Curated category · 2006—2025

Best graphic novels

Award-winning and editorially recommended graphic novels across twenty years, organized for discovery rather than sales ranking.

Selections: 220
Authors: 195
Lists & prizes: 2

Showing 49–96 of 220

2022Graphic novels

Tangier in the Rain

Fabien Grolleau, illustrated by Abdel de Bruxelles and translated by David Christensen

NPR Books We Love

2022Graphic novels

The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night

Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

NPR Books We Love

2022Graphic novels

The Peanutbutter Sisters and Other American Stories

Rumi Hara

NPR Books We Love

2022Graphic novels

The Third Person

Emma Grove

NPR Books We Love

2022Graphic novels

Time Zone J

Julie Doucet

NPR Books We Love

2022Graphic novels

Tokyo Rose – Zero Hour: A Japanese American Woman's Persecution and Ultimate Redemption After World War II

Andre Frattino, illustrated by Kate Kasenow

NPR Books We Love

2022Graphic novels

What if? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Randall Munroe

NPR Books We Love

2022Graphic novels

What is Home, Mum?

Sabba Khan

NPR Books We Love

2022Graphic novels

Who Will Make the Pancakes: Five Stories

Megan Kelso

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Alone in Space: A Collection

Tillie Walden

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Celestia

Manuele Fior, translated by Jamie Richards

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Destroy All Monsters: A Reckless Book

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

E.X.O.: The Legend of Wale Williams, Volume One

Roye Okupe, illustrated by Sunkanmi Akinboye and Raphael Kazeem

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Elegy for Mary Turner: An Illustrated Account of a Lynching

Rachel Marie-Crane Williams

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Mannie Murphy

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

In: A Graphic Novel

Will McPhail

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale

Tim Fielder

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Lore Olympus: Volume 1

Rachel Smythe

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Monsters

Barry Windsor-Smith

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

My Begging Chart

Keiler Roberts

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Night Bus

Zuo Ma, translated by Orion Martin

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Save It for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest

Nate Powell

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness

Kristen Radtke

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Stone Fruit

Lee Lai

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

The Secret to Superhuman Strength

Alison Bechdel

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

The Waiting

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translated by Janet Hong

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez

NPR Books We Love

2021Graphic novels

When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers

Ken Krimstein

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Apsara Engine

Bishakh Som

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Dancing After TEN

Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Fantastic Four: Grand Design

Tom Scioli

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Glass Town: The Imaginary World Of The Brontës

Isabel Greenberg

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Kent State: Four Dead In Ohio

Derf Backderf

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Moms

Yeong-shin Ma, translated by Janet Hong

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Notes On A Case Of Melancholia: Or, A Little Death

Nicholas Gurewitch

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Solutions And Other Problems

Allie Brosh

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Sports Is Hell

Ben Passmore

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

Daniel Warren Johnson with Mike Spicer

NPR Books We Love

2020Graphic novels

Year Of The Rabbit

Tian Veasna

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

Alienation

Inés Estrada

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

Are You Listening?

Tillie Walden

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

BTTM FDRS

Ezra Claytan Daniels, illustrated by Ben Passmore

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

Death Wins A Goldfish: Reflections From A Grim Reaper's Yearlong Sabbatical

Brian Rea

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

Hot Comb

Ebony Flowers

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice For Common Real-World Problems

Randall Munroe

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir

Malaka Gharib

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

In Waves

A.J. Dungo

NPR Books We Love

2019Graphic novels

Rusty Brown

Chris Ware

NPR Books We Love