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Top 40 Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga:
April 2021
Spring is springy and full of bounce as a bumper bundle of fresh releases of and about comics head our way starting from April 2021. These are just a few I’ve picked out as my top recommendations but there’s plenty more to whet your appetite. Enjoy browsing my PG Tips!
A Fire Story: Updated and Expanded Edition
by Brian Fies
Abrams ComicArts
$18.99
The publisher says:
Early morning on Monday, October 9, 2017, wildfires burned through Northern California, resulting in 44 fatalities. In addition, 6,200 homes and 8,900 structures were destroyed. Author Brian Fies’s firsthand account of this tragic event is an honest, unflinching depiction of his personal experiences, including losing his house and every possession he and his wife had that didn’t fit into the back of their car. A Fire Story is a candid testimony of the wildfires that left homes destroyed, families broken, and a community determined to rebuild. The updated edition comes with 32 pages of all-new material, expanding the story past the events of the hardcover edition to talk about the Fries’s rebuilding their lives, including dealing with insurance, contractors and their own sometimes volatile emotions. It ends with their evacuation due to a second fire, two years after the one that destroyed their home. 192pgs colour paperback.
Beatnik Buenos Aires
by Diego Arandojo & Facundo Percio
Fantagraphics
$19.99
The publisher says:
Set in 1963, this graphic novel celebrates a time in Argentine history when its art scene blossomed. When night falls in Buenos Aires, the city comes alive. Artists flock to cafes and dives to exchange ideas, listen to music, watch outré performance art, pen poetry, fall in love. In these raucous, smoke-filled rooms, the bohemian heart and soul of this vibrant city, a conflagration of creative energy burns. With the improvisational pacing of a jazz performance, Beatnik Buenos Aires follows the lives of writers, painters, musicians, sculptors and performers as they wind their way through these hubs of creative life, seeking out inspiration and grappling with their craft. Writer Diego Arandojo and illustrator Facundo Percio come together to weave the rich tapestry of Buenos Aires in the time of the beatnik. Arandojo’s dialogue lends a poetic quality to these lively characters, while Percio’s charcoal drawings perfectly capture the rough charm of this eclectic community of artists and the seedy, smoky locales they inhabit. Diego Arandojo is an Argentine author, scriptwriter, award-winning film and TV documentarian, and filmmaker. In addition to writing short fiction, novels, graphic novels, children’s radio plays and more, he runs the digital magazine Lafarium . Facundo Percio is an Argentine comics artist located in Buenos Aires. He’s worked with writers such as Alan Moore and Warren Ellis, and has drawn Star Wars comics. 96pgs colour paperback.
Before They Were Artists: Famous Illustrators As Kids
by Elizabeth Haidle
Etch / HMH Books for Young Readers
$21.99
The publisher says:
This vibrantly illustrated graphic novel anthology brings to life the childhood experiences of beloved artists and illustrators such as Wanda Gág, Maurice Sendak, and Jerry Pinkney. Stylish illustrations paired with small vignettes and anecdotes from the artists’ early lives helps illuminate the hard work, triumphs, failures, and inspiration that helped forge their successful careers. What makes an artist? What sparks their imagination? Where do their creativity and unique style come from? Striking illustrations and a graphic novel format bring to life this anthology of legendary artists and their childhoods. Featuring beloved artists such as Wanda Gág, Maurice Sendak, Tove Jansson, Jerry Pinkney, Yuyi Morales and Hayao Miyazaki, these stories capture the childhood triumphs, failures, and inspirations that predated their careers. Children will see themselves in these portraits and find a celebration of creativity filled with writing wisdom and inspiring quotes. Elizabeth Haidle is the co-founder of Mascot Press, creating thought-provoking comics and animations. She has an incurable passion for illustrated biographies and low-maintenance gardening. Her first book, at age 13, was about a grumpy elf with a pet snail. Bill Peet is her favorite children’s book author. She lives in Portland, Oregon. 64pgs colour hardcover.
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles
by Fermin Solis
SelfMadeHero
$22.99
The publisher says:
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles depicts a decisive moment in the life of the great Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel: the moment when he doubted surrealism and contemplated embracing a more social type of cinema. At this crucial turning point in his career, he wanted to change the world by showing the hidden heart of reality. Buñuel was deeply affected by the harshness of Las Hurdes and the extreme misery of the people who lived in this remote region, so with his friend, the movie producer Ramón Acín, he began work on the pseudo-documentary Land Without Bread. But in the mind of the great surrealist, reality inevitably clashed with dreams and childhood memories, threatening both the film and his friendship with Acín. It was at this moment that the Buñuel of the future was born. Fermín Solís is a renowned Spanish cartoonist, animator, and illustrator, who alternates between work as a comic book artist, textbook illustrator, and children’s book creator. His books have been published by leading independent publishers in the United States, Canada, and France, and he has been nominated at the Comic de Barcelona, INJUVE, and the National Comic Award. 120pgs colour paperback.
Championess
by Kelly Zekas, Tarun Shanker & Amanda Perez
Legendary Comics
$21.99
The publisher says:
Based on a true story, In eighteenth century London, Elizabeth Wilkinson is struggling to make ends meet for her and her sister Tess. While Elizabeth works odd jobs at the local newspaper, her true passion is bare-kuckle boxing. The only way to make enough money off of boxing is to train with one of the famous retired boxers and the only real fight promoter of any notoriety, James Figg. Figg refuses to train Elizabeth at first because she is a woman, but she cunningly forces his hand by taking an ad in the newspaper and claiming that she will fight another female bare-knuckle boxer as Figg’s pupil. As Elizabeth trains with Figg and James Stokes, she is forced to come to terms with her half-Indian side and her criminal father as she faces the powerful female bare-knuckle boxers of her day.Kelly Zekas, a New York University graduate, writes, acts, and reads in New York City. YA is her absolute favourite thing on earth (other than cupcakes), and she has spent many hours crying over fictional deaths. She also started reading Harlequin romances at a possible too-early age (twelve?) and still loves a good historical romance. Mild-mannered assistant by day, milder-mannered writer by night, Tarun Shanker is a New York University graduate currently living in Waltham, MA. His idea of paradise is a place where kung fu movies are projected on clouds, David Bowie’s music fills the air, and chai tea flows freely from fountains. Together, they are the authors of These Vicious Masks and These Ruthless Deeds. TBCpgs B&W paperback.
Esther’s Notebooks: Tales from my ten-year-old life Vol. 1
by Riad Sattouf
Pushkin Press
£12.99
The publisher says:
Every week, the comic book artist Riad Sattouf talks to his friend’s daughter, Esther. She tells him about her life, about school, her friends, her hopes, dreams and fears, and then he works it up into a comic strip. This book consists of 52 of those strips, telling between them the story of a year in the life of this sharp, spirited and hilarious child. The result is a moving, insightful and utterly addictive glimpse into the real lives of children growing up in today’s world. Riad Sattouf is a bestselling cartoonist and filmmaker who grew up in Syria and Libya and now lives in Paris. His autobiographical series The Arab of the Future has sold more than 600,000 copies in France alone, won multiple prizes and been translated into sixteen languages. The Esther’s Notebooks series has also sold hundreds of thousands of copies in France, been adapted for a popular animated TV series, and is being translated into 7 languages. Riad was recently selected to become a member of The Order of Arts and Letters, one of France’s highest honours. 56pgs part-colour paperback.
Everyone is Tulip
by Dave Baker & Nicole Goux
Dark Horse
$19.99
The publisher says:
Centred around the aspiring actress Becca and her whirlwind rise to stardom, Everyone is Tulip is an original graphic novel that explores what it means to be a “star” in a generation that places more attention and value on YouTube clips and memes than it does Hollywood celebrities.Becca Harper lands an acting role she didn’t think would go anywhere, and suddenly finds herself flung into a “15 minutes of fame” that sees her likeness not up in lights, but in memes, reaction videos, and even conspiracy theories. Donning the guise of “Tulip” for an experimental artsy video, directed by an affluent jerk (that she somehow ends up dating), Becca’s dreams seem to have come true when her persona becomes the talk of the internet. With a sudden army of fans, complications arise when Becca begins to question whether or not she has the right to consider herself a star. Created by indie comic all-stars Dave Baker (Star Trek: Voyager - Seven’s Reckoning, F*ck Off Squad, Night Hunters) and Nicole Goux (Shadow of The Batgirl, F*ck Off Squad, Jem and The Holograms: Dimensions 3, Murders), Everyone is Tulip is a deeply psychological exploration of the new frontier of modern media and the discomfort of internet fame. Originally from the drug-infested wasteland that is Arizona, Dave Baker writes and draws things. He’s written everything from infomercials to feature films. He’s worked for companies such as 20th Century Fox Home Video, Universal, and Disney XD. He also writes the comic books Suicide Forest, F*ck Off Squad, Teenage Switchblade, This Is Not A Girl Gang, and Professor Cuties. He’s currently writing and co-drawing the comic book Action Hospital. 184pgs colour paperback.
Fat
by Regina Hofer
Graphic Mundi
$17.50
The publisher says:
At sixteen, Regina began cutting back on meals to the point where her hair started to fall out. Later, she began to secretly binge at night while her family slept. For a long time, she was able to keep her eating disorder a secret, though hiding her problem didn’t stop it from harming her emotional and physical well-being. The pressures of wanting to succeed as an artist led her to a nervous breakdown and finally a strong desire to start from scratch. In Fat, Austrian-born author and artist Regina Hofer documents her battle with anorexia and bulimia. This powerful and imaginative graphic novel follows Regina from her childhood home in Upper Austria, where food and family mealtimes were often associated with feelings of personal failure, to art school at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and a violent reckoning with her dysfunctional family. Vivid and courageous, this memoir will resonate with anyone living through or seeking to understand what it is like to live with an eating disorder. Regina Hofer was born in Linz, Austria. She is a freelance animator and illustrator, and she holds degrees in graphic design from the Mozarteum University Salzburg and painting and graphic design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Originally published in German, Fat is her first graphic novel. 120pgs colour paperback.
Fictional Father
by Joe Ollmann
Drawn & Quarterly
$24.95
The publisher says:
Caleb is a middle-aged painter with a non-starter career. He also happens to be the only child of one of the world’s most famous cartoonists, Jimmi Wyatt. Known for the internationally beloved father-and-son comic Sonny Side Up, Jimmi made millions drawing saccharine family stories while neglecting his own son. Now sober, Caleb is haunted by his wasted past and struggling to take responsibility for his present before it’s too late. His always patient boyfriend, James, is reaching the end of his rope. When Caleb gets the chance to step out from his father’s shadow and shape the most public aspect of the family business, he makes every bad decision and watches his life fall apart. Is it too late to repair the harm? Are we forever doomed to make the same mistakes our parents did? Joe Ollmann lives in Hamilton, the Riviera of Southern Ontario. He is the winner of the Doug Wright Award for Best Book in 2007 and loser of the same award another time. 212pgs colour paperback.
Grandville Intégral
by Bryan Talbot
Dark Horse / Jonathan Cape
$69.99
The publisher says:
Beware the Badger! The acclaimed steampunk series from graphic-novel pioneer Bryan Talbot explores an alternate art-nouveau world populated by intelligent animals, a human underclass, and wondrous technology. Within this rich fantastical milieu, the relentless Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard pursues shadowy death squads, psychotic killers, dark political conspiracies, ruthless crime lords, and bloodthirsty cults through the streets of London and the Belle Epoque Paris known as Grandville, the centre of the greatest empire on Earth. Grandville Intégral collects all five Grandville novels in one deluxe hardcover volume accompanied by voluminous author notes never before in print. Collects Grandville, Grandville Mon Amour, Grandville Noël, Grandville Bete Noire and Grandville Force Majeure. Bryan Talbot is a British comic book artist and writer, best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, its sequel Heart of Empire, the award-winning Tale of One Bad Rat and the anthropromorphic steampunk series Grandville. He also collaborated with his wife, Mary M. Talbot, to produce Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, which won the 2012 Costa biography award. 608pgs colour hardcover.
Hardears
by Matthew Clarke & Nigel Lynch
Abrams ComicArts
$24.99
The publisher says:
Barbadian folklore meets superheroes in this Afro-Caribbean fantasy adventure story. Hardears is an Afro-Caribbean fantasy-adventure graphic novel by Matthew Clarke and Nigel Lynch. The story takes place in an alternative world on Jouvert Island, a magical analogue of the island of Barbados, and begins when a superstorm of unprecedented strength obliterates the island, leaving it totally defenceless. As the island reels from the devastation, Mr. Harding, the head of the Merchant Guild, charges in and promises to rebuild the economy of the island by creating jobs in his giant corporation. However, it’s soon discovered that Harding is a parasite and is capturing people from the island and using their life essence or vibes to feed his factories. Bolo, a local hero, saves his love Zahrah from Hardin and cronies but the lovers are then framed as rebels against the state. The state has been compromised by the factories and the workers who know the truth about Harding must go into hiding. If Bolo, Zahrah, and their allies don’t take down Harding and the corrupt government, all will be lost. Together, they must find the strength of their island and ancestors to fight the evil forces that have taken over their homeland. Matthew Clarke is a creative director, illustrator, graphic designer, comics writer, and sequential artist based in Barbados. He has worked in the advertising industry in Barbados for a decade and has extensive experience in publication design, art direction, and brand identity. He is a primary creator and principal with the independent comics collective Beyond Publishing. Nigel Lynch is a Barbadian writer and one of the founding members of Beyond Publishing. For the past eight years, he has created numerous comics and graphic novels, including Shades of Grey: Life and Death in Paradise, and co-written many comics in the company’s canon. Throughout the years, Lynch has garnered awards for his work, including an ADDY and an American Advertising Award. With an Afterword by Cathy Thomas. 208pgs colour hardcover.
Hard Melody
by Lu Ming
Magnetic Press
$19.99
The publisher says:
Three thirty-year-old friends reunite in Beijing after nearly 10 years apart. They used to be free-wheeling rock-and-rollers without a care in the world, but now, after tasting their own variation of freedom in new China, they are tormented by how unforgiving and unglamorous life had become. Nothing at all like the fame and fortune they dreamed about as kids. After comparing stories of disappointment over beers, they are reminded of how much youth they’ve lost when a group of kids torments them into a brawl. Re-energised by the encounter, they decide to reform the band and this time take over the world. But reality gets in the way when one of them finds out his family is going to be evicted along with their whole neighbourhood due to shady government zoning. Putting their dreams aside to fight for their rightful property, they find themselves in a violent uprising pitting neighbourhood residents against police and bulldozers… And when the heat gets turned up high enough, fuses are bound to be lit… A story of youthful dreams clashing with the reality of adulthood, set against the backdrop of modern China. 104pgs colour hardcover.
Hirschfeld: The Biography
by Ellen Stern
Skyhorse
$27.99
The publisher says:
Al Hirschfeld knew everybody and drew everybody. He occupied the twentieth century, and illustrated it. Hirschfeld: The Biography is the first portrait of the renowned artist’s life, as spirited and unique as his pen-and-ink drawings. Beginning in the 1920s, he caricatured Hollywood actors, Washington politicians, and celebrities of the stage. Broadway belonged to Hirschfeld. His work appeared in the New York Times and other publications, as well as on book jackets, album covers, posters, and postage stamps, for more than seventy-five years. He lived in Paris, Moscow, and Bali, and in a pink New York townhouse on a star-studded block where his closest friends—Carol Channing, S. J. Perelman, Gloria Vanderbilt, Brooks Atkinson, Elia Kazan, Marlene Dietrich, and William Saroyan—flocked in and out. He played the piano, went to jazz joints with Eugene O’Neill, and wrote a musical that bombed. He drove until he was ninety-eight years old and always found a parking space. He worked every day, threw dinner parties twice a week, and hosted New Year’s Eve soirees that were legendary. He had three wives, a formidable agent, and a daughter, Nina, the most famous little girl that no one knows. Hirschfeld died in 2003, at the age of ninety-nine. “If you live long enough,” he liked to say, “everything happens.” For him, it did. And good and bad—it’s all here. Through interviews with Hirschfeld himself, his friends and family (including the mysterious Nina), and his famous subjects, as well as through letters, scrapbooks, and home movies, Ellen Stern has crafted a delightful, detailed, and definitive portrait of Al Hirschfeld, one of our most beloved, and most influential, artists. Ellen Stern wrote the Best Bets column in New York magazine for ten years and was a writer and editor at the New York Daily News, the East Side Express, and GQ. Her books include The Very Best from Hallmark, Once Upon a Telephone, Sister Sets, Threads and Gracie Mansion. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and she graduated from Juilliard. She lives in New York City. 336pgs hardcover.
History of Hentai Manga
by Kimi Rito
Fakku
$19.99
The publisher says:
While manga is now a well known entity in the global publishing scene, the medium’s international success has its roots in the realm of eros. Japanese media critic Kimi Rito dives into the history of manga’s erotic world a genre known internationally simply as hentai. What are the origins of hentai? Who are the people making hentai? Who are the people reading these works? And what is the medium ultimately trying to express beyond sexuality? Rito looks at the content from a number of perspectives covering everything from the indie comics scene (doujinshi) to how hentai’s symbolism has extended far beyond Japan and its comics industry. Media critic Kimi Rito is an award winning writer with a focus on comics and animation. A regular in Japan’s manga criticism scene, Rito is best known for his research on the proliferation of erotic symbolism within science fiction and comics. His self-published work EroManga and SF was given the 24th Ankoku Seiun Award at the 2014 Japan Science Fiction Festival. A member of the Japan Society for Studies in Cartoons and Comics Rito has been a frequent guest at North American anime events such as AnimeExpo. 392pgs B&W paperback.
Hokusai A Graphic Biography
by Francesco Matteuzzi & Giuseppe Latanza
Laurence King Publishing
$19.99
The publisher says:
Enter the world of Katsushika Hokusai, the enigmatic creator of Japanese art’s all-time most iconic image. Telling the story of both his eccentric (and incredibly productive) life, while simultaneously painting a fascination picture of his wider cultural legacy, this book is ideal for both those new to Hokusai’s work and his biggest fans. This vivid graphic biography tells the story of Hokusai’s intriguing life and pioneering works, details the fascinating historical context of Edo-era Japan, and explains how Hokusai forged an image of his country that still resonates across the world today. Telling the story of both his eccentric (and incredibly productive) life – while simultaneously painting a fascination picture of his wider cultural legacy, this book is ideal for both those new to Hokusai’s work – and his biggest fans. Those who enjoyed Basquiat: A Graphic Novel by Paolo Parisi or Pollock Confidential: A Graphic Novel by Onofrio Catacchio should look at this too. Francesco Matteuzzi is a journalist, screenwriter, editor and author of children’s books. His graphic books include a biography of Anna Politkovskaja. Giuseppe Latanza is a cartoonist and illustrator, who has been a professor at Graphite-School of Graphics and Comics since 2012. 128pgs colour hardcover.
In Pictopia
by The Writer & Don Simpson, with Mike Kazaleh, Pete Poplaski & Eric Vincent
Fantagraphics Books
$20.00
The publisher says:
In Pictopia is the legendary comic created in 1986, written by the era’s most adventurous mainstream comics writer and drawn by a bevy of indie cartoonists—helmed by Don Simpson, with Mike Kazaleh, Pete Poplaski, and Eric Vincent. Presented here for the first time, scanned from the original line art and full-colour painted boards, in an appropriately oversized format. Pictopia is the allegorical city inhabited by old, forgotten, but once famous and iconic comics characters, now considered pitiable has-beens by the popular new comics characters who are cheerfully and inevitably taking their places in the pop culture pantheon of celebrity. It is both a paean to timeless, beloved comics characters and a scathing critique of the then-contemporary comics sub-culture. 28pgs colour oversized paperback.
Jerry Siegel’s The Syndicate of Crime
by Jerry Siegel, Ted Cowan & Reg Bunn
Rebellion / 2000AD
$19.99
The publisher says:
Equipped with a razor-sharp mind, superb athletic ability and a vast array of cutting edge gadgets, The Spider has his sights set on taking over the New York underworld and establishing a “Syndicate of Crime”! Join the menacing Spider on his earliest adventures, recruiting other fiends into his fledging empire and seeing off competition from other villainous foes, including the master of illusion, Mirror Man! Fully remastered and collected for the first time, this volume presents many of the super-crook’s exciting 1960’s adventures which sprang from the imagination of Superman co-creator, Jerry Siegel. 144pgs B&W paperback.
Lonesome Vol. 1: Preacher’s Trail
by Yves Swolfs
Cinebook
$13.95
The publisher says:
Kansas, 1861. As tensions rise between the Northern and Southern states, a fanatical, violent preacher leaves a trail of corpses behind him, all the while calling people to take up arms against pro-slavery states. Close on his tail is a lone rider with a strange gift: he can read the past and future of those he touches. In the small town of Holton, a showdown is brewing, but things aren’t as straightforward as they seem… The first volume of a Western with supernatural overtones. 56pgs colour paperback.
Lovesickness
by Junji Ito
Viz Media
$22.99
The publisher says:
An innocent love becomes a bloody hell in another superb collection by master of horror Junji Ito. Ryusuke returns to the town he once lived in because rumours are swirling about girls killing themselves after encountering a bewitchingly handsome young man. Harbouring his own secret from time spent in this town, Ryusuke attempts to capture the beautiful boy and close the case, but… Starting with the strikingly bloody “Lovesickness,” this volume collects ten stories showcasing horror master Junji Ito in peak form, including “The Strange Hikizuri Siblings” and “The Rib Woman.” For older teen audiences. 408pgs B&W hardcover.
Mixed-Race Superheroes
by Sika A Dagbovie-Mullins & Eric L. Berlatsky
Rutgers University Press
$74.95 / $32.95
The publisher says:
American culture has long represented mixed-race identity in paradoxical terms. On the one hand, it has been associated with weakness, abnormality, impurity, transgression, shame, and various pathologies; however, it can also connote genetic superiority, exceptional beauty, and special potentiality. This ambivalence has found its way into superhero media, which runs the gamut from Ant-Man and the Wasp’s tragic mulatta villain Ghost to the cinematic depiction of Aquaman as a heroic “half-breed.” The essays in this collection contend with the multitude of ways that racial mixedness has been presented in superhero comics, films, television and literature. They explore how superhero media positions mixed-race characters within a genre that has historically privileged racial purity and propagated images of white supremacy. The book considers such iconic heroes as Superman, Spider-Man and The Hulk, alongside such lesser-studied characters as Valkyrie, Dr. Fate and Steven Universe. Examining both literal and symbolic representations of racial mixing, this study interrogates how we might challenge and rewrite stereotypical narratives about mixed-race identity, both in superhero media and beyond. Sika A Dagbovie-Mullins is an associate professor of English at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Her publications include the book Crossing B(l)ack: Mixed Race Identity in Modern American Fiction and Culture. Eric L. Berlatsky is a professor of English at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where he also serves as the associate dean of graduate studies and directs the Ph.D. program in comparative studies. His books include The Real, the True, and the Told: Postmodern Historical Narrative and the Ethics of Representation and the edited volume Alan Moore: Conversations. 292pgs B&W hardcover / paperback.
MPLS Sound
by Joseph Illidge, Hannibal Tabu, Meredith Laxton & Jen Bartel
Humanoids Inc. / Life Drawn
$19.99
The publisher says:
Theresa Booker was hardly the first singer-songwriter to be inspired by His Royal Badness-but she was the most determined. Minneapolis, 1982. Dozens of young bands, playing day and night in bars and clubs across the city, dream of being noticed by the musical genius Prince, revered as a guru and a powerbroker. But when Theresa and her band Starchild are offered the opportunity of a lifetime-to be taken in and mentored by their idol-they soon find that there’s a dark side to fame and fortune that could turn their dream into a nightmare. MPLS Sound is the ultimate love letter to the legendary Minneapolis funk-rock sound of the 1980s and to the funky pop-rock sound that made The Artist Formerly Known as Prince a legend. Joseph Illidge is a publishing executive, editorial director, creative showrunner, writer and public speaker. His career in the publishing and media industries includes groundbreaking work for DC Entertainment, Heavy Metal, Valiant Entertainment, and various companies dedicated to storytelling narratives and their creators. His media coverage includes The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN Money, BBC and Publishers Weekly. Joseph has been a speaker at the San Diego Comic-Con, The Apollo Theater, Purdue University, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Skidmore College, The School of Visual Arts, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Center for Fiction, and The San Francisco Public Library. Joseph was the Keynote Speaker at the C3 Comic Creator Conference in Long Beach, CA. Hannibal Tabu is a son, brother, husband, uncle, father and friend. He lives in southern Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters. He’s a professional writer, editor, project manager and web producer, working with companies as varied as AOL, Quicken.com, Toyota Motor Sales, Express.com, California Association of REALTORS, Kaiser Permanente, Disney Channel, eHobbies/NextPlanetOver.com and American Honda. He’s worked for more than two decades as a journalist, being published in Vibe, The Source, Rap Pages, Black Enterprise, The Los Angeles Sentinel and on MTV Online. Hannibal has been writing since he was eight (when he wrote a truly atrocious novel about a very petty pantheon of gods), and has seen his poetry published in The Drumming Between Us, Voices From Leimert Park, Drumvoices Review, (Sic) Vice Verse, MultiVerse and other journals and anthologies. Former editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Herald-Dispatch group of newspapers, Hannibal is also the author of novels The Crown: Ascension and Faraway and the upcoming sci fi political thriller Rogue Nation . He won the 2012 Top Cow Talent Hunt and has written for Image Comics, Wunderman Comics, Legends Press, Aspen Comics, Canon Comics, Stranger Comics and New Paradigm Studios. Hannibal writes The Buy Pile, a weekly comics reviews column for Comic Book Resources (http://cbr.cc). Meredith Laxton is a freelance illustrator from the capital of North Carolina. She has long been inspired by the storytelling of comics and tabletop RPGs. Her background in multimedia design and animation has aided her art career in the indie gaming scene with companies like Puny Human Games and InXile entertainment. Nowadays, Meredith resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she received her M.F.A. in Sequential Art. 128pgs colour paperback.
My Begging Chart
by Keiler Roberts
Drawn & Quarterly
$19.95
The publisher says:
One of comics preeminent humorists for The AV Club, Keiler Roberts mines the passing moments of family life to deliver an affecting and funny account of what it means to simultaneously exist as a mother, daughter, wife, and artist. Drawn in an unassuming yet charming staccato that mimics the awkward rhythm of life, no one s foibles are left unspared, most often the author s own. When Roberts considers whether or not to dust the ceiling fan, it s effectively relevant. She can get lost in the rewarding melodrama of playing barbies with her daughter and will momentarily snap out of her depression. Her harmless fibs to get through the moment are brought up by her daughter a year or two later, yet without hesitation Roberts will request that her daughter s imaginary friend not visit when she is around. Her MS diagnosis lingers in the background, never taking centre stage. In her most encompassing work yet, Keiler meditates on routine and stillness. The vignettes of her everyday life exude immense presence, making her comics thoroughly relatable and reflective of our all-too-human lives as they unfold with humour, sadness, and relieving joy. In transporting these stories onto paper, Keiler observes, and at times relishes, a fleeting present. 120pgs colour paperback.
North Star
by Tom Herpich
AdHouse Books
$6.95
The publisher says:
From Thomas Herpich, three-time Emmy Award-winning writer and storyboard artist on TV’s Adventure Time, Over the Garden Wall and Steven Universe, comes an experimental illustrated narrative exploring easy answers, missteps, and the potential for self-correction. Dense, poetic and ambiguous, North Star offers no easy answers (or even easy questions), but its strange and beautiful imagery invites and rewards repeated readings and careful contemplation. 24pgs B&W comic book.
Our Stories Carried Us Here
by various artists, edited by Tea Rozman Clark & Julie Vang
Green Card Voices
$25.00
The publisher says:
A bold and unconventional collection of first-person stories told and illustrated by immigrants and refugees living across the United States. Stanford scientist, deaf student, indigenous activist, Black entrepreneur - all immigrants and refugees - recount journeys from their home countries in ten vibrantly illustrated stories. Faced by unfamiliar vistas, they are welcomed with possibilities, and confronted by challenges and prejudice. Timely, sobering and insightful, Our Stories Carried Us Here acts as a mirror and a light to connect us all with immigrant and refugee experiences. Illustrations by Camillo Aguirre, Mike Centeno, Ashraf El-Attar, Touffic El Rassi, Sunshine Gao, Ana Hinojosa, Hamid Ibrahim, Tom Kacsynski, Cori Lin and Gérard Nyunai Ngan. Foreword by Thi Bui. Cover by Nate Powell. 180pgs colour hardcover.
