A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return


Zeina Abirached - 2007
    The city of Beirut is cut in two, separated by bricks and sandbags and threatened by snipers and shelling. East Beirut is for Christians, and West Beirut is for Muslims. When Zeina's parents don't return one afternoon from a visit to the other half of the city and the bombing grows ever closer, the neighbors in her apartment house create a world indoors for Zeina and her brother where it's comfy and safe, where they can share cooking lessons and games and gossip. Together they try to make it through a dramatic day in the one place they hoped they would always be safe--home.

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Vol. 1


Nagabe - 2016
    The girl and the beast should never have met, but when they do, a quiet fairytale begins. This is a story of two people--one human, one inhuman--who linger in the hazy twilight that separates night from day.

The Book of Genesis


Robert Crumb - 2009
    Crumb, the legendary illustrator, reveals here the story of Genesis in a profoundly honest and deeply moving way. Originally thinking that he would do a take off of Adam and Eve, Crumb became so fascinated by the Bible’s language, “a text so great and so strange that it lends itself readily to graphic depictions,” that he decided instead to do a literal interpretation using the text word for word in a version primarily assembled from the translations of Robert Alter and the King James bible.As Crumb writes in his introduction, “the stories of these people, the Hebrews, were something more than just stories. They were the foundation, the source, in writing of religious and political power, handed down by God himself.” Crumb’s Book of Genesis, the culmination of 5 years of painstaking work, is a tapestry of detail and storytelling.

The Photographer


Emmanuel Guibert - 2003
    This graphic novel/photo-journal is a record of one reporter’s arduous and dangerous journey through Afghanistan, accompanying the Doctors Without Borders. Didier Lefevre’s photography, paired with the art of Emmanuel Guibert, tells the powerful story of a mission undertaken by men and women dedicated to mending the wounds of war.

Fagin the Jew


Will Eisner - 2003
    This project was first conceived as an introduction to a pictorial adaptation of Oliver Twist, but as he learned more about the history of Dickens-era Jewish life in London, Eisner uncovered intriguing material that led him to create this new work. In the course of his research, Eisner came to believe that Dickens had not intended to defame Jews in his famous depiction. By referring to Fagin as “the Jew” throughout the book, however, he had perpetuated the common prejudice; his fictional creation imbedded itself in the public’s imagination as the classic profile of a Jew. In his award-winning style, Eisner recasts the notorious villain as a complex and troubled antihero and gives him the opportunity to tell his tale in his own words. Depicting Fagin’s choices and actions within a historical context, Eisner captures the details of life in London’s Ashkenazi community and brilliantly re-creates the social milieu of Dickensian England. Eisner's fresh, compelling look at prejudice, poverty, and anti-Semitism lends an extraordinary richness to his artwork, ever evocative and complex. Like the modern classics Maus and The Jew of New York, FAGIN THE JEW blends image and prose in an unforgettable exploration of history.

LaGuardia


Nnedi Okorafor - 2019
    Set in an alternative world where aliens have come to Earth and integrated with society, LaGuardia revolves around a pregnant Nigerian-American doctor, Future Nwafor Chukwuebuka, who has just returned to NYC under mysterious conditions. After smuggling an illegal alien plant named "Letme Live" through LaGuardia International and Interstellar Airport's customs and security, she arrives at her grandmother's tenement, the New Hope Apartments in the South Bronx.There, she and Letme become part of a growing population of mostly African and shape-shifting alien immigrants, battling against interrogation, discrimination and travel bans, as they try to make it in a new land. But, as the birth of her child nears, Future begins to change. What dark secret is she hiding? From the team behind Black Panther: Long Live the King #6 Nnedi Okorafor and illustrator Tana Ford (Silk, Duck!) this Hardcover collects the entire 4 issue miniseries of Laguardia.

The Nikopol Trilogy


Enki Bilal - 1992
    The tale is a unique mix of science fiction, anxiety, humor, and strangeness from Europe's premier comics creator, Enki Bilal.This hardcover volume presents The Carnival of Immortals, The Woman Trap, and Equator Cold, three of Europe's best-selling graphic novels of all time.

Pinocchio


Winshluss - 2003
    In this dark rendition, a greedy Geppetto builds Pinocchio as a metallic weapon of war, while Jiminy Cockroach is a homeless squatter living the good life in Pinocchio's skull. Critically acclaimed, Pinocchio won the Grand Prize at France's Angouleme comics festival in 2009. Exquisite drawings by celebrated cartoonist Winshluss bring to life a rich tale of greedy fools, lust, sadness, redemption, and hope. Teamed with brilliant colorist Cizo, Winshluss creates an epic adventure through a lush world. As we follow Pinocchio along the way, the stories and vinettes intertwine, offering subtle political critiques and send ups of popular culture. We meet seven sleazy dwarves, follow Jiminy's struggles as a novelist, watch a blind tramp find God, and see the innocent, yet powerful Pinocchio encircled by those who would use him for their own ends. Winshluss has perfected the wordless comic. Each page is perfectly composed - not a panel is wasted. The artwork is primarily done in pen and ink, and watercolor but switches to paint for larger splash panels. The art also references a terrific range of illustrative styles and history in the story from late 18th century pen and ink, to early French film pioneer Georges Melies, through early Disney, and underground comix. Born in 1970, Winshluss is the creator of numerous comics and graphic novels that have garnered awards and acclaim across Europe. Winshluss is the pen name of Vincent Parronnaud, perhaps best known as co-director of the animated film Persepolis (with Marjane Satrapi), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe and Cannes' Palm d'Or. Currently, he and Satrapi are teaming up again to adapt Satrapi's 2006 book "Chicken with Plums.""

