A very incomplete list. Started partly as an attempt to keep keep my high-school french from rusting completely in the years since. Fabien Toulmé, "L'Odyssée d'Hakim": A 3-volume graphic novel recounting a single young refugee's journey from Syria to France. His individual story is engrossing and moving, and also gives a glimpse of the wider phenomenon whenever his path crosses some of the millions of other refugees on their own trajectories. Highly recommended. Pascal Jousselin, "Imbattable": Our hero, "le seul vraie hero de bande dessinée", bases his power in the fact that he knows about (and can traverse) the panels containing his story. Lots of clever and beautifully excuted variations on that idea. Characters with similar meta-powers are eventually introduced. Lubie & Desveaux, "La Fille dans L'écran": A romance where each of the two authors takes one of the two characters. They start out taking alternate pages describing the characters' separate lives in Paris and Montreal, as they first meet online. When they eventually meet in person, the two artist's work mix on individual pages and panels. Nice idea, cute story, enjoyable read. Joann Sfar, "The Rabbi's Cat": The titular character gains the power of speech after eating a parrot. What more can you ask? Wonderful stuff; I find Sfar just endlessly entertaining and inventive. Franquin, "Gaston": Half- to full- page "gags", not full-length stories, very creative, funny, and expressively drawn. the strips seem to have been collected in albums several different times in different ways, so it can be a little tricky avoiding duplicates. Herge, "Tintin": 21 albums are widely available. Straightforward adventure stories, but I like them a lot. Note that the three other albums (the first two and the final unfinished one) that are a little harder to find are mostly not worth the trouble. Goscinny and Uderzoo, "Asterix": The most recent albums (after Goscinny's death) are uneven, but the others are great fun, though you really only need to read one to get the idea. "Asterix and Cleopatra" was always a favorite of mine. Dupuy & Berberian, "Monsier Jean": funny, touching stories, and you get to see the character grow up over the course of the albums, which is rewarding. The first three volumes are available in English under the title "Get A Life". There's also a comic about the making of number three, "Journal d'un Album", (translated as "Maybe Later") which is interesting. Volumes 3, 4, and 5 ("les femmes et les enfants d'abord", "vivons heureux sans en avoir l'air", and "comme s'il en pleuvait") are particular favorites. Sfar, Trondheim, et. al, "Donjon": comedy/adventure set in a sort of Dungeon-and-dragons based world. Has spawned a vast empire of interrelated series. I've read and enjoyed the first couple in the main series ("Donjon Zenith"). Lewis Trondheim, "Lapinot": Funny animal stories for (sort of) grown ups? Michel Rabagliati, "Paul en appartement": Paul and his girlfriend move in together; the story covers their new life together along with some choice episodes from their past. Set in Quebec. Some might find it too sweet, but I liked it a lot. His other books are pretty good, too, especially "Paul a un travail d'été." Harvey Pekar, "American Splendor", various anthologies, "Our Cancer Year", etc.: I think my favorite is the story about his finally, as an adult, getting the kind of shoes he always wanted as a kid. Great stuff. Craig Thompson, "Blankets": autobiography covering the author's childhood and first love. The drawing is very expressive; my favorite sequence is probably the one where his girlfriend's father discovers them asleep together in her room; the series of facial expressions is amazing. Neil Gaiman and others, "Sandman": Read the first three, plus "A Game of You", "Brief Lives", a couple of the death spin-offs, and maybe a few others I've forgotten. Despite that, I'm not that big a fan. There are a few stories I like a lot, and a lot that's not interesting to me. Alan Moore and others, "Watchmen": Maybe it's just that I missed my required childhood dose of superhero comics, but I just don't get it. Like Sandman, it seems to me to take itself a little too seriously. Howard Crusoe, "Stuck Rubber Baby": fictional story of a gay man growing up in the small-town south during the civil rights movement. Art Spiegelman, "Maus": I remember being impressed by it, but it's been a while. Bilal, Enki, "Le Someil du Monstre", "32 Decembre", "La Foire aux Immortels", others: The drawing's interesting, but the ideas seem all over the place. Hard to know what to make of it. Briggs, Raymond, "Ethel & Ernest: A True Story": A touching story about the author's parents. Marc-Antoine Mathieu, "Memoire Morte", "La 2,333e Dimension": David B., "L'ascension du Haut Mal": the story of the author's childhood, and in particular his older brother's epilepsy. The story is largely taken up by descriptions of the stuff that his parents go through in an attempt to find a cure for the brother: catholocism, macrobiotics, alchemy, voodoo.... They try prayer, exorcism, various diets, and of course doctor-proscribed drugs, but they all seem equally useless. By the end of it you're not sure whether they're really still focused on epilepsy--they have to have given up hope at some level--or whether exploring fringe philosophies has become some sort of family hobby, maybe one that takes their mind of their problems. All this stuff gives lots of wonderful grist for the artist, of course. The intricate black-and-white panels are stuffed with fantastic creatures and symbols. Baudoin, "Piero": The story of the artist and his brother, both artists from a young age. Marjane Satrapi, "Persepolis" (two volumes): the story of the author's childhood in Iran during the revolution. The drawing is simple but effective, and the story is moving. Marjane Satrapi, "Chicken with Plums": family story of a musician who fights with his family, loses his beloved instrument, and starves himself to death. Grant Morrison, "Doom Patrol: The painting that ate Paris": didn't do much for me. Grant Morrison, "We3", "Seaguy": ditto Chris Ware, "The ACME novelty library", "Jimmy Corrigan: the smartest kid on earth": Charles Burns, "Black Hole": I'm just not a big fan of creepy. Moebius & Jodorowsky, "L'incal": 6 albums: I like the drawing a lot. The story is bizarre. Lots of interesting characters and images, but it's hard to know what to make of it all.