A defining work of alternative comics. Clowes uses a flat, precise style to depict the aimlessness of two teenage girls. The specific shade of blue-green used in the film adaptation is iconic, but the original comic’s black-and-white drawing captures the boredom and alienation of suburbia perfectly.
A coming-of-age memoir about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi uses a stark, high-contrast woodcut style. The black-and-white imagery emphasizes the duality of her life—the public and private selves, and the repression versus the resistance. blacknwhitecomics 20 comics best
A masterpiece of Japanese horror. While originally published in Japanese magazines with color accents, the definitive experience of Ito’s work is in monochrome. His obsession with spirals and body horror is rendered in terrifying, intricate detail that relies on the starkness of black ink to shock the reader. A defining work of alternative comics
A surreal, unsettling story about a sexually transmitted disease that causes physical mutations in teens. Burns’ ink work is incredibly smooth and haunting. 17. Stray Bullets by David Lapham A coming-of-age memoir about growing up in Iran
(Stan Sakai): The legendary saga of a rabbit samurai in feudal Japan. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles