El Goonish Shive by Dan Shive

El Goonish Shive

As the author describes it, this is a "strange comic about a group of teenagers and the bizarre, often supernatural, situations that they face". Tedd and Elliot are typical high schoolers-- except that Tedd's dad works at a secret government agency devoted to covering up the existence of magic and aliens and brings home alien technology for Tedd to modify. By contrast, Elliot can only summon a number of martial arts-based fighting spells--until he accidentally gets turned into a girl and accidentally clones himself trying to turn back. 

Soon after that, Elliot, Ellen (the clone), and Tedd befriend Grace, an alien-squirrel-human hybrid lab escapee; Nanase, Eliot's former girlfriend and martial arts partner; Justin, another martial artist with a crush on Elliot; Susan, an aloof classmate who can summon magic hammers; and Sarah. Sarah is normal. This comic ranges from funny to dramatic as the characters handle high school, changing relationships, evil teachers, evil laboratory experiments, and evil magic-users. Readers who enjoy Percy Jackson and the Olympians will enjoy the magic, drama, and action of El Goonish Shive.

It is available at EGScomics.com. Read it from the beginning here.

Appeal: Fantasy, magic realism, science fiction, action, drama, high schoolers, queer representation

Art: Develops over time from 

Other: El Goonish Shive began in 2002 and is ongoing as of May 2014. Its name comes from Dan Shive's inability to summarize the comic in a short title. The "goon" comes from a high school nickname, the "Shive" is the author's last name, and the rest is gibberish conceived of in Spanish class.

Shive, Dan. "El Goonish Shive." egscomics.com. Web. 4 May 2014.

Aya by Marguetire Abouet and Clément Oubrerie

Aya

Aya is a serious-minded 19-year-old living in the Ivory Coast in the 1970s. It's a time of prosperity for the country, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Aya tries to give her friends good advice and resigns herself to helping them manage the fallout of bad choices. In this first book of six, for example, Aya helps her friend Adjoua raise her newborn son as they try to prove his paternity so that Adjoua's boyfriend will marry her. Aya joins in the parties, and the gossip around her but always with an eye toward her future. This is a realistic, funny, soap operatic story about middle-class life from a talented storyteller.

Appeal: Ivory Coast, Africa, family relationships, adult relationships, drama, humor, high school plus

Art: Caricature, cinematic

Text: Conversational, vernacular, argumentative

Other: Aya was originally published in French. The comic was adapted into an animated film in 2012, co-directed by the authors.

Awards: Aya won the Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for First Comic Book in 2006, the Children's Africana Book Award in 2008, and several Glyph Awards.

Abouet, Marguerite. Oubrerie, Clément. Dascher, Helge. Aya. Montréal : Drawn & Quarterly ; 2007. Print

W Juliet by Emura

W Juliet

Ito Miura wants to be an actor. She's in her high school's drama club, and puts her family training as a martial artist to good use on stage. Makoto Amano wants to be an actor too, but as the only son in his family, he is obligated to run the family dojo. Makoto's father will only allow Makoto to become an actor if he can use his acting skills to successfully impersonate a girl for the two years remaining until high school graduation. 

Naturally, Ito finds out Makoto's secret on the first day of school. Now Ito and Makoto have to hide all sorts of secrets from friends and family, especially after they start dating! Together they must work hard to become better actors and to avoid the obstacles that block their path. This is a touching, realistic, and humorous look at family relationships, working toward a dream, and dealing with uncertainties and insecurities about the future.

Appeal: Action, intrigue, family relationships, theater, drama, high school girls, first relationships, romance, humor

Art: Clean lines, grayscale, character-focused, emotional

Text: Conversational, intimate

Other: W Juliet was originally published in Japan from 1999 to 2003. It has also been adapted into a series of drama CDs.

Emura, William Flanagan, and Mark McMurray. W Juliet. San Francisco : Viz, 2004. Print.

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong

Charlie captains the basketball team, tries to hide from his cheerleader ex-girlfriend, and avoids his mom's phone calls. His next door neighbor Nate leads the robot club, drives Charlie crazy, and tends to bite off more than he can chew. When the cheerleaders pit an unknowing Charlie against Nate in the race for class president, the competition escalates until it all ends in disaster for both the robot club and the cheerleaders: as punishment, the principal takes away all funding for both groups. Now the robotics club and the cheerleaders must team up to reach their goals, and they drag a reluctant Charlie along for the bumpy ride. It is available online at nothingcanpossiblygowrong.com.

