The Best Comics & Graphic Novels of 2016 (According to Amazon)

Best of Lists! Hoozah! The annual Amazon compilation of critical darlings and best sellers is particularly useful if you’re looking for some high quality comics and graphic novels to give as gifts with the holiday season approaching. There are a handful of these that stem from more familiar publishers like Marvel, Valiant, and Image, but many are more off the beaten path and may be exciting fans for comic fans looking for new reads.

Amazon’s Best Comics and Graphic Novels of 2016 

Ghosts

Creators: Raina Telgemeier

#1 Selling Point: This book carries the highly coveted “#1 Best Seller in Children’s Spine-Chilling Horror” badge.

Monstress Volume 1: Awakening

Creators: Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda

#1 Selling Point: Marjorie Liu wrote the best Black Widow and X-23 Marvel Comics of the 2000’s, and now she’s at the peak of her powers with the creator-owned Monstress.

Paper Girls Volume 1

Creators: Brian K. Vaughn, Cliff Chiang

#1 Selling Point: Paper Girls outranks Southern Bastards, Emperor Doom, and Sin City on my best comics of all time list.

March: Book Three

Creators: John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell

#1 Selling Point: Essential American history, more necessary than ever.

Dark Night: A True Batman Story

Creators: Paul Dini, Eduardo Rissi

#1 Selling Point: The motivation of Batman through real life tragedy.

Patience

Creators: Daniel Clowes

#1 Selling Point: You read Patience because of your undying faith in all things Clowes.

Vision Vol. 1: Little Worse Than A Man

Creators: Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta

#1 Selling Point: The most inventive and accessible Marvel Universe comic book since Hawkeye.

Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir

Creators: Tom Hart

#1 Selling Point: Captures impossible grief.

Faith Volume 1: Hollywood and Vine

Creators: Jody Houser, Francis Portela, Marguerite Sauvage

#1 Selling Point: Harbinger’s most consistently interesting and charismatic team member finally gets her own solo series, and it’s another win for the Valiant Universe.

Black Magick Volume 1: Awakening, Part One

Creators: Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott

#1 Selling Point: Black Magick outranks Batman: The Killing Joke, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, and Fatale on my favorite comics of all time.

Princess Jellyfish 1

Creators: Akiko Higashimura

#1 Selling Point: 400 page manga for just over $10.

Neil Gaiman’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Creators: Neil Gaiman, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon

#1 Selling Point: You did see the part where this was Gaiman, Ba, and Moon, right?

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet Book 1

Creators: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze

#1 Selling Point: MacArthur Genius author Ta-Nehisi Coates takes on Wakandan politics and inherits Jonathan Hickman’s King of the Dead, aka the Black Panther.

How to Be Perfect: An Illustrated Guide

Creators: Ron Padgett, Jason Novak

#1 Selling Point: I’ve always wondered.

Clean Room Vol. 1: Immaculate Conception

Creators: Gail Simone, Jon Davis-Hunt

#1 Selling Point: Gail Simone might be incapable of writing a bad comic.

Hot Dog Taste Test

Creators: Lisa Hanawalt

#1 Selling Point: From the creative mind behind My Dirty Dumb Eyes.

Moebius Library: The World of Edena

Creators: Moebius

#1 Selling Point: Tracking down the artwork and storytelling of Moebius can be extremely difficult in collected form, and Dark Horse is compiling some deluxe hardcover editions together here.

The Birth of Kitaro

Creators: Shigeru Mizuki, Zack Davisson

#1 Selling Point: For comic book history books, collects popular Japanese character originally published in late 60’s magazines.

Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq

Creators: Sarah Glidden

#1 Selling Point: Real graphic journalism touching on very real global issues in today’s world.

Exits

Creators: Daryl Seitchik

#1 Selling Point: On Amazon’s best comics of 2016 list.