Items16The creator’s order
  1. 1The PhotographerThe PhotographerLook for the moment a strip of actual photographs gives way to a drawing. The photographs come from Lefèvre’s 1986 trip with Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan. Guibert’s panels carry the story through moments when there’s no photograph, and the change in medium lets you see which kind of…0
  2. 2Understanding Comics (1993)Understanding Comics (1993) 8.4/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1993Start with the white space between panels. McCloud shows you an action beginning in one panel and its consequence in the next, then asks you to consider what you supplied between them. He gives you a way to read the gaps in any of the books here.0
  3. 3Ducks: Two Years in the Oil SandsDucks: Two Years in the Oil SandsBeaton takes in the size of the Alberta oil sands operations and then brings you back to a conversation among workers. Those changes in scale help explain the draw of a job far from home and the costs that a paycheck leaves out. Pick this up for a view of the industry from inside a work camp.0
  4. 4In Waves (2019)In Waves (2019) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2019Sepia pages follow surfing history, including Duke Kahanamoku’s life in Hawaii. Blue-green pages return to Dungo and his partner Kristen, who also surfed. You can tell which story you’ve entered at a glance and see what the two strands share through the way Dungo draws people in the water.0
  5. 5The Cartoon Introduction to Climate ChangeThe Cartoon Introduction to Climate ChangeTry the section on putting a price on carbon. Cartoon scenes put a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade program side by side, so you can see which starts by fixing a price and which starts by fixing the amount of emissions allowed. It’s a handy place to start if news stories use the two terms…0
  6. 6Unflattening (2015)Unflattening (2015) 9.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2015One page arranges a year’s changing seasons along a winding path like a board game. You can take in the whole shape at once or follow the small pictures in order. That page is a good way into Sousanis’s larger argument about what pictures let us hold in mind together.0
  7. 7The Complete MausThe Complete MausNotice when Spiegelman shows himself wearing a mouse mask. The image makes the book’s animal figures feel like a choice the cartoonist has made, and it asks you to consider what that choice can convey. The interviews with his father let you follow how a son tries to draw a history he inherited.0
  8. 8Persepolis: The Story of a ChildhoodPersepolis: The Story of a ChildhoodIn an early schoolyard scene, children play with the veils they’ve just been required to wear. The narration gives you the change in the rules, and the drawings show how children turn a confusing new requirement into a game. It’s an early example of Satrapi letting her younger self’s perspective…0
  9. 9March. Book One (2013)March. Book One (2013) 8.9/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2013The book moves between Lewis as a congressman on Barack Obama’s inauguration day and his youth, including the Nashville lunch-counter sit-ins. Watch the way Powell draws the students sitting together. Their stillness puts the discipline of nonviolent protest on the page.0
  10. 10They Called Us EnemyThey Called Us EnemyLook at how young George and his parents react to the same journey after his family is forced from their home. Becker can draw the boy’s curiosity and his parents’ worry in the same scene. Takei’s adult account gives you the political context the child couldn’t have known.0