101 Outstanding Graphic Novels

July 1, 2015

Despite the enormous growth of the genre, Weiner's fourth edition of his popular guide to graphic novels continues to hold the line at 101 titles. The author defines a graphic novel as any book in cartoon format that is bound between two covers and sold as a trade title. His selections include literary fiction as well as genre pieces, nonfiction, anthologies, and several comic collections. He begins with an effective short history of comics and follows with his list of selected works in alphabetical order by author. Each entry includes the cover art, a plot description of a few lines, price, and publisher/ISBN information. Unlike in earlier editions, age categories are not included. Genre giants such as Alison Bechdel, Will Eisner, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, as well as many others not as well known are all here. The book additionally includes suggestions for further reading, out-of-print titles well worth trying to find, and a list of movies about the illustrated format. The index is very helpful. As with all works of this type, many will argue about what should or should not have been included. That's part of the fun! However, as in earlier editions, the book serves as a subjective but entertaining introduction to this increasingly influential medium and will remain an effective starting reference for the general reader. VERDICT Librarians serving graphic novels fans will find this short guide to be a useful readers' advisory tool.--Rob Tench, Old Dominion Univ. Lib., Norfolk, VA

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