Comics have been dealing with daddy issues since their inception, but over the years some writers and artists have offered a more nuanced, realistic depiction of fatherhood. These works dissect what it means to be a father, and how the relationship with one's dad can have profound and lasting consequences. In addition, some comics juxtapose past, present, and future generations in order to gain insights into life and legacy. So for Father's Day, enjoy these 11 comics with dads that include a soldier, a samurai, a scholar, a space assassin, a superhero, and kind of a slacker.
Lone Wolf & Cub
During the Tokugawa Shogunate, a high-ranking executioner is framed for treason and loses his position and family except for his infant son. Disgraced and banished, he becomes a ronin (masterless samurai) and traverses Japan with his son, getting involved in local conflicts while vowing vengeance against those who wronged him. Along the way the father-son bond grows, and eventually the boy learns to fight alongside his father. The series is hugely popular and influential, and was adapted into six movies, a TV series, and a video game. In 2014, Dark Horse began publishing New Lone Wolf and Cub, a sequel series written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Hideki Mori.
A Matter of Life
In this memoir, cartoonist Brown compares his relationship with his young son to his relationship with his own father, a minister. He recalls his Christian upbringing and the slow erosion of his faith after he is exposed to science and other religions, and pairs it with stories of raising his own son and how he imparts a sense of goodness in him without scripture. The book is a personal commentary on the differences between what we receive and what we impart on those we love.
Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes
Mary Talbot depicts her childhood under her father, a prominent Joycean scholar, against that of James Joyce’s daughter, Lucia. Talbot uses Lucia’s tragic life—her dreams of becoming a dancer went unfulfilled and she ended up in a mental institution for 30 years—to inform her own anxieties towards her father, who was distant and sometimes callous towards her. The book successfully weaves the two narratives together, allowing a subtle contextualization of each. Winner of the 2012 Costa biography award.
Batman and Son
Years after Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul conceive a son in Batman: Son of the Demon, the boy, Damien, abandons his mother's assassin training to come under the tutelage of his father. Batman, no stranger to young proteges, takes him under his wing despite friction between his code of non-lethality and Damien’s killer instinct. Similar to the dynamic between Batman and Robin, Damien’s presence adds depth to Batman, imbuing the stoic vigilante with humanity.
The Underwater Welder
In Lemire’s haunting graphic novel, Jack Joseph, a disillusioned deep-sea welder and soon-to-be dad, experiences a vision of his late father after a dive goes wrong. As a boy, Jack lost his father to a similar drilling accident, and while underwater Jack is temporarily divorced from reality and must reckon with his memories and mortality. Employing his signature mix of headiness and sentimentality, Lemire plucks the psychological strings that tie us to our past and listens for what the reverberations can tell us.
Bunny Drop
In this tender slice-of-life manga series, 30-year-old Daikichi impulsively takes in his late grandfather’s illegitimate daughter, Rin, despite having no experience raising a child. At first his bachelor lifestyle is upended by the young girl, but over time the responsibility helps him mature into adulthood. Later when Rin is a teenager, Daikichi finds himself playing the concerned father in regard to Rin’s dating life, despite his own romantic woes. The series was adapted into an 11-episode anime in 2011.
The Metabarons
Jodorowsky and Giménez dive into the backstory of the Metabaron (the nigh-omnipotent space assassin introduced in The Incal) with a multigenerational saga of ultraviolent filial piety. Each son born into the bloodline is put through sadistic training regimens, culminating in the slaying of his father as the final rite of passage before assuming his role as the universe's most ruthless agent of destruction. Three spin-offs—The First Ancestor, The Rival Twins (published in English as one book called Metabarons Genesis: Castaka) and Weapons of the Metabarons—have been released since the series' completion.
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
Ware’s first graphic novel centers on Jimmy Corrigan, a socially awkward man struggling with an impending reunion with his estranged father. Complementing the bleak narrative are flashbacks to Jimmy’s grandfather as a boy and the strained relationship he had with his abusive father. Ware’s meticulous layouts make the book a feast for the eyes and emphasize the stories’ multifaceted complexity. It's the winner of numerous awards, including an Eisner, Harvey, American Book Award, Guardian First Book Award, and Prize for Best Comic at Angoulême.
A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting
The experiences of raising children and working from home become fodder for Delisle’s humorous take on modern parenting. His short vignettes imitate those of his acclaimed travelogues, and he treats the unknown terrain of toddlers as he would a new country. His honest representation of the give-and-take of being a parent make the book endlessly relatable to readers with kids. Two follow-ups, Even More Bad Parenting Advice and The Owner’s Manual to Terrible Parenting, were released in 2014 and 2015.
Fun Home
Bechdel’s seminal graphic novel looks back on her adolescence, particularly her relationship with her father and his obsession with restoring their old Victorian house. She attempts to understand her lesbianism through her father, a closeted gay man who eventually took his own life at the age of 44. The book is widely acclaimed for its handling of homosexuality, and it has helped pioneer comics into serious academic and cultural study. Finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as the winner of the Best Reality-Based Work at the 2007 Eisner Awards. In 2013, the book was adapted into a musical, reaching Broadway in 2015 and winning the Tony Award for Best Musical that same year.
Soldier's Heart: The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father: A Daughter's Memoir
The experience solders have in war can deeply affect their entire lives and the lives of those around them. That’s what author Tyler finds out when own father, who was emotionally opaque all his life, began to open up in his twilight years. The discovery of his PTSD helps shape Tyler’s understanding of the dysfunction in her own life, and she comes away with firsthand knowledge of the deeply-rooted, cross-generational scars left by war. Originally published in three parts as You’ll Never Know.
