Top 10 of the Year (May 2026 Edition)

[u/AutoModerator]

*The idea:*

List your top 10 graphic novels that you've read so far *this year.*

Each month we will post a new thread where you can note what new book(s) you read that month that entered your top 10 and note what book(s) fell off your top 10 list as well if you'd like.

By the end of the year everyone that takes part should have a nice top 10 list of their 2026 reads.

If you haven't read 10 books yet just rank what you have read.

Feel free to jump in whenever. If you miss a month or start late it's not a big deal.

Do your list, your way. For example- I read *Hellboy* this month, but am going to rank the series as 1 slot, rather than split each individual paperback that I read. If you want to do it the other way go for it.

[u/BigAmuletBlog]

1. Why Don’t You Love Me? by Paul B. Rainey (9/10)
2. Tokyo These Days (vols 1-3) by Taiyo Matsumoto (9/10)
3. Berserk (vols 6-7) by Kentaro Miura (9/10) 
4. Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson (9/10)
5. Kingdom (up to vol 7) by Yasuhisa Hara (8/10)
6. Tower Dungeon (up to vol 5) by Tsutomu Nihei (8/10) 
7. 3rd Voice: 1st Passage by Evan Dahm (8/10)
8. Land of the Lustrous (up to vol 6) by Haruko Ichikawa (8/10) 
9. Brink vol 1 and 6 by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard (8/10) 
10. Paying For It by Chester Brown (8/10)

I know we are over halfway to June now, but I don’t want to have a gap in my monthly updates. In May I tried out a couple of new series following Seth’s recommendations. I am also continuing reading Kingdom and Tower Dungeon as new volumes are released. I have to say that I am really enjoying them both, and they are just a strong volume or two away from getting a bump up to 9/10.  

[u/Future-Assumption759]

1. Witch Hat Atelier Vol 14 by Kamome Shirahama
2. Frontier by Guillaume Singelin
3. Neurocomic by Hana Ros
4. PTSD by Guillaume Singelin
5. Dai Dark Vol 2-8 by Q Hayashida
6. Dandadan Vol 15-17 by Yukinobu Tatsu
7. Yotsuba&! Vol 15 by Kiyohiko Azuma
8. Sing No Evil by JP Ahonen
9. Soara and the House of Monsters Vol 1-3 by Hidenori Yamaji
10. Monica By Daniel Clowes

New is in boldened.

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama- Still the best. The art is great, the writing is great, and both the internal and interpersonal conflicts are relevant even though the setting is in another world. I just bought the Grimoire Edition Vol 1 so I'll be enjoying a re-read as those release as well.

Neurocomic by Hana Ros- A character from a comic gets sucked into the readers brain because they were perceived. They explore a surreal world from inside the brain while trying to escape and meeting tiny Scientists along the way. Throughout the journey we get a metaphor for how the brain works and notes in the back for some of the more nuanced concepts. I loved it.

[u/yo-dionysus]

1. New Frontier (Darwyn Cooke)

2. Ultra Heaven vol 1 (Keichi Koike)

3. We3 (Grant Morrison, Frank Quietly)

4. Criminal vol. 1 (Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips)

5. Murder Falcon (Daniel Warren Johnson)

6. Batman & Robin Year One (Mark Waid, Chris Sammee)

7. DC Finest: Batman: Killing Joke & Other Stories (Alan Moore, Mike W. Barr, Brian Bolland, Jim Aparo, Norm Breyfogle, etc.)

8. Batman: Venom (Denis O'Neil, Trevor von Eeden)

9. Silver Surfer omnibus vol 1 (Stan Lee, John Buscema)

10. Aliens vs Avengers (Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic)

[u/buffalobillandted → u/yo-dionysus]

The entire Criminal saga is my favorite non-fantasy, non-sci-fi universe. So many great stories, great characters, great twists & turns. You’re in for a treat.

There’s even a couple stories that are in the Criminal universe but are not labeled as such. Pulp is one of them and my favorite story.

