Covering a wide range of genres from science fiction and fantasy to crime and horror our recommended reading list by Stephen L. Holland, our Comics Laureate 2021-2023, has something for everyone!
Explore the recommended reading list below by Stephen L. Holland… and check out the downloadable reviews at the bottom of the page!
Introduction by Stephen L. Holland, Comics Laureate 2021-2023
This is an introduction. No actually, it is. It’s an introduction to comics.
One of my primary goals as Comics Laureate is to introduce as many new people as possible from the broadest of backgrounds to the most diverse range of quality graphic novels currently available in Britain.
To reach new people accessibility is all, so this isn’t a guide to the cleverest comics ever created (although they are all exceptionally clever); it’s a selection of the very finest and most beguiling which have proved to be perfect introductions to those curious about comics during my 25+ years as curator of Page 45, so often kick-starting a lifetime’s newfound adoration and exploration of our beloved medium.
I’ll be adding to them during my two-year tenure when new gems emerge, as some of my favourites like Alessandro Sanna’s The River are brought back into print, and once what’s already here has already been digested. Overwhelming anyone is counter-productive, so initially I’ve pruned hard, but please do pop back from time to time!
Every book I’ll include in Young Adult, Intermediate and even Young Readers is a work which has resonated with adults alike. You’re Safe With Me, Hilda and Bad Machinery, for example, have all been bought as much by adults for adults because of their craft. Bad Machinery’s readership at Page 45 is 95% adult because you won’t find more astute, sophisticated or funnier behavioural observation anywhere else in comics. You really won’t! I only place the series in Intermediate because it’s also perfectly age-appropriate, so that families and schools can snap them up too.
Additionally, a key element to any illustrated picture book should be to keep the adults reading them to their young loved ones entertained throughout the multiple, insatiable demands upon their poor, tired souls to read and re-read them yet again! An adult’s enthusiasm when reading out loud is infectious. Sarah McIntyre and John Klassen have in their works so many winks to offer an adult reader which will go over a youngster’s head. How much wiser and funnier do A.A. Milne’s words sound now to my adult sensibilities!
As to Laura Dern Keeps Breaking Up With Me and indeed Bloom, I wish I’d read both of those aged 15 even if I’d been straight – they’re 100% universal with no mention of sex, so into Young Adults they go!
Lastly, just as I haven’t separated works from Britain, America, France or indeed Bratislava, so you’ll find no category for manga because it’s not a genre. It denotes no more than a geographical point of origin (Japan). Too long has manga been seen as factional, as “other”. Instead universally appealing works by the likes of the great Jiro Taniguchi have been folded into mainstream contemporary fiction, where they truly belong.
Okay, that’s enough about me and my opinionated attitude. Why don’t we let these great graphic novels speak for themselves?
All reviews have been written by me because it’s easier to keep tabs on copyright breaches.
Grrrr.
Stephen L. Holland, January 2021
// Contemporary Fiction
• A Distant Neighbourhood by Jiro Taniguchi
• Biscuits (Assorted) by Jenny Robins
• Daytripper by Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá
• I Love This Part by Tillie Walden
• In: A Graphic Novel by Will McPhail
• Kingdom by John McNaught
• Nelson by Rob Davis, Woodrow Phoenix and 52 stellar creators
• Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds MBE
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• The Nao of Brown by Glyn Dillon
• The Park Bench by Chabouté
• The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
• The Tale Of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot
• Wet Moon by Sophie Campbell
// Crime
• Fatale by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
• Kill Or Be Killed by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips with Elizabeth Breitweiser
• Velvet by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting with Elizabeth Breitwesier
// Comedy
• Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
• Dragman by Steven Appleby
• Flake by Matthew Dooley
• Fluffy by Simone Lia
• Livestock by Hannah Berry (Comics Laureate 2019-2021)
• Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley
// Science Fiction
• Lazarus by Greg Rucka & Michael Lark
• Saga by Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples
// Horror
• From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
• Rachel Rising by Terry Moore
// Fantasy
• Die by Kieron Gillen & Stephanie Hans
• Sandman by Neil Gaiman
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
• The Many Deaths Of Laila Starr by Ram V & Filipe Andrade
// Non-Fiction
• Pyongyang by Guy Delisle
• Sapiens: A Graphic History by Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen & Daniel Casanave
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
• The Roles We Play by Sabba Khan
// Young Adult
• Bloom by Kevin Panetta & Savanna Ganucheau
• Delicates by Brenna Thummler
• Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
• Porcelain by Ben Read & Chris Wildgoose with André May
• This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki
• What We Don’t Talk About by Charlot Kristensen
// Intermediate
• Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi
• Bad Machinery by John Allison
• Kerry And The Knight Of The Forest by Andi Watson
• Looshkin by Jamie Smart
• Lumberjanes originally by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis & Brooke A. Allen
• Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce & Edith
// Younger Readers
• Hilda by Luke Pearson
• The New Neighbours by Sarah McIntyre
• The Pirate Tree by Brigita Orel & Jennie Poh
• You’re Safe With Me / You’re Snug With Me by Chitra Soundar & Poonam Mistry
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