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Top 40 Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga::
September 2019
Our cup of comics truly overfloweth this month, possibly the most PG Tips I’ve ever selected - forty in all - in one of these listings. Major creators are releasing major works. Marion Fayolle tops my recommendations, joined by Chris Ware and the first episode of Craig Thompson’s 12-issue ‘maxi-series’.
I’m also eagerly anticipating these new works of substance by Frank Santoro, Eleanor Davis, Tillie Walden and Taiyo Matsumoto…
Lyndia Barry always inspires through her instructional books of which this is her fourth…
Anthology of the month is surely this timely gatherum by leading ‘comix creatixes’...
And on the historical side, Gladys Parker finally gets her own biography by herstorian Trina Robbins, and Allan Stolz compiles the ultimate reference tome on America’s strip heritage…
Truly, there is abundance!
Agnes, Murderess
by Sarah Leavitt
Freehand Books
C$29.65
The publisher says:
Agnes, Murderess is a graphic novel inspired by the bloody legend of Agnes McVee, a roadhouse owner, madam and serial killer in the Cariboo region of British Columbia in the late nineteenth century. Fascinated by this legend which originated in a 1970s guide to buried treasure in BC, and has never been verified, Sarah Leavitt has imagined an entirely new story for the mysterious Agnes: her immigration to Canada from an isolated Scottish Island; her complex entanglement with shiny things; and her terrifying grandmother, Gormul, who haunts Agnes’s dreams and waking life. Leavitt puts a decidedly queer twist on the story, moving from women’s passionate friendships in the gardens of St John’s Wood to female relationships in the Canadian wild. At the same time, the book grapples with the dangerous pre-conceived notions held by settlers that the country was a “new world,” free of ghosts and history. Agnes, Murderess presents a tortured, complicated woman struggling to escape her past. It is a spine-chilling tale of ghosts and murder, friendship and betrayal, love and greed, fate and choice. Winner of the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature. Sarah Leavitt is the author of Tangles. 304pgs B&W paperback.
American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide
by Allan Holtz
University of Michigan Press
$150.00
The publisher says:
From its earliest appearance in the 1890s, the newspaper comic strip has told the story of America, from the Irish ghetto of the Yellow Kid to flappers, war heroes, hippies, and today’s office drones and soccer moms. American Newspaper Comics is the first comprehensive, authoritative reference work to document this fascinating history, listing over 7,000 different comic strip and cartoon features from American newspapers. This encyclopaedic book offers a wealth of information, including the start and end dates of features, their format, frequency, creators, and distribution companies. The book also includes handy cross-indexes and a guide to book-length compilations of newspaper cartoons and comics, plus a CD with samples of more than 2,000 cartoon features. 624pgs colour hardcover.
A Radical Shift in Gravity
by Nick Tapalansky & Kate Glasheen
Top Shelf / IDW
$29.99
The publisher says:
The world is changing. Gravity, a force everyone takes for granted, has begun to disappear. As a young journalist, Noah spends his days documenting the wondrous and terrifying shifts in the world around him. But Noah’s life is changing, too. Falling in love and raising a rebellious daughter adds new meaning to lie in this mysterious floating world. As he covers the invention of new sports, interviews experts, and even journeys into space, each experience shapes how Noah views the world and, in turn, his relationship with his family. And as his daughter grows older, Noah faces the challenge every parent dreads and dreams of: letting go. A Radical Shift of Gravity is a science-fiction fable: a graphic novel that explores the ties that bind a family together, the forces that threaten to pull them apart, and the quiet beauty of a world where everyone is floating away. Against the wondrous backdrop of massive planetary transformation, this stunning watercolour graphic novel explores one family’s struggle to stay grounded. 224pgs colour paperback.
