Graphic novels use sequential art to tell a story.
A graphic novel uses the interplay of text and illustrations in a comic-strip format to tell a story. Instead of relying on just text to construct a narrative, it uses graphical elements such as panels, frames, speech/thought balloons, etc. in a sequential way to create and evoke a story in a reader's mind.
The Boat by
'The Boat', an interactive graphic novel about escape after the Vietnam War. This one is a bit of a different experience to what you may be used to when reading graphic novels as it has been designed for you to read and experience online. Expect music, sounds effects and moving elements on your screen as you navigate your way through the story!
Parable of the Sower: a Graphic Novel Adaptation by
In the year 2024, the country is marred by unattended environmental and economic crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher’s daughter living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her gated community. However, in a night of fire and death, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny . . . and the birth of a new faith.
47 Ronin by
Japan's enduring national legend comes to comics! This epic mission of loyal Japanese warriors to avenge their wronged master epitomizes the samurai code of honor, and 47 Ronin recounts the sweeping saga of duty and duress in all its violent grandeur. Opening with the tragic incident that sealed the fate of young Lord Asano, this graphic novel follows a dedicated group of Asano's vassals on their unwavering road to bloody vengeance.
Clementine by
Clementine is back on the road, looking to put her traumatic past behind her and forge a new path all her own. But when she comes across an Amish teenager named Amos with his head in the clouds, the unlikely pair journeys North to an abandoned ski resort in Vermont, where they meet up with a small group of teenagers attempting to build a new, walker-free settlement. As friendship, rivalry, and romance begin to blossom amongst the group, the harsh winter soon reveals that the biggest threat to their survival... might be each other.
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 by
Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper catches fire. In an totalitarian future it is the job of firemen to seek out books and burn them. Fireman Guy Montag has never questioned his work, until he meets a girl who tells him of a past when people did not live in fear.
Underground: marsupial outlaws and other rebels of Australia's war in Vietnam by
It's 1965, and an old Tattersalls barrel starts rolling marbles to randomly conscript young Australian men to fight in the war in Vietnam. Melbourne housewife Jean McLean is outraged, as are her artist friends Clif and Marlene Pugh, who live in the country with their wombat, Hooper. Determined to wreck the system, Jean forms the Save Our Sons movement's Victorian branch, and she and her supporters take to the streets to protest. Meanwhile, in the small country town of Katunga, Bill Cantwell joins the Australian Army, and in Saigon, young Mai Ho is writing letters to South Vietnamese soldiers from her school desk. And when Hooper's call-up papers arrive, he mysteriously goes underground.
Watchmen by
In an alternate world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history, the US won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the cold war is in full effect! Watchmen begins as a murder-mystery, but soon unfolds into a planet-altering conspiracy. As the resolution comes to a head, the unlikely group of reunited heroes--Rorschach, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias--have to test the limits of their convictions and ask themselves where the true line is between good and evil.
Persepolis by
Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family.
The Complete MAUS by
Maus is the harrowing story of the author's parents, Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living in Hitler's Europe, and then his father dealing with Art Spiegelman's questions as he explores this past - all drawn with cats and mice.
The Librarian of Auschwitz by
Based on the true story of Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus.
Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezin ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious books the prisoners have managed to smuggle past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the secret librarian of Auschwitz, responsible for the safekeeping of the small collection of titles, as well as the 'living books' - prisoners of Auschwitz who know certain books so well, they too can be 'borrowed' to educate the children in the camp. But books are extremely dangerous. They make people think. And nowhere are they more dangerous than in Block 31 of Auschwitz, the children's block, where the slightest transgression can result in execution, no matter how young the transgressor.
COMING SOON TO THE LIBRARY: "The Boat" by
'The Boat', an interactive graphic novel about escape after the Vietnam War. This one is a bit of a different experience to what you may be used to when reading graphic novels as it has been designed for you to read and experience online. Expect music, sounds effects and moving elements on your screen as you navigate your way through the story!
Fax from Sarajevo by
In 1945, we told the world, "Never again." In 1992, the promise was broken into bloody shards. That was the year the war broke out in Sarajevo, Bosnia, the year that genocide revisited the planet. It was the year that Ervin Rustemagic - an international businessman whose clients included author Joe Kubert - found himself and his family trapped in a city under siege. Ervin's only means of communication to the outside world was via his fax machine. As Joe began to receive these messages from Ervin, he did what he had done for years - he put the story to paper.
Goddamn This War! by
Goddamn This War! follows a young recruit into the French infantry at the start of the first World War. He against odds survives to the war's conclusion—which is why he's able to narrate the whole thing from after the fact. We see other characters as he sees them: occasionally and as fodder.
Last Day in Vietnam by
A memoir of stories about soldiers who are engaged not only in the daily hostilities of war but also in larger, more personal combat. It features stories that are comical, heart-rending, frightening, and yet display the incredible insight into humanity characteristic of the author's entire oeuvre.
Munnu: A boy from Kashmir by
Munnu is an amazingly personal insight into everyday life in Kashmir. Closely based on Malik Sajad’s own childhood and experiences, it is a beautiful, evocatively drawn graphic novel that questions every aspect of the Kashmir situation – the faults and responsibilities of every side, the history of the region, the role of Britain and the West, the possibilities for the future. It opens up the story of this contested and conflicted land, while also giving a brilliantly close, funny and warm-hearted portrait of a boy’s childhood and coming-of-age.
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths by
A semiautobiographical account of the desperate final weeks of a Japanese infantry unit at the end of WorldWar II. The soldiers are told that they must go into battle and die for the honor of their country, with certain execution facing them if they return alive. Mizuki was a soldier himself (he was severely injured and lost an arm) and uses his experiences to convey the devastating consequences and moral depravity of the war.
Terminal Lance: The White Donkey by
A powerful, compulsively page-turning, vivid, and moving tribute to the experience of war and PTSD, The White Donkey tells the story of Abe, a young Marine recruit who experiences the ugly, pedestrian, and often meaningless side of military service in rural Iraq. He enlists in hopes of finding that missing something in his life but comes to find out that it's not quite what he expected.
