r/graphicnovels • u/bangondrumschool • Dec 05 '25
Question/Discussion Graphic novel equivalent literary greats?
I was having a conversation last night with my good friends round the dinner table.
Discussion made it's way to Books. We discussed ulysses, lord of the rings, 1984, to kill a mockingbird, war and peace etc etc etc
When I brought up the topic of graphic novels and comics I was... As usual... Scoffed at (albeit in a loving non hurtful way)
What would your picks be for graphic novel. Literary greats!
Books that can challenge your outlook, change your life, enrich Etc. Maus, Watchmen, V for vendetta, Bone
Interested to hear other recommendations!
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u/kaspar_trouser Dec 05 '25
I think anyone who is pretentiously dismissive of graphic novels probably isn't worth the effort of persuading. That said, excluding the ones you've mentioned, here are 5 off the top of my head:
Daytripper
From Hell
Rusty Brown
Safe Area Gorazde
Essex County
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u/Chip_Marlow Dec 05 '25
There's always literary snobary. "My book doesn't have pictures, therefore it's elevated above whatever funny book you're talking about". It even happens in the realm of comics where people refuse to call them anything other than graphic novels cause a comic sounds too low brow
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u/RogeredSterling Dec 05 '25
Which is mental, as Tristram Shandy was doing all sorts of crazy shit (like inserting a whole black page) in 1759.
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u/Charlie-Bell The answer is always Bone Dec 05 '25
Why? I think we can get a bit defensive of attitudes towards graphic novels. If someone hasn't been exposed to mature or meaningful comics then they may well automatically only think of cape books and funny strips - not exactly what they may think of as literary. I'm sure most people fit in this bucket, but there's of course a conversation to be had about their merit and greater depths, which is what OP is aiming for.
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u/Future-Buffalo3297 Dec 05 '25
At this point there is no legitimate reason to be dismissive of comics. Watchmen, Maus, Batman:TDKR are well over 30 years old. It has been over a generation since anyone could high-handedly say that comics had no real heft.
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u/superrealaccount2 Dec 06 '25
Watchmen, Maus, Batman:TDKR are well over 30 years old.
40 years old next year, all of them
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u/Charlie-Bell The answer is always Bone Dec 06 '25
Age is not really relevant. People outside of comic readers are barely familiar and will not know of their merits.
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u/DependentAssist8693 Dec 06 '25
Especially because there are sooo many films based on comics. Not only superhero films. So everyone who says comics are dumb but like comic-based films is dumb. People often dislike things they don't know. Which is a pitty.
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u/FlubzRevenge read yuichi yokoyama Dec 05 '25
Hrm, Krazy Kat, Pogo, Calvin and Hobbes are all what I would qualify as literary, especially Krazy Kat.
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u/Charlie-Bell The answer is always Bone Dec 06 '25
I expected you to come along with this! But to the average person, the comic strips they likely know and are familiar with likely wouldn't fall into this.
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u/EvengerX Dec 06 '25
Thinking it was all cape books was the main reason I avoided them in the first place.
I picked up the first Mind MGMT omnibus after playing the board game and that kicked off this whole hobby for me.
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u/TelUmor Dec 05 '25
I couldn’t read From Hell. Like literally, my aging eyes couldn’t read the text
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u/Jaytheory Dec 05 '25
Watchmen
V for Vendetta
Maus
Ghost World
Black Hole
Persepolis
Blacksad
Akira
20th Century Boys
Nausicaa
Batman Year One
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u/Muffo99 Dec 05 '25
20th century Boys 🙌
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u/SaladIsSalad404 The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Dec 06 '25
Funny how many mention Monster but gloss over the Boys. I'm also Team Boys.
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u/Muffo99 Dec 06 '25
I enjoyed Monster but found the story of boys much more interesting and felt the ending wrapped up better
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u/kaspar_trouser Dec 06 '25
Is batman year one really that good? I've got very burnt out on batman stuff but always find myself going back and rarely find what I'm looking for from it.
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u/Jaytheory Dec 06 '25
I think it is good. It's also a seminal moment in comics history. Frank Miller and a young David Mazzuchelli firing on all cylinders doing Batman. It's a convergence of many talents. Though I guess it depends what you are looking for from it.
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u/Cultural-Play7083 Dec 05 '25
Berlin
Asterios polyp
Fun home
Watchmen
Akira
There are so many more but this is what comes to mind for the moment.
