Top 10 of the Year (September 2026 Edition)

[u/AutoModerator]

The idea:

List your top 10 graphic novels that you've read so far this year.

Each month we will post a new thread where you can note what new book(s) you read that month that entered your top 10 and note what book(s) fell off your top 10 list as well if you'd like.

By the end of the year everyone that takes part should have a nice top 10 list of their 2026 reads.

If you haven't read 10 books yet just rank what you have read.

Feel free to jump in whenever. If you miss a month or start late it's not a big deal.

Do your list, your way. For example- I read Hellboy this month, but am going to rank the series as 1 slot, rather than split each individual paperback that I read. If you want to do it the other way go for it.

[u/Titus_Bird]

Just one new entry this month (in bold).

1. “Baby Boom” by Yuichi Yokoyama (2008–2009)
2. “The Desert of the Tartars” by Michele Medda and Pasquale Frisenda, adapting Dino Buzzati (2024)
3. “A Taste of Chlorine” by Bastien Vivès (2008)
4. “Garden” by Yuichi Yokoyama (2007)
5. “The Wrong Place” by Brecht Evens (2009)
6. “Night Animals” by Brecht Evens (2007)
7. “Reincarnation Stories” by Kim Deitch (2019)
8. “Gardens of Glass” by Lando (2009–2014)
9. “Holy Lacrimony” by Michael DeForge (2025)
10. “Dogs & Water” by Anders Nilsen (2004/2007)

[u/comic1728]

1. The Sleeper (by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips)
   
2. Eight Billion Genies (Charles Soule)
   
3. Helen of Wnydhorn (by Tom King & Bilquis Evely)
   
4. Batman (by Paul Dini)
   
5. Watchmen (Alan Moore)
   
6. Daredevil (by Chip Zdarsky)
   
7. Daredevil (Brian Michael Bendis)
   
8. Batman: Dark Patterns (by Dan Watters)
   
9. Astonishing X-Men (Joss Whedon)
   
10. X-Men: The Messiah Trilogy Omnibus

[u/GoldenGriffin1422]

Friday - Ed Brubaker

Superman For All Seasons - Jeph Loeb

It's Lonely at the Center of the Earth - Zoe Thorogood

Feeding Ghosts - Tessa Hulls

Daredevil: Man Without Fear - Frank Miller

The Deep Dark - Lee Knox Ostertag

Human Target - Tom King

The Nobody - Jeff Lemire

The Knives - Ed Brubaker

Witch Hat Atelier - Kamome Shirahama

*Honorable Mention - Chefs Kiss - Jarret Melendez

[u/Siccar_Point]

Simon Roy’s A Star Called The Sun anthology sneaks in, but we’ll see how long it stays.

The Book of Murmurs (Purwin)
The Flowers of Evil (Oshimi)
Inside Mari (Oshimi)
All The Living (Muradov)
Stop!! Hibari-kun! (Eguchi)
Prisoner of Dozmary Craig (Sterte)
Drome (Lonergan)
Beauty (Kerascoet/Hubert)
A Star Called The Sun (Roy)
The Power Fantasy (Gillen et al)

Bumped:
Howl (Kwitney/Mauricet)

[u/smooshedsootsprite → u/Siccar_Point]

Definitely read Blood on the Tracks if you haven’t yet and liked The Flowers of Evil. Same mangaka and even more of a mindfuck.

[u/Tight-Boat-8605]

Hawkman by venditti
Bug wars
Astonishing x-men
Rogue sun
Dceased trilogy
Gieger
Old man Hawkeye
Hyde street
Booster gold book 1-2
The kill lock Duology

[u/bigheadstrikesagain → u/Tight-Boat-8605]

Booster Gold is so good! Def in my top 10.

