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Top 15 Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga:
July 2022
It’s time to flag up the imminent sequential releases which I have hand-picked for your consideration, all of them due in stores and online from July. One key title to check out is the return of Booker Prize-nominated cartoonist Nick Drnaso with his new multi-character exposé...
Brilliant British writer-artist Andi Watson is also back this month, re-teamed with his Paris collaborator Simon Gane, to relate the finely observed summer of one girl’s coming-of-age…
The Japanese enjoy spooky stories in the summer, because your shivers of fear help to cool you down - an effect you can expect from Seiko Erisawa’s eerily everyday chiller…
Raised a Mormon, Noah Van Sciver digs deep into the life and thinking of founder Joseph Smith///
And finally, Alexis Deacon gets to conclude his splendid Geis trilogy. Here’s the endorsement I wrote for this final volume: ‘Truly there is magic being cast here across every page of this saga’s escalating climax. Behind it lies the hidden hand of Alexis Deacon, a master builder of a ravishing, resonant story-world and its complex, compelling cast. And Deacon knows that, for all their foibles and flaws, sometimes it’s the most unlikely of characters who can make a vital difference. Prepare to be swept away by the wonders, terrors and truths within this enthralling power-play.’
Acting Class
by Nick Drnaso
Drawn & Quarterly
$29.95
The publisher says:
A brilliant and suspenseful follow-up to the Booker-nominated graphic novel Sabrina. “Every single person has something unique to them which is impossible to re-create, without exception.” ―John Smith, acting coach. From the acclaimed author of Sabrina, Nick Drnaso’s Acting Class creates a tapestry of disconnect, distrust and manipulation. Ten strangers are brought together under the tutelage of John Smith, a mysterious and morally questionable leader. The group of social misfits and restless searchers have one thing in common: they are out of step with their surroundings and desperate for change. A husband and wife, four years into their marriage and simmering in boredom. A single mother, her young son showing disturbing signs of mental instability. A peculiar woman with few if any friends and only her menial job keeping her grounded. A figure model, comfortable in his body and ready for a creative challenge. A worried grandmother and her adult granddaughter; a hulking labourer and gym nut; a physical therapist; an ex-con. With thrumming unease, the class sinks deeper into their lessons as the process demands increasing devotion. When the line between real life and imagination begins to blur, the group’s deepest fears and desires are laid bare. Exploring the tension between who we are and how we present, Drnaso cracks open his characters’ masks and takes us through an unsettling American journey. Nick Drnaso was born in 1989 in Palos Hills, Illinois. His debut, Beverly, received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel. His follow-up, the graphic novel Sabrina, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2018 and received nominations for the Booker Prize, the Eisner Award, the LD and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award. Sabrina has been published in fifteen countries. Drnaso lives in Chicago with his wife and their two cats. Read an extract here… 248pgs colour hardcover.
Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War
by Gaspard Talmasse
Humanoids / Life Drawn
$29.99
The publisher says:
The true odyssey of a young child, Alice Cyuzuzo, as she traverses the roads of Zaire to seek refuge from the civil war that has struck her native Rwanda. Gitarama, the Southern Province of Rwanda, 1994. Five-year-old Alice enjoys a peaceful childhood with her parents and little sisters, but life as she knows it is about to change forever as the genocide of the Tutsis erupts, forcing her to flee her village with her family. It is on the hot roads of the Democratic Republic of Congo, known then as Zaire, that Alice grows up, bouncing from one refugee camp to another, seeking some semblance of a normal life in between violent attacks, with death always lurking around the corner. With Alice, Gaspard Talmasse delivers a singular testimony, capturing with painful emotion a relentless world as seen thorough the eyes of an innocent child: one who grew up to become the author’s own life partner. Gaspard Talmasse is a Belgian artist. He graduated in arts plastiques at the Saint-Luc Institute in Liège, with a specialisation in comics. Since then, he has been working mainly as a freelance illustrator and comic book artist. In 2010, he was the illustrator and colourist on Patrice Leconte’s animated film Le Magasin des suicides, then worked in 2012 on the animated series Petz. In 2016, he illustrated Ma famille 3+1 = 7, then Pilou, tous les soirs du monde for Éditions de la Bagnole. Since February 2018, he has regularly collaborated with Otra Vista as a storyboarder, director and cartoon animator. 144pgs colour paperback.
