Throughout 2018 we’ve spent a lot of time looking at our increasingly visual culture–in all its potential and peril. We paid particular attention to the idea of graphic histories–using visual storytelling as a means to explore the past.
We had programs with writers like Ken Krimstein and Molly Crabapple, who used graphic novels to bring conflicts into close-up, from 1940s Germany to present-day Syria. Chris Ware and Thi Bui talked about the connection between comics, memory, and personal histories.
So, we may assume that visual forms shape what we see of the past. But do they complicate–or simplify–the historical picture?
Explore these questions for yourself with these hand-picked graphic histories:
The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt by Ken Krimstein
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Monograph by Chris Ware
Brothers of the Gun by Marwan Hisham and Molly Crabapple
The Fixer and Other Stories by Joe Sacco
Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Joe Sacco and Chris Hedges
Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-95 by Joe Sacco
Palestine by Joe Sacco
Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
The Great War:July 1, 1916 - The First Day of the Battle of the Somme by Joe Sacco
Maus I and II Paperback Boxed Set by Art Spiegelman
In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman
MetaMaus:A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus by Art Spiegelman
Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution by Julia Alekseyeva
Marx: A Graphic Novel by Corinne Maier
Marx, Freud, Einstein: Heroes of the Mind by Corinne Maier
Freud by Corinne Maier
Heretics! by Stephen Nadler
Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars by Ethan Hawke and Greg Ruth
The Arab of the Future: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf
The Arab of the Future 2 by Riad Sattouf
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua
Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
Angelitos by Ilan Stavans and Santiago Cohen
Diary of a Reluctant Dreamer: Undocumented Vignettes from a Pre-American Life by Alberto Ledesma
Taking Turns : Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 by MK Czerwiec
Facts of Life by Paula Knight
This list was co-curated with care by our friends and official bookseller partner, The Seminary Co-op Bookstore.
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