There was a time in human history when some people didn’t think comics were suitable reading material for girls. (There are some, even today, who don’t think comics are suitable reading material for anyone, but that’s a whole other outrage.)

Maybe that’s because the vignettes on the eleventh-century Bayeux Tapestry – long thought to be a forerunner of graphic novels – depicted scenes conventionally associated with masculinity, like war and setting stuff on fire and grunting loudly at the gym. (Although there was also one scene on the tapestry about cooking, so maybe the eleventh-century man was more cosmopolitan than we think.)

Maybe it’s because some of the earliest comic book superstars – Superman, Batman, Spider-Man – were so masculine that “Man” was not just their identity, it was their last name.

Or maybe it was just because dudes didn’t want women horning in on their cool guys-only stuff like comics and basketball and video games and being vice-president.

Fortunately, things have changed. Batman and Spider-Man now have to share vigilante duties with Wonder Woman and Squirrel Girl.  And there are countless graphic novels on the shelves created by female-identifying artists and featuring girls as the main characters. Nowhere is that more evident than in the runaway success of Raina Telgemeier.

Telgemeier, who has millions of copies of her books in print, “single-handedly created the market for middle-grade graphic memoir,” according to her publisher. Those autobiographical comics, together with her graphic adaptations of Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club books, combine to make Telgemeier one of the most popular authors on library shelves.

Telgemeier’s influence can be felt in some of the other books listed below, many of which share her interest in complicated characters interacting in realistic family and classroom settings. (Although some of them are about outer space travel and unicorns.)

Though the titles in this list all share the attributes of being created by women and featuring female characters, they’re intended for all audiences – gone are the days when stories about girls were only for girls. There are lots of great comics about girls by male-identifying creators – look up Zita the Spacegirl and Claudette the Giant Slayer – but that’s a whole other blog post.