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u/KeyComicsVault Dec 05 '25
I have so much love for Berlin.
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u/crburger Dec 06 '25
I saw the play here in Chicago based on the GN. Outstanding. I hope it travels around. Sadly resonant in today’s dark times
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u/Charming-Web-7769 Dec 06 '25
Naoki Urusawa’s Monster is what always comes to mind for me.
If that were a regular novel there would be a Hollywood adaptation of it by now and it would be something that the average person might have heard of. Because it’s a manga though, even people who’ve read it are willing to write off its themes, because surely a comic book isn’t worth the same level of critical analysis as something “real”.
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u/mad_destroyer Dec 06 '25
I see Monster, I upvote. My second most read behind Akira. Incredible every time.
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u/lil_grey_alien Dec 09 '25
Love to see Asterios Polyp this high on a list. It’s so visually stunning. I love the limited color palette and the story is so good!
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u/Cultural-Play7083 Dec 09 '25
I mean it's David Mazuchelli and he basically employed every concept used in Understanding Comics and masterfully.
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u/WC1-Stretch Dec 05 '25
Daytripper, City of Glass, Asterios Polyp, MONSTERS, Blankets, Two Brothers
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u/lastersoftheuniverse Dec 05 '25
You mentioned ‘Watchmen’ but you need to tell them that Time magazine listed it in their ‘100 Best Graphic Novels’ lists but, more surprisingly, in their ‘100 Best Novels’ lists
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u/prestonian_ Dec 06 '25
It is really good tbf, wasn’t my personal cup of tea but I absolutely loved analyzing the themes
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u/lastersoftheuniverse Dec 06 '25
I’m always impressed by the layers. The complete gall to cram so much in one book. Madman
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u/prestonian_ Dec 06 '25
Alan moores swamp thing is my personal favorite of his work: both phenomenal books, if you haven’t checked out the other and like watchmen I highly reccomend
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u/TheDaneOf5683 Cross Game + Duncan The Wonder Dog Dec 06 '25
I think we're still a bit lean on Actual Literary Greats, but that makes sense because most comics aren't aiming for literary. Heck, most prose novels aren't aiming for literary either.
Here's some books that feels like they sit in the vicinity of Literary Great to me, like not Moby-Dick level certainly but in the realm of Joseph Conrad, Murakami, Atwood, Sylvia Plath, and Ishiguro:
- Duncan The Wonder Dog
- Talk To My Back
- Equinoxes
- Tongues
Others are definitely literary but maybe not quite Literary Great. And literary greatness is definitely a range. You've got Moby-Dick and The House On Mango Street and Savage Detectives and Loved And Missed and Franny And Zooey on the one hand; and you've got A Tale Of Two Cities and Tom Sawyer and Last Of The Mohicans and Pilgrim's Progress on the other. These books below are ones I wouldn't feel comfortable talking about in the same literary breath as the former section, but would definitely feel comfortable talking about in the same breath as Dickens, Poe, Twain, etc. Each of these is literary and warrant serious discussion/thought from lovers of whatever we might count as literary:
- The Walking Man
- Tokyo These Days
- River's Edge
- Nod Away (I could see that getting there)
- A Journal Of My Father
- The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye
- Jimmy Corrigan
- Building Stories
- The Seeds
- 3rd Voice
- Breakwater
- In.
- Pachyderme
- Meadowlark
- Lulu Anew
- Beast
- Russian Olive To Red King
- The End Of Summer
- In Clothes Called Fat
- Here
- The Property
- Just So Happens
- The Nao Of Brown
- Panther
- Celeste
- Killing & Dying
- Beverly
- A Girl On The Shore
- Alfred
- Asterios Polyp
- Berlin
- Yukiko's Spinach
- Canopy
- Big Questions
- Square Eyes
- Sailor Twain
- Mother Come Home
- GoGo Monster
- The Oven
- Any Empire
- Run For It
- Goliath
- Ordinary Victories
- Portugal
- Second Thoughts
- I'm Not Here
- Land Of The Lustrous
- Idle Days
- From Hell
- We Will No Longer Have To Cover Each Other's Wounds
- Stages Of Rot
- Spring Tides
- 5000 Km Per Second
- Sunday
- Blood Of The Virgin
- The Book Tour
And of course all this skips the fact that there are plenty of great and worthwhile works in non-literary comics genres and that we're kind of squeezing in qualities of a-whole-nother creative medium onto comics for the sake of this discussion, which isn't really fair to comics because they are their own medium with their own qualities, of which the "literary" is the smallest part.
