classic graphic novels

I tweeted this image recently along with the tag-line, “What’s missing? Tell me your favorite graphic novel.” I got literally hundreds of replies, and since I’m going through the list to compile one for me in order to fill out my library a bit, I figured I’d do it as a blog post and thus hit two birds with a single stone. I’m still updating and adding as more people respond to the original post. But if you’d like to know what my Twitter following recommended, here’s the list.

Color-code
Bold = multiple recommendations
Green = I have it and recommend it.
Purple = already on the shelf, but someone recced anyway
Blue = I have it in the original comic form and feel very hip accordingly

So here are the books, arranged alphabetically by author, and with my own notes where pertinent.
Jason Aaron – Thor: The Goddess of Thunder
Alex Alice – Castle in the Stars; Siegfried
Michael Allred – iZombie
Natasha Alterici – Heathen
Sarah Andersen – Fangs
Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Herbert, and Frank Herbert – Dune
Robert Asprin – Myth Adventures
Michael Avon Oeming and Bryan J. Glass – Mice Templar
Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso – 100 Bullets (4) (One person said, “Despite the ending.”)
Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon – Daytripper (3)
Carl Barks – A Christmas for Shacktown. This looks super intriguing and got added to my list.
Donna Barr – Desert Peach; Stinz
Mike Barr – Camelot 3000 (2)
Alison Bechdel – Fun Home (4) This has been on my list of TBR for ages; need to get around to it.
Brian Michael Bendis – Powers
Joe Benitez – Lady Mechanika
Marguerite Bennett – Insexts
Enki Bilal – La Trilogie Nikopol
Vaughn Frederic Bode – Cheech Wizard
Archie Bongiovanni – Grease Bats
Dan Brereton – The Nocturnals
Cullen Bunn – The Sixth Gun
Rich Burlew – Order of the Stick
Charles Burns – Black Hole
Kurt Busiek – Astro City (3)
Thierry Cailleteau – Aquablue
Bob Callahan – Perdita Durango
Sophia Campbell – Shadoweyes
Mike Carey – Lucifer; The Unwritten (2)
Emily Carroll – Through the Woods (2)
Donny Cates – God Country
Chris Claremont. God Loves, Man Kills (3)
Brian Clevinger – Atomic Robo (2)
Peter David – Aquaman
Alexis Deacon – Geis
Kelly Sue DeConnick – Bitch Planet (3), Pretty Deadly (2)
Kim Deitch – The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
J.M. DeMatteis – Greenberg the Vampire
Aaron Diaz – Dresden Codak
Juan Diaz Canales – Blacksad
Andy Diggle – Adam Strange: Planet Heist
Colleen Doran – A Distant Soil
Phillippe Druillet – Lone Sloane
Ben Edlund – The Tick
Grace Ellis and Noelle Stevenson – Lumberjanes (2)
Warren Ellis – The Authority; Global Frequency (2); Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.; Ocean; Planetary 2); Transmetropolitan (7) Warren Ellis has also been revealed to be problematic lately; you may or may not want to poke around to read about that before buying. I have a number of his books and I do not think one can deny he’s been a very strong influence on the field.
Garth Ennis – The Boys; John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits; Hellblazer; Preacher
Emil Farris – My Favorite Thing is Monsters (4) Described as “a great one about a kid investigating a murder in “˜60s Chicago drawn as if they’re sketches in a school notebook,” which I love so I’ve got it on order.
Phil Foglio – Buck Godot, Zap Gun for Hire; Girl Genius (3)
Ellen Forney – Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me (2)
Matt Fraction – Hawkeye; Sex Criminals
Pierre Gabus – District 14
Neil Gaiman – Sandman (5); Stardust
David Gemmell – Legend
Dave Gibbons and Frank Miller – Give Me Liberty
Kieron Gillen – Die; The Wicked and the Divine (7)
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo – Asterix
Joe Haldeman – Dallas Barr
Joe Haldeman The Forever War
Dean and Shannon Hale – Rapunzel’s Revenge
Larry Hama – A Sailor’s Story
Matt Hawkins – Think Tank
Herge – Tintin
The Hernandez Brothers – Love & Rockets (3)
Jonathan Hickman – East of West
Joe Hill – Locke & Key (4). Great stuff! I don’t have these, mainly because I borrowed them from someone else to read, and I don’t like buying stuff I’ve already read.
Kohta Hirano – Hellsing
Dylan Horrocks – Hicksville
Jody Houser – Faith
Matt Howarth – Changes
Junji Ito – Uzumaki (6)
Alejandro Jodorowsky – La caste des Meta-Barons
Matt Johnson – Incognegro (2)
Nagata Kabi – My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness
Ryan Kelly and Brian Wood – Local
Stephen King and Scott Snyder – American Vampire
Tom King – The Sheriff of Babylon; Vision
