This one nearly didn't make the list, but I'm glad it did. Golem is a short, thoughtful read from the mind of James Sturm. Loved the story as much as I loved the beautiful packaging - pay attention: this is how to design the cover of a graphic novel.

49 - A Small Killing

A lesser-known work of Alan Moore, but easily one of his most powerful. Moore and Zarate explore issues of memory and identity in a truly sophisticated tale. Brilliant.

48 - Jar of Fools

Jason Lutes' body of work is limited, which makes his masterful panel-to-panel technique all the more astonishing. A terrific read, but, more importantly, terrific storytelling.

47 - 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call

I bought 100 Bullets during a period of trying out several titles I’d always promised myself I’d get around to. Unfortunately, most of the titles I’d been curious about turned out to be crap. A few were decent, meeting expectations. 100 Bullets was far better than I’d hoped. Gorgeous crime comics with one of the simplest, best premises I’ve read in awhile.

46 – 300

Frank Miller hasn’t done a damn thing I’ve cared for in the past decade. I assumed 300 would be more of the same, but the reviews were good and it was such a pretty package that I stuffed it in a dusty corner of my wish list. When I finally read the thing, I was blown away: Incredible, cinematic storytelling with an intensely interesting subject matter. Why can’t all Roman history books look like this?

45 - Violent Cases

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s rookie effort in comics. I’m quick to recommend it to people unfamiliar with the comics medium because it’s a terrific example of what comics can be when the creators are willing to get out of their own way and do something unique.

44 - Saga of the Swamp Thing

The first truly sophisticated comic I think I ever read was an issue of Swamp Thing. I was around 10 years old at the time and completely enthralled. It was an anomaly: adult, literate, entertaining storytelling in a comic book. Alan Moore expanded the potential of the medium with this thing.

43 - The Frank Book

I think you either fall deeply in love with the artistic styling of Jim Woodring or you hate him. There really is no middle ground. It’s the closest thing I’ve ever read to a truly surrealist comic experience. Needless to say, I’m in love.

42 - The Mystery Play

Beautiful, lush illustrations, but that’s not why I like Grant Morrison and Jon Muth’s The Mystery Play. It’s abstract and stirring and you simply cannot read it only once. One reading will not sit with you. Likely, neither will two readings, but I’m still trying to figure out Morrison’s answer to the big question: who killed God?

41 - The Authority: Under New Management

Be honest, if there really were superheroes roaming around, they wouldn’t bother themselves with muggers and colorfully-themed villains, would they? They’d split their time between photo shoots and ridding the world of the real bastards: the Bin Ladens and Husseins and their ilk. It wouldn’t be “The American Way”… it’d be their way. And that’s why I liked The Authority.

40 - Batman: The Killing Joke

When I was eleven, I discovered Justice League International with art by Kevin Maguire and it was also about that time I first read The Killing Joke, with art by Brian Bolland. I held these comics in my hand and knew what I wanted to do with my life: draw like these guys. An old and over-quoted chestnut that still manages to hold up.

39 - American Elf

James Kochalka chronicles every day of his life with a comic strip diary entry. Five years’ worth are represented in American Elf. As individual strips, they’re a little quirky and mundane. As a whole, though, an incredible achievement and an interesting peek into the minutiae of human behavior. Many other alt-comix pretenders have started their own diary strips since, but James thought of it first.

38 - Road to Perdition

A good movie, an even better book. One of the most easily-paced stories in comics and the exactness of Richard Piers-Rayner’s pen work defies description. Years in the making and it shows.

37 - Age of Bronze: A Thousand Ships

The amount of research and genuine affection for the subject manner is apparent in every single panel of Eric Shanower’s Age of Bronze. This man is in love with the Trojan War and his passion is infectious.

36 - Human Target: Final Cut

Comics have been called “paper movies” and nowhere is this more apparent than in the smartly told Human Target stories by Peter Milligan. Intelligent, sure, but man… it’s a ride.

35 - Books of Magic

A decade before Harry Potter, there was Tim Hunter, the young, bespectacled, English magician who discovered the truth about his heritage and began his training to become a champion of the dark arts. A lovely, moody story elegantly painted by four masters of the medium. Some of Neil Gaiman’s finest stuff.

34 – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen v.1

Alan Moore does nothing by halves, so the research behind a band of the 19th century’s greatest English lit characters is formidable. A great comic: entertaining for the rubes and beautifully crafted for even the most unforgiving book snob. Ignore the movie.

33 - Voodoo Child

I like comic biographies and I’ve read a few in my day. This one’s my favorite. Lushly painted by Bill Sienkiewicz, this thing tells the story of Jimi Hendrix better than any piece of prose ever could. And it even includes a bonus CD of unreleased Hendrix material. Now that’s class.

31 - New X-Men v.1

This gets unfavorably compared to Grant Morrison’s JLA a lot and I can’t understand why. New X-Men is easily the finest X-Men story of all time. Okay, so I haven’t read more than a handful of X-Men stories, but there’s an energy and freshness behind Grant’s take on super-mutants that transcends the clunkiness of the original concept. Brilliant is an understatement.

30 - Fred the Clown

In my humble opinion, Roger Langridge is the world’s most underrated cartoonist. Unfortunately, gag strips are rarely thought of as innovative and ground-breaking, but Langridge does something unique and memorable with his goofball protagonist. I love Fred and I want more.

29 – Cages

Drop all the pretense: Dave McKean is simply on a plane of artistry all his own. I liked Cages most when I stopped trying to “get it” and simply let Dave’s pens and brushes take me wherever they wanted. There are many great talents in comics, but only a few true geniuses. McKean is one of them.

28 - Kill Your Boyfriend

All the violence, pop references, drugs, sex and snappy patter of a Tarantino flick mixed with virtuoso comics artistry. That’s Kill Your Boyfriend. A deft metanarrative, this book is just cool. Not only cool, but you become cool for having read it. You want to be in the club? You want to fight the system? You want to play with the popular kids? Kill your boyfriend, baby.

27 – US

Forget Marvels and Kingdom Come and all that pretentious superheroes-as-modern-mythology horseshit. This is Alex Ross’ finest work. A master craftsman, he and Steve Darnall have conspired to tell the wonderful, awful story of the United States. Very clever and very moving.

26 - Death: The High Cost of Living

Sandman’s most popular supporting cast member in a story all her own. Gaiman manages to do something both dark and bubbly and the Chris Bachalo artwork is gorgeous. If you hated the goth culture explosion in the early 90s, blame this book.

25 - Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron

Dan Clowes’ journey into surrealist storytelling is strange and addicting. Not only is this book impossible to describe, it’s equally impossible to describe why I like it. Expertly crafted with images that tend to haunt you for a long, uncomfortable while.

24 - V for Vendetta

Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s case for anarchy. I won’t hesitate to tell you this book simply did not sit well with me on the first reading. It nagged like a migraine until I was forced to pick it up a second time. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so intrigued by an idea that I disagree with so fiercely. Well done.

23 - McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13

Comics critics were calling this a classic before it even hit the shelves. The very finest minds in alternative art comics in one compilation, edited by the sublimely gifted Chris Ware. Every alt-comix creator that’s worth a damn is represented in this mind-bending hardcover. Each page is a treat and will inevitably lead to your buying more comics from the creators that strike your fancy the most. Required reading.

22 - Sandman: Endless Nights

Over a decade after wrapping up Sandman, Neil Gaiman returned to his most beloved character to spin a few more tales. Seven, actually. I’d worried that, as so often happens with after-the-fact-follow-ups, Gaiman might’ve lost a bit of his zest for these characters and it would turn out to be a bestselling disappointment. Fortunately, he not only delivered something just as stirring as his previous Sandman work, he managed to tell a few of his very best stories ever. A great introduction to the Sandman mythos.

21 - The Cowboy Wally Show

In the laugh-out-loud sense, Cowboy Wally is probably the funniest graphic novel I believe I’ve ever read. Kyle Baker’s talent has never been sharper. I’ve loaned out my copy without hesitation several times. It’s just good.

20 - Mr. Punch

In interviews, Neil Gaiman describes Mr. Punch as the best thing he’s ever written. Another Gaiman/McKean masterpiece, this is one of the most layered and nuanced graphic novels I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. Comic literature for sophisticated adults.

19 - Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina

My first exposure to Grant Morrison was Animal Man, an ongoing monthly about a hero with animal powers. Lame, right? In the final chapter of his Animal Man saga, Grant manages to bend and subvert every possible comics paradigm, with one of the best endings ever written. I won’t spoil it, suffice it to say this comic is scary-good. Also, it hooked my wife into giving the art form a try.

