Etelka Lehoczky

Kate Beaton, the mind that gave us perky revolutionaries and a roly-poly Napoleon, now tells the darker side of her life story: how she suffered during the two years she worked in Alberta's oil field.

At a time when comics and graphic novels were seldom released by mainstream publishers, Gina Gagliano worked tirelessly to put the genre on the radar. Now she's head of the Boston Book Festival.

Eric Orner's book isn't just a great story, it's an enveloping visual experience crafted by a terrific artist; even if one paged through it without looking at the words, it would be a good read.

Through her work, Israeli comics artist Rutu Modan suggests that only cartoon characters can possibly reflect the cartoonish levels of greed and self-deceit revealed as her tale unspools.

Rachel Smythe's smash hit webcomic, out now in graphic novel form, transports the follies of the Greek pantheon — particularly Hades and Persephone — to a modern setting of suits and sports cars.

Miura was one of the most influential manga artists in the field; his signature series, Berserk, ran for over 30 years and melded sword fights, supernatural elements and knotty moral dilemmas.

Filmmaker and author Darcy van Poelgeest's sweeping dystopian epic sometimes falls short on plot and character, but it's redeemed by virtuoso work from its illustrator, colorist and letterer.

By celebrating those who applied the substance as a drug, Walter A. Brown aims to raise awareness — and to demolish what remains of the myth that scientific progress is driven by rigorous dispassion.

Despite what you may have heard, dead-tree publishing isn't dead. In fact, a host of new print magazines are bringing some wild, weird, innovative words and pictures to the alternative comics scene.

Some might say these little works only acquire their auras through their creators' fame. But once you start pondering them, they start to seem like far more than mere artifacts of notable psyches.