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Inspired by Kay's library book club having bad taste. ♥ Here's what they could be reading instead. Caveat: I have run book club discussions for some but not all of these. Not all graphic novels lend themselves to good discussions, even if the book itself is good.
Volume 1's are very limited because I find those discussions result in half the group saying, "This is how I feel having read just the first volume," and the other half of the group saying, "Ah but you might feel differently if you read stuff that happens later." Which is not a productive discussion.
1. Batman: The Long Halloween, by Jeph Loeb (DC Comics)
Taking place during Batman's early days of crime fighting, this new edition of the classic mystery tells the story of a mysterious killer who murders his prey only on holidays. Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant James Gordon, Batman races against the clock as he tries to discover who Holiday is before he claims his next victim each month.
If we're gonna do a Batman, as we must, it's gotta be this one, right? It benefits from being a complete story in one volume, welcoming to newcomers, and something that attendees can compare and contrast against the movie The Dark Knight.
2. The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui (Abrams ComicArts)
An intimate look at one family's journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
This graphic memoir has been the subject of a lot of book discussions and "One City, One Book" events, so there are a ton of discussion guides for it ready to go.
3. Bitch Planet, Vol. 1-2, by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro (Image Comics)
In a future just a few years down the road in the wrong direction, a woman's failure to comply with her patriarchal overlords will result in exile to the meanest penal planet in the galaxy. When the newest crop of fresh femmes arrive, can they work together to stay alive or will hidden agendas, crooked guards, and the deadliest sport on (or off!) Earth take them to their maker?
Bitch Planet is tricky because the series abruptly stops after 2 volumes and was never finished. However, the first volume alone inspired some of the most lively book discussions I've been a part of. I think the discussions also tend to be more about the concept than where the plot is going, so I don't expect its abrupt ending would impede that.
4. BTTM FDRS, by Ezra Clayton Daniels and Ben Passmore (Fantagraphics)
An Afrofuturist horror-comedy about gentrification, hip hop, and cultural appropriation. Once a thriving working class neighborhood on Chicago’s south side, the “Bottomyards” is now the definition of urban blight. When an aspiring fashion designer named Darla and her image-obsessed friend, Cynthia, descend upon the neighborhood in search of cheap rent, they soon discover something far more seductive and sinister lurking behind the walls of their new home.
It's got current social issues and a really unusual look. Notably, the book has a landscape orientation, which I feel like I've only otherwise seen on comics that were originally webcomics. (Not that case with this one, I don't think.) Much to discuss! The writer did Upgrade Soul and the artist did Your Black Friend.
5. Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan (DC Comics)
It’s 1953. While the United States is locked in a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, the gay Southern playwright known as Snagglepuss is the toast of Broadway. But success has made him a target. As he plans for his next hit play, Snagglepuss becomes the focus of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
So this book is wild. It's about McCarthyism, the Red Scare, and the Lavender Scare, but told through Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters. Why these choices? What does it do for the story?
6. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel (Mariner Books)
Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the Fun Home. It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.
One of the most banned graphic memoirs in the country before Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer. ♥ Also incredibly dense without sacrificing readability. Compare to the musical?
7. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, by Mira Jacob (One World)
Inspired by her BuzzFeed piece "37 Difficult Questions from My Mixed-Raced Son," here are Jacob's responses to her six-year-old, Zakir, who asks if the new president hates brown boys like him; uncomfortable relationship advice from her parents, who came to the United States from India one month into their arranged marriage; and the imaginary therapy sessions she has with celebrities from Bill Murray to Madonna.
Besides the thought-provoking and sociopolitically relevant content, the art in this graphic memoir has a really unusual and divisive style.
8. Grass, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (Drawn and Quarterly)
Grass tells the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War. Beginning in Lee’s childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a child’s vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans.
Similar to Maus, this is a nonfiction graphic novel about a brutal topic in global history and politics where people probably aren't reading a lot of primary(ish) sources on their own.