Penny: A Graphic Memoir
by Karl Stevens
Chronicle Books
$18.95
The publisher says:
This colourful graphic novel features the philosophical and existential musings of a cat named Penny. Told through a collection of stories, Penny: A Graphic Memoir wanders through her colourful imagination as she recalls her humble beginnings on the streets of New York and waxes poetic about the realities of her sheltered life living in an apartment with her owners. Filled with ennui, angst, and vivid dreams, Penny proves that being a cat is more profound than we once thought. A unique blend of high art and humour, Penny: A Graphic Memoir perfectly portrays one cat’s struggles between her animal instincts, her philosophical reflections, and the lush creature comforts of a life with human servants. Reading like a highbrow Garfield, this unique dose of sardonic wit and cat content combines humour and storytelling with Karl Stevens’ very realistic illustration style. Fresh and imaginative, this graphic novel feels familiar and accessible, featuring one of the world’s most beloved animals. Karl Stevens has written four graphic novels, and his comics have appeared regularly in the New Yorker, Village Voice and Boston Phoenix. His work has been well received all around, and The Lodger was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. 156pgs colour paperback.
Pizza Punks
by Cole Pauls
Conundrum Press
$15.00
The publisher says:
A punk-rock celebration of pizza in all its gooey glory. Dive deep into the world of cheese-loving, crust-craving, sauce-savouring punks with award-winning cartoonist Cole Pauls. In Pizza Punks, Pauls pushes the limits of pizza devotion by exploring just how far an extremely dedicated punk might go to attain the cheesiest of pies. Backpack pizza? Sure. Couch pizza? Absolutely. Even Mosh pizza isn’t off-limits. Pineapple pizza, though? That’s a little more controversial. This quirky graphic novel is served up hot and (not so) fresh by the author of Dakwakada Warriors, winner of the 2020 Indigenous Voices Award and nominated for two Doug Wright Awards and an Aurora Award. “The more pizza I ate, the more ideas I thought of. The more punk music I listened to, the more I wanted to incorporate that into it. It’s kind of just a snowball effect.” Cole Pauls is a Tahltan comic artist, illustrator and printmaker hailing from Haines Junction (Yukon Territory) with a BFA in Illustration from Emily Carr University. Residing in Vancouver, Pauls focuses on his two comic series, the first being Pizza Punks: a self contained comic strip about punks eating pizza, the other being Dakwäkãda Warriors. In 2017, Pauls won Broken Pencil Magazine’s Best Comic and Best Zine of the Year Award for Dakwäkãda Warriors II. In 2020, Dakwäkãda Warriors won Best Work in an Indigenous Language from the Indigenous Voices Awards and was nominated for the Doug Wright Award categories, The Egghead & The Nipper. 120pgs B&W paperback.
Representation Immobilized
by Rick Trembles
Conundrum Press
$12.00
The publisher says:
Schoolyard scuffles. Seedy matinees. Run-ins with inept riot cops. Representation Immobilized is an unflinching look through the smudged lenses of Rick Trembles’ glasses at his early years in Montreal. Montreal Punk legend and alternative cartoonist Trembles was roommates with the editor of the influential zine Fish Piss where these autobiographical strips were first published. After a midnight move from a crumbling apartment Trembles gradually started bringing all his childhood belongings back, bit by bit, which started triggering memories from his past. Worried about them fading from memory as time wore on, he took the opportunity to document them before they could vanish. One of his last entries in this series questioned the nature of selective memory, why certain inanities from one’s past might resonate more than others, & why, no matter how hard you try, there’s no guarantee you can deliberately instigate an event in your life in the present that will pass the test of time as worthy of recollecting years down the line. The book also contains other autobio work from Trembles over his active 40 years. 60pgs B&W paperback.
Save It For Later: Promises, Parenthood and The Urgency of Protest
by Nate Powell
Abrams ComicArts
$24.99
The publisher says:
In this anthology of seven comics essays, author and graphic novelist Nate Powell addresses living in an era of what he calls “necessary protest.” Save It for Later is Powell’s reflection on witnessing the collapse of discourse in real time while drawing the award-winning trilogy March, written by Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, this generation’s preeminent historical account of nonviolent revolution in the civil rights movement. Powell highlights both the danger of normalised paramilitary presence symbols in consumer pop culture, and the roles we play individually as we interact with our communities, families and society at large. Each essay tracks Powell’s journey from the night of the election―promising his four-year-old daughter that Trump will never win, to the reality of the Republican presidency, protesting the administration’s policies, and navigating the complications of teaching his children how to raise their own voices in a world that is becoming increasingly dangerous and more and more polarizsed. While six of the seven essays are new, unpublished work, Powell has also included “About Face,” a comics essay first published by Popula Online that swiftly went viral and inspired him to expand his work on Save It for Later. The seventh and final essay will contextualise the myriad events of 2020 with the previous four years―from the COVID-19 pandemic to global protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to the 2020 presidential election itself―highlighting both the consistencies and inversions of widely shared experiences and observations amidst a massive social upheaval. As Powell moves between subjective and objective experiences raising his children―depicted in their childhood innocence as imaginary anthropomorphic animals―he reveals the electrifying sense of trust and connection with neighbours and strangers in protest. He also explores how to equip young people with tools to best make their own noise as they grow up and help shape the direction and future of this country. Nate Powell is a National Book Award–winning cartoonist whose work includes civil rights icon John Lewis’s historic March trilogy, Come Again, Two Dead, Any Empire, Swallow Me Whole and The Silence of Our Friends. Powell has also received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, three Eisner Awards, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Comic-Con International Inkpot Award, two Ignatz Awards and the Walter Dean Myers Award. He has discussed his work at the United Nations, on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, PBS, CNN and Free Speech TV. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana. 160pgs colour hardcover.
Scoop Scuttle and His Pals: The Crackpot Comics of Basil Wolverton
by Basil Wolverton
Fantagraphics Books
$29.99
The publisher says:
This Basil Wolverton retrospective collects, for the first time, the complete adventures of four of the influential Mad magazine cartoonist’s more arcane comics creations: Scoop Scuttle, Mystic Moot, Bingbang Buster and Jumpin’ Jupiter - restored, as they’ve never been seen before. In this rip-roaring compilation, Wolverton’s often-warped imagination combines with his outlandishly wacky visual humour to fascinate and delight. Due to the rock-bottom printing methods of ten-cent comic books, Wolverton’s intricate line work was routinely obscured, and often obliterated. In this collection, every effort has been made to restore the art to its original splendour, and to at last present the uniquely detailed graphics of this justly revered comic book master. 192pgs colour paperback.
Sirens of the Norse Sea: The Waters of Skaggerak
by Françoise Ruscak, Gihef, Philippe Briones & Marco Dominic
Humanoids Inc.
$19.99
The publisher says:
Fierce Vikings and mystical Sirens face each other in a never-ending battle to claim the most significant natural resource their world has to offer: the sea itself. For generations, Viking clans have faced Siren tribes in battles waged on land and sea-battles that pit brute strength against sorcery and cunning versus charm. Their war, sparked by the great leviathan Jörmungand, has torn apart the very world they fight over while filling graveyards that span farther than the eye can see. If there is any hope of bringing even the whisper of peace, it lies those among them who feel torn between both worlds. 112pgs colour paperback.
Teaching Artfully
by Meghan Parker, edited by Craig Yoe
Clover Press
$24.99
The publisher says:
A groundbreaking sensation: a Master’s thesis done in comics form. Now Teaching Artfully, is a compelling graphic novel. If you loved Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud or Unflattening by Nick Sousanis, you will fall in love with this revolutionary and delightful book. In fact Sousanis provides a fascinating introduction. Teaching Artfully draws the reader in as it presents the growth and explorations of an early-career art teacher, the author Meghan Parker. Parker comes to understand both her teaching and art-making practices through making insightful comics. The reader, too will find themselves illuminated and inspired―and entertained. Teaching Artfully inquires into daily teaching practices, visual literacy, the teacher’s experience, relationships, and engagement with life inside and outside of schools. It uses a unique visual form to emphasise the importance of learning to understand and communicate using images. First created as a Masters thesis in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, Teaching Artfully playfully and earnestly encourages us to see the arts as a way to connect with one another and find our common humanity. Creative people, educators and the general public are sure to connect with the call for meaningful engagement with the arts. Graphic novel lovers of all sorts will find an awakening in Parker’s approach to the creation of space and opportunities for students to imagine and create new possibilities. 264pgs colour paperback.
Touch is Really Strange
by Steve Haines & Sophie Standing
Singing Dragon
£10.75
The publisher says:
Why can’t we tickle ourselves? How can slow touch convey more powerful emotions than fast touch? How does touch shape our perception of the world? The latest addition to the Really Strange series, this science-based graphic comic addresses these questions and more, revealing the complexity of touch and exploring its power and limits. Used positively, touch can change pain and trauma, communicate compassion and love and generate social bonding. Get it wrong and it can be abusive and terrifying. Touch helps us feel real. Knowledge comes through our body as we engage with space and with others. Before we have language, our concepts are formed as we meet a world full of edges and textures. Touch is Really Strange celebrates the power of inward touch (interoception) and looks at how we can use skilful contact to promote feelings of joy, connection and vitality. Steve Haines is a trainer, bodyworker and author. He has studied Yoga, Shiatsu, Craniosacral Therapy, TRE® (Trauma Releasing Exercises) and is a UK registered Chiropractor. Steve is the bestselling author of Pain is Really Strange, Trauma is Really Strange and Anxiety is Really Strange, which was Highly Commended by the BMA in 2018. He lives between London and Geneva. Sophie Standing is a London-based illustrator and designer, specialising in human sciences. Her style combines digital and hand-made, with an emphasis on rich colour, textures and metaphorical concepts. 32pgs colour paperback.
The Comics of R. Crumb: Underground in the Art Museum
edited by Daniel Worden
University Press of Mississippi
$30.00
The publisher says:
From his work on underground comix like Zap and Weirdo, to his cultural prominence, R. Crumb is one of the most renowned comics artists in the medium’s history. His work, beginning in the 1960s, ranges provocatively and controversially over major moments, tensions, and ideas in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, from the counterculture and the emergence of the modern environmentalist movement, to racial politics and sexual liberation. While Crumb’s early work refined the parodic, over-the-top, and sexually explicit styles we associate with underground comix, he also pioneered the comics memoir, through his own autobiographical and confessional comics, as well as in his collaborations. More recently, Crumb has turned to long-form, book-length works, such as his acclaimed Book of Genesis and Kafka. Over the long arc of his career, Crumb has shaped the conventions of underground and alternative comics, autobiographical comics, and the ““graphic novel.”” And, through his involvement in music, animation, and documentary film projects, Crumb is a widely recognised persona, an artist who has defined the vocation of the cartoonist in a widely influential way. The Comics of R. Crumb: Underground in the Art Museum is a groundbreaking collection on the work of a pioneer of underground comix and a fixture of comics culture. Ranging from art history and literary studies, to environmental studies and religious history, the essays included in this volume cast Crumb’s work as formally sophisticated and complex in its representations of gender, sexuality, race, politics and history, while also charting Crumb’s role in underground comix and the ways in which his work has circulated in the art museum. Contributions by José Alaniz, Ian Blechschmidt, Paul Fisher Davies, Zanne Domoney-Lyttle, David Huxley, Lynn Marie Kutch, Julian Lawrence, Liliana Milkova, Stiliana Milkova, Kim A. Munson, Jason S. Polley, Paul Sheehan, Clarence Burton Sheffield Jr. and Daniel Worden. 262pgs B&W paperback.
