Here are some potential choices for the outside reading assignment, culled from things that have come out in the last few years (some of which I’ve read, some of which I haven’t) and things that are generally significant but didn’t quite fit on the syllabus. I may add more options here as I think of them, at least until a critical mass of people have already picked their books.
If you’re particularly interested in something that’s not on this list, let me know, and we can potentially talk about it, but the goal of this is to get you to read something you wouldn’t necessarily already have been inclined to read, so I reserve (and am likely to use) the right to veto. I’m also generally disinclined to have you read volumes of longer series, as I’d rather you have a complete work to talk about.
All that said, you really shouldn’t have trouble finding something on this list that interests you. If you have no idea where to start, or if you just want specifically-tailored recommendations, by all means talk to me after class or shoot me an email!
- Jessica Abel – La Perdida
- (CLAIMED) Jonathan Ames – The Alcoholic
- Amir and Khalil – Zahra’s Paradise
- David B. – Epileptic
- (CLAIMED) Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon – Daytripper
- Kyle Baker – Nat Turner
- (CLAIMED) Lynda Barry – What It Is
- (CLAIMED) Alison Bechdel – Are You My Mother?
- Gabrielle Bell – Lucky or The Voyeurs
- Arne Bellstorf – Baby’s in Black: Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliffe, and the Beatles in Hamburg
- (CLAIMED) Chester Brown – Ed the Happy Clown
- (CLAIMED) Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips – Fatale
- (CLAIMED) Eddie Campbell – The Lovely Horrible Stuff
- (CLAIMED) Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido – Blacksad
- (CLAIMED) Mike Carey and Glenn Fabry – Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere
- (CLAIMED) Lilli Carré – Heads or Tails
- Fred Chao – Johnny Hiro
- Daniel Clowes – Wilson or Pussey!
- (CLAIMED) Leela Corman – Unterzakhn
- (CLAIMED) Ken Dahl – Monsters
- (CLAIMED) Farel Dalrymple – Pop Gun War
- (CLAIMED) Vanessa Davis – Make Me a Woman
- Ludovic Debeurme – Lucille
- Kim Deitch – Alias the Cat
- Guy Delisle – Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City or Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
- Glyn Dillon – The Nao of Brown
- Apostolos Doxiadis et al – Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
- Gerry Duggan – Infinite Horizon
- Brecht Evens – (CLAIMED) The Wrong Place or The Making Of
- Joyce Farmer – Special Exits
- Ray Fawkes – One Soul
- Jonathan Fetter-Vorm – Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb
- Ellen Forney – Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me
- Matthew Forsythe – Jinchalo
- (CLAIMED) Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean – Signal to Noise
- (CLAIMED) Tom Gauld – Goliath
- Nicole Georges – Calling Dr. Laura
- Gabriella Giandelli – Interiorae
- Phoebe Gloeckner – A Child’s Life and Other Stories
- Brandon Graham – King City
- Emmanuel Guibert – The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders
- Jonathan Hickman – The Nightly News
- (CLAIMED) Faith Erin Hicks – Friends with Boys
- Paul Hornschemeier – Mother, Come Home, The Three Paradoxes, or Life with Mr. Dangerous
- Dylan Horrocks – Hicksville
- Kevin Huizenga – Gloriana
- Kathryn and Stuart Immonen – Moving Pictures
- (CLAIMED) Tom Kaczynski – Beta Testing the Apocalypse
- Mark Kalesniko – Freeway or Alex
- (CLAIMED) Joe Kelly and Jm Ken Niimura – I Kill Giants
- Megan Kelso – Artichoke Tales
- Russ Kick (ed) – The Graphic Canon (any volume)
- (CLAIMED) Ales Kot – Wild Children
- Jimenez Lai – Citizens of No Place: An Architectural Graphic Novel
- Joseph Lambert – Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller
- Jeff Lemire – Essex County or The Underwater Welder
- Emi Lenox – Emitown
- Jeremy Love – Bayou (vols 1 and 2 together)
- Jason Lutes – Berlin: City of Stones (book 1)
- (CLAIMED) David Mazzucchelli – Asterios Polyp
- Derek McCullough and Colleen Doran – Gone to Amerikay
- Aaron McGruder, Reginald Hudlin, and Kyle Baker – Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel
- Shigeru Mizuki – NonNonBa or Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
- Rutu Modan – Exit Wounds
- (CLAIMED) Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell – From Hell
- (CLAIMED) Terry Moore – Echo
- (CLAIMED) Grant Morrison – Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery
- (CLAIMED) Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely – We3
- Catel Muller and José-Louis Bocquet – Kiki de Montparnasse
- Tom Neely – The Blot
- Josh Neufeld – A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
- Harvey Pekar and JT Waldman – Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me
- (CLAIMED) Rámon Pérez – Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand
- Ed Piskor – Wizzywig
- (CLAIMED) Paul Pope – Heavy Liquid
- John Porcellino – Map of My Heart
- Nate Powell – Swallow Me Whole
- Michel Rabagliati – The Song of Roland
- (CLAIMED) Brian Ralph – Daybreak
- Alex Robinson – Box Office Poison
- Kelly Roman and Michael DeWeese – The Art of War
- (CLAIMED) Joe Sacco – Palestine
- (CLAIMED) Steven Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen – It’s a Bird
- Seth – Wimbledon Green or George Sprott, 1894-1975
- Dash Shaw – Body World or Bottomless Belly Button
- (CLAIMED) Mark Siegel – Sailor Twain
- (CLAIMED) David Small – Stitches
- Art Spiegelman – In the Shadow of No Towers
- Joost Swarte – Is That All There Is?
- Bryan Talbot – Grandville or (CLAIMED) Alice in Sunderland
- Jacques Tardi – It Was a War of the Trenches
- Yoshihiro Tatsumi – A Drifting Life
- Craig Thompson – (CLAIMED) Blankets or Habibi
- Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover – Gingerbread Girl
- (CLAIMED) Adrian Tomine – Shortcomings
- GB Tran – Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey
- Noah Van Sciver – The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln
- Chris Ware – Jimmy Corrigan or (CLAIMED) Building Stories (NOTE: Building Stories is particularly time-consuming, and rather expensive, though significantly less so on Amazon. It’s also kind of spectacularly good, and I hope someone does choose it, but you should know that you’re signing on for a longer reading experience than anything else on this list, most likely.)
- Drew Weing – Set to Sea
- Steven Weissman – Barack Hussein Obama
- Breena Wiederhoeft – Picket Line
- Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly – Local
- (CLAIMED) Chris Wright – Blacklung
- Gene Luen Yang – American Born Chinese
- Dan Zettwoch – Birdseye Bristoe