Graphic Novel Reads for Adults

Updated December 4, 2023
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Fun home : a family tragicomic
Bechdel, Alison
Paper Book
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, NATIONAL BESTSELLER  ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY Time Magazine #1 Book of the Year * National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist  Winner of the Stonewall Book Award * Double finalist for...
Chivalry
Gaiman, Neil
Paper Book
Winner 2023 Will Eisner Award - Best Adaptation from Another Medium. Another delightfully humorous and sweet fantasy graphic novel adaptation of a Neil Gaiman short story, brought to you by the Eisner award-winning creative team behind Troll Bridge and Snow, Glass, Apples<...
Wash day diaries
Rowser, Jamila, writer.
Paper Book
From writer Jamila Rowser and artist Robyn Smith comes a captivating graphic novel love letter to the beauty and endurance of Black women, their friendships, and their hair. Wash Day Diaries tells the story of four best friends--Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie--through...
Pinball a graphic history of the silver ball
Chad, Jon
Paper Book
in this dynamic, nonfiction graphic novel, Jon Chad illustrates the little-known story of pinball--how it works and why it all matters in an age of special effects and on-screen gaming. In 1976, champion player Roger Sharpe stepped up to a pinball machine in a Manhattan...
A career in books a novel about friends, money, and the occasional duck bun
Gavino, Kate, author, illustrator.
Paper Book
Shirin, Nina, and Silvia have just gotten their first jobs in publishing, at a University Press, a traditional publisher, and a trust fund kid's 'indie' publisher, respectively. And it's...great? They know they re paying their dues and the challenges they meet are just part of 'a career in books'....
Chef's kiss
Melendez, Jarrett
Paper Book
"A perfect mix of romance and self-discovery." -- Publishers Weekly 2023 Alex Award Winner 2023 Eisner Award Nominee 2023 GLAAD Award Nominee 2023 YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens 2022 New York Public Library...
Castaways a graphic novel
Pérez Granell, Laura, 1983- author, illustrator.
Paper Book
Madrid in the eighties, and Barcelona ten years later. In these two vibrant locales, Castaways follows the relationship between Alejandra and Julio against the backdrop of these poetic urban spaces where dreams, love, and uncertainty intertwine. Drawn to one another but constantly pushed or pulled...
Number one is walking my life in the movies and other diversions
Martin, Steve, 1945- author.
Paper Book
** New York Times Bestseller ** Number One Is Walking is Steve Martin's cinematic legacy--an illustrated memoir of his legendary acting career, with stories from his most popular films and artwork by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss. ...
Duck. Two years in the oil sands
Beaton, Kate
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable book! One of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2022! Winner of Canada Reads 2023! "An exceptionally beautiful book about loneliness, labor, and survival."--Carmen Maria Machado Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times...
The liminal zone
Ito, Junji, 1963- author, illustrator.
Paper Book
Three-time Eisner Award winner Junji Ito presents brand-new nightmares! What destiny awaits them after the screaming? After abruptly departing from a train in a small town, a couple encounters a "weeping woman"--a professional mourner--sobbing inconsolably at a...
Radium girls
Cy
Paper Book
"Compelling, inspiring, and radiant." -- FOREWORD "Excels in showing the camaraderie of the 'Ghost Girls.'" -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "Another example of how great graphic...
After the rain
Jennings, John, 1941- author.
Paper Book
After the Rain is an adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor's short story "On the Road." The adaptation begins in Nigeria during a violent and unexpected storm. A young NigerianAmerican woman named Chioma answers a knock at her door and is horrified to see a boy with a severe head wound standing there. When...
Seek you a journey through American loneliness
Radtke, Kristen, author, artist.
Paper Book
From the acclaimed author of Imagine Wanting Only This--a timely and moving meditation on isolation and longing, both as individuals and as a society. There is a silent epidemic in America: loneliness. Shameful to talk about and often misunderstood, loneliness is...
Noir is the new black noir stories from black creators
Paper Book
40 Black Creators. 16 Noirstories. Unhinged. Unfiltered. Unstoppable...This is NOIR IS THE NEW BLACK! Therecertainly have been many Noir Comics written and drawn by black creators in thepast....
Bubble
Cliff, Tony (Comic book author)
Paper Book
Based on the smash-hit audio serial, Bubble is a hilarious high-energy graphic novel with a satirical take on the "gig economy." Built and maintained by corporate benevolence, the city of Fairhaven is a literal bubble of safety and order (and amazing coffee) in...
The Black Ghost hard revolution
Gallagher, Monica, 1979- author.
Paper Book
Meet Lara Dominguez - a troubled Creighton cops reporter obsessed with the city's debonair vigilante - the Black Ghost. With the help of a mysterious cyber-informant named LONE, Lara's inched closer to uncovering the Ghost's identity. But as she searched for the breakthrough story she desperately...
The complete Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane
Paper Book
Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up as a girl in Iran during the revolution has for twenty years been a classroom staple, a feminist manifesto, and one of the most popular and widely known graphic novels of all time. <...
Black widow. Vol. 1, The ties that bind
Thompson, Kelly, 1976- author.
Paper Book
Kelly Thompson. Black Widow. 'Nuff Said! The best-selling, Eisner-nominated writer of Captain Marvel joins rising star artist Elena Casagrande to change everything for Natasha Romanoff! The Widow has been a spy almost as long as she's been alive. And she's never stopped running, whether she was...
Lore Olympus. Volume one
Smythe, Rachel (Comics artist), author, artist.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love--witness what the gods do after dark in this stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology, featuring a brand-new, exclusive short story from creator Rachel...
The day the Klan came to town
Campbell, Bill
Paper Book
The year is 1923. The Ku Klux Klan is at the height of its power in the US as membership swells into the millions and they expand beyond their original southern borders. As they grow, so do their targets. As they continue their campaigns of terror against African Americans, their list now...
Wake the hidden history of women-led slave revolts
Hall, Rebecca, 1963- author.
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour-de-force that tells the "powerful" (The New York Times Book Review) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall's...
Artemisia
Ferlut, Nathalie, 1968- author.
Paper Book
The English-language edition of Nathalie Ferlut and Tamia Baudouin's stunning biography of Artemisia Gentileschi, the trailblazing Italian baroque painter, originally published in French. This full-color graphic novel recounts the remarkable story of Artemisia, whose life story is told...
Hakim's odyssey. Book 1, From Syria to Turkey
Toulmé, Fabien, 1980- author.
Paper Book
What does it mean to be a "refugee"? It is easy for those who live in relative freedom to ignore or even to villainize people who have been forced to flee their homes. After all, it can be hard to identify with others' experiences when you haven't been in their shoes. In Hakim's Odyssey...
How do we relationship? 1
Tamifull, author, illustrator.
Paper Book
A romance of convenience between two college women soon becomes the real thing. Shy Miwa has always dreamed of finding love, but living in small-town Japan made finding the right match difficult--especially since she likes girls! Even going away to college didn't seem to help,...
A man and his cat. 1
Sakurai, Umi
Paper Book
The top manga launch in Japan in the first half of 2018, A Man and His Cat was also voted one of the top ten manga of 2018 by Japanese bookstore employees nationwide. Having won hearts and topped charts in Japan, this hotly anticipated series about an older gentleman and his unique, adorable cat is...
Oak flat a fight for sacred land in the American West
Redniss, Lauren
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER .A powerful work of visual nonfiction about three generations of an Apache family struggling to protect sacred land from a multinational mining corporation, by MacArthur "Genius" and National Book Award finalist Lauren Redniss, the acclaimed author of Thunder & Lightning<...
Folklords
Kindt, Matt
Paper Book
In a world of magic and monsters, Ansel is an outsider haunted by visions of our world - and will risk everything to find the mysterious Folklords who can reveal the truth about his existence! WHERE DO YOU BELONG? In a world of magic and monsters, Ansel is an...
