CBLDF is thrilled and honored that She Changed Comics, our book collecting profiles of more than 60 women who transformed the landscape of free expression and expanded the comics artform, has been included on Print magazine’s list of the Best Graphic Novels and Books About Comics from 2016!
The sumptuously illustrated list was compiled by Print contributing editor Michael Dooley, also a lecturer at Art Center College of Design and Loyola Marymount University. Dooley praised our book’s “stunning visuals [which] complement the concise and informative profiles and interviews” and specifically called it to the attention of the organizers for the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême, France, who last year managed to select zero women among 30 nominees for their Grand Prix.
She Changed Comics features profiles of female comics creators from the turn of the 20th century to the present day. It also examines the plights of women who have been persecuted for expressing themselves through cartoons and features interviews with some of the most influential women working in comics today. The book is available for purchase in our Rewards Zone!
Also making Dooley’s list was another book we’ve covered a bunch this year and last: The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew. When the fictional biography incorporating comics in several different styles was first published last year in Liew’s native Singapore, the government-funded National Arts Council withdrew a publishing grant due to his coverage of some unsavory aspects of the nation-state’s 20th century history. Nevertheless, the graphic novel quickly sold out in Asia and is now an international hit, also appearing on best-of lists from NPR, Mental Floss, A.V. Club, and the Washington Post. Dooley praises it as “an exquisitely textured, multi-leveled tribute to a rich cultural heritage and an extended love note to the history of comics.”
Thanks to Dooley and Print for recognizing She Changed Comics along with all the other impressive fare on the list! Check out all 13 titles here at the magazine’s website.
We need your help to keep fighting for the right to read! Help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work by visiting the Rewards Zone, making a donation, or becoming a member of CBLDF!
Contributing Editor Maren Williams is a reference librarian who enjoys free speech and rescue dogs.