2025 Best Graphic Novels for Adults Reading List

ALA’s Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table (GNCRT) is sharing the nominations for the 2025 Best Graphic Novels for Adults (BGNA) Reading List. These reading list nominations highlight the best graphic novels for adults published in late 2024 through 2025, and it aims to increase awareness of the graphic novel medium, raise voices of diverse comics creators, and aid library staff in the development of graphic novel collections.

The Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) and its committees honor the entire creative team (including the writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, and translator) involved in the titles listed. All of these people play a critical role in the creation of the work, helping to lift the story and give it life.

Best Graphic Novels for Adults 2025 Selection Committee

• Joe Pascullo - Committee Chair
• Deborah Zeman - Committee Vice-Chair
• Louise Lalonde - Committee Administrative Assistant
• J. Jared Alvarez Ginés
• Mark Conner
• Michael Douglas
• William Kist
• Sarah Maciejewski
• Laila Mai-Nguyen
• Alecs Schmidt-Mickunas
• Aidan Skipper-Martinez
• Makilah Sullivan
• Ashlynn Bell
• Margaret Miller

2025 Best Graphic Novels for Adults - Nominations

May

Fiction

Dogs and Punching Bags. Written by Kaori Ozaki. Art by Kaori Ozaki. 2025. Kodansha USA, $24.95 (9781647293994).
When Nichiko reluctantly returns to her island homeland to care for her ailing father, she also finds a potential love partner in a man named Chimaki. But when she hears some rumors about Chimaki's dark past, she decides to stick around and find out the truth...

Gilt Frame. Written by Margie Kraft Kindt and Matt Kindt. Lettering by Sophia Hilmes. Edited by Daniel Chabon. 2025. Dark Horse Books, $29.99 (9781506745947).
Together, Sam and Merry have solved some of the most notorious murders in the world. And, true to form, their Parisian vacation is cut short when they stumble upon a murder scene so bizarre that only a raging psychopath could have produced it. But to solve the crime, they have to wrestle with jewel thieves, art forgers, gun-runners, a lost puppy, and a master French detective who may just solve the crime before they do.

April

Non-Fiction

It Rhymes with Takei. Written by George Takei, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger. Art by Harmony Becker. 2025. Top Shelf Productions, $29.99 (9781603095747).
This memoir from Star Trek actor George Takei focuses on his life as a closeted gay man, not coming out until he was 68 in response to anti-gay legislation in California. Covering his experiences in Japanese internment camps during WWII, the graphic novel explores an amazing spectrum of social justice issues spanning the 20th century through the beginning of the 21st century.

John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude. Written by Lomig. Art by Lomig. Translated by Christopher Pope. 2025. NBM Publishing Company, $24.99 (9781681123523).
This nonfiction graphic novel uses time skips to trace the life of noted naturalist John Muir, considered by some as one of the first modern ecologists. The founder of the Sierra Club had to overcome multiple challenges, including an accident that nearly blinded him. In a series of episodes, readers see how Muir lived out his passion for nature throughout his life, starting in childhood when he was criticized by an overbearing father who couldn't understand his son's passions. Through a variety of episodes on the road, readers see the many payoffs of Muir's vision.

Fiction

Judge Dredd: A Better World. Written by Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt. Art by Henry Flint, Boo Cook, and Jake Lynch. Lettering by Annie Parkhouse. Coloring by Jim Boswell. 2025. 2000 AD, $24.99 (9781837864218).
In Mega-City One, Judge Maitland discovers that reallocating Justice Department funds to education and housing could eradicate crime. As the experiment begins to show promise, powerful figures within the Judges and the city work to sabotage it, fearing the threat to their control and power.

Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection. Written by Jaime Hernandez. Art by Jaime Hernandez. 2025. Fantagraphics, $24.99 (9798875000492).
An episodic compilation of the work of Jaime Hernandez, profiling the life and loves of Tonta, the breakout character of Love and Rockets. While the episodes don't always seem linked, they generally profile Tonta's interactions with Vivian, her sister, and Ray, Tonta's teacher.

