what are some good recent memoirs, particularly graphic memoirs?
September 11, 2022 1:38 PM Subscribe
I loved Alison Bechdel's memoirs (like, who didn't)? and I loved The Arab of the Future (both volumes). What else would I love? What other graphic memoirs would I like?
Check out Guy Delisle's books -- fascinating comics on living in various difficult places (including Pyongyang).
posted by SandCounty at 1:54 PM on September 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by SandCounty at 1:54 PM on September 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe - the American Library Association lists it as the most challenged and banned book in the United States in 2021, which is a great reason to seek it out.
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
Ellen Forney's two graphic novel memoirs about mental illness
The March and Run trilogies by Congressman John Lewis and Nate Powell are pretty stunning.
posted by lizard music at 1:55 PM on September 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
Ellen Forney's two graphic novel memoirs about mental illness
The March and Run trilogies by Congressman John Lewis and Nate Powell are pretty stunning.
posted by lizard music at 1:55 PM on September 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Blankets by Craig Thompson - teen boy’s wistful first love
Ernie Pook’s Comeek by Lynda Barry - scrappy sisters in foster care
Scott Pilgrim series by Byran Lee O’Malley - teen boy’s first love envisioned as a goofy video game type story with some autobiographical feels (read the series before watching the Edgar Wright movie if possible but both are great)
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:00 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Ernie Pook’s Comeek by Lynda Barry - scrappy sisters in foster care
Scott Pilgrim series by Byran Lee O’Malley - teen boy’s first love envisioned as a goofy video game type story with some autobiographical feels (read the series before watching the Edgar Wright movie if possible but both are great)
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:00 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
I recently read a book called You & A Bike & A Road by Eleanor Davis. It's a graphic journal she kept while on a solo bike trip from Tucson to Athens, Georgia (IIRC). I did long-distance bike trips in my native Michigan when I was young, so I recognized a lot of her experiences, but she crossed Texas, and the book gave a strong sense of what that was like.
posted by Well I never at 2:11 PM on September 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Well I never at 2:11 PM on September 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ducks by Kate Beaton comes out next week.
posted by terretu at 2:16 PM on September 11, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by terretu at 2:16 PM on September 11, 2022 [17 favorites]
All graphic memoirs, all YA, all LGBTQ+ (seconding Gender Queer, by the way, it's outstanding):
Catherine Castro - Call Me Nathan
Maggie Thrash - Honor Girl
Kabi Nagata - My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness
Bishakh Som - Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir
Liz Prince - Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir
Lewis Hancox - Welcome to St. Hell
posted by box at 2:18 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Catherine Castro - Call Me Nathan
Maggie Thrash - Honor Girl
Kabi Nagata - My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness
Bishakh Som - Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir
Liz Prince - Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir
Lewis Hancox - Welcome to St. Hell
posted by box at 2:18 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
I just got my copy of Ducks and it is so good. I never pre-order things, this was a much-anticipated purchase.
On a Sunbeam and Are You Listening by Tillie Walden were both lovely.
All Lynda Barry is worth owning. They will break your heart but Maybonne and Marlys and Freddie are so real.
Drawn and Quarterly Press is reissuing the Moomin comics by Tove Jansson, they are a delight.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 2:51 PM on September 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
On a Sunbeam and Are You Listening by Tillie Walden were both lovely.
All Lynda Barry is worth owning. They will break your heart but Maybonne and Marlys and Freddie are so real.
Drawn and Quarterly Press is reissuing the Moomin comics by Tove Jansson, they are a delight.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 2:51 PM on September 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
Calling Dr. Laura, by Nicole J. Georges. Thoroughly lovely queer memoir. It’s poignant, funny, and endearing.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:07 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:07 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
For more daughters reckoning with problematic fathers, try Laurie Sandell's The Impostor's Daughter.
Ellen Forney has been mentioned; she has a delightful memoir of her childhood, Monkey Food.
I liked Tiphaine Rivière's Notes on a Thesis, on being a grad student in Paris, which turns out to be harder than it sounds.
And though it's biography rather than autobiography, Pénélope Bagieu's Brazen is a fantastic book focusing on groundbreaking or eccentric women.
posted by zompist at 3:53 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Ellen Forney has been mentioned; she has a delightful memoir of her childhood, Monkey Food.
I liked Tiphaine Rivière's Notes on a Thesis, on being a grad student in Paris, which turns out to be harder than it sounds.
And though it's biography rather than autobiography, Pénélope Bagieu's Brazen is a fantastic book focusing on groundbreaking or eccentric women.
posted by zompist at 3:53 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The best of the best of the graphic memoirs, up there with Fun Home: Persepolis.
posted by ojocaliente at 4:02 PM on September 11, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by ojocaliente at 4:02 PM on September 11, 2022 [5 favorites]
On a lighter (?) note: Murder Book, a graphic memoir of a true crime obsession by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, whose mom did not work with the wife of the last confirmed victim of the Zodiac killer.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:46 PM on September 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:46 PM on September 11, 2022 [2 favorites]
Another vote for the March trilogy by civil rights icon John Lewis. It is wonderful, and a perfect example of the power of graphic novels/memoirs.
posted by bookmammal at 6:18 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bookmammal at 6:18 PM on September 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
Mimi Pond's Over Easy and The Customer is Always Wrong.
Rob Kirby's Marry Me a Little and Erica Moen's work about her day patient mental health treatment will be out soon. They've been posting excerpts on their Patreons.
posted by brujita at 7:41 PM on September 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Rob Kirby's Marry Me a Little and Erica Moen's work about her day patient mental health treatment will be out soon. They've been posting excerpts on their Patreons.
posted by brujita at 7:41 PM on September 11, 2022 [3 favorites]
Maria Boyle at twisteddoodles writes about motherhood (twins!), career and science in The Newborn Identity.
My daughters' bestie, Clare Foley has a short memoir Breathe about the lungs of her father.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:04 AM on September 12, 2022
My daughters' bestie, Clare Foley has a short memoir Breathe about the lungs of her father.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:04 AM on September 12, 2022
Roz Chast - Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant.
David Small - Stitches.
Lucy Knisley has an entire collection of graphic memoirs, published at different stages of her life.
Derf Backderf - Trashed. He also wrote My Friend Dahmer.
Margaret Kimball - And Now I Spill the Family Secrets.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 7:05 AM on September 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
David Small - Stitches.
Lucy Knisley has an entire collection of graphic memoirs, published at different stages of her life.
Derf Backderf - Trashed. He also wrote My Friend Dahmer.
Margaret Kimball - And Now I Spill the Family Secrets.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 7:05 AM on September 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you, everyone. Some of these (e.g. Persepolis, Can't we Talk About Something More Pleasant? ) I've already read, but most are new to me. I'm excited!
posted by DMelanogaster at 7:41 AM on September 12, 2022
posted by DMelanogaster at 7:41 AM on September 12, 2022
The best graphic memoir I've ever read is A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
posted by Chenko at 10:36 AM on September 12, 2022
posted by Chenko at 10:36 AM on September 12, 2022
A Soldier's Heart by Carol Tyler.
Description: A multigenerational graphic memoir, it examines how WWII traumatized the Greatest Generation and those that followed.
It had a lot to say about the horror of all wars, and it helped me understand my father a little better.
posted by Arctostaphylos at 8:12 PM on September 12, 2022
Description: A multigenerational graphic memoir, it examines how WWII traumatized the Greatest Generation and those that followed.
It had a lot to say about the horror of all wars, and it helped me understand my father a little better.
posted by Arctostaphylos at 8:12 PM on September 12, 2022
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
posted by TimHare at 10:13 PM on September 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by TimHare at 10:13 PM on September 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
I just finished Messy Roots by Laura Gao and really liked it!
posted by tangosnail at 1:01 PM on September 13, 2022
posted by tangosnail at 1:01 PM on September 13, 2022
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posted by foxfirefey at 1:45 PM on September 11, 2022 [3 favorites]