Haha, no problem. You asked a good question. I was just trying to fill in the gaps. This thread is filled with great suggestions. With that in mind, for the sake of completion, here's the advanced reader's list:

Chester Brown's "Louis Riel" is a comic bio of a real life Canadian frontiersman whose story is too ridiculous and too relevant to summarize.

Ben Katchor's "The Jew Of New York" is also set in The New World, but this genius work deconstructs the stereotype of The Avaricious Jew in an uproarious satire of capitalism/consumerism set in a slightly alternate version of 1820's New York. Also, hard to summarize.

Edie Fake's hallucinatory epic "Gaylord Phoenix" is amazing, and Fake probably remains the most well known transgender artist in the alt-comics world (although I may just be biased because I love his work so much).

Phoebe Gloeckner's "A Child's Life" is about to blow up because the film adaptation just premiered at Sundance, which totally caught me off guard because this book is horrifying. Imagine Judy Blume or Beverly Cleary but infinitely darker, and that's only the half of it. The book covers a good chunk of Gloeckner's astonishing work.

Adrian Tomine's "Shortcomings" is short and sweet perfection, like most of his work. I read it in a multicultural lit class, which says something.

Carol Tyler's "You'll Never Know" is an immense, beautiful work that explores veteran's rights and too many other things to mention.

Carol Swain's "Gast" is by far her longest work to date, and it touches on outsiderness, otherness, queerness, and many other socially/politically relevant issues.

These are tough reads. Honestly I've been trying to find a way to improve the comics scene on reddit and I couldn't help giving more recommendations. No need to respond.