Dune: The Graphic Novel, Book 1


Brian Herbert - 2020
    A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism, and politics, Dune is a powerful, fanstastical tale that takes an unprecedented look into our universe, and is transformed by the graphic novel format. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s adaptation retains the integrity of the original novel, and Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín’s magnificent illustrations, along with cover art by Bill Sienkiewicz, bring the book to life for a new generation of readers.

Two Brothers


Fábio Moon - 2015
    And the possessive love of their mother, Zana, stirs the troubled waters between them even more. After a brutally violent exchange between the young boys, Yaqub, “the good son,” is sent from his home in Brazil to live with relatives in Lebanon, only to return five years later as a virtual stranger to the parents who bore him, his tensions with Omar unchanged. Family secrets engage the reader in this profoundly resonant story about identity, love, loss, deception, and the dissolution of blood ties.   Set in the port city of Manaus on the riverbanks of the Amazon, Two Brothers celebrates the vibrant life and diversity of Brazil. Based on a work by acclaimed novelist Milton Hatoum, Two Brothers is stunningly reimagined by the award-winning graphic novelists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.

The Death of Stalin


Fabien Nury - 2010
    Fear, corruption and treachery abound in this political satire set in the aftermath of Stalin's death in the Soviet Union in 1953. When the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, has a stroke—the political gears begin to turn, plunging the super-state into darkness, uncertainty and near civil war. The struggle for supreme power will determine the fate of the nation and of the world. And it all really happened.

Aama, Vol. 1: The Smell of Warm Dust


Frederik Peeters - 2011
    He remembers nothing of his former life. But when Verloc is handed his diary by a robot-ape called Churchill, he is able to revisit his past. His life, he discovers, has been a miserable one. He lost his business, his family, and his friends because he refused the technological advancements of society - the eye implants, the pharyngeal filters, the genetic modifications — he went without all these. He was astray in a society he deeply resented until his brother, Conrad, took him to another planet to retrieve a mysterious substance called aama. Full of action, adventure, and strange characters, Aama is a unique exploration of society’s dangerous relationship with technology.

Building Stories


Chris Ware - 2012
    Taking advantage of the absolute latest advances in wood pulp technology, Building Stories is a book with no deliberate beginning nor end, the scope, ambition, artistry and emotional prevarication beyond anything yet seen from this artist or in this medium, probably for good reason.

I Saw You...: Comics Inspired by Real Life Missed Connections


Julia WertzJoey Sayers - 2009
    Lonely hearts, romantics, and even cynics pore over missed connection ads in search of love, to gawk and giggle, or out of curiosity. These posted stranger sightings and chance encounters lay bare the truths and oddities of real-life loneliness and attractions and bring out the voyeur in the best of us. I Saw You takes this phenomenon and makes it even better. Julia Wertz has gathered the stars and soon-to-be-stars of the graphic art world, including Peter Bagge, Jesse Reklaw, Tom Hart, Sam Henderson, Laura Park, Emily Flake, Keith Knight, Janelle Hessig, Gabrielle Bell, Aaron Renier, Austin English, Corinne Mucha, Jeffrey Brown, Alec Longstreth, Minty Lewis, Joey Sayers, David Malki, Kazimir Strzepek, Ken Dahl, Shannon Wheeler, Shaenon Garrity, Rodd Perry, Abby Denson, Damien Jay, Sarah Glidden, and dozens more, to interpret these plaintive, hopeful postings in drawings that range from laugh-out-loud funny to disarmingly strange.

I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!


Fletcher Hanks - 2007
    Fletcher Hanks worked for only a few years in the earliest days of the comic book industry (1939-1941). Because he worked in a gutter medium for second-rate publishers on third-rate characters, his work has been largely forgotten. But among aficionados he is legendary. At the time, comic books were in their infancy. The rules governing their form and content had not been established. In this Anything Goes era, Hanks' work stands out for its thrilling experimentation. At once both crude and visionary, cold and hot as hell, Hanks' work is hard to pigeon hole. One thing is for certain: the stuff is bent. Hanks drew in a variety of genres depicting science-fiction saviors, white women of the jungle, and he-man loggers. Whether he signed these various stories "Henry Fletcher" or "Hank Christy" or "Barclay Flagg" there is no mistaking the unique outsider style of Fletcher Hanks.Cartoonist Paul Karasik (co-adapter of Paul Auster's City of Glass, and co-author of The Ride Together: A Memoir of Autism in the Family) has spent years tracking down these obscure and hard to find stories buried in the back of long-forgotten comic book titles. Karasik has also uncovered a dark secret: why Hanks disappeared from the comics scene. This book collects 15 of his best stories in one volume followed by an afterword which solves the mystery of "Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks," the mysterious cartoonist who created a hailstorm of tales of brutal retribution...and then mysteriously vanished.2008 Eisner Award WINNER: Best Archival Collection/Project — Comic Books2008 Eisner Award Nominee: Best Short Story, "Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks?" by Paul Karasik