Are You Listening?
by Tillie Walden
First Second
$22.99 / $17.99
The publisher says:
For fans of Speak and We Are Okay, this is an intimate and emotionally soaring story about friendship, grief, and healing from Eisner Award winner Tillie Walden. Bea is on the run. And then, she runs into Lou. The duo embarks on a long drive to nowhere, but strange happenings-some whimsical, some terrifying-seem to follow them no matter where they go. Bea and Lou are both looking for something on the road, and the journey itself may turn out to be exactly what they need. This magical realistic adventure is rich with suspense and heartbreak; startling revelations about betrayal, sexual assault and death; and exquisite examples of deeply human connections that will stay with readers long after the final gorgeously illustrated page. Available in softcover and hardcover editions. 320pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
Babylon Burning
by Toufic El Rassi
Last Gasp
$16.95
The publisher says:
From the creator of Arab in America comes a new graphic novel history of the Middle East. Babylon Burning documents key events of US and Western intervention in the Middle East and other parts of the world. Toufic El Rassi was born in Beirut during the civil war to an Egyptian mother and a Lebanese father,and was raised in the U.S. from age one. He is a writer, graphic novelist, and painter. He is also a commentator on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy. He has taught Middle East history and now teaches Humanities at Oakton Community College and Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 136pgs B&W paperback.
Bloodlust & Bonnets
by Emily McGovern
Simon & Shuster UK/AMP Adult
£14.99 / $19.99
The publisher says:
From the creator of the hit webcomic My Life As a Background Slytherin comes a hilarious graphic novel pastiche of classic Romantic literature led by a trio of queer misfits and several angry vampires. Set in early nineteenth-century Britain, Bloodlust & Bonnets follows Lucy, an unworldly debutante who desires a life of passion and intrigue-qualities which earn her the attention of Lady Violet Travesty, the leader of a local vampire cult. But before Lucy can embark on her new life of vampiric debauchery, she finds herself unexpectedly thrown together with the flamboyant poet Lord Byron and a mysterious bounty-hunter named Sham. The unlikely trio lie, flirt, fight and manipulate each other as they make their way across Britain, disrupting society balls, slaying vampires and making every effort not to betray their feelings to each other as their personal and romantic lives become increasingly entangled. 216pgs colour paperback.
Cats of the Louvre
by Taiyo Matsumoto
Viz Media
$29.99
The publisher says:
The world-renowned Louvre museum in Paris contains more than just the most famous works of art in history. At night, within its darkened galleries, an unseen and surreal world comes alive-a world witnessed only by the small family of cats that lives in the attic. Until now… Translated by Tekkonkinkreet anime film director Michael Arias. 432pgs B&W with colour hardcover.
Cromwell Stone
by Andreas
Titan Comics / Statix Press
£26.99 / $29.99
The publisher says:
An alien riddle from award-winning writer/artist Andreas, fully collected in English for the first time. The last survivors of a mysterious sea voyage have begun to disappear in unnerving ways, and Cromwell Stone must solve the mystery before it catches up with him. The truth rests on an otherworldly key stolen from that ship, which will set him on a darker, stranger path… Lovecraft meets Agatha Christie! 144pgs B&W hardcover.
Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival
by various artists, edited by Diane Noomin
Abrams Comicarts
$29.99
The publisher says:
Inspired by the global #MeToo Movement, Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival is a collection of original, nonfiction comics drawn by more than 60 female cartoonists from around the world. Featuring such noted creators as Emil Ferris, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, MariNaomi, Liana Finck and Ebony Flowers, the anthology’s contributors comprise a diverse group of many ages, sexual orientations, and races, and their personal stories convey the wide spectrum of sexual harassment and abuse that is still all too commonplace. With a percentage of profits going to RAINN, Drawing Power is an anthology that stokes the fires of progressive social upheaval, in the fight for a better, safer world. 272pgs colour hardcover.
