Banned Graphic Novels

Maus by Art Spiegelman. In January 2022, the McMinn County, Tennessee school board voted unanimously to remove it from the eighth-grade curriculum. Board members objected to a handful of curse words and a small drawing of a nude woman, which is Spiegelman's mother in the bathtub after her suicide. Critics pointed out that the board was cutting a Holocaust memoir over a few words, and the controversy pushed the book back onto bestseller lists.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. In 2013, Chicago Public Schools ordered it pulled from classrooms over images of torture from the Iranian Revolution. After public backlash, the district limited it to older grades instead. When it reached ALA's 2014 list, the reasons cited included gambling, offensive language, and political viewpoint, along with claims it was "politically, racially, and socially offensive", which is a lot to pin on a memoir about growing up under a theocracy.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. This memoir follows Kobabe's coming to terms with a nonbinary and asexual identity. Challengers focus on a few sexually explicit illustrations and on the LGBTQ subject matter itself. It was the most challenged book of 2022, the second straight year it topped ALA's list, and it was the center of a 2022 Virginia Beach obscenity case that a judge dismissed.

Flamer by Mike Curato. This semi-autobiographical story follows a gay teen at a scout camp in 1995 who deals with bullying, his faith, and suicidal thoughts. It's challenged for LGBTQ content and a scene with sexual references. In PEN America's tracking it tied with Gender Queer as the most banned title.

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. In 2015, a student at Crafton Hills College in California objected to its use in an English course, along with Persepolis, Fun Home, and Y: The Last Man. She called the assigned books pornographic and violent. The college kept the books but added a content warning to the syllabus.

Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore. Both have drawn library challenges. For Watchmen, the objections are sexual content, including an attempted rape scene, plus nudity and violence. For Killing Joke, they center on the shooting of Barbara Gordon and the implied sexual assault around it. Both books also come up regularly in the debate over whether "adult" shelving is enough.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. It was No. 6 on ALA's 2014 list, with reasons that included nudity, offensive language, sexual explicitness, being "anti-family," and being unsuited for its age group. It had already been at the center of a 2013 dustup when ComiXology held back issue #12 from Apple's app store over small images of gay sex, then reversed course.

Tank Girl by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. A librarian at Indiana's Hammond Public Library challenged it in 2009. It's a punk, anti-authority comic with crude humor, violence, and sexual content, so the challenge surprised no one, least of all the creators.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. This memoir covers Bechdel's coming out and her closeted father's probable suicide. In 2006, a Missouri public library pulled it alongside Blankets over sexual images. In 2014, South Carolina legislators cut funding to the College of Charleston for assigning it, and in 2015 some Duke freshmen refused to read it on moral and religious grounds.

Blankets by Craig Thompson. It was challenged in that same 2006 Missouri case for nudity and a sexual scene between the teenage leads. Its frank treatment of a strict evangelical upbringing has also made some religious readers uncomfortable.

Bone by Jeff Smith. Schools from New Jersey to Texas have challenged it because it depicts smoking and drinking. It made ALA's 2013 Top 10 list, where challengers also cited political viewpoint, racism, and violence. That's a heavy charge sheet for a book about cartoon cousins fleeing rat creatures.

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey. It was ALA's most challenged book in 2012 and 2013 for offensive language, violence, and being unsuited for its age group. In practice, that mostly meant potty humor and kids defying authority. A later installment drew new challenges in 2018 because it revealed that Harold grows up to marry a man.

Drama by Raina Telgemeier. This story about middle school theater kids has been challenged repeatedly for LGBTQ characters, mostly over a scene where two boys kiss. Some challengers labeled that scene "sexually explicit," which it is not.

This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. It was ALA's most challenged book of 2016, cited for LGBTQ characters, drug use, profanity, and mature themes. Part of the problem was shelving: after it won a Caldecott Honor, a children's book award, some libraries placed it in the kids' section, even though it was written for teens.

New Kid by Jerry Craft. In 2021, a parent petition in Katy, Texas accused it of promoting critical race theory. The district postponed Craft's author visit and temporarily pulled the book, then reinstated it after review. The book is about a Black kid navigating a mostly white private school, and it was the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal.

Go With the Flow by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann. It was banned in Keller, Texas in 2021, the year after it came out. It's about a group of high school girls pushing their school to stock period products, so in effect it was banned for treating menstruation as a normal thing.