The Fantastic Five

Blankets By Craig Thompson (582 pgs., Top Shelf Comics). In his self-portrait of the artist as a young man, Thompson finds relief from his miserable, impoverished teen years in rural Wisconsin through faith, art and his first sweetheart, Raina. But Blankets is no piece of rosy nostalgia, and Thompson's honest depictions of the irreconcilable conflicts between sex, religion and creativity make the book almost unbearably bittersweet. A nearly 600-page "phone book" graphic novel, Blankets may be the longest comic story ever published that wasn't serialized first, and every page argues the value of the form as a sophisticated means of personal expression.

The Golem's Mighty Swing By James Sturm (100 pgs., Drawn and Quarterly). In the 1920s, a barnstorming, cash-strapped Jewish baseball team called "The Stars of David" causes a sensation by announcing that its new clean-up hitter is a golem out of Hebrew legend. Sturm has a passion for history and a quiet, economical style that subtly evokes the classic comic strips of the era. His treatment of two All-American traditions -- baseball and prejudice -- produce a tall tale as archetypal as "Casey at the Bat." A home run.

Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-95 By Joe Sacco (227 pgs., Fantagraphics Books). If Robert Crumb or Art Spiegelman had become foreign correspondents, they may have produced work as provocative as Joe Sacco's. He recounts four visits to the besieged town of Gorazde as the Serbs make a deadly mockery of its designation as a United Nations "safe area." As in his Palestine series, Sacco puts a human face on an ancient yet urgent international conflict, while his drawing style has improved to become as sharp-focused as any combat photography. Don't be surprised to see it in classrooms one day.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood By Marjane Satrapi (153 pgs., Pantheon). The author recounts major events of modern Iranian history in her own point of view from ages 6 to 14 growing up in a "progressive" household. Satrapi's simple, child-like drawing style suits the subject matter as she catches half-understood glimpses of the resistance to the Shah, the oppression of the Islamic Revolution and the deprivations of the war with Iraq. Despite her family's suffering, Satrapi never emerges as a victimized innocent but instead proves a spirited figure: As a headstrong teenager, she rebels against the state by buying a black market tape of Kim Wilde's "We're the Kids in America."

Reinventing Comics By Scott McCloud (252 pgs., Paradox Press). In his follow-up to Understanding Comics, McCloud pencils himself as a witty guide to where comics have been and where they're going. His first part recounts the unusual pressures on the art form's history, while the second speculates on the future of digital, online comics. You don't need to be interested in comics per se to be fascinated by McCloud's insight into the tensions between creativity and commerce, and his ideas about the Internet will engage anyone who's ever bought or sold anything online. But the book's great achievement is its ability to take heady concepts and make them not just accessible but humorous.