Every other month or so, I put together an end panel display for my Adult Graphic Novel Collection, with a little bibliography on a bookmark for people to take – things like zombie graphic novels, or books by Will Eisner. This month, I thought I’d do a display of Asian-Pacific American Graphic Novels since May is Asian-Pacific American Month. And then I found that while I could easily find graphic novels from Asia, it was a whole lot harder to find books by or about Asian-Americans. I scanned my whole collection; I Googled. The only list I found was buried in a course syllabus.

I figure that it shouldn’t be so hard to find a list of Asian-American graphic novels, so I emailed the professor, Dr. Stephen Sohn of Standford University, and asked if it would be OK to publish my list, which owes most of his titles to his. (I found a few on my own, and left a few hard-to-find ones off.) He very kindly gave his permission, and asked if I would share this link with you: Standford Provost Petition

I noticed a complete lack of any graphic novels about Pacific Islanders (maybe not surprising given how tiny they are). I also could find only two kids series – if any readers have any titles to fill in these holes, please let me know!

Asian in America: Graphic Novels
Adult
Empire State by Jason Shiga (2011)

Four Immigrants Manga by Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama (1999)

Get Jiro! By Anthony Burdain (2012)

Johnny Hiro! By Fred Chao (2012)

Level Up by Gene Luen Yang (2011)

One! Hundred! Demons! By Lynda Barry (2002)

Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim (2011)

Secret Identities by Jeff Yang et al (2009)

Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (2007)

Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine (2003)

Vietnamerica by G.B. Tran (2007)

Teen
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006)

The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2006)

Eternal Smile Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim (2009)

Half World by Hiromi Goto (2009)

Koko Be Good by Jen Wang (2010)

Re-Gifters by Mike Carey (2007)

Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O’Malley (2004 and on)

Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew (2014)

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (2008)

Sumo by Thien Pham (2012)

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (2014)

Tina’s Mouth by Keshni Kashyap (2011)

What It Is by Lynda Barry (2008)

Youth
Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi (2008 and on)

Avatar: the Last Airbender series by Gene Luen Yang (2012 and on)