13 Awesome Comics Everyone Should Read

1.

Reading Embroideries for me was the same as if I was sitting down with a bunch of girlfriends talking about sex. Only in this case it was older family members and friends, and the sex was happening in Iran. What I loved was not only how well it was written, or how it made me laugh out loud (the scene where one woman talks about "establishing" her virginity by accidentally slicing open her new husband rather than the intended knick on her thigh is priceless), but it was great to read how women bond and how love affects their life.

2 AND 3

On the heels of number one come 2 and 3 both by the same author. The reason I read Embroideries was because I had fallen in love with Persepolis Volume One and Two Marjane Satrapi's autobiography of growing up in Iran after the overthrow of the Shah. So good!!!!

4.

Hayao Miyazaki's work is beyond awesome, and Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind is everything that makes him great. Beyond his fantastic storylines that work for adults or children, what makes him great is how he almost always creates a strong lead female character - and he does it without making it appear that is his intentions. The result are strong young girls that could whoop Harry Potter's ass (not that we would want them too!) and let Hermine know that girls can take the lead and boys still love to read about them!

5.

Tezuka Osamu is much more than Astro Boy. In fact it was not until after I read the Adolf series and fell in love with his writing that I even learned he was responsible for Astro Boy. Interweaving the lives of 3 Adolf's and taking place during the Second World War Tezuka Osamu demonstrates an understanding of humanity, history, and how to write for an audience.

6.

Keeping with author Tezuka Osamu, his Buddha series may even be better than his Adolph series. I am torn. However since reading them (and crying and laughing and experiencing every other possible emotion in these series) I am no longer able to kill bugs. Even spiders which I dread. I just kind of skirt around them now.

7 and 8

Another box set, but no comic book list would be complete without Maus . Maus helped bring the literary merit of comic books to the North American mainstream. Art Spiegelman tells the story of his father a Holocaust survivor. through the portrayal of the Nazi's as cats and the Jewish people as mice. There are complaints about his unfair representation of the Polish in this book. However this is his father's story, and the books take place in the present with his father recreating the past as the book progresses. It is a testimony to the power, and faults, of oral history.

9.

Onwards to laughter!!! Bitchy Bitch is an awesome comic!!! It makes you laugh, while it also makes you take a step back and wonder, am I sometimes too much of a negative person. Please do not let me become Bitchy Bitch!

10.

Ranma has gender bending love, angry pandas, and a kicks ass girl named Shampoo who likes to run people over with her bike. All of that would've sold me before the stalking pig was involved!

11.

With Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-95 Joe Sacco continues his journalism through the use of comics.

12.

Preacher is very in your face, very violent, but if you can stand it the storyline is phenomenal.

13.

Last, but anything but least! is

Naruto is mind blowing. The series won Kishimoto the Quill award in 2006 and if you read it you will understand why!
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