From chilling horror, to romance, slice-of-life, and everything in between, this is my list of some of the best graphic novels published in 2024!
For some kids, graphic novels can be a bridge from picture books and easy readers to chapter books. I wanted to include some picks that aren’t necessarily flying off the shelves- but deserve some love!
Although I’ve never gotten into Dungeons and Dragons (or other similar dice-based roleplay games), Scout Underhill’s DnDoggos might be enough to convince me to try! Originally a webcomic, DnDoggos is about a close-knit group of anthropomorphic dogs who play an action packed roleplaying game, exploring their roles in the game and within their friendships throughout the quests- all based on Underhill’s real life pet dogs. Expect plenty of silliness, fun and laughter- and enough dog themed puns to last a lifetime!
Continuing the fantasy vibes with Violet Chan Karim’s Summer Vamp, in which a minor mishap has monstrous consequences! Maya loves cooking, more than anything, and she despises her dad’s girlfriend. Trying to appeal to Maya, her dad’s girlfriend signs Maya up for a six-week-long cooking summer camp- Maya’s biggest dream come true! Until Maya accidently jumps on the wrong bus to camp, and suddenly finds herself surrounded by pale-skinned, garlic-hating, blood-sucking vampires! Can Maya survive undercover until the end of summer?
For fans of retro cartoons and more slice-of-life themes, I recommend Molly and the Bear: An Unlikely Pair! When a scaredy, big bear enters energetic and charismatic eleven-year-old Molly’s life, it’s the start of an awesome friendship! Can Molly convince her parents that Bear isn’t as dangerous as he appears? Is Bear able to overcome his fears, with Molly’s help? With a limited color palette, a light-hearted story, and silly expressions, this is a great introductory book for younger kids who want to read graphic novels! (Featured on the cover image of this article!)
Lastly, I could not exclude Ben Sanders’ The Book with Self Destruct from this list! An extremely silly parody on the secret agent/spy genre, This Book will Self Destruct is about spy dog Agent Harrier must save the day (and the book) before it self destructs- in five, four, three, two… With a simple color palette, many puns, and multiple fourth wall breaks, this metafictional graphic novel pulls in the reader to help Agent Harrier find the bad guy before it’s too late!
For the Young Adult and Adult picks below, I wanted to include a wide range of genres and themes, so anyone can find something here that they might enjoy!
It’s been three years since I graduated from art school, but Bunt! felt like a return to campus. This young adult graphic novel is about Molly Bauer, a first-year art school student who, on the first day of classes, realizes that her full ride scholarship disappeared. Panicked at the idea of being forced to pay thousands of dollars at the end of one semester due to one clerical mistake, Molly has to find a loophole to get her scholarship- and her life- back on track. With a colorful and relatable cast of characters, any young adult who attends art school or naturally surrounds themselves with creative people will certainly feel right at home.
Of all the graphic novels this year, Dwellings by Jay Stephens was the high on my list of anticipated releases. As a collector (and long time fan) of vintage Harvey Comics, I was delighted to see the iconic style drawn by a modern artist- although Dwellings is far from the sweet child-friendly comic books that line my book shelves. Instead, this compilation of adult horror short stories connect a suburban town through ghost hauntings, murder, demonic possession, and missing person cases, all happening simultaneously and nonlinear to the main plot. If you need a graphic novel read for Halloween (or are a yearlong horror fan), add Dwellings to your TBR list!
There’s nothing more exciting than seeing a fellow alumni from college get their passion project greenlit into a full length novel- and for Sunny & Gloomy’s Rainbow!, I had been following this project since 2018! Rainbow! is a coming-of-age graphic novel about magical girl fantasies, imagination, and crushes. For seventeen-year-old Boo, life has dealt her a rough hand of cards- with a mom who struggles with substance abuse, a part-time job waitressing and school, and an overactive imagination, Boo barely knows who she is. When Mimi, a new student, enters the picture, Boo realizes that the imaginative crush of her dreams might be closer to reality than she realizes… Perfect for anyone who loves magical girl anime, pastel colors, and realistic fiction (with just a dash of fantasy)!
Another one of my highly anticipated graphic novels for this year was Lucy Knisley’s Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair! I have been a longtime fan of Knisley’s works since I stumbled upon her earlier autobiographic endeavor, An Age of License (2014), when I was a teenager. Since then, Knisley has become one of my favorite cartoonists, both on social media and in print form. In the past ten years, Knisley has gotten married, had a child, illustrated and wrote a handful of books, and owned one of the silliest orange cats- sharing snippets of memories to social media, recorded in her simplistic comic style. Woe is a collection of Knisley’s comics about Linney, her family’s very dramatic and wildly silly orange cat, from adoption to Linney’s death in mid-2019. If you love silly and dramatic cats, and comics that are based in reality, you’ll enjoy Woe!
Ending out the Young Adult/Adult selections is another cat-focused graphic novel, with a dark twist. For fans of Erin Hunter’s Warriors series and Richard Adams’ Plague Dogs, the newest suspenseful horror series from Tony Fleecs will be an instant favorite- welcome to the world of FERAL. In a deceivably sweet art style reminiscent of classic Disney animation, three lost anthropomorphic indoor cats are suddenly forced to face the dangers of the outdoor world during a rabies outbreak. It’s a race against time and the ferocious beasts that carry the fatal virus, as the cats try to find their way back to their humans and their safe homes. If you’re more of a dog person, maybe check out Fleecs’ earlier, but just as dark, graphic novel, Stray Dogs (2021).
