I read a lot of good graphic novels this year, the publication of a couple of which also happened to be major events in the comic world – how thrilling to see the return of celebrated American creator Charles Burns on such uncompromisingly fierce form, while the young Dutch illustrator Aimée de Jongh achieved something close to miraculous with her extraordinary adaptation of Lord of the Flies. But the book that meant most to me personally in 2024 was Elena: A Hand Made Life by Miriam Gold for its portrait of Sheffield, my home town, and of the Peak District nearby. I find it hard to imagine the person who wouldn’t be pleased to be given this little volume for Christmas; it’s a feast for the eyes and a boxing glove (in a good way) for the heart.
Polar Vortex by Denise Dorrance (New River)
Funny and plangent, Dorrance’s snowbound memoir about her elderly mother’s dementia really couldn’t be any better if it tried; its drawings and dialogue alike bring to mind the genius of Alison Bechdel or Posy Simmonds. So light on its feet, it practically skis to its conclusion – and yet it’s full of sagacity as well.
Lord of the Flies: The Graphic Novel by Aimée de Jongh (Faber)
William Golding’s 1954 novel needs no introduction, but in De Jongh’s hands it’s forcefully remade for the age of climate change, her emphasis as much on its ecological message as the morality of our schoolboy savages. A page-turner of a book that my small, not-that-keen-on-reading nephew Freddie liked just as much as I did.
Final Cut by Charles Burns (Jonathan Cape)
Burns, best known for his 2005 masterpiece Black Hole, returns with the story of a group of young people who make an alien movie together. Suffused with apprehension, this is a powerfully allegorical comic in which nothing’s ever straightforward, be it extraterrestrials or teen romance.
Petar & Liza by Miroslav Sekulic-Struja (translated by Jenna Allen) (Fantagraphics)
Petar returns from his two-year conscription in the Yugoslav army feeling like a ghost. But then he meets a dancer called Liza, and his world changes. The great Chris Ware (Building Stories) has said he was “stunned” by this “exquisite” portrait of a generation, and it’s not hard to see why. Just beautiful.
Elena: A Hand Made Life by Miriam Gold (Jonathan Cape)
Gold’s first book, a scrapbook-style memoir of her Jewish grandmother, Dr Elena Zadik, is a triumph, crossing Europe and the generations with equal alacrity. Zadik was a refugee twice over, but Gold doesn’t labour the parallels with today, choosing instead to let this wonderful but irascible woman speak for herself on the page.
One for my stocking
I loved Self-Esteem and the End of the World (Faber) by Luke Healy, who was a judge of this year’s Observer/Faber graphic short story prize, but I’m ashamed to say he’s a fairly recent discovery for me. So I’d like a couple of titles from his backlist in my stocking: How to Survive in the North, which combines the true story of two ill-fated Arctic exhibitions with a fictional tale of a university lecturer in crisis; and Americana (And the Act of Getting Over It), in which Healy recounts his 147-day journey along the Pacific Crest Trail. Both are published by the excellent Nobrow.
• To browse all of the Observer and Guardian’s best graphic novels of 2024 go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
