PW announces Best Graphic Novels of 2015

It begins! The end of year race to the best of list is underway, kicked off, as is tradition, by Publishers Weekly. Disclosure: I helped make this list. On the adult side, the selections are:

The Oven
Sophie Goldstein (AdHouse)

March, Book 2
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)

The Arab of the Future
Riad Sattouf, trans. from the French by Sam Taylor (Metropolitan)

SuperMutant Magic Academy
Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Killing and Dying
Adrian Tomine (Drawn & Quarterly)

Over on the kids side (which I did not have input on) the YA list includes Nimona by Noelle Stevenson,of course, and on the middle grade list Roller Girl
by Victoria Jamieson (Dial). Several “hybrid” books also made th list, including Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon, a webcomic artists turn quite successful kids book author. And Brian Selznick’s The Marvels, which mixes print and illustrated sections, also made the middle grade list.

Finally two books by cartoonists that were labelled “picture books,” although that’s a slippery slope.

The Princess and the Pony
Kate Beaton (Scholastic/Levine)

Thank You and Good Night
Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown)

2015 is shaping up to be a little more scattered in terms of “definite” best books, unlike last year’s Roz Chast book and This One Summer. I expect Nimona to make a lot of lists, as well as the Tomine and maybe Super Mutant Magic Academy. I’m not saying all of the books mentioned aren’t excellent–and dozens of excellent books were published this year, with a few good ones still to come—it’s just that the consensus is spread out a bit more.

Again…your thoughts, reader?It begins! The end of year race to the best of list is underway, kicked off, as is tradition, by Publishers Weekly. Disclosure: I helped make this list. On the adult side, the selections are: