The Best Comics, Graphic Novels, And Mangas
Everyone has blind spots when it comes to reading. There are so many genres and authors that you feel like you should read, but just don’t know where to break in. That is one reason we make our normal lists that rank the best books in certain genres or by a specific author (see our Best Books Section). One of those areas that are so large and varying and ever-increasing in popularity is the world of Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga. We know there is a debate on if those are even the terms that should be used for the mediums, but for the sake of simplicity we are going to move forward using them. We will also be throwing some other types of similar works (online comics, etc.) into this group of books which surely won’t rub anyone the wrong way.
Instead of our normal article aggregation, we are trying something new by asking one of our contributors who wants to break into the massive world of Graphic Novels and comics what they were interested in and create a specialized list from other contributors suggestions.
The genres and descriptors that our contributor gave for what types of books they were interested in were:
- Science Fiction/Fantasy
- Beautiful Artwork
- Classics
- New Classics
- Weird/Obscure
- Helpful For Understanding Upcoming Movies
- Preferably no Batman, Iron Man, Captain America (Nothing against any of them, just a little fatigued from all of their movies)
- Female Lead Or Female Writer
- International Works
- Important Or Slice Of Life
So after the list of possible books that could fall under at least one of those descriptors was down to 95% of all comics, graphic novels, and manga ever made, our other contributors made their list of suggestions. Below you will find an alphabetical list of the titles (mostly omnibus’s) that our contributors suggested with a link to a short little post giving a description of the book or series. This list will probably grow and evolve as we think of or discover more books that should be included.
Our Graphic Novel, Comic, and Manga Recommendations
- 2001 Nights
- 20th Century Boys
- 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank
- A Girl on the Shore
- Akira
- Alex + Ada
- All-Star Superman
- Amazing Spiderman
- American Vampire
- Apollo’s Song
- Ascender
- Asterios Polyp
- Astonishing X-Men
- Astro Boy
- Astro City
- Ayako
- Batman: The Killing Joke
- Battle Angel Alita
- Batwoman
- Berlin
- Bitch Planet
- Black Hammer
- Black Hole
- Black Jack
- Blacksad
- Blankets
- Blue Is the Warmest Color
- Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story
- Bone
- Buddha
- Building Stories
- Captain Marvel
- Cerebus
- Chew
- Civil War
- Codex Seraphinianus
- Concrete
- Coraline
- Corto Maltese
- Daytripper
- DC: The New Frontier
- Death Note
- Descender
- Digger
- Doctor Strange
- Early Earth
- East Of West
- Essex County
- Eternals
- Euthanauts
- Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too
- Fables
- Fantastic Four
- Fell
- Fray
- From Hell
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
- Ghost World
- Ghosts
- Giant Days
- Habibi
- Hark A Vagrant
- Hawkeye
- Hellblazer
- Hellboy
- Here
- I Kill Giants
- I Killed Adolf Hitler
- I’m Not Here
- In Real Life
- Injection
- Invisible Kingdom
- Isola
- Jane
- Jessica Jones: Alias
- Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth
- Kabuki
- Kill 6 Billion Demons
- Land of the Sons
- Little Nemo In Slumberland
- Locke & Key
- Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
- Love and Rockets
- Lumberjanes
- M.F.K.: Book One
- March
- Midnight Nation
- MIND MGMT
- Miracleman
- Monstress
- Moon Knight
- Motor Crush
- Ms. Marvel
- MW
- My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
- Nana
- Naoki Urasawa’s Monster
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
- NextWave, Agents of H.A.T.E
- Nikopol
- Nimona
- On a Sunbeam
- Optic Nerve
- Oyasumi Punpun
- Paleoart: Visions of the Prehistoric Past, 1830-1980
- Paper Girls
- Parker
- Persepolis
- Pim and Francie: The Golden Bear Days
- Planetary
- Planets
- Pluto
- Preacher
- Pretty Deadly
- Promethea
- Ranma ½
- RASL
- Rat Queens
- Runaways
- Saga
- Scott Pilgrim
- Seconds
- Seeing Things
- Sex Criminals
- She-Hulk
- Shutter
- Silver Surfer
- Soppy
- Southern Bastards
- Southern Cross
- Space Riders
- Spill Zone
- Spinning
- Stitches
- SuperMutant Magic Academy
- Swamp Thing
- Tales from Outer Suburbia
- Tank Girl
- Tatsumi’s Short Stories
- Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City
- Terra Obscura
- The Arrival
- The Art & Science of Ernst Haeckel
- The Best We Could Do
- The Compleat Moonshadow
- The Contract With God
- The Electric State
- The Incal
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret
- The Invisibles
- The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
- The Manhattan Projects
- The Mighty Thor
- The New Teen Titans
- The New World
- The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8
- The Prince and the Dressmaker
- The Ring of the Nibelung
- The Sandman
- The Umbrella Academy
- The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
- The Unbelievable Gwenpool
- The Underwater Welder
- The Unstoppable Wasp
- The White Lama
- The Wicked + The Divine
- The World of Edena
- This Was Our Pact
- Through the Woods
- Tintin
- Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life
- Tom Strong
- Transmetropolitan
- Trillium
- Upgrade Soul
- V For Vendetta
- Valerian
- Vision
- Watchmen
- Weapons of Mass Diplomacy
- What a Wonderful World!
- Why Art?
- Witch Hat Atelier
- Wonder Woman
- Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse
- Wytches
- X-Men
- Xenozoic Tales
- Y: The Last Man
- Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures