Core Collection Lists

Core Collection Lists

As a staff, we’ve considered nominations, voted, and created a series of recommended core title lists. These are the titles and series that we believe belong on all library shelves. Some are the most popular, others classics of the format, and some the most engaging titles for both fans of graphic novels and new comics readers.

Comics Core Collections

Kids Core Collection

For readers ages 0-11.

Phoebe and her Unicorn

Tween Core Collection

For readers ages 10-13.

Elephant and Piggie

Teen Core Collection

For readers ages 13-18.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life

ADULT Core Collection

For readers ages 18+.

Batman: The Killing Joke

Manga Core Collections

Tween Manga Core Collection

For readers ages 10-13.

Kitchen Princess

Teen Manga Core Colllection

For readers ages 13-18.

Assassination Classroom

ADULT Manga Core Colllection

For readers ages 18+.

Push Man and Other Stories

Tween Manga Core Collection List

TWEEN Manga Core List

As a staff, we’ve considered nominations, voted, and created a series of recommended core title lists.  These are the titles and series that we believe belong on all library shelves. Some are the most popular, others classics of the format, and some the most engaging titles for both fans of graphic novels and new comics readers.

Check out our top titles in this age range by clicking on the button below, or browse through them all!

Boruto

Boruto

Years have passed since Naruto and Sasuke teamed up to defeat Kaguya, the progenitor of chakra and the greatest ...
Cardcaptor Sakura

Cardcaptor Sakura

The adventures of the plucky Sakura Kinomoto are as adorably thrilling as ever, as she tracks down the magical ...
Dive!!

Dive!!

Tomoki has long been passionate about the blink-of-an-eye performances that take place off the ten-meter diving ...
Haikyu!!

Haikyu!!

After losing his first and last volleyball match against Tobio Kageyama, “the King of the Court,” Shoyo Hinata ...
Kitchen Princess

Kitchen Princess

Najika is a great cook who likes to make meals for the people she loves. But something is missing from her life. ...
Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia

Those words changed young Atsuko "Akko" Kagari forever, sparking in her a lifelong dream of becoming a real witch. ...
My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia

Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he hasn’t got an ounce of power in ...
Natsume’s Book of Friends

Natsume’s Book of Friends

When Reiko was Takashi's age, she bound the names of demons and spirits in her Book of Friends, enslaving them to ...
Snow White with the Red Hair

Snow White with the Red Hair

Shirayuki is famous for her naturally bright-red hair, and the prince of Tanbarun wants her all to himself! But ...
Splatoon!

Splatoon!

The Turf Wars have started in Inkopolis, and the team that inks the most ground will be crowned the winner! ...
Witch Hat Atelier

Witch Hat Atelier

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple ...
With a Dog and a Cat, Every Day is Fun

With a Dog and a Cat, Every Day is Fun

With both a cat and a dog, there’s double the antics, double the fun (and double the kibble!) but while Inu and ...
Yowamushi Pedal

Yowamushi Pedal

Power-pedaling Sakamichi Onoda has long been conquering the steepest slopes and regularly making the ...

Teen Manga Core Collection List

TEEN Manga Core List

As a staff, we’ve considered nominations, voted, and created a series of recommended core title lists.  These are the titles and series that we believe belong on all library shelves. Some are the most popular, others classics of the format, and some the most engaging titles for both fans of graphic novels and new comics readers.

Check out our top titles in this age range by clicking on the button below, or browse through them all!

Assassination Classroom

Assassination Classroom

Meet the would-be assassins of class 3-E: Sugino, who let his grades slip and got kicked off the baseball team. ...
Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan

In this post-apocalyptic sci-fi story, humanity has been devastated by the bizarre, giant humanoids known as the ...
Bakuman

Bakuman

Moritaka is hesitant to seriously consider Akito's proposal because he knows how difficult reaching the ...
Bleach

Bleach

Ichigo Kurosaki has always been able to see ghosts, but this ability doesn't change his life nearly as much as his ...
Bride Was a Boy

Bride Was a Boy

A diary comic with an upbeat, adorable flair that tells the charming tale of Chii, a woman assigned male at birth. ...
Case Closed

Case Closed

Precocious high school student Jimmy Kudo uses his keen powers of observation and astute intuition to solve ...
Death Note

Death Note

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he ...
Delicious in Dungeon

Delicious in Dungeon

When young adventurer Laios and his company are attacked and soundly thrashed by a dragon deep in a dungeon, the ...
Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball

Legend has it that if all seven of the precious orbs called "Dragon Balls" are gathered together, an incredibly ...
Edens Zero

Edens Zero

At Granbell Kingdom, an abandoned amusement park, Shiki has lived his entire life among machines. But one day, ...
Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail

Cute girl wizard Lucy wants to join the Fairy Tail, a club for the most powerful wizards. But instead, her ...
Fruits Basket

Fruits Basket

After a family tragedy turns her life upside down, plucky high schooler Tohru Honda takes matters into her own ...
Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist

In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing ...
Hunter x Hunter

Hunter x Hunter

Gon might be a country boy, but he has high aspirations. Despite his Aunt Mito's protests, Gon decides to follow ...
I Hear the Sunspot

I Hear the Sunspot

Stunningly handsome Kohei Sugihara was outgoing and popular with the girls at school. But when a sudden illness ...
One Piece

