Doug's Book'd Lists

Graphic Novels You May Have to Look For in Adult Fiction

Created by Doug - Updated on June 23^rd 2017

Graphic novels, mostly of the superhero variety, are about the only books I seem to be able to get through these days. These are, for the most part, void of superheroes yet chock full of adventure, excitement, tragedy, and humor, all containing a terrific interplay between words and pictures.

Six novels in woodcuts

Ward, Lynd, 1905-1985.

From the Publisher

Two volumes consisting of six wordless woodcut novels of Lynd Ward.

My Thoughts

I had to include this one first, right (heckuva segue if I do say so myself). Amazing the measure of emotion that bursts from these wordless books.

Fun home : a family tragicomic

Bechdel, Alison, 1960-

From the Publisher

This breakout book by Alison Bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Bechdel's sweetly gothic drawings. Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately...

The Daniel Clowes reader : a critical edition of Ghost world and other stories, with essays, interviews and annotations

Clowes, Daniel.

From the Publisher

The collection also includes more than a dozen highly accessible critical essays that examine, from several perspectives, Clowes's comics and place his body of work within numerous biographical, artistic, and cultural contexts, such the 1980s and '90s indie DIYmovement, Generation X philosophy, and the traditions of superhero, humor, and alternative comics. Few, if any, cartoonists have Clowes's range: the collection includes a graphic novel, slice-of life short stories, comic rants, cultural...

Buddy does Seattle

Bagge, Peter.

From the Publisher

These legendary stories, from the classic first fifteen issues of Bagge's Hate comic, are a defining icon of Seattle's early 1990s culture (the Seattle Weekly has written, "20 years from now, when people wonder what it was like to be young in 1990s Seattle, the only record we'll have is Hate."), as well as Generation X in general (as seen in such films as Kids and Pecker). This is the first time these hilarious stories, starring the hapless Buddy Bradley and his cast of loser cohorts, have ever...

Batman Noir : the killing joke

Moore, Alan, 1953- author.

From the Publisher

"Alan Moore takes on some of DC's most classic characters, offering his unforgettable version of the disturbing relationship between the Dark Knight and his greatest foe, the Joker. In this groundbreaking work, Moore creates a twisted tale of insanity and human perseverance. Looking to prove that any man can be pushed past his breaking point to madness, the Joker attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon insane. Refusing to give up, Gordon struggles to maintain his sanity with the help of Batman...

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Vol. I, 1898

Moore, Alan, 1953-

From the Publisher

It's 1898 and at the behest of M, the mysterious head of the secret Service, Campion Bond is dispatched to procure the services of Miss Mina Murray (nee Harker), adventurer Allan Quartermain, "Science-Pirate" Captain Nemo, Henry Jekyll (and his monstrous alter ego) and Hawley Griffin (a.k.a. the Invisible Man). Together, they must combat an insidious threat that will decide supremacy of the London skies, but their success may unleash a far greater threat.

Nemo : heart of ice

Moore, Alan, 1953-

From the Publisher

It's 1925, fifteen long years since Janni Dakkar first tried to escape the legacy of her dying science-pirate father, only to accept her destiny as the new Nemo, captain of the legendary Nautilus. Now, tired of her unending spree of plunder and destruction, Janni launches a grand expedition to surpass her father's greatest failure: the exploration of Antarctica. Hot on her frozen trail are a trio of genius inventors, hired by an influential publishing tycoon to retrieve the plundered valuables...

Y : the last man. Book 1, Unmanned

Vaughan, Brian K.

From the Publisher

In the summer of 2002, a plague of unknown origin destroyed every last sperm, fetus, and fully developed mammal with a Y chromosome-with the apparent exception of one young man and his male pet. This "gendercide" instantaneously exterminated 48% of the global population, or approximately 2.9 billion men. Now, aided by the mysterious Agent 355, the last human male Yorick Brown must contend with dangerous extremists, a hoped-for reunion with a girlfriend on the other side of the globe, and the...

Miss Don't Touch Me : [the complete story]

Hubert, 1971-

From the Publisher

"In 1930s Paris, the 'Butcher of the Dances' is on the prowl for young, loose women, and local dominatrix Agatha suddenly turns up dead. Everyone assumes it was suicide, but her sister Blanche is convinced that the Butcher is responsible. She decides to take matters into her own hands, and in her pursuit, she ends up hired into a luxury house of call-girls. She soon becomes adept at certain practices, but she does not lose sight of her ultimate goal--to find her sister's killer."--Amazon.com.

Beauty

Hubert, 1971-

From the Publisher

"When Coddie unintentionally delivers a fairy from a spell that held her prisoner, she does not realize how poisoned the wish is she gets in return. From repulsive and stinking of fish she becomes perceived as magnetically beautiful, which does not help her in her village. A young local lord saves her but soon it becomes apparent her destiny may be far greater" -- publisher's web site.

Stitches : a memoir--

Small, David, 1945-

From the Publisher

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had throat cancer and was expected to die. Small, a prize-winning children's author, re-creates a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. Readers will be riveted by his journey from speechless victim, subjected to X-rays by his...

The private eye

Vaughan, Brian K., author.

From the Publisher

"A detective story set in 2076, when everyone in the United States has a secret identity"-- Publisher's website.

Kill my mother : a graphic novel

Feiffer, Jules.

From the Publisher

When three daunting dolls intersect with one hapless heroine and a hard-boiled private eye, deception, betrayal, and murder stalk every mean street.