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u/adamszymcomics Dec 06 '25
This is the best answer here. There are lots of good “literary” graphic novels and comics out there but 95% of the comments here are mentioning stuff that might be fun or entertaining but can’t hold a candle to truly great literature. Not trying to be a snob, I just hope people can broaden their tastes. A lot of the books in this reply are great places to start.
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u/LastGolbScholar Dec 07 '25
Two great points here that I think are important for these discussions. First, “literary” is not a clearly defined term, and encompasses a wide range of works of very different styles. Second, comics are a different medium and have different considerations because of that. If you take it literally “literary” is a term about the written word, so in some sense it’s not surprising that there would be fewer “literary” works in a medium that doesn’t require words at all!
My gut reaction, like a lot of people here, was to be defensive and say that people who don’t appreciate comics as art are being foolish. But your comment made me reconsider a little bit, and I do think there I some nuance. It’s probably fair to say that there aren’t many comics on the same literary level as the greatest works of literature. Though to be fair, depending on how you count it, we have less than 100 years of comics in their modern form, compared to hundreds of years of prose.
I will say, I think some people are just ignorant (or arrogant) and aren’t making a good faith argument about the actual quality of comics. They’re making a broad judgment about the artistic value of a whole medium based on the idea that Spider-Man and Beetle Bailey are the only examples. I think that kind of opinion is ridiculous on its face.
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Dec 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/TheDaneOf5683 Cross Game + Duncan The Wonder Dog Dec 18 '25
That's probably fair. And just because I don't rate Dickens doesn't mean a whole bunch of other people don't think he's one of the great (I have a good friend who thinks he's tops and while I don't get the allure, she's reliable enough that I'm willing to chalk my feelings for his work as a personal blind spot).
And yeah, Talk To My Back is fantastic, but I wouldn't set it next to Melville either. I think a big trouble with the whole conversation is getting just what counts as literary greatness. Ware, for example, I think easily sits next to your average Booker prize winner. So it's definitely literary, definitely noteworthy, as are all those winners. But are all those winners great?
I'd lean toward no. Many of those winners are at least Good if not better, but Great? I don't know. What even is greatness in these terms? (I'm twisting myself in knots here trying to toe a line that probably doesn't exist.) Good is certainly good enough to merit reading; like any book that is Good is one worth you picking up and reading. So what is Great then? Is it just Good + Enthusiasm? Is it Good + critique of what it means to live? Is it Good + this will stay in print for all time? Is it Good + socially/historically/culturally influential? Is it Good + formal daring and experimentalism? Is it Good + man I liked the hell out of that? Or something else.
I don't know.
I do know that a lot of us are too ready probably to bestow Literary Greatness on alright books because we just really want the stuff we like to be regarded by People With Taste (and be able to dismiss their taste if they don't care for what we offer). We're allowed to like Saga or Sin City or Scott Pilgrim without justifying that affection by claiming Literary Greatness.
And of course comics aren't even literature. They're an entirely different artform. I'll often read novels and think, wow, a comic could never do that; and vice versa note that Wow, no other storytelling medium could do what this comic just did. I don't think we need to justify the merits of one artform by comparing them to the merits of an incommensurable other artform.
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u/gizamo Dec 19 '25 edited Mar 10 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
waiting full toy oatmeal grandfather encouraging run amusing weather offer
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u/Efficient_Variety_28 Dec 05 '25
I'd go with Blankets, Jimmy Corrigan: the smartest kid on Earth.
Some other stuff that definitely grabbed my attention are Emily Carroll's Through the Woods and Fabian Vehlmann's Beautiful Darkness
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u/Siccar_Point No capes! Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25
These people are just ignorant of what’s out there. If you want to bring a literary GN to a snobby literary conversation, for me it’s: Alison Bechdel, Fun Home; Chris Ware, Rusty Brown (or your preferred CW); David Mazzuccelli, Asterios Polyp; Oliver Schwauren, Sunday. All of these are operating in exactly the same space as literary fiction, but better, because of what you can achieve when you integrate the art. I mean, Polyp is exactly what Terry Pratchett was taking the mick out of with his “difficulties of male menopause on a midwestern university campus” quote about literary fiction.