[u/NeapolitanWhitmore]

1) Hedra (By Jesse Lonergan)

2) Everything Dead & Dying (By Tate Brombal, Jacob Phillips, and Aditya Bidikar)

3) Absolute Wonder Woman (By Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Jordie Bellaire, and Becca Carey)

4) Ultimate X-Men (By Peach Momoko)

5) Orphan and the Five Beasts (By James Stokoe)

6) Absolute Batman (By Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Clayton Clowes)

7) The Ultimates (By Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, Federico Blee, and Travis Lanham)

8) Batman & Robin: Year One (By Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Matheus Lopes, and Clayton Cowles)

9) I Am Their Silence (By By Jordi Lafebre)

1. Secret Wars (By Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Ive Svorcina, Chris Elipoulos, and Clayton Cowles)

Orphan and the Five Beasts was so much fun to read that I added it to my top ten. I don’t know if it’ll stay in that spot, but it felt right for now.

[u/culturefan]

A Memoir: I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together--Maurice Vellekoop

Fun Home--Alison Bechdel

Dark Night: A True Batman Story--Paul Dini

Photographic Memory: William Henry Jackson--Bill Griffith

Vietnam Journal Vol. 1: Indian Country--Don Lomax

The One Hand & the Six Fingers--Ram V & Dan Watters, Laurence Campbell & Sumit Kumar, artist

Lock & Key Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft

Mazebook--Jeff Lemire

Assorted Crisis Events--Deniz Camp

[u/ConstantVarious2082]

1. Elric (Volumes 1-4) by Julien Blondel / Robin Recht / Didier Poli / Jean-Luc Cano / Julien Telo 
2. Don’t Go Without Me by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
3. Monsieur Mardi-Gras Descendres by Eric Liberge - NEW
4. Terre ou Lune Volume 1 by Jade Khoo
5. Wolvendaughter by Ver
6. Dungeon - Zenith (English Volumes 1-5) by Joann Sfar / Lewis Trondheim / Boulet
7. Satanie by Fabien Vehlmann / Kerascoët
8. Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann / Kerascoët
9. The Golden Age by Roxanne Mureil / Cyril Pedrosa
10. East of West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta

Monsieur Mardi-Gras Descendres is visually astounding, creative, and darkly humorous. Book of Murmurs falls out but will end up on my “best-published-in-2026” list for sure. Nanbanjin and The Hobbit: A Graphic Novel were great reads this month and nearly made it on here.

[u/drown_like_its_1999]

No new entries since last month, though a bit of rearranging.

1. "Scalped" Omnibus 1-2 by Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera
2. "Don't Go Without Me" by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
3. "Duncan the Wonder Dog" by Adam Hines
4. "Three Shadows" by Cyril Pedrosa
5. "The Collected Toppi 1-11" by Sergio Toppi (my favorite entry being vol 10 "Future Perfect")
6. "Dungeon: The Early Years 1-3" by Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar, Christophe Blain
7. "Garden of Spheres" volume 1 by Linnea Sterte
8. "Usagi Yojimbo" Special Edition 1-2 by Stan Sakai
9. "Cornelius" by Marc Torices
10. "Cursed Pirate Girl" by Jeremy Bastian

[u/grave-walker13]

Fool Night by kasumi yasuda
From Hell by Alan Moore
The power fantasy by kieron Gillen
Animal man by grant Morrison
Monstress by Marjorie Liu
Kill or be killed by ed brubaker
Spider-man 2099 by Peter David
Hyde Street by Geoff John’s
Royal City by Jeff Lemire
Assorted Crisis Events by Deniz Camp

[u/Sugar_Crash_Brigade]

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
Danger Girl
Batman Dark Patterns
Daytripper
Little Bird
The Knives
Out of Alcatraz
The Six Fingers and The One Hand
and I'm hopeful for The Karman Blade. But I want to read Precious Metal first.