Alison
by Lizzy Stewart
Serpent’s Tail / Fantagraphics
£18.99 / $24.99
The publisher says:
Alison is the stunning and emotional graphic novel for fans of Sally Rooney, the debut graphic novel from an award-winning writer and illustrator. Alison is newly married, barely twenty and struggling to find her place in the world. A chance encounter with an older artist upturns her life and she forsakes convention and her working-class Dorset roots for the thrumming art scene of London in the late seventies. As the thrill of bohemian romance leads inevitably to disappointment, Alison begins to find her own path - through art, friendship and love. Lizzy Stewart is an illustrator and author from Plymouth who lives and works in London. She has written and illustrated three picture books for children alongside Walking Distance, an illustrated essay, and It’s Not What You Thought It Would Be. a graphic short-story collection (Fantagraphics, 2021). Her debut picture-book There’s a Tiger in the Garden won the Waterstones Children’s book prize for picture books in 2017 as well as a World Illustration Award. She teaches illustration at Goldsmiths college. Fantagraphics will release this book in North America on April 4th, 2023. 176pgs colour hardcover.
Atom: The Beginning: Vol.1
by Osamu Tezuka, Masami Yuuki & Tetsuro Kasahara
Titan Comics
£9.99 / $12.99
The publisher says:
ATOM: The Beginning is an aesthetically striking series that blazes its own trail and also speaks to fans of the iconic Astro Boy and God of Manga Osamu Tezuka. It’s a story chock-full of both heart and humour for fans of action-packed science fiction, robots and manga. ATOM: The Beginning is an original manga based on the God of Manga Osamu Tezuka’s world-famous series Astro Boy. It works both as a prequel to the original series, telling the stories of the developers of the artificial intelligence that would eventually give birth to the iconic Atom, and as a stand-alone sci-fi manga about the turbulent lives of two robotic engineering students and their latest revolutionary project: the unassuming yet insanely strong A106, or “Six.” Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator whose revolutionary comics earned him the title of manga no kamisama (“God of Manga”). His body of work is one of the largest and most prolific in all of Japanese culture, and he produced several of the country’s greatest drawn stories for both children and adults, including the iconic Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack, Dororo, Message to Adolf and Princess Knight. Tezuka passed away in 1989. Masami Yuuki is a manga artist and member of the artist group Headgear. He is most known for his celebrated manga series Mobile Police Patlabor, which has spawned many spin-offs and adaptations into anime, movies, live-action projects, novels, video games and more. Tetsuro Kasahara is a manga artist whose body of work revolves mostly around the robot and mecha genres. One of his most famous works, RideBack, was adapted into an anime in 2009. Now, he is focusing on ATOM: The Beginning, a prequel to Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. 208pgs B&W paperback.
Barely Human
by Johnny Ryan
Fantagraphics
$49.99
The publisher says:
The cartoons that keep getting Johnny Ryan banned from Instagram, collected for the first time as one big ol’ exquisitely gross picture book! Johnny Ryan’s compulsion to flout any and all accepted standards of decency in his humour and cartoons have not only garnered him a tremendous following ― Instagram has banned him multiple times with hundreds of posts scrubbed from those accounts. (He can be found, currently, at @johnnyryanjohnnyryan1). Guess what? We’ve got ’em! Over 500 of the grossest, crudest, most surrealistic, scatological and of course hilarious cartoons you’ll ever see, presented with loving care in this gorgeous, oversized collection with fine art paper. They may not meet with your approval, but you will laugh. Crafted throughout the pandemic and posted daily, these cartoons helped keep both the author and hundreds of thousands of others sane during the past two years. From conventional gag cartoons to pieces decidedly unconventional and almost Dadaist in their humour, these are some of the most visually imaginative ― and comedically brilliant ― single-panel cartoons ever conceived, whether in the service of boner jokes or sheer visual absurdism. Johnny Ryan lives in Los Angeles, CA with his daughter, where he works by day in the animation industry as a writer and animator. 520pgs colour paperback.