If you want Conversation Hard Mode with genre/weird books, I’d maybe be thinking: EM Carroll, A Guest in the House; Hayao Miyazaki Nausicaa; and something from Gareth Brookes (Compleat Angler?) Maybe something from Kieron Gillen if I was really looking for a fight.
Edit: I’ve ignored Maus because too obvious. You can probably make a case for From Hell pretty easily, but man, I just cannot get on with that thing. Gillen is good IMO because he is pretentious AF (…and I love it), and he tends to write little explainers about what he’s trying to achieve and also how in the back of his issues.
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u/superrealaccount2 Dec 06 '25
Gillen is good IMO because he is pretentious AF (…and I love it), and he tends to write little explainers about what he’s trying to achieve and also how in the back of his issues.
Alan Moore did the exact same thing with From Hell. The appendix after each issue is as interesting as the comic before it.
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u/PeterPalmer2099 Dec 05 '25
What do you think are the best Kieron Gillen books?
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u/Siccar_Point No capes! Dec 05 '25
I think Die is the most clever-clever one in terms of the themes and references. But I’ve really enjoyed almost all of his stuff- WicDiv, Once & Future, and Power Fantasy are all great. I love the way he works with myth, literary, and musical references. Oddly, I just could not get into Phonogram at all though.
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u/LetzPlayGameplay Dec 06 '25
If you didn't get far into Phonogram then I urge you to give it another go! Volume 1 is one of his weakest outings imo but the other two volumes are fantastic. If you did read the whole thing already then...oh well.
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u/Siccar_Point No capes! Dec 06 '25
No, I fell off about 2/3 of the way into vol 1. I shall try again then!
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u/44035 Dec 05 '25
Creators like Alison Bechdel (Fun Home, among other titles) and Harvey Pekar (American Splendor, The Quitter, etc.) are the equivalent of literary fiction writers that you find in the New Yorker or other places. There's an emphasis on character over plot and an exploration of normal living. No explosions or masks.
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u/mxxiestorc Dec 05 '25
What graphic novels have your friends read where they can be so casually dismissive of an entire medium?
With dinner company like that I’d rather stay home with a pizza and read some comics.
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u/bangondrumschool Dec 05 '25
It maybe sounds more harsh than it really was but it's generally a scenario I encounter a lot. that there is a general snobbery around gn and comics Compared to "Real Books"
I won't even go into people's views on my 9ther interests of gamebooks.... Lone wolf, fabled lands, etc 👀
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u/BigAmuletBlog Dec 07 '25
Graphic novels and game books.. I see you are a fellow man of culture!
Did you know that there are graphic novels that are themselves game books out there? Things like 2000ad Dice Man, 2120 and Jason Shiga's books.
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u/Trashypuppy Dec 05 '25
I think Fun Home is the best graphic novel ever put out. It’s personal, it’s heartbreaking, it’s incredibly well-drawn, and it was made with extensive (and not totally necessary) research. Alison Bechdel is one of the very few comic artists to win the MacArthur Genius Grant, and deservedly so. I’ve heard the sequel “Are you my Mother?” Is great too, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Most of Frank Millers work is pretty incredible too. I know that dudes a bit of a weirdo these days, but his work speaks for itself. His run on daredevil, including The Man Without Fear and Born Again include some of the best single issues of comics I have ever read. All 7 volumes of Sin City are great and incredibly well-written and drawn. And Ronin is an honest-to-god great piece of sci fi literature that happens to come with some incredible artwork on top of that.
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u/Siccar_Point No capes! Dec 05 '25
Fun Home is incredible. It’s definitely “literary” in the referential, character-driven way, but it is also absolutely a graphic novel. The interplay with the art adds a whole extra layer on what text-novels can achieve.
Also, I found it unexpectedly and deeply funny for something that on paper sounds very self serious. And also really easy-reading. So good.
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u/VillageBund Dec 05 '25
People immediately shoot it down at first mention due to Dave Sims history, but Cerebus, in my opinion, is quite possibly the greatest single-creator serialized story in comics.
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u/Repulsive-Goal Dec 05 '25
High Society and the two volumes of Church and State for me belong in any discussion of greatest works of comics.
