Short stories about Lynda Barry's childhood. Reading this comic will actually remind you of what it's like to be a kid.

This collects the first three issues of Ivan Brunetti's comic book Schizo as well as some other work of his. The comics here are mostly autobiographical and feature Brunetti's pitch black humor, his impressive variety of drawing styles, self-loathing, and lots of gags involving sex and violence (but they're all really funny. Seriously).

After ten years in the making, Charles Burns' masterpiece about alienated (and mutated) youth is now available in one volume. This is a great, unique coming of age story accompanied by what is, in my opinion, some of the finest comic art ever produced. This is definitely the best thing he's done so far, but all of his work is worth checking out.

Crumb is one of the very best cartoonists of all time. The Coffee Table Book is a great starting point for newcomers to Crumb's work because it offers a nice overview of all of his work.

Nicholas Gurewitch is a genius. Definitely one of the best cartoonists out there right now.

Just as great as the last one, and definitely more experimental. Mixes a lot of new groundbreaking comics with some amazing obscure older stuff. To me, the highlight is the new comic by Victor Cayro (aka Bald Eagles).

Gilbert Hernandez is one of the best storytellers in the field of comics. This book collects his Palomar stories from Love and Rockets. If you like this, check out Love and Rockets X and Poison River (and his current work, of course!)

Just like the Heartbreak Soup book above, this is a nice, more affordable book to newcomers of Love and Rockets.

Michael Kupperman is one of the funniest people alive. This book is filled with short comics that feature his trademark absurdist sense of humor. If you like this, check out his new series Tales Designed to Thrizzle.

It's hard for me to decide between this and Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. They're both great. This book has incredible artwork by David Mazzucchelli and isn't quite as over the top as some of Miller's other work, which is nice. Jeph Loeb wrote Long Halloween and Dark Victory which are kind of like follow-ups to this book. Don't read them though. They suck.

There's a reason this book is on every list of best comics. If you haven't already, be sure to read this before it's ruined by the film adaptation that's coming out. Moore is possibly the best writer in all of comics. So if you like this, check out some of his other books. You can't really go wrong with any of his stuff.

I don't have this one, but I read these strips online when they first came out. Hilarious stuff. Chris Onstad is by far one of the very best cartoonists to emerge in the 2000s.

Really great autobiographical comics that give you a real honest look at life.

Charles Schulz is probably the greatest cartoonist of all time.

They finally released all the Freak Brothers comics in one big affordable package. A newer generation might look at this and think it's some lame hippie/stoner comic, but it's actually one of the funniest and most clever comics ever made. One of the best comic releases I've seen in a while.

Short stories that are mostly about loners and outsiders. Excellent production values for a translated Japanese comic. This is better than the first volume in this series (The Push Man), but that book's also worth reading.

Some people really love this one. I think it's definitely worth reading, but it left me feeling a little cold. I think Ware is a great cartoonist, but I think his earlier work is a little overrated. I think the Rusty Brown story in Acme Novelty Library 16, 17, and 19 are better than Jimmy Corrigan. I also think his work in ANL 18 is his best work yet.

An excellent comic and a beautifully designed book. This is one of the few comics you can show to just about anyone and they will just look at it and go "Wow".