Toward the end of 2025, Le Nouvel Obs—one of France’s three most influential weeklies—published a special issue dedicated to “the great adventure of comics.” The edition presented the results of an extensive survey culminating in a list of the 100 greatest comics of the 21st century.
Nearly 200 intellectuals took part in the research, including writers, journalists, booksellers, musicians, translators, visual artists, filmmakers, podcasters, and other cultural professionals. Among them were the directors of the Comic Art Museum in Brussels and the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Participants ranked both domestic and translated comic albums published in France during the first quarter of the century.
The final list reflects considerable diversity. In terms of authorship, 55 titles are French, 20 are from the United States, six from Japan, and four each from Canada and Belgium. Switzerland, Italy, and Australia are represented with two entries each, while Spain, Israel, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden each have one title on the list.
Following Persepolis at the top are The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware, Blast by Manu Larcenet, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris, The Lightness by Catherine Meurisse, Alan’s War by Emmanuel Guibert, and The Photographer by Didier Lefèvre and Emmanuel Guibert. In tenth place is Zai Zai Zai Zai by Fabcaro.
The remaining titles include major commercial successes such as The Walking Dead and Hellboy from the United States, as well as the Japanese manga Fullmetal Alchemist. Documentary comics are also represented, including Joe Sacco’s work on Gaza in 1956. The list spans genres—from epic fantasy like the Canadian series Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, to artistic masterpieces such as The Arrival by Australian author Shaun Tan, which tells its story entirely through images without text. Ranked 100th is Madeleine, Résistante, a series about a young member of the French Resistance during World War II.
Only three of the comics on this list have been translated into Macedonian.
These include the third-ranked Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, and the highly ranked Blue Pills by Swiss author Frederik Peeters (14th place). Both were published by Templum in 2017.
The third title is Pyongyang by Canadian author Guy Delisle, published by Bunker in 2021. This travelogue about North Korea ranks 33rd on the Le Nouvel Obs list.
The same publishers have also released additional works by Satrapi, including Chicken with Plums by Templum and Embroideries by Bunker, though these are not part of the top 100 ranking.