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u/Aitoroketto Dec 06 '25
Just a few:
Maus
Peanuts
Calvin and Hobbes
Persepolis
Asterios Polyp
Black Hole
From Hell
Love and Rockets
Blacksad
Understanding Comics
Acme Novelty Library
Eightball
Palookaville
Blankets
Clyde Fans
Killing and Dying
Akira
The River at Night
American Splendor
Berlin
It Was the War of the Trenches
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u/Navstar86 Dec 06 '25
Some books that I would list that I haven’t seen others mention are
The Sculptor (criminally underrated imo) Pride of Baghdad
And although they’re not one neat volume. Sandman and Moore’s Swamp-Thing have to be among the best.
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u/TheOwlsLie Dec 05 '25
Corto Maltese
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u/The_Awesome478 Dec 05 '25
This and Eternaut
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u/superrealaccount2 Dec 06 '25
100%. Reading El Eternauta and knowing it came out several years before the much more simplistic, childish and formulaic "revolutionary" 60s Marvel comics is crazy.
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u/Psychological-Gap568 Dec 05 '25
Like film, this is a pretty visual medium, so story is er only half the story without the artist. So I think utilizing both synergistically is the peak of the medium. And what makes comics both unique and often challenging to read. So I think the edge goes to writer-artists; Bone, Sin City, Hellboy great examples that couldn’t be more different.
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u/bangondrumschool Dec 05 '25
Amazing answer. 🤘 Love those 3! Bone is definitely ready for a re-read!
Once I catch up on all the absolute dc series and I have set myself the challenge of reading all spawn before Christmas and Im Only on issue 186 🤦
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u/chas116 Dec 05 '25
What’s the book in the image?
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u/bangondrumschool Dec 05 '25
Black Mumba by Ram V.
Who's new gods run, many deaths of layla star and These savage shores are masterpieces and should be mentioned more too!
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u/GianReotten Dec 06 '25
From those I've read so far:
- Nausicaa
- Transmetropolitan
- Palestine
- Rusty Brown
- Jimmy Corrigan: The smartest kid on earth
- Watchmen
- V for Vendetta
- Neonomicon + Providence
- Sandman
- From Hell
- Monsters
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u/deludedhairspray Dec 06 '25
Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco. Just phenomenal in every conceivable way.
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u/This_Environment2280 Dec 05 '25
Blacksad
World of Edena
Druuna series (adult)
Hellboy Omnibus is very good
Keepers of the Maser
Incal
Metabarons
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u/NC-Slacker Dec 06 '25
Unreal that I had to get this far down before finding the Incal. This masterwork communicates ideas and concepts visually that other literary works struggle to capture.
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Dec 06 '25
Why can't people post what the pic is?
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u/TheDaneOf5683 Cross Game + Duncan The Wonder Dog Dec 06 '25
Looks like it's Black Mumba by Ram V
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u/gam30ver5 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
Maus
The Incal - Moebius work in general
The Adventures of Tin Tin
Barefoot Gen
Showa A History of Japan
Osamu Tezuka's Work
Berserk until Golden Age Arc (later is not bad)
The Sandman
The Killing Joke in its original coloring
Go Nagai's work
Rumiko Takahashi's work
Maybe not but I love lol:
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
Understanding Comics
I feel like classics or literary greats will be comics that are still relevant many years later, because they will still have something of value to transmit to the readers
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u/SwordfishDeux Dec 06 '25
In my opinion, for a comic or manga to even be considered it needs something "extra", it can't just be a "good story"
My go-to is Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa which is about the bombing of Hiroshima, of which Nakazawa personally witnessed and survived (while many of his family perished) and shows the absolute horror of nuclear war through his childhood eyes.
Onwards Towards Our Novel Death by Shigeru Mizuki is another good example. Mizuki served in the Japanese Army during WW2 and this one-shot is about his time during the New Guinea campaign where the soldiers were instructed to die for Japan instead of facing the shame of survival.
Mizuki lost his arm during the war and so all of his manga, including his most popular series, GeGeGe No Kitaro, were created with just one arm.
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u/jb_681131 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
Comics and Mangas that trully revolutionniszed the medium:
- any Manga by Shigeru Mizuki - even if they are all not known in the westworld contries, all manga creator know this early master whith wich modern mangas wouldn't exist - I was really baffled by his Kappa no Sanpei
- Little Nemo in Slumberland by Windsor McCay- the first comics hit of history in the very earlly 20th century
- Amerrican Flagg! by Howard Chaykin - the comics that shook the standards, much more than Watchmen in my opinion - it the the work that inspired the Robocopp franchise
- indie cartoonist Robert Crumb and mainly his Zap Comix.
