Obviously Jack Kirby is the greatest comic book artist of all time, but most will agree he’s also one of the medium’s greatest writers. He wrote the way he drew: Big and loud and primal, but with a surprising amount of intricacy and nuance waiting to be discovered amid the crackling explosions. We’ve put together a list of the ten essential stories that you should read if you want to get more familiar with the King.

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Marjane Satrapi’s incredible work Persepolis focuses on the experiences of a young Marji and her family growing up during the Iranian Revolution. The Revolution caused many changes to the relatively peaceful Iran of Marji’s youth, including gender segregation, the abolition of secular education, and the strict enforcement of sharia law.

In Persepolis, Marji becomes increasingly rebellious, wearing denim jackets emblazoned with “punk rock,” and going to the black market to buy illegal copies of popular music. It became illegal for women to dance in public, or for men and women to dance together; listening to Western popular music and getting her dance on was a way for Marji to rebel.  Read more... (489 words, 8 images, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Comic books are just fantastic, and we here at ComicsAlliance really believe that. While the name “ComicsAlliance” might have stopped making sense as a phrase and just become the name of the website around six or seven years ago now, it’s something we strive for in how we cover and represent the comics and communities we feature. Comics bring us together, and things that bring us together should be celebrated. With that in mind, we asked our staff why they love comics, and while it’s a broad question, there’s something in each answer worth thinking about.  Read more... (267 words, 2 images, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

Originally released in 2015, Pierrick Colinet and Elsa Charretier’s The Infinite Loop is one of those amazing stories that uses a wild sci-fi premise to cut straight to the humanity of its characters. It centers on Teddy, a time traveler responsible for erasing anomalies that result form other time travelers meddling with history, and she’s very good at her job. When she discovers a “human-shaped anomaly” in the form of a beautiful woman, though, she begins to question whether a timestream without a person she’s falling in love with is one that’s worth saving.  Read more... (357 words, 3 images, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)