50/50 Friday (76): Best/Worst Graphic Novel/Manga You've Read

50/50 Friday is a meme hosted by Carrie @The Butterfly Reads and I and focuses on the opposite sides of books (best/worst, differing opinions, etc).  Every week will have a new topic and several advance topics will be listed in the tab labeled 50/50 Friday!

Today's Topic: Best/Worst Graphic Novel/Manga You've Read

Best:

I'm only going to do a 'best' because I haven't read that many graphic novels and the ones I have read have been pretty good (or I can't remember anything about them...).

Vietnamerica - GB Tran

Standalone to date

Blurb:

"A superb new graphic memoir in which an inspired artist/storyteller reveals the road that brought his family to where they are today: Vietnamerica  
GB Tran is a young Vietnamese American artist who grew up distant from (and largely indifferent to) his family’s history. Born and raised in South Carolina as a son of immigrants, he knew that his parents had fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. But even as they struggled to adapt to life in America, they preferred to forget the past—and to focus on their children’s future. It was only in his late twenties that GB began to learn their extraordinary story. When his last surviving grandparents die within months of each other, GB visits Vietnam for the first time and begins to learn the tragic history of his family, and of the homeland they left behind.

In this family saga played out in the shadow of history, GB uncovers the root of his father’s remoteness and why his mother had remained in an often fractious marriage; why his grandfather had abandoned his own family to fight for the Viet Cong; why his grandmother had had an affair with a French soldier. GB learns that his parents had taken harrowing flight from Saigon during the final hours of the war not because they thought America was better but because they were afraid of what would happen if they stayed. They entered America—a foreign land they couldn’t even imagine—where family connections dissolved and shared history was lost within a span of a single generation.

In telling his family’s story, GB finds his own place in this saga of hardship and heroism. Vietnamerica is a visually stunning portrait of survival, escape, and reinvention—and of the gift of the American immigrants’ dream, passed on to their children. Vietnamerica is an unforgettable story of family revelation and reconnection—and a new graphic-memoir classic."

I absolutely loved this.  It documents the life of GB Tran's family (nonfiction) and their experiences in Vietnam.  I just read this about a month ago and while I don't have really any experience with graphic novels, I have to say, it was incredibly well done.  The timeline is a little wonky, but if you're good at keeping track of people as they age, you'll do just fine.  Also, there's a key at the front which is incredibly helpful and I only found it once I finished the book.  Typical Laura :)  I highly recommend this though, even if you aren't very well-versed in graphic novels like me!

Have you read this or another nonfiction graphic novel?  What did you think of it?  Do you have any favorite graphic novels?  Make a post and link up down below!

Next Week's Topic: Best/Worst Classic Novel