You’re an adult. You like macchiatos and free form jazz. You pay rent. You do your taxes. You have a skin care routine. You learned to put away childish things long ago. As such, you’d never be caught dead reading comics – you’re not some sticky fingered middle schooler. No, an adult like you reads graphic novels. They’re like comics, but grown up. They’re critically acclaimed. They win Pulitzers Prizes. It doesn’t matter if they’re about horny aliens, demonic sapphics, or journalists with drug problems – they’re all incredibly mature. Here are the 10 best graphic novels for adults – anyone who sees you reading one of these on train will think you’re a total success.
Akira
Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo might be about a group of teenage vagrants, but I assure you, these youngsters deal with some very adult things. After all, what could be more adult than uncovering the eldritch truth of absolute reality? In the cyberpunk city of Neo Tokyo, biker gangs rule. While warring with a rival gang, a young biker named Tetsuo comes into contact with an escaped government experiment that gives him psychic powers. I’m not talking the spoon bending parlor trick kind of psychic, this is real deal “peel back the veil” cosmic horror stuff. As Tetsuo’s powers grow exponentially, he friends attempt to rein him in before he loses control and does something really wild – like blow up the city. We can’t have that, how are adults like you supposed to get any work done if your office building is in cinders?
Hark! A Vagrant
A compilation of the long-running webcomic by Kate Beaton, Hark! A Vagrant proves that even mature adults need a good, mature laugh from time to time. But this isn’t some bottom of the barrel slapstick, no, this comedy is intelligently based around historical figures! Napoleon Bonaparte, Edward Allen Poe, a random assortment of Medieval monks, all these characters and more appear! But don’t worry, this isn’t some dry history text. Some of the historical characters even use modern day curse words (a modern day adult’s favorite kind of words!) For those of you who like to chortle at a good New Yorker comic (and what adult doesn’t?) Beaton’s work is certain to tickle your funnybone – which has likely shrunk from underuse in this hard, adult world. Silly, sweet and satirical – let this graphic novel mend you from the inside.
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
Author Emil Ferris began writing My Favorite Thing Is Monsters after she contracted West Nile virus, which left her paralyzed. Over a period of six years, she created the graphic novel – which aided her recovery process. It’s the story of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, a 10 year old horror-lover who had a brush with true terror after discovering that someone killed her upstairs neighbor. As Karen attempts to solve the murder of Anka Silverberg, a Holocaust survivor, a series of interconnected stories begin unfolding around her. Jumping back and forth from the present to the past days of Nazi Germany, the graphic novel weaves a monstrous web of intrigue that only a bonafide monster enthusiast can untangle. This novel depicts an adult world seen through the eyes of a precocious child – a child that has seen far more than someone her age ever should.
Kill Six Billion Demons
Tom Parkinson Morgan’s Kill Six Billion Demons is more than just a graphic novel – it’s a spiritual text, a martial arts manual, and a sapphic romance rolled into one. This is the story of Allison Ruth, a barista who was kidnapped by a runaway god and taken to Heaven – a decaying city in the center of the multiverse. Imbued with newfound divine power, Allison is charged with defeating the Demiurges – seven divinities who each control 111,111 of the 777,777 universes that make up existence. That’s far too many universes for a young adult to save on her own – she’ll need the help of an angelic marital arts teacher, a demonic spell caster/sapphic lover, and her sort-of boyfriend Zaid. While awakening her divine power, she’s also awakening her bisexuality – she’s still figuring it out.
Watchmen
Alan Moore’s Watchmen is graphic novel royalty, widely considered to be one of the greatest (if not the greatest) works in the medium. It’s the story of a group of superheroes past their prime, fallen from grace after public scandals, personal tragedies and government crackdowns ended their vigilante careers. After one of their number is brutally murdered, the remnants of the once-famous Watchmen must come together to figure out the crime. At its core, Watchmen is a deconstruction of the superhero myth, a story about how even the seemingly infallible can fail anyway. These heroes were hard-done by the world the world they tried to save, and as their dark histories are once again drawn out of the shadows, they discover that they may need to take up cape and cowl and try saving it a second time.
Monstress
An art-deco masterpiece set in mythic East Asia, Marjorie M. Liu’s Monstress is the story of a society at war. In this 20th century matriarchy, humans are locked in conflict with the Arcanics – beings that can pass for human that serve as magical batteries for human sorcerers. Not content to be a Duracell with legs, young Maika Halfwolf hides her Arcanic nature while pursuing her quest to avenge her dead mother. She’s aided by the power of a demonic being that resides in the stump of her severed left arm, a psychic monster that will take total control of her body if she’s not careful. Facing your own inner demons is an adult thing to do, after all. For most of us, our inner demons stay inside, but Maika isn’t so lucky.
Transmetropolitan
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis is the story of Spider Jerusalem, a drug-sniffin’, muck-slingin’, power-fightin’ journalist in the 23rd century. After sobering up from the mother of all drug benders, Spider returns to The City to root out political corruption one article at a time. After reporting on shady police practices, Spider becomes the target of Gary Callahan – a public presidential candidate and private sociopath. Armed to the teeth with only his wits, Spider sets out to prove once and for all that the pen is mightier than the sword. Though rocket launchers work pretty well, too. And guns that forcibly loosen people’s bowels – he’s got one of those as well. When you’re diving deep into the city’s criminal underbelly, things have a way of getting messy.
Saga
Saga by Brian K. Vaughn is the ultimate space opera, a star-crossed romance between two lovers on opposite sides of an interplanetary war. Alana and Marko are enemy soldiers turned proud parents, defecting from their respective armies with their newborn baby in tow. As the couple seek safety in a hostile universe, they’re met with a host of belligerents from past and present. Their old comrades want them dead, and their governments have placed a bounty on their heads. What makes Alana and Marko so dangerous? Their union is bad for war propaganda – their happy family shows that there’s a possibility of peace. If you’re an adult looking to settle down with you boo, make sure to read Saga first, so you’re fully prepared for the realities of starting a family. You might get hunted down by intergalactic robots with retro T.V.’s for heads. As a couple, you need to need to be prepared for anything.
Fun Home
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel is a non-fiction examination of the author’s relationship with her father, an English teacher and funeral director who spent most of his life closeted. Not long after Bruce Bechdel came out to his family, he died of apparent suicide, leaving his estranged daughter to pick up the pieces of the life he left behind. Throughout the novel, Alison reexamines her fraught relationship with her father, wondering how things could have been different had he been more open with his feelings. It’s an elegiac read that fluctuates between devastating and devastatingly funny, a portrait of a woman struggling with the weight of her stirred-up emotions, attempting to reconcile all the things left unsaid.
Uzumaki
The magnum opus of one of Japan’s most celebrated horror writers, Jung Ito’s Uzumaki relies on simplicity to serve up scares. No ghosts, monsters or demons here – the villain in this novel is simple geometry: a spiral. The village of Kurouzu-cho is cursed by the shape, and misfortune comes whenever spirals appear. What’s so nefarious about a little whirly line? When the townsfolk start mutating into spiral shelled snails and people’s faces turn into swirling vortexes that suck things in, the seemingly innocuous bit of geometry becomes a big problem. As paranoia rises, some townsfolk begin to fear spirals are taking root inside their bodies. There’s a spiral shaped part of the inner-ear known as the cochlea – what happens when people start tearing their skulls apart in an attempt to rip it out? Nothing good.
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