Best Graphic Novels of 2020 (So Far)
By Zack Quaintance — This week marked the official halfway point of the year, and, as such, we’re pausing to take stock of the Best Graphic Novels of 2020 (So Far). We are (arguably) in a new golden age for graphic novels, with publishers such as First Second, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, and even Scholastic publishing an unprecedented number of fantastic graphic novels on an annual basis.
This year has been no exception, and it’s our pleasure today to take a look at the best books of the first six months…enjoy!
Best Graphic Novels of 2020 (So Far)
Barking
Writer/Artist: Lucy Sullivan
Publisher: Unbound
Alix Otto is having a very bad day. Easily her worst so far. A year since they fished her friend’s body from the river she finds herself hounded, haunted and driven to the brink. Caught in a situation she can’t explain, Alix is handed over to the professionals, sectioned and left alone in a labyrinthine system with her delusions running wild…
Why It’s Cool: Barking is a haunting and ethereal journey of a book, one done with hectic and crowded inks that so often bring a singular and telling mood to what’s happening on the page. This is truly a singular vision from creator Lucy Sullivan, who draws from personal experiences with mental health and crisis to deliver this story of a protagonist being chased by a terrifying and oppressive black dog. This book is hard to describe with words, but is easily among the most memorable graphic novel experiences I’ve taken in all year.
Buy It Now: Barking via Unbound
Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams
Writers: Steve Horton & Michael Allred
Artist: Michael and Laura Allred
Publisher: Insight Comics
Inspired by the one and only superhero, extraterrestrial, and rock and roll deity in history, Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams is the original graphic memoir of the great Ziggy Stardust! In life, David Bowie was one of the most magnetic icons of modern pop culture, seducing generations of fans with both his music and his counterculture persona. In death, the cult of Bowie has only intensified. As a musician, Bowie's legacy is remarkable, but his place in the popular imagination is due to so much more than his music. As a visual performer, he defied classification with his psychedelic aesthetics, his larger-than-life image, and his way of hovering on the border of the surreal. Bowie chronicles the rise of Bowie's career from obscurity to fame; and paralleled by the rise and fall of his alter ego as well as the rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust. As the Spiders from Mars slowly implode, Bowie wrestles with his Ziggy persona. The outcome of this internal conflict will change not only David Bowie, but also, the world. Introduction by Neil Gaiman.
Why It’s Cool: I’m a massive fan of David Bowie, having had experiences with different phases of his music throughout my life. This graphic novel does an amazing job of covering the story of Bowie’s early years as a musician. It’s part biopic and part striking visualization of one of our most interesting and influential musical icons. It’s an artfully-executed portrait of a singular artist, and it’s not to be missed.
Buy It Now: Bowie Via Insight Comics
Read More: Bowie Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams Review
Cankor
Writer/Artist: Matthew Allison
Publisher: Adhouse Books
A young man makes a rare excursion outside the comfort of his home to see a rock & roll show. That choice is met with violence and humiliation. When he calls out for help to his unresponsive savior (the sad sack cyborg CANKOR), it sets off a cherry bomb of psychedelic mayhem. A candy colored nightmare of tangled wires, bubbling flesh and the towering corpses of superhumans.
Why It’s Cool: There’s nothing quite like the artwork in Matthew Allison’s Cankor, and Allison puts it to fascinating use. The result is a unique book that blends scenes from Allison’s past as a comic artist with skewed visions of superhero characters, a lens through which he contemplates his own choices, his place within the artistic realm of comics, and the work that he has done over the years. The result is that there’s nothing quite like Cankor, and it’s one of the true must-read books so far this year. Perhaps more than any other graphic novel to hit this year, Cankor is a pure artist vision, one dictated by Allison’s own interests and put forth on his own terms.
Buy It Now: Cankor via Adhouse Books
Dragon Hoops
Writer/Artist: Gene Luen Yang
Publisher: First Second
In his latest graphic novel, Gene Luen Yang turns the spotlight on his life, his family, and the high school where he teaches. Gene doesn't get sports. But at Bishop O'Dowd High School, it's all anyone can talk about. The men's varsity basketball team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that's been decades in the making. Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he's seen on a comic book page. What he doesn't know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons' lives, but his own life as well.