Forbidden Harbor
by Teresa Radice & Stefano Turconi
NBM
$29.99
The publisher says:
In the summer of 1807, the Explorer, a ship from Her Majesty’s Navy, recovers a young shipwreck off the coast of Siam, Abel, who can only remember his name. He soon becomes friends with the first officer, acting as a captain because the commander of the ship has apparently absconded with the ship’s treasure. Abel returns to England with the Explorer and finds accommodation at the inn run by the fugitive captain’s three daughters. Well before he can recover his memory, however, he will discover something deeply disturbing about himself, and he will understand the true nature of some of the people who helped him. Presented in a handsome old style, worn-looking hardcover, as if taken from a ship captain’s library. An uplifting, enthralling escape. 320pgs part-colour hardcover.
Free S**t
by Charles Burns
Fantagraphics Books
$19.99
The publisher says:
Since 2000, cartoonist Charles Burns (Black Hole) has been self-publishing a secret sketchbook zine that he gives out to friends and VIPs. Burns has now compiled all twenty-five issues into a single volume for all of his fans to enjoy. Featuring finished drawings, rough sketches, process pieces and more, the book is a window into the artist’s id as well as a revealing behind-the-scenes look at how characters and motifs in works like Black Hole and Last Look have evolved. 208pgs B&W hardcover.
Ghost Tree
by Bobby Curnow & Simon Gane
IDW
$15.99
The publisher says:
A touching graphic novel about love, loss and how the past never truly stays dead. Seeking a refuge from an unhappy life, Brandt returns to his ancestral home in Japan to find a haunted tree and the departed souls that are drawn to it, including his grandfather. Getting more involved with the tree’s inhabitants, he attempts to heal some of history’s wounds but will he be able to find a measure of peace for himself when someone special from his past returns?
96pgs colour paperback.
Girl On Film
by Cecil Castellucci & various artists
Boom! Studios
$19.99
The publisher says:
One thing young Cecil was sure of from the minute she saw Star Wars was that she was going to be some kind of artiste. Probably a filmmaker. Possibly Steven Spielberg. Then, in 1980, the movie Fame came out. Cecil wasn’t allowed to see that movie. It was rated R, and she was ten. But she did watch the television show and would pretend with her friends that she was going to that school. Of course they were playing. She was not. She was destined to be an art school kid. Chronicling the life of award-winning young adult novelist and Eisner-nominated comics scribe Cecil Castellucci, with art by some of the most original illustrators in comics, Vicky Leta, Jon Berg, V. Gagnon and Melissa Duffy taking on different eras of her life, Girl On Film follows a passionate aspiring artist from a young age through adulthood to deeply examine the arduous pursuit of storytelling, while exploring the act of memory and how it recalls and reshapes what we think we truly know about ourselves. 144pgs colour paperback.
Ginseng Roots #1 (of 12)
by Craig Thompson
Uncivilized Comics
$5.00
The publisher says:
From ages 10 to 20, Craig Thompson (the author of Blankets) and his little brother Phil, toiled in Wisconsin farms. Weeding and harvesting ginseng – a medicinal herb that fetched huge profits in China – funded Craig’s youthful obsession with comic books. Now, for the first time in his career, Thompson is working in serial form, in a bimonthly comic book series. Part memoir, part travelogue, part essay, all comic book, Ginseng Roots explores class divide, agriculture, holistic healing, the 300-year long trade relationship between China and North America, childhood labor and the bond between two brothers. 32pgs B&W comic book.
Gladys Parker: A Life in Comics, A Passion for Fashion
by Trina Robbins
Hermes Press
$59.99
The publisher says:
Cartoonist Gladys Parker was unique in comics. As with Frida Kahlo, it was impossible to tell where her art left off and its creator began. Parker mixed fashion and comics and created classic characters that mimicked her sense of fashion. In fact, Parker was an exact double for her ink-and-paper creation, Mopsy. Only Gladys Parker was a fashion designer with a successful line of clothing while at the same time drawing an equally successful comic strip. Parker’s dresses bearing the Gladys Parker label were sold at her own New York shop and at high-end department stores across the country. Who better to chronicle the story of Gladys Parker than comics herstorian Trina Robbins, who in the 1960s designed clothes for hippies and rock stars out of her East Village boutique, while drawing underground comix? 256pgs colour hardcover.
