Daddy's Girl #0 (1996)

Daddy's Girl is a powerful book that uses a childlike graphic style to explore the adolescence of a young girl, Lily, whose life is being destroyed by sexual abuse. Drechsler pulls no punches in her depiction of incest, and many scenes are hard to read, but this book shows that comics can be a vehicle for serious subjects; the drawings pull the reader into her world more completely than the written word ever could. Drechsler's depiction of childhood is perfect, and there are happy moments within the horror of Lily's life. In one chapter, Lily and a friend contemplate suicide, then walk into the woods, away from their problems. In the last panel, as they sit eating tiny wild strawberries, there is a moment of hope which resonates long after the book is finished.