12 Graphic Novels for Beginners

Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Saga has become one of the most successful and buzz-worthy comics ever, and one that’s commonly used as an example of everything modern comics can be. It’s a sci-fi love story, a war story, and a refugee tale that takes place in the middle of a bitter, bloody conflict between the winged citizens of Landfall and the horned, magic-wielding citizens of its moon, Wreath. A prison guard, Alana, falls in love with her charge, a warrior named Marko. The two escape, and the book begins with the birth of their daughter Hazel, a creature both sides of the conflict would like to exploit, or destroy. The two struggle to keep their family together in the face of hatred and pursuit by a variety of colorful creatures. It’s a brilliant marriage of art and story, with artist Staples capturing genuine emotion alongside stunning vistas and truly weird creatures.

March, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
Congressman and revered icon John Lewis is among the last people you’d expect to write a graphic novel, especially one as confident and successful as this three-part memoir of the civil rights movement. Inspired by a 1958 comic book that inspired him, “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story,” March tells of the movement from Lewis’ perspective, centered around the events of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march. By talking personally rather than broadly about his life and those years, Lewis and co-author Andrew Aydin go well beyond the standard history lesson. The story is inspiring, the black-and-white art (by Nate Powell) is gorgeous. March establishes one of our unlikeliest graphic novel writers among the very best.

Bone, by Jeff Smith
The three main characters are cutesy, whimsical blobs named Phoney, Smiley, and Fone…but that’s a trick. Writer/artist Jeff Smith lures you in with the promise of a lighthearted story of the three Bone brothers trying to find their way back to Boneville, but just as you’re thinking that the all-ages tale is charming, but little else, the cousins are drawn into the dark story of Thorn and her secretive grandmother. Their rural valley is threatened by an ominous presence, the Lord of the Locusts, and the Bones reluctantly undertake a legitimate heroes’ journey to save the valley. It’s full of adventure and heartbreak, and with a resonance that only increases over the expansive page-count.

All-Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple. That’s how writer Morrison and artist Quitely sum up Superman’s origin in the book’s opening, and it sets the stage for a tale that gets right to the heart of the superhero myth. Superman is given a death sentence and, rather than struggle to save himself, he undertakes a series of adventures (Herculean labors, really) that will ensure that he leaves the world better than he found it. The tasks are alternately action-packed, colorful, fun, and bizarre; the book refuses to shy away from the big and bold, and the glorious ending makes the title literal. It’s a distillation of everything great about Superman, and caped heroes in general.

Blankets, by Craig Thompson
At a time when comics were still struggling to attract a wider audience, Thompson’s autobiographical work drew notice outside of the usual circles. It wasn’t the first graphic novel to tackle childhood drama and mature themes, or even the thousandth, but the critics’ acclaim wasn’t misplaced. With art that’s sometimes realistic, sometimes dreamy and surreal, Thompson tells a story about growing up in a devoutly religious midwestern family and dealing with abuse, bullying, first love, and first loss. It’s a great book about the weird, confusing march through adolescense, both the good and the bad.

Lumberjanes, by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, and Brooke A. Allen
If you’re looking for a girl-centric adventure for young and old alike, Lumberjanes is an excellent place to start. “Friendship to the max!” …is the motto of five pals at Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, where mystery, excitement, and monsters are the norm, and a diverse group of campers is more than ready to take on a variety of supernatural threats. The Lumberjanes are a little punk rock, very funny, and extremely tough, and the book is a delightful story of friendship and bravery from an creative team made up entirely of incredibly talented women.

I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Nimura
Kelly and Nimura’s I Kill Giants introduces us to Barbara Thorson, who battles giant monsters. Except that she doesn’t, not really. Her fantasy world is a coping mechanism she uses to deal with depression and feelings of powerlessness in the real one. The magical land that she inhabits ultimately becomes a trap: she’s lashing out and isolating herself, retreating further and further into her own mind and avoiding reality entirely. It’s a poignant story about growing up and learning to face the world and ask for help. It’s also a powerful example of the ways comics can tell fantastical stories with real-world relevance.

The Vision, by Tom King, Garbiel Walta, Michael Walsh, Mike Del Mundo, and Jordie Bellaire
There are brilliant superhero books that do all the things that super-comics should do, and then there are others that take those tropes and go off in wildly different directions. Synthezoid Avenger the Vision builds himself a wife and twin teenage children before moving to the suburbs to live out an entirely ordinary life. Of course, it’s not nearly that easy, and the family’s shared obsession with “normality” leads each of them deeper into the darkness. It’s creepy, poignant, and a big departure from typical superhero action.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, by Emil Ferris
Visually imaginative and emotionally powerful, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is told in the form of a diary of a 10-year-old growing up in Chicago in the late ‘60s. Through a prism of B-horror movies and pulp magazines of the era, Karen Reyes recounts the murder of her upstairs neighbor, Anka, a survivor of the holocaust. In exploring Anka’s life in Nazi Germany and beyond, Karen draws connections with her own life, despite Anka’s seeming, at first, so incredibly different. The story is gripping, and the unusual art style is a perfect complement.

This One Summer, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Rose Wallace has been spending summers at fictional Awago Beach for as long as she can remember, but the comfortable sameness of the place is slowly giving way to the restlessness of young adulthood. This coming-of-age drama of bickering parents and life-threatening secrets is the first graphic novel to ever have won the coveted Caldecott Medal for children’s books, but it’s really about the transition into young adulthood. Mariko Tamaki’s story is charming and real, while the pencil illustration from her cousin Jillian Tamaki is gorgeous.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis is a funny, poignant, and deeply personal autobiographical tale by graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi. As a child living in Iran during the 1970s and ’80s, Satrapi witnessed firsthand the tumult of the Islamic revolution and the war with Iraq that followed. No dry history lesson, this is the story of a young girl’s day-to-day life under an oppressive, misogynistic regime. It’s sometimes horrific, but ultimately a masterful and deeply felt tale of a woman’s resilience.

Wytches, by Scott Snyder, Jock, and Matt Hollingsworth
There are many great horror comics to recommend, but for a creepy standalone, this atmospheric tale of family history that won’t stay buried is in a league of its own. The story finds the Rook family (Sailor and her parents) in a small, isolated town, having moved to escape scrutiny following the suspicious disappearance of Sailor’s bully. Naturally, that’s not the end of it: there are creatures in the woods with a deep interest in the family (non-spoiler-hint: they’re witches). It’s dark, psychological, and disturbing with lurking horror, damaged families, and teenagers called upon to be strong in the face of disbelief and hostility from the grown-ups.
So you’re a beginner—what’s going to be your first graphic novel?