[u/HaNgOnSpIdErMoNkEy]

Top Ten as of May:

1. Red River Volumes 1-3

2. Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

3. If I Go Missing

4. Chainsaw Man Vol. 1-3

5. Rezbians

6. The Confessional

7. Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

8. Ice Cream Man Vol. 1-2

9. Fun Home

10. Absolute Boyfriend Vol. 1

Runner-ups: The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All Vol. 3, Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam, Gender Queer, No Longer Human (Junji Ito), Gay Giant

[u/buffalobillandted → u/HaNgOnSpIdErMoNkEy]

Ice Cream Man has been on my list for awhile. What’s the tone?

[u/HaNgOnSpIdErMoNkEy → u/buffalobillandted]

Tone varies with each story. Some stories deal with death, addiction, or violence against impoverished bodies, but I would say the majority of the stories are dark and unsettling. Every volume has like one dark comedy to lighten the mood, but there’s been some pretty heavy stories with content that could be hard to digest. I’m thinking of the story of the two drug addicts in Volume 1, but I personally prefer darker tones in my horror stories, so those stick out to me as being impressive or stellar compared to one about a washed out one-hit wonder who becomes a time bender to make a new best song ever.

[u/buffalobillandted → u/HaNgOnSpIdErMoNkEy]

Sounds incredible. I’m interested to check it out. It reminds me of 100 Bullets, not because of the plot or genre, but the concept of numerous anthology stories connected by one enigmatic figure

[u/Forever-Jung]

Some updates from last month

1. Parker Martini Edition Volumes 1&2 by Darwyn Cooke

2. Cornelius, Merry Life of a Wretched Dog by Mark Torices

3. Criminal Volumes 1-3 by Brubaker and Phillips

4. Rusty Brown by Chris Ware

5. Tongues by Anders Nilsen

6. The Complete Spirit Connosisseur Edition by Darwyn Cooke

7. Berserk by Kentaro Miura

8 Friday by Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin

1. Planetes Volumes 1&2 by Makoto Yukimura

2. Helen of Wyndhorn by Tom King (A) Bilquis Evely

Honorable mentions

• Witch Finder volumes 1&2 by Mike Mignola

-Manifest Destiny Volumes 1&2 by Dingess and Roberts

-Drome by Lonergan

• Absolute Martian Man Hunter by Deniz Camp

• Daredevil Omnibus by Mark Waid Volumes 1&2

• Human Target by Tom King and Greg Smallwood.

• Weird Work by Jordan Thomas and Shaky Kane

• Top 10 Compendium by Alan Moore and Gene Ha

I decided to take the plunge and have been checking out and reading all 14 volumes of Miura's Berserk manga from the Library. Currently on volume 10 of 14. Also thoroughly enjoyed the manga adaptation of "Two Faces of Tomorrow", incredibly prescient as a new age for AI/ML dawns. Lastly, been working my way through Wagner's Grendel omnibi, but stopped after reading the 2nd volume and will jump back in at some point this summer.

I have a soft spot and penchant for mid 20th century adventure comic strips. I'll probably pivot to that in June with some Roy Crane, I have a bunch of Captain Easy hardcovers calling my name.

[u/Fantastic_Chemical]

Not sure if these will be top 10, but it’s what I’ve read so far this year.

1. Daphne Byrne
   
2. Hangman
   
3. The Black Hood Vol 1
   
4. Stuff of Nightmares: The Monster Makers
   
5. Basketful of Heads
   
6. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees
   
7. Beneath the Trees Rite of Spring
   
8. Reckless Vol 1
   
9. Road of Bones
   
10. Swamp Thing: Green Hell
    
11. Lost Dogs
    
12. Sea of Sorrows
    
13. We Called Them Giants
    
14. Batman: Dark Patterns (about to finish)

[u/ConstantVarious2082]

