Graphic Novels and Graphic Nonfiction About Stuff You Should Care About

In this YA graphic novel, Kiku is on vacation when all of a sudden, she finds herself back in time in the 1940s, in a Japanese American internment camp — but not just any camp; the one where her grandmother was forced into during WWII. These time travel displacements happen more and more until one day, she becomes stuck in the internment camp. This is her story of what she sees, and how the camp inmates managed to develop community, even in the worst of times, and survive.

This work of graphic nonfiction combines memoir with history to make a compelling, informative story brought to life by the amazing illustrations. During her research, Hall found out that far from taking a backseat, enslaved women were warriors who led revolts throughout history. Alongside her historical research, we also see how the history of slavery impacts her life and work today. It is a powerful book that shines a light on an often-ignored part of history.

Zhang, who was a young sociology teacher in 1989, writes his memories of the protests that ultimately resulted in a massacre in Tiananmen Square. Those of us who were alive back then remember that infamous picture of the lone person in front of a tank — but Zhang takes us deeper into the call for political reform and the movement behind the protests in this book.

This book has been described as “comics journalism,” and that’s a great term for Sacco’s work. This title focuses on Indigenous North America and resource extraction. Sacco looks at the Dene, who live in the Mackenzie River Valley. They see the land as owning them, and it is a central part of their lives. But these Canadian NW Territories also contain oil and gas, and eventually mining, pipelines, and more intrude into the area, devastating the land and communities. Sacco explores the conflicts over this, how it negatively impacted the Dene and how the government stole their land, and puts all of this against a visual backdrop. He does not paint the Dene as a monolith, and his attention to detail and story is part of what makes this such a powerful book.

Clara’s not sure how much more she can take. She’s on deadline for a book and has writer’s block, she doesn’t feel supported by her friends, her therapist isn’t much of a help, and when she does seek comfort from her community, she still feels isolated. Clara struggles with depression, self-harm, and recovery from trauma, and Malle writes about this with honesty and care. Sprinkled throughout are examples of how social media can play a part in both harming and helping, and how it can even help heal.

In this graphic memoir, Cook writes (and draws) about what it’s like living with borderline personality disorder — but not just the hospitalizations and therapies, but also the things that comfort her, the things that scare her, and things that make life easier. Her honesty and realness are part of what makes this book so powerful, and her art is the perfect complement to her writing.

This anthology focuses on abortion, and the stories in this collection come from over 60 artists and writers, with a diverse set of perspectives: trans voices, older voices, activists, lawyers, doctors, and more. There are personal stories, history primers, current political and legal struggles, and issues within reproductive justice. With the current political climate in many states hell-bent on gutting reproductive rights, this is more timely than ever.

After the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, this anthology was created. It has fictional stories alongside eye-witness stories of the shooting, and accounts about mental health, common sense gun control, gun violence, and more. Comics writers and artists like Brian Bendis, Alex Segura, Neil Gaiman, Gail Simone, and Kelly Sue DeConnick are contributors to this important collection. Things have not improved much since then, making this a collection worth revisiting.

If you’ve read the trilogy March, this is the story of what happened afterward. It follows Lewis in the 1960s and beyond, with voter suppression, police brutality, and resistance to change and progress — all of which are still very prevalent today. It goes into the Watts riots, reactions to the Vietnam War, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), of which Lewis was a chairman. At the end, the book also has a list of people instrumental in the civil rights movement, for further reading and research.