- Same for indie cartoonist Daniel Clowes and mainly his Eightball anthology comix.
- then the the graphic novels by Will Eisner, he even invented the term - A Contract with God
- as you also mentionned Maus by Art Spiegelman.
- I would include french cartoonist Hergé en his famous Tintin that inspired so many in the european industry and many more around the world
- I would also include the new wave of more adult european comics from the Métal Hurlant comunity - The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky & Meobius, Lone Sloane by Philippe Druillet.
- of course the Dick Tracy by Chester Gould influenced so many. Without him, their woldn't be any Batman.
- same for Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond.
- let's not forget some brilliant strip creators like George Herriman and his Krazy Kat, and Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.
- there are also some modern odd art masterpieces like Asterios polyp by David Mazzucchelli, or anything by the mixed art artist Dave McKean (Arkahm Asylum, Mr Punch, .Cages, Raptor, ...)
- I'll add the influencial mangas 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa, Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka, or Berserk by Kentaro Miura.
- I also have some more recent suggestions like Monsters by Barry Windsor Smith, My Friend Dhamer and Kent State by Derf Backderf, Blanket by Craik Thompson, Bone by Jeff Smith, From Hell by Alan Moore, or Parker by Darwyn Cooke
- Let's not forget some unmissable war comics, Charley's Great War by Patt Mills, Vietnam Journal by Don Lomax, or Johnny Red by Tom Tully.
I probably have missed a lot, but I guess those are my obvious choices.
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u/Shittingboi Dec 06 '25
V for Vendetta, Akira, Blacksad and Monster (by Urasawa) are great choices that come to my mind
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u/seekerghost118 Dec 06 '25
Watchmen, V for Vendetta, MAUS and The Sandman are the obvious choice imho
Then I'd put Pretty Deadly in the list too, because to me that's just how good it is
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u/Graced_Steak564 Dec 06 '25
The Black Hole From Hell Ghost in the Shell Uzumaki Metabarons The Sandman Miracle Man (Alan Moor's 3 Volume run) Alan Moore's Swamp Thing
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u/bangondrumschool Dec 06 '25
I am. Noticing sandman being mentioned less and less.
This would have been my GO TO series.... But honestly it's been a bit... Um... Tainted, sadly.
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u/Graced_Steak564 Dec 06 '25
True, I genuinely haven't been able to pick up my books the same way as before. Separate art from the artist is easier to say until it affects one of you personally imo.
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u/chetdesmon Dec 06 '25
Let snobs scoff at comics. I'd rather comics continue to explore their own identity as opposed to needing to be "literary" which results in some of the most overrated comics in my opinion. The best comics are those that embrace the medium and aren't trying too hard to strive to what snobs put as the epitome of "art" i.e. the novel. It's the same with film and video games, these mediums need to embrace the visual (and audiovisual in the case of film and video games) instead of striving to be "literary" which results in pseudo-intellectual hodgepodge most of the time.
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u/bangondrumschool Dec 06 '25
Wow. Well said! Haha you need a bod cast... Or a deep dive into the in a blog / article format. 🤘
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u/burning_planes Dec 06 '25
This sub is so washed. People think Daytripper has anything to do in the same conversation of literary greats. And they think that about Batman Year One too.
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u/Corvus_Alendar Dec 08 '25
Ive heard split things from others but MONSTERS by Barry Windsor Smith is felt was a phenomenal retrospective on the ripples that trauma can inflict on others.
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u/liquor_ibrlyknoher Dec 05 '25
I recently read Fido Nesti's graphic adaptation of 1984 and I thought it was brilliant.
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u/ComfortableBrain6495 Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25
Black Hole, The Marquis, Whiteout, 5 is the perfect number, Uzumaki, Arkham Asylum, Bone
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u/Fun_Pumpkin_6321 Dec 05 '25
Im interested on what book your showing in the picture please !
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u/Fun_Pumpkin_6321 Dec 06 '25
Well, it seems like it’s part of an anthology with four stories drawn by different artists. Who drew those particular pages we see there ? I’m really digging the style and would like to see more of his stuff
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u/DennGlanzig1138 Dec 05 '25
Clyde Fans by Seth is an excellent piece for convincing fans of “traditional literature,” that comics are a worthwhile medium. I’ve found it’s best to avoid genre fiction entirely when trying to reach certain types in this conversation, and as a result a lot of Drawn and Quarterly pieces do well. Optic Nerve is another series that sticks out.
