recommend me some essential graphic novels to acquire

My gf just referred this question to me, since I've been reading a decent amount of graphic novels the past year or so, but now I'm passing this on to you all to see if you have any advice:

I'm a magazine editor who needs to solicit an article on graphic
novels-only I'm not overly familiar with the genre and don't have a ton
of time for research. The magazine I work for covers issues related to
war and peace, poverty, and social justice, so I'd like the writer to
focus on new graphic novels (out within the last couple years) that
address these issues. Anyone out there who follows the genre and can
point me in a few directions - or know of good writing on it?

"out within the last couple years" is the difficult part for me, since I've spent the last year mainly trying to get familiar with touchstones that have been out for a long time. So while Maus would be great, it's also a few decades old.

Persepolis seems like a decent recommendation, although it's a few years old now. Anyone else have any ideas?

By the way I ignored all the advice on this thread and recently read Blankets. The description on Amazon made it sound like the story of the agony of growing up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere with a super-evangelical family. A small part of the story was about that. But he doesn't really rebel against any of that much until the final 1/10 of the story. Up to that point he's like "I can't think about girls or I'll make God angry at me, wahhh". The dialogue is also consistently unrealistic and overblown: "When we were young, my brother and I shared the same bed...and we would often witness sparks of light dancing about the sheets." No wonder Raina dumped you, dude.

Beautifully drawn, I'll give it that. But it's telling that the most enjoyable page in the entire book is the one given over to a recreation of a comic strip that his brother shows him (the one about the guy and the eyebrow fairy, for those that read it). Where is his BROTHER's graphic novel? I'd read that.

bump for advice on the magazine editor's question?

I can't think of anything off the top of my head, as I'm usually a superhero kinda guy, but if you crosspost the question to I Love Comics you might get results. I will let the question marinate though, and if I think of anything will post here.

Joe Sacco's Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde might be good recommendations.

Can't think of anything from the last couple of years, but Howard Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby would fit what the editor is looking for, as it is a mixture of a coming-out story of a gay man and a history of the civil rights movement in the American South. It's from the 90s though, so not really recent.

Also, Pyongyang by Guy Delisle, Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan.

Thank you for the recommendations, and yeah, I'll cross-post this over at ILC.

Oh, and Alan's War by Emmanuel Guibert.

I guess Jason Lutes' Berlin is pretty recent, as the second book came out only last year. It's quite good, but it isn't finished yet.

Just got the second Hate anthology today, not exactly serious graphic novel stuff, but fun anyway.

I second the recommendation on Exit Wounds, and it definitely is about war and peace (as well as family and romance).

Agreed on exit wounds. I haven't read those Sacco books but I read one or two earlier ones, he's definitely good.

I've never read Joe Sacco, but he's probably your man.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel is pretty recent too, and I guess the gay/lesbian content makes it kinda political, though it's mostly a family history. More relevant from a LGBT and social rights point of view is her long-running strip Dykes to Watch Out For, which I think is her true masterpiece. I'd recommend that to anyone, besides lesbian history and political commentary it also has plenty of humour and drama and soap opera, so it's quite fun to read. (Fun Home is good too, but it's kinda text-heavy and narratively complex, so it takes some effort to get inside it.)

Sacco's work is excellent. If war reportage is not your thing his But I Like It is a lighter book about touring with a rock band.

I've tried to read Sacco's "journal" comics, but the overtly long text panels always wear me down. They feel more like illustrated reportages than proper comics with good storytelling.

Any graphic novels that you'd recommend for an 11 year old and a 14 year old?

The latter has "V is for Vendetta". The former actually draws in a way that reminds me of Mr Scruff (amazed he hasn't written a book) or Kid Koala (probably too bleak ... also too rare/expensive).

Ta.

Trying to keep to limited runs/single edition trades.

Both younguns:
Noelle Stevenson - Nimona
If they're OK with having a girl protag (lord knows I wouldn't have been at that age), really funny, lovely art, nice story about friendship.

Jeff Smith - Bone
Great adventure story, tails off towards the end but the beginning is magical. And yes, there are single-volume editions available lol.

