The Voyeurs is a memoir of five years in the life of Gabrielle Bell.   It collects episodes from her series Lucky, in which she travels to Tokyo and other places, but it centers on her life in Brooklyn.  Bell gives us a glimpse into the life of an artist who is more often watching and recording her friends and others rather than experiencing life herself.  The illustrations are wonderful. 

The Underwater Welder transports you to another world--the deep watery world of emotions and memories, past and present, birth and death.  The welder is Jack, a man who lost his father at a young age and is now expecting his first child.  As Jack dives deeper, he is pulled further away from his wife and their unborn son and back to his past and his despair over his father's tragic death.  This haunting and gripping story is about the relationships between parent and child, growing up, overcoming grief, and looking toward the future to start again.  

This graphic novel adaptation is a must-read for any fan of Kafka's Metamorphosis.  Kuper's scratchboard illustrations brilliantly express Kafka's sense of nightmarish unreality.  While the text is spare, Kuper's graphic novel is nonetheless a faithful rendition rather than an illustrated abridgment, and the visuals are eloquent and impactful.  

Daytripper is a dreamy and surreal graphic novel that follows the life of one man, Brás de Olivias Dominguez. Each chapter features an important period in Brás’ life in Brazil, and each story ends the same way: with his death.  A story about all the possibilities realized and lost in one person’s life, Daytripper is a philosophical story about choices, destiny, and chance.  The artwork is gorgeous.