The Tool Desk
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How these 2024 picks were selected
The ALA Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table (GNCRT) names an adult reading list intended to build awareness of the medium, raise the visibility of diverse creators and support library collection development. Publishers Weekly’s annual critics poll, the Guardian’s year-end selection and the Washington Post’s ten-book list are separate editorial or panel choices. Their overlap is useful, but they do not share a scoring system or create one definitive ranking.
The books below are therefore grouped by the lists that selected them, not ranked against one another. The ALA recognizes the full creative team, including writers, artists, letterers, colorists and translators—a useful reminder that graphic novels are collaborative works.
The ALA’s adult Top Ten
These ten titles made GNCRT’s 2024 Best Graphic Novels for Adults Top Ten. Use the descriptions to choose by subject and tone rather than treating the order as a score.
#1 Best Overall
- Collects the first four Wings of Fire graphic novel adaptations in one exciting box setBrings Tui T. Sutherland's epic dragon world to life with stunning full-color artworkPerfect for fans of the Wings of Fire series and readers who love action-packed fantasy graphic novels
- Barnstormers: A Ballad of Love & Murder — Scott Snyder, Tula Lotay, Dee Cunniffe and Richard Starkings; Dark Horse Books. A love-and-murder story framed as a ballad.
- Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, Volume 1 — Patrick Horvath; IDW Publishing. Cozy-horror conventions meet a small-town serial killer who is a bear. Its volume number marks it as an entry point to a series rather than an explicitly standalone pick.
- Brittle Joints — Maria Sweeney; Street Noise Books. A graphic memoir about living with progressive disability.
- The Deviant, Volume 1 — James Tynion IV and Joshua Hixson; Image Comics. A serial-killer story set during the holiday season; the first volume begins a series.
- Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir — Tessa Hulls; Macmillan. A memoir tracing three generations of women and the effects of family history and trauma.
- Hirayasumi, Volume 1 — Keigo Shinzo; VIZ Media. A gentle story about an intergenerational platonic relationship and the search for direction.
- The Jellyfish — Boum, translated by Robin Lang and Helge Dascher; Pow Pow Press. Surreal fiction in which a woman’s eye symptoms take the form of jellyfish.
- Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir — Denise Dorrance; The Experiment. A daughter returns to Iowa to care for her ailing mother.
- Rare Flavours — Ram V and Filipe Andrade; BOOM! Studios. A filmmaker documents a tour of Indian cuisine alongside a demonic epicure.
- The Hidden Life of Trees — Peter Wohlleben and Benjamin Flao, translated by Fred Bernard; Greystone Books. A graphic adaptation focused on the importance of trees.
The ALA’s list page provides publisher, price and ISBN details for these selections; those details can help identify an edition when searching a library catalogue or bookseller. The list’s adult designation matters: this is not a ranking of graphic novels for children or teens.
Books that drew attention across year-end lists
Feeding Ghosts and Victory Parade: the Publishers Weekly poll leaders
Feeding Ghosts and Victory Parade tied for first in Publishers Weekly’s 2024 critics poll, with five votes apiece from a panel of 11 critics. I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together: A Memoir and Mothballs were runners-up with four votes each. This is the result of that panel’s poll, in which participating critics could nominate up to ten adult trade releases—not a readership-wide vote.
Final Cut, Sunday and other Washington Post selections
The Washington Post’s ten selections include Aya: Life in Yop City, Big Jim and the White Boy, Blurry, Final Cut, French Girl, The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History, Spiral and Other Stories, Sunday, Vera Bushwack and Victory Parade. The range—from historical material and stories rooted in particular places to experimental fiction—shows why a single genre label is not enough to describe the year’s graphic novels.
The Guardian’s broad sweep
The Guardian’s selection also spans sharply different approaches. It includes Isabel Greenberg’s feminist Arthurian fantasy Young Hag, Charles Burns’s film-and-identity story Final Cut and climate-focused World Without End, alongside memoir, historical drama, surreal fiction and experimental work. Other named selections include My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two, Victory Parade, The Russian Detective and Sunday.
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Choose based on the reading experience you want, not on the number of lists a title appears on. These descriptions identify subject and tone; they do not imply a shared critical score.
- For memoir and family history: consider Feeding Ghosts for three generations and inherited trauma, Brittle Joints for progressive disability, or Polar Vortex for a daughter’s return to care for her mother.
- For horror with an unusual premise: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, Volume 1 combines cozy small-town framing with a serial-killer bear; The Deviant, Volume 1 offers a holiday-season serial-killer story.
- For surreal or experimental fiction: try The Jellyfish, with its visualized eye symptoms, or look to the Guardian selections such as Young Hag and The Russian Detective.
- For history, place and nonfiction: the Washington Post’s selections include The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History and Aya: Life in Yop City; the ALA list offers the nature-focused adaptation The Hidden Life of Trees.
- For a quieter, character-led story: Hirayasumi, Volume 1 centers on an intergenerational platonic bond and finding direction.
- For a story about food and travel: Rare Flavours pairs a filmmaker’s Indian cuisine tour with a demonic epicure.
Before choosing, check whether a title is a volume in an ongoing series or a standalone book, and whether its subject matter suits the intended reader. The ALA list is expressly for adults; the other selections should be evaluated on their own content and edition information.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Rank #4
Sources and list methods
- ALA Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table: Best Graphic Novels — adult Top Ten and list purpose.
- The Guardian: The 10 best graphic novels of 2024 — year-end selection.
- Publishers Weekly: The 2024 Graphic Novel Critics Poll — panel composition and vote totals.
- The Washington Post: The best graphic novels of 2024 — ten-book selection.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