9. A Guest in the House, by Emily Carroll (First Second)
After many lonely years, Abby’s just gotten married. She met her new husband―a recently widowed dentist―when he arrived in town with his young daughter seeking a new start. But the more she learns about her new husband’s first wife, the more things don’t add up, and Abby starts to wonder...was Sheila’s death really by natural causes?
We must introduce the people to Emily Carroll. Gothic horror is always divisive as a genre, and Emily Carroll's endings are always divisive, so if nothing else, the group is likely to have a range of opinions.
10. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (First Second)
The day they got together was the best one of Freddy's life, but nothing's made sense since. Laura Dean is popular, funny, and SO CUTE ... but she can be really thoughtless, even mean. Their on-again, off-again relationship has Freddy's head spinning — and Freddy's friends can't understand why she keeps going back.
YA title by two of the greatest talents in the industry about the very difficult and relatable topic of being in a bad relationship.
11. Maus, Vol. 1-2, by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)
A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.
You gotta.
12. My Brother's Husband, Vol. 1-2, by Gengoroh Tagame (Pantheon)
Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo; formerly married to Natsuki, father to their young daughter, Kana. Their lives suddenly change with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi's estranged gay twin, Ryoji.
Our first manga entry! This is the complete series of My Brother's Husband. It's an LGBTQ title that addresses real issues in a way that is very accessible to people outside the community because the protagonist is himself straight and, initially, somewhat homophobic.
13. On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden (First Second)
Throughout the deepest reaches of space, a crew rebuilds beautiful and broken-down structures, painstakingly putting the past together. As new member Mia gets to know her team, the story flashes back to her pivotal year in boarding school, where she fell in love with a mysterious new student.
We have to do book group attendees the favor of giving them something this good to read.
14. The Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland.
You gotta!
15. Solutions and Other Problems, by Allie Brosh (Gallery Books)
Solutions and Other Problems includes humorous stories from Allie Brosh’s childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life.
This is Brosh's second collection after Hyperbole and a Half, but in my opinion, it's the more affecting one. It would be worthwhile just for the unusual style, even if it weren't also about mental illness and survival.
16. Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir, by Bishakh Som (Street Noise Books)
This exquisite graphic novel memoir by a transgender artist, explores the concept of identity by inviting the reader to view the author moving through life as she would have us see her, that is, as she sees herself. Framed with a candid autobiographical narrative, this book gives us the opportunity to enter into the author's daily life and explore her thoughts on themes of gender and sexuality, memory and urbanism, love and loss.
This graphic memoir is so interesting to me because Som started drawing it before her transition, depicting herself as a cis woman named Anjali. It makes for an interesting study of where Anjali-as-Bishakh facilitates the narrative of her life versus where that substitution butts up against reality and becomes unsustainable. I don't know whether I would want to discuss this with a majority non-queer group, but I might want them to discuss it without me lol.
17. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol. 1, by Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli (Marvel Comics)
Miles Morales is the new Spider-Man! What's the secret behind his powers, and how will he master them? What new and familiar enemies will rise to challenge this all-new Spider-Man? And will Miles live up to Peter Parker's legacy?
I'd want my book group to see Miles' comics origin and compare it against both Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Homecoming. What changes were made and why? How do we feel about them?
18. Uzumaki, by Junji Ito (VIZ Media)
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral — the hypnotic secret shape of the world.
You gotta do a Junji Ito. This one is a quintessential Ito against which readers can compare all his other GNs.
19. The Vision, Vol. 1-2, by Tom King and Gabriel Hernández Walta (Marvel Comics)
Vision wants to be human, so he builds himself a wife and teenage twins. They look like him, they have his powers, and they share his grandest ambition: the unrelenting need to be ordinary. Theirs is a story of togetherness and tragedy—one that will send the Android Avenger into a devastating confrontation with Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
This is the complete series of The Vision, which was shockingly a hit in my book club even amongst non-Marvel fans and sent one of them down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. I consider it the best and most complete Marvel comic, but for a non-Tom King alternative of a similar caliber and dark tone (to contrast against Miles), I'd look for a suitable Bendis/Maleev Daredevil collection.
20. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (DC Comics)
This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.
We can do one dense classic Alan Moore as a treat.
Volume 1's are very limited because I find those discussions result in half the group saying, "This is how I feel having read just the first volume," and the other half of the group saying, "Ah but you might feel differently if you read stuff that happens later." Which is not a productive discussion.
1. Batman: The Long Halloween, by Jeph Loeb (DC Comics)
Taking place during Batman's early days of crime fighting, this new edition of the classic mystery tells the story of a mysterious killer who murders his prey only on holidays. Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant James Gordon, Batman races against the clock as he tries to discover who Holiday is before he claims his next victim each month.
If we're gonna do a Batman, as we must, it's gotta be this one, right? It benefits from being a complete story in one volume, welcoming to newcomers, and something that attendees can compare and contrast against the movie The Dark Knight.
2. The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui (Abrams ComicArts)
An intimate look at one family's journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
This graphic memoir has been the subject of a lot of book discussions and "One City, One Book" events, so there are a ton of discussion guides for it ready to go.
3. Bitch Planet, Vol. 1-2, by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro (Image Comics)
In a future just a few years down the road in the wrong direction, a woman's failure to comply with her patriarchal overlords will result in exile to the meanest penal planet in the galaxy. When the newest crop of fresh femmes arrive, can they work together to stay alive or will hidden agendas, crooked guards, and the deadliest sport on (or off!) Earth take them to their maker?
Bitch Planet is tricky because the series abruptly stops after 2 volumes and was never finished. However, the first volume alone inspired some of the most lively book discussions I've been a part of. I think the discussions also tend to be more about the concept than where the plot is going, so I don't expect its abrupt ending would impede that.
4. BTTM FDRS, by Ezra Clayton Daniels and Ben Passmore (Fantagraphics)
An Afrofuturist horror-comedy about gentrification, hip hop, and cultural appropriation. Once a thriving working class neighborhood on Chicago’s south side, the “Bottomyards” is now the definition of urban blight. When an aspiring fashion designer named Darla and her image-obsessed friend, Cynthia, descend upon the neighborhood in search of cheap rent, they soon discover something far more seductive and sinister lurking behind the walls of their new home.
It's got current social issues and a really unusual look. Notably, the book has a landscape orientation, which I feel like I've only otherwise seen on comics that were originally webcomics. (Not that case with this one, I don't think.) Much to discuss! The writer did Upgrade Soul and the artist did Your Black Friend.
5. Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan (DC Comics)
It’s 1953. While the United States is locked in a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, the gay Southern playwright known as Snagglepuss is the toast of Broadway. But success has made him a target. As he plans for his next hit play, Snagglepuss becomes the focus of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
So this book is wild. It's about McCarthyism, the Red Scare, and the Lavender Scare, but told through Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters. Why these choices? What does it do for the story?
6. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel (Mariner Books)
Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the Fun Home. It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.
One of the most banned graphic memoirs in the country before Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer. ♥ Also incredibly dense without sacrificing readability. Compare to the musical?
7. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, by Mira Jacob (One World)
Inspired by her BuzzFeed piece "37 Difficult Questions from My Mixed-Raced Son," here are Jacob's responses to her six-year-old, Zakir, who asks if the new president hates brown boys like him; uncomfortable relationship advice from her parents, who came to the United States from India one month into their arranged marriage; and the imaginary therapy sessions she has with celebrities from Bill Murray to Madonna.
Besides the thought-provoking and sociopolitically relevant content, the art in this graphic memoir has a really unusual and divisive style.
8. Grass, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (Drawn and Quarterly)
Grass tells the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War. Beginning in Lee’s childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a child’s vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans.
Similar to Maus, this is a nonfiction graphic novel about a brutal topic in global history and politics where people probably aren't reading a lot of primary(ish) sources on their own.
9. A Guest in the House, by Emily Carroll (First Second)
After many lonely years, Abby’s just gotten married. She met her new husband―a recently widowed dentist―when he arrived in town with his young daughter seeking a new start. But the more she learns about her new husband’s first wife, the more things don’t add up, and Abby starts to wonder...was Sheila’s death really by natural causes?
