Product Description

In 500 Essential Graphic Novels the finest paperbacks, collections and hardcovers from around the world are gathered together for the first time in a volume that reveals the sheer diversity and rich talent that abounds in this visually thrilling medium. The crème de la crème of contemporary graphic novels are listed with a plot breakdown, the creators, publisher, date of first collected release, ISBN and, of course, a review. Every review is star rated and also employs a simple age rating so that parents can see what is suitable for their children, whatever their age. The reviews are also cross-referenced, so that a title like Gen, a biographical war story, has its main entry in the War chapter, but also a link in the Biography section. 500 Essential Graphic Novels also contains a Foreword by distinguished graphic novelist Garth Ennis, co-creator of the forthcoming HBO TV series Preacher. It is an indispensable reference book for any comic fan, graphic novel novice, library or school.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13011 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent and comprehensive overview.
This really is a very good book and I'm going to recommend it to a librarian friend of mine who is responsible for selecting graphic novels for Sunderland City library.

Divided into 10 categories, each one has an introduction followed by the 10 most important titles and then the rest. Each title has a synopsis and brief critical appraisal, an age rating, a colour reproduction of the cover and, sometimes, samples of the artwork. The indexes are very useful being by: age range, writer, artist, and title.

As with all books of this type, you'll wonder why some titles were included and some of your own favourites weren't, but that's all part of the fun of reading it.

As for how effective it is, I've bought ten titles listed and only financial restraints have stopped me from ordering more. For the moment.

Highly recommended.

Splendid
This book provides a very good in road to the world of comics for novices,and also provides plenty of opportunity for arguments amongst more knowledgeable readers-for example,why include 4 Daniel Clowes books and ignore the peerless David Boring?. Excellent nonetheless.

A Great Way to Start
When I bought this book I didn't really know what it was going to be like. It's turned out to be a great buy. It has handy sections on different genres of graphic novels - not just caped heroes - there's non-fiction, war and humour among others. The reviews are well written, detailed and not uncritical and the result of reading this book for me is that I'm expanding my collection in directions I hadn't considered or wasn't really aware of before.