Teen Core List

Teen 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!

47 Ronin

47 Ronin

Japan's enduring national legend comes to comics! The tale of the 47 Ronin and their epic mission to avenge their ...
Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics

Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics

As the Great War dragged on and its catastrophic death toll mounted, a new artistic movement found its feet in the ...
Adventures of Superhero Girl

Adventures of Superhero Girl

What if you can leap tall buildings and defeat alien monsters with your bare hands, but you buy your capes at ...
Almost American Girl

Almost American Girl

For as long as she can remember, it’s been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up in the 1990s as the ...
American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese

Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American ...
Anya’s Ghost

Anya’s Ghost

Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially ...
As the Crow Flies

As the Crow Flies

Charlie Lamonte is thirteen years old, queer, black, and questioning what was once a firm belief in God. So ...
Atomic Robo

Atomic Robo

In 1923, Nikola Tesla's career is in its twilight... until he unveils a robot with automatic intelligence — ATOMIC ...
Avant-Guards

Avant-Guards

When Charlie transfers to the Georgia O’Keeffe College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics, she struggles to find her ...
Batgirl: Batgirl of Burnside

Batgirl: Batgirl of Burnside

Barbara Gordon's ready for a fresh start. She's packing her bags, crossing the bridge, and heading to Gotham's ...
Batman

Batman

After a series of brutal murders rocks Gotham City, Batman begins to realize that perhaps these crimes go far ...
Bloom

Bloom

Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band—if he can just persuade ...
Boxers and Saints

Boxers and Saints

In two volumes, Boxers & Saints tells two parallel stories. The first is of Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy ...
Captain America

Captain America

Steve Rogers is dead! Long live Captain America! He was a hero to millions, an inspiration to America's armed ...
Castle Waiting

Castle Waiting

Castle Waiting is the story of an isolated, abandoned castle, and the eccentric inhabitants who bring it back to ...
Check, Please!

Check, Please!

Y’all... I might not be ready for this. I may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, ...
Dancing at the Pity Party

Dancing at the Pity Party

Part poignant cancer memoir and part humorous reflection on a motherless life, this debut graphic novel is ...
Darth Vader

Darth Vader

The original Dark Lord of the Sith stars in his first ongoing series! Ever since Darth Vader's first on-screen ...
Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom

Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom

Deep in the Oregon wilderness sits Camp Bloom, a weight-loss camp where "overweight" teens can "get in shape." ...
Delilah Dirk

Delilah Dirk

Lovable ne'er-do-well Delilah Dirk is an adventurer for the 19th century. She has traveled to Japan, Indonesia, ...
Displacement

Displacement

Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the 1940s Japanese-American ...
Dragon Hoops

Dragon Hoops

Gene understands stories—comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always ...
Fights

Fights

Propelled into a world filled with uncertainty and desperation, young Joel is pushed toward using violence to ...
Friends with Boys

Friends with Boys

Maggie McKay hardly knows what to do with herself. After an idyllic childhood of homeschooling with her mother and ...
Giant Days

Giant Days

Susan, Esther, and Daisy started at university three weeks ago and became fast friends. Now, away from home for ...

Adult Core List

Adult 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!

About Betty’s Boob

About Betty’s Boob

An inspiring and surprisingly comedic tale of loss and acceptance told largely through silent sequential ...
Afar

Afar

Boetema suddenly develops the ability to astrally project to other worlds, unintentionally possessing the bodies ...
Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984

Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984

In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political ...
Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye

Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye

Meet Charlie Chan Hock Chye. Now in his early 70s, Chan has been making comics in his native Singapore since 1954, ...
Batman: The Killing Joke

Batman: The Killing Joke

ONE BAD DAY. According to the grinning engine of madness and mayhem known as the Joker, that's all that separates ...
Batwoman

Batwoman

Batwoman battles a madwoman known only as Alice, inspired by Alice in Wonderland, who sees her life as a fairy ...
Beautiful Darkness

Beautiful Darkness

Newly homeless, a group of fairies find themselves trying to adapt to their new life in the forest. As they dodge ...
Best We Could Do

Best We Could Do

This illustrated memoir is about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish ...
Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary

Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary

A lost classic of underground cartooning, Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary is Justin Green’s ...
Bitch Planet

Bitch Planet

In a future just a few years down the road in the wrong direction, a woman's failure to comply with her ...
Bitter Root

Bitter Root

Once known as the greatest monster hunters of all time, the Sangerye family specialized in curing the souls of ...
Black Hole

Black Hole

The setting: suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon ...
Black Panther

Black Panther

A new era for the Black Panther begins as the kingdom of Wakanda enters its final days! Award-winning writer ...
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World

Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World

Throughout history and across the globe, one characteristic connects the daring women of Brazen: their indomitable ...
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

In her first memoir, New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. ...
Chew

