My Favorite Graphic Novels of 2025

Every year I read a bunch of graphic novels, and these are the ones that I liked best that were published in 2025 (with one exception). I hope that you can check them out!

Favorite Overall Book

Santos Sisters, Volume 1

 Add Archie Comics-style visuals and format, superhero tropes, and a social media sensibility, and you get this book. Immensely entertaining, funny, and surprising!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Fictional Biography

Grommets

Although I was not a West-coaster or a skater, this book set in the mid-1980s was totally in my wheelhouse in terms of my childhood and pop culture references. What sets it apart is its universal coming-of-age story that shows a couple of teens mess up and succeed at life. A riveting read.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Satire of Contemporary Culture

The Toxic Avenger

This book may have been tailor-made for my love of Troma movies, but it extends and expands the original movie and characters in a way that fits our current moment to a T. Gross and engrossing!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Literary Adaptation

Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre

Not so much a strict adaptation, but more like the most unexpected and awesome What If? story, where Jay Gatsby decides to impress Daisy by battling Godzilla. It features a cavalcade of other literary and movie character, too. Undeniably incredible!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Literary Biography

The Novel Life of Jane Austen

I am not the world's biggest Austen fan, but this book is a great riff on her life and works. Educational and entertaining in the best way.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan Hale Award for Nonfiction

Bones and Berserkers

It seems weird to give an award a book to the guy it's named after, but in hindsight I did not read a lot of nonfiction graphic novels this year. This one is not all nonfiction, but it has many creepy, gruesome, and gobsmacking true tales that have haunted me since I read it.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Superhero Book for Younger Readers

Jimmy Olsen's Supercyclopedia

I love Silver Age DC Comics madness, and I can think of no better introduction to that weird, wonderful multiverse than this book. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Superhero Book for Older Readers

Absolute Wonder Woman

Believe the hype! This book reinvents the Amazing Amazon in ways that only augment her character while she faces epic and gargantuan menaces.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Ghost Story

Spectators

This book is part epic adventure/part social commentary, about how we are desensitized by social media, what the afterlife might be like, and the apocalypse. The art is amazing, and the plot is entrancing.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Noir Book

Out of Alcatraz

This riff from a true-life tale features beautiful, evocative water colors and taut plotting. It's a unexpectedly moving page-turner.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Book I Read in 2025 that was not published in 2025

Big Jim and the White Boy

This re-imagined version of Huck Finn was published last year, and it is utterly fantastic. It is told across three distinct historical periods, commenting on US history, culture, and literature in moving and insightful ways. I think about this book all the time.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Thank you for reading! Happy New Year! 

The Toxic Avenger

When I was growing up, there was a theater right next door to my dad's pizzeria, and I saw many a movie there. One of my formative experiences was watching the original Toxic Avenger movie, which warped my prepubescent brain with all its gore, violence, and "special effects." It led me to other films from Troma, and probably deranged me (in what I feel are mostly positive ways). I was not as big a fan of the 1990s cartoon revival of the franchise, though I was glad for the popularity and profits for the upstart parent company. A re-imagined version of the monster hero starring Peter Dinklage will debut in theaters this year, but before it arrived there was this five-issue comic book series collected here. 

This version of the Toxic Avenger operates independently of any of the movies, and new readers really do not need to know anything about them. Here, Tromaville, NJ is beset by a huge environmental disaster, and aliens and/or a shady corporation may or not be involved (I'm not going to spoil it). The entire area is quarantined, and a good number of the populace are exposed to something that radically transforms them into monstrous beings. Furthermore, there is a huge amount of misinformation coming from the government over both traditional and social media that obscures what is really happening. 

As you can see from this excerpt, this book follows the exploits of Melvin, once a scrawny weakling but now a strapping, grotesque hulk. Over the course of the narrative, he has to deal with physical battles from his former bullies who are also now monstrous, as well as the ethical dilemma of possibly becoming the public face of the huge cover-up fabricated to lie to the public about what happened in Tromaville. Among all of this action, horror, and intrigue, there is also a good dose of ridicule aimed at public and business institutions as well as some good old fashioned physical humor. I found this book highly entertaining, and luckily for those reading this trade paperback, they don't have to wait a month to see what happens in each subsequent chapter.

This book is the product of writer Matt Bors and artists Fred Harper and Lee Loughridge. Bors is a long time political cartoonist who also founded and edited The Nib. He has won multiple Eisner Awards and also writes the Justice Warriors series. Harper has a huge list of past clients, both comics and corporate. Loughridge is one of the most in-demand colorists in contemporary comic books. You can read more about these Toxic Avenger comics in this interview.

The reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Steven W. Alloway called it " weird, funny, sarcastic, satirical, sometimes violent, often gross, extremely campy, but ultimately good-hearted." Chris Coplan, who is a long-time Toxie fan like me, wrote that it "isn’t just a damn good comic, but it very much exceeds my kooky, totally awkward expectations."

The Toxic Avenger was published by Ahoy Comics, and they provide more information about it here. This book features body horror, gore, violence, and profanity, so I suggest it for readers mature enough to deal with those things.

And for those are enjoy this book, good news: there is more on the way.