What graphic novel do I want for Christmas?
December 13, 2018 5:07 PM   Subscribe

I want to receive a graphic novel for Christmas. In the past I have loved Maus (like who didn't?), Bechdel's Fun Home, Roz Chast's Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? and Sattouf's The Arab of the Future. Given these favorites, what others might I like?
posted by DMelanogaster to Media & Arts (23 answers total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you haven't read it already a classic along these lines is Our Cancer Year. Likewise V For Vendetta. Unforgettable. Tough topic but amazingly told. If you're looking for stuff that is more recent, a few I've liked from the last decade include

- The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders
- Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (Joe Sacco)
- March 1-3 by Congressman John Lewis
- Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney
- My Favorite Thing Is Monsters (note: is only Volume one!)

March is the most current. Marbles matches your other liked graphic novels better. I also really liked Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi for something you might not already come acros son your own/.
posted by jessamyn at 5:29 PM on December 13, 2018 [3 favorites]


Habibi is beautiful, heartbreaking and also has some violence and disturbing stuff - but if you loved Maus I think it might be a good choice for you.
posted by bunderful at 5:42 PM on December 13, 2018 [3 favorites]


These are all at least 10 years old as I've stopped buying books, but I loved Maus and Fun Home and found these of similar quality:

Shortcomings: a simple story, simply drawn, about a guy in his early 30s and his relationship with his girlfriend and himself. Parts of it showed up in McSweeneys' at some point.

Louis Riel by Chester Brown: takes a wild piece of Canadian history and brings it to life. Really, anything by Chester Brown.

Persepolis and also Persepolis 2 and Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi is about a girl growing up during the Revolution in Iran.
posted by Pomo at 5:46 PM on December 13, 2018 [7 favorites]


Building Stories by Chris Ware.
posted by Temeraria at 6:08 PM on December 13, 2018


Another vote for March, Volumes 1-3 coauthored by Congressman John Lewis. Powerful, powerful writing and illustrations.
posted by bookmammal at 6:14 PM on December 13, 2018


Jason Lutes's two-decade opus Berlin is now available in three volumes or as one giant collected edition.
posted by infinitewindow at 6:53 PM on December 13, 2018 [2 favorites]


All the Answers by Michael Kupperman. (Get a signed copy direct from MK!)
Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli.
Also thirding March and seconding Building Stories.
posted by D.Billy at 7:02 PM on December 13, 2018


Blankets is deservedly a classic

Feynman is great.

Over Easy

The Arrival is wordless and wonderful

One! Hundred! Demons!
posted by gudrun at 7:17 PM on December 13, 2018 [6 favorites]


If you have even the slightest interest in dogs or coming of age stories: Fetch
on preview, witchen beat me to it, but Fetch deserves at least two mentions.
posted by snaw at 7:26 PM on December 13, 2018


It was finally my turn to get Sabrina from the library and it is a really good graphic novel. It does such a good job of capturing the world of right now.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:41 PM on December 13, 2018


I'm not a graphic novel expert by any stretch, but I really enjoyed the full run of Y: The Last Man.
posted by liquado at 8:52 PM on December 13, 2018


Blankets
Persepolis
Scott Pilgrim
posted by pseudostrabismus at 9:43 PM on December 13, 2018 [1 favorite]




I asked for Passing for Human.

Can confirm that Soppy is adorable, though more comic than novel.

Here's a few more suggestions. Lucy Knisley has several books out too.
posted by jrobin276 at 2:55 AM on December 14, 2018


The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar is lovely.

Alison Bechdel's follow-up to Fun Home, Are You My Mother? may also be worth a look.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:07 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, or Chicken with Plums
Safe Area Gorazde
Judd Winick's Pedro and Me
The Moonshot anthologies - comics by indigenous folks in North America
Howard Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby
Lynda Barry - One! Hundred! Demons! or really just about anything by her, she's amazing
Elizabeth Beier - The Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors
Carla Speed McNeil - Finder
posted by bile and syntax at 5:57 AM on December 14, 2018


Anything by Eleanor Davis, but particularly How to be Happy

Most of what Guy Delisle has published, particularly his place-specific memoir
posted by Narrative Priorities at 6:06 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thirding Lynda Barry. The collections of her Marlys stories are beautiful and heartbreaking (warning: The Freddie Stories will leave you crying!)

I have been enjoying Saga as the volumes come.

Also, I really enjoyed Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother, but it's a very different read from Fun Home. Complicated. Fun Home is a completely watertight graphic achievement, 10/10 will read yearly until I am old and grey, my partner teaches it every year. Are You My Mother has led me in different directions.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:17 AM on December 14, 2018


Posy Simmonds' Cassandra Darke is wonderful. So are her earlier graphic novels Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe. Highly recommended.
posted by Grunyon at 7:11 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]




Oops, I realize I messed up my link for The Arrival. Here's the correct one.
posted by gudrun at 10:30 AM on December 14, 2018


Guy Delisle wrote Jerusalem, Hostage, Pyongyang, and a few others. I own all his stuff, I have read all of them multiple times, they are definitely worth a look.
posted by Vatnesine at 6:57 PM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


I have found A distant neighbourhood by Jiro Taniguchi really beautiful, very evocative.
posted by bluedora at 1:50 PM on December 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


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