What happens when comics and art converge? This can manifest in many ways, from an anthology of comics literally inspired by one museum’s vast collection to books that start from a formally inventive place and push the medium in bold new directions. Here’s a look at some recent comics that redefine the relationship between graphic storytelling and fine art.

Drawn to MoMA: Comics Inspired by Modern Art (The Museum of Modern Art, May 2025)

Beginning in 2019, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art has invited a number of comics creators — including a few on this very list — to create new work inspired by its galleries. In some cases, that’s literal, as with Gabrielle Bell’s use of MoMA as a setting; for others, such as November Garcia, that invitation sparks a wider consideration of art history and personal experience. It’s also not the only place where museums and comics have collided; the Centre Pompidou has released several books dedicated to comics, and hosted an exhibit of Chris Ware’s work in 2022.

Blurry by Dash Shaw (NYR Comics, 2024)

While he’s primarily known for his ambitious, expansive graphic novels, Dash Shaw has long had an eye on expanding his horizons. That includes forays into animation and a collaboration with poet Michael Robbins, inspired by a John Ashberry-Alex Katz joint effort. Shaw’s recent graphic novel Blurry tells the story of several interconnected lives while showcasing a range of visual approaches, drawing on everything from Ligne claire to Cubism.

Precious Rubbish by Kayla E. (Fantagraphics, April 2025)

Kayla E.’s debut graphic novel Precious Rubbish was published to abundant acclaim, both for the candid personal story its author told and for the ways in which it evokes earlier eras of comic book storytelling. (“I’m interested in subverting the plucky 1950s, proto-feminist girl character and showing what actually happens to little kids,” she told The Comics Journal.) That the book abounds with striking design isn’t surprising, either—Kayla E. was nominated for an Eisner Award for her work designing the anthology Bill Ward: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition.

HIST: A Graphic Novel by James Belflower and Matthew Klane (Calamari Archive, 2022)

Besides releasing critically acclaimed books by the likes of Brandon Hobson, Garielle Lutz, and Blake Butler, experimental publisher Calamari Archive has also been branching out into graphic storytelling. (See also, the recently published TENET: Nest of Tens, which veers headlong into textual mysticism.) James Belflower and Matthew Klane’s collaboration HIST blends collages, found text, and a general sense of the apocalyptic; you’ll come for the postmodern ethos and stay for the increasingly Boschian vistas.

When to Pick a Pomegranate by Yasmeen Abedifard (Silver Sprocket, 2024)

Among the winners of this year’s MoCCA Arts Awards of Excellence was When to Pick a Pomegranate, which collects several of Yasmeen Abedifard’s shorter works. Throughout the book, Abedifard isn’t only in command of the panel-to-panel storytelling. Abedifard’s selection of backgrounds and materials draws attention to these comics as physical objects and leaves the reader conscious of the process that informed their creation.

Wake Up, Pixoto! By Weng Pixin (Drawn & Quarterly, July 2025)

Weng Pixin has contributed to the Drawn to MoMA series, and the connection between comics and art continues in her graphic novel Wake Up, Pixoto! Specifically, Pixin draws on her memories of being an art school student for this tale of power dynamics, aesthetics, and fraught relationships, all told in a distinctive, impressionistic style.

Ex Libris: A Comic by Matt Madden (Uncivilized Books, 2021)

Twenty years ago saw the publication of Matt Madden’s 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, a graphic novel that showcased different artistic techniques chronicling the same narrative. Since then, Madden has expanded his ruminations on the medium’s potential, including via Oubapo, described by Madden as “an approach to thinking about and creating comics using constraints as a creative principle.” The potential of that approach can be seen in Ex Libris, a graphic novel where storytelling becomes part of the story, and from which Madden drew inspiration from Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.

World Within the World: Collected Minicomix & Short Works 2010-2022 by Julia Gfrörer (Fantagraphics, Feb. 2025)

In a 2024 interview with PW, Julia Gfrörer discussed her background—art school, zine making—and how it informed the comics that she would go on to create. This collection brings together a wide selection of her work made over the course of more than a decade, incorporating everything from religious iconography to Gothic menace in the stories recounted here.

Mary Tyler MooreHawk by Dave Baker (Top Shelf, 2024)

Where to begin when describing Dave Baker’s combination of comics, prose, and found-text storytelling? If this graphic novel was only the illustrated sections, it would be a heady pulp adventure—but the additional mediums folded into it make it something more. Think the comics equivalent to an expansive installation by the likes of Matthew Barney or Martin Kippenberger.

The Sentence by Matthew Baker (Dzanc Books, 2024)

Sometimes evocative graphic storytelling doesn’t require illustrations to get its point across. Matthew Baker’s The Sentence is such an example, which uses the technique of sentence diagramming to tell the story of an academic rebelling against an authoritarian society. The result is both a striking object to interact with and a book that pushes graphic storytelling in unexpected directions.

MetaMAUS by Art Spigelman (Pantheon, Aug. 2025)

How do you follow up one of the most critically acclaimed autobiographical comics ever published? In Art Spiegelman’s case, you get very literally meta. MetaMAUS—the paperback edition of which was published earlier this year—collects artwork, documents, and interviews that relate to Spiegelman’s stunning Maus and offer insights into his working process.

Tobias Carroll is the author of the novel Reel and the story collection Transitory.