RSS Feed
Facebook
Twitter
Top 32 Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga:
June 2025
Comics never cease to surprise me, in their stories and their storytelling, month after month as I survey upcoming titles. Jonathan Lackman and Zachary J. Pinson have investigated and illustrated an extraordinary slice of art history here, which I can’t wait to discover.
Kasia Babis transports us back to another past, exorcising her own unforgettable upbringing in Soviet Poland.
In another graphic autobiography, Star Trek star George Takei reflects on his life and coming out at the age of 68.
Break-out female mangaka Fumiko Takano finally arrives in English with her resonant appreciations of the everyday.
British writer-artist Dix flies solo in his major new album, set in 1970s Wales mired in discomforting secrets.
And if you’ve ever wondered how all these comics are created, produced and printed, this behind-the-scenes, step-by-step guided tour reveals all. Wishing you once more the very best in your reading pleasure, visual and verbal!
Adabana Vol.1 (of 3)
by Non, translated by Caleb Cook
Dark Horse
$14.99
The publisher says:
A horrifying double murder and a shocking confession uncovers a dark secret in this suspenseful criminal drama manga. A small town is shocked by the gruesome murder of a student and a ramen shop owner. Mizuki Aikawa, one of the victims’ best friend and classmate, confesses to the brutal crime. However, a local reporter and Mizuki’s public defenders are convinced there’s more to the story. As the truth unravels, a tale of class, exploitation, and the demands of family is revealed. This powerful series originally ran in Shueisha’s seinen magazine Grand Jump in 2020-2021. 200pgs B&W paperback.
Arcana: The Lost Heirs
by Sam Prentice-Jones
Feiwel and Friends / HotKey
$27.99 / $19.99
The publisher says:
Debut British author/illustrator Sam Prentice-Jones explores fighting against your destiny and reconciling the actions of your ancestors in Arcana: The Lost Heirs, a tarot-inspired fantasy graphic novel for young adults. James, Daphne, Koko, and Sonny have all grown up surrounded by magic in the Arcana, an organisation of witches that protects the magical world, run by the mysterious and secretive Majors. Eli Jones, however, hadn’t even known other witches existed . . . until he stumbled into James. As James introduces him to the world of the Arcana, Eli finds the family he never had and a blossoming romance with James. The five new friends soon realise that sinister things are afoot, and everything may not be what it seems at the Arcana. When the group delves deeper into the mystery surrounding the deaths of their parents and the Majors’ rise to power, they discover that they’re at the center of a curse―one they’ve just unwittingly set into motion. As the friends search for answers, they’ll have to confront the cursed legacy that links them in hopes of freeing their futures. 384pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
Aristotle’s Cuttlefish
by Matthew Dooley
Jonathan Cape
£22.00
The publisher says:
A story about mislaid umbrellas, questionable scientific theories and unlikely friendship - from the author of Flake, winner of the 2020 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. Where do all the lost things go? In Dobbiston, they’ll likely end up in the care of Mr Daniels, the long-time custodian of the local lost property office. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the town council’s shabby premises he has spent a lifetime quietly cataloguing the carelessness of his fellow Dobbiston residents. But when something unexpected interrupts his routine, Mr Daniels is forced to embrace a little bit of life’s chaos. Told through Lost Property Office vignettes - a snooker cue love story, a granny’s tea cosy and a kid’s toy on an intergalactic adventure – local histories are elevated to the momentous and profound, drawn with playful nostalgia and Dooley’s deadpan wit. Matthew Dooley won the Cape/ Observer/ Comica Graphic Short Story Prize and his debut Flake, published by Cape in 2020, went on to win the Wodehouse Bollinger Prize, the first time for a graphic novel. It was also a Guardian Book of the Year. He is from the north-west of England and now lives in London. 224pgs colour hardcover.