14YO:
BKV - Runaways
Bright and TUNS of FUNS, there are like 4 volumes (collected into 2 omnibuses)? BUT SO GOOD.

Frank Miller - Batman: Year One
Grim / gritty done right. Exceptionally tight writing.

Alan Moore - Top 10
Also bright and fun, though it does touch on L&O:SVU like subjects, but hell, if they're reading V...

Dan Slott + Ty Templeton - Spider-Man/Human Torch
Bright and funny. Slott's She Hulk is also good, but that spans several volumes.

More if I can remember.

10yo
Grant Morrison - All Star Superman
I’m not a big reader of Supes but this is a beautiful and loving distillation of the character.

14yo
Grant Morrison - We3
My favorite Morrison, about cyborg animals, I don’t remember how violent is is though.

it is super violent!

All-Star Superman is p much perfect though

Yes, plus you get the acronym which anyone that age will love.

Kate Beaton for both

Grant Morisson's Doom Patrol for the 14-year-old

Sfar/Trondheim's "Dungeon Zenith" for both

20th Century Boys for the 14-year-old

Liana Finck's instagram for either

Scalped for the 14 year old (it's like a teenager's idea of an adult book - there are bewbs)

Paper Girls for either

Sic to thread for indies

Also big yes on Top 10 (you might like it too, it's the best)

Oh, and depending on their interest in Marvel lore, the Kieron Gillen 2 x Journey Into Mystery books are very good

Apologies for preemptively gendering the whippersnappers.

anything kind of recent I should pay attention to? I just went and bought the first two HC collections of Y: The Last Man. I've likd Saga but maybe not as much as some other people. Obviously Monstress is completely amazing.

Axe Cop for children of every age.

Jeff Smith - Bone
Great adventure story, tails off towards the end but the beginning is magical. And yes, there are single-volume editions available lol.

AFAIK these days it's single-volume for B&W, digest-sized multi-volumes for colour. it looks good in colour imo, and they're less likely to suffer fatigue* when it gets kinda boring later on
*both of attention and arms, from holding a huge heavy book

Dan Slott + Ty Templeton - Spider-Man/Human Torch
Bright and funny. Slott's She Hulk is also good, but that spans several volumes.

unfortunately the new version of Spidey/Torch has some other bullshit padding it out as well. also She-Hulk is kinda only for nerds, there's loads of continuity stuff that I had trouble dealing with. and the amount of "I'm a lawyer lady who fucks!" might be not suitable for the 11yo if the 14yo is laughing at it and the former gets curious

djh - this is like saying "can you recommend some songs for an 11yo and a 14yo" - what sort of TV or movies or prose books do they like already? (also though: have they read Asterix and Tintin already? get the 11yo loaded up on those from the library asap, especially if your library has older copies of Tintin without eyestrainingly ugly computer lettering)

Trying to remember...there are volumes of Dungeon where the protagonists don't, for example, contract venereal disease from a dalliance with a prostitute, yes? Because I would highly recommend those non-racy volumes to kids if they exist.

I didn't follow any of the continuity of She-Hulk, but point taken.

Would also add:

Hellboy - Wake the Devil
Occulty apocalyptic weirdness.

akm - I love Lazarus -- deals with the global breakdown of nation-states as polities, which are replaced with corporate families ruling their regions as fiefdoms, WITH SCIENCE.

Also Monstress baffles me, I don't know what's going on (other than Maika being insufferably mean to Kippa).

lumberjanes, especially if they are girls

Yeah my 11yo loves those

Axe cop is also great

The Dungeon Zeniths are the non-racy, continuity-lite, non-venereal disease containing ones IIRC. Although, er, try before you buy..

Of course it's the often the books with the flashes of Verboten Adult Things that are the most interesting. We had a copy of L'Incal in the French section of my junior school library. The first pages were well-perused.

(NB not recommending L'Incal - although I did enjoy Bllueberry as a kid.)

The Lucky Luke translations are pretty good too. The Spirou ones are awful, sadly.

