That compelling subject, that powerful central story, is the Dragons’ 2015 season, which Yang first introduces through his funny repartee with O’Dowd’s Coach Lou Richie, onetime lead guard and now longtime coach of varsity men’s basketball. In his latest graphic novel, Dragon Hoops, New York Times bestselling author Gene Luen Yang turns the spotlight on his life, his family, and the high school where he teaches. Written and Illustrated by Gene Luen Yang He places on himself, as creator, the onus of storytelling as much as the privilege of being the storyteller. And for that matter, as a journalistic documentation of living people in Yang’s immediate world, whatever the book’s limitations and oversights, underneath it all, it’s Yang’s story. “Dragon Hoops” is the O’Dowd Dragons’ story, but theirs is not one story, but many. What makes “Dragon Hoops” a rare achievement, and one of the year’s most significant comics by my lights, is that Yang has again found a way to tell a story that is compelling and attentive to its subject, while threading the needle of humble representation to exemplify how stories like this can be meaningfully told in these times. Sprinkled in are some histories of the sport, informed cultural commentary, and some behind-the-scenes glimpses into creator Gene Yang’s personal and ethical choices while chronicling “Dragon Hoops.” Blended in subtle doses, it all makes for compelling reading. An ensemble story about a team of high school ballers, the Oakland Bishop O’Dowd Dragons, their coach Lou Richie, the players’ intriguing and diverse backgrounds, and their road through a momentous 2015 campaign for the California State Championships in men’s hoops. On its surface, Gene Luen Yang’s “Dragon Hoops” (First Second) tells a basketball story.

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang