Science, the pursuit of smart people, isn’t always an easy thing to understand. Science fiction novels are no exception. Time dilation? Wormholes? Three-body problems? It’s overwhelming. You know what can soften the blow of hard sci-fi? Pretty pictures! Just let all those quantum conundrums and higher math morasses wash right over you, and ease your mind with gorgeous images of stars and galaxies. You don’t need to be a physicist to see that space is mind-bogglingly beautiful. These 10 best sci-fi graphic novels put the beauty of science on full display, without having to rely on all those pesky smart people words. Reading is for chumps. Looking at pictures? That’s what art is all about.
Watchmen
Often hailed as the greatest graphic novel of all time, Alan Moore’s Watchmen lives up to its reputation. This ain’t your grandma’s superhero story. The moral line between good and evil in this narrative is thinner than a sheet of paper that got run over by a tractor trailer. The plot revolves around a group of superheroes who have long since fallen from grace, thrown together again after one of their number was murdered. In order to solve the crime, and quell the rising wave of superhero antipathy in the hero-sick populace, the gang will need to get to the bottom of this blood-sticky mystery – all while trying to keep their capes clean. It doesn’t go as planned. A dark noire thriller that dabbles in quantum physics, Watchmen is the series that spawned some of the grimmest superhero tropes. Without it, shows like The Boys simply wouldn’t exist.
Akira
One of the most seminal cyberpunk stories ever told, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is a titan of the sci-fi genre. The plot takes place in Neo-Tokyo, which was built upon the old city’s ruins after it was destroyed in a world war. Sadly, the city was unable to pull a Biden and build back better, and the lawless streets are ruled by roving biker gangs. One of these motor-cyclical delinquents, a boy named Tetsuo, has his horizons expanded after running into an escaped government experiment while racing around town. And by “expanded” I don’t mean “he now sees there’s more to life than being a miscreant,” I mean “expanded” as in “he’s developing psychic powers at an alarmingly fast rate that will soon cause a tragedy of cosmically horrible proportions.” What starts as a crime caper turns into a story about the fundamental workings of reality, and then threatens to tear that reality apart. Moral of the story, kids: stay in school, and don’t mess with top secret government biz.
Saga
Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga is part sci-fi epic, part steamy romance, and part found family drama. The plot revolves around two star-crossed lovers who hail from warring worlds, who defect from their respective militaries with their newborn child in tow. Hunted by those they once held allegiance to, Alana and Marko must seek out refuge in an unforgiving star system populated by aliens that make Star Wars’ whacky cosmic denizens seem tame. Romance novel writing cyclopses, ghost nannies, psychic baby seals, Alana and Marko have to contend with them all. The course of true love never did run smooth, sometimes it has to run away from a hostile empire of robots with retro T.V.’s for heads. Such is Alana and Marko’s plight, and such is why Saga is an amazing read.
Transmetropolitan
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis is the story of Spider Jerusalem, a drug-doin’, muckslingin’, crime fightin’ journalist who doesn’t play by the rules. When you live in a city as a corrupt as Spider’s, rules are hardly worth listening to in the first place. Armed with a whacky array of sci-fi gadgets (including a gun that forcibly loosens the target’s bowels) Spider roots out political scandals and stamps out corruption before it can fester. It’s a 23rd century hard-boiled detective story, but the “detective” in question has no government authority whatsoever. When you’re working to take down a rotten government, being totally unqualified by the powers that be is a qualification in its own right.
The Nikopol Trilogy
Are you into beautiful French graphic novels about blue haired people? While it’s not a sequel to Blue Is The Warmest Color, The Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal is the next best thing. The plot follows Alcide Nikopol, a former prisoner freshly awoken from cryogenic sleep. After snoozing for 30 years in penal planetary orbit, he returns to Paris to find that her city has been overtaken by a fascist regime. In a world that’s suffered under two nuclear wars already, things like this can happen. What no one expected to happen was the appearance of a pyramid-shaped spaceship hovering over the city, populating the streets with Egyptian gods. Yes, the conspiracy theorists were right, the pyramids really ARE connected to ancient extraterrestrials, and through a gorgeous graphic novel trilogy, you’re about to find out how.
Planetes
Alien robots? Ancient gods? Star-crossed romance? Makoto Yukimura’s Planetes doesn’t have time for any of that. This hard science graphic novel takes space opera tropes and jettisons them out the airlock, leaving a grounded narrative based in real physics behind. The plot follows the crew of the DS-12 “Toy Box,” a spaceship under the employ of the Space Debris Section of a massive corporation. The Toy Box is responsible for cleaning up space junk, everything from trashed satellites to derelict ships. While crew eventually finds themselves caught up in a space terrorist attack, the major focus of the novel isn’t what happens to these astronauts, but how they respond to it. A psychological and cerebral novel, Planetes examines the trauma that can be caused by the lonely and dangerous life of an astronaut. It’s a glimpse into a sci-fi psyche, and an examination of humanity’s (in)ability to cope with a realm that our monkey-evolved brains were never supposed to inhabit.
On A Sunbeam
First released as a webcomic, Tillie Walden’s On A Sunbeam occupies the same realm of soft, hope-core sci-fi pioneered by author Becky Chambers. Taking a page out of The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet, this graphic novel follows a found family group of astronauts that serve as an interstellar maintenance crew. The crew’s newest member is Mia, an emotionally reserved young woman whose cool demeanor hides a passion-filled past. Through a series of non-linear flashbacks, we learn that Mia is on this ship not because a fiery devotion for space clean-up, but because of her fiery devotion to a long lost lover, who she hopes to find somewhere among the stars. Introspective, and lyrical, and deeply moving, On A Sunbeam shines warm solar radiation right into the heart.
The Incal
Written by avant-garde film legend Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Incal is the surrealist love child of Star Wars and Dune. The story is set on a backwater planet in an intergalactic empire, and centers around a man named John DiFool, who difoolishly spent his youth in juvenile delinquency before deciding to become a detective under the tutelage of a cybernetic cop. While traipsing about the city, he’s given a mysterious artifact called the “Luminous Incal” by a dying mutant – an artifact that is sought after by multiple human and alien factions. On the run from those who would take the Incal for their own benefit, John is caught up in a quest to use the artifact’s powers to defeat an alien evil. It’s a wild story that refuses to hold the reader’s hand through its complex plot, but just keep running after the narrative and you’ll catch up – and be greatly rewarded when you do.
We3
Written by comic book legend Grant Morrison, We3 is the story of three adorable animals turned into devastating weapons. Outfitted with cybernetic suits, a dog, a cat, and a rabbit are given an arsenal of hi-tech weaponry in order to carry out clandestine assassinations for the U.S. government. After the trio successfully eliminate enemies of the state, the animals themselves are scheduled for termination in order to make room for newer models. Rather than euthanize the animals, the scientist who created them sets them free out of love. Now these robo-pets must survive in a grim sci-fi future, hunted by the government that created them. Unlike most housebroken critters, this trio intends to be anything but obedient.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Before it became a criminally underrated Studio Ghibli movie, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was a criminally underrated graphic novel first! Set in a world covered by toxic, insect-ridden desert, the plot follows Nausicaä, a young princess hailing from one of the last habitable environmental zones on the planet. After her homeland goes to war with a neighboring kingdom, Nausicaä is thrown into a quest to discover the true source of the environmental corruption, and make peace with the intelligent insects that call it their home. While the Ghibli film is brilliant in its own right, the original manga is an in-depth expansion of the film’s world. For anyone looking to journey further into one of fantasy’s most fascinating environments, let Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind fill your sails.
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