Soma. Written by Fernando Llor. Art by Carles Dalmau. Colors by Carles Dalmau and Eiden Marsal. Color Assist by Helz and Eric Morales. Lettering by Andworld Design. Edited by Gabriel Granillo. Translated by Diego Jourdan Pereira. Design by Sarah Rockwell. 2025. Oni Press, $19.99 (9781637156124).
Maya is a comic book artist in the middle of a creative crisis. She's constantly stressed about deadlines and feels like she's not doing the type of work she loves. In between trying to fight her writer's block and doling out advice to her best friend on how to finally land a date, Maya receives an unexpected visitor: Soma, an extraterrestrial alien who crashlands in Maya's living room. Soma delivers a message to Maya, warning her that an alien invasion from his own kind is fast approaching, and he needs her help to stop it!

March

Non-Fiction

Muybridge. Written by Guy Delisle. Art by Guy Delisle. Translated by Helge Dascher and Rob Aspinall. 2025. Drawn & Quarterly, $24.95 (9781770467729).
An amazing biography of Eadweard Muybridge, famed early photographer (motion studies, nature photography), incorporating his tumultuous personal life as he continually "pushed the envelope" of the new medium of photography, including motion pictures, throughout the second half of the 1800s.

Fiction

Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown. Written by Mike Mignola. Art by Mike Mignola. Colors by Dave Stewart. Lettering by Clem Robins. 2025. Dark Horse Comics, $24.99 (9781506745886).
New folklore-inspired tales abound in this anthology of eight fantasy stories written and drawn by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, featuring a bonus sketchbook section. From a search for the beating heart of a long-dead sorcerer, to a pirate girl who makes a deal with the devil, to the titular boy who wins a grim prize in a game with some undead interlopers, and more. Mignola builds a brand-new world filled with the weird, wicked and whimsical in this volume that will delight longtime Hellboy fans and new readers alike.

Confession. Written by Nobuyuki Fukumoto. Art by Kaiji Kawaguchi. 2024. Kodansha, $16.95 (9781647293963).
As two men get caught in a blizzard, one of them makes a confession that he's responsible for the murder of a mutual friend. Now that he's got it off his chest, the other man is worried that he'll be his next victim as they're trapped with nowhere to run.

Crave. Written by Maria Llovet. Art by Maria Llovet. Logo Design by Jesús Orellana. 2024. Image Comics, $16.99 (9781534397453).
At an elite university, an app called CRAVE is downloaded on everyone's phone, promising to fulfill everyone's desires. Requests on the app escalate and cause mass chaos on campus, and it is up to David and his friends to stop the havoc and find out the secret behind the app.

Love Languages. Written by James Albon. Art by James Albon. 2025. Top Shelf Productions, $19.99 (9781603095570).
Sarah Huxley moves from London to Paris, finding loneliness instead of romance. She befriends Ping Loh, an au pair of Hong Kong expats, and they bond over language struggles. Through museums, markets, and translation apps, they create a private dialect—until deepening feelings reveal that the hardest words to translate are the truest ones.

Moon Man Volume 1. Written by Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi, Kyle Higgins, and Joe Clark. Art by Marco Locati. Color by Igor Monti. Lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. 2024. Image Comics, $9.99 (9781534376243).
Capitalistic space travel goes sideways, and the returning crew have to manage public sentiment, new abilities, and family relationships, making choices that might change everything.

The Pit. Written by Erik Kriek. Art by Erik Kriek. 2025. Living the Line, $28.95 (9781961581050).
Hugh and Sara are still grieving the loss of their son, and they seek a fresh start in an inherited house in the Netherlands. As Hugh throws himself into moving on, Sara is drawn to a set of journals that may have some connection to the cryptic carvings they've noticed in woods.

Veil Volume 1 & 2. Written by Kotteri. Art by Kotteri. 2025. Udon Entertainment, $15.99 (9781772943610).
A young woman from a wealthy family sets out on her own and stumbles upon a policeman. The two of them grow closer and develop a delicate bond through beautifully illustrated vignettes of their daily lives.

February

Non-Fiction

Audrey Hepburn: An Illustrated Biography. Written by Eileen Hofer. Art by Christopher Longé. 2025. Abrams ComicArts, $25.99 (9781419779916).
A graphic novel biography of the life of Audrey Hepburn. The graphic novel covers her time living through the Holocaust to her rise in fame in movies to her passion for helping the less fortunate.

