Bone

by Jeff Smith

One Volume Edition / Cartoon Books, 2004

Volumes 1-9 / Scholastic Editions, 2005-9

Bone can be described as Disney meets The Lord of the Rings. Originally published in black & white in serialized form, then collected in 9 volumes (as well as a massive 1332-page One Volume edition), the award-winning popular series is now being released in new colored editions (up to Volume 6 as of this writing).

Bone tells the tale of the Bone cousins who stumble onto a land of a lost princess, dragons and an epic battle between the forces of good and evil.

Adults are going to dig this as much as the young ones.

Criminal

Vol. 1-

by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

Icon, 2007-

Each volume is a self contained crime story. Brubaker & Philips have create well rounded characters that you want to root for. The plot is filled with turns, twists and noir elements that's likely to keep you at the edge of your seat.

Winner of 2007 Eisner Award for Best New Series.

Note: This series is ongoing.

Catwoman: Selina's Big Score

by Darwyn Cooke

DC Comics, 2003

Great noir story line. 

Batman: Year One

by Frank Miller & David Mazzuccelli
DC Comics, 1997

There are few really, really good Batman stories. This is one of those. This is basically an origin story as told by Frank Miller (Sin City, 300), and beautifully illustrated by David Mazuchelli.

The story was first published as a serialized comic in 1987, but the last time I read it as a collection a few years back, it was still as captivating as ever. The collection remains in print today, 20 years after the story was first published.

Although this is a super-hero book, perhaps a more apt description would be that this is a crime noir tale. This is also a tamer Miller, without the sex & violence found in Sin City, but that does not mean the story is an all ages tale. Rather, the tone seems aimed at a more mature reader.

Along with Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns; Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale's trilogy : The Long Halloween, Dark Victory and Haunted Knight and Grant Morrison & Dave McKean's Arkham Asylum, this is one of those most critically acclaimed Batman tales ever published (IMHO). This was also the story that partly influenced the latest Batman movie, Batman Begins.

The Complete Peanuts

by Charles M. Schulz
Fantagraphics Books, 2004-

Fantagraphics has committed to publishing all the Peanuts comic strips in chronological order, starting from the first strip in 1950 all the way to the final strip in 2000. At the rate of a new volume every 6 months, the entire 25 volume series should be done by 2016 (so far, 10 volumes have been released).

I never took to Peanuts as a kid, but as an adult, I found myself growing fond of the cast and the strips.

Pictured here is the cover to the first collection, out in May 2004.

I would say this is a good quality archive of the series for a bargain price. (It's even cheaper when you get the box sets which collects 2 volumes together).

Persepolis & Persepolis 2

by Marjane Satrapi
Pantheon Books, 2004 & 2005

These two books are coming-of-age tales based on the live of the author. What I really enjoyed about them is the sprinkles of light humor and the insight into Iranian society. 

When a film was made based on these two books, I was really excited and wanted to watch it. I don't know why the Iranian government would get upset about the film, because having read the books, I found so much humanity in the story. Or maybe it's the deviation from the government's strict code of conduct.  

I really recommend these two books as right now, I can't think of any other picture book in the Western publishing world that provides such a humane, touching and wonderful insight into what it means to be an Iranian living in the Western world. 

The first book deals with her childhood, while the second book deals with her youth as an Iranian returning to her country for the first time after spending some time away in France.

Blankets

by Craig Thompson
Top Shelf Productions, 2003

An autobiography of an ordinary human being. And yet, it's so captivating.

Demo: The Collected Edition

by Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan
AiT/Planet Lar, 2003
Vertigo, 2008

Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China

by Guy Delise
Drawn & Quaterly Books, 2006