CBLDF: Civic Engagement and Comics Reading List

This list was created by the folks at Comics@SDSU with additions from CBLDF for our recent panel CBLDF: Civic Engagement and Comics at ComicCon San Diego: Special Edition.

Constitution & Democracy

American Politics: A Graphic History by Laura Locker and Julia Scheele. Icon Books Ltd, 2018

Constitution Illustrated by R. Sikoryak. Drawn & Quarterly, 2020

Democracy by Liam O’Donnell and Patricia Storms. Capstone Press, 2008

Drawing the Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Voting in America by Tommy Jenkins and Kati Lacker. Abrams ComicArts, 2020

Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Graphic Novel (World Citizen Comics) by Cynthia Levinson, Sanford Levinson, and Ally Shwed. First Second, 2020

Free Speech Handbook: A Practical Framework for Understanding Our Free Speech Protections (World Citizen Comics) by Ian Rosenberg and Mike Cavallaro. First Second, 2021

Save It for Later: Promises, Protest, and Parenthood by Nate Powell. Abrams, 2021

This Is What Democracy Looks Like: A Graphic Guide to Governance. Center for Cartoon Studies, 2019

Voting is Your Superpower by Craig Yoe (editor). Clover Press, 2020

What Unites Us: The Graphic Novel (World Citizen Comics) by Dan Rather, Elliot Kirschner, and Tim Foley. First Second, 2021

Women’s Rights

Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights by Mikki Kendall and A. D’Amico. Ten Speed Press, 2019

CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics, edited by Betsy Gomez. Image Comics, 2016

The Complete Wimmen’s Comix by various. Fantagraphics, 2016

Drawn to Purpose: American Women Illustrators and Cartoonists by Martha H. Kennedy. University Press of Mississippi, 2018

History Smashers: Women’s Right to Vote by Kate Messner and Dylan Meconis. Random House Books for Young Readers, 2020

Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013, by Trina Robbins. Fantagraphics, 2013

Susan B. Anthony: Champion for Voting Rights! by Mark Shulman and Kelly Tindall, Portable Press, 2020

Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story by Peter Bagge. Drawn & Quarterly 2013

Civil Rights & Racial Justice

Big Black: Stand at Attica by Frank “Big Black” Smith, Jared Reinmuth, and Améziane. Archaia, 2020

DC Represents: It’s a Bird by Christian Cooper, Alitha Martinez, Mark Morales and Emilio Lopez. DC Comics, 2020

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina, Stacey Robinson, and John Jennings. (Lee & Low Books, 2017

Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist by Nancy Goldstein. University of Michigan Press, 2008

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall  and Hugo Martínez. Simon & Schuster, 2021

King: A Comics Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Ho Che Anderson. Fantagraphics, 2005

March (trilogy) by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. Top Shelf Productions, 2016

Martin Luther King and The Montgomery Story by Alfred Hassler and Sy Barry. Originally published by Fellowship for Reconciliation, 1957 (digital version available online) 

Monster: A Graphic Novel by Walter Dean Myers, Guy A. Sims, and Dawud Anyabwile. Amistad, 2015

Nat Turner by Kyle Baker. Abrams, 2015

Run: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury, and  Nate Powell. Abrams ComicArts, 2021

The Silence of Our Friends by Mark Long, Jim Demonakos, and Nate Powell. First Second Books, 2012

Six Days in Cincinnati: A Graphic Account of the Riots That Shook the Nation a Decade Before Black Lives Matter by Dan Méndez Moore. Microcosm Publishing, 2017

Asian American Experience

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. First Second, 2006

Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang. DC Comics, 2020

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. Abrams, 2017

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker. Top Shelf, 2019

Immigration & Refugees

The Arab of the Future (series) by Riad Sattouf. Metropolitan Books, 2015

Home by Julio Anta, Anna Wieszczyk, and Bryan Valenza’s . Image Comics, 2021 

La Voz De M.A.Y.O.: Tata Rambo by Henry Barajas  Jason “J. Gonzo” Gonzales. Image Comics, 2019

More Than Money by Claudia Dominguez. Amatl, 2018 

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Pantheon, 2004

The Arrival by Shaun Tan. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007

Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight by Duncan Tonatiuh. Abrams, 2018

Welcome to the New World by Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan. Metropolitan Books, 2020 

Welcome to the New World by Victoria Jamieson, Omar Mohamed, and Iman Geddy. Dial Books, 2020

Year of the Rabbit by Tian Veasna. Drawn & Quarterly, 2020

LGBTQIA+ Issues

A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni  and Tristan Jimerson. Limerence Press, 2018

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Jonathan Cape, 2006

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. Oni Press, 2019

How to Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual by Rebecca Burgess. Jessica Kingsley, 2020

I’m a Wild Seed by Sharon Lee De La Cruz. Street Noise, 2021

Love Is Love, edited by Marc Andreyko, Sarah Gaydos, and Jamie S. Rich. IDW Publishing, 2017

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen. PRH, 2020

Further Resources

Know Your Rights: Student Rights Fact Sheet

Be Heard: Youth Protest Rights Primer

Don’t Ban Me: Overcoming Identity Censorship

This is What Democracy Looks Like