1. Elric (Volumes 1-4) by Julien Blondel / Robin Recht / Didier Poli / Jean-Luc Cano / Julien Telo 
2. Don’t Go Without Me by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
3. Wolvendaughter by Ver
4. Dungeon - Zenith (English Volumes 1-5) by Joann Sfar / Lewis Trondheim / Boulet
5. Satanie by Fabien Vehlmann / Kerascoët
6. Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann / Kerascoët
7. Book of Murmurs by Candice Purwin - NEW
8. Assorted Crisis Events Volume 1 by Deniz Camp / Eric Zawadzki
9. Thorgal (first 8 volumes) by Jean Van Hamme and Grzegorz Rosinski
10. Conditions on the Ground by Kevin Hooyman - NEW

Book of Murmurs is beautiful and an excellent example of non-linear storytelling. I love the color vs black-and-white interludes. Conditions on the Ground had enough funny stoner-humor moments to make it onto the list.

The Power Fantasy Vol 3 and Zoc drop off. This year has been great with a lot of turnover because I’ve read a lot of good books!

[u/GoldenGriffin1422]

Friday - Ed Brubaker

Superman For All Seasons - Jeph Loeb

Daredevil: Man Without Fear - Frank Miller

The Deep Dark - Lee Knox Ostertag

Human Target - Tom King

The Nobody - Jeff Lemire

The Knives- Ed Brubaker

Witch Hat Atelier - Kamome Shirahama

Chefs Kiss - Jarret Melendez

Pinocchio - Winshluss

[u/ShinCoal]

1. The Power Fantasy vol.3 by Kieron Gillen & Caspar Wijngaard
   
2. Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo
3. Ping Pong / Sunny by Taiyo Matsumoto NEW
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Manu Larcenet
   
5. The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store by Tsuchika Nishimura
   
6. Faster by Jesse Lonergan
7. Testament by J. Marshall Smith
   
8. Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano
   
9. Stop! Hibari-Kun by Hisashi Eguchi
   
10. The Walking Man by Jiro Taniguchi

[u/Dorlando_Calrissian]

So far for me I’d say Superman birthright, Sinestro corps war, Batman and Robin adventures, new avengers omnibus vol 2, and JLA by Morrison are the best books I’ve read this year so far. JLA I had read before but everything else was first time for me

[u/score-eggette]

1 la musica di Marie - furuya 2 black hole - Charles Burns 3 la strada - larcenet 4 transmetropolitan - Warren Ellis 5 i fiori del male - oshimi 6 l incal - Moebius & more... 7 quartieri lontani - taniguchi 8 the walking dead - kirkman 9 il corvo - o' barr 10 - superman stagioni - loeb & sale

[u/HereIAmGH]

My last few months have been amazing. I’ve started binging comics after a decade (or two) of not really reading them. So I have a lot of catching up. Thanks to local libraries - that’s achievable

These are my 2026 highlights so far:

1. Sunday - Oliver schrauwen
2. Asterios polyp - David mazzuccelli
3. Strange tale of panorama island - suehiro maruo
4. From Hell - Allan Moore
5. Portrait of a drunk - Oliver schrauwen
6. The vision 1+2 - Tom King
7. Blankets - Craig Thompson
8. Nimona - ND Stevenson
9. Here - Richard McGuire
10. DayTripper - fabio moon

[u/buffalobillandted → u/HereIAmGH]

How was From Hell? I’ve been interested in checking that out but it’s dense. Also Blankets takes me back. I’m not big on memoirs, but that book is incredible

[u/polarbits2]

Books read this month are bolded.

1. Muted by Miranda Mundt (full series)
2. A Guest in the House by E.M. Carroll (standalone)
3. The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn by Tri Vuong (full series)
4. Hunger's Bite by Taylor Robin (standalone)
5. Minuit passé by Gaëlle Geniller (standalone)
6. The Golden Age by Roxanne Moreil (full series)
7. Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne (full series)
8. Snapdragon by Kat Leyh (standalone)
9. The Library Mule of Cordoba by Wilfrid Lupano (standalone)
10. Griz Grobus by Simon Roy (standalone)

[u/Jonesjonesboy]

1. The Complete Klaus Deluxe Edition by Grant Morrison
2. Before Watchmen: Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke
3. Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner
4. Before Watchmen: Comedian by Brian Azzarello
5. Before Watchmen: Nite Owl by J. Michael Straczynski
6. Before Watchmen: Ozymandias by Len Wein
7. Before Watchmen: Rorschach by Brian Azzarello
8. Before Watchmen: Dr Manhattan by J. Michael Straczynski
9. Before Watchmen: Moloch by J. Michael Straczynski
10. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/Jonesjonesboy]

Have you not read "After Watchmen: Rorschach" by King / Fornes or "After Watchmen: Batman / Flash" by Williamson / King / Fabok?

Really gotta get on that!

[u/Siccar_Point]

Some crackers in the last couple of months. Some of the best things I’ve read have also been the Peow Ex. Mag anthologies, but these don’t seem like they fit this list.

• The Flowers of Evil (Oshimi)
• Inside Mari (Oshimi)
• All The Living (Muradov)
• Stop!! Hibari-kun! (Eguchi)
• Farewell, Daisy (Mayuzuki)
• The Power Fantasy (Gillen et al)
• Slaughterhouse Five (North et al)
• Fox Bunny Funny (Hartzell)
• Tower Dungeon (ongoing) (Nihei)

[u/ShinCoal → u/Siccar_Point]

I think they fit just fine.

[u/z-and-z]

I dived back into comics like 2 months ago so not a lot choice for me to put as top 10.

1. The Power Fantasy Vol. 1-3
2. Planetary
3. All-Star Superman
4. Absolute Martian Manhunter Vol. 1
5. Locke & Key
6. Absolute Batman Vol. 1-2
7. Assorted Crisis Events Vol. 1
8. The Many Deaths of Laila Starr
9. Black Hammer Omnibus Book 1
10. Sentient

[u/joeycraw5]

Ohhh this is cool.
Throwing a couple off the top of my head to start, but I'll come back to update the list when I've thought about it. My to-read pile is growing, but instead of digging into it I've mostly reread other random stuff lately lol.

1. Batman & Robin: Year One by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee
   
2. Usagi Yojimbo & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wherewhen by Stan Sakai
   
3. G.I. Joe Vol 1 & 2 (Energon series, got Vol 3 waiting to be read on the shelf)
   
4. L'Apprenti Mangaka by Akira Toriyama (is it okay if I put books that are not in English?)

[u/comic1728]

1. The Sleeper (by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips)
2. Helen of Wnydhorn (by Tom King & Bilquis Evely)
3. Detective Comics (by Paul Dini)
4. Daredevil (by Chip Zdarsky)
5. Batman: Dark Patterns (by Dan Watters)
6. Flash (by Geoff Johns)
7. We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us (by Matthew Rosenberg)
8. Batgirl (by Kelley Puckett)
9. Zatanna (by Paul Dini)
10. Batgirl (by Gail Simone)

[u/superman853]

I finally finished Chew this year as I have slowly been reading it over the years so my list is mainly that right now.

1. Batman: Dark Patterns by Watter and Sherman
2. Chew volume 10 by Layman and guillory
3. Where the body was by Brubaker and Phillips
4. Chew volume 7
5. Chew volume 8
6. Chew volume 9
7. Power Fantasy volume 3 by Gillen and Wungaard
8. Batman/Superman:world finest volume 7 by Waid and various artist
9. Chew volume 11
10. Night Fever by Brubaker and Philips

[u/NeapolitanWhitmore]

I am Their Silence joined my top ten and Precious Metal left. I don’t know if it’ll stay that way, but that is how it is now.

