graphic novels dealing with race and class

[Mostly on Storygraph]

Hi all, I was hoping you could share recommendations for comics / graphic novels that present stories dealing with race and economic class. I appreciate your help!

[Joelle.P.S]

I recommend Victor LaValle's Destroyer (Frankenstein / Black Lives Matter / etc). Also Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine.

[Carol]

I recommend

each of the March novels by John Lewis: ]March: Book One, March: Book Two, March: Book Three;
As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman
Black Panther #1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Nat Turner by Kyle Baker
Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey by G.B. Tran
Your Black Friend by Ben Passmore
Six Days in Cincinnati: A Graphic Account of the Riots That Shook the Nation a Decade Before Black Lives Matter by Dan P. Moore
Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White by Lila Quintero Weaver

There are plenty of lists on GR that might give you other leads and ideas, too.

[Ella]

I just finished a memoir from a Vietnamese-American writer/artist that I enjoyed. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui.

The story contains a lot of economic hardship and there's a fair bit about how the parents grew up in Viet Nam/ why they are who they are & how that affects the younger generations.

I've only started reading graphic novels and comics in my fifties, and once I learned how to read them, I've been kind of like a kid in a candy shop, so thanks Carol for the recs & thanks L for asking so I can learn about more too.

[Lata]

Thanks, Carol. I’ve read a few on your list, but others were new to me. I’ve loved graphic novels for years, and love how some authors are using the medium to tell good stories and provoke great discussions.

[Mostly on Storygraph]

Thanks everyone for the comments so far. I really loved The Best We Could Do as well as the March Trilogy!

[Carol]

Ella wrote: "I just finished a memoir from a Vietnamese-American writer/artist that I enjoyed. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui.

The story contains a lot of economic hardship a..."

I came late to them, too, in part because my library system database does not allow a search of graphic novels for adult (not YA) content, and stumbling through the shelves isn’t efficient or gratifying. But I accepted a friend requests year or so ago here on GR from a professor who reads and reviews a lot of graphic novels and it’s as if so now have a friend holding the flashlight as I traipse through the woods at night. :). David Schaafsma, btw, if any of you want to friend him or browse his shelves.

[Carol]

Lata wrote: "Thanks, Carol. I’ve read a few on your list, but others were new to me. I’ve loved graphic novels for years, and love how some authors are using the medium to tell good stories and provoke great di..."

Lata, You are way ahead of me :)

[Geordie]

I definitely agree with Bitch Planet and March; I hope to check out some of the others soon.

I'd also recommend Birth of a Nation, and The Bread Winner.

[kittykat AKA Ms. Tortitude]

They Called Us Enemy

[〰️Beth〰️]

I would also suggest They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

Possibly also:

Saga, Vol. 1
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal
American Born Chinese
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty
I Am Alfonso Jones
The Harlem Hellfighters

[tinaathena]

A lot of the above are great recommendations, The Best We Could Do put me into tears. Here's some recent ones I've read that might fit the bill. My Brother's Husband is a manga, so you get the added bonus of foraying into a new type of graphic novel, and it covers the intersection of national social differences and queerness. Enjoy!
- Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers
- The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis
- My Brother's Husband (vol. 1 + 2) by Gengoroh Tagame
- BTTM FDRS by Ezra Claytan Daniels, Ben Passmore

[tinaathena]

oh and GRASS is supposed to be very good but I've not yet gotten around to it

[Geordie]

I love manga, but as far as modern greats that respectfully treat social issues, it's hard to beat My Brother's Husband! I'd also highly recommend Persepolis, wish I'd mentioned it before.
I can't find a graphic novel called GRASS, can you share a link, or the author's name?

[Geordie]

tinaathena wrote: "oh and GRASS is supposed to be very good but I've not yet gotten around to it"
Grass
Never mind, found it! Definitely going onto my to-read list.

[tinaathena]

@Geordie,
- Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau
- Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki
- On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
are also really good queer, young love stories if you're into that. The protagonists and characters of these stories are not only white, and with most their racial background isn't a plot point, but inherent to their character, if that makes any sense!)

[dianne b.]

Incognegro

[Sarah]

Seconding the recommendations for the "March" books, as well as "Nat Turner" (it is EXCEPTIONAL), "Bitch Planet," and "My Brother's Husband." I really enjoyed all of those.

Other titles I haven't seen mentioned yet:

-"The Silence of Our Friends" by Mark Long, illustrated by the same guy who did "Nat Turner." Synopsis: "In 1960s Texas, a white family from a notoriously racist neighborhood and a black family from its poorest ward cross Houston's color line, overcoming humiliation, degradation, and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman."

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

-"The Shadow Hero" by Gene Luen Yang. Synoposis: The Shadow Hero is based on golden-age comic series The Green Turtle, whose hero solved crimes and fought injustice just like any other comics hero. But this mysterious masked crusader was hiding more than your run-of-the-mill secret identity...The Green Turtle was the first Asian American superhero.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

-"Ghetto Klown" by John Leguizamo (HILARIOUS). Synopsis: In Ghetto Klown, celebrated performer John Leguizamo lays bare his early years in blue-collar Queens, his salvation through acting and writing, and his colorful career trajectory.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

-"Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection." Synopsis: In Trickster, the first graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales, more than twenty Native American tales are cleverly adapted into comic form.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

[dianne b.]

Incognegro
(Incognegro Graphic Novels #1)
by Mat Johnson, Warren Pleece (Illustrator)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

This is a book about real Black journalists from the north who could "pass" and risked their lives to travel repeatedly to the south to report on, photograph, document - make real - the lynchings of African Americans long after the end of slavery. It is a riveting, terrifying book that is so important. The courage, the courage....

[Carol]

I also read in 2019 and really enjoyed The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of an Extraordinary Life by David F. Walker. Simply excellent.

[B. P.]

Just found this list of excellent recommendations for graphic novels about race and economic class (a good many of these books I have already read). I don't quite know what to recommend from the "class" angle (I mean every classic Spider-Man book could technically apply), but I can add some recommendations of graphic novels/trade-paperbacks that deal with "race."

The Arab of the Future series by Riad Sattouf
Black Death in America by Tom King
The Crew by Christopher J. Priest
Black Panther & The Crew: We Are the Streets by Ta-Nehisi Coates & Yona Harvey
The Boondocks series by Aaron McGruder
Nighthawk: Hate Makes Hate by David F. Walker (He appears a lot in this thread)
Anything by Ron Wimberly

I'm sure I know more, but that's the best I can come up with off-the-top-of-my-head to add to the list you guys have already put together.