The Best Graphic Novels Ever #10 -- Maus

10. Maus
by Art Spiegelman
Published by Pantheon

Welcome to the Top Ten, after almost a month of counting down the best graphic novels of all time!

Topping off the top ten is Art Spiegelman's anthropomorphic historical biography Maus. The Holocaust re-envisioned with cats and mice. This is perhaps the most taught, most studied, most famous, and most important of all graphic novels.

Spiegelman's story is both universal and personal, focused not just on the life of his father but also on the idea of the legacy that history creates in the son whose father endured such a life. Maus is perhaps the truest example of a classic literary graphic novel we have in the medium.

Does it mean everyone will love it? By no means. Not everyone enjoys Faulkner, nor should they, and Maus may be overly cumbersome to readers more used to the monthly stylings of Superman and the Captain America (just like As I Lay Dying might be to the average reader of John Grisham). But that doesn't mean it's not worth the effort.

The Best Graphic Novels Ever #11 -- Bone

11. The Complete Bone
by Jeff Smith
Published by Cartoon Books

Wow. Bone. Fone Bone. Phoney Bone. Smiley Bone. Rose. Ted. Grandma. And of course, the Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures. Aw. The memories.

While this is a collection of the entire run of Jeff Smith's amazing fantasy comic book series, I'm letting it count as a graphic novel in the same way that a 3-in-1 set of Lord of the Rings would count as a "novel."

With Bone, Jeff Smith redefined all-ages comic books in ways that the core mainstream publishers had forgotten. Rather than simply catering to a watered-down, kids-only version of what adults thought kids would and could read, he simply stuck to his guns (or magic spells) and told a fun story. Complete with epic battles, the pain of loss, danger, intrigue, and even a great cow race (which you have to see to believe), Bone has all the stuff required for both young and old imaginations.

I referenced Lord of the Rings earlier, and I believe Bone clearly falls into that same camp of classics, you know, the ones that can be read by adults and kids and enjoyed equally by both, along with such wonderful, imaginative works as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, A Wrinkle in Time, and The Hobbit.

This is the graphic novel for people who insist they don't like comic books. It takes a rare reader to be able to start Boneand put it down unfinished, I think. And I also think that reader is lessened by the ability to do so.