Chew

Special Introductory Price! Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which ...
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, the young sorceress Sabrina Spellman finds herself at a crossroads, having ...
Clean Room

Clean Room

Somewhere between the realms of self-help and religion lies the Honest World Foundation. Its creator started out ...
Daytripper

Daytripper

Daytripper follows the life of one man, Bras de Olivias Dominguez. Every chapter features an important period in ...
DC: The New Frontier

DC: The New Frontier

The masked mystery men who fought for freedom in the Second World War have been outlawed. The soldiers and spies ...
Deadly Class

Deadly Class

It's 1987. Marcus Lopez hates school. His grades suck. The jocks are hassling his friends. He can't focus in ...
Descender

Descender

Young Robot boy TIM-21 and his companions struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been ...
Ex Machina

Ex Machina

When a strange accident gives civil engineer Mitchell Hundred the amazing ability to control machinery, he uses ...
Fables

Fables

When a savage creature, known only as the Adversary, conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, the ...
Fadeout

Fadeout

An epic graphic novel of Hollywood in the early days of the Blacklist, THE FADE OUT tracks the murder of an ...

Kids Core List

Kids 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!

A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time

The world already knows Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, Calvin O'Keefe, and the three Mrs?Who, Whatsit, and Which?the memorable and wonderful characters who fight off a dark force and save our ...
Amulet

Amulet

After the tragic death of their father, Emily and Navin move with their mother to the home of her deceased great-grandfather, but the strange house proves to be dangerous. Before long, a ...
Arrival

Arrival

The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a ...
Avatar the Last Airbender

Avatar the Last Airbender

As the world heads toward another devastating war, Aang's friendship with Zuko throws him into the middle of the conflict! (Publisher Description) Avatar the Last Airbender By Gene Luen ...
Babymouse

Babymouse

Meet Babymouse—Her dreams are big! Her imagination is wild! Her whiskers are ALWAYS a mess! In her mind, she's Queen of the World! In real life…she's not even Queen of the lunch table. It's the ...
Ballet Cat

Ballet Cat

Ballet Cat and Sparkles the Pony are trying to decide what to play today. Nothing that Sparkles suggests--making crafts, playing checkers, and selling lemonade--goes well with the leaping, ...
BerryBrook Middle School Series

BerryBrook Middle School Series

Cardinal rule #1 for surviving school: Don't get noticed by the mean kids. Cardinal rule #2 for surviving school: Seek out groups with similar interests and join them. On her first day at her ...
Big Nate

Big Nate

Big Nate is taking it from the top—the top of the troublemaker's list! Nate Wright is eleven years old, four-and-a-half feet tall, and the all-time record holder for school detentions in ...
Binky

Binky

Binky is a space cat - at least in his own mind. He's really a house cat who has never left the family "space station." Unlike other house cats, Binky has a mission: to blast off into outer ...
Bird & Squirrel

Bird & Squirrel

Squirrel is afraid of his own shadow. Bird doesn't have a care in the world. And Cat wants to eat Bird and Squirrel. Of course, he'll have to catch them first, and that's not going to be ...
Bone

Bone

After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins -- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone -- are separated and lost in a vast, uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into a ...
Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes

This is the first collection of the classic comic strip that features Calvin, a rambunctious 6-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, who comes charmingly to life. Filled with a mix of ...
Cardboard Kingdom

Cardboard Kingdom

Welcome to a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary boxes into colorful costumes, and their ordinary block into cardboard kingdom. This is the summer when sixteen kids encounter knights and ...
Cleopatra in Space

Cleopatra in Space

When a young Cleopatra (yes, THAT Cleopatra) finds a mysterious tablet that zaps her to the far, REALLY far future, she learns of an ancient prophecy that says she is destined to save the galaxy ...
Comics Squad!

Comics Squad!

Wowza! Calling all kidz! Do you like comics? Do you like laughing till milk comes out of your nose?! Look no further—do we have the book for you! All your favorite comic creators are right here ...
Courageous Princess

Courageous Princess

Princess Mabelrose may not be the fairest of the land, but she has enough brains and bravery to fend for herself in a fantasy world of danger and adventure! From a mighty dragon with an army of ...
Dog Man

Dog Man

George and Harold have created a new hero who digs into deception, claws after crooks, and rolls over robbers. When Greg the police dog and his cop companion are injured on the job, a ...
Drawing Lesson

Drawing Lesson

For the first time ever, drawing instructor and graphic novelist Mark Crilley brings his easy-to-follow artistic instruction to aspiring artists in the form of a comic book, providing you with a ...
El Deafo

El Deafo

Starting at a new school is scary, especially with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest! At her old school, everyone in Cece’s class was deaf. Here, she’s different. She’s sure the kids ...
Elephant and Piggie

Elephant and Piggie

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can. Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to. Gerald and Piggie are best friends. Today, I Will Fly! is the funny ...