Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
This autobiographical graphic novel tells the author’s story from childhood to young adulthood throughout the Islamic revolution. The book deals with the struggles of the revolution and Satrapi’s own inner struggle as she grows to maturity. It is undoubtedly one of the graphic novel genre’s crucial coming-of-age stories.
Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Kim Deitch
In 1930s New York, an alcoholic animator is plagued by a Felix the Cat-like character named Waldo – his own treacherous creation. Waldo becomes a hated hallucination to his creator, despite his seemingly innocent, Disney-like appearance.
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
This graphic novel, along with its counterpart The Dark Knight Returns, distanced the Batman comics from being mere pulp fiction and shaped Batman into the gritty hero of the popular Christopher Nolan film trilogy.
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Maus depicts the author speaking with his father, a Polish Jew, about how he survived the Holocaust and spent time in a Nazi concentration camp. The novel interestingly portrays the Nazis as cats and Jews as mice. In 1992 Maus was the first graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Illustration: Simon-Kai Garvie