Once & future. Volume one, The king is undead
Gillen, Kieron
Paper Book
When a group of Nationalists use an ancient artifact to bring a villain from Arthurian myth back from the dead, retired monster hunter Bridgette McGuire pulls her unsuspecting grandson Duncan, a museum curator, into a world of magic and mysticism to defeat a legendary threat. Now the two must...
Parable of the sower
Butler, Octavia E.
Paper Book
The follow-up to Kindred, the #1 bestseller, comes Octavia E. Butler's groundbreaking dystopian novel In this graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower, by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the award-winning team behind the #1 bestseller Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation,...
My riot
Spears, Rick (Comic book writer) author.
Paper Book
"Full of raw noise & 90's angst, MY RIOT delivers an electric gut-punch of a tale that will have you aching for the return of the riot grrrl movement." -- Kim Liggett, New York Times Bestselling author of THE GRACE YEAR Set in the early '90s, My Riot is about a...
Fangs
Andersen, Sarah (Sarah C.), author, illustrator.
Paper Book
Vamp is three hundred years old but in all that time, she has never met her match. This all changes one night in a bar when she meets a charming werewolf. FANGS chronicles the humour, sweetness, and awkwardness of meeting someone perfectly suited to you but also vastly different.
Monstress. Volume one, Awakening
Liu, Marjorie M.
Paper Book
2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Writer"" open="" /> 2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Painter/Multimedia Artist"" open="" /> 2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Continuing Series"" open="" /> 2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Publication for Teens"" />
The way of the househusband. 1
Oono, Kousuke
Paper Book
It's a day in the life of your average househusband--if your average househusband is the legendary yakuza "the Immortal Dragon"! A former yakuza legend leaves it all behind to become your everyday househusband. But it's not easy to walk away from the gangster life, and what...
Blackbird. Book 1, The great beast
Humphries, Sam
Paper Book
Included in Tor.com's Best Comics of2018 Included in Book Riot's BestComics of 2018 "Much like BARTEL'sart, the world of BLACKBIRD thrums with a fantastical...
Die. Volume 1, Fantasy heartbreaker
Gillen, Kieron
Paper Book
Tor.com's Best Comics of 2018 THE WICKED + THE DIVINE writer KIERON GILLEN teams up with artist supernova STEPHANIE HANS (WicDiv, Journey Into Mystery) for her first ongoing comic. DIE is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of forty-something adults have to deal with the...
When I arrived at the castle
Carroll, Emily
Paper Book
Like many before her that have never come back, she's made it to the Countess' castle determined to snuff out the horror, but she could never be prepared for what hides within its turrets; what unfurls under its fluttering flags. Emily Carroll has fashioned a rich gothic horror charged with...
They called us enemy
Takei, George, 1937- author.
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller! A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale...
The hard tomorrow
Davis, Eleanor, 1983- author.
Paper Book
Winner of the LA Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel! 30 best of the year and best of the decade nods from The Guardian, Wired, NPR, and more! Hannah is a thirty-something wife, home-health worker, and antiwar activist. Her husband, Johnny, is a...
Rise of the Black Panther
Narcisse, Evan
Paper Book
Witness the early years of the man who will come to rule one of the most scientifically advanced countries in the world! Wakanda has always kept itself isolated from Western society, but that's all about to change. Young T'Challa knows he is destined to become king, but when his father is brutally...
Ice Cream Man. Volume one, Rainbow sprinkles
Prince, W. Maxwell
Paper Book
ICE CREAM MAN is a genre-defying comic book series, featuring disparate "one-shot" tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Chocolate, vanilla, existential horror, addiction, musical fantasy...there's a flavor for everyone's misery. Each installment features its own...
Henchgirl
Gudsnuk, Kristen
Paper Book
Mary Posa hates her job. She works long hours for little pay, no insurance, and worst of all, no respect. Her co-workers are jerks and her boss doesn't appreciate her. He's also a supervillain. And her parents... well, they're the most famous superhero couple in Crepe City, along with her sister....