One Piece

As a child, Monkey D. Luffy was inspired to become a pirate by listening to the tales of the buccaneer ...
One-Punch Man

One-Punch Man

Every time a promising villain appears, Saitama beats the snot out of ’em with one punch! Can he finally find an ...
orange

orange

On the day that Naho begins 11th grade, she recieves a letter from herself ten years in the future. At first, she ...
Our Dreams at Dusk

Our Dreams at Dusk

Not only is high schooler Tasuku Kaname the new kid in town, he is also terrified that he has been outed as gay. ...
Ouran High School Host Club

Ouran High School Host Club

One day, Haruhi, a scholarship student at exclusive Ouran High School, breaks an $80,000 vase that belongs to the ...
Paradise Kiss

Paradise Kiss

Yukari is a spirited high school senior in the process of studying for her college entrance exams. Sadly the ...
Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka

Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka

In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something has destroyed the powerful Swiss robot Mont ...
Princess Jellyfish

Princess Jellyfish

Tsukimi Kurashita has a strange fascination with jellyfish. She’s loved them from a young age and has carried that ...
Promised Neverland

Promised Neverland

Emma, Norman and Ray are the brightest kids at the Grace Field House orphanage. And under the care of the woman ...
Rose of Versailles

Rose of Versailles

Oscar François de Jarjeyes is a young noblewoman raised as a son by her father. As commander of Marie Antoinette's ...
RWBY

RWBY

Ruby knows she has the talent to achieve her goal, but is she ready to clash with Weiss Schnee, a fellow student ...
Silent Voice

Silent Voice

Shoya is a bully. When Shoko, a girl who can't hear, enters his elementary school class, she becomes their ...
Slam Dunk

Slam Dunk

Hanamichi Sakuragi's got no game with girls--none at all! It doesn't help that he's known for throwing down at a ...

Adult Manga Core Collection List

Adult Manga Core collection List

As a staff, we’ve considered nominations, voted, and created a series of recommended core title lists.  These are the titles and series that we believe belong on all library shelves. Some are the most popular, others classics of the format, and some the most engaging titles for both fans of graphic novels and new comics readers.

Check out our top titles in this age range by clicking on the button below, or browse through them all!

20th Century Boys

20th Century Boys

Humanity, having faced extinction at the end of the 20th century, would not have entered the new millennium if it ...
Akira

Akira

Akira is set in the post-apocalypse Neo-Tokyo of 2019, a vast metropolis built on the ashes of a Tokyo annihilated ...
Blade of the Immortal

Blade of the Immortal

A cursed, seemingly immortal warrior aids a young girl in her quest for revenge, as the students of a brutal new ...
Drifting Classroom

Drifting Classroom

Out of nowhere, an entire school vanishes, leaving nothing but a hole in the ground. While parents mourn and ...
Emma: A Victorian Romance

Emma: A Victorian Romance

Calling upon his former governess, William Jones, gentleman, is startled when his knock is answered by an ...
Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell

Deep into the 21st century, the line between man and machine has been inexorably blurred as humans rely on the ...
Golden Kamuy

Golden Kamuy

In the early twentieth century, Russo-Japanese War veteran Saichi “Immortal” Sugimoto scratches out a meager ...
Helter Skelter

Helter Skelter

If you are aware of fashion in Japan you must have seen Liliko's face. For the last few years she has been at the ...
Lone Wolf and Cub

Lone Wolf and Cub

A samurai epic of staggering proportions, the acclaimed Lone Wolf and Cub begins its second life at Dark Horse ...
Maison Ikkoku

Maison Ikkoku

Yusaku Godai didn’t get accepted into college on the first try, so he’s studying to retake the entrance exams. But ...
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is an honest and heartfelt look at one young woman’s exploration of her ...
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths

Shigeru Mizuki is the preeminent figure of Gekiga manga and one of the most famous working cartoonists in Japan ...
Ôoku: The Inner Chambers

Ôoku: The Inner Chambers

In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Redface Pox has begun to prey on the country's men. Within ...
Push Man and Other Stories

Push Man and Other Stories

Legendary cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi is the grandfather of alternative manga for the adult reader. Predating the ...
solanin

solanin

Meiko Inoue is a recent college grad working as an office lady in a job she hates. Her boyfriend Naruo is ...
Tekkonkinkreet

Tekkonkinkreet

Orphaned on the mean streets of Treasure Town, lost boys Black and White must mug, steal and fight to survive. ...
Tokyo Ghoul

Tokyo Ghoul

Shy Ken Kaneki is thrilled to go on a date with the beautiful Rize. But it turns out that she’s only interested in ...
Uzumaki

Uzumaki

Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn ...
Vagabond

Vagabond

At seventeen years of age, Miyamoto Musashi--still known by his childhood name, Shinmen Takezo--was a wild young ...
Vinland Saga

Vinland Saga

As a child, Thorfinn sat at the feet of the great Leif Ericson and thrilled to wild tales of a land far to the ...
Way of the HouseHusband

Way of the HouseHusband

He was the fiercest member of the yakuza, a man who left countless underworld legends in his wake. They called him ...
What Did You Eat Yesterday?

What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Shiro Kakei, lawyer by day and gourmand by night, lives with his boyfriend, Kenji Yabuki, an out-going salon ...