We must introduce the people to Emily Carroll. Gothic horror is always divisive as a genre, and Emily Carroll's endings are always divisive, so if nothing else, the group is likely to have a range of opinions.
10. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (First Second)
The day they got together was the best one of Freddy's life, but nothing's made sense since. Laura Dean is popular, funny, and SO CUTE ... but she can be really thoughtless, even mean. Their on-again, off-again relationship has Freddy's head spinning — and Freddy's friends can't understand why she keeps going back.
YA title by two of the greatest talents in the industry about the very difficult and relatable topic of being in a bad relationship.
11. Maus, Vol. 1-2, by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)
A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.
You gotta.
12. My Brother's Husband, Vol. 1-2, by Gengoroh Tagame (Pantheon)
Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo; formerly married to Natsuki, father to their young daughter, Kana. Their lives suddenly change with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi's estranged gay twin, Ryoji.
Our first manga entry! This is the complete series of My Brother's Husband. It's an LGBTQ title that addresses real issues in a way that is very accessible to people outside the community because the protagonist is himself straight and, initially, somewhat homophobic.
13. On a Sunbeam, by Tillie Walden (First Second)
Throughout the deepest reaches of space, a crew rebuilds beautiful and broken-down structures, painstakingly putting the past together. As new member Mia gets to know her team, the story flashes back to her pivotal year in boarding school, where she fell in love with a mysterious new student.
We have to do book group attendees the favor of giving them something this good to read.
14. The Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland.
You gotta!
15. Solutions and Other Problems, by Allie Brosh (Gallery Books)
Solutions and Other Problems includes humorous stories from Allie Brosh’s childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life.
This is Brosh's second collection after Hyperbole and a Half, but in my opinion, it's the more affecting one. It would be worthwhile just for the unusual style, even if it weren't also about mental illness and survival.
16. Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir, by Bishakh Som (Street Noise Books)
This exquisite graphic novel memoir by a transgender artist, explores the concept of identity by inviting the reader to view the author moving through life as she would have us see her, that is, as she sees herself. Framed with a candid autobiographical narrative, this book gives us the opportunity to enter into the author's daily life and explore her thoughts on themes of gender and sexuality, memory and urbanism, love and loss.
This graphic memoir is so interesting to me because Som started drawing it before her transition, depicting herself as a cis woman named Anjali. It makes for an interesting study of where Anjali-as-Bishakh facilitates the narrative of her life versus where that substitution butts up against reality and becomes unsustainable. I don't know whether I would want to discuss this with a majority non-queer group, but I might want them to discuss it without me lol.
17. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol. 1, by Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli (Marvel Comics)
Miles Morales is the new Spider-Man! What's the secret behind his powers, and how will he master them? What new and familiar enemies will rise to challenge this all-new Spider-Man? And will Miles live up to Peter Parker's legacy?
I'd want my book group to see Miles' comics origin and compare it against both Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Homecoming. What changes were made and why? How do we feel about them?
18. Uzumaki, by Junji Ito (VIZ Media)
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral — the hypnotic secret shape of the world.
You gotta do a Junji Ito. This one is a quintessential Ito against which readers can compare all his other GNs.
19. The Vision, Vol. 1-2, by Tom King and Gabriel Hernández Walta (Marvel Comics)
Vision wants to be human, so he builds himself a wife and teenage twins. They look like him, they have his powers, and they share his grandest ambition: the unrelenting need to be ordinary. Theirs is a story of togetherness and tragedy—one that will send the Android Avenger into a devastating confrontation with Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
This is the complete series of The Vision, which was shockingly a hit in my book club even amongst non-Marvel fans and sent one of them down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. I consider it the best and most complete Marvel comic, but for a non-Tom King alternative of a similar caliber and dark tone (to contrast against Miles), I'd look for a suitable Bendis/Maleev Daredevil collection.
20. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (DC Comics)
This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.
We can do one dense classic Alan Moore as a treat.
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