Back to Black: Jules Feiffer’s Noir Trilogy
by Fabrice Leroy
Rutgers University Press
$79.95 / $32.95
The publisher says:
The legendary American cartoonist and author Jules Feiffer has enjoyed a long and varied career, working on everything from illustrating The Phantom Tollbooth to writing the screenplay for the film Popeye. But some of his most innovative work came very late in his career, with a trio of graphic novels he composed in his eighties: Kill My Mother (2014), Cousin Joseph (2016), and The Ghost Script (2018). Back to Black provides the first full-length critical analysis of this trilogy, exploring how it pays homage to the iconography and themes of film noir through constant graphic experimentation and a striking reinvention of Feiffer’s distinctive style. Fabrice Leroy shows how Feiffer deftly alternates between dramatic and satirical tones as he plays with the conventions of noir to provide a caustic yet moving commentary on mid-twentieth-century American life. Through close readings of each novel in the trilogy, he examines Feiffer’s singular depiction of the central political issues in the United States from the Great Depression to the 1950s, which still resonate today: unionisation struggles, cinematic propaganda, McCarthyism, the American Dream, immigration, antisemitism, civil rights, and gender discrimination. Placing the noir trilogy into the context of Feiffer’s long career, Back to Black demonstrates how he offers a loving pastiche of the genre without losing his unique voice or critical edge. 222pgs B&W hardcover / paperback
The Blood Brothers Mother
by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso
DSTLRY Media
$35.00
The publisher says:
In the old West, three children set off across the wild Texas frontier to rescue their mother–kidnapped by ruthless outlaws who gunned down their preacher father. Throughout their journey, they’ll face the harsh elements of an unforgiving landscape, deadly animals hungry for blood, merciless bounty hunters, and so much more… all in a relentless quest to rescue their family. They’ll learn the terrible cost of revenge―not just in lives, but in how it stains a soul. While revenge may be satisfying in the moment, it leaves a yearning behind that lasts a lifetime. And once you taste it, nothing else is ever so sweet. In the tradition of The Searchers and Blood Meridian comes a brutal new western series from the Eisner award-winning team behind 100 Bullets and Moonshine. 200pgs colour hardcover.
Blow Up!: The Explosion of Contemporary Art
by Robert Shore & Eva Rossetti
Thames & Hudson
£18.99
The publisher says:
A non-fiction graphic novel that tells the story of a century of revolutionary contemporary art. How did a urinal become art? And a can of tomato soup, a tent, a pickled shark… How do you get at one of the world’s most powerful governments by smashing an old vase? How did what seemed like a prank at the New York Armory Show of 1917 explode to become today’s global multi-billion dollar art world? This graphic novel answers these questions by following the lives of seminal contemporary artists and the stories behind their groundbreaking works. Against a backdrop of armed conflict and rapid societal change, this book tells the story of contemporary art from Marcel Duchamp’s repurposed urinal to Maurizio Cattelan’s taped banana. Literal bombs explode and conventions go up in flames as a series of art objects shock and electrify society: canned excrement, a pickled shark, a stuffed hare, human blood. The story moves from Paris to New York and London, and then captures the geographical spread of a rapidly globalizing cultural scene by jumping to events in Tokyo, Belgrade, Rio de Janeiro, Lagos and Beijing, and culminating in Miami – and in the ether, everywhere and nowhere, on the internet. Chapters follow a series of chain reactions as artists meet or inspire each other across the generations and decades. Over a period of 100 years everything changes – and yet the cry of ‘It’s not art!’ never goes away. No matter how long people have had to get used to it, contemporary art continues to upset expectations and disrupt conventions – and inspire anew. 232pgs colour hardcover.
Breadcrumbs: Coming of Age in Post-Soviet Poland
by Kasia Bubis
23rd St.
