Comics & graphic novels, fantasy book series in reading order

by Bill Willingham

by Bill Willingham

by Phil Foglio

Neil Gaiman

199 books• 41 series

Neil Gaiman, born Neil Richard Gaiman on 10 November 1960, is an English writer of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre and screenplays. The Sandman comic series ran from 1989 to 1996, and the novels include Stardust (1999), American Gods (2001), Coraline (2002), Anansi Boys (2005) and The Graveyard Book (2008). The Graveyard Book made Gaiman the first author to win both the Newbery and Carnegie medals for one work, and other awards include the Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker. Gaiman co-created the television adaptations of Good Omens and The Sandman. The catalogue runs from Duran Duran (1984) to The Silver Age (2024) and includes Sandman and Death graphic novels and children's books.

Bill Willingham, born William Willingham in 1956, is an American comics writer and artist known for work on Elementals and Fables. The catalogue lists 69 books from Ironwood, Vol. 1 (1993) to Fables: No More Happily Ever After (2026). Other titles include Legends in Exile (2002), Animal Farm (2003), Storybook Love (2004) and March of the Wooden Soldiers (2004). Willingham's other series include Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Shadowpact, Ironwood, Bill Willingham's Pantheon, Warriors Three and Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham. Subjects include fantasy comics, fairy tales and legends. Down the Mysterly River (2001) also appears in the catalogue.

Mike Carey

109 books• 30 series

Mike Carey, born in 1959, is a British writer of comics, novels and films who also uses the pen name M. R. Carey. Carey's credits include Lucifer, a spin-off from The Sandman; three years on Hellblazer; Crossing Midnight and The Unwritten for DC's Vertigo imprint; an extended stint on Marvel's X-Men; and the 2014 novel The Girl with All the Gifts, adapted for film in 2016. The catalogue lists 109 books from 2000 to 2025, with series including Felix Castor, X-Men Legacy, Suicide Risk and Rampart Trilogy.

Gene Luen Yang

72 books• 18 series

American cartoonist and author Gene Luen Yang was born on August 9, 1973. Yang taught computer science and directed information services at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, California, joined Hamline University's MFA program in writing for children and young adults in 2012, and was named the Library of Congress's Ambassador for Young People's Literature in 2016. The catalogue lists 72 books from Rosary Comic Book (2003) to The Books of Clash Volume 8 (2026), including American Born Chinese (2006), The Eternal Smile (2009) and Level Up (2011). Series include Secret Coders, Boxers & Saints, Shadow Hero, Shang-Chi, New Super-Man and Monkey Prince. Magdalene Visaggio and Greg Hahn each share credit on 2 books, and Dan Watters and Phillip Kennedy Johnson on 1 each.

Peter David

272 books• 94 series

Peter David (September 23, 1956 – May 24, 2025), often called PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films and video games. A 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk won awards, and other comics runs include Aquaman, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Captain Marvel, X-Factor, Young Justice, SpyBoy and Spider-Man 2099. Star Trek: New Frontier is among David's Star Trek novels. Original series include Knight Life and Apropos of Nothing. The catalogue lists 272 books, beginning in 1984 with Picture Perfect, High Society and Sapphire Star.

R.A. Salvatore

133 books• 34 series

Robert Anthony Salvatore, published as R.A. Salvatore, is an American fantasy writer born on January 20, 1959. The Legend of Drizzt, set in the Forgotten Realms and starring Drizzt Do'Urden, is the work Salvatore is chiefly known for. Other work includes The DemonWars Saga, a high fantasy series, and Vector Prime, the first novel in Star Wars: The New Jedi Order. The catalogue counts 134 books, starting with The Crystal Shard (1988); Witch of Whispervale (2025) is the newest, and Fat Rabbit is listed for 2027. US sales exceed 15 million copies, and 22 Salvatore titles have been New York Times best-sellers.

George R.R. Martin

90 books• 19 series

George R.R. Martin, born George Raymond Martin on September 20, 1948 and known by the initials GRRM, is an American author, screenwriter and television producer. A Song of Ice and Fire, the epic fantasy series adapted by HBO as Game of Thrones (2011–2019) and the prequel House of the Dragon, is Martin's best-known work; the related Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas became A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The catalogue begins in 1976 with A Song for Lya, Starlady and Fast-Friend and The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr, followed by Dying of the Light (1977), Sandkings and Windhaven (1981), and Fevre Dream (1982). Science fiction, fantasy and short stories appear among the subjects.