Guts
by Raina Telgemeier
Scholastic Graphix
$24.99 / $12.99
The publisher says:
A true story from Raina Telgemeier, the #1 New York Times-bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning author of Smile, Sisters, Drama and Ghosts. Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. Her mom has one, too, so it’s probably just a bug. Raina eventually returns to school, where she’s dealing with the usual highs and lows: friends, not-friends and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross-out session. It soon becomes clear that Raina’s tummy trouble isn’t going away… and it coincides with her worries about food, school and changing friendships. What’s going on? Raina Telgemeier once again brings us a thoughtful, charming and funny true story about growing up and gathering the courage to face and conquer her fears. Available in softcover and hardcover editions. 224pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
I Know What I Am: The Life & Times of Artemesia Gentileschi
by Gina Sicilano
Fantagraphics Books
$29.99
The publisher says:
In seventeenth-century Rome, the extraordinary painter Artemisia Gentileschi fends off constant sexual advances as she works to become one of the greatest painters of her generation. Shockingly resonant in this current era of the #MeToo movement, I Know What I Am sheds a light on the history of routine sexual violence against woman and highlights a fierce artist who stood up to a shameful social status quo. 292pgs B&W hardcover
Internet Crusader
by George Wylesol
Avery Hill
£11.99 / $15.95
The publisher says:
‘yo. ur abt to read 1 of the greatest storys ever told. its the story abt how i went on the internet and single handedly saved the world, killed the devil and made friends w god. i call this story Internet Crusader.’ BSKskator191
Ever have one of those days where you’re talking to a smokin’ hot chick online and she turns out to be a robot working for an evil cult… and that hot chick sends a computer virus masked as dirty pictures… and that computer virus allows Satan to come through everyones computers and hypnotise them… but the family computer has parental locks on it so you don’t get the virus… and then God messages you to say you’re the only person on earth who can save human existence? Anyway, that’s the set up for this part art book, part graphic novel and 100% true, deep dive into early internet culture from creator of Ghosts, Etc. George Wylesol! 140pgs colour paperback.
Isadora
by Julie Birmant & Clément Oubrerie
SelfMadeHero
£14.99 / $24.99
The publisher says:
In 1899, performing in the drawing rooms of London’s elite, Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) was already laying the foundations for modern dance. Her performances were visceral, free-flowing and expressive; she danced barefoot. In Isadora, Julie Birmant and Clément Oubrerie capture the astonishing life and scandalous times of the so-called “Mother of Modern Dance” from her arrival in Europe to her tragic death in 1927. This extraordinary graphic novel spans Duncan’s meetings with Auguste Rodin and Loie Fuller, her dazzling on-stage career and the development of a style of dance, inspired by natural forms and Greek sculpture, that would become her enduring legacy. 144pgs colour paperback.
Islandia Vol. 1: Boreal Landing
by Marc Vedrines
Cinebook
£7.99 / $13.95
The publisher says:
A young Frenchman goes on a quest to the heart of 17th century Iceland, where he will discover the people, beliefs, legends and magic unique to that singular island. Sometime during the 1600s, Jacques, a young orphan from France stows away aboard a fishing boat heading to Icelandic waters. Willing to brave the dangers and the rough life of a sailor, he is intent on one goal: to go to Iceland. There he hopes to find answers to the mysterious visions that have plagued him since childhood, to his unexplained ability to speak and read Icelandic and also to the strange phenomena that sometimes occur around him. 52pgs colour paperback.
