Recommendations based on X'ed Outby Charles Burns

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Black Hole

    by Charles Burns
    A darkly comic journey through the lives of teenagers in the 1970s, dealing with anxieties and insecurities.

    Set in the suburbs of Seattle during the mid 1970s, the story follows a group of teenagers who contract a mysterious sexually transmitted disease referred to as "the Bug", which causes them to ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Ghost World

    by Daniel Clowes
    Two teenage girls navigate the awkward transition to adulthood, grappling with identity, relationships, and the mundanity of suburban life.

    Ghost World has become a cultural and generational touchstone, and continues to enthrall and inspire readers over a decade after its original release as a graphic novel. Originally serialized in the ... (Goodreads)

  3. Batman: Year One

    by Frank Miller
    The origin story of Batman, tracing his journey to become Gotham City's greatest hero.

    Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City at the age of twenty-five from training abroad in martial arts, man-hunting, and science for the past 12 years. James Gordon moves to Gotham City with his ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Asterios Polyp

    by David Mazzucchelli
    A brilliant architect's life falls apart, forcing him to confront his past and rebuild his identity.

    The triumphant return of one of comics’ greatest talents, with an engrossing story of one man’s search for love, meaning, sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited, ... (Goodreads)

  5. Habibi

    by Craig Thompson
    A love story between a young man and woman within the context of Middle Eastern culture.

    From the internationally acclaimed author of, Blankets , a highly anticipated new graphic novel. Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the ... (Goodreads)

  6. Essex County

    by Jeff Lemire
    A collection of tales exploring the lives of a rural Canadian community.

    Where does a young boy turn when his whole world suddenly disappears? What turns two brothers from an unstoppable team into a pair of bitterly estranged loners? How does the simple-hearted care of ... (Goodreads)

  7. Shortcomings

    by Adrian Tomine
    A man's introspective look at his relationship, as he reflects on his past and current life.

    Adrian Tomine's graphic novel Shortcomings is his only work that fully deals with themes of being a young Asian-American male in American society. Ben Tanaka, the story's protagonist, lives in ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Sin City, Vol. 4: That Yellow Bastard

    by Frank Miller
    Dark, gritty crime thriller set in a corrupt city, focused on a cop's pursuit of a brutal murderer.

    In a Sin City short story, "The Babe Wore Red," Frank Miller deviated from his stark black-and-white artwork by adding tiny bits of color throughout the story. The girl's dress was red, her lips were ... (Goodreads)

  9. Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street

    by Warren Ellis
    A journalist navigates a dystopian world, exposing corruption and social injustices.

    After years of self-imposed exile from a civilization rife with degradation and indecency, cynical journalist Spider Jerusalem is forced to return to a job that he hates and a city that he loathes. ... (Goodreads)

  10. Annihilation

    by Jeff VanderMeer
    A team of four women venture into a mysterious, surreal landscape in search of answers.

    A team of four women cross the border into an uninhabited area known as "Area X", an unspecified coastal location that has been closed to the public for three decades. The group consists of a ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Scott Pilgrim, Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe

    by Bryan Lee O'Malley
    A young man's quest to save his true love from the clutches of seven evil exes.

    Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old slacker, lives in Toronto with his roommate Wallace Wells. He is the bass player for Sex Bob-omb, an unsuccessful band consisting of himself, guitarist Stephen Stills, ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Swamp Thing, Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing

    by Alan Moore
    A creature of the swamp embarks on a quest for the truth about his existence.

    Before WATCHMEN, Alan Moore made his debut in the U.S. comic book industry with the revitalization of the horror comic book THE SWAMP THING. His deconstruction of the classic monster stretched the ... (Goodreads)

  13. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1

    by Emil Ferris
    A young girl in 1960s Chicago investigates the murder of her neighbor, while navigating her own identity and imagination through her love of monsters.

    Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp ... (Goodreads)

  14. Preacher, Volume 9: Alamo

    by Garth Ennis
    A supernatural showdown in Texas between the forces of Heaven and Hell.

    In this final volume, the story comes to an explosive climax. As the net closes around Jesse Custer, so the renegade Preacher embarks on his own endgame, a terrifying strategy that will place him ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Hard Goodbye

    by Frank Miller
    A brutal and gritty noir tale of revenge, as a man seeks to avenge the death of his one true love.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, The first volume of the crime-comic megahit that introduced the now-infamous character Marv and spawned a blockbuster film returns in a newly ... (Goodreads)

  16. The Wake

    by Neil Gaiman
    A man returns to his childhood home and confronts the memories of a mysterious event that happened there.