The Delicacy
by James Albon
IDW / Top Shelf
$24.99
The publisher says:
Rare and delicious fungi spell trouble for an ambitious restaurateur in this sumptuously painted graphic novel from one of Scotland’s most imaginative young cartoonists. This thrilling page-turner, a fascinating glimpse into the high-pressure world of big-city restaurants, is a must-read for foodies, Anglophiles, Food Network fans and those with a taste for beautiful, terrible people. Tulip and his brother Rowan have left the simple comforts of their remote Scottish island with a plan: to grow succulent, organic vegetables in an idyllic market garden, and to open a restaurant serving these wholesome culinary delights to the busy sprawl of London. The world of fine dining seems impossibly competitive… until they discover a deliriously scrumptious new species of mushroom. The dish brings diners in droves, catapulting their small restaurant to success beyond their wildest dreams. Now, pressured by the demands of a hungry city, Tulip is desperate to crack the secret of their new ingredient’s growth. But just how much will he sacrifice to feed his own insatiable ambition? James Albon is a British writer and illustrator. He studied illustration at Edinburgh College of Art, and went on to a postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Drawing School in London. His short comic Madame & Me was a finalist in the Guardian/Comica/Cape Award in 2017, he was awarded the Gwen May Award from the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 2012, and has been a Laureate of the Rene Carcan Biennale in 2014 and 2020. His previous books are Her Bark & Her Bite (2016) and A Shining Beacon (2019). 320pgs colour paperback.
The Night Marchers & Other Oceanian Tales
by various creators, edited by Tara Ashwin, Sloane Leong & Kel McDonald
Iron Circus Comics
$15.00
The publisher says:
In this thrilling and witty comics collection, some of storytelling’s finest talents reimagine classic folklore from the Pacific with a modern twist. Ghostly warriors, angry gods and monstrous tyrants? That’s just the start of this collection of folklore from the Pacific, retold in comics! The Night Marchers & Other Oceanian Tales is a thrilling, funny and totally new take on stories spanning the entirety of the region, with loads of lesser known myths and legends from the Philippines, New Zealand, Hawaii and beyond. Featuring the work of Tintin Pantoja, Paolo Chikiamco, Rob Cham, Tokerau Wilson and more. 272pgs B&W paperback.
The Real Hergé: The Inspiration behind Tintin
by Sian Lye
White Owl
$34.95
The publisher says:
Hergé created only twenty-four Tintin books which have been translated into more than seventy languages and sold 230 million copies worldwide. The Real Hergé: The Inspiration Behind Tintin takes an in-depth look at the man behind the cultural phenomenon and the history that helped shape these books. As well as focussing on the controversies that engulfed Hergé, this biography will also look at his personal life, as well as the relationships and experiences that influenced him. Sian Lye is a journalist who has written for a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines, including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, ShortList, Esquire and Marie Claire. Sian has spent several years living abroad in Japan, and most recently in Switzerland. She now lives in Brighton, and balances writing with family life. 184pgs B&W hardcover.
The Secret to Superhuman Strength
by Alison Bechdel
Mariner Books / Jonathan Cape
$24.99 / £16.99
The publisher says:
From the author of Fun Home, a profound graphic memoir of Bechdel’s lifelong love affair with exercise, set against a hilarious chronicle of fitness fads in our times. Comics and cultural superstar Alison Bechdel delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adulthood, with every fitness craze to come down the pike: from Jack LaLanne in the 1960s (“Outlandish jumpsuit! Cantaloupe-sized guns!”) to the existential oddness of present-day spin class. Readers will see their athletic or semi-active pasts flash before their eyes through an ever-evolving panoply of running shoes, bicycles, skis and sundry other gear. But the more Bechdel tries to improve herself, the more her self appears to be the thing in her way. The gifted artist and not-getting-any-younger exerciser comes to a soulful conclusion. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others. 304pgs B&W hardcover.
The Stringer
by Pablo Callejo
NBM
$24.95
The publisher says:
Suffering from budget cuts, layoffs and a growing suspicion that his search for the truth has become obsolete, veteran war correspondent Mark Scribner is about to throw in the towel on journalism, when he discovers that his hard-earned knowledge can save his career and make him wealthy and famous. All he has to do is pivot to social media and - with a few cynical twists - abandon everything he cares about most. A paean to when fact-based journalism mattered, THE STRINGER, set at an important turning point a few years ago, is a globe-trotting action-packed timely statement about how a society without a vibrant independent culture of reporting can degenerate into chaos and a warning of the dangers of sophisticated new technologies that enable the manufacture and modification of ‘truths’ with no basis in fact. Editorial cartoonist, essayist and graphic novelist Ted Rall grew up near the Rust Belt city of Dayton, Ohio. He won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York, which expelled him for academic and disciplinary reasons during the long hot summer of 1984. He has since become a widely-syndicated cartoonist, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, twice the winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the author of 20 books. He returned in Columbia in 1990, where he graduated with honours. Most recently, he has brought out a number of successful comics biographies from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump. He lives in New York. Born in Leon, Spain, 1967, Pablo Callejo can’t remember when he started to draw or when he first felt the need to tell stories through pictures, but he took his time, since he didn’t try to get published until he was 32. After years of living in Madrid, he moved to Luxembourg where he lives with his wife and works for publishers in France, Spain, South Korea and the US. 152pgs colour hardcover.
The Way of the Hive
by Jay Hosler
Harper Alley
$21.99 / $12.99
The publisher says:
Unlock the mystery of one of our ecosystem’s most vital creatures - the honeybee - in this informative and fun graphic novel about a bee named Nyuki. Nyuki is a brand-new honeybee - and she has a lot of questions. Follow Nyuki on a lifelong journey as she annoys her sisters, avoids predators, and learns to trust her inner voice as she masters the way of the hive. And if you still have questions by the end, the back of the book uncovers even more mysteries about the lives of these incredible insects! Jay Hosler is a biology professor by day and a scheming cartoonist by night. His diabolical plan is to weave his love of the natural world into thrilling tales of adventure. So far, the plan seems to be working. Unsuspecting readers fall into stories about creepy-crawly things and discovering the wondrous world right under their feet. His books have been translated into several languages, but he can only read the ones in English. In his spare time, Jay likes to read comics and watch Godzilla movies. He lives in Pennsylvania with his queen and two drones. 160pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers
by Lauren Burke, Hannah K.