Thinking back to what I was reading at 14 and, hey, why not Sandman? You could do a lot worse, and it's even arguably educational (made me a whole helluva lot more interested in like Shakespeare and mythology than stupid school ever did). I might argue that it's practically tailor-made for fourteen-year-olds.

All-Star Superman is p much perfect though

yes, otm, 100% - the best superman story ever told, and suitable for all ages

Dungeon Zenith is good but Dungeon Parade is even more non-racy and continuity-lite (as I understand it they're repurposed plots from an aborted Dungeon cartoon?)

I just picked up Jason Lutes' Berlin: City of Stones, Vol. 1, which compiles the first 8 issues and was published in 2000. Luckily, the second volume (issues 9-16, I assume) comes out tomorrow, and then I suppose there will likely be another 8 year wait for the third and final volume to come out.

― Z S, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 1:34 AM (ten years ago)

this guy knew what was up

would like to second the bone rec for either age but specifically i was obsessed with bone when i was 10

Thanks all - I'll dip into those.

*this is like saying "can you recommend some songs for an 11yo and a 14yo"*

Yes, I get this completely. The younger one draws a cartoon about a lemon and a lime every day - in the first one the lemon is telling the lime "You're bitter". He likes Minecraft.

The older one seems to like tracksuits and rugby but I don't really know his cultural reference points - I've been told he likes graphic novels!

The younger one draws a cartoon about a lemon and a lime every day

this kid seems awesome

Yes, definitely get that kid some Axe Cop.

(And it occurs to me now that Axe Cop has been evoked multiple times itt without anyone stating outright that its writer was six years old when it started and this is why Axe Cop is one of the most awesome comics ever.)

(Sorry, I just double checked and Malachi Nicholle was actually only five when he started writing Axe Cop. My apologies.)

n the first one the lemon is telling the lime "You're bitter".

Lime's response: "Good God, lemon."

Yes, I get this completely. The younger one draws a cartoon about a lemon and a lime every day - in the first one the lemon is telling the lime "You're bitter". He likes Minecraft.

Seems like some The Far Side treasuries might be good for this fella

The older one seems to like tracksuits and rugby but I don't really know his cultural reference points - I've been told he likes graphic novels!

Find out which ones!

Re: the call for Marvel recommendations in the MCU thread, I went through what they'd collected over the last couple of years (both new and older stuff) and that is likely still in print, and here's some of what I've read and would recommend to a newcomer:

Agents of Atlas Complete Collection Vol. 1
Annihilation Complete Collection Vol. 1-2
Astonishing Ant-Man Complete Collection
Black Panther (Ta-Nahesi Coates) Vol. 1-6
Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Complete Collection Vol. 1
Legion: Son of X Vol. 1-4
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: The Beginning
Ms. Marvel: Kamala Khan (Vol. 1) and Metamorphosis (Vol. 2)
Silver Surfer (Dan Slott & Michael Allred) Vol. 1-5
Spider-Gwen (Jason Latour) Vol. 1-6
Thor by Jason Aaron Complete Collection Vol. 1
Unstoppable Wasp: G.I.R.L. Power

And these two will be out sometime within the next couple of months:

Hawkeye: Private Eye
Miles Morales: With Great Power

The majority of this stuff is appropriate for most ages, but the stuff that maybe skews a little older (Annihilation, Thor, Legion) isn't exactly inappropriate. There's no Grimdark McHardman material in my list, is what I'm saying.

Gonna take this thread bump as an opportunity to ask for some recs. Every time I go to the comics shop I get overwhelmed and leave empty-handed. There's just so much stuff these days that I have no idea where to even begin.

Things I've enjoyed: Bone (like BradNelson, I was obsessed with it as a kid), Hellboy, Finder, Kate Beaton stuff, Achewood, Derek Kirk Kim, James Kochalka, March, Fun Home. I guess like out-there sci-fi and fantasy stuff, down-to-earth stories about regular people & non-fiction, and sheer absurdity. I've never really been able to get into superheroes. A couple of years ago I started reading Saga, and I liked it OK, but not enough to really stick with it.