City of Glass
(Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, 1994)
“The quintessential New York graphic novel,” says author David Heatley of this Paul Auster adaptation, and comics creators from across the artistic spectrum agree. “I never really looked at the planted medians in the middle of Broadway until I saw Mazzucchelli’s beautiful black-and-white panels of them,” says cartoonist Jessica Abel.

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Best of the Rest

Bob Fingerman, Beg the Question:
Stop Forgetting to Remember (Peter Kuper, 2007)
“Sex, drugs, and the stark contrast between the birth of one’s child and the death of a city landmark.”

Jimmy Palmiotti, Jonah Hex:
Marvel Team-Up #79 (Chris Claremont and John Byrne, 1979)
“Trouble at the Met, Spidey swinging up Fifth Avenue, and a magic amulet thrown off the Staten Island Ferry!”

Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man:
DMZ (Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, ongoing)
“No series feels more like home than this futuristic take on a New York under siege.”

Dash Shaw, Bottomless Belly Button:
Amy and Jordan (Mark Beyer, 2004)
“Beyer’s seminal strip is a terrifying New York of the mind.”

Alex Zalben host, “Comic Book Club” at the People’s Improv Theater:
Box Office Poison (Alex Robinson, 2001)
“No other comic better captures living in New York in your twenties.”

K. Thor Jensen, Red Eye, Black Eye:
My New York Diary (Julie Doucet, 1999)
“Doucet’s rubbery, character-filled drawings perfectly evoke late-eighties Washington Heights.”

Keith Mayerson, comics professor, SVA:
Will Eisner’s New York: Life in the Big City (Will Eisner, 2006)
“Classic stories of humans versus city-as-machine, by the comic-story master.”

Miriam Katin, We Are on Our Own:
Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer (Ben Katchor, 1996)
“I love the pace, and the melancholy for the city that is changing, dying, and living every minute.”

Stan Lee, Marvel chairman emeritus and master self-promoter:
Fantastic Four #1 (Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, 1961)
“These stories were our tribute to the Big Apple.”

Related:

• Archive: “Book Features”
• Articles by Dan Kois
• Table of Contents: Mar 9, 2009 issue of New York | Subscribe!