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A running catalog of our graphic novels. We collect within themes of oceans and seas (as location, topic or lore), sustainability, apocalypse and climate change, ocean recreation, and more.
Why Graphic Novels?
Visual stories can be a powerful and effective entry point into difficult content. Concepts and facts around climate change, for example, can be difficult to grapple with, and graphic novels humanize the information. Comics also appeal to visual learners, and compared with text alone, the combination of text and images is retained longer in our brain. In short, graphic novels are for everyone! See more:
- Gormally, Cara. “Using Comics to Make Science Come Alive,” August 30, 2021. https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2020.3.
- Jamie Stanfield and Joyce M. Shaw. “Strengthening Engagement with Graphic Novels.” Poster presented at the 2021 SAIL/CYAMUS Joint Annual Conference, May 20, 2021. https://guides.library.stanford.edu/ld.php?content_id=61547930.
- *Link, Jason S, Bas Kohler, Roger Griffis, Margaret M (Peg) Brady, Shin-Ichi Ito, Véronique Garçon, Anne Hollowed, Manuel Barange, Robin Brown, and Wojciech Wawrzynski. “A Graphic Novel from the 4th International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans.” ICES Journal of Marine Science 76, no. 5 (September 1, 2019): 1221–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsy155.
- University, Stanford. “How Graphic Novels Can Accelerate Critical Thinking.” Stanford News (blog), February 10, 2022. https://news.stanford.edu/2022/02/10/graphic-novels-can-accelerate-critical-thinking-capture-nuance-complexity-history/.
*source for image above
Our Collection (updated Feb. 2022)
Aquaman Vol. 1: Unspoken Water by 
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Call Number: PN6728 .A68 D46 2019ISBN: 9781401292478Publication Date: 2019-08-13He's lost his kingdom. He's lost his memory. He may even have lost his mind. He is Arthur Curry, the Lord of Atlantis, a founding member of the Justice League...and he has no idea where he is, how he got there...or how to escape. The maritime monarch has washed up on the shore of a remote island where nothing is as it seems. In the mysterious town of Unspoken Water, the people fear the wrathful sea. Aquaman befriends an enigmatic young villager named Caille--but he dreams of a redheaded woman with whom he shares an unbreakable bond. But even as his queen Mera attempts to locate the amnesiac Arthur, a new enemy is rising out of the depths... A new era for the Sea King begins in Aquaman Vol. 1- Unspoken Water!
Barefoot Gen by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6790 .J33 N3313 2016 V.1ISBN: 9780867198317Publication Date: 2016-10-15Barefoot Gen is the powerful, tragic, autobiographical story of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath, seen through the eyes of the artist as a young boy growing up in Japan. The honest portrayal of emotions and experiences speaks to children and adults everywhere. Nakazawa's manga illustrates the true impact of nuclear weapons when used against a civilian population. It is vital reading for people of all ages, and especially for today's youth. Barefoot Gen Volume One -"A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima" - details the events leading up to and immediately following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Beast That Ate the Earth by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: NC1479 .M16 A4 2004ISBN: 9780954855109Publication Date: 2004-12-01Madden presents humorous, thought-provoking cartoons about the environmental dilemmas facing the world in the 21st century.
The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: QC903 .K54 2014ISBN: 9781610914383Publication Date: 2014-06-05Climate change is no laughing matter-but maybe it should be. The topic is so critical that everyone, from students to policy-makers to voters, needs a quick and easy guide to the basics. The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change entertains as it educates, delivering a unique and enjoyable presentation of mind-blowing facts and critical concepts. "Stand-up economist" Yoram Bauman and award-winning illustrator Grady Klein have created the funniest overview of climate science, predictions, and policy that you'll ever read. You'll giggle, but you'll also learn-about everything from Milankovitch cycles to carbon taxes. If those subjects sound daunting, consider that Bauman and Klein have already written two enormously successful cartoon guides to economics, making this notoriously dismal science accessible to countless readers. This cartoon introduction is based on the latest report from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and integrates Bauman's expertise on economics and policy. If economics can be funny, then climate science can be a riot. Sociologists have argued that we don't address global warming because it's too big and frightening to get our heads around. The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change takes the intimidation and gloom out of one of the most complex and hotly debated challenges of our time.
Climate Changed by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: QC903 .S6813 2014ISBN: 9781419712555Publication Date: 2014-04-08What are the causes and consequences of climate change? When the scale is so big, can an individual make any difference? Documentary, diary, and masterwork graphic novel, this up-to-date look at our planet and how we live on it explains what global warming is all about. With the most complicated concepts made clear in a feat of investigative journalism by artist Philippe Squarzoni, Climate Changed weaves together scientific research, extensive interviews with experts, and a call for action.
Cranky Uncle vs Climate Change by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: QC903 .C6655 2020ISBN: 9780806540276Publication Date: 2020-02-25We all have a family member who thinks they know better than the world's climate scientists. Cranky Uncle Vs Climate Change delves into the psychology of why some people reject climate science, dissects the typical arguments your 'cranky uncle' might use at family gatherings, and outlines how to respond to climate science denial. Guided by psychological research into how to communicate science and how to refute misinformation, Cranky Uncle embraces a creative approach, using cartoons and visual analogies to make the facts engaging and accessible to readers.
