1. Maus - Volumes 1&2
The real, lasting tragedy of Maus is that it actually happened. Art Spiegelman, an insanely gifted cartoonist, turned his fathers recollections of The Holocaust into a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel, as well as one of the most moving stories, in any format, ever written. Depicting the Jews (including both himself and his father) as mice and the Nazis as cats, Spiegelman uses cartoon imagery to craft a harrowing and thoroughly disturbing tale. The atrocities depicted are somehow just as lasting and unconscionable for having been committed upon cartoon characters - and the effect that this has on the imagination is thoroughly visceral and profoundly upsetting. Having said that, Maus still manages to be uplifting in places and, at times, is even very funny. The Human spirit is indomitable after all and maybe that was the point that Spiegelman was trying to make. Whatever type of comic books you like, or however much you may be hesitant about reading a Holocaust-themed comic, we unswervingly recommend this book as one of the greatest pieces of graphic storytelling ever produced, as well as one of the finest books on the Holocaust that has yet been written.