Erik Larsen

39 books• 11 series

Erik Larsen, born Erik J. Larsen on December 8, 1962, is an American comic book artist, writer and publisher who serves as chief financial officer of Image Comics. Larsen drew attention in the early 1990s with art on Marvel's Spider-Man titles, then in 1992 left Marvel with several other artists to found Image Comics. At Image, Larsen launched Savage Dragon, one of the longest-running creator-owned superhero comics, and spent several years as the company's publisher. Collected editions such as Savage Dragon, Vol. 1 (1993) through Savage Dragon, Vol. 7 (2001) appear in the catalogue, which also files other comics collections under the Larsen name.

Robert Kirkman

181 books• 31 series

Robert Kirkman, born 30 November 1978, is an American comic book writer, screenwriter and producer. Kirkman co-created The Walking Dead, Invincible, Tech Jacket, Outcast, Oblivion Song and Fire Power for Image Comics, wrote Ultimate X-Men, Irredeemable Ant-Man and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics, and worked with Todd McFarlane on Haunt. Kirkman is one of the five partners of Image Comics and serves as its COO. The catalogue gathers 181 volumes published between 2001 and 2026, listed as graphic novel and omnibus collections, from Battle Pope, Vol. 1: Genesis (2001) to The Emissary (2026). Charlie Adlard shares the credit on 2 volumes and Sean Phillips on 1.

Frank Beddor

13 books• 2 series

Frank Beddor, born July 31, 1958, is an American former world champion freestyle skier who has also worked as a film producer, actor and stuntman. Beddor's producing credits include There's Something About Mary and Wicked. As an author, Beddor wrote The Looking Glass Wars (2004), and the catalogue lists 13 books to 2017 across the Looking Glass Wars and Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars series. Subjects include fantasy, dystopias and graphic novels.

Comics and graphic novels make up the catalogue credited to Noelle Stevenson, who also appears as N.D. Stevenson. Lumberjanes accounts for most of the run, and the listing credits Grace Ellis on 7 volumes and Shannon Watters on 6 alongside Stevenson, with Kat Leyh and Faith Erin Hicks also named. Recorded subjects include teenage girls, summer camp, monsters, female friendship and fantasy comics. Nimona (2020) and the Scarlet Morning series sit alongside the Lumberjanes books. The catalogue holds 11 titles and runs from 2014 to 2025.

Robert Jordan

43 books• 8 series

Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney Jr. (17 October 1948 to 16 September 2007), an American writer of epic fantasy who used several pen names for different genres. The Wheel of Time, 14 books plus a prequel novel, has sold 90 million copies and ranks among the highest-selling book series. Earlier in the career, Jordan was one of several writers of original Conan the Barbarian novels. The catalogue opens with The Fallon Blood (1980), followed by The Fallon Pride (1981), and Conan titles such as Conan the Invincible (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984) appear in the early years. Jordan series also include Fallon.

Margaret Weis

109 books• 34 series

Margaret Edith Weis, born March 16, 1948, is an American fantasy and science fiction author who, with Tracy Hickman at TSR, Inc., created the Dragonlance role-playing game world. Weis founded Sovereign Press and Margaret Weis Productions, which license television and film franchises for role-playing games. Pyramid magazine named Weis one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons in 1999, and the Origins Hall of Fame inducted Weis in 2002. Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984) is among the catalogued titles, and series include Death Gate Cycle, Darksword and Star Of The Guardians.

Fred Van Lente writes comics, with subjects spanning superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, Conan, humour and philosophy. Series credited to Van Lente include Action Philosophers, Action Presidents, Archer & Armstrong (2012), Wolverine: First Class, Ivar, Timewalker, Brain Boy, Z Nation and Assassin's Creed: Templars. Action Philosophers! Giant-Sized Thing, Vol. 1 and Untold Tales of the New Universe date from 2006, and Bloodshot (2025) is the newest listing. Stuart Moore shares the credit on 2 titles.

Jeff Grubb, born 27 August 1957, is an American writer of novels, short stories and comics who also designs computer and role-playing games in the fantasy field. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance setting under Tracy Hickman and on Forgotten Realms alongside Ed Greenwood. The catalogue holds 28 books running from Dragons of Light (1985) to a Forgotten Realms Classics omnibus in 2014. Series headings are Finder's Stone, Oriental Adventures, Dungeons & Dragons Classics and the Magic: The Gathering Ice Age Cycle. Kate Novak is credited beside Grubb on 3 of the books.

Fritz Leiber

88 books• 4 series

Fritz Leiber was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction, and a Hugo Award winner. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser is the signature creation, a fantasy adventure pairing with a graphic novel line of its own. Ninety-four titles are catalogued from 1943 to 2024, opening with Conjure Wife (1943) and Gather, Darkness! (1943), and taking in the Change War stories and several short fiction collections.

