When was the last time that you read a book—textbooks excluded—with lots of pictures in it? I bet you had to think back to elementary school. Well, my answer would be four days ago, and no, it wasn’t a children’s picture book. It was a graphic novel. A graphic novel is essentially a comic book that can be either fiction or non-fiction. The style of the book is entirely up to the illustrator and/or writer (who are often the same person).
I fell in love with graphic novels accidentally. I read some Japanese manga when I was younger and a few superhero comic books just for fun. But it wasn’t until last year, when my English professor assigned my class an excerpt from Maus by Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman, that I became curious about comics. After reading both Maus books, I fell in love with the genre and thus began my quest to read as many of the great graphic novels as I could.
As I read more from the genre, I became eager to share my passion with other people my age. However, whenever I mentioned graphic novels to my friends, they looked at me kind of strangely. One friend, who didn’t understand why I found them appealing, asked: “Can’t you finish them in just one day?” Yes, that’s true. Since graphic novels are primarily made up of drawings, you can finish reading them in a matter of hours. But that doesn’t make them any less significant or less challenging than other books.
I frequently read graphic novels while on the subway, and after awhile, I’ve noticed people giving me odd looks. I think it’s because people believe that comics are just for kids or that they’re only about superheroes. They couldn’t be more wrong! The comics listed below deal with the Holocaust, immigrant identity, ghosts, racism, sex, and body image, among other things. These stories are just as relevant and say just as much about the human condition as any full-length novel.
Back in September, Art Spiegelman and Jules Feiffer (another legendary cartoonist) gave a talk during the Brooklyn Book Festival. (You can read my article about the BBF here.) I went to another event right before theirs so by the time I got to the venue, there was a huge line around the block. Although I was sad that I couldn’t go see them, I was also super happy that people showed so much enthusiasm for comics.
There’s no doubt that comics, especially in the form of graphic novels, are becoming more and more popular among all age groups. I think people are beginning to see that the comics world is not just about superheroes or aliens, but also addresses issues that are relevant to all kinds of people. The combination of text and drawings brings us back to childhood while simultaneously discussing “adult” issues.
Here is a list some of my favorite graphic novels (in no particular order) that I’ve read this past year:
1. Art Spiegelman, Maus I and Maus II
In this harrowing portrayal of the Holocaust, Spiegelman tells his father’s tales of horror with incredible simplicity and poignancy. Jews are portrayed as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs. Many stories have been told about the Holocaust in the traditional book format, but the drawings of the anthropomorphized animals in this novel take Spiegelman’s tale to a completely new level. Spiegelman also portrays his difficult relationship with his father in the years before his death.
2. Will Eisner, A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories
A Hasidic Jewish man loses both his daughter and his faith in God. A young street singer meets a former opera singer who promises to get him into show business. A spiteful and anti-Semitic super gets what he deserves when a tenant’s niece comes to visit. A group of Jewish immigrants travel to the Catskill Mountains for a summer vacation and drama ensues. These stories, inspired by Eisner’s own experiences growing up in the Bronx tenements, show the complexities of the early Jewish-American experience. The drawings of blocks of tenement buildings and dozens of worried, passionate, and hopeful Jewish immigrant faces are unfiltered and honest.
Fun fact: The term “graphic novel” became popular after the publication of A Contract with God in 1978.
3. Marjane Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis
Satrapi tells the story of her childhood and adolescence in the years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Her drawings show her growing up in a changed and often violent Iran, where she and other girls are forced to wear a veils. Despite the restrictions placed upon Satrapi and other Iranians, the author’s imagination and desire to learn allow her to survive. The illustrations are almost child-like— simple black and white with exaggerated physical characteristics. This style makes for an authentic portrayal of the events experienced by a young Satrapi.
4. Vera Brosgol, Anya’s Ghost
Anya never quite feels like she belongs among her richer and cooler classmates. One day, she falls into a well and meets the ghost of a girl who died nearly a century ago. She is happy to have a new friend to keep her company and help her out in school. However, their friendship soon becomes suffocating when the ghost becomes just a little too comfortable living through Anya. Brosgol manages to create a novel that is a combination of teen fiction, horror, and comedy. Her artwork—dark colors mixed in with glowing whites—matches the spookiness of the novel.
5. Trina Robbins, Anne Timmons, and Mo Oh, Lily Renee, Escape Artist
Lily Renée, a young girl growing up in 1930s Austria, comes from a rich family and is constantly immersed in the artistic world of Vienna. The problem? Her family is Jewish, and the Nazis have just invaded Austria. Lily’s parents send her off to England so that she will be safe during the war. The next few years of her life are filled with many challenges as she tries to find a place for herself in numerous new environments. The graphic novel format is appropriate for Lily’s story because she eventually becomes one of the first women to enter the comic book world. Based on the true story of a comic book pioneer, this brightly colored novel is geared toward younger readers.
6. Julie Maroh, Blue is the Warmest Color
In the early 1990s, a French teenage girl lives a “normal” life with her parents and her friends until she encounters a girl with blue hair. There is an instant attraction between Clementine and the blue-haired Emma. Before Emma enters her life, Clementine’s world is portrayed in shades of brown and gray with bits of bright blue. But when they begin their passionate and tumultuous relationship, Clementine’s world is suddenly filled with color. Maroh’s drawings are crafted with a raw honesty and vulnerability that makes us care for these young women, who are desperately trying to find a place for their love in a world that is not always welcoming.
7. Joseph Joffo and Vincent Bailly, A Bag of Marbles
In 1941, Paris is occupied by Nazi Germany, and life becomes increasingly difficult for the French Jews who call the city their home. In the middle of the rising tension and fear, two young Jewish boys are sent to stay with their older brothers in an unoccupied part of France. Their journey is marked by constant fear of being identified as Jews, and they only survive by their wit and bravery. With their full-color illustrations, Joffo and Bailly portray two boys who lose their childhood innocence but ultimately triumph.
8. Leela Corman, Unterzakhn
One hundred years ago, the Lower East Side was brimming with a Jewish immigrant population that desperately clung to the traditions left behind in Eastern Europe, but also yearned to achieve the American Dream. Corman depicts the lives of Fanya and Esther, twin Jewish girls who grow up in the chaos and confusion of tenement life. From a young age, the two girls diverge in the paths they take to survive in this new and often unforgiving city. Through Corman’s black-and-white drawings, we witness the sisters’ quests to figure out what it means to be a Jewish immigrant woman at the turn of the twentieth century.
9. Lesley Fairfield, Tyranny
At a time when everyone is talking about our generation’s body image crisis, Fairfield takes us deep into the mind of a young woman struggling with an eating disorder. Anna is just a regular girl who believes she is too fat and must lose weight. As her dieting quickly turns into starvation, Anna is consumed by a horrible cycle of self-loathing. Fairfield’s drawings show the rapid degradation of Anna’s self-esteem and body with a quiet poignancy.
10. Lucy Knisley, Relish and French Milk
Knisley was lucky enough to grow up with parents who introduced her to the art of cooking at a young age. In Relish, she tells the reader about her childhood spent in the kitchen, watching her parents and their friends use food as a way to connect people. She also provides recipes at the end of each chapter. In French Milk, Knisley and her mother go on a delectable tour of Paris when she is in college. Both novels are incredibly funny and thought-provoking, with great artwork that will make you fall in love with Knisley’s world.
Art Spiegelman’s incredible body of work is on display in the exhibition “Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix: A Retrospective” at The Jewish Museum from November 8, 2013 – March 23, 2014. More information can be found here.