Why It’s Cool: I’ve been pretty clear about this in reviews, on social media, and in conversations with friends — Dragon Hoops is not just my favorite graphic novel so far this year…it’s actually my favorite comics anything in 2020 so far. It’s a touching and inspiring burst of optimism from writer/artist Gene Luen Yang, who uses his own experience taking risks, studying the unfamiliar game of basketball, and moving ahead in life, even if that means putting himself in challenging positions he’s not entirely sure he’s ready for…but hey! That’s life, and it all comes through artfully in this wonderful book.
Buy It Now: Dragon Hoops via Macmillan
Read More: Dragon Hoops Review
Fire Power Prelude
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Chris Samnee
Publisher: Image Comics
ALL-NEW series created by ROBERT KIRKMAN (THE WALKING DEAD, INVINCIBLE, OBLIVION SONG) and Chris Samnee (Daredevil)! Owen Johnson's journey to China to learn about his birth parents eventually leads him to a mysterious Shaolin Temple. The students there study to rediscover the Fire Power, the lost art of throwing fireballs. A power they claim will be needed soon to save the world. Will Owen Johnson be the first person in a thousand years to wield the FIRE POWER?
Why It’s Cool: I have rarely had so much uncomplicated fun as I did while reading the Fire Power Prelude graphic novel from Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) and artist Chris Samnee. The real headliner for this book is Samnee’s joyous artwork, which is given freedom to shine in these fast-paced pages that tell a story of mysterious parentage, a mystic (and badass) fire-throwing art, and making hard choices about what to do in unexpected situations. Most stunningly, this excellent graphic novel is just a prelude for the full FIre Power series that launched this month.
Buy It Now: Fire Power Prelude via comiXology
Read More: Fire Power Prelude Review
The Golden Age
Writer: Roxanne Moreil
Artist: Cyril Pedrosa
Publisher: First Second
Princess Tilda plans to change all that. As the rightful heir of late King Ronan, Tilda wants to deliver her people from famine and strife. But on the eve of her coronation, her younger brother, backed by a cabal of power-hungry lords, usurps her throne and casts her into exile. Now Tilda is on the run. With the help of her last remaining allies, Tankred and Bertil, she travels in secret through the hinterland of her kingdom. Wherever she goes, the common folk whisper of a legendary bygone era when all men lived freely. There are those who want to return to this golden age-at any cost. In the midst of revolution, how can Tilda reclaim her throne?
Why It’s Cool: The Golden Age is what a fantasy graphic novel should be in 2020 — it’s a gorgeous and compelling book to read. More importantly, however, it takes the questions of our times — power, respect for those with less, how to move forward in a way that betters the whole humanity — and reflects them back at readers through a magical, fantasy lens. It’s the type of book that you’ll read in one sitting and then hop online to Google the release date for the sequel. It’s that good.
Buy It Now: The Golden Age via Macmillan
Read More: The Golden Age Review
Old Head
Writer/Artist: Kyle Starks
Publisher: Kickstarter
The madcap action-horror story of the world's toughest former pro-basketball player returning home with his daughter to learn about his destiny and his mother's mysterious past, while—right next door— Dracula and his goons are on the eve of their bloodiest holiday. What follows is a ton of fights and action and comedy and monsters and tough guy one liners - the type of thing you'd expect from one of my books. I've filled this book with jokes and punches and a rude amount of vampire decapitations. If you like a dope tough guy beating butt story this is for you. If you love action-comedy this book is for you! If you love slam dunks or Draculas you're going to be over the moon.