Be Very Afraid of Inuki Kanako
by Inuki Kanako
Kodansha Comics
$12.99
The publisher says:
From the mind of Japan’s “queen of horror manga” comes a short story collection sure to put a grin on your face and send a chill down your spine. Survive six of the author’s hand-picked scares, plus original commentary from the author. Fans of Junji Ito, Kazuo Umezu and Mermaid Saga, your collection isn’t complete until you’re very afraid of Inuki Kanako! For more than 30 years, Inuki Kananko has been terrorising girls and boys with twisted catch-22s and ghoulish monsters. Discover one of the best-kept secrets of global horror with this selection of some of Inuki’s most popular short comics. The six hair-raising stories selected for Be Very Afraid of Inuki Kanako feature an array of unnerving characters and scenarios brought to life in Inuki’s signature art style, in the tradition of Junji Ito (Uzumaki, Tomie), Kazuo Umezu (The Drifting Classroom), Shintaro Kago (Dementia 21), and Junko Mizuno. As the first English-language release for the majority of these pieces, this single volume collection is an intimate introduction to classic Japanese horror manga from a veteran of the genre. Inuki’s long career in horror manga includes past works such as Presents (3 volumes in English from CMX, 2007-8) and School Zone (3 volumes in English from Dark Horse in 2006). tbc pgs B&W paperback.
Big Scoop of Ice Cream
by Conxita Herrero
NBM
$17.99
The publisher says:
It’s about life in our time, about being a young adult woman in the early twenty first century. Conxita, in her twenties, the latest representative of a whole generation, lost her heart somewhere between Madrid and Barcelona. A ‘real spitfire’ according to her mother, she faces everyday events with great courage. A former student of Fine Arts, she draws her every adventure, from her apartment that she shares with a girl who’s her mirror image, her household, her computer, her dreams to elsewhere, her escapes to the beach, her telephone conversations with friends, to her more or less happy dates. In this autobiographical tale in seventeen short tableaux, Conxita Herrero shakes up preconceived ideas about the transition to adulthood. In a minimalist and rigorous style, she plays with antagonisms and mixes inertia and movement, silent panels and intimate, mysterious dialogues, bare lines and pure colours. Freeing herself from the “concern for truth” specific to the autobiography, the author sheds any sentimentality and provides her sets and her characters with sketchy features, a strange and fascinating dimension oscillating between reality and dream. Conxita Herrero Delfa was born in 1993 in Barcelona and studied Fine Arts. She has been active in publishing fanzines seeking free self-expression. 144pgs colour paperback.
Birds of Maine
by Michael Deforge
Drawn & Quarterly
$34.95
The publisher says:
Take flight to this post-apocalyptic utopia filled with birds. Long after the demise of humankind, birds roam freely around a new earth complete with fruitful trees, sophisticated fungal networks and an enviable socialist order. The universal worm feeds all, there are no weekends, and economics is as fantastical a study as unicorn psychology. No concept of money or wealth plagues the thoughts of these free-minded birds. Instead, there are angsty teens who form bands to show off their best bird song and other youngsters who yearn to become clothing designers even though clothes are only necessary during war. (The truly honourable professions for most birds are historian or librarian.) These birds are free to crush on hot pelicans and live their best lives until a crash-landed human from the moon threatens to change everything. Michael DeForge’s post-apocalyptic reality brings together the author’s quintessential deadpan humour, surrealist imagination and undeniable sociopolitical insight. Appearing originally as a webcomic, Birds of Maine follows DeForge’s prolific trajectory of astounding graphic novels that reimagine and question the world as we know it. His latest comic captures the optimistic glow of utopian imagination with a late-capitalism sting of irony. Michael DeForge is a cartoonist, an illustrator and a community organiser who lives Toronto, Ontario. 464pgs colour hardcover.
Box of Light
by Seiko Erisawa
Seven Seas
$13.99
The publisher says:
The spooky tale of a haunted convenience store. A quiet convenience store hovers on the boundary between life and death. Its faint glow in the darkness draws people toward it, pushing them closer to the final purchase they’ll ever make…and is that a monster in the magazine aisle?! Prepare for spooky creatures, cryptic employees and an air of delightful dread in this supernatural mystery. This beloved self-contained tale was awarded a top spot in both the Kono Manga wo Yome! and Kono Manga ga Sugoi! rankings in Japan. Seiko Erisawa is a prolific manga creator in Japan best known for shoujo, josei and supernatural stories, including Box of Light. 180pgs B&W paperback.
Curse of the Chosen: Volume 3
by Alexis Deacon
Flying Eye Books
£14.99
The publisher says:
The dramatic and hotly anticipated conclusion to Alexis Deacon’s original Geis trilogy, featuring new branding and a format designed to sit alongside Curse of the Chosen: Volume 1. As the great chief matriarch lay dying, she gave one final decree: Upon her death there would be a contest. Having no heir of her own blood she called on the Gods. Let fate decide the one truly worthy to rule in her place. The rich, the strong, the wise, the powerful; many put forward their names in hope of being chosen. But when the night came… only fifty souls alone were chosen. As Io’s quest reaches its deadly and dramatic conclusion, things are not all as they seem in the sorceress’ game for the right to rule. Still trapped inside the torturous nightmares within the castle, who will remain in the battle for the throne, and which of the chosen will be lost along the way? Or will they fail in their attempts to escape the horrors within? Alexis Deacon draws his Geis trilogy to an epic and emotive conclusion in this newly branded volume, packed to the rafters with his beautiful artwork and gripping storytelling. Alexis Deacon is a writer and illustrator of children’s books. His first book, Slow Loris, was published in 2002 and was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award. In 2015 it was named one of the hundred best children’s books of all time by Time magazine. He has twice been shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal and is a two time recipient of The New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award. In 2014 The River won the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize. In 2008 he was chosen by Booktrust as one of the ten best new illustrators of the preceding decade. 184pgs colour paperback.
Joseph Smith and the Mormons
by Noah Van Sciver
Abrams ComicArts
$29.99
The publisher says:
Decades in the making and already generating advance praise, an original graphic novel biography about the life of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. In Joseph Smith and the Mormons, author and illustrator Noah Van Sciver, who was raised a Mormon, covers one of history’s most controversial figures, Joseph Smith—who founded a religion which is practiced by millions all over the world. The book discusses all of the monumental moments during Smith’s life, including the anti-Mormon threats and violence which caused his followers to move from New York to Ohio, Smith’s receiving the divine commandment of plural marriage, his imprisonment, his announcement to run for president of the United States and his ultimate murder by an angry mob in 1844 at the young age of 38. With a respectful and historical approach, and strikingly illustrated, this graphic novel is the ultimate book for those curious about the origins of the Mormon faith and the man who started it all. Noah Van Sciver is widely considered one of the most notable cartoonists of his generation, and first came to national attention in 2006 with his critically acclaimed anthology comic book series Blammo, which earned him three Ignatz Award nominations. His work has appeared in MAD magazine, The Comics Journal, Best American Comics and The Stranger, as well as numerous anthologies. Van Sciver is the author of multiple critically acclaimed graphic novels, including The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln, Youth Is Wasted, Saint Cole, One Dirty Tree and Fante Bukowski. Van Sciver lives in Columbia, South Carolina. 464pgs colour hardcover.
Oxygen Mask
by Jason Reynolds & Jason Griffin
Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / Faber & Faber
£9.99
The publisher says:
‘And so for anyone who didn’t really know what it means to not be able to breathe, REALLY breathe, for generations, now you know. And those who already do, you’ll be nodding yep yep, that is exactly how it is…’ Intimately set within the walls of a family home, this book is an incredible artefact of the historic year we have all lived through. We travel from the depths of despair but not without hope; the mundane details contained within four walls becomes our sanctuary. This is a gift in commemoration of a time and place, of a world wide pandemic, of loss and of the murder of George Floyd. It is a reminder of how, in uncertain times, we can cling to the simple things for respite, for hope. A reminder of how comforting books and artworks are in times of extreme stress. Jason Reynolds is a Carnegie winner and critically acclaimed, multi award-winning writer and poet. He is National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature in the US, and has written several books including All AmericanBoys, Boy in the Black Suit, Long Way Down and the Run series. Jason Griffin’s first publishing endeavour was My Name Is Jason, Mine too, with Jason Reynolds. He’s a gallery artist / street artist / moleskin book artist whose works also show up in the Washington Post. 384pgs colour paperback.
Sleeping While Standing
by Soma
Avery Hill Publishing
£12.99 / $16.95
The publisher says:
A series of short autobiographical strips, dropping in at important events throughout her life that shaped who she is today, told in a compelling and humorous authorial voice. We are led by Taki through her early childhood in Japan in the early 80s, to moving to Minnesota, the separation of her parents, childhood trauma, teenage angst, death, drugs, comics, health issues, love, fertility, pets and zombies; all of life is here in this book! It’s a picture of a highly regarded creator, with an unflinching look at some particularly harrowing moments, but threaded through with levity and love. Taki Soma is a Hugo award nominated artist, writer and a colorist. She’s worked on projects such as Rapture, Sinergy, The Victories, United States vs. Murder, Inc., Bitch Planet, Dick Tracy, The After Realm, Iron Man and others – her work can be found throughout publishers such as Image, IDW, Marvel, Dark Horse, Jinxworld at DC and more. She lives surrounded by furry critters and a husband who shares the same passion in comics. 96pgs colour paperback.
Sunburn
by Andi Watson & Simon Gane
Image Comics
$19.99
The publisher says:
Rachel is a teenager who lives a grey suburban life in grey suburban England. It’s a world of scrambled eggs every Tuesday, brown sauce and warm beer. With her summer already mapped out for her, a job working at the butcher and a caravan holiday in Clacton, she longs to be treated as an adult. When a family friend invites her to spend the summer with them in Greece, she jumps at the chance to escape her life. The Warners are everything her parents are not, glamorous, sophisticated and carefree. When Rachel meets Benjamin, the handsome young friend of the Warners, she soon learns that on a small island everyone knows each other’s business and feels the pain of growing up. Drawn by Simon Gane, the artist behind the Eisner-nominated Ghost Tree, They’re Not Like Us and Paris and written by Andi Watson, author of The Book Tour, Kerry and the Knight of the Forest and the forthcoming Punycorn. 224pgs colour paperback.
The Bend of Luck
by Peter & Maria Hoey
IDW / Top Shelf Productions
$19.99
The publisher says:
Some guys have all the luck… but not all luck is good. The award-winning duo behind Coin-Op Comics return with a mind-bending tale of fortune and family. Imagine a world where Luck, the most ephemeral of ideas, has a physical form. Precious stones of luck, mined like gold, are worn as bringers of fortune. But luck breaks both ways. While the blue gems may grant advantage to those who wear them, their blessing is fickle and unpredictable. In the blink of an eye, good luck can turn to bad. We follow the life of a man who comes into possession of some powerful stones — but the success enjoyed by the father goes awry when he tries to pass this luck onto his son. In alternating scenes between the two generations, The Bend of Luck follows felicity’s course, like an arrow, through a family’s destiny. Brother and sister artists Peter and Maria Hoey live on opposite coasts but work closely together, trading drawings back and forth from their studios in Northern California and New York. The Hoeys began writing and drawing comics in Blab! Magazine in the late 1990s, then launched their self-published comic book series, Coin-Op in 2008. Their 2018 comics anthology, published by Top Shelf, earned a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. Their self-published comics have been nominated twice for Eisner Awards. Animal Stories, their first full-length graphic novel, was published by Top Shelf in December 2021. 184pgs colour paperback.