Dengue by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781594651212Publication Date: 2015-07-29In the not too distant future, thanks to global warming, Montevideo is a city is under siege from swarms of mosquitoes and the deadly dengue fever they carry. As the diseased bodies pile up in the streets, pragmatic Police Sergent Pronzini must solve the murder of an esteemed entomologist in order to unlock the genetic code of a third type of dengue infection that may just change the face of humanity forever. This low-key sci-fi detective thriller examines crucial topics such as climate change, civil rights, governmental cover-ups and deadly epidemics.
Forecast by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6700 .N69 2008ISBN: 9781568987934Publication Date: 2008-08-04Conspiracy theories, pending Ice Ages, potential revolutions, viral epidemics, and other doomsday prophecies: whereveryou look--from the cover of Time magazine to the weird weather outside your window--the message seems universal: the Earth our children inherit will certainly be nothing like the one we currently inhabit. UN reports and newspaper articles are illustrated with dry charts and graphs predicting technological, economic, and ecological transformations that are already dramatically altering the way we live. Forecast revisualizes these abstractions about everything from our environment to our waistlines, from the stock market to the Middle East through the eyes of cartoonists and graphic designers who have made comics with a conscience. Ultimately, Forecast is an optimistic book: using humor, it encourages all of us to take responsibility for predictions of the future and to take action to affect change. Forecast is the latest installment of Nozone.
IDP - 2043 by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6738 .I47 B37 2014ISBN: 9781908754639Publication Date: 2014-11-01An environmentally-themed graphic novel brings together a dream-team of European artists and writers--including Denise Mina and Irvine Welsh--to imagine Scotland in 30 years. A graphic novel in collaboration with the Edinburgh International Book Festival to mark its 30th anniversary, IDP (short for "internally displaced person or persons") imagines a Scotland 30 years in the future. Six teams of major names in European comics and graphics novels collaborate on a single narrative. The story, a single narrative divided into six chapters, follows the catastrophic effects of a small rise in sea levels on the county's heavily populated low lying areas and how society reimagines itself in the face of a huge population shift in a world of scarce resources.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 4 by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PL856 .I8759 K39 2004 V.1ISBN: 9781591163527Publication Date: 2004-05-05An epic fantasy tale written and illustrated by the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki! In a long-ago war, humankind set off a devastating ecological disaster. Thriving indistrial societies disappeared. The earth is slowly submerging beneath the expanding Sea of Corruption, an enormous toxic forest that creates mutant insects and releases a miasma of poisonous spores into the air. At the periphery of the sea, tiny kingdoms are scattered on tiny parcels of land. Here lies the Valley of the Wind, a kingdom of barely 500 citizens; a nation given fragile protection from the decaying sea's poisons by the ocean breezes; and home to Nausicaä.
Ocean by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6727 .E448 O74 2006ISBN: 9781401208493Publication Date: 2005-12-01Lying beneath Europa's (Jupiter's moon) half-mile-thick mantle of shear ice is the only ocean in the solar system besides those on Earth. And within those cold waters could rest the key to life on Earth — and quite possibly its extinction! It's the job of U.N. weapons inspector Nathan Kane to learn what sort of beings lie under the icy dome. But he's about to encounter resistance of the violent kind from the staff manning Earth's outpost on Europa -- and he'll like what happens even less when the long-slumbering aliens begin to awaken!
Oil and Water by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: GC1221 .D85 2011ISBN: 9781606994924Publication Date: 2011-12-05When ten Oregonians travel to the Gulf Coast in August 2010 to plumb the devastation wrought by the Deepwater Horizon spill, they discover that "Oil and Water" is just the first of the insoluble contradictions. Between the tarred sands of Grand Isle and the fouled waters of the Louisiana bayou, they come to find out that Gulf Coast residents are economically dependent upon the very industry that is wreaking havoc on their environment. In the shadow of the greatest ecological disaster of our time, they are forced to reassess their roles as witness, critic and environmental steward.
The Rime of the Modern Mariner by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6738 .R56 H39 2012ISBN: 9780670025800Publication Date: 2012-10-25An extraordinary, timely update on the classic Coleridge poem. Is it possible to update a masterpiece? Only, perhaps, with a brand-new masterpiece. Written in 1797, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was the original eco-fable; drawn in 2010, The Rime of the Modern Mariner is a graphic novel, now set in the cesspool of the North Atlantic Garbage Patch--thus adding a timely and resonant message about the destruction of our seas. Hayes's visually striking debut is drawn with complex, iconic images reminiscent of old woodcuts. Emerging from every exquisite page are the poem's enduring themes: compassion for nature, a sense of connection among all living things, and rightful outrage at man's thoughtless destruction of the environment. Powerful and evocative, lush and stark, The Rime of the Modern Mariner will appeal to fans of Habibi and Persepolis.