[u/bachwerk]

Top Ten new reads

• The Solitary Gourmet, Taniguchi, Ponent Mon, 2025, 10/10
• Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium 2, Seagle/Wagner/Davis, DC, 1999/2026 10/10
• The Magicians, Blexbolex, Enchanted Lion Books, 2023 10/10
• He Rolled Me Up Like A Grilled Squid, Yoshiharu Tsuge, D&Q, 1970s/2026 9/10
• Maison Ikkoku 1, Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, 1980/2020 9/10
• Search And Destroy 3, Atsushi Kaneko, Fantagraphics, 2020/2025 9/10
• Asadora! 9, Urasawa, Viz, 2026, 9/10
• Black Blizzard, Tatsumi, Drawn & Quarterly, 1956/2009 9/10
• Nocturnos, Laura Perez, Fantagraphics, 2019/2025 9/10
• Palookaville 25, Seth, Drawn & Quarterly, 2026, 8/10

The Solitary Gourmet is a new entry for me, so nice I had to write a bit about it. TLDR: it’s a precious little darling, and I won’t have anyone besmirch it.

I read my first Hugo Pratt, a 2026 black and white Fantagraphics reprint. I liked it, not love, but it’s still new to me. I have to get past the “remember when it was made, who it was for?” of it all. Gorgeous inks, absolutely first class. I didn’t find myself swept up in the stories though. The praise for this is so high that I would like to read more though.

I read one of my Barks’ Duck books. I bought them all until about three years ago (when the prices doubled) and have a shelf of about 22 of them. I’ve read half at this point, and just dip into one or two a year. I read Island in the Sky, a later one from around 1960. It was not quite as fresh as his peak work, but had some fun stories. And I just adore looking at these pages. The colour on these Fantagraphics reprints feels so good on the eyes. I rated it an 8/10, but it didn‘t knock Palookaville out.

Nothing else new, because book prices are getting stupid like everything else, and I can’t rack up debt to buy new books. An eight-book-a-month habit is down to one or two. Who says politics doesn’t matter?

The re-read list:

• Street of Paris, Streets of Murder, Manchette/Tardi, Fantagraphics, 2020 10/10
• A Drifting Life, Tatsumi, Drawn & Quarterly, 2009 10/10
• How To Be Happy, Eleanor Davis, Fantagraphics, 2018 10/10
• The interview, Manuele Fior, Fantagraphics, 2017 10/10
• Treasure of the Black Pearl, Paco Roca, 2018/2022 9/10
• Good-Bye and Other Stories, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Catalan, 1960/1987 10/10
• Mutant Massacre omnibus, Claremont/Simonson, Marvel, 1986 9/10
• New X-Men 1-5, Morrison/Quitely, Marvel, 2001 9/10
• Bad Gateway, Simon Hanselmann, Fantagraphics, 2019 9/10
• Y the Last Man 1-8, Vaughn/Guerra, DC, 2003 8/10

Nothing new good enough to add, not enough to knock Y out.

X-Men corner:

I read the Claremont Reload era X-Men, which came shortly after Morisson’s New X-Men, and has M-Day in the middle. I read these five years ago and rated them poorly, but found a lot to enjoy the second time around. The bad is still bad: Sage is a lousy retread of Claremont tics, Alan Davis shouldn’t have gradients all over his impeccably shadow-rendered art, the Savage Land Mutates are not interesting villains, Jaimie Braddock stories bring out bad Claremont tendencies with nonsensical reality warping narratives. That seems like a lot of complaints. But the Alan Davis art is top tier classic comic art. Bachelo does fine work too. Claremont assembles an interesting team of characters; I was pleased to see him write Bishop, a character who joined the team the day after Claremont was fired.

Reading the Claremont run led to Milligan’s X-Men (it was so-so); and volume two of New X-Men, the mutant Hogwarts series (I think it’s quite a solid, fun title). This led me to the Rise and Fall of he Shiar in Uncanny, which is when Brubaker took over. I like this storyline a lot. Brubaker was considered a weak X-writer, but I think this is one of the best “X-Men in Space” stories ever done. A weird team, very clear plotting (a lot of the Shiar stuff has always read as gobbledygook to me; I can understand everything in this one).

ThenI thought, “hey, I have that massive 1300 page omnibus of War of Kings that I got for $40 during Covid, so cheap I had to buy it. I can finally read it!” I pulled the biggest omnibus I own off the shelf and see a bookmark in it. I flipped through and saw no cover or illustration I recognized. I checked my comic-reading spreadsheet, and yes, I had read it in June 2024. I‘d spent hours over weeks reading this tome, and couldn’t remember it whatsoever. There a few possible reasons:

• I’m old
• I read too much too often for everything to sink in
• The books were bland
• Superhero covers have been incredibly bland for near thirty years, and nobody can expect to remember comic content by looking at a cover.

