Graphic novels | Page 2 of 8

Ready or Not, a teen-graphic novel that’s build just for them

Ready or Not is a graphic novel that isn’t quite what you think it will be. The cover shows a group of four upper-teenage friends on the roof discussing and looking like the typical teens who might have just graduated from high school. One of them is even wearing a beanie in early August, which is a fashion statement for the only 17-year-olds or those who can’t discern when their body temperature is uncomfortably hot and if only there were something simple that they could do like remove a wool cap. Now get off of my lawn. Ready or Not is an example of the graphic novel as a communication device for high school readers who need to see that people are just like them. Other teens, even ones that are shown in a graphic novel, but are in their same generation, will empathize with the characters and hopefully apply those lessons to themselves.

Ready or Not is a coming-of-age graphic novel geared at high school students that’s better than you think it is.

high school teen Breakfast Club Jam

Uncle Sam: Special Election Edition, a searing, timeless graphic novel

There’s something special about a book being out of print for a while. The classic animated Disney films used to go “in the vault” and then had a big hoop-de-do when they could be viewed again. Uncle Sam: Special Election Edition was out of print for over a decade. The only way to get your hands on it was to find the original two-issue comic book miniseries from 1997 or the graphic novel that followed its release. The 2024 presidential election is nigh and Uncle Sam: Special Election Edition is as pointed and aware as it was when it was originally released. It’s a beautiful, paranoid fever dream of a graphic novel that sears its way through the political spectrum leaving both sides wondering what went wrong with modern America.

Uncle Sam: Special Election Edition is a reissued, timeless, relevant graphic novel that’s just as powerful, now as it was in 1997.

Wow. A graphic novel that commands your attention.

Snoopy’s Beagle Scout Tales, effortless charm in any season

When I was a child Peanuts was my go-to reading jam. It was the gateway cartoon strip that made me learn to love reading, built up from that, but never left the rearview mirror, and has always been somewhere in my pop culture Venn diagram. Wherever I’ve travelled it’s been like that too. Snoopy, Woodstock, and to an extent, all of the characters from Peanuts have a warm place in society’s heart. The Peanuts brand is still producing great, new stories that will entertain existing fans and will bring the magic of a happy yellow bird to new audiences. Peanuts Graphic Novels has a collection of summer camp-themed stories called Snoopy’s Beagle Scout Tales that will do just that.

Snoopy’s Beagle Scout Tales: Peanuts Graphic Novels is the summer-themed collection of new and old stories and strips that can be read in any season.

Timeless, yet new, with some classic bits too

Tater Tales 2: The King of the World, a whole new rot (ten) world

The world of a character is only as big as the fishbowl it lives in. In the world of Rot, a mutant potato; he’s gone from solo stories to familial adventures that have taken place in illustrated books and early reader graphic novels. Tater Tales 2: The King of the World is the second release in this heavily illustrated chapter book series. One could also say that this is the second release in this early reader graphic novel series, and you’d be correct in that observation too. Whichever camp you’re in, this series is a knock-down great time, a hootenanny of early-elementary school joy that kids will laugh at as it’s read to them or grin with silent pleasure as they read it to themselves.

Tater Tales 2: The King of the World! establishes Ben Clanton’s Rot in an all-age graphic novel world of silliness, intelligence, and laughter.

Comfort food classic, but in a new, shiny wrapper.

The Avengers: Heroes, Icons, Assembled is the full-package

On the surface, it’s a very simple thing that The Avengers: Heroes, Icons, Assembled does well. It takes the potentially complex plot of comic books, specifically The Avengers, and distills their existence since 1963 into something understandable, approachable and entertaining. This is a reference book-style collection of the super team’s history that all but jumps off of the pages and makes you wish that you’d been reading along with it since their inception. But that’s coming from a comic book kid who wishes that they had a time machine to go back and collect the series from when they first saw them in the bookstore. It serves as a bridge for the comic book casual, comfort food for the faithful and an example of a pop culture time capsule that’s as comfortable in a library as it is in your living room.

The Avengers: Heroes, Icons, Assembled is encyclopedic at first, but is fun, digestible look at the superhero team in comic books.

Leisure reading, encyclopedic and ripping fun

The eXpets, say hello to your next favorite elementary school graphic novel

Somewhere between learning to read and reading to learn is when elementary-aged children discover graphic novels. Their manic energy, full-color attitude, and age-appropriate puns, make the great graphic novels ones that are shared and the stuff of kid water cooler magic. The eXpets is the first book in a new graphic novel series that takes aim at a younger-than-usual demographic and will please that audience to no end.

The eXpets is an early reader graphic novel that’s great for second through fifth grade. It’s funny for all, with enough blank space and brief text for those younger kids.

those elementary students who know, know.

Ghost Book, a graphic novel that’ll immediately go to the forever bookshelf

It has been a long time since I’ve been so engrossed in a graphic novel. Ghost Book by Remy Lai is a graphic novel that is utterly putdownable. That is not a real word. However, there needs to be a word that book reviewers use every once in a rare while to describe a book that upends their senses and makes them stop what they’re doing. For me it was my planning period when I should’ve been getting papers ready for a group of high school students. I needed a break so I started reading Ghost Book and then 30 minutes later I stopped.

Ghost Book is a graphic novel that’s an effortless master class in storytelling. It’s a big story told in a way that’s not confusing and breathlessly entertaining.

Fantasy Sports 1: The Court of Souls, graphic novel kinetic enjoyment

If the potential fun of Space Jam, the kinetic energy of anime and aspects of the absurd from Ren & Stimpy, mixed in with a bit of magic, all had a graphic novel baby it would look something like Fantasy Sports 1: The Court of Souls by Sam Bosma. There’s so much to love about The Court of Souls that audiences might not be sure as to why they are attracted to the graphic novel. It’s an oversized graphic novel that reads like a classic comic book with anime roots in a story that’s set in a magical time where magic, zombies and monsters rule. This is the sort of book that, like a mother cat corralling her kittens by the nape of their necks to move them from location to another, will relocate reluctant readers from one area to another.

Fantasy Sports 1: The Court of Souls is a large format graphic novel that ensnares manga, sports, action and humor readers all within its web.

So many interest areas in this book, which one do you think you aren’t?