$29.99 / $19.99
The publisher says:
A moving graphic memoir in the vein of Almost All American Girl and Persepolis, Breadcrumbs is a coming-of-age story set in Poland as the country transitions from communism to capitalism. In the late 1980s, Poland faces debilitating food shortages, worker discontent, and astronomical inflation. Seemingly overnight, the country transitions from communism to capitalism. During this period of flux, Kasia Babis is born. In the shadow of national change, Kasia experiences her own journey of growth, from rebellious teen to politically minded activist. She grapples with her country’s deep-rooted Catholicism and forges her own beliefs, leading to her becoming an active part of Poland’s left-wing Razem party. Each new experience is a reminder that broader societal upheavals reverberate on a deeply personal level. With a deft balance of the intimate and geopolitical, Kasia Babis chronicles her fight to uphold her progressive values while her country heads in the opposite direction. Breadcrumbs is a coming-of-age story―not only of Kasia but of Poland as a modern state. Kasia Babis is a Polish cartoonist, illustrator and political activist with an online following of over 100,000 fans. Her viral comics succinctly skewer social issues ranging from racism to street harassment from a distinctly feminist perspective. 256pgs black-and-red hardcover / paperback.
Comics of the Anthropocene: Graphic Narrative at the End of Nature
by José Alaniz, cover by Jon Strongbow
University Press of Mississippi
$110.00 / $33.00
The publisher says:
The first full-length monograph to explore how US comics artists have depicted environmental destruction, mass extinctions, and climate change. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, how have US comics artists depicted the human-caused destruction of the natural world? How do these representations manifest in different genres of comics like superheroes, biography, underground comix, and journalism? What resources unique to the comics medium do they bring to their tasks? How do these works resonate with the ethical and environmental issues raised by global conversations about the anthropogenic sixth mass extinction and climate change? How have comics mourned the loss of nature over the last five decades? Are comics “ecological objects,” in philosopher Timothy Morton’s parlance? Weaving together insights from comics studies, environmental humanities, critical animal studies, and affect studies to answer these questions, Comics of the Anthropocene: Graphic Narrative at the End of Nature explores the representation of animals, pollution, mass extinctions, and climate change in the Anthropocene Era, our current geological age of human-induced environmental transformation around the globe. Artists and works examined include R. Crumb, Don McGregor et al.’s Black Panther, Jack Kirby’s Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, the comics of the Pacific Northwest, and Stephen Murphy and Michael Zulli’s landmark alternative series The Puma Blues. This book breaks new ground in confronting our most daunting modern crisis through a discussion of how graphic narrative has uniquely addressed the ecology issue. 334pgs B&W hardcover / paperback.
The Compleat Angler: A Graphic Adaptation
by Izaak Walton & Gareth Brookes
SelfMadeHero
£14.99
The publisher says:
A foundational environmentalist text centuries ahead of its time, The Compleat Angler is one of the most reprinted books in the English language. From the ruins of the English Civil War to the challenges we all face today, Gareth Brookes’ highly original multimedia adaptation of Izaak Walton’s classic focuses on its instructional aspects, highlights its eccentricities and contemplative themes of nature and friendship, and draws parallels between today’s politically divided and ecologically endangered England and that of the 17th century. Following Brookes’ similarly ambitious The Dancing Plague, this adaptation is lovingly rendered in both linocut engraving and hand-drawn pen-and-ink to contrast the meditative and the instructional in Walton’s writing. As a guidebook on how to fish, this 350-year-old manual makes the perfect gift for any angling enthusiast, and its reflective writing connects with post-pandemic desires for calm, mindful pursuits and a return to nature. Izaak Walton (1593–1683) was an English writer, best remembered today as the author of The Compleat Angler (1653). He also wrote a number of short Lives, including the first biographies of the poets George Herbert and John Donne. Gareth Brookes studied printmaking at the Royal College of Art. His graphic novels include A Thousand Coloured Castles (2017) and The Black Project, which was nominated for an award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, 2018. His work has appeared in ArtReview, been published by Kuš, and was included in the Comics Unmasked exhibition at the British Library in 2014. His last graphic novel, The Dancing Plague (SelfMadeHero, 2021) was hailed by The New York Times as “Visually stunning”: “With fire and needle, Brookes crafts a book the likes of which we’ve never seen before.” 160pgs colour hardcover.