Levius
by Haruhisa Nakata
Viz Media
$34.99
The publisher says:
It’s the 19th century, and the world has entered the Era of Rebirth, recovering from the devastating flames of war. The sport of mechanical martial arts has galvanised the nations. Cybernetically augmented fighters turn their blood into steam and their bodies into brutal fighting-and killing-machines. Young Levius is one of those arena battlers, hell-bent on winning in order to simply survive. 680pgs B&W with colour hardcover.
Making Comics
by Lynda Barry
Drawn & Quarterly
$22.95
The publisher says:
For more than five years the cartoonist Lynda Barry has been teaching students from all majors, both graduate and undergraduate, how to make comics, how to be creative, how to not think. There is no academic lecture in this classroom. Doodling is enthusiastically encouraged. Making Comics is the follow-up to Barry’s bestselling Syllabus and this time she shares all of her comics-making exercises. At the core of Making Comics is her certainty that creativity is vital to processing the world around us. 200pgs colour paperback
Martin Peters
by Patrick Allaby
Conundrum Press
$15.00
The publisher says:
Set in a generic Fredericton suburb called Skyline Acres, this is the fictional biography of Martin Peters, a teenager with type one diabetes. The story revolves around Martin’s relationship with his on-again, off-again high school girlfriend, and how, desperate to fit in, he begins neglecting his health. His condition deteriorates until, eventually, he finds himself fighting for his life in the hospital. But how much of the story is true? 80pgs B&W paperback.
Mimi and The Wolves Vol. 1
by Alabaster Pizzo
Avery Hill
£14.99/ $19.95
The publisher says:
Mimi enjoys a quiet, productive life in her tree house in the Flat Fields with her companion Bobo, until a mysterious and disturbing recurring dream of demons and a long-haired deity becomes impossible to ignore. In the Evergreen Woods live dangerous creatures who can help her, but will she leave the comfort of her home to find answers? An epic tale of affairs, alliances, and friendships in a quest for power and self-discovery, this collects the first three volumes of Pizzo’s acclaimed, self-published series. 200pgs B&W hardcover.
Once Upon A Time in France
by Fabien Nury & Sylvain Vallée
Dead Reckoning
$29.95
The publisher says:
Winner of the Angoulême International Comics Festival Best Series Award. Based on a true story, Once Upon a Time in France follows the life of Joseph Joanovici, a Romanian Jew who immigrated to France in the 1920s and became one of the richest men in Europe as a scrap-metal magnate. During the German occupation of France, he thought his influence could keep his family safe, but he soon finds that the only way to stay one step ahead of the Nazis is to keep his friends close and his enemies closer. Though he plays both sides of the fence as a Nazi collaborator and French resistant, a tangled web of interests forms around him that proves it will take a lot more than money to pay for the survival of his family. 368pgs colour paperback.
Persephone’s Garden
by Glynnis Fawkes
Secret Acres
$21.95
The publisher says:
A children’s song inspires a love of Greek mythology in a young girl. A young woman finds a career in archeology and illustration. A young mother sees her daughter become a woman, as her own mother’s memories are lost. Persephone’s Garden is a deeply personal story and an inventive study of girlhood, womanhood and motherhood, through memory, history and mythology. 288pgs part-colour paperback.
Pittsburgh
by Frank Santoro
New York Review Comics
$29.95
The publisher says:
Pittsburgh is the story of a family and a city. Frank Santoro faces a straightforward yet heart-rending reality: His parents, once high-school sweethearts, now never speak to each other—despite working in the same building. Stuck in the middle, he tries to understand. The result is this book. Using markers, pencils, scissors and tape with a variety of papers, drawing in vivid colours and exuberant lines, Santoro constructs a multi-generational retelling of their lives. Framed by his parents’ courtship and marriage, and set amid the vital but fading neighbourhood streets, the pages of Pittsburgh are filled with details both quotidian and dramatic—from his childhood mishaps to his father’s trauma in Vietnam—interspersed throughout with the mute witness of the family dog, Pretzel. Santoro, the acclaimed author of Storeyville and Pompeii, has created his masterpiece. Pittsburgh is an extraordinary reimagining of the comics form to depict the processes of memory, and a powerful, searching account of a family taking shape, falling apart and struggling to reinvent itself, as the city around them does the same. 216pgs colour hardcover.
Pleading With Stars
by Kurt Akeny
AdHouse Books
$19.95
The publisher says:
Pleading With Stars is a collection of stories about people interacting with each other and the universe, and often finding that they themselves are smaller and yet more wondrous in comparison. From the mind and fingers of award-winning cartoonist Kurt Ankeny. 184pgs part-colour paperback.
Rat Time
by Keiler Roberts
Koyama Press
$12.00
The publisher says:
Keiler Roberts is a droll documentarian, unfaltering in her ability to find humour and levity in her life’s unflattering moments. Pet deaths and parenting, embarrassing childhood memories and mental illness, Roberts documents her daily life’s minutiae, its ups and downs, with the deftness of an observational comedian. Her comics demonstrate that sometimes life can deal you a punch to the gut, but it doesn’t have to be devoid of a punchline. 124pgs B&W paperback.
Rusty Brown
by Chris Ware
Pantheon Books / Jonathan Cape
$35.00 / £25.00
The publisher says:
A major graphic novel event more than 16 years in progress. Rusty Brown is a fully interactive, full-colour articulation of the time-space interrelationships of three complete consciousnesses in the first half of a single midwestern American day and the tiny piece of human grit about which they involuntarily orbit. A sprawling, special snowflake accumulation of the biggest themes and the smallest moments of life, Rusty Brown literately and literally aims at nothing less than the coalescence of one half of all of existence into a single museum-quality picture story, expertly arranged to present the most convincingly ineffable and empathetic illusion of experience for both life-curious readers and traditional fans of standard reality. From childhood to old age, no frozen plotline is left unthawed in the entangled stories of a child who awakens without superpowers, a teen who matures into a paternal despot, a father who stores his emotional regrets on the surface of Mars and a late-middle-aged woman who seeks the love of only one other person on planet Earth. 352pgs colour hardcover.
Stunt
by Michael Deforge
Koyama Press
$15.00
The publisher says:
A stunt double is hired by an actor to serve as his doppelgänger in order to sabotage his career. Seeing your double is often viewed as an ill omen, a portent of bad luck and a harbinger of death. Hiring a professional double, an actor spurs on his own demise as he and his double explore the depths of degradation and self-destruction. 72pgs colour paperback.
Taxi: Stories From The Backseat
by Aimee De Jongh
Conundrum Press
$17.00
The publisher says:
Aimée de Jongh, one of the brightest new talents in Europe, creates her first autobiographical work, focusing on her taxi rides from four cities: Los Angeles, Paris, Jakarta and Washington, DC. Despite the stunning and detailed streetscapes she passes, de Jongh discovers she’s more interested in the cab drivers than the view from the backseat. As the drivers slowly open up about their personal lives, de Jongh does too, even when it means challenging her own ideas and prejudices. Through these vulnerable, and often humorous, moments, de Jongh finds common ground with the people driving her. Taxi is an ode to taxi drivers everywhere. 96pgs B&W paperback.
The ABC of Typography
by David Rault & various artists
SelfMadeHero
£14.99 / $24.99
The publisher says:
Typography confronts us everywhere: in books and newspapers, on road signs, in product packaging and on political leaflets. Fonts spark emotions; they evoke eras and ideologies. Some, like Edward Johnson’s for the London Underground, have become iconic. Others, like Comic Sans, are loathed. Each one has its own place in history. The ABC of Typography traces 3,500 years of type from Sumerian pictographs through Roman calligraphy to Gutenberg, the Bauhaus and beyond. Brimming with insight and anecdote, this witty and well-informed graphic guide explores the historical, technological and cultural shifts that have defined the look of the words we read. 128pgs colour hardcover.
The Crossover
by Kwame Alexander & Dawud Anyabwite
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
$22.99 / $12.99
The publisher says:
Thanks to their dad, Josh Bell and his twin brother Jordan are kings on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood–he’s got mad beats, too, which help him find his rhythm when it’s all on the line. As their winning season unfolds, things begin to change. When Jordan meets a girl, the twins’ bond unravels. Josh and Jordan must grow up on and off the court and realise breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story’s heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family. Told in dynamic verse, this fast and furious middle-grade novel bounces with rhythm and bursts with heart. Available in softcover and hardcover editions. 224pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
The Hard Tomorrow
by Eleanor Davis
Drawn & Quarterly
$22.95
The publisher says:
Hannah is a thirty-something wife, home-health worker and antiwar activist. Her husband, Johnny, is a stay-at-home pothead working–or “working”–on building them a house before the winter chill sets in. They’re currently living and screwing in the back of a truck, hoping for a pregnancy, which seems like it will never come. Told with tenderness and care in an undefined near future, Eleanor Davis’s The Hard Tomorrow blazes unrestrained, as moments of human connection are doused in fear and threats. 156pgs B&W paperback.
The Hat Boyz
by Erick Pepper Rivera
One Peace Books
$16.95
The publisher says:
Benny, a half black, half Mexican teenager, is awaiting a letter from the court to find out if he’ll be sent to an affluent neighbourhood to live with his father. But before the letter arrives, he’s extorted by his mother’s boyfriend. Now he has to sell drugs to keep his addicted mother out of prostitution. The only thing is, he doesn’t know how. Only his street-smart Chicano friend Indie can help out. To finish the job, the two attend a backyard punk show in South Central LA. But when things go wrong, Benny comes face to face with the LAPD in an uncompromising situation. 160pgs colour paperback.
The Illuminati Ball
by Cynthia Von Buhler
Titan Comics
£26.99 / $29.99
The publisher says:
Acclaimed author and visual artist Cynthia von Buhler (Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini) brings her hit immersive theater production The Illuminati Ball to the page in an all-new graphic novel. A secret organisation of the rich and powerful control the world, yet on the eve of a fabulous party for its members, the human-animal hybrids trapped in its experimental lab stage a break-out. The Illuminati Ball merges myth and mystery to tell an unforgettable story about power, cruelty, deceit, betrayal and insatiable hunger for freedom. 88pgs colour hardcover.
The Invisible Empire: Madge Overholtzer and The Unmasking of The Ku Klux Klan
by Micky Neilson, Marc Borstel, Todd Warger
Insight Comics
$24.99
The publisher says:
In 1925 the KKK in Indiana counted one third of the state’s white population among its ranks. It was seen as a very patriotic, pro-working class organisation. However, the case of Madge Oberholtzer would change that forever. Madge worked for D.C. Stephenson, a powerful politician in Indiana and former KKK Grand Dragon, who led a coup dividing the Northern Klan. On March 15th, Stephenson and his henchmen abducted Madge at gunpoint and took her to Chicago, where Stephenson called himself the “law in Indiana” and proceeded to brutally beat and victimise her. Before succumbing to her injuries, Madge provided a full statement of her abuse, exposing the depths of Indiana’s political corruption and lay bare the true face of the Ku Klux Klan, a revelation that would have a ripple effect on America’s impression of the Klan from that day forward. 112pgs B&W hardcover.