18 - The Invisibles: The Invisible Kingdom

The last volume in Morrison’s Invisibles series. What will the end of humanity look like? What will take its place? When does it happen and what does it all mean? Grant knows. And he explains it all without blinking. The truth is in here and it’s bigger and more beautiful than you think.

17 - The Ring of the Nibelung

P. Craig Russell illustrates with a sort of awed grace that’s rarely found in the art world, much less comics. He spent five years on this adaptation of Wagner’s Ring cycle and it shows. I love these books. A dense study of the otherworldly beauty of myth and legend. Not to be missed under any circumstance.

16 - Dork: Circling the Drain

Evan Dorkin is angry. And manic. And jumpy. And funny. Fortunately, he also draws comics. Possibly the most balls-out voice in sequential art, this volume represents the very best of Dorkin. Each page is densely packed with hilarity and even some heartbreak. Not for the faint-hearted.

15 - Arkham Asylum

Arkham Asylum, despite being the best selling graphic novel of all time, is mercilessly panned by critics and that is a travesty. It’s a rich, unsettling study of magic and mental illness, each page dripping with strange symbolism and dark metaphor. And yeah, big deal, it happens to have Batman in it. Who cares, Arkham raised the bar in graphic literature for everyone. Critics will criticize, but this is a rare gem.

14 – Skreemer

I lost my innocence to Peter Milligan’s Skreemer, in a way. I first read it as an impressionable lad of 13 and was deeply disturbed by just how raw and visceral this retro-future gangster epic was. Horrific situations and dead-on storytelling will always set this apart as a classic. To call this a crime comic is an understatement. You’ve been warned.

13 - Bone: One Volume Edition

What amazes me most about this 1000+ page opus is the consistency. This graphic novel masterfully accomplishes everything it set out to do from the first page. Over a decade of effort from one man, Jeff Smith, and you’d swear he drew it all in one shot. The very finest all-ages comic ever produced.

12 – Caricature

There are many masterpieces in Dan Clowes’ oeuvre, but I think Caricature is the best. A simple collection of short stories that defy description, save that they’re pure Clowes. Quirkier than both Ghost World and David Boring, this book is one of the best cases for comics as literature I can imagine. If J.D. Sallinger wrote comics, they’d look like this.

11 - Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Every two or three years, I’ll reread Frank Miller’s Dark Knight to make sure it still holds up and it always does. Artists and comic theorists continue to pore over the depth and complexity of this work nearly 20 years after it was completed. An inspiring, relentless read, DK manages to find itself on every list of greatest comics ever. A true triumph.

10 - Signal to Noise

Sneaking into the top 10 is Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s hard-to-find, out-of-print and vastly underrated collaboration… but, personally, I think it’s their best. Each page is an important piece of fine art that glows with richness and subtlety. It’s one of my greatest frustrations in comics that I’m unable to buy friends and loved ones copies of this work because I’ve no doubt it would hook them on the potential of the medium. Fortunately, I’ve got mine.

9 - Understanding Comics

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love comics, but I do remember the day I stopped being embarrassed of them: the day I read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. Part theory, part history, part manifesto, McCloud examines the language of comics… in comic-form. No book has ever gotten me so jazzed about the potential of the medium. The ideas within hit with the impact of an intellectual atomic bomb. Must reading.

8 – Maus

A Pulitzer Prize-winner, but never mind that. Even in the first few pages, I knew I was reading something important. I’m not sure if Spiegelman intended for his portrayal of Jews as mice and Nazis as cats in this biography of the artist’s father (Vladek Spiegelman, an Auschwitz survivor) to somehow soften the intensity of the subject matter, but the metaphor manages to only strengthen the impact of the narrative. A human, heartbreaking work. Anyone and everyone would do well to own a copy of Maus.

7 – Watchmen

It’s been called the greatest comic ever written and I can understand why. At a time when the comics industry was stale and drowning… when, for decades, comics were known as schlock literature for fools and children… came Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen. Besides stretching the potential of the medium in unheard-of directions, this masterwork caused the entire world to sit up and pay attention. The first in a long procession of “deconstructionist” comic storytelling, Watchmen is a complex tapestry of intricate plotting and characterization. Page after page, layer after layer, there’s always more underneath. I’ve read it more times than I care to count and each reading is a new discovery.

6 - Doom Patrol: The Painting that Ate Paris

Sometimes an album or a movie or a book will catch you at an important moment in your life, a moment that defines your loves and your tastes and your artistic sensibilities. Morrison’s Doom Patrol was the right comic at the right time for me. I wasn’t looking for intellectual or artistic stimulation when I picked it up, but that’s what I got. There’s junk food literature you read because it’s just a good time and there’s also health food literature you read because you know it’ll expand your mind and make you an all-round better person. This book is the best of both. A hungry painting, a journey into the brain of a multiple personality case, assassins that talk in anagrams and an entity that de-creates the universe one item at a time? Tip of the iceberg for Grant Morrison and Richard Case. Believe it or not, The Painting that Ate Paris wasn’t even the best of Morrison’s DP stories… but until the final chapter is collected in TPB form, it’s Paris all the way.

5 - Why I Hate Saturn

No one does it like Kyle Baker. I’ve bought more copies of Why I Hate Saturn than any other graphic novel. Copies for friends and even replacement copies for myself when the original was lost. The book is pure wit. Baker may not be the best writer in comics, but he’s certainly the most clever. Page after page of razor-sharp dialogue and hilarious pay-offs. Besides that, Kyle’s the only comic artist I know who’s managed to find a way to effectively transcend the use of word balloons, making his work read like a comic, but feel like a cross between a play and illustrated prose. Simple art, but it feels sophisticated and adult. Best humor comic of all time.

4 - Blankets

A lot of the works on this list have affected me artistically, intellectually and emotionally, but this is possibly the only one I’ve ever read that genuinely affected me spiritually. Craig Thompson is startlingly honest and vulnerable in Blankets. I guess you could say it’s an autobiographical coming-of-age story, but somehow I think there’s much more going on there. It’s about love and faith and courage and growing up. Reading Blankets wasn’t easy for me, because I was forced to confront a number of issues in my own life and faith that I’d just as soon left untouched. Thankfully, I allowed this sharply sensitive and honest book to cause me to be honest with myself.

3 - Sandman: The Kindly Ones

The fact is, this list would be loaded with far more Sandman, but I decided to limit myself to only one volume from the original ongoing series and The Kindly Ones is the best of the best. Neil Gaiman, storyteller extraordinaire, spent a decade weaving the Sandman mythos, the work he’s most known for. After years of building story after story, creating the most memorable supporting cast in all of comics, he brought each and every character and plot thread thus far together for the penultimate Sandman chapter, the riveting climax of the series: The Kindly Ones. A massive undertaking and only an architect as skilled as Gaiman would be up to the challenge. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the jaw-dropping illustrative styling of Marc Hempel, who contributed the bulk of the art. The greatest moments of the greatest ongoing monthly comic of all time are right here.

2 - From Hell

There is no comic creator with a more impressive track record than Alan Moore. From Watchmen to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, he’s stood both the art form and the industry on its ear time and again. But it’s here, in From Hell, that he demonstrates the full extent of his powers. There is no story like this and there’s honestly nothing to compare it to. Moore and Eddie Campbell have fashioned their version of the Jack the Ripper story, the fruit of years of painstaking research and a lifetime of imagination. Mercifully, this book contains an appendix that details all pertinent historical facts and records to assure the reader that this is indeed the real deal. It would be impossible for me to recommend From Hell more enthusiastically. It’s raw, it’s smart, it’s horrific and it’s one of the 20th century’s most powerful pieces of storytelling, whatever the medium.

1 - Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

The greatest graphic novel of all time? No-brainer: Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan. It takes a mad sort of genius to reinvent an entire visual language for the sake of a single story. Burgess did it for A Clockwork Orange, Tolkien did it for The Lord of the Rings and now, for comics, Chris Ware has done it for Jimmy. Defying every convention, you don’t read this book, your learn how to read it. It’s a fiction, a genealogy, an analysis, a diagram and a chronicle of Ware’s most famous character, the frustratingly insecure Jimmy Corrigan. The art mirrors the storytelling: dense, exact and compact. It’s easy to get lost in a single page, scanning and rescanning, for long minutes. There’s a lot there to savor. In the end, there may come a day when a comic work is introduced to the public that’s even more brilliant and deftly crafted than Jimmy Corrigan, but I think it’ll be a long wait. And when that day finally comes, I have the sneaking suspicion it’ll be the next opus from the prodigious Chris Ware.