Conversations with Rick Veitch
edited by Brannon Costello
University Press of Mississippi
$110.00 / $25.00
The publisher says:
From his roots in underground comics to his high-profile runs on mainstream characters, Rick Veitch (b. 1951) has carved out a career unlike anyone else’s. Collecting thirteen interviews―including three published here for the first time―Conversations with Rick Veitch offers a wealth of insight not only into the development of Veitch’s graphic innovations and metaphysical explorations, but also into the upheavals and transformations of American comics from the 1970s to today. In acclaimed comics such as The Maximortal, Army@Love, and Can’t Get No, Veitch employs a style that synthesises Jack Kirby at his most cosmic, the mind-bending graphic sensibility of European innovators such as Jean (Moebius) Giraud and Philippe Druillet, and the brass-tacks realism of classic war cartoonists such as John Severin and Russ Heath. His comics defamiliarise popular genres―especially superheroes, war stories, and science fiction―with his philosophical musings and pointedly satirical political perspective. Yet Veitch’s capacious mind reaches beyond these familiar genres, too, as his long-running autobiographical dream comic Roarin’ Rick’s Rare Bit Fiends attests. Ranging across topics such as his early days at the Joe Kubert School, the controversial end of his Swamp Thing run, his muckraking work as a comics journalist, and his educational comics publishing venture, Eureka Comics, the interviews collected here reveal Veitch to be both a shrewd observer of the pitfalls of the marketplace and an eloquent spokesman for the boundless potential of creativity. A comics maker since childhood and a fierce advocate of creator’s rights and the possibilities of self-publishing, Veitch knows all too well the many persistent obstacles to creating comics that challenge readers instead of condescending to them. Yet Veitch remains optimistic about the potential of comics. According to Veitch, comics “might be the form of the future.” If that’s the case, then his work is a map to that future. 256pgs B&W hardcover / paperback.
Dan in the Green Gables: A Modern Reimagining of Anne of Green Gables
by Rey Terciero & Claudia Aguirre
Penguin Workshop
$24.99 / $17.99
The publisher says:
In this modern reimagining of Anne of Green Gables, effervescent extrovert Dan Stewart-Álvarez is surprised to find home and community in rural Tennessee. Despite a life on the road with his free-spirited mother, fifteen-year-old Dan Stewart-Álvarez has always wanted to settle down. He just didn’t think it’d be like this: with his mother abandoning him in rural Tennessee with two strangers—his gentle grandmother and conservative, rough-around-the-edges grandfather. Here, he is forced to adjust to working the farm, entering high school, and hardest yet—reckoning with his queerness in a severe Southern Baptist community. But even as Dan grows closer to his mawmaw, befriends fellow outsiders at school, and tries to make a new life for himself in Green Gables, he has to discover whether he can contend with intolerance and adapt to change without losing himself in the process. From award-winning author Rey Terciero and Eisner Award nominee and illustrator Claudia Aguirre comes a new retelling of Anne of Green Gables about unconventional families, queer identity, and finding the meaning of home in the most unlikely of places. 256pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
The Devil’s Grin
by Alex Graham
Fantagraphics
$29.99
The publisher says:
Alex Graham’s follow-up to her acclaimed Instagram-sensation-turned-graphic novel Dog Biscuits chronicles the intertwined lives of the residents of Henryville, Idaho―which involve demons, Jim Morrison, a cartoonist with supernatural talent, sewer rats, and much more. Robert wasn’t born into an ordinary life. It began in a rush: flushed down a toilet by his mother and carried into the sewer by a demon. This monstrous presence stalks Robert into adulthood, haunting his dreams. Robert just wants to be like his idol, Jim Morrison, writing poetry, playing rock ‘n’ roll, and chasing beautiful women. But the demon soon begins haunting the entire city of Henryville. Dandelion, a young poet, falls in love with Robert and begins having confusing, terrifying romantic visions of the demon she can’t seem to shake. Gary, a cartoonist, becomes convinced that his vengeful cartoons are channeling the word of a righteous God, capable of manipulating reality in powerful and destructive ways. They and other residents of Henryville find themselves tangled in a web of sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, newspaper funnies, and demonic possession. Will the town’s residents find a way to escape? With its mix of comedy, horror, magic realism, anthropomorphism, naturalism, humour, psychedelia, and pathos, The Devil’s Grin is a remarkable work of contemporary fiction by one of comics’ most distinctive storytellers. Weaving together multiple character arcs at a brisk, deft pace, Graham juggles their secrets, desires, and insecurities in continually surprising ways, slowly introducing layers of malice that lead to an unexpected darkness. Graham’s clear yet loose cartooning perfectly unfolds every twist and turn with creative precision. 464pgs B&W with spot colour paperback.