Appeal: Humor, high school, good female characters, friendship, robots, cheerleaders

Art: Bold lines, expressive postures, gray scale

Text: Conversational, dramatic. Teenager dialogue, lots of arguing.

Other: Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong was originally serialized online, and was printed in 2013.

Awards: Faith Erin Hicks won a Joe Shuster Award for Favorite Creator - English Language Publication in 2008 for her work Zombies Calling.

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Drama

Callie loves theater-- her singing is terrible, but she has great ambitions for the sets onstage her middle school play. When two cute brothers become involved in the drama club, Callie finds herself in a whirl of crushes, misunderstandings, and confusing feelings. Callie likes one of the brothers, but does he like her back? Is one of the brothers gay? Why won't one annoying boy leave Callie alone? And how can she make the prop cannon work in the third act? This is a funny and light-hearted look at middle school drama that nonetheless treats the characters' troubles as important and worthy of consideration.

Appeal: Middle school, theater, good female characters, queer representation

Art: Bright, enthusiastic, expressive

Text: Simple, conversational. Almost no narration.

Other: Raina Telgemeier attended the School of Visual Arts, and has worked on graphic novels such as the Baby-Sitters Club series and X-Men: Misfits.

Awards: Raina Telgemeier won an Eisner Award and was honored by the Boston Globe-Horn Awards for her previous work, Smile.

Ultra: Seven Days by Joshua Luna and Jonathan Luna

Ultra: Seven Days

In Ultra's world, superheroes are celebrities straddling the line between big business and law enforcement. One night Ultra (Pearl Penalosa) and her friends decide to have their fortunes told, and Pearl is told that she will find true love within a week. During her search for the right guy she encounters scandals, award ceremonies, exes, fights with friends, fights with supervillains, and fights with the Latino community. Pearl can only do her best to navigate a tricky world without going under. Articles from newspapers, magazines, and tabloids round out this fictional world.

Appeal: Good female characters, action, drama, friendship, superheroes, Latino representation

Text: Conversational, vernacular

Other: Created by sibling team Joshua and Jonathan Luna, who also wrote the horror comic Girls.

Luna, Joshua and Jonathan Luna. Ultra: Seven Days. Berkeley, CA : Image Comics, 2008. Print.

The Invincible Iron Man (1963)

Iron Man

Tony Stark, millionaire industrialist, was kidnapped and injured while demonstrating weapons in Vietnam. He built a suit of mechanized armor to escape, and now he fights crime as Iron Man while running his company under the guise of a carefree playboy. He battles avatars of communism such as the Crimson Dynamo and Black Widow, as well as independent villains like the Mandarin. 

Appeal: Science fiction, adventure, action, drama, superheroes

Art: Clean detail, sometimes static in non-action scenes, dramatic.

Text: Scientific, dramatic

Other: Iron Man originally appeared in Tales of Suspense in 1963. It has been adapted into animated televison shows, live-action movies, and novels.

Lee, Stan. Heck, Don. Colan, Gene. Field, Tom. Iron Man. New York : Marvel Comics : 2004. Print. Volumes 3 and 4.

For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston

For Better or For Worse

A continuity strip covering 30 years in the life of a middle-class white Canadian family and their friends. Babies are born, children grow up, parenthood's ups and downs are explored, and characters experience changes in and conflicts with spouses, families, jobs, children, and lives. Ellie, the mother, goes from being a full-time homemaker to a part-time toy store employee to the store owner. Michael grows from a toddler to a teenager to an adult with a family of his own. Elizabeth spends years figuring out what to do her life, and whom to spend it with. In one infamous story arc, the beloved family dog saves the youngest, April, from drowning in a river and dies in the attempt. This is a comic about family, love, hardship, and joy. It is available online at gocomics.com.

Appeal: slice-of-life, family drama, realism, family-friendly, middle grade plus

Art: Starts off sketchy but expressive, becomes more detailed in the middle years.

Textual style: Lots of exclamations and pronouncements, some sentimentality.

Other: Lynn Franks Johnston was born and raised in Canada, and attended the Vancouver School of Art. Over the course of her career she has been awarded several honorary doctorates, and been made a member of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Manitoba, and been inducted into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame and the National Cartoon Museum Hall of Fame.

Awards: The author has won the Reuben Award, the Gemini Award for Best Cartoon Series, and the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award.

Johnston, Lynn Franks. It's All Downhill From Here: A For Better Or For Worse Collection. Kansas City : Andrews, McMeel & Parker, (c)1987. Print.