12 Picture-Perfect Grown-up Graphic Novels

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Not long ago, stories that used both words and visual art were relegated to the children’s section or the comic bin. But over the past few decades, graphic novels—and graphic memoirs—have hit the bookish mainstream, winning National Book Awards, National Book Critics Circle Awards, and just about every other prize you can name. Not to mention winning over readers. Many of the books on this list use their illustrations to capture the real-life experiences of their authors. Art Spiegelman reckons with the generational trauma of the Holocaust with an Animal Farm-esque twist. Lynda Barry uses her own art to (literally) illustrate the process of making that art, inviting readers to tap into their own creative potential while demonstrating, on the page, the stunning results of such an exploration.

Every title listed here ranges in tone, length, and subject, but all of them remain united in their boundary-breaking approach—and emotional depth. You’ll be moved to share them with others. You may also find yourself rereading these titles more frequently than you would a traditional book, if only to look back at the nuances of a drawing or understand the complexity of the compressed writing. (See: Polar Vortex about a daughter’s struggle to caretake her elderly mother.) Though some are technically not novels, “graphic books” doesn’t quite have the same ring…and the “picture books” category is already claimed by the likes of Winnie the Pooh. If you can think of a better name for this category of literature—one that can encompass books as varied and grown-up as the ones on this list—we’re all ears. Perhaps illustrated literature? Visual narratives? Adult comics? Drop your suggestions in the comments—along with your own favorites!

What It Is, by Lynda Barry

Through her exercises, personal stories, and insight, Barry transforms artmaking from a mysterious alchemy to a tried-and-true method. Whether you are a painter, a writer, a sculptor, an inventor, or an architect—or someone trying to unlock your artistic potential in whatever form it might take—this book will help you access your own generativity through play, curiosity, and experimentation.

Belonging, by Nora Krug

In this National Book Critics Circle Award–winning memoir, a German woman reckons with her family’s unspoken role in World War II. The book’s visual style—which blurs scrapbooking, collage, and comics—perfectly captures the author’s experience of piecing together a new cohesive family legacy out of the scraps of collective memory and history she can get her hands on.

Marry Me a Little, by Rob Kirby

Kirby married his longtime partner in 2013—just after same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota. While the ruling clarified the status of their relationship in the eyes of the law, Kirby was left with more questions than ever about what the institution of marriage means—both for him as an individual, for the LGBTQIA+ community broadly, and for humanity generally. Funny and intensely thought-provoking, this book will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about happily ever after.

Polar Vortex, by Denise Dorrance

With gallows humor, visual ingenuity, and a whole lot of heart, Dorrance chronicles the two chilling months she returned home to care for her ailing mother—while a literal polar vortex looms in the background.

Artificial, by Amy Kurzweil

The second graphic memoir from the acclaimed author of Flying Couch is a poignant exploration of how to hold onto a family legacy—and when to let it go. Before his death, Kurzweil’s grandfather, Fredric, was a genius conductor who fled the Nazis in 1938. Desperate to preserve Fredric's story, Kurzweil’s father trains a chatbot on the documents her grandfather left behind, and Kurzweil works with the artificially intelligent bot to immortalize their fraught family history as an illustrated narrative. The result is as strange as it is tender: a meditation on what it means to grieve, remember, and create in a changing world.

The Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi

In this internationally bestselling and acclaimed graphic memoir series, Satrapi paints an intimate portrait of coming of age amid the tumult of the Iranian revolution—and coming into her own as a young adult expat in the war’s aftermath.

The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui

In this award-winning debut, Bui tells the story of her family’s escape from South Vietnam in the 1970s and their struggle to form roots in the United States in the years that follow. A narrative and artistic triumph.

Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel

Shortly after coming out as a lesbian, Bechdel learns that her father—the cold director of a local funeral home that his family referred to as the "Fun Home”—is also gay. Before she has time to process this information, her father dies, leaving behind a knot of queer identity, family history, and grief for Bechdel to unravel.

Blankets, by Craig Thompson

With detailed pen-and-ink drawings and dialogue that will pull at your heartstrings, this coming-of-age story captures the sharp force of first love, set against the muffled backdrop of a Midwestern winter. Under a fresh blanket of snow at their high school church camp, Craig and Raina fall in love. But the heat of their romance soon uncovers long-buried personal traumas and religious doubts.

March, by John Lewis

In this three-book series, legendary civil rights leader and former U.S. congressman John Lewis offers a startling, visual account of his own life story and some of the most pivotal years in our nation’s ongoing fight for racial justice, from the Freedom Rides of 1961 to the Selma March of 1965 and beyond. Though Lewis died in 2020, his story—captured in his own words and cowritten by Andrew Aydin—and the black-and-white, comic-style illustrations of Nate Powell keep inspiring us to make “good trouble.”

Maus I & II, by Art Spiegelman

The first graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize, Maus—and its sequel, Maus II— stand as masterful explorations of the Holocaust and its enduring impact on the second generation. Through the use of anthropomorphic animals, Spiegelman tells the story of his parents' survival in Auschwitz and the complexities of his relationship with his traumatized father.

Stitches, by David Small

In this #1 New York Times graphic bestseller, this acclaimed children’s book illustrator takes his talent to a definitively adult subject matter: his own intensely tumultuous adolescence. At 14, Small awoke from what he had been told was a minor surgery to find his neck riddled with stitches and his vocal cord slashed, leaving him virtually mute. Unbeknownst to him, he was suffering from a cancer that doctors believed would kill him. Small’s life becomes even more precarious when he makes the decision, at 16, to run away from home and pursue his dream of becoming an artist. Harrowing, surreal, and spectacular, this book will leave you haunted.

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