Float
by Kate Marchant & CJ Joaquin
Graphix
$24.99 / $16.99
The publisher says:
Dive into summer fun in this graphic novel romance from Webtoon. It’s perfect for fans of True Beauty and Pumpkinheads. Amidst the chaos of her parents’ bitter divorce, Alaskan teenager Waverly Lyons trades in her textbooks and parka for a summer of suntans and short-shorts with her aunt in Florida. A fish out of water even back in the snow, Waverly is determined to be everything she isn’t back home: cool, fun, dare she even say part of a group? There’s just one problem. She doesn’t know how to swim. Enter Blake—the super-tan, super-hot, super-arrogant boy next door who seems to hate her guts. When he discovers her secret, Waverly is positive that her perfect summer is perfectly over. But then Blake does the unthinkable. He offers to teach her. This slice-of-life YA romance is illustrated in an anime-inspired style that readers will love. What are you waiting for? Dive in! In 2023, Marchant’s original novel was adapted into a movie. 224pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
Florrie: a football love story
by Anna Trench
Jonathan Cape
£16.99
The publisher says:
The story of female footballer Florrie and the amazing hidden history of the women’s game come to life in this debut graphic novel about football, friendship and falling in love. When Florrie’s great-niece discovers she was a footballer in the early twentieth century, she unearths a secret history both on and off the pitch. Boxes from the attic contain photos, objects and letters, revealing football games and love affairs in Norfolk, London and Paris. Florrie’s adventures touch on both invented and real events: huge crowds at matches in London and Preston, international fixtures, dances at lesbian club Le Monocle in Paris, and the devastating consequences of the FA’s 1921 ban on women’s football. This is a story of self-discovery, friendship and queer love, alongside huge (and little known) historical moments for the women’s game. In Florrie, Anna Trench brings readers a beautifully drawn, evocative and warm-hearted love-song to an unforgettable woman and sport. Anna Trench is an illustrator, cartoonist, writer and teacher based in London. Florrie is her first book. It has been shortlisted for the First Graphic Novel Award and the LDComics Award. 176pgs B&W hardcover.
Gaysians
by Mike Curato
Algonquin Books
$32.00
The publisher says:
From the acclaimed author of the young adult graphic novel Flamer comes a heartwarming story following four gay Asians navigating love, identity, and friendship—a celebration of queer chosen family. When AJ moves to Seattle in the early aughts, he’s ready to reinvent himself as a gay Asian man—but his dreams hit reality fast with no friends, no job, and an apartment so far out, “not even lesbians live there.” Then a spilled drink at a bar introduces him to K, a glamorous drag queen; John, a shy gamer; and Steven, a reckless flirt. AJ’s “Boy Luck Club” helps him find love, pride, and belonging—until a brutal attack tests everything they know about friendship and family. Meticulously observed and gorgeously illustrated, Gaysians is a fierce, funny, and tender story of queer resilience and self-discovery. 384pgs colour hardcover.
Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer, says:
“I’ve been hunting for books like this my whole life; this story broke my heart and healed it.”
