Despite the ubiquity of the term graphic novel, there is an abundance of great nonfiction presented in a “comic book” format. Here are four significant works of graphic nonfiction from the year so far.
It seems fitting to begin with one of the most outspoken visual artists of the 21st century: Chinese exile Ai Weiwei. Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir, written with Elettra Stamboulis and illustrated by Gianluca Costantini (Ten Speed Press, Jan. 23), “blends manifesto and fairy tale,” as our reviewer described the work in a starred review. This edifying follow-up to Ai’s first memoir, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, consistently and provocatively criticizes China’s authoritarian political system, closing with a sharp observation relevant to anyone pursuing a creative endeavor: “Any artist who isn’t an activist is a dead artist.”
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 5) is one of the most compelling memoirs of the year so far, graphic or not. “In her astonishing first book,” wrote our critic in a starred review, “Hulls sets out to discover not only what happened to her grandmother and how [certain] events shaped her mother’s upbringing, but [how they] informed her own relationship with her mother and the world around her.” The art recalls the work of Charles Burns or David B., as Hulls “analyzes not only the cultural and historical context of her grandmother’s and mother’s lives, but also her own motivations, assumptions, and failures to truly understand and empathize with that maternal line.” It’s a psychologically and emotionally charged page-turner, “a work that glimmers with insight, acumen, and an unwillingness to settle for simple answers.”
Another graphic memoir that refuses easy interpretation is Heavyweight: A Graphic Memoir (Morrow/HarperCollins, June 25). In a starred review, we called out Solomon J. Brager’s debut as “an intense, brilliantly conceived graphic memoir announcing the arrival of a new talent to watch.” The author is unrelenting in their excavation of family history, investigating stories about the Holocaust that “mesmerized Brager almost as much as those about their great-grandfather Erich, mythologized as the man who beat Joseph Goebbels in a boxing match.” This is no straightforward graphic recounting of the author’s life. As our review notes, Brager “uses their formidable skills as an artist to transform that research journey into a unique comic book–style narrative that interweaves tales of their inherited past with their own imperfect recollections.”
Unique among this assemblage of graphic works is The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History by John Vasquez Mejias (Union Square & Co., May 14), a remarkable feat of graphic storytelling about a little-known piece of history. “Seized by the U.S. after the war against Spain and turned into an unwilling economic colony,” as our review explained, “Puerto Rico spawned a liberation movement after World War II.” Not content to merely describe the forgotten history, Vasquez Mejias employs an arresting “woodblock method [that] lends density and gravitas to the work that command attention; each centimeter of each panel is rich in visual detail, inviting readers to linger over the page.” (Read an interview with Vasquez Mejias.)
Eric Liebetrau is a writer and editor in Charleston, South Carolina.
