What are your top ever explainer graphic novels? Meaning ones whose main purpose is to explain some concept about science, history, philosophy, etc.
Not allowed: memoir/biography
Not allowed: Logicomix, because you're all going to say it because it's great
Not allowed: memoir/biography
Not allowed: Logicomix, because you're all going to say it because it's great
Comments
Also really loved Marion Montaigne’s Tu Mourras Moins Bête series (AFAIK, only available in French)
The Harlem Hellfighters but only because describing Maus as a “favorite” is… like a category error
https://stuartngbooks.com/products/the-big-book-of-bad
https://archive.org/details/einstein-for-beginners/page/132/mode/1up
The majority of the book is a great explainer of relativity, so I think it still qualifies
(We love @zachweinersmith.bsky.social ‘s Bea Wolf and sent a copy to the Rickard niece who teaches Beowulf to 8 year olds)
Domain : #BusinessContinuity
Reference from #CDC : https://archive.org/details/ZombieGraphicNovel
When this came out in 2011-ish (I think) I was new to this domain. Whole campaign with it.
I have used analogy of #zombies ever since with great humour in otherwise serious (others view!!) work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Book_Of
By Box Brown
Plus:
Andre the Giant: Life and Legend
Tetris: The Games People Play
Is This Guy for Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman
Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America
Child Star
Accidental Czar
https://www.boxbrown.com/
Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunleavey's ACTION PHILOSOPHERS and other works are also up there.
- My kid loves Andy Warner's Oddball Histories, and I appreciate that they don't shy away from tough topics like the connection of food to conquest and colonialism
- basically any food manga
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/books/review/jason-lutes-berlin.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ok4.GH7k.jTY83ktdktpe&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&tgrp=on
And it should count just because it should: Katy the Snowplow
https://a.co/d/hczeVUY
- Le Photographe (real report on an afghan war, with photos from the authors) from Guibert, Lefèvre, Lemercier
- the whole series of Tu Mourras Moins Bête (comedy science popularization) from Marion Montaigne
Also, Mc Cloud's Understanding Comics.
She stopped in 2020 but there's a lot of content there already.
&
"MAUS" (I & II) by Art Spiegelman
There is a chapter in Maus that puts it nicely:
"My Father Bleeds History"
Jean-Luc Loyer.
His drawings are ugly, but the storytelling is great. It's lively, always interesting and with a focus on the human side of things.
His comics paid by Google for Chrome was excellent too.
(Matthew Johnstone)
https://images.app.goo.gl/XBuXTdSRxHBqC3wV9
https://images.app.goo.gl/xpPoLTBow9xY4WpA7
European Americans are newbies here.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo&feature=shared
With hope it doesn't offend any religious proclivity you may have, you may like this.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=w5kBDt6G_h4&feature=shared
Don’t let the abstruse title fool you. This is THE book on charts that display and enlighten! It’s engrossing and sometimes fun to read/view.
His books are amazing. This is a good brief intro to him.
https://www.npr.org/2006/08/20/5673332/edward-tufte-offering-beautiful-evidence
https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780063212237_p0_v2_s600x595.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/History-Computer-Inventions-Technology-Changed/dp/1984857428/ref=mp_s_a_1_1
To stay on topic, I'll check out The History of the Computer.
This one made a strong impression at a formative age:
100% freely available in PDF.
#edusky #makingcomics
https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/panels_and_perspectives-508.pdf
Recent: The He-Man Effect, Box Brown
If by "crime" you mean "street organs", anyway.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/457628/world-without-end-by-blain-jean-marc-jancovici-and-christophe/9780241661949
His work in Spanish ranged widely across political and historical topics.
https://archive.org/details/marx-para-principiantes
https://freshcomics.us/issue/JAN150916/the-age-of-selfishness
But it was in landscape orientation, came to me in India via my cousin in Oman.
I’ll see if my parents still have it somewhere.
(This was a strip within a weekly anthology, but has since been collected as graphic novels.)
Cover the famous serial killer, and it feels closer to a documentary reenactment. Powell's art is perfect for the graphic nature of the subject.
Available in the school library of my high school. Initiation to relativity, quantum theory, electricity, etc.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselme_Lanturlu
The Manga of Das Kapital
Jim Ottaviani's works. "Primates" is my fave thought might be a bio in your mind.
"Green River Killer" drawn by Jonathan Case
Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 by MK Czierwiec
Americus by MK Reed (on book banning)
Baggywrinkles (sailing)
Trenches by Scott MIlls
Superspy by KIndt
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Padua
No biography, and no omniscient narrator either. Just characters learning about genetics from the biomolecules themselves.
by Toben, Sarfatti , and Wolf
(you know, with the mammoths)
SEND IT
I'll add more to this list after I consult my bookshelf.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-anatomy-coloring-book-wynn-kapit/1116678599
Sadly Dr. Elson died a few years ago. He had such an impact on so many people, both as a teacher and as author of this book.
Novel by Meg-John Barker (and the Gender and Sexuality ones) are fantastic.
Michael Goodwin's Economix graphic novel is an awesome primer on modern economic history. Can't recommend enough.
But David Walker's "The Black Panther Party" is my favorite historical explainer in a graphic novel.
Routledge press
‘The Witcher: Fading Memories’
https://archive.org/details/mangaguidetoline0000taka
I don't know if it counts as a graphic novel per se, but one of my favorite all time 'explainer' books on writing is "Wonderbook" by Jeff Van Der Meer.
Does _Richard Scarry's Busy Busy Construction Site_ count as a graphic novel? :-)
It explains essential queer concepts in 1-2 easy-to-understand pages each.
Similarly, it provides excellent primers on important but often intimidating queer theorists like Butler, Halberstam, and Foucault.
Showtime At The Apollo
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
Seems a lot of it is giving tintin