OK, I’m a comic book geek. Have been for twenty-six of my thirty years, and I’ve only gotten worse.
So, here’s my list of ten comics you should read before you die.

10. Sin City by Frank Miller. You’ve seen the movie, now read the comic. If you’re new to the Sin City comics and have only experienced the movie, then you will not be disappointed by the comics. Start with volume one (just plain ol’ “Sin City” featuring our pal Marv) and go from there.

9. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The Ultimate story of a team of Super-Heroes and their lives over several decades. Political entanglements, rampant vigilantism, and the smartest man in the world all come together in what is essentially the superhero tale to end all superhero tales.

8. V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. In a very Orwellian London of the near future, a vigilante stalks the Voice of Fate to restore freedom to his people. It’s a lot more complex and beautiful than any description can do justice, so just read it. And keep an eye out for that 22nd letter of the alphabet.

7. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vols. 1 & 2 also by Alan Moore, illustrated by Kevin O’Neill. Please ignore the movie with Sean Connery. Please. This is one of the most imaginative and ambitious concepts in the entire history of Literature: Author Alan Moore attempts to tie together a multitude of Victorian era icons of fiction such as the Invisible Man, Mr. Hyde, Captain Nemo, Alan Quatermain, etc into a unified realm much like modern comic book superheroes in the Marvel/DC tradition. There are two volumes, both fantastic, and I recommend them highly. And after your first reading, there’s this awesome Unofficial Companion by Jess Nevins, which highlights connections and helps peel away layers you didn’t catch the first time.

6. Y The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra. A mysterious virus kills off every male on Earth except for Yorick Brown and his pet Capuchin monkey. Peril awaits him at every turn as he attempts to reunite with the love of his life. The only problem is, she was in Australia before the plague hit, and getting to her has become the least of his worries.

5. Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa. As a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, Nakazawa tells this story of a young boy and his family in the final days before, and the apocalyptic days after the first atomic bomb was dropped. Much of the material was based on his own personal experiences as a boy in the days after the nuclear detonation, and was a large part of the influence for Art Spiegelman to write his Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel Maus, a parable of his own father’s survival of the Jewish Holocaust during the same war.

4. Voodoo Child by Martin I. Green and Bill Sienkiewicz. The potential of the Comics medium to tell non-fiction stories realized to it’s fullest. Bill Sienkiewicz’s art is a perfect match for the music of revolutionary guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix. Plus, a nice audio CD is included to set the moooooood, maaaaaannnnnn.

3. The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. Well, technically, I could put any old Calvin and Hobbes book in here and it would still meet the requirements. The man was a genius of the cartoon artform, and he proved it day in and day out. Cream of the crop stuff. Every Art Teacher I’ve ever had has touted this stuff as groundbreaking, and I tend to agree. As an added bonus: laughs.

2. In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman. The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of Maus lived just blocks from the World Trade Center towers, and this is his personal account of the moment. I won’t cheapen it by trying to explain his experiences. An uplifting bonus is the reprinted section in the back of the book of early New York Newspaper comic strips from 100 years before 9/11/2001.

1. The Plot by Will Eisner. An examination of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, a fabricated text believed to be at they very heart of modern anti-semitism. This book exposes lies that have perpetuated hatred that continues today, proving that even in his final work, Will Eisner was pushing the boundaries of the comics medium to encompass sociopolitical philosophy and the origins of genocide.

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