Between Two Sounds: Arvo Pärt's Journey to his Musical Language. Written by Joonas Sildre. Art by Joonas Sildre. Edited by Aile Tooming. Translated by Adam Cullen. 2024. Plough Publishing House, $26.00 (9781636081342).
A biography following the political and personal life of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's as he develops the sound (tintinnabuli) he eventually becomes known for, and turns to religion and the wonder of silence to expand his avant-garde style.

Shrink: Story of a Fat Girl. Written by Rachel M. Thomas. Art by Rachel M. Thomas. 2024. Graphic Mundi, $24.95 (9781637790793).
A work of graphic medicine depicting emotional and physical realities of inhabiting a large body in a world that constantly warns about medical and social dangers of being "too fat." The graphic novel encourages readers to question the prevailing cultural and medical discourse about fat bodies.

Fiction

Blacking Out. Written by Chip Mosher. Art by Peter Krause. Colors by Giulia Brusco. Lettering by Ed Dukeshire. 2024. Dark Horse Books, $19.99 (9781506740911).
With a Southern California fire season as the backdrop, a disgraced ex-cop tries to investigate an unsolved murder using "questionable" methods.

The Library Mule of Cordoba. Written by Wilfrid Lupano. Art by Léonard Chemineau. Color by Christophe Bouchard. Lettering and Translation by Lynn Eskow and Rodolfo Muraguchi. 2024. Ablaze, $24.99 (9781684972791).
When a young boy takes over the throne, his power hungry uncle issues commands in his stead. The peace that had been maintained for nearly 60 years in threatened. Books are being burned and with it culture, science and knowledge are being lost. The story follows the head librarian, a runaway scribe, a young woman, and a seemingly unhelpful donkey try to save as much as they can from the library before everything is destroyed. What do they have to give up in order to survive?

Medusa. Written by Tony Parker. Art by Tony Parker. Colors by Tamra Bonvillain. Lettering by Taylor Esposito. Edited by Stephanie Cooke. 2024. Dark Horse Books, $19.99 (9781506743769).
Everything you know about Medusa is a lie. Forever cursed to be remembered as a monster, this ageless, yet very mortal hero, has spent millennia saving humanity from the horrors of legend. But now, in Scotland, she has met a foe that makes even the gods hide in fear.

Red Hood: The Hill. Written by Shawn Martinbrough. Art by Sanford Greene. Colors by Matt Herms and Troy Peteri. Edited by Ben Abernathy. 2025. DC Comics, $17.99 (9781799500391).
After the Joker War comic event, a group of vigilantes in Gotham's Hill suburb kept the area safe from the chaos. Yet, The Hill is not immune to the problems that arise during a crime wave. Now Red Hood and the Hill's Vigilantes must bring order from the chaos.

The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation. Written by Cormac McCarthy. Art by Manu Larcenet. Adapted by Manu Larcenet. 2024. Abrams ComicArts, $26.99 (9781419776779).
A boy and his father have only each other to rely on as they struggle to survive against a harsh environment and human cruelty in a post apocalyptic landscape.

Ultimate Black Panther, Volume 1. Written by Bryan Hill. Art by Stefano Caselli and Carlos Nieto. Color Art by David Curiel. Lettering by VC's Cory Petit. 2024. Marvel, $19.99 (9781302957308).
Following Ultimate Invasion, the combined god Khonshu and Ra (Moon Knight) aim to take over Africa, with only Wakanda left to resist. Wakanda faces a divine threat, and King T'Challa, with Shuri and the Dora Milaje's help, must confront it and a prophecy affecting Wakanda's destiny. Mysticism, politics, and action combine in a story about leadership, identity, and the consequences of isolation.

William of Newbury. Written by Michael Avon Oeming. Art by Michael Avon Oeming. 2025. Dark Horse Books, $19.99 (9781506740836).
A raccoon monk tries to save souls by fighting the dead. He befriends a mouse thief named Winnie, who at first doesn't believe in spirits.