Staff Picks
#BroaderBookshelf 2022 - Graphic Novels with Character Names (Non-Fiction)
- Mahogany S.
- Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Collection
Check out one of these graphic novels and fulfill the #BroaderBookshelf 2022 Reading Challenge prompt "read a book with a characters name in the title".
This list is part of the #BroaderBookshelf 2022 Reading Challenge. Find more lists here.
Laika
Published in 2007
This is the journey of Laika, the abandoned puppy destined to become Earth's first space traveler. With the blending of fact and fiction, this story intertwines three compelling lives. Along with Laika, there is Korolev, a driven engineer at the top of the Soviet space program and Yelena, the lab technician responsible for Laika's health and life.
Che
A Revolutionary Life
Published in 2018
"The graphic novel adaptation of the groundbreaking and definitive biography of Che Guevara. Che Guevara's legend is unmatched in the modern world. Since his assassination in 1967 at the age of thirty-nine, the Argentine revolutionary has become an internationally recognized icon, as revered as he is controversial. As a Marxist ideologue who sought to end global inequality by bringing down the American capitalist empire through armed guerrilla warfare, Che has few rivals in the Cold War era as an apostle of revolutionary change. In Che: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández present the man behind the myth, creating a complex and human portrait of this passionate idealist. Adapted from Jon Lee Anderson's definitive masterwork, Che vividly transports us from young Ernesto's medical school days as a sensitive asthmatic to the battlefields of the Cuban revolution, from his place of power alongside Castro, to his disastrous sojourn in the Congo, and his violent end in Bolivia. Through renowned Mexican artist José Hernández's drawings we feel the bullets wing past the head of the young rebel in Cuba, we smell the thick smoke of Castro's cigars, and scrutinize the face of the weary guerrilla as he's called 'Comandante' for the first time"-- Provided by publisher.
Mike's Place
A True Story of Love, Blues, and Terror in Tel Aviv
Published in 2015
Recounts the authors' experiences as filmmakers who were working on a project on Mike's Place, a Tel Aviv blues bar where Jews, Christians, and Muslims freely mingled with expatriates, and the events that led up to the destruction of the bar in a suicide bombing.
Andre the Giant
Life and Legend
Published in 2014
Drawing from historical records about Andre's life as well as a wealth of anecdotes from his colleagues in the wrestling world, including Hulk Hogan, and his film co-stars (Billy Crystal, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, etc), Brown has created in Andre the Giant, the first substantive biography of one of the twentieth century's most recognizable figures.
Nellie Bly
Published in 2021
Born in 1864, Nellie Bly was a woman who did not allow herself to be defined by the time she lived in, she rewrote the narrative and made her own way. Bly's story is told through Miriam, a fictionalized female student at the Columbia School of Journalism in 1921. While interviewing the famous journalist, Miriam learns not only about Bly's more sensational adventures, but also about her focus on self-reliance from an early age, the scathing letter to the editor that jump-started her career as a newspaper columnist, and her dedication to the empowerment of women. In fact, in 1884, Bly was one of the few journalists who interviewed Belva Ann Lockwood, who was the first woman candidate for a presidential election--a contest that was ultimately won by Grover Cleveland--and Bly predicted correctly that women would not get the vote until 1920. Of course Bly's most well-known exploits are also covered--how she pretended to be mad in order to get institutionalized so she could carry out an undercover investigation in an insane asylum, and Bly's greatest feat of all, her journey around the world in 72 days--alone--which was unthinkable for a woman in the late 19th century. As Miriam learns more of Bly's story, she realizes that the most important stories aren't necessarily the ones with the most dramatic headlines, but the ones that, in Nellie's words, "come from a deep feeling." This beautifully executed graphic novel paints a portrait of a woman who defied societal expectations--not only with her investigative journalism, but with her keen mind for industry, and her original inventions.--Publisher's description.
Gauguin
The Other World
Published in 2016
In 1891, Paul Gauguin (1848--1903) arrives on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. In this lush paradise, he is liberated from the concerns of the city-dwelling European. He is free: to love, to sing, and to create. In Copenhagen, Gauguin's wife enjoys no such freedom. She would rather forget her odious husband and his degenerate artwork. Instead, in a city resistant to the avant-garde, she is tasked with selling a collection of his extravagantly priced Tahitian paintings. When they finally go on sale--in Paris, shortly after Gauguin's return--sales are catastrophic. For Monet, Renoir, and the rest of the old guard, nothing indicates that these bizarre, visionary works are of any lasting significance. A biography of an artist whose qualities as a man won him few admirers in his own lifetime, but whose talents as a painter would have an enormous influence on the art of Picasso, Matisse, and many more.
Bob Marley in Comics
Published in 2019
"In the middle of a depressing youth in a ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica, Robert Nesta Marley sees only one way out: music. And that music will be what Jamaica made of rock and pop locally that had hardly been heard anywhere else: reggae! It is Marley who brings the unmistakable beat of reggae to the entire world. From small stages in Jamaica, his partners of the Wailers accompany him all the way to the most fabulous world tours and adulation. Beyond a rocketing musical career, the most famous rasta wants to shake things up and proclaim all over his humanitarian and egalitarian values."--Publisher's website.
Rosalie Lightning
Published in 2016
"ROSALIE LIGHTNING is Eisner-nominated cartoonist Tom Hart's beautiful and touching graphic memoir about the untimely death of his young daughter, Rosalie. His heart-breaking and emotional illustrations strike readers to the core, and take them along his family's journey through loss. Hart uses the graphic form to articulate his and his wife's on-going search for meaning in the aftermath of Rosalie's death, exploring themes of grief, hopelessness, rebirth, and eventually finding hope again. Hart creatively portrays the solace he discovers in nature, philosophy, great works of literature, and art across all mediums in this expressively honest and loving tribute to his baby girl. Rosalie Lighting is a graphic masterpiece chronicling a father's undying love"-- Provided by publisher.
The Murder of Emmett Till
Published in 2021
"The Murder of Emmett Till's primary aim is to commemorate the 1955 Emmett Till murder by providing an up-to-date and concise narrative of the murder that is reflective of the latest scholarship and recent developments in the case such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) reopening of the Emmett Till murder case in 2004, the US Senate's formal apology for lynching in 2005, the FBI's 2006 Emmett Till murder investigative report, and the passage of the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Crimes Act"-- Provided by publisher.
21
Published in 2011
Presents the story of baseball star Roberto Clemente and his journey from an impoverished childhood to fame and fortune, as he strives to go the distance for respect.
Redbone
The True Story of a Native American Rock Band
Published in 2020
"Brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas were talented Native American rock musicians that took the 1960s Sunset Strip by storm. They influenced The Doors and jammed with Jimmy Hendrix before he was 'Jimi', and the idea of a band made up of all Native Americans soon followed. Determined to control their creative vision and maintain their cultural identity, they eventually signed a deal with Epic Records in 1969. But as the American Indian Movement gained momentum the band took a stand, choosing pride in their ancestry over continued commercial reward. Created in cooperation with the Vegas family, authors Christian Staebler and Sonia Paoloni with artist Thibault Balahy take painstaking steps to ensure the historical accuracy of this important and often overlooked story of America's past. Part biography and part research journalism, Redbone provides a voice to a people long neglected in American history."--Provided by publisher.
Edmonia Lewis.
Published in 2020
"Meet Edmonia Lewis, the woman who changed America during the Civil War by becoming the first sculptor of African-American and Native American heritage to earn international acclaim. Jasmine Walls & Bex Glendining present the true story of courage, determination and perseverance through one of America's most violent eras to create true beauty that still reverberates today"-- Provided by publisher.