Graphic Novels - 3 "Sure Bets" for Adult Readers

With the first year of the Graphic Novel Book Club at Woodlawn Public Library behind us, the members thought it they would take the opportunity to share some Sure Bets from the format with fans of TheReader.ca. We’ve picked three Sure Bets which we think are good starting points for adults interested in reading graphic novels.

Our first Sure Bet is Marjane Satrapi’s autobiography of growing up in Iran before and after the Islamic revolution. This graphic novel is drawn in black and white and has been translated into several languages. Persepolis (M) was written and drawn by Satrapi and was later made into an animated film (M) featuring the same style as the graphic novel. Volume 1 concerns Satrapi’s childhood while Volume 2 concerns her time in Europe as a teen and young adult.

Our second Sure Bet is Watchmen (M) by Alan Moore. Considered a classic in the art of graphic novels, Watchmen is the only graphic novel on Time magazine’s 100 Greatest Novels list. Superheroes who were once renowned are now mostly in retirement until they mysteriously start being murdered one by one.

Our third Sure Bet is the only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (M) by Art Spiegelman. Maus is the biography of the author’s father who was a holocaust survivor from Poland. Spiegelman shows creativity by depicting the characters using animals; the Jews in the graphic novel are depicted as mice while the Germans are cats.

For more information on the Graphic Novel Book Club, contact the Woodlawn Public Library at 490-2636.