It was time to follow up after my Marvel Vs. DC superhero extravaganza display (Marvel circulated twice as much as DC, by the way). With all the superhero TV shows, movies, and general hype, I thought it was a good time to present an alternate option: awesome graphic novels with no traditional superheroes.
There’s still a misconception out there that “graphic novel” means “superhero story” – featuring a heavy emphasis on plot and lots of gratuitous action. That is true of many graphic novels, but there are so many more that are artful, or philosophical, or dark, or beautiful, or romantic, or complicated, or magical. There is a graphic novel to suit every taste – superheroes or not.
My display back-splash is simple: pages sprayed out into a ring, with the text “Sick of Superheroes? Try these imaginative, thought-provoking, & adventurous graphic novels instead.” I created the text rectangles by using Canva.com. I posted panels from various graphic novels as a border, and included the title and author with an arrow pointing to each. This way people can get a sense of the wide range of art styles present in our collection.
I included a mix of different types of stories:
- RASL by Jeff Smith
- Sandman by Neil Gaiman
- Saga by Brian K Vaughan
- Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol
- Stitches by David Small
- Kill Shakespeare by Conor McCreery
- Anything from the Adventure Time series
- Rick and Morty by Zac Gorman
- Sculptor by Scott McCloud
- Judge by Yoshiki Tonogai
- Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine
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What amazing, sans-superhero graphic novel would you have included on this display?
Ontarian Librarian 