The Sea by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6790 .D43 V5513 2018ISBN: 9781683961499Publication Date: 2019-01-15Told in expressive pencil drawings, provocative symbolism, and a madness that doesn't just bubble beneath the surface of the water, but drenches the sailor--and the reader--like a tidal wave, this story is about a man, literally and figuratively, lost at sea.
Slow Death Zero by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6727 .S5369 2020ISBN: 9780867198836Publication Date: 2021-04-01Inspired by the ecological advocacy of the original title, which debuted on the very first Earth Day in 1970, this edition features horrifying tales depicting the environmental calamity facing our world in this time of climate change. The book is headlined by a savage depiction of the implications of the melting polar ice cap in Antarctica, by award-winning cartoonist/illustrator William Stout, who provides the cover.
Snowpiercer: Prequel 2, the Apocalypse by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6748 .T73 M3813 2020ISBN: 9781787730328Publication Date: 2020-11-17The Snowpiercer saga continues with this brand new story by original artist Jean-Marc Rochette and Eisner nominated writer, Matz. After the extinction event that caused the new ice age, the train Snowpiercer travels perpetually around the globe, with the last survivors of humanity learning to come to terms with their new reality.
Spill Zone by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6727 .W435 S65 2017ISBN: 9781596439368Publication Date: 2017-05-02Three years ago an event destroyed the small city of Poughkeepsie, forever changing reality within its borders. Uncanny manifestations and lethal dangers now await anyone who enters the Spill Zone.The Spill claimed Addison's parents and scarred her little sister, Lexa, who hasn't spoken since. Addison provides for her sister by photographing the Zone's twisted attractions on illicit midnight rides. Art collectors pay top dollar for these bizarre images, but getting close enough for the perfect shot can mean death--or worse. When an eccentric collector makes a million-dollar offer, Addison breaks her own hard-learned rules of survival and ventures farther than she has ever dared. Within the Spill Zone, Hell awaits--and it seems to be calling Addison's name.
Thunder and Lightning by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: QC981 .R44 2015 FISBN: 9780812993172Publication Date: 2015-10-27Weather is the very air we breathe—it shapes our daily lives and alters the course of history. In Thunder & Lightning, Lauren Redniss tells the story of weather and humankind through the ages. This wide-ranging work roams from the driest desert on earth to a frigid island in the Arctic, from the Biblical flood to the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Redniss visits the headquarters of the National Weather Service, recounts top-secret rainmaking operations during the Vietnam War, and examines the economic impact of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Drawing on extensive research and countless interviews, she examines our own day and age, from our most personal decisions—Do I need an umbrella today?—to the awesome challenges we face with global climate change.
Trashed by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6727 .D466 T73 2015ISBN: 9781419714535Publication Date: 2015-11-03Every week we pile our garbage on the curb and it disappears--like magic! The reality is anything but, of course. Trashed follows the raucous escapades of three 20-something friends as they clean the streets of pile after pile of stinking garbage, while battling annoying small-town bureaucrats, bizarre townfolk, sweltering summer heat, and frigid winter storms. Trashed is fiction, but is inspired by Derf's own experiences as a garbageman. Interspersed are nonfiction pages that detail what our garbage is and where it goes. The answers will stun you. Hop on the garbage truck named Betty and ride along with Derf on a journey into the vast, secret world of garbage. Trashed is a hilarious, stomach-churning tale that will leave you laughing and wincing in disbelief.
World Without Fish by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: SH329 .O94 K87 2011ISBN: 9780761185000Publication Date: 2014-11-04Almost fifty years ago, Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" awakened the consciousness of an entire generation by bringing to light the harmful effects of DDT and other toxic chemicals; she forever changed the way people view the natural world. In "The World Without Fish", bestselling author Mark Kurlansky issues a similar call to action to kids ages 10 and up - the next generation to inherit the earth - by outlining what will happen within the next fifty years if the ill effects of over-fishing, pollution, and climate change aren't addressed soon. In clear language that kids will understand, Kurlansky gives a step-by-step account of what would happen if fish became extinct - and then outlines a plan for remedying the situation.
Xoc: the Journey of a Great White by - This link opens in a new window
Call Number: PN6727 .D445 X63 2012ISBN: 9781934964859Publication Date: 2012-08-21Xoc explores the ocean's wonders through the eyes of a greatwhite as it treks from the Farallon Islands off the coast of California to thewarm waters of Hawaii some 2,300 miles away. Along its journey, the 17-footshark encounters natural prey and predators -- from skittish seals tobrazen orcas -- as well as man-made impediments that threaten not only thegiant fish, but the balance of ocean's ecology.
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Donald Kohrs
Harold A. Miller Library at Hopkins Marine Station
Stanford University
120 Oceanview Blvd, Pacific Grove, CA 93950
Donald Kohrs
Harold A. Miller Library at Hopkins Marine Station
Stanford University
120 Oceanview Blvd, Pacific Grove, CA 93950
831-655-6229