    When a Dream ends, there is only one thing left to do... THE WAKE In which the repercussions of the Death of Lord Morpheus are felt, and, in an epilogue, William Shakespeare learns the price of ... (Goodreads)

  17. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories

    by Flannery O'Connor
    A collection of short stories exploring the human condition, from the comic to the grotesque.

    This now classic book revealed Flannery O'Connor as one of the most original and provocative writers to emerge from the South. Her apocalyptic vision of life is expressed through grotesque, often ... (Goodreads)

  18. Geek Love

    by Katherine Dunn
    A family of self-made circus freaks navigates love, loyalty, and morality in a world that shuns them for their differences.

    The novel takes place in two interwoven , time periods: the first deals with the Binewski children's constant struggle against each other through life. They especially have to deal with the ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Underworld

    by Don DeLillo
    A sweeping narrative of two people, their pasts and their parallel paths through history.

    The prologue is a fictionalized account of The Shot Heard 'Round the World , a home run by Bobby Thomson on October 3, 1951, that won the National League pennant for the New York Giants against their ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Dream Country

    by Neil Gaiman
    A collection of short stories that explore the boundaries of dreams, reality, and fantasy.

    The third volume of the Sandman collection is a series of four short comic book stories. In each of these otherwise unrelated stories, Morpheus serves only as a minor character. Here we meet the ... (Goodreads)

  21. Les Fleurs du Mal

    by Charles Baudelaire
    Collection of poems exploring the beauty and depravity of human nature.

    Charles Baudelaire's 1857 masterwork was scandalous in its day for its portrayals of sex, same-sex love, death, the corrupting and oppressive power of the modern city and lost innocence, Les Fleurs ... (Goodreads)

  22. Blindsight

    by Peter Watts
    A sci-fi tale of a journey to the outer reaches of space and a confrontation with alien life.

    In the year 2082, thousands of large, coordinated objects of an unknown origin, dubbed "Fireflies", burn up in the Earth's atmosphere in a precise grid, while momentarily broadcasting across an ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Day of the Triffids

    by John Wyndham
    A post-apocalyptic world overrun by carnivorous plants, exploring themes of survival and morality.

    In 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim. Fifty-two years later, this horrifying story is a science fiction classic, touted by The Times (London) as having ... (Goodreads)

  24. The New York Trilogy

    by Paul Auster
    A series of interconnected stories exploring the hidden mysteries of New York City.

    A 2006 reissue by Penguin Books is fronted by new pulp magazine -style covers by comic book illustrator Art Spiegelman . The first story, City of Glass , features an author of detective fiction who ... (Wikipedia)

  25. The 13-Storey Treehouse

    by Andy Griffiths
    Two friends live in a treehouse with 13 floors, filled with wacky inventions and adventures.

    The book begins with the narrator and fictional depiction of the author, Andy Griffiths , giving an introduction to himself, his friend and illustrator Terry Denton , and their treehouse; the main ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Unwritten, Vol. 2: Inside Man

    by Mike Carey
    Tom Taylor, the inspiration for a famous boy wizard, navigates a world where fiction and reality blur. He must uncover the truth about his own past to save his friends.

    In this volume, Tom arrives at Donostia prison in Southern France and falls into the orbit of another story: The Song of Roland. Unfortunately for Tom, it's a story that ends with a massacre. .Tom ... (Goodreads)

  27. The Castle

    by Franz Kafka
    Townspeople's surreal struggle against a mysterious ruling power.

    The protagonist, K., arrives in a village governed by a mysterious bureaucracy operating in a nearby castle. When seeking shelter at the town inn, he claims to be a land surveyor summoned by the ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Blankets

    by Craig Thompson
    A young man's journey of faith, love, and growing up in a rural Wisconsin town.

    Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. ... (Goodreads)

  29. Preludes & Nocturnes

    by Neil Gaiman
    A dark fantasy adventure, exploring a world of dreams, magic, and mystery.

    In 1916, the magician Roderick Burgess attempts to attain immortality by capturing the embodiment of Death . Mistakenly, he binds Death's brother Dream instead. Fearing retribution, Burgess keeps ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Dispossessed

    by Ursula K. Le Guin
    A sci-fi exploration of utopian and dystopian societies, and the struggle for a better world.

    Librarian note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN, 9780061054884,. Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the ... (Goodreads)