101 Outstanding Graphic Novels

Provides bibliographic information on more than one hundred graphic novels.

The popular primer on the best graphic novels, initially called The 101 Best Graphic Novels, is back in its third updated edition. Expert librarian Stephen Weiner—with the crowdsourcing help of professionals in the field, from artists to critics to leading comic store owners—has sifted through the bewildering thousands of graphic novels now available to come up with an outstanding, not-to-be-missed 101. With an all-encompassing variety of genres, including both fiction and nonfiction, this serves as a great introduction to this increasingly influential world of pop culture and entertainment while also serving as a reference list for fans on what they may have possibly overlooked.

Provides a concise guide to the best graphic novels that are currently in print and available, written by an enthusiast and expert in this popular field.

Will Eisner, Neil Gaiman, Scott McCloud and…Hellboy? In his new collection, Will the Real Will Eisner Please Stand Up? Award-winning author Stephen Weiner (The Will Eisner Companion, Hellboy: the Companion) writes about Will Eisner, Neil Gaiman, Scott McCloud, and the NECON conference of 1998. Other pieces include a history of Weiner’s avocation as a comics’ librarian/historian, comics and an exceptional child, and an outtake from Hellboy: the Companion.

Covering genres from adventure and fantasy to horror, science fiction, and superheroes, this guide maps the vast terrain of graphic novels, describing and organizing titles to help librarians balance their graphic novel collections and direct patrons to read-alikes. New subgenres, new authors, new artists, and new titles appear daily in the comic book and manga world, joining thousands of existing titles—some of which are very popular and well-known to the enthusiastic readers of books in this genre. How do you determine which graphic novels to purchase, and which to recommend to teen and adult readers? This updated guide is intended to help you start, update, or maintain a graphic novel collection and advise readers about the genre. Containing mostly new information as compared to the previous edition, the book covers iconic super-hero comics and other classic and contemporary crime fighter-based comics; action and adventure comics, including prehistoric, heroic, explorer, and Far East adventure as well as Western adventure; science fiction titles that encompass space opera/fantasy, aliens, post-apocalyptic themes, and comics with storylines revolving around computers, robots, and artificial intelligence. There are also chapters dedicated to fantasy titles; horror titles, such as comics about vampires, werewolves, monsters, ghosts, and the occult; crime and mystery titles regarding detectives, police officers, junior sleuths, and true crime; comics on contemporary life, covering romance, coming-of-age stories, sports, and social and political issues; humorous titles; and various nonfiction graphic novels.

The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel explores the important role of the graphic novel in reflecting American society and in the shaping of the American imagination. Using key examples, this volume reviews the historical development of various subgenres within the graphic novel tradition and examines how graphic novelists have created multiple and different accounts of the American experience, including that of African American, Asian American, Jewish, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ communities. Reading the American graphic novel opens a debate on how major works have changed the idea of America from that once found in the quintessential action or superhero comics to show new, different, intimate accounts of historical change as well as social and individual, personal experience. It guides readers through the theoretical text-image scholarship to explain the meaning of the complex borderlines between graphic novels, comics, newspaper strips, caricature, literature, and art.

Introduction by Will Eisner, edited by Chris Couch. It took a few years of false starts, but now it's official: the graphic novel form is the fastest growing new area in publishing. Stephen Weiner (author of The 101 Best Graphic Novels), grabs hold of this rising meteor to offer his readers a historical tour of this format with a bit of background on comics as a whole.

The groundbreaking history of the graphic novel, fully updated to include all of the latest must-reads, the milestones and the future of this exciting medium. The author of 101 Best Graphic Novels now tells the whole history of the graphic novel revolution, from the first modern urban autobiographical graphic novel, Will Eisner's A Contract With God, to the hip indie comics of the Hernandez Bros' Love and Rockets, the dark mysteries of Neil Gaiman's Sandman and the postmodern superheroics of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight.