Banned Books Week: Graphic Novels, Comics, and Manga

Author

Series

Notes

Banned from middle schools in New York after parents lodged complaints about the title of the series. Assassination Classroom has also been challenged for violence.

Description

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Hot off her breakout success at Marvel, two-time Eisner award winner Erica Henderson (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Jughead) teams up with Kyle Starks (Sexcastle, Rick and Morty) for a hilarious twist on the hitman trope. The former World's Greatest Hitman hires the 20 best assassins in the world to be his bodyguards. These mean-as-hell hired guns and murderers must work together to keep the new crime boss safe while attempting to solve the mystery...

2) barefoot gen the day after a cartoon story of hiro

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

3) batman the killing joke the deluxe edition

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

4) Big Hard Sex Criminals Vol. 1: Issues #1-10

Author

Fraction, Matt

Series

Sex Criminals volume 1

Notes

Challenged in public libraries throughout the USA for sexually explicit content.

Description

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Collecting the first ten issues of the Eisner and Harvey awardwinning, TIME Magazine Best Comic of the year of our lord 2013, SEX CRIMINALS, in a deluxe format guaranteed to embarrass you.

5) Blankets

Author

Thompson, Craig

Notes

Challenged in multiple parts of the USA for sexually explicit imagery.

6) bone

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

7) color of earth

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

8) Dragon ball Z: Volume 1

Author

Toriyama, Akira

Notes

Banned in schools in Minnesota for nudity and violence.

9) Drama

Author

Telgemeier, Raina

Series

Drama

Notes

Banned in some schools in Texas and regularly featured on the ALA top ten most frequently banned books list each year, Drama has been challenged for LGBTQIA+ content.

Formats:

eBook, eComic, Graphic Novel, Kindle

Description

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From Raina Telgemeier, the #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning author of Smile and Sisters! Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's the set designer for the drama department's stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't...

10) Fun home: a family tragicomic

Author

Bechdel, Alison

Notes

One of the rare books to be challenged in multiple college curriculums, Fun Home has been banned or challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and sexually explicit imagery.

Formats:

Book, Graphic Novel

11) The graveyard book

Author

Gaiman, Neil

Notes

Challenged in the USA for violent imagery.

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

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Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy--an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack--who has already killed...

12) Heartbreak soup

Author

Hernandez, Gilbert

Notes

Banned under it's other title, Palomar, for sexually explicit content.

13) ice haven

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

14) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. I

Author

Moore, Alan

Series

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Pt. 1

Notes

Challenged in libraries around the USA for sexually explicit imagery.

Description

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The Victorian Era draws to a close and the twentieth century approaches. It is a time of great change and an age of stagnation, a period of chaste order and ignoble chaos. It is an era in need of champions. In this amazingly imaginative tale, literary figures from throughout time and various bodies of work are brought together to face any and all threats to Britain. Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo, Dr. Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde and...

15) Lumberjanes Original Graphic Novel: The Infernal Compass

Author

Sturges, Lilah

Series

Lumberjanes (Sturges graphic novels) volume 3

Notes

Banned in some public libraries in Texas for LGBTQIA+ content.

Description

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Eisner Award-nominated writer Lilah Sturges (Fables, Thor: Season One) teams with artist polterink (Enough Space for Everyone Else) for the first Lumberjanes graphic novel in a story about finding your way and navigating life, love, and a literal forest. When the 'Janes start to become separated during an orienteering outing thanks to a mysterious compass, Molly becomes more and more insecure about the effect of her relationship with Mal on the other...

16) maus i a survivors tale my father bleeds history

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

17) Persepolis

Author

Satrapi, Marjane

Notes

Banned or challenged throughout the USA for explicit language and violence.

Formats:

Book, Graphic Novel

Description

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An intelligent and outspoken only child, Satrapi--the daughter of radical Marxists and the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor--bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution....

18) Pride of Baghdad: inspired by a true story = Kibriyāʼ Baghdād0

Author

Vaughan, Brian K

Notes

Challenged around the USA for sexually explicit content.

Description

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Inspired by true events, a graphic novel examines life on the streets of war-torn Iraq, raising questions about the meaning of liberation through the experiences of four lions who escape from the Baghdad Zoo during a raid.

19) Saga: Book one

Author

Vaughan, Brian K

Series

Saga (Brian K. Vaughan) volume 1

Notes

Saga has been banned and challenged throughout the USA, including multiple times in Oregon, for sexually explicit imagery and LGBTQIA+ content. It was also briefly censored from the Apple Books app.

20) The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes

Author

Gaiman, Neil

Series

Sandman library volume 1

Notes

Frequently challenged throughout the USA for explicit language and being "anti-family."

Formats:

eComic, Graphic Novel

Description

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Neil Gaiman's seminal series, THE SANDMAN, celebrates its 30th anniversary with an all-new edition of THE SANDMAN VOL. 1: PRELUDES & NOCTURNES! New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series THE SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore...