A series of books (in progress) by Larry Gonick. Yes, the entire history of the universe, in cartoon form. There are currently two books:
With the rest coming. Hopefully.
The books are hilarious, readable (not like a textbook), and exhaustive -- not just giving the history of Western civilization (as is too often taught in Western schools), but the history of Eastern civilizations as well, with a whole volume of pre-human Earth history thrown in as well. Ought to be the standard textbooks of any introductory ancient history class. | 
