Reddit reviews Maggie the Mechanic (Love & Rockets)

Well Craig Thompson also did Goodbye Chunky Rice, Carnet De Voyage and Habibi. As far as themes and plot go they don't have a lot of similarities (except maybe Chunky Rice) but the art is phenomenal in them and Habibi works with the Quran much like how Blankets spends a lot of time talking about Christianity.

As far as autobiographical comics go though, I'd suggest American Splendour (specifically "Our Cancer Year", "Cleveland" and "The Quitter"), A Contract With God, and Love And Rockets (try "Maggie the Mechanic", its not for everyone though, it has some scifi in this book but that kind of fades away as the series progresses to focus more on the characters and their relationships).

If you want something that experiments with the format of a comic book a lot you might want to look into Asterios Polyp, Cerebus (Jaka's Story and Church and State I & II are the highlights there) and the works of Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan is a good starting point). As I said though, these books, while some of the most brilliant comics there are, are very experimental and as such it helps to have some grounding in comics before you give them a try. I'd actually go so far as to call all three of these even better than Blankets though and I thought Blankets was great.

Lulu Anew. A really excellent, very realistic graphic novel about a French woman experiencing mid-life doubts. Beautiful drawings, too.

I'm sort of amazed no one's mentioned Jaime Hernandez. His comics very occasionally have elements of fantasy and sci-fi, but they're basically realistic present-day fiction, and I think he's the best cartoonist working today. The Death of Speedy is a good place to start, showing Jaime at his full powers (and at his most realistic), and (at least in the US) is available cheaply used. If you'd prefer to start at the beginning, check out Maggie the Mechanic.

[This One Summer] (http://www.amazon.com/This-One-Summer-Mariko-Tamaki/dp/159643774X/) was marketed as a young adult novel, but is an amazing read for adults as well. A very realistic coming-of-age story about two young girls on summer vacation.

Maus by Art Spiegleman, of course.

To The Heart of the Storm, by Will Eisner. IMO this is the best of Eisner's novels, showing a young man's trip to army training during WW2, as he reflects on his life and his parents' lives.

Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse. This semi-autobiographical graphic novel, about a closeted young gay man in the civil rights era south, is simply incredible- it's a crime that it got so little attention. At least in the US, available very cheaply used.

It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken, by Seth.

Footnotes in Gaza, by Joe Sacco. (This one is non-fiction.)

Human Diastrophism, by Gilbert Hernandez.

Song of Roland, by Michel Rabagliati. If you like this one, there are a bunch of other Rabagliati graphic novels available in English.

Tamara Drewe, by Posy Simmonds.

Notes for a War Story, by Gipi. Very smart, very realistic graphic novel about young men in a Balkins nation that has collapsed.
Another one that is available very cheaply used. Also look for Gipi's graphic novel "Garage Band," which is about exactly what the title says, and also available very cheaply.

If you're getting paperback or hardcover collections, you can just stick them on a shelf no problem. Trust me, I've got a couple dozen of them. It's only with single issues that you would want a special box to keep them in.

Anyhow, you should check out Love and Rockets.

Love & Rockets. The Maggie the Mechanic collection followed by The Girl from HOPPERS is a good place to start.

http://www.amazon.com/Maggie-Mechanic-Rockets-Jaime-Hernandez/dp/1560977841/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406161976&sr=8-1&keywords=love+and+rockets



These are pretty cheap.