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u/Cymro007 Dec 05 '25
Needs to be some more Bryan Talbot love here. He’s done such a range of interesting personal, historical, and fantastical works including the birth of the British graphic novel in the legend of Luther arkWright.
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u/The_Awesome478 Dec 05 '25
I would put Alita Battle Angel as my contender, each volume has so much to bring conceptually on various sci-fi and cyberpunk niches.
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u/The_Awesome478 Dec 05 '25
Dororo, Nausicaa, Akira, Billy Bat, and Monster are good contenders as well.
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u/Kyiakhalid Dec 05 '25
What’s the name of the graphic novel in your picture?
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Dec 05 '25
Remind them that A History of Violence is based on a graphic novel. Maybe add Road to Perdition too. If you want to go international, Valerian (see Star Wars Universe overall) and Lone Wolf and Cub (see Mandolorian) are all wildly influential books. The list is endless.
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Dec 06 '25
Tell 'em they're uncultured and if they like movies and books, they have no excuse scoffing at graphic novels.
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Dec 06 '25
Oh, damn, yeah, Bone is a top contender for a literary great as far as graphic novels are going.
The problem you run into is that in the Western world, graphic novels or picture books in general, are looked down on as childish and lesser.
These people are clowns, unwilling to take the story in the medium and applying the same rigours they would apply to a half decent literary novel.
But these people are definitely clowns
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u/Sweet-Bunch-9369 Dec 06 '25
Alec by Eddie Campbell is straight up literary autofiction, and anything by Posy Simmonds.
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u/SaladIsSalad404 The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
Yeah, it's pretty hard to find the literary often camouflaged in whimsy. But I can try, serious titles are still overrepresented:
Blueberry / World of Edena / Inside Mœbius
Eisner's Contract with God trilogy
Corto Maltese
You Are There
Ducks
Zahra's Paradise
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Moore's work in general, as the intertextuality and thematic is on a whole other level)
Sandman
Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
Philémon
Blast!
Berserk
The Eternaut
Soul Upgrade (not my first choice, but many would add it)
Cerebus
Tintin (I feel like Hergé doesn't get as much credit as the other BeNeLux Bande Dessinées)
Hellboy
Kabuki
Ghost in the Shell
Lone Wolf and Cub
Deathnote
Goodnight Punpun
Hunter X Hunter (very innovative within manga's conventions)
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u/WaffleIronChef Dec 06 '25
The graphic novel of Moby Dick is absolutely amazing. It does a great job using the art form since so much of the novel is just describing the days at sea.
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u/TheDaneOf5683 Cross Game + Duncan The Wonder Dog Dec 06 '25
so much of the novel is just describing the days at sea
But very little of the novel is describing days at sea
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u/CanadianJediCouncil Dec 06 '25
What graphic novel is the image from in the post? (image shows a Mumbai Police vehicle)
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u/Ok-Scientist3601 Dec 06 '25
Cerebus church and state volumes 1 and 2. I don't know why cerebus doesn't get more love. Issues 26-200 is one of the biggest masterpieces in comics history.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Way5839 Dec 06 '25
I always thought it was neat that Watchmen was on Time's list of 100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century.
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u/DrDumle Dec 06 '25
I honestly feel like graphic novels have a very high amount of genius works compared to “good” literature.
It’s the combination of images and text that often transcends the text alone. And those who do both the art and writing at a high level are just at a completely different level from normal writers.
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u/Negamii Dec 06 '25
For me the work of Osamu Tezuka has a very distinctly literary quality to it: Buddha, MW, Black Jack, Dororo, Phoenix, Alabaster etc. He has a huge body of work and the writing quality is amazing and closer to actual literature than any other manga or graphic novels I’ve read.
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u/SoreSpores Dec 06 '25
Sabrina by Nick Drnaso is worth mentioning as the first graphic novel to make the Booker longlist
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u/taklamakan666 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
Yoshiharu Tsuge, Germán Oesterheld, Hugo Pratt, and a thousand more… Literary sequential art is not rare at all. It’s just considered alternative, and sometimes it’s published by independent publishers and not sold on Amazon but only directly through the publishers’ websites — that is, it falls under the umbrella of the underground. I started reading and collecting “high-brow” manga, fumetto, tebeo, BD about five years ago, and I filled an entire wall of my house. It’s a whole different world — vast and deeply satisfying.