Why It’s Cool: Premiere tough guy fist-fight illustrator Kyle Starks put out a new graphic novel earlier this year, which is a downright event as far as we’re concerned, what with his previous work on books like Sex Castle and Rock Candy Mountain (two certified Comics Bookcase favorites). Oh, and his new book also involves vampires and basketball! What results is a funny and rip-roaring good time of a book that also has a lot to say about generational learning and family. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Buy It Now: Old Head via Kyle Starks Store
Paul Is Dead
Writer: Paolo Baron
Artist: Ernesto Carbonetti
Publisher: Image Comics
November 1966. London. John Lennon can't speak. He can't take his eyes off the photo of a car in flames with Paul McCartney's body inside. His friend is no longer here, and that means the Beatles are no longer here either. But John wants to know the truth, and with George and Ringo, he will begin to re-examine the final hours of Paul's life. Set in the magical atmosphere of Abbey Road Studios during the writing sessions for Sgt. Pepper, PAUL IS DEAD is the definitive version of the legend of Paul McCartney's death.
Why It’s Cool: For whatever reason, I’ve had quite a few folks reach out to ask me if they should buy this book…and my answer is a couple of questions back at them: do you like The Beatles? Are you interested in entertaining one of the longest-standing oddball theories in all of pop culture, which is that Paul McCartney died in a car accident in 1966 and was replaced by a studio-groomed look-a-like? If you answered yes to either of those questions, this book is 100 percent for you. I answered yes to both, which is perhaps why this book has found itself on our list of the Best Graphic Novels of 2020 (so far).
Buy It Now: Paul Is Dead via comiXology
Read More: Paul Is Dead Review
The Rough Pearl
Writer/Artist: Kevin Mutch
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Thirty-something Adam Kline is an aspiring artist with bleak prospects, stuck in a thankless adjunct teaching gig and married to an ambitious woman tired of supporting his starry-eyed pipe dreams. Just as things seem to be looking up for hapless Adam, he begins to black out at random and awaken in a pitch-dark void surrounded by billions of probing eyes. When these uncanny visions appear in his real life, he starts to worry that he’s losing his mind…In The Rough Pearl, Xeric Award-winning cartoonist Kevin Mutch skewers the pretentious world of academia and the soul-crushing New York art scene — and enlivens this wry, slice of life (and death) tale with a touch of the surreal.
Why It’s Cool: The Rough Pearl is another book on our list that I just couldn’t put down. It reads like great literary fiction, for a few reasons. First and foremost, it’s set in the world of academia, which has become somewhat of a trope in modern literary fiction given how many writers in 2020 pay their bills in part by working as faculty within writing programs. The protagonist in The Rough Pearl is paying his bills with a gig teaching art, while churning out fine arts work he hopes will one day light up the (hilariously pretentious here) world of New York City fine arts shows. Where it gets really interesting is that this book also blends the edges of reality in a way that makes you wonder what’s actually happening, and if it’s all not just a metaphor for the feelings the hero is experiencing at a pivotal time in his life.
Buy It Now: The Rough Pearl via comiXology
Read More: The Rough Pearl Review
Year of the Rabbit
Writer/Artist: Tian Veasna
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Year of the Rabbit tells the true story of one family’s desperate struggle to survive the murderous reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge seizes power in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Immediately after declaring victory in the war, they set about evacuating the country’s major cities with the brutal ruthlessness and disregard for humanity that characterized the regime ultimately responsible for the deaths of one million citizens.
Why It’s Cool: Phew, this book is one hell of a journey, telling the harrowing true story of writer/artist Tian Veasna’s family’s experience under the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in 1975. It starts with the chaos of revolution, moves into an exodus, and eventually explores the crimes perpetrated by those who seize power, grounding an entire (and under-explored in the West) portion of history through the deep emotional core of Veasna’s actual family. You’ll be nervous for the characters throughout, all leading up to a powerful emotional crescendo. I can’t recommend this one enough.
Buy It Now: Year of the Rabbit via Drawn & Quarterly
Read More: Year of the Rabbit Review
Others Receiving Votes: 920London, Bog Bodies, Constantly, Lost Carnival, J+K, and Sports Is Hell.
Check out other Best Comics of 2020 (So Far) Lists Now:
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.