GG Life is a Videogame Vol.1
by Giacomo Masi & /Ilaria Gelli
Ablaze Publishing
$14.99
The publisher says:
What if a video game overwrote reality? When five friends meet up to celebrate the release of their favourite game’s new DLC content, they’re distressed to discover that the download’s wait time is a whopping 10 hours! Determined to wait it out, the girls fall asleep at their desks. When they wake up, the World of Ragnarok has somehow transcended realities, transforming their local shopping mall into one of the game’s dungeons. As the world around them continues to transform, becoming elements from the game, it becomes more and more difficult for the party of friends to separate reality from game-based fantasy… Written by Giacomo Masi and illustrated by Ilaria Gelli, GG is a story of adventure, friendship, and video games, all beautifully illustrated in a fresh, ultra-colourful “pop manga” style. 112pgs colour paperback.
Graphic Refuge: Visuality and Mobility in Refugee Comics
by Dominic Davies & Candida Rifkind
Wilfred Laurier University Press
$39.99
The publisher says:
Graphic Refuge is the first in-depth study of comics about refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and detainees by artists from the Global North and South. Co-written by two leading scholars of nonfiction comics, the book explores graphic narratives about a range of refugee experiences, from war, displacement, and perilous sea crossings to detention camps, resettlement schemes, and second-generation diasporas. Through close readings of work by diverse artists including Joe Sacco, Sarah Glidden, Don Brown, Olivier Kugler, Jasper Rietman, Hamid Sulaiman, Leila Abdelrazzaq, Thi Bui, and Matt Huynh, Graphic Refuge shows how comics challenge dominant representations of the displaced and bring a radical politics of refugee agency and refusal into view. Rather than simply affirming the “humanity” of the refugee, these comics demand that we apprehend the historical construction of categories such as “citizen” and “refugee” through systems of empire, settler colonialism, and racial capitalism. Building on scholarship in critical refugee studies, architecture and infrastructure studies, and postcolonial theory, Davies and Rifkind argue that refugee comics move us through this wider recognition and towards more expansive ideas of refuge as a lived political relationship. 288pgs B&W paperback.
Hardcore Happiness: A Graphic Journey of Finding Positivity through Punk
by Reid Chancellor
Microcosm Publishing
$16.99
The publisher says:
When you listen and scream along to your favourite punk or hardcore band, does that help your mental health or reinforce your frustrations? Artist Reid Chancellor leads us on a tour through hardcore musicians that have struggled with mental health—and written about it in their songs. In this standalone graphic novel, Chancellor picks up the discussion he began in Hardcore Anxiety, in an engaging narrative that will be deeply relatable to anyone grappling with identity, fear, and loss in the mosh pit. If you’re considering supplementing your headbanging sessions with therapy and medication, or if you just want to read about the music scene you love from a unique angle, Hardcore Happiness can help you find your way. Punk opens the door to speaking out about mental health issues, but it doesn’t always encourage you to walk through the door and get help. Chancellor props that door open with humour and vulnerability, asking the question, “Why aren’t there more hardcore songs about seeing your therapist?” That’s a song we all might need to hear. 192pgs B&W paperback.
Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory
by Solomon J. Brager
William Morrow
$26.99
The publisher says:
A moving and provocative graphic memoir exploring inherited trauma, family history, and the ever-shifting understanding of our own identities, for readers of Gender Queer and I Was Their American Dream. Solomon Brager grew up with accounts of their great-grandparents’ escape from Nazi Germany, told over and over until their understanding of self was bound up with the heroic details of their ancestors’ exploits. Their great-grandmother related how her husband, a boxing champion, thrashed Joseph Goebbels and cleared beer halls of Nazis with his fists, how she broke him out of an internment camp and carried their children over the Pyrenees mountains. But that story was never the whole picture; zooming out, everything becomes more complicated. Alongside the Levis’ propulsive journey across Europe and to the United States, Brager distills fascinating research about the Holocaust and connected periods of colonial history. Heavyweight asks us to consider how the patterns of history emerge and reverberate, not as a simple chain of events but in haunting layers. Confronting the spectres of violence as both historian and descendent, this book is an exploration of family mythology, intergenerational memory, and the mark the past makes on the present. In conversation with works by Rebecca Hall, Nora Krug, Rutu Modan, and Leela Corman, Heavyweight will contribute to the collective work of Holocaust studies and the chronicle of woven human stories. 336pgs B&W paperback.
