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23 Sci-Fi Graphic Novels That’ll Warp Your Brain and Hack Your Heart
- The Curator
- Jun 12
- 6 min read
What’s your Sci-Fi origin story?
I grew up dodging phasers on the Enterprise and plotting the rebellion with. If it had spaceships, time warps, or robots with feelings? I was in. Sci-fi wasn’t just a genre — it was my Saturday morning religion. And now? I’ve channeled all that warp-core energy into this hyper-curated list of kickass, mind-bending, panel-ripping science fiction comics.
This isn’t just a greatest-hits parade of laser guns and chrome suits. It’s a hyperspace jump into the dust-choked dystopias, AI romances, monster-infested moons, and government-grade physics glitches that made me whisper “holy shit” into the void more times than I care to admit.
These graphic novels pack more punch than a rogue AI with daddy issues. Some are old flames, some are recent discoveries — every one of them is something I’d hand a friend with a wild look in my eye and say:
“You need to read this.”
Kamikaze by Alan Tupper, Carrie Tupper & Havana Nguyen
"Dustbowl cyberpunk" wasn't on my bingo card — but here we are, and I’m obsessed. Set on a post-apocalyptic Earth where plants are extinct and corporations rule like warlords, Kamikaze follows courier-turned-reluctant-revolutionary Markesha Nin. She’s a biracial badass with more grit than Mad Max and more heart than a Pixar finale.
Dicebox by Jenn Manley Lee
Itinerant workers. Space stations. Queer futures. Welcome to Dicebox, where Molly and Griffen — two blue-collar wanderers — navigate jobs, memories, and the weirdness of being alive. It’s like Norma Rae meets The Expanse, with visions, secrets, and all the tender moments you never knew sci-fi could hold. Also: best use of diverse pronouns this side of the galaxy.
Drive by Dave Kellett
Galactic empires, stolen tech, and a tiny alien who drives spaceships like he’s Vin Diesel with tentacles. Drive is that rare space opera that’s both smart as hell and funny enough to make you snort-laugh in public. Think Firefly meets The Spanish Inquisition, but with even more snark. If you don’t fall in love with the captain, you might be dead inside.
Venus by Rick Loverd & Huang Danlan
Corporate colonialism meets Apollo 13 nightmare. A U.S. team crash-lands on Venus during a global space race, and things immediately go to hell. Commander Pauline Manashe isn’t just surviving — she’s juggling sabotage, trauma, and a mutinous crew while the planet tries to eat them alive. Military-grade tension, jaw-dropping art, and one of the best slow-burn sci-fi thrillers around.
Planet Paradise by Jesse Lonergan
Picture this: your vacation turns into a bug-riddled death trap and your only hope is a washed-up, drug-fueled captain who hates you. Now picture it drawn with kinetic layouts that’ll leave your eyeballs vibrating. Planet Paradise is what happens when Cast Away crashes into Heavy Metal magazine. Brutal, beautiful, and wickedly cathartic.
Time Before Time by Declan Shalvey & Rory McConville
Crime noir meets time travel. Yes, really. Tatsuo smuggles people through the timeline to escape their present, but when he gets double-crossed by a corrupt syndicate and tangled up with an FBI agent, the timeline starts eating them both alive. Each issue of Time Before Time layers dread-like sediment — building toward an existential gut punch.
Not Drunk Enough by Tess Stone
Ever wanted Resident Evil to be funnier, gayer, and more grotesquely charming? Enter Not Drunk Enough. Repair guy Logan just wanted to fix a thing. Instead, he’s running for his life from mutant abominations and mad scientists. Body horror meets cartoon energy, with the most expressive scream faces in modern comics.
Analog by Gerry Duggan & David O’Sullivan
The internet is dead. Privacy? Gone. Secrets now travel via old-school couriers, and Jack — the chin-forward anti-hero — has a briefcase full of blackmail and blood on his hands. Part noir, part cyberpunk snarl, Analog is like Blade Runner filtered through a flask of bourbon and leftover Cold War paranoia.
Wild’s End by Dan Abnett & I.N.J. Culbard
War of the Worlds, but with foxes and tweed jackets. Don’t laugh — it’s terrifying. In a sleepy British town, alien invasion meets old-school civility as talking animals defend their homes with wit, courage, and heartbreak. The writing is razor-sharp, the art’s atmospheric as hell, and the emotions hit harder than a tripod blast.