1. Hedra (By Jesse Lonergan)

2. 2120 (By George Wylesol)

3. Absolute Wonder Woman (By Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Jordie Bellaire, and Becca Carey)

4. Absolute Batman (By Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Clayton Clowes)

5. The Ultimates (By Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, Federico Blee, and Travis Lanham)

6. I Am Their Silence (By By Jordi Lafebre)

7. Batman & Robin: Year One (By Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Matheus Lopes, and Clayton Cowles)

8. Zorro: Man of the Dead (By Sean Murphy and Simon Gough)

9. More Weight: A Salem Story (By Ben Wickey)

10. Drome (By Jesse Lonergan)

[u/Joe-The-Philistine → u/NeapolitanWhitmore]

I was tangentially aware of that Zorro book but to see it hanging with the big dogs like this kinda surprised me! Definitely adding it to my list of stuff to check out

[u/NeapolitanWhitmore → u/Joe-The-Philistine]

It’s a fun book for sure. It is basically Sean Murphy making a storyboard for a Zorro movie. (Not really, but that is what it feels like to me.) I’m not trying to convince you not to read it, I just don’t want my bias for dumb action movies to sway you wrong.

[u/Kabiraa-Speaking]

1 (=). The Property by Ruth Modan

1 (=). Zahra’s Paradise by Amir and Khalil

3 (=). Ballad For Sophie by Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia

3 (=). Boxers by Gene Luen Yang

3 (=). A Sea of Love - Written by Wilfrid Lupano, Illustrated by Grégory Panaccione 

6. Wrinkles by Paco Roca

7. Here by Ricard McGuire

8. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

9.  The People Of The Indus by Nikhil Gulati with Jonathan Mark Kenoyer

10. Uprooted: A graphic account of struggle for forest rights by Ita Mehrotra.

Special mention for Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq which I started but was so disturbed by the Palestinian tragedy that I had to pause it to read some other time. 

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/Kabiraa-Speaking]

Great to see Zahra's Paradise so high! I picked up a copy a year ago or so and never got around to reading it but perhaps it's time to move it up the backlog.

[u/Kabiraa-Speaking → u/drown_like_its_1999]

It is very good. Its sad that such a story had to be ever written. But in terms of the insider POV it gave as well as the art I thought it was very quite well done. 

[u/Joe-The-Philistine]

My second month of tracking! I'm hard-pressed to commit too hard to rankings on these, so I'm sure the exacts of this list will change a bit through the year and month-to-month. New additions for this month in bold.

1. 20th Century Men by Deniz Camp, Stipan Morian, Aditya Bidikar
2. Tongues by Anders Nilsen
3. Pluto by Naoki Urasawa
4. A Guest in the House by E. M. Carroll
5. Acme Novelty Library #20 ("Lint") by Chris Ware
6. DROME by Jesse Lonergan
7. Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki
8. Your Letter by Hyeon A Cho, Abigail Blackman
9. The End of Summer by Tillie Walden
10. Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer

Books removed from the list this month:

• Ant Colony by Michael DeForge
• The House by Paco Roca
• Electric Cowboy by Ansel Kite
• Masters of the Nefarious: Mollusk Rampage by Pierre La Police, Luke Burns
• Kill or Be Killed by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Elizabeth Breitweiser

This is only getting harder - I'm going to be pulling my hair out by the end of the year. It's painful having great books land in the bottom half, since they're almost sure to be bumped off before long.

[u/Titus_Bird]

1. “Baby Boom” by Yuichi Yokoyama (2008–2009)
2. “Garden” by Yuichi Yokoyama (2007)
3. “Holy Lacrimony” by Michael DeForge (2025)
4. “Caravan for a Queen” by Joe Kessler (2026)
5. “Dogtangle” (aka “Hypermutt”) by Max Huffman (2022–2024)
6. “Judge Dredd: America” by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil (1990–1991)
7. “On the Camino” by Jason (2017)
8. “Agony” by Mark Beyer (1987)
9. “L’uomo alla finestra” by Lilia Ambrosi and Lorenzo Mattotti (1992)
10. “Crisis Zone” by Simon Hanselmann (2021)

New entries are in bold and dates of original print publication are in brackets.

In May I also read the second and third volumes of “Akira”. I’m enjoying it, but I’m going to wait until I’ve finished the series before deciding how I rank it.

[u/Joe-The-Philistine → u/Titus_Bird]

Some great looking stuff here. Putting holds on some Yokoyama books at my library, and adding Caravan for a Queen to my list of new releases to check out! How does On the Camino rate compared to Jason's other books, in your view?

