Sacco is from Malta. He immigrated here, I think when he was 11 or 12, and created a whole genre of comics journalism: He embeds himself in conflict zones, then writes a graphic novel. Palestine is incredibly powerful and it’s obviously still relevant. It was the story of Palestine in the ’90s. That’s the book to go to if you wanted to start reading Joe Sacco. His recent one is War on Gaza, which is about the US involvement in Gaza when Biden was president. It’s really poignant, and it won the Eisner.

Fraction is now writing Batman, but near and dear to my heart was his run on Hawkeye. He took a second-tier character and did these incredible things in the series, really brought it to life. Hawkeye goes temporarily deaf, and a whole [issue] was in American Sign Language. He has a companion dog, and [Fraction] did one just from the dog’s perspective. The drawing was done by David Aja, and it’s hard to describe how beautiful that was. It’s probably one of my top three favorite superhero comics, which is saying a lot.

DeConnick is married to Matt Fraction—they’re a comics power couple. Her run on Captain Marvel was the basis for the movie with Brie Larson. Wonder Woman Historia is a retelling of the Wonder Woman mythology, a sweeping saga that provides the backstory of the gods’ creation of the Amazons and, ultimately, the whole history of Princess Diana/Wonder Woman [of Themyscira, the mythical island, not Wales]. It’s great writing by DeConnick and beautifully drawn. It also won the Eisner Award in 2022.

Walker teaches at Portland State University, in the comic studies program. Bitter Root, a sci-fi comic [Walker cocreated with Sanford Greene and Chuck Brown] about the Black Liberation movement, won the Eisner Award. But the one I have really focused on recently is Big Jim and the White Boy. It’s the Huckleberry Finn story told from Jim’s perspective. He’s a major character in Huckleberry Finn, but a secondary character. David really brings him to the forefront. In the end, it’s really a story about Jim and the leadership role he takes in their relationship. I think it’s a great book for all ages.

Kinnard is a groundbreaking cartoon artist known for his strip comics. He [helped start] Just Out in the ’90s, a gay alt-weekly in Portland. His character is the Brown Bomber, who was the first Black, gay superhero. I Just Catharted! is part memoir, part history of Cathartic Comics—the brand that printed the Brown Bomber. It’s a beautiful coffee-table book, and it goes back 50 years to show his early work and his discovery of the first Black superheroes, like the Black Panther, and coming into his own and creating his own Black superheroes.