Nonfiction Graphic Novels--dont call them comics!
Discover the best nonfiction graphic novels—from Maus and Persepolis to American Splendor—that prove truth is stranger than fiction. Explore powerful memoirs, history, and journalism in comic form, far beyond traditional comics.
Book
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.
Book
Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. “A wholly original achievement.... Satrapi evokes herself and her schoolmates coming of age in a world of protests and disappearances.... A stark, shocking impact.” —The New York Times: "The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years" One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the coming-of-age story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.
Book
Blankets
by Craig Thompson
This is a highly charged, personal story, crammed with pain, discovery, family and first love.
Book
Fax from Sarajevo
by Joe Kubert
Documents a family's wartime survival and escape against unbelievable odds.
Book
American Splendor
by Harvey Pekar
Presents a collection of black-and-white comics about personal relationships and the workaday world which served as the inspiration for the movie "American Splendor."
Book
Safe Area Goražde
by Joe Sacco
A graphic novel based on the author's 1995-96 visits to Gorazde, one of the U.N.-created "safe areas" in Eastern Bosnia, showing the brutality and humanity that coexisted there during the Bosnian War of 1992-95.
