So you want to get some graphic novels that are good...
Discover must-read graphic novels for beginners and fans alike, from Charles Burns' *Black Hole* to Art Spiegelman's *Maus*. Explore unforgettable stories, including Craig Thompson's *Blankets* and the cult classic *David Boring*, in this curated list of essential comics and graphic novels. Perfect for expanding your bookshelf with award-winning, thought-provoking art and narrative.
Book
Blankets
by Craig Thompson
This is a highly charged, personal story, crammed with pain, discovery, family and first love.
Book
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.