The answer is a bit of all I bet. I recalled some of the stories as I read it. The main stuff in the crossover was pretty fun, though the scale of cosmic Marvel books gets silly. Is the Shiar a thousand worlds? A million? The character Vulcan is pretty interesting under Brubaker, who always emphasizes his emotional immaturity (The character is an adult, but he hasn’t actually lived half his life because of science fiction reasons). Under the rest of the writers, he’s just a madman. The Inhumans, who have spent all their existence in the Himalayas and the moon are now spaceship armada fighters. Who wins between the Kree, the Shiar, and the upstarts from the Negative Zone? Apparently Magus, the alter-ego of Adam Warlock, who wasn’t in the series at all. The crossover was, in Mighty Marvel style, overextended and about 30% too big, and sets up a new status quo. Is it good? It’s alright. I’ll read it again in ten years.

[u/BigAmuletBlog]

1. One Beautiful Spring Day by Jim Woodring (10/10)
2. Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli (10/10)
3. Kingdom (up to vol 11) by Yasuhisa Hara (9/10)
4. We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us by Matthew Rosenberg and Stefano Landini (9/10) 
5. Why Don’t You Love Me? by Paul B. Rainey (9/10)
6. Tokyo These Days (vols 1-3) by Taiyo Matsumoto (9/10)
7. Berserk (Deluxe vols 6-9) by Kentaro Miura (9/10) 
8. Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson (9/10)
9. Bug Wars vol 1 by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar (9/10)
10. Tower Dungeon (up to vol 5) by Tsutomu Nihei (8/10) 

Honourable mentions: Various by Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four Omnibus vol 1, East of West, Ultimate Spider-man), The Compleat Angler by Gareth Brookes and Izaak Walton, Precious Metal by Darcy Van Poelgeest and Ian Bertram (story 7/10, art 10/10), Pomegranate Flowers by Silvia Razakova, Wolvendaughter by Ver, The Butchery by Bastien Vivès

Highlight of the month for me remains reading the latest instalment of Kingdom. I found that both The Compleat Angler and The Butchery really touched me. I immediately re-read them and I’m sure I’ll re-read them again in the future, which is fairly rare for me.  

[u/Sufficient_Studio494]

No particular order!

• Absolute Batman, vols 1-2
• Absolute Wonder Woman, vols 1-2 
• B.P.R.D. Omnibus, vols 1-3 
• Batman & Robin: Year One
• Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring 
• Do A Powerbomb 
• DROME
• East of West, whole series
• Exquisite Corpses, vols 1-2
• Spectators

[u/Trike117]

I don’t have 10 yet. Alphabetical:

1. The Forged - Greg Rucka

2. Grizzlyshark - Ryan Ottley

3. Monsters - Barry Windsor-Smith

4. The Punisher - Greg Rucka

5. The Rocketfellers - Peter J. Tomasi

6. Star Trek: Red Shirts - Christopher Cantwell

7. What We Wished For - Ilias Kyriazis

[u/DLBuf]

I’ve read so many bad ones this year that I’m questioning if I want to even keep going, lol.

What’s the Furthest Place From Here was a bright spot though.

[u/CriticalCanon → u/DLBuf]

Switch to Manga.

The Drifting Classroom, 20th Century Boys, Pluto, Monster, Berserk and on and on. This is where I have found the most joy and creativity.