Concrete Park by Tony Puryear & Erika Alexander
Concrete Park is prison-industrial complex meets Mad Max — on Mars. Deportees are dumped on a desert planet to fight, die, or form gangs. Lena and Isaac’s arcs burn hot, fast, and furious through bold, brash art and a hip-hop-fueled fury. Only two volumes? A crime against interstellar literature.
O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti
Waking up 16 years after your death in a robot body sounds like a weird dream. For Alastair Sterling, it’s his new normal. Queer romance, identity, memory, and robotics collide in this thoughtful, intimate sci-fi story that’s equal parts Black Mirror and indie drama. Your feels will not survive when you read O Human Star.
The Spire by Simon Spurrier & Jeff Stokely
Queer commander. Weird murders. Racist caste system. One big, crumbling fantasy-meets-sci-fi tower called The Spire. It’s a cop drama wrapped in weird fiction with creature design that slaps. If Blade Runner and Mordheim had a baby, and that baby listened to Bauhaus? This would be its first birthday gift.
Saturn Apartments by Hisae Iwaoka
Space janitors. Yeah, you read that right. Mitsu cleans windows on a space station orbiting an abandoned Earth. But what starts as gentle slice-of-life evolves into class conflict, legacy grief, and some of the best damn panel work in manga. Saturn Apartments is quietly revolutionary.
Federal Bureau of Physics (FBP) by Simon Oliver & Robbi Rodriguez
Physics is broken. Reality tears like tissue paper. And a jaded field agent with zero bedside manner is our only hope. FBP is a glitchcore masterpiece full of sci-fi weirdness, bureaucratic nightmare fuel, and one truly bonkers art style. It’s the lovechild of Fringe and The Office, if both were high on dark matter.
Planetes by Makoto Yukimura
Before The Expanse, there was Planetes. Space debris cleanup crews, existential dread, and humanity's messy relationship with the stars. It’s part workplace comedy, part soul-searching odyssey. And it’ll ruin you — in the best way.
Ajin: Demi-Human by Tsuina Miura & Gamon Sakurai
Ajin follows immortal black-blooded humans on the run from governments and each other. Kei just found out he’s one of them — and that being unkillable doesn’t mean life won’t try. Tactical action, ethical murk, and metaphysical horror combine in this death-proof thrill ride.
Space Story by Fiona Ostby
A quiet, melancholic tale of love, loss, and light-years. Two women fall in love on a dying Earth. One escapes, the other stays. Space Story is a heartbreak comet disguised as a gentle indie gem. Short, sharp, and emotionally resonant.
Petrol Head by Rob Williams & Pye Parr
A cigar-chomping racebot teams up with a 12-year-old girl to outrun climate collapse and fascist Robo-Cops. Petrol Head is The Iron Giant meets Fury Road, dialed to eleven with neon puke and found-family fuzzies. Second volume when, please?
Alex + Ada by Sarah Vaughn & Jonathan Luna
He didn’t ask for an android companion. But once he meets Ada, he knows she deserves more. Alex + Ada is a tender, slow-burn robot liberation romance that explores agency, love, and awkward dinner conversations with tech-phobic relatives. Subtle, powerful, and devastating.
Orange by Ichigo Takano
Time-travel letters. Emotional gut punches. An ensemble cast of friends trying to save one of their own from an unseen tragedy. Orange will wrap its sad, sweet hands around your heart and squeeze until you sob into your ramen.
East of West by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta
Alt-history. Apocalypse. Revenge. Death (yes, that one) has defected from the Four Horsemen and wants his family back. East of West is as stylish and convoluted as you'd expect from Hickman, with killer linework and lore so thick you’ll need a corkboard. Gorgeous madness.
Descender by Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen
Descender follows a lonely robot boy who wakes up to a galaxy that hates his kind. But he might be the key to everything. Lemire’s heartbreak and Nguyen’s watercolored wizardry combine in a space opera that’s equal parts Iron Giant and Battlestar Galactica.
Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang
Time travel. Alien tech. Biker gangs. Puberty. In 1988, four paper delivery girls get tangled in a cosmic turf war and the future is so not what their parents warned them about. Smart, snappy, and stacked with unforgettable character arcs.
Have you read any of these Sci-Fi comics?
That’s the list. From the brutal to the beautiful, from robot revolutions to time-bending tragedies
— these 20+ science fiction comics don’t just push genre boundaries. They vaporize them. So go ahead. Crack one open. Your next obsession’s already waiting.
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