Graphic novels selection autumn 2025

War seems to be all around us. Luckily, there are also many ways to combat the sense of despair that can accompany such times.

• In Koenraad Tinel’s adaptation of a novella by Thomas Mann, we feel the rise of fascism, while Joris Vermassen tells us a story about the First World War, showing that only beauty can save us.
• In a way, the same message is carried by Ben Gijsemans, who invites us to rediscover a sense of wonder, and by Inge Bogaerts, who shows children that creativity, music and art can act as an antidote to negativity.

Discover more about these four wonderfully apt books.

A young family goes on holiday to Italy and feels distinctly unwelcome there. The prospect of a conjuring show promises a welcome light-hearted distraction. But the magician turns out to be a hypnotist who takes a wicked pleasure in getting people to dance to his tune, with tragic consequences. Tinel makes tangible the discomfort and disquiet that are deeply embedded in Mann’s story. With the masses swept up despite themselves and the manipulator smirking as he pulls the strings, ‘Mario and the Magician’ echoes not just the rise of fascism but the present day as well. 

Gardener Alois is called to arms in the summer of 1914. As time goes on, he becomes more and more conflicted, about what good is, who God is, and who he is himself. In this voluminous tale in soft greys and browns, Joris Vermassen stresses the importance of beauty and love in all their forms, against the background of the hell of the First World War. With drawings that are as restrained and modest as the central character, ‘Soldier-Gardener’ is a nuanced portrait of a man and a world in crisis.

A famous ornithologist is firmly attached to the certainties of life, until he sees a bird he doesn’t yet know, and everything is suddenly up in the air. The solid ground under his feet falls away – or is this his chance to look at life with fresh eyes? ‘The Nameless Bird’ is a moving story about an adult who rediscovers his childlike sense of wonder.

Little elf Selfie and the five Gompies hear an unfamiliar sound in the forest: something keeps saying ‘oink’. The little blue animal with one ear and lilac eyes looks sad and lost. But they can’t make head or tail of its oinking language. This cheerful adventure story is full of magic and of comical chaos in which the reader becomes thoroughly immersed. A colourful fairy-tale book, it’s also an ode to stories, to nature and to the arts as an antidote to heartlessness.