Graphic Novels That Can Be Enjoyed By Adults

Years ago, I saw co-worker borrowing a graphic novel from the library where I was working. I had never really given graphic novels a chance, but I was intrigued. I asked him if I could take a look at it, and I was instantly hooked. After he was finished with it, I checked it out from the library and took it home. I soon found myself in that state of total absorption that you achieve when reading a really good book.

That graphic novel still holds up well, but it has supernatural elements and it speaks to a younger version of myself. These days, I seek out titles that are more realistic and aimed at older audiences, so in this post, I will be focusing on graphic novels that can be enjoyed by adults. Do you think you’re too old for them? I know there is a stigma that graphic novels are just comic books and shouldn’t be taken seriously, but I can assure you that these are legitimate works of art. If you have never read them before, you will be surprised by their depth. When was the last time you discovered a new medium of art that had a profound impact on you? Today could be one of those days.

I have put together a list that presents voices from a variety of identities. Topics such as religion, sexuality, race and social issues are explored in these stories. Whether fictional or based on real life events, they all convey a relatable human experience. I hope you enjoy them. Prepare to be moved by your emotions.

Let me know how you feel about graphic novels in the comments!

Loosely based on the author's life, chronicling his journey from childhood to adulthood, exploring the people, experiences, and beliefs that he encountered along the way.


This first book from Chicago author Chris Ware is a pleasantly-decorated view of a lonely and emotionally-impaired "everyman" who is provided, at age 36, the opportunity to meet his father for the first time. An improvisatory romance which gingerly deports itself between 1890's Chicago and 1980's small town Michigan, the reader is helped along by thousands of color illustrations and diagrams, which, when read rapidly in sequence, provide a convincing illusion of life and movement.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek's harrowing story of survival is woven into the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.


Published in 1978, Will Eisner's revolutionary literary work A Contract with God marked the invention of the modern graphic novel. A mesmerizing fictional chronicle of a universal American experience, it inspired a generation of sequential artists. Through a quartet of interwoven stories, A Contract with God expresses the joy, exuberance, tragedy and drama of life on the mythical Dropsie Avenue.


Delisle, one of the few Westerners granted access to North Korea, documents his observations of the secretive society in this graphic travelogue that depicts the cultural alienation, boredom, and desires of ordinary North Koreans.

Blue Is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh (also available on hoopla)

"Blue is the Warmest Color is a graphic novel about growing up, falling in love, and coming out. Clementine, a high school student, has an average life: she has friends, family, and the romantic attention of the boys in her school. When her openly gay best friend takes her out on the town, she wanders into a lesbian bar where she encounters Emma: a punkish, confident girl with blue hair. Their attraction is instant and electric, and Clementine finds herself in a relationship that will test her friends, parents, and her own ideas about herself and her identity."

Fun home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (also available on hoopla)

Alison Bechdel's groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts her fraught relationship with her late father.

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf (also available on hoopla)

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, 4 students were killed and 9 shot and wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children - a shocking event burned into our national memory. 

The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui (also available on hoopla)

The author describes her experiences as a young Vietnamese immigrant, highlighting her family's move from their war-torn home to the United States in graphic novel format.

- by Andrew, Lawrence Branch

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