Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, making the Holocaust familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

For most people, the narratives of comic books and, in their longer form, graphic novels, revolve mainly around superheroes and the fantastic.

While this is true of some titles and even some of the works listed in this article, most readers of comic books and graphic novels will argue that the medium offers something far more than mere escapism.

Ever since their creation, comic books and graphic novels have exerted a cultural force that has often been dismissed due to the fact that they are often criticized as storytelling through images. But comic books and graphic novels are not narratives constructed through images, rather narratives intersecting with images, form with content. Through this construction, the medium of comic books is a manifestation of a bridge connecting low and high art.

In a media environment where, as the maxim from theorist Marshall McLuhan dictates “the medium is the message” comic books and graphic novels are increasingly important as documents of our time.

For the comic book uninitiated, there are two excellent pieces that serve as good introductions. The first of the two, Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics,” is an analysis of how comics are constructed and how they should be read. The second, the Chris Ware-edited issue of McSweeney’s simply numbered “13,” is a compilation of work by some of the greatest artists in the medium.

If one chooses to delve straight into the medium, arguably the best places to start are through the following titles:

1. Watchmen (Alan Moore)

Quite simply, Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” is the “Citizen Kane” of the comic book medium. While on the surface “Watchmen” appears to be essentially a superhero narrative, Moore is much more interested in the philosophical repercussions that most comic books seem to ignore — mainly the fact that most superheroes are fascist vigilantes. Through a narrative seeped with inter-textuality, Moore dissects and reconstructs many of conventions of the superhero narrative, both visually and content-wise, while revolving around a disbanded team of superheroes who have become the targets of a murderer.

2. The Dark Knight Returns (Frank Miller)

Speaking of fascist vigilantes, Frank Miller basically invented them (or perhaps, re-invented them) with his dark take on the Batman myth titled “The Dark Knight Returns.” Miller, like Moore, is a key artist in the comic book and graphic novel medium and “DKR” had a huge effect on both the medium and the Batman legacy, giving a form of concrete inspiration to Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan’s visions of the superhero. Miller, like Moore, introduced a strong political edge in this work, and made it quite clear that comic books are no longer just for children.

3. Maus (Art Spiegelman)

In theory, the Holocaust narrative and the comic book do not seem to come together in the most elegant of terms. But this unconventional pairing is exactly what makes Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series tick. As Spiegelman noted last semester at a lecture on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, comic books are a great medium for dealing with abstractions and “Maus” is a prime example. Taking the stories of his father, a Holocaust survivor, Spiegelman depicts the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, making the Holocaust familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, thus affecting the reader in previously unexplored ways.

4. The Sandman (Neil Gaiman)

Like “Watchmen,” “The Sandman” appears on the surface to be a stereotypical superhero narrative. Gaiman knew this when he chose to reinvent the 1940s superhero and turn him into a figure of postmodernism mixed up with superhero conventions, Greek mythology and Shakespeare, who appears as a recurring character. Following in the footsteps of the aforementioned titles and due to these characteristics, “The Sandman” epic, published in ten novels, supports the theory that comic books can be a form of high-quality literature.

5. Ex Machina (Brian K. Vaughn)

The most recent title on this list, Brian K. Vaughn’s “Ex Machina” is a blend of “The West Wing” and the superhero narrative. Following the life of Mitchell Hundred, the mayor of New York City and former superhero who, in an alternate universe, saved one of the World Trade Center towers from falling, Vaughn has constructed a story of real-life political issues (gay marriage and terrorism) while supplying the reader with an incredibly unique superhero narrative.

Further Recommended Reading:

“Black Hole” (Charles Burns), “Ghost World” (Daniel Clowes), “Transmetropolitan” (Warren Ellis), “Preacher” (Garth Ennis) and “Sin City” (Frank Miller).

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