Persepolis
Satrapi's black-and-white graphic memoir of growing up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution manages to be politically devastating and genuinely funny, often in the same panel. She was ten when the revolution hit. The simple drawing style makes the violence land harder, not softer. It was banned in Iran, challenged in American schools, and translated into dozens of languages because the story turns out to be everyone's story about losing a country.
Part one is the book everyone remembers. The Vienna years that follow swap revolution for adolescent drift, and the panels lose urgency along with the stakes. Satrapi's child's-eye view, the great strength early, caps the political analysis at slogans overheard from adults. Hers is also a secular, upper-class Tehran; the revolution's believers stay cartoons.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