The Liminal Zone
by Junji Ito
VIZ Media
$19.99
The publisher says:
Three-time Eisner Award winner Junji Ito presents brand-new nightmares. What destiny awaits them after the screaming? After abruptly departing from a train in a small town, a couple encounters a “weeping woman”—a professional mourner—sobbing inconsolably at a funeral. Mako changes afterward—she can’t stop crying! In another tale, having decided to die together, a couple enters Aokigahara, the infamous suicide forest. What is the shocking otherworldly torrent that they discover there? One of horror’s greatest talents, Junji Ito beckons readers to join him in an experience of ultimate terror with four transcendently terrifying tales. Junji Ito made his professional manga debut in 1987 and since then has gone on to be recognised as one of the greatest contemporary artists working in the horror genre. His titles include Tomie and Uzumaki, which have been adapted into live-action films; Gyo, which was adapted into an animated film; and his books Deserter, Fragments of Horror, Frankenstein, Lovesickness, No Longer Human, Remina, Shiver, Smashed and Venus in the Blind Spot, all of which are available from VIZ Media. Ito’s influences include classic horror manga artists Kazuo Umezz and Hideshi Hino, as well as authors Yasutaka Tsutsui and H.P. Lovecraft. He is a three-time Eisner Award winner. In 2019 his collection Frankenstein won in the “Best Adaptation from Another Medium” category, and in 2021 he was awarded “Best Writer/Artist,” while Remina received the award for “Best U.S. Edition of International Material (Asia).” 216pgs B&W hardcover.
The Voices of Water
by Tiziano Sclavi & Werther Dell’Edera
Ablaze
$16.99
The publisher says:
Under a persistent rain, which seems destined to never subside, Stavros lives and moves through the streets of dark and gloomy nameless city; he has a job and a fiancée, his life is normal. Yet several, different voices talk to him - sometimes whispering, sometimes whining or yelling – whenever he hears the water running. One day, Stavros wanders the city under a heavy rain; voices become insistent, revealing his deepest, unspeakable secrets as well as his dreams and memories. He is tormented by these mysterious voices, perhaps a sign of his madness. Or perhaps of a wider, collective madness, which infects everyone around him, to the point of being transmitted to the entire universe. “I hear voices.” “It’s called schizophrenia.” “No ... I only hear them when the water runs.” “It’s still called schizophrenia.” A dramatic graphic novel full of black humour, spectacular and disturbing, written with visionary power and extraordinary narrative impetus by an absolute master of comics, Tiziano Sclavi, the creator of Dylan Dog. And illustrated by one of the most important Italian comics artists of the last decade, Werther Dell’Edera, co-creator of the bestselling Something Is Killing The Children. The Voices of Water is a dystopic, dark yet magnificent graphic novel; a classic metaphor: The Wandering Hero, The Inner Journey; and a thought-provoking ride, as it conveys the frenzy and the feelings of our modern society. 112pgs colour hardcover.
World Record Holders
by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher
Drawn & Quarterly
$21.95
The publisher says:
A funny and insightful retrospective collection from a celebrated cartoonist. Universally beloved cartoonist Guy Delisle showcases a career-spanning collection of his work with a sly sense of humour and warm characterisation. Before Delisle became an international superstar with his globe-hopping travelogues, he was an animator experimenting with the comics form. Always aware of the elasticity of the human form and honing his keen observer’s eye, young Delisle created hilarious set pieces. World Record Holders ranges from wistful childhood nostalgia to chagrined post-fame encounters, touching on formally ambitious visual puns and gut-busting what-ifs. Delisle again and again shows how life is both exhilarating and embarrassing. Delisle visits an exhibition of his work in another country and is confronted by an angry spouse who blames him for destroying her marriage. A juvenile game of Bows and Arrows turns menacing as arrows shot straight up in the air turn into barely visible missiles of death. A coded message from space creates different reactions from different people―debates, dance festivals, gallery shows. Born in Québec City, Canada, in 1966, Guy Delisle now lives in the south of France with his wife and two children. Delisle spent ten years working in animation, which allowed him to learn about movement and drawing. He is best known for his travelogues about life in faraway countries: Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Pyongyang and Shenzhen. He has since expanded his oeuvre by telling a Doctors Without Borders acquaintance’s story as a nail-biting thriller (Hostage) and revisiting his teen years and first summer job (Factory Summers). 136pgs B&W paperback.