The Man who Come Down the Attic Stairs
by Celine Leloup
Archaia
$14.99
The publisher says:
After moving into a new home and giving birth to her first child, a woman worries that a supernatural force is haunting her child’s nursery, and has corrupted her husband into a creature intent on harming them both. Emma is excited to start a family in her new home, but after her child’s birth she finds her world turning upside-down. The infant cries like it’s scared of something, or someone, and Emma’s sleepless nights quickly drive a wedge between her and her husband, who seems uncharacteristically detached. When Emma begins to see strange things in the house, the line between reality and fantasy blurs and her grasp of what’s real and what’s not becomes even more clouded. Is something unnatural haunting the nursery? And what if it also affected her husband, who ventured up into the attic when they first arrived… Inspired by the works of Shirley Jackson and Ira Levin, Celine Loup’s The Man Who Came Down the Attic Stairs weaves a tale of horror and suspense that captures the isolation of postpartum depression, while exploring the very real fears associated with new motherhood. 48pgs B&W hardcover.
The Red Zone: An Earthquake Story
by Silvia Vecchini & Sualzo
Harry N. Abrams
$15.99
The publisher says:
An Italian town deals with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. Matteo, Guilia, and Federico have ordinary lives: they spend time with friends, help out their families, go to school, and deal with the many mood swings that come with growing up. Then, in a single night, everything changes. The ground shakes. An earthquake devastates their town and their security. But after everything is gone, life must go on. Anger and fear affect everyone in the community, but each of them must find a way to begin again. In the aftermath, the roots for stronger friendships can be laid amid the rubble. This graphic novel provides a look at how natural disaster can strike and forever change a community. 144pgs colour hardcover.
The Tenderness of Stones
by Marion Fayolle
New York Review Comics
$32.95
The publisher says:
A surreal and stunningly beautiful graphic novel about death, mourning, and family by one of the most promising young artists working today. “We buried one of dad’s lungs,” announces the narrator of The Tenderness of Stones. The lung is so large it takes three men to carry it—and that is just the beginning. The family looks on as, under the dispassionate orders of anonymous white-clad strangers, their father is disassembled, piece by piece: His nose is removed from his face and tied, temporarily, to his neck; his other lung is pulled out and he is forced to lug it around in a cart; his mouth is pried off and stored away, leaving him mute. Beneath it all is one devastating truth: soon, he will be gone entirely. Marion Fayolle is one of the most innovative young artists in contemporary comics, and in this startling, gorgeously drawn fable she offers a vision of family illness and grief that is by turns playful and profound, literal and lyrical. She captures the strange swirl of love, resentment, grief and humour that comes as we watch a loved one transformed before our eyes, and learn to live without them. 144pgs colour hardcover.
Twice Shy
by Joel Orloff
Alternative Comics
$14.99
The publisher says:
Bob Frank is a Twin Cities cab driver and part time cartoonist without much direction in his life. A surprise postcard from a long-lost love opens up a whole new world. Bob is an artist with a creative block who loses himself in an aimless existence; while Casey suffers from deep-seated anxiety and feelings of abandonment. Brought together through an unexpected circumstance, they begin to open up and trust each other, gradually finding that their fears of being hurt are overcome by the simple joys that they now share. As they tentatively try to build a life together, the harsh realities of the outside world begin to intrude on their happiness, but the experience changes them both in fundamental ways. 132pgs B&W paperback.
White Bird
by R.J. Palacio
Knopf Books for Young Readers
$24.99
The publisher says:
Inspired by her blockbuster phenomenon Wonder, R. J. Palacio makes her graphic novel debut with an unforgettable story of the power of kindness and unrelenting courage in a time of war. In R. J. Palacio’s bestselling collection of stories Auggie & Me, readers were introduced to Julian’s grandmother, Grandmère. Here, Palacio tells Grandmère’s heartrending story: how she, a young Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II; how the boy she and her classmates once shunned became her saviour and best friend. Sara’s harrowing experience movingly demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges and even save lives. As Grandmère tells Julian, “It always takes courage to be kind, but in those days, such kindness could cost you everything.” With poignant symbolism and gorgeous artwork that brings Sara’s story out of the past and cements it firmly in this moment in history, White Bird is sure to captivate anyone who was moved by the book Wonder or the blockbuster movie adaptation and its message. 224pgs colour hardcover.