Dan Abnett

224 books• 95 series

Dan Abnett, born 12 October 1965, is an English novelist and comic book writer. Abnett has written for Marvel Comics and its UK imprint Marvel UK since the 1990s, for 2000 AD and for DC Comics, often in partnership with Andy Lanning. Abnett's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 novels and graphic novels for Games Workshop's Black Library number several dozen and have sold more than two million copies. Abnett's first original novels came from Angry Robot in 2009. The catalogue lists 224 books from Uther, the Half Dead King (1993) to Legends of the Waaagh! (2026), across series such as Gaunt's Ghosts, Eisenhorn, Ravenor, Guardians of the Galaxy and Aquaman graphic novels.

Charles Soule

89 books• 22 series

Charles Soule is an American comic book writer, novelist, musician and attorney. Soule is best known for Daredevil, She-Hulk, Death of Wolverine and Star Wars books and comics from Del Rey Books and Marvel Comics, and for the creator-owned series Letter 44, Curse Words and Undiscovered Country, the last co-written with Scott Snyder. Soule co-created the characters Ren, Blindspot, Inferno and Lash. Harper Perennial published the debut novel The Oracle Year on April 3, 2018, and Anyone on December 3, 2019. The catalogue lists 89 books, from 27, Volume 1 (2011) to Trials of the Jedi (2025), with series such as Inhuman, Astonishing X-Men and Star Wars: Poe Dameron.

Michael Dante DiMartino

33 books• 8 series

Michael Dante DiMartino, born in 1974, is an American animator, producer, writer and director, best known as co-creator with Bryan Konietzko of the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. The catalogue lists 33 books dated 2006 to 2026, largely tied to those two shows: Avatar: The Last Airbender comics, Legend of Korra comics and art volumes for the animated series. Comics and graphic novels, fantasy, magic, adventure and heroes head the recorded subjects, and Chronicles of the Avatar is the character grouping on file.

Stephen King

223 books• 25 series

Horror fiction is the field most closely tied to Stephen King, an American author born on September 21, 1947, and nicknamed the "King of Horror". King's work also reaches into suspense, crime, science fiction, fantasy and mystery, and includes roughly 200 short stories, most later gathered in collections. Carrie (1974) was the debut that set King in horror; Different Seasons (1982), four novellas in one volume, marked the first major step outside it. The catalogue lists 223 books from 1971 to 2026, starting with The Blue Air Compressor, a short story, and reaching Other Worlds Than These (2026). Series on file include Holly Gibney, the Bill Hodges Trilogy, Green Mile, Shining and Talisman.

Christian mystery, thriller and fantasy novels make up the work of Ted Dekker, an American author born October 24, 1962, whose name is stylised TED DEKkER. Thr3e, Obsessed and the Circle Series are named in the sourced record. The catalogue holds 66 Dekker books from Heaven's Wager (2000) to Play Dead (2021), including Black, Red and White (all 2004). Listed series include Books Of Mortals, Martyr's Song, Paradise, Dream Traveler's Quest and A.D. No new title is recorded after 2021, so the catalogue lists Dekker as dormant.

Alex Grecian is an American writer of novels, short fiction and comics. Grecian's 20 catalogued books open with Seven Sons (2006) and run to The Boatman (2026), covering historical detective fiction built on the London police alongside the Proof and Rasputin graphic novels. Scotland Yard's Murder Squad is the sequence Grecian is known for, beginning with The Yard (2012) and taking in The Black Country (2013) and The Blue Girl (2013). The Yard drew Strand Award and Barry Award nominations for a first novel, and The Black Country a Dilys Award nomination.

Michael Moorcock

160 books• 29 series

Michael John Moorcock, born 18 December 1939, is an English writer who started in science fiction and fantasy and later produced literary novels, comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. Moorcock has also worked as an editor and a musician. The Elric of Melniboné novels shaped the fantasy field in the 1960s and 1970s. Other series include Jerry Cornelius, Eternal Champion, Corum, Runestaff/Hawkmoon, Von Bek Family and Colonel Pyat Quartet. The catalogue runs from The Sundered Worlds / The Blood Red Game (1962) to The Wounds of Albion (2026).

Greg Rucka

105 books• 35 series

Greg Rucka, born November 29, 1969, is an American novelist and comics writer. The Atticus Kodiak novels carry Rucka's name, as do the creator-owned comics Whiteout, Queen & Country, Stumptown and Lazarus. For DC Comics, Rucka wrote long runs on Detective Comics, Wonder Woman and Gotham Central, and co-created Kate Kane, the second Batwoman; the Marvel work includes Elektra, Wolverine and The Punisher. Crossover material by Rucka includes No Man's Land, Infinite Crisis and New Krypton. The catalogue lists 106 titles from 1994 onward, with Keeper (1996) and Whiteout (1998) among the early entries and a Batwoman collection scheduled for 2027.