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u/Wild-Drag1930 Dec 06 '25
Skreemer by Peter Milligan. It is about the life of a post apacalyptic Mobster (more of a warlord in Pin Stripes) contrasted with a normal family that has to survive under his reign.
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u/DrAtomik85 Dec 06 '25
BLAST by Manu Larcenet
Absolute life changing masterpiece. I read it years ago and still think about it almost every week.
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u/adamszymcomics Dec 06 '25
Bit silly of your friends to be snobs about comics when they have the most cliche and obvious touchstones for great literature imaginable.
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u/MATT_TRIANO Dec 07 '25
Here's a short list to start:
FROM HELL Moore/Campbell
MONSTERS Barry Windsor Smith
CITY OF GLASS Auster/Karasik/Mazzucchelli
ASTERIOS POLYP Mazzucchelli
GOOD-BYE Yoshihiro Tatsumi
NIGHT FISHER R. Kikuo Johnson
SIN CITY Frank Miller
WE3 Morrison/Quitely
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u/Gullible-Tomorrow832 Dec 07 '25
This one might be a little odd, but Catherine Anyango-Grunewald’s “Heart of Darkness” (2010). It’s such a good de-colonised version of Conrad’s original (1899): the intense use of pencil, erasers, the texture of the paper; the beautiful and humanised portrayal of the black Congolese characters, which Conrad had eroticised and objectivised in his novel; the fact that the text is taken from not only “Heart of Darkness” but also Conrad’s “Congo Diary” (1890), which contextualises so much of the novel. It’s so truly beautiful.
Since first reading it, every time Heart of Darkness is mentioned, I can’t not think about this version first.
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u/UpbeatEmployment84 Dec 08 '25
First, a question: what’s the graphic novel you feature in the lead to this discussion?
Two, an answer to your intriguing question:
Watchmen Maus Daytripper A Walk Through Hell Swamp Thing Hellblazer Rare Flavors The Human Target (miniseries) Letter 44 Global Planetary
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u/Yermis73 Dec 08 '25
Assorted crisis Events is a new all timer, only 6 issues in and each one is a all time great imo.
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u/No_Cake6353 Dec 08 '25
So many good ones mentioned here. I loved; March, A Fire Story and The Dark Knight Returns. All open my eyes or moved me in different ways
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u/cderhammerhill Dec 08 '25
Essex County Onward to our Noble Deaths Seconds Blankets I Kill Giants Watchmen Moonshadow Fun Home
All magnificent, literary works.
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u/belvillain Dec 09 '25
I feel that Alan Moore is a literary great. You named 2 of his works in the op. Promethea is a fantastic later work, my personal favorite is his run of Swamp Thing. Grant Morrison writes very well, dare I say that the Chris Claremont run of X Men is absolutely fantastic story telling.
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u/Boring-Philosopher43 Dec 10 '25
Anything from Alan Moore The Sand Man Saga Arkham Asylum Batman The Dark Knight Returns
Some of these have better prose than some of the books people deem "classics".
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u/bangondrumschool Dec 11 '25
Thank you all for your replies! There are some INCREDIBLE Recommendations here!!
I can I form you all however that some really surprising lesser mentioned ones are there:
Tongues - Abders Nilsen The witches Egg -Donya Todd Big Pool -Chris Harnan
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u/ozzysince1901 Dec 06 '25
Most "Real Books" are derivative, badly written, with poor characterisation/motivation etc. If they had some nice pictures they might have some redeeming qualities.
With both comics and books my only litmus test is does it allow me to lose myself in the world which the author has created? If they achieve that then job done.
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u/Muffo99 Dec 05 '25
20th Century Boys
Berserk
Saga (even tho it's unfinished)
East of West
Watchmen
Edit: I liked Akira but can't understand why people would call it one of the greats. It's a popular manga and was probably one of the most popular ever at the time of release but I feel there are better stories out there. The ending of Akira wasn't amazing imo
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u/Malharvader Dec 06 '25
Anyone who doesn't think that Graphic Novels are art and high literature is still stuck on the same idea of literature their 8th grade English teacher gave them.
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