Top Three Graphic Novels

1. The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, Art by Beck Cloonan

After devouring My Chemical Romance's final album, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, I was super stoked to find out that the lead singer, Gerard Way, had also worked on a comic with the same name. Gerard notes in many interviews that the last album felt like a chore and was slightly daunting after the success of The Black Parade. To deal with the pressure of the final album, Way threw himself into building a world for the album to exist and creating characters for the songs to be about. Of course the world he created grew too big to fit inside an album, so he created a short lived comic series to explore his world and characters more. The story of the Killjoys takes place in 2019 where our world has been taken over by a corrupt government. The Killjoys are the rebels who seek to overthrow the government and overall just survive in a apocalyptic looking desert. The graphic novel takes place after the band's characters die in the album (as seen in the music video for "Sing") and explores the idea of living up to expectations, a feeling I'm sure Way was channeling during the making of the album and perhaps after when he was considering ending the band.

 

2. Lady Killer by Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich, Art by Joelle Jones

I'm fairly new to the graphic novel genre. During one of my first trips into my local comic book shop, a staff member looked me up and down and then put this gem into my hands. I hadn't spoken a word to him and he didn't even greet me at the door. However, he seemed to know exactly what comic I was looking for. This was definitely it. Lady Killer has all the aesthetics I love of 1960 America while having a feminist story line of a housewife turned lethal assassin. It kicks ass and you should definitely read it.

3. Pretentious Record Store Guy  by Carlos Gabriel Ruiz

I found this in...you guessed it... a record store. I was skimming through it while waiting for a staff member to order me a Mindless Self Indulgence CD and couldn't stop laughing. This graphic novel follows a horrible record store staff employee who makes fun of everyone's music taste, yet is that annoying dude who's in a band and won't shut up about it while smoking clove cigarettes. He's everything you hate, but also really hits close to home. Everyone has been through that phase where they think they know what "good" music is and everyone else clearly has "bad" taste in music. Pretentious Record Store Guy is a quick read and wildly hilarious.