It's National Comic Book Day, one of the two big days on the calendar where fans celebrate this amazing medium. (The other is Free Comic Book Day, which usually takes place in May.)
For this article, I've pulled together a list of 18 essential graphic novels, divided into three subsets: DC, Marvel, and a special section for those of you who want to read something other than superhero comics.
It's a list that's packed full of all-time classics, from the amazing All Star Superman (which heavily inspired the recent film), to Secret Wars (so you can get ahead of next year's Avengers movie) and my two personal favorite comics of all time: The Invisibles and From Hell. Really, though, this list could easily have been three times as long and still not scratched the surface of what comics have to offer.
DC superheroes
Marvel superheroes
If you don't like superheroes...
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