This is now one of my favorite memes, as it combines two things I love: comic books and libraries (via Tegan) :
Lieber’s Eleven
Tegan’s list
Milo George’s list
This is what I’d buy if I was doing collection development at an academic library with no graphic novels, in no particular order:
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
Art Spiegelman, Maus
Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy
Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, Love and Rockets
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Alan Moore, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Neil Gaiman, Sandman
Junko Mizuno, Princess Mermaid
Kazuo Koike, Lone Wolf and Cub
Warren Ellis, Planetary
Hayao Miyazaki, Nausicaa
9:31 pm on August 5th, 2004 1
I can’t believe I forgot Maus. I’m an idiot.
9:53 pm on August 5th, 2004 2
It is sooooooooooooooo hard to only come up with 11 titles! I had difficulty listing 11 titles “for the library”, because I could easily come up with a different list depending on the comics being shelved in the YA collection of a public library or somewhere else. So I decided to duck that issue and make a list for the type of library I’m most familiar with.
1:24 am on August 6th, 2004 3
Tangognat: Whitling it down is tough. If the meme spreads, I wouldn’t be surprised to see people coming up with targeted lists: eleven non-fiction, say, or eleven Y.A.
I’m really glad you included some manga on your list. I’ve read Astro Boy and Lone Wolf & Cub, but I still haven’t picked up Nausicaa or Princess Mermaid.
5:06 am on August 6th, 2004 4
Nausicaa is a classic work that doesn’t always seem to get the hype it deserves — Princess Mermaid was a wild card pick, it is a fairy tale on acid.
6:49 am on August 6th, 2004 5
So, if you were to have to choose some basic books about comics (history & development) and/or with comics integrated into the themes (like Kavalier & Clay), which would you choose? I’m just wondering about what you think the basic references are in this area.
8:35 am on August 7th, 2004 6
If development means “How to,” I going to have to fight off the urge to say “eleven copies of this.”
Having put that ugly business behind us, we confront the sad truth that comics history at this point is much better told in magazines than it is in books. Books I like include the Smithsonian books, Les Daniels’ Comix, and Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes. For magazines, the Comics Journal, Nemo, Hogans Alley, Comic Art and the various Two Morrows magazines are all great sources.
11:04 am on August 7th, 2004 7
That’s true that magazines might do a better job — I had a frustrating time at the reference desk one day trying to find citations for a student who wanted to research a comic writer for a class presentation. Not only did we not subscribe to any comics periodicals, not many databases (that we subscribed to) indexed them, so it was taking me a long time to even find references to articles he could send away for via interlibrary loan.
9:34 am on August 11th, 2004 8
It’s true. When it comes to doing research on comics, It’s going to be a while before proper sources can compete with informal networks like message boards, listservs and that guy who works at Comictopia on Thursdays.
I see from my hitlog that the list meme has appeared on lsin. Cool. I’ll have more links coming later today.
11:20 pm on October 13th, 2004 9
I know this is old but I saw it and had to do it ….
Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud
Maus - Art Spiegelman
Sleepwalk and Other Stories - Adrian Tomine
Jar of Fools - Jason Lutes
The Golem’s Mighty Swing - James Sturm
A Contract With God - Will Eisner
The Sandman: Seasons of Mist - Neil Gaiman
Cerebus: Mothers and Daughter - Dave Sim
Cerebus: Jaka’s Story - Dave Sim (but the individual issues would be better - the letters pages are essential)
Blankets - Craig Russell
Watchmen - Alan Moore
5:28 am on October 14th, 2004 10
Hey Daniel, I’ll add your list to the master list in a little while