Graphic Novels for Libraries
by Ernst Schneidereit
The librarians at a nearby high school recently made a request. Since I was a regular book donor (chiefly the Stan Sakai work Usagi Yojimbo and the Mouse Guard series by David Petersen), would I mind making some recommendations for graphic novels to add to their collection? The library had recently acquired some funding (a minor miracle in our age of budget cuts) and wanted my thoughts on how they could expand their comics section.
Keep in mind, they already have some fine texts. They introduced me to Shaun Tan of The Arrival, David Small of Stitches and American Born Chinese by Gene Yang. So this list is not some exhaustive attempt to create a graphic novel library. They have neither the need nor the funds. I consider the following texts to be graphic novel essentials, and for ages thirteen to eighteen. While the high school library can push some envelopes, it needs to do so cautiously. (For example, the only have some works by Alan Moore.) Keep that in mind as you consider my recommendations.
Dear Ladies,
This list is in what I would consider order of importance, given their value to the form, message and likely price. They are one volume books unless I state otherwise.
The library has a copy of the first volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History. You need the second volume, Maus: And Here My Troubles Began. You might also pick up a copy of the approximately three hundred page Maus: A Survivor's Tale, which combines both volumes. (Benefits: Discusses Holocaust history and overcoming the gender gap and difficulties with parents)
Tommysaurus Rex, by Doug TenNapel (Benefits: discusses bullying and grief from the loss of pets). I also like Flink (dealing with prejudice and cruelty) by the same artist/author. TenNapel has done lots of work in TV animation.
I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly, covers bullying, loneliness, dealing with the loss of a parent, cancer, and features an unusual female protagonist.
Yossel, by Joe Kubert, is from a very important comic artist. The book presents the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, troubled youth, and art as an outlet from the problems of life.
Bone, by Jeff Smith, is a combination of the revered daily comic Pogo by Walt Kelly and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, if you can believe that description. Composed of nine volumes, Time magazine placed this series in its original Top Ten Graphic Novels list. There are also three other spin-offs of this series, Rose, Tall Tales and Stupid, Stupid Rat Tales. You can get a single book that has all nine volumes of the main story, but I think you would be better off buying each volume separately. The single book is over one thousand pages. Another female protagonist is featured here.
The Scott Pilgrim series is six volumes with different titles, yet all mention "Scott Pilgrim," by Bryan Lee O'Malley. In a black comedy style, the series covers the perils of dating and commitment, the importance of friends and dealing with difficult relationships. The video game generation is heartily lampooned here.
Pluto, by Naoki Urasawa, is an eight volume sci-fi and futuristic series, with a strong allegory based on the events of the recent Iraq War. It considers the ethics of warfare, prejudice and racism, revenge and hate as emotions and the difficulties these problems cause. Urasawa is famous in Japan and probably its most highly regarded author/artist at this time. His other acclaimed series, Monster, is concluded and 20th Century Boys is ongoing in English. They are also very good, but contain material that might offend some readers (more so in Monster than in 20th Century Boys). Pluto is an excellent introduction to Urasawa because it is shorter, but also because this work is based on the first internationally popular manga, Astro Boy, by Osamu Tezuka, the "father" of Japanese manga. So it has a connection to another extremely important artist/author in the history of comic art. This is a modern series, however, and one that appeals to teenagers and adults because of its taut writing, excellent art and intelligent theme.
Last Day in Vietnam, by Will Eisner. Eisner was the principal artist and author of The Spirit, an important weekly newspaper comic that changed the way people viewed the medium and the art created for it. He is the "father" of the American-style graphic novel (the annual awards for comics are actually called The Eisners, in his honor). Last Day in Vietnam is a series of vignettes focused on Vietnam War stories. Not all of them actually deal with combat. The primary focus is on human behavior, a major theme in Eisner's work.
The Amulet, by Kazu Kibuishi, is currently at four volumes. One volume is released every year. This is a fantasy novel, with a teenage heroine playing the main role. It includes sci-fi elements as well. Kibuishi also has a very good single volume graphic novel called Daisy Kutter, which has received a Best Book for Young Adults award. The story introduces a steam punk western, as in Wild, Wild West, with a tough-as-nails female protagonist, styled after Annie Oakley meets Mission: Impossible.
Flight, in eight volumes total, was edited by Kazu Kibuishi. This series is a set of anthologies. Each book contains multiple short stories from different artists. Some have gone on to create their own popular series after starting in Flight. Some stories are ongoing, so it is best to start your purchasing at volume one. There is something for everyone in each of these books and the artwork is uniformly outstanding. These are not just comic books; they are art books. Some of my favorite comics ever are in these volumes.
Bakuman, by Tsugumi Ohba (text) and Takeshi Obata (art), follows a teenage, and now young adult, pair of friends who decide to break in to Japanese manga as an author/artist duo. This is a primer for how the manga industry works, much like Moby Dick is an introduction to whaling, yet Bakuman still tells a story that is amazingly compelling. Unlike Moby Dick, some romance, with fewer words, is involved. This series is at eight volumes and ongoing. This artistic pair is famous in the U.S. for their series Death Note, which I do not like, but which many youngsters love. (Major plot: Boy can kill anyone he wants by writing their name in a certain notebook. Just the kind of fantasy I want kids thinking about and sure to get some parents grumpy with you.)
Marvel Comics has a ton of stuff to select from. I only recommend one book, however, Marvels, by Alex Ross (artist) and Kurt Busiek (text, although his website is a gorgeous example of Internet design). Alex Ross is singular in the comics community in that he creates massive artworks (with gouache)which are the source material for his comics illustrations. As a result, reading one of his books is an introduction to higher art and comics meshed together. Marvels introduces the reader to the majority of the Marvel superheroes, but through the eyes of an Everyman, a newspaper reporter who has covered them through the years.
With DC Comics it's easier to point to specific graphic novels that are considered essential to the form. My suggestions follow:
The World's Greatest Super Heroes, Alex Ross (art) and Paul Dini (text), is the best possible introduction to the DC pantheon of heroes. Here, the heroes deal with ordinary problems, not the issues of super villains. How Superman deals with a famine is one example of a storyline in this book. Purchase the paperback, as it is cheaper, but the hardcover is a coffee table sized text and does a much better job of displaying the fabulous artwork.
Justice is in two volumes. I recommend getting the individual volumes, not the single book containing both. It appears, however, that if you want to buy new, you have to buy the hardcover single volume (nearly 400 pages). Again, this series features Alex Ross art and Jim Krueger writing the story. This is an excellent introduction to the villains of the DC universe, as they try to save the world, instead of the superheroes. Of course, there is a twist.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, both with art and text by Frank Miller. Most of Miller's work, like the outstanding 300 about the Battle of Thermopylae or the series Sin City, are excellent art wise, using a rough style that mixes representational with abstract principles. They are also very mature texts. Sin City is a decidedly adult series and 300 features the Spartans as they fought in real life: naked. So Miller's Dark Knight series is your easiest choice for featuring his work in a high school library. If you have to choose betweeen them, get the first one, but they really belong side by side. This is another Time Top Ten Graphic Novel.
Last from DC, I recommend Kingdom Come, by Alex Ross (art) and Mark Waid (text). What happens when the world has passed by the superheroes? Based in a future where Batman is old and no one really cares about Superman anymore, this is an allegory on all the things that went wrong in comics during the 80's and 90's, but it is also an excellent comic storyline and "wraps up" the DC universe. It also deals with the subject of conflict between generations.
Case Closed is a popular Japanese mystery series, but it is big, with 38 volumes and still going, by Gosho Aoyama. Crimes are solved by a young boy in the style of Sherlock Holmes. Case Closed also features regular female counterparts who are occasionally responsible for saving the day and routinely showcases older people in a positive light.
You could always work on finishing out the Usagi Yojimbo series. I have helped you get up to volume twelve, but there are 25 volumes right now and all of them are very good. Stan Sakai takes his artwork and lettering seriously, his research on Japanese costume, manners, architecture and fable is top notch and his stories are routinely of high quality. Besides Usagi Yojimbo the series, he also has two books associated with the ongoing series, Yokai and Space Usagi. The art in Yokai is especially good, using watercolor panels. Space Usagi could be purchased at anytime, as it is a futuristic take on the rabbit's tale. Yokai involves characters from later volumes in the series and would be better appreciated if someone was already familiar with those characters.
While some of these may not necessarily be popular favorites, my goal was to introduce students and the library to important authors, artists, styles and genres, as well as writers with important messages and themes that they express through one of my favorite media, sequential art.