Yukito Kishiro – Battle Angel Alita
Peter Kuper – Heart of Darkness
David Lapham – Stray Bullets
John Layman – Chew
Jeff Lemire – Descender; Sweet Tooth
John Lewis – March (3) Added this to my next order.
Marjorie Liu – Monstress (10) One person called it “the only one I buy for myself.”
Jeremy Love – Bayou
David Mack – Kabuki (2)
Howard Mackie – Gambit and Rogue; Robyn Hood
Larry Marder – Tales from the Beanworld
Julie Maroh – Le bleu est une couleur chaude
Alan C. Martin – Tank Girl (2) I wrote a grad school paper on this one.
Shirow Masamune – The Ghost in the Shell
Taiyo Matsumoto – Tekkon Kinkreet
Scott McCloud – The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln; Reinventing Comics; Understanding Comics (4). I keep this on my shelf of writing books. Definitely picking up the Abraham Lincoln book.
Seanan McGuire – Spider-Gwen
Carla Speed McNeil – Finder (2)
Linda Medley – Castle Waiting
Mike Mignola – Hellboy (3)
Mark Millar – Jupiter’s Legacy
Frank Miller – Daredevil: Born Again; The Dark Knight Returns (4); Elektra: Assassin (2); Ronin (2); Sin City (3)
Peter Milligan – Red Lanterns; X-Statix
Shigeru Mizuki – Showa: A History of Japan
Alan Moore – let’s just assume I have and rec everything Moore has written, and wrote a paper in grad school involving the Watchmen.
Terry Moore – Strangers in Paradise (3)
Pepe Moreno – Batman: Digital Justice
Grant Morrison – Doom Patrol; The Invisibles (2); We3 (3)
Brennan Lee Mulligan – Strong Female Protagonist (2)
Ted Naifeh – The Crumrin Chronicles (2)
Mai K. Nguyen – Pilu of the Woods
Hope Nicholson (editor) – Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection This looks pretty cool, adding to my “next buy” list.
Marieke Nijkamp – The Oracle Code
Steve Niles – 30 Days of Night
Lee Nordling – Once Upon a Time Machine
James O’Barr – The Crow (2)
Nnedi Okarafor – LaGuardia
Bryan Lee O’Malley – Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World; Seconds
K. O’Neill – The Tea Dragon Society
Natsume Ono – not simple
Katsuhiro Otomo – Akira (2)
Kevin Panetta – Bloom
Benoit Peeters – Obscure Cities
Rosalind B. Penfold – Dragonslippers
David Petersen – Mouseguard
Richard and Wendy Pini – Elfquest (2)
Rick Remender – Fear Agent
Jamie Rich – Ladykiller
James Robinson – Starman (2)
Greg Rucka – Lazarus (2); Queen and Country (2); Wonder Woman
Mark Russell – Exit Stage Left: the Snagglepuss Chronicles. Ordered because it looked like it would hit a couple sweet spots for me.
Mary Safro – Drugs & Wires (having trouble tracking this one down online so far)
Stan Sakai – Usagi Yojimbo
Richard Sala – Peculia
Marjane Satrapi – Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (6) I loved this, and the film was lovely too. I ended up passing my copy along to a cousin because it felt like a book that should be out there educating people.
Tom Scioli – Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics
Stjepan Sejic – Sunstone (2)
Jason Shiga – Demon
Ray Simon – Habitat
Gail Simone – Birds of Prey; Red Sonja
Jeff Smith – Bone (7); Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil
Charles Soule – Curse Words
Art Spiegelman – Maus (5)
Richard Stark – The Parker Novels
Jim Starlin – The Death of Captain Marvel (2) (The first graphic novel that Marvel did)
Noelle Stevenson – Nimona (3) I have this in electronic form and wish I’d bough hardcopy.
Masayuki Taguchi and Koushun Takami – Battle Royale
Bryan Talbot – Adventures of Luther Arkwright (3); Grandville; Alice in Sunderland (2)
Mariko Tamaki – Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass; Skim
Shaun Tan – The Arrival
Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Doug TenNapei – Earthboy Jacobus (2)
Dirk I. Tiede – Paradigm Shift
James Tynion IV – Something is Killing the Children
John Upchurch – Lucy Claire
Serena Valentino – Nightmares and Fairytales
Brian K Vaughan – Ex Machina; Paper Girls (5); Saga (16); Y: The Last Man (2)
Ursula Vernon – Digger (5)
Charles Vess – Books of Magic (2)
Matt Wagner – Mage (2)
Mark Waid – Kingdom Come (3)
Tillie Walden – Are You Listening?
Jen Wang – The Prince and the Dressmaker
Gerald Way – The Umbrella Academy
Jeremy Whitley – Princeless
Kurtis J Wiebe – Rat Queens (5)
Bill Willingham – Elementals; Fables (6)
G. Willow Wilson – Cairo; Ms. Marvel (3)
Gregory A. Wilson – Icarus
Brian Wood – Channel Zero; DMZ (3); Northlanders
Gene Luen Yang – American Born Chinese
Jane Yolen – Foiled
Skottie Young – I Hate Fairyland
Jim Zubkavich – Wayward

Le Grand Pouvoir du Chninkel, which sadly has no official English release as far as I know.