[u/Jonesjonesboy]

No change from last month

1. Little Orphan Annie v16 Harold Gray
2. Life Drawing Jaime Hernandez
3. Gamma...Visions Jens Harder
4. Time for Lights Out Raymond Briggs
5. La Chenille Suehiro Maruo
6. Petra Cherie Attilio Micheluzzi
7. Curses George Wylesol
8. Boy Maximortal and True-Man #1-3 Roarin Rick Veitch
9. Blade of the Immortal Hiroaki Samura
10. Scrapbook of Life and Death J. Webster Sharp

[u/Konradleijon → u/Jonesjonesboy]

Cool

[u/Where-Eagles-Dare]

1. Saga — Brian K. Vaughan
2. Tongues — Anders Nilsen
3. Drome — Jesse Lonergan
4. The World of Edena — Mœbius
5. Death Note — Tsugumi Ohba
6. The Sandman — Neil Gaiman

Sandman took me forever to get through (did the Netflix 1-6 versions) and it just wasn’t my jam. Saga remains undefeated this year.

[u/uuajskdokfo]

1. Bride's Story (vol. 3-15) - Kaoru Mori
2. Yotsuba&! (vol. 16) - Kiyohiko Azuma
3. Swamp Thing - Alan Moore & others
4. Planetes - Makoto Yukimura
5. From Hell - Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
6. Prince Valiant (vol. 1-4) - Hal Foster
7. Lone Wolf & Cub (vol. 1) - Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima
8. Myths of Making - Julien-G
9. Monster (vol. 1-6) - Naoki Urusawa
10. Providence - Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows

Added since last time:

• Providence & From Hell - Can you tell I've been reading through most of Alan Moore's bibliography this year? These two and Swamp Thing were the standouts for me (had already read V for Vendetta and Watchmen)

• Monster - I was rolling my eyes a bit at the first 2-3 volumes of this one, but pushed through because of how much praise it gets and it finally hooked me around volume 4.

• Myths of Making - This was a random used bookstore find, it has an unusual physical design (square pages with hard board covers) and I'm a total sucker for that kind of thing.

[u/Lynch47]

1. Drome by Jesse Lonegran, 2025
2. Black Hole by Charles Burns, 1995-1996
3. Minor Arcana by Jeff Lemire, 2024-Present
4. The Boy Wonder by Juni Ba, 2024
5. Batgirl (Vol. 1) by Kelley Puckett, Scott Peterson, & Others, 2000-2006
6. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine, 2020
7. Local by Brian Wood
8. Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang, 2019-2020
9. Detective Comics (Vol. 3) by Ram V (Issues 1062-1089), 2022-2024
10. Absolute Flash by Jeff Lemire, 2025-Present

I read Black Hole a while back this year and just forgot to add it when I made my initial list, so that wasn't this month really. Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly is a new one that I read last month that I thought was good on all levels.

I also just finished From Hell yesterday for the first time and want to let it sit for a while before I put it on the list. It's objectively better than Flash and some other stuff on the list but I was a bit cold during some chapters but really thought there was a ton to love. It'd easily make a top 10 "best" list for me, I need to think if it's a top 10 favorite of mine this year though and how I want to distinguish that by the time I finalize my list at the end of the year.

Fell off this month:

1. Justice by Alex Ross & Jim Krueger, 2005-2007
2. Grommets by Brian Posehn & Rick Remender, 2024-2025

Fell off previously:

• Dark Knights of Steel by Tom Taylor, 2021-2023
• Plastic Man No More! by Christopher Cantwell, 2024
• JSA by David Goyer, Geoff Johns, & Others, 1999-2006

I think for the final post I'll make my normal top 10 but I kind of want to do a bonus post where I do a list of my 10 favorite superhero books and top 10 non-superhero. While my reading habits have been shifting more and more towards the indie scene I still read a lot of DC and still really like their book, just in a different way, and it's hard for me to come up with a good system to rank my list other than my gut feeling at the time of post.

It's always cool to read all of your top 10s and get new recs for future reading.

[u/RJ_Howlett]

My first time doing this! In no particular order:

• In Waves by AJ Dungo
• Everything Dead & Dying by Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips
• Kodi by Jared Cullum
• The Nightlights Collection: A Trilogy of Tales by Lorena Alvarez
• Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 by David Petersen
• Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
• Haru Book 3: Fall by Joe Latham
• The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Manu Larcenet
• Gumshoe by Brenna Thummler
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel