Comics as Art and Literature from the US Japan and Europe
Explore the artistic and literary brilliance of comics from the US, Japan, and Europe. Discover must-read books and graphic novels that redefine storytelling across cultures.
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Bone
by Jeff Smith
Three modern cartoon cousins get lost in a pre-technological valley, spending a year there making new friends and out-running dangerous enemies, in a compilation of the creator's Bone series all in one binding.
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John Byrne's Next Men
by John Byrne
Five mutates from Project Next Men escape the elaborate decades-long secret experiment to find themselves in a completely unfamiliar world. During a mysterious encounter in the desert, Bethany, Nathan, Danny, Jack, and Jazz begin to realize that they have been locked in a shared fantasy-world. Now they must come to terms with the real world and their strange powers before their former captors track them down.
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Watchmen
by Alan Moore
Imagine a future where Nixon is still President, America won the Vietnam War, and the nuclear clock stands at five minutes to midnight.
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Akira
by Katsuhiro ĹŚtomo
Science fiction tale of 2019 Tokyo after it's destruction in World War III, following the lives of two teenagers, Tetsuo and Kaneda, who must deal with the monstrous consuming power -- Akira.
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Ode to Kirihito
by Osamu Tezuka
Monmow disease, a life-threatening condition that transforms a person into a dog-like beast, is not the only villain in this brilliant medical thriller by manga god Osamu Tezuka. Said to have been a personal favourite of the artist, who held a degree in medicine and who was surprisingly attentive to Christian imagery, Ode to Kirihito demolishes naive notions about human nature, health and likely preconceptions about the comics master himself. Incorporating elements of the often lurid and adult-oriented |gekiga|, this work marks the beginning of Tezuka's late period.
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Black Hole
by Charles Burns
“The best graphic novel of the year” (Time) tells the story of a strange plague devastating the lives of teenagers in mid-1970s suburban Seattle, revealing the horrifying nature of high school alienation—the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety, and the ennui. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area’s teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways—from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable)—but once you’ve got it, that’s it. There’s no turning back. As we inhabit the heads of several key characters—some kids who have it, some who don’t, some who are about to get it—what unfolds isn’t the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it , or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself. And then the murders start. As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it—back when it wasn’t exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird. To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin…
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Maus
by Art Spiegelman
The author-illustrator traces his father's imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp through a series of disarming and unusual cartoons arranged to tell the story as a novel.
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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
by Alan Moore
Presented in this edition is the League's first adventure along with the illustrators' masterful sketchbook.
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From Hell
by Alan Moore
In graphic novel format, offers a fictional investigation into a series of murders in 1888 London carried out by the infamous Jack the Ripper.
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Understanding Comics
by Scott McCloud
Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.