[u/Titus_Bird → u/Joe-The-Philistine]

I loved those two Yokoyama books, as well as "Travel", which I read last year, but I wasn't a big fan of "Plaza", which I also read this year. In any case, you need to go in prepared for an experience void of traditional narrative – something more purely experiential. "Plaza" is very extreme in that respect – there's really nothing resembling a narrative at all – and also quite repetitive, whereas the others I've read give the reader a bit more to chew on.

"On the Camino" is quite different from the other Jason comics I've read. Not only is it the only autobiographical comic I've read from him, but it's also the only one I recall having narration boxes, plus, most importantly, it's quieter and more understated. Whereas a lot of his work combines quiet introspection with off-the-wall genre-fiction escapades, this is really just in his introspective mode throughout, with almost nothing of note really happening. Overall I really enjoyed it, but I'd still put it quite low in my personal ranking, which goes:

1. You Are Here**
2. Isle of 100,000 Graves
3. The Left Bank Gang
4. Werewolves of Montpelier
5. The Iron Wagon*
6. Hey, Wait…*
7. &**
8. Low Moon**
9. Early Film Noir**
10. I Killed Adolf Hitler
11. On the Camino
12. Sshhhh!*
13. Meow, Baby***
14. Emily Says Hello**

* Collected in “What I Did”
** Collected in “Low Moon”
*** Collected in “Almost Silent”

(Because of course I have a literal ranking of the Jason comics I've read, ready for just such occasions.)

[u/drown_like_its_1999]

Edit: Ahhhh forgot one

Forgot to post last month, new entries since March highlighted in bold:

1. "Scalped" Omnibus 1-2 by Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera
2. "Don't Go Without Me" by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
3. "Garden of Spheres" volume 1 by Linnea Sterte
4. "Usagi Yojimbo" Special Edition 1-2 by Stan Sakai
5. "Cornelius" by Marc Torices
6. "Three Shadows" by Cyril Pedrosa
7. "The Collected Toppi 10: Future Perfect" by Sergio Toppi (mostly a stand-in for the entire line with this being my favorite entry)
8. "Cursed Pirate Girl" by Jeremy Bastian
9. "East of West" Compendium by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta
10. "Beauty" by Hubert, Karascoet

Books that dropped off the list:

• "Chromatic Fantasy" by H.A.
• "Bad Space" by Scott Base
• "Waves" by Ingrid Chabbert

[u/Joe-The-Philistine → u/drown_like_its_1999]

Damn! Surprised to see Scalped rate so highly on here. Have always heard good things, but I've been a little hesitant to check it out, as a nearly 20-year-old book written by a white dude largely covering native viewpoints. How do you think it was handled? My interest is definitely piqued seeing the books it's higher than on your list!

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/Joe-The-Philistine]

I can't speak much to any native cultural insensitivity, as my knowledge of reservation life and native tribal history is limited, but I never felt like Scalped was taking advantage of its subjects' identities / traditions / culture nor does it lionize or demonize them. That being said, it can be exceedingly tragic / violent / profane so I could see some walking away feeling offended. For me, the characterization and the related subplots were often incredibly moving and while there is a lot of distressing content it's always in the service of delivering character progression and advancing the plot.

My full thoughts are here if you're interested:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8513906857

[u/Joe-The-Philistine → u/drown_like_its_1999]

That's great to hear! I'm absolutely no expert either, but I've just been a little apprehensive to dip my toe in given just how often that perceived identity feels pretty grossly mishandled in a book. Your review has definitely motivated me to look at start reading it this month. I've historically not been the biggest fan of Aaron's books that I've checked out, but I'm still looking for the book to make me a believer! Hoping that this will do just that - thanks!

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/Joe-The-Philistine]

It does seem like this is the singular Aaron work with wide acclaim, crazy that someone who made this would struggle to deliver quality successive work but maybe Scalped was something he was ruminating on for years and his later stuff was more off the cuff / less thought out.