her poignant story. Years later, she is just coming to understand this man and who he was, what shaped his life and why he suffered in silence.   It’s a tribute to her storytelling skills that Bechdel is able to do it without becoming heavy-handed. She balances the tragic with the comic just enough to make the reader feel as though he or she is eavesdropping on the neighbors down the street.

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE Gene Luen Yang First Second ISBN: 9781596431522 • Buy from Amazon.com AMERICAN BORN CHINESE has the distinction of being the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award, and it earns it. It’s a funny book at times, what with its over-the-top character of Cousin Chin-Kee, whose sitcom tale is told in one of the book’s three storylines. But the other two storylines are something different entirely. In one, the heroic legend of the Monkey King is illustrated (a huge folk hero in Chinese culture, the Monkey King is well-known to almost every Chinese child); and in the third, the titular character, Jin Wang, moves with his family from San Francisco’s Chinatown into a suburb. How he manages --- and doesn’t manage --- to fit in forms the heart of the novel.   The ability of AMERICAN BORN CHINESE to deal honestly with the pains of adolescent isolation makes it so compellingly readable. Gene Luen Yang’s occupation as a high school teacher gives him the authenticity this novel uses so effectively, or perhaps he truly can tap into the angst and agita of the teenage years. Either way, it works so well that you can’t help but feel immediately moved and caught up in it.

DAVID BORING Daniel Clowes Pantheon ISBN: 9780375714528 • Buy from Amazon.com Daniel Clowes is perhaps better known for GHOST WORLD, but it’s DAVID BORING that deserves to be called his seminal work. Taking on an ambitious plot (seriously, it involves sex, love, murder, biological terrorism and a lot more), the book weaves into some very uncharted territory. It’s certainly strange and perhaps even out of control, but Clowes’s inimitable style keeps it in the proper perspective.   To start from the beginning: David Boring lives up to his name. He’s not completely present in his own life, just skating through the days with his lesbian roommate and his memories of his father, superheroes, and the small town he left behind. When he falls in love, the woman subsequently disappears; even worse, an old friend comes to visit and is murdered. Boring is the prime suspect, but his problems don’t end there. The book gets even weirder after Boring is shot. All of that may sound like an awful lot to cram into one book --- it is --- but it’s handled so well and so convincingly that it wins a spot as Clowes’s most inventive creation.

JIMMY CORRIGAN: THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH Chris Ware Pantheon ISBN: 9780375714542 • Buy from Amazon.com Two Jimmy Corrigans populate Chris Ware’s breakthrough graphic novel. The first, in 1893, is abandoned by his father in Chicago, never fully knowing why he’s been left. Flash-forward to his grandson, also named Jimmy Corrigan and also about to be abandoned by his father. Years later, when the second Jimmy, now an adult, finally meets up with his estranged dad, the book takes a moving and heartfelt turn. In Ware’s drastic vision of fatherhood and the lingering bonds between fathers and sons, we also see how generations of this one family have dealt with the isolation and abandonment they feel.

THE 9/11 REPORT: A Graphic Adaptation Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón Hill and Wang ISBN: 9780809057399 • Buy from Amazon.com THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT was a surprise hit when it was released in 2004. Clocking in at over 600 pages, the book was still readable, packed with unexpected twists, and far more compelling than most expected. Still, many readers were probably put off by the volume’s size. Enter THE 9/11 REPORT: A Graphic Adaptation, from two legends in the comics business, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón. Their take on the epic tome remains remarkably faithful to the original yet also gives it an impact and effect through astounding illustrations. The errors that allowed this terrorist act to occur on U.S. soil are documented, as are the various studies into why it happened at all. As an educational tool or as its own version of the events that unfolded that horrible day in 2001, THE 9/11 REPORT is tough to put down.

BLACK HOLE Charles Burns Pantheon ISBN: 9780375714726 • Buy from Amazon.com Combining the best elements of sci-fi, horror and those cheesy movies designed to scare teens in the ’70s, BLACK HOLE is wonderfully funny and subversive while also being genuinely thrilling and disturbing. In 1970s Seattle, a group of teens battle against sexual desires that threaten to leave them monstrously deformed. A new sexually transmitted disease has come alive, and there’s no cure. The strange effects of the disease --- different for everyone who catches it --- mirror the pain and isolation of high school. BLACK HOLE is tragicomic in the best sense of the word: It takes itself seriously, and so do its readers. How could you not? When one chance encounter with the wrong person could lead to a lifetime of horror, you can’t help but be just a little bit nervous.

--- Compiled and written by John Hogan

© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.