Goodnight Punpun. 1
Asano, Inio
Paper Book
A dark coming-of-age tale where slice-of-life slices back. This is Punpun Onodera's coming-of-age story. His parents' marriage is falling apart. His dad goes to jail, and his mom goes to the hospital. He has to live with his loser uncle. He has a crush on a girl who lives in a...
Kill or be killed. Volume 1
Brubaker, Ed
Paper Book
The bestselling team of ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS (THE FADE OUT, CRIMINAL, FATALE) return with KILL OR BE KILLED, the twisted story of a young man forced to kill bad people, and how he struggles to keep his secret from destroying his life. Both a thriller and a deconstruction of...
City. 1
Arawi, Keiichi
Paper Book
Nagumo is in a bit of a bind. She's a college student, and like many people in her situation, is struggling with money. She is in debt and her landlord is trying to shake her down for rent. Asking her friends no longer works! They know her deal and they do not have the cash to prop her up, even...
Saga. Volume one
Vaughan, Brian K.
Paper Book
Romeo & Juliet meets Star Wars in this sexy, subversive fantasy and sci-fi space opera about star-crossed lovers from enemy worlds. An epic for mature readers, SAGA is the story of Hazel, a child born to star-crossed parents from opposite sides of a never-ending...
Giant days. Volume one
Allison, John
Paper Book
Susan, Esther, and Daisy started at university three weeks ago and became fast friends. Now, away from home for the first time, all three want to reinvent themselves. But in the face of hand-wringing boys, "personal experimentation," influenza, mystery-mold, nu-chauvinism, and the willful, unwanted...
Paper girls. 1
Vaughan, Brian K.
Paper Book
Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang's Eisner Award winning series Paper Girls is coming Amazon Prime Video in July 2022! From Brian K. Vaughan, #1 New York Times bestselling writer of SAGA, and Cliff Chiang, legendary artist of WONDER WOMAN, comes the first volume of an all-new ongoing...
East of West. Volume 1, [The promise]
Hickman, Jonathan.
Paper Book
The things that divide us are stronger than the things that unite us. A Sci-Fi Western set in a dystopian America where all hope for the future rests in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse...who just happen to be trying to kill the President of the United States. This is the world. It...
I hate Fairyland. Volume 1, Madly ever after
Young, Skottie
Paper Book
From superstar writer and artist Skottie Young (Rocket Raccoon, Wizard of OZ, Fortunately, The Milk), comes the first volume of an all-new series of adventure and mayhem. An Adventure Time/Alice in Wonderland-style epic that smashes it's cute little face against grown-up, Tank Girl...
My favorite thing is monsters. Book one
Ferris, Emil
Paper Book
Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late '60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbour,...
Lady killer. Volume one
Jones, Jo©±lle
Paper Book
Josie Schuller is a picture-perfect homemaker, wife and mother - but she's also a ruthless, efficient killer! She's balanced cheerful domestic bliss with coldly performed assassinations, but when Josie finds herself in the crosshairs, her American dream life is in danger! A brand-new original black...
Daytripper the Deluxe Edition
Moon, F©?bio.
Paper Book
The Eisner Award winning DAYTRIPPER follows Bras de Olivias Dominguez during different periods in his life, each with the same ending: his death. DAYTRIPPER follows the life of one man, Bras de Olivias Dominguez. Every chapter features an important period in Bras' life in exotic Brazil,...
Relish : my life in the kitchen
Knisley, Lucy.
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Lucy Knisley loves food. The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at...
The encyclopedia of early Earth
Greenberg, Isabel
Paper Book
A beautifully illustrated book of imaginary fables about Earth's early -- and lost -- history. Before our history began, another -- now forgotten -- civilization thrived. The people who roamed Early Earth were much like us: curious, emotional, funny, ambitious, and...
The heroic legend of Arslan. 1
Tanaka, Yoshiki
Paper Book
The fantasy epic from the creator ofFullmetal Alchemist! "An epic fantasy with plenty of historical detail and a deft artistic hand." -Anime News Network "Arakawa has no problem depicting the bloody reality of war- severed limbs, decapitated heads, and torture...

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