How Comics Are Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page
by Grant Fleishman
Andrew McMeel
$40.00
The publisher says:
How Comics Are Made covers the entire history of newspaper comics from a unique angle—how they were made and printed. This book combines years of research and dozens of interviews with cartoonists, historians, and production people to tell the story of how a comic starts with an artist’s hand and makes it way through transformations into print and onto a digital screen. You’ll see reproductions of art and artefacts that have never appeared in print anywhere, and some historic comics will appear for the first time ever in any medium in this book. And you’ll find out about metal etching, Dragon’s Blood (a real thing), flong (also a real thing), and the massively, almost impossibly complicated path that original artwork took to get onto newsprint in the days of metal relief printing. The book is divided by time and transitions, from the start of consistently appearing daily and weekly comics in newspapers: The Early Days: From the Yellow Kid in the 1890s to the 1910s; Syndication in Metal: When it became affordable to make hundreds or thousands of copies of daily strips to send around the country (or world), from the 1910s to 1970s; Flatland: Newspapers’ switch from relief to flat printing and the shift to purely photographic transformations from the 1950s to the 1980s; Pixel Perfect: The transition from photographic to digital, from scanning to digital creation, from the 1970s to 2000s and through the present day; and Webcomics and Beyond: Look, ma, no ink! Digital comics read online and sometimes put on press to make books. Each section features interviews with artists, reproductions of original cartoon art, printing and colouring artefacts, and the way cartoons appeared in print—or on screen. 288pgs colour hardcover.
The Idris Files
by Fantagraphics
$24.99
The publisher says:
An awkward young man discovers that his quiet seaside Welsh town harbours Nazi horrors in its haunted cemeteries, making for a historical graphic novel thriller that reads like The Banshees of Inisherin meets Raiders of the Lost Ark. In Wales 1974, a fisherman inadvertently reels in a Nazi flag. Meanwhile, young Idris and his mother ride a train in the countryside. Idris’s mother has a new housekeeping job awaiting her in the small town of Bothelli, by the sea. Her new employer, a wealthy man named Mr. Miller, is confined to a wheelchair and beginning immediately upon their arrival, Mr. Miller’s unceasing demands as an employer leave the socially awkward Idris adrift in his new town, friendless. That is, until he meets the mysterious and profane Gwen in the local cemetery. When Idris shows Gwen a map that he found at Mr. Miller’s, it sucks them into a web of mystery and unimagined horrors. As he did in his acclaimed 2018 graphic novel Dull Margaret, co-created with Jim Broadbent, Dix brings his world to life with his distinctive cartooning, weaving lumpy characters, earthy palettes, grim rumination, deadpan humour, supernatural elements, and a dreary countryside setting into one of the gnarliest graphic novels of the year. 132pgs colour hardcover.
In The End We All Die
by Tobias Aeschbacher, translated by Andrew Shields
Helvetiq
$24.95
The publisher says:
If Tarantino met Murakami in Germany—this multiple-prize-winning graphic novel set in six adjoining apartments is touching, intricate and very, very violent. When three sleazy gangsters storm into an apartment in search of a stolen urn, they set off a series of unfortunate events that threatens everyone in the building. As blood begins to pool, it becomes clear that this story is about more than the senseless violence. What is good and what is evil? Who decides who should die? And does anyone really know their neighbours? Theft and poison and so much shooting: and yet, on muted and somber pages, heartless villains become vulnerable heroes—before descending to cruelty once again. In this graphic novel that swept awards for best debut in Germany and Switzerland, a classic gangster comedy of errors grows into a meditation on loneliness, morality, and even love. 128pgs colour hardcover.
It Rhymes with Takei
by George Takei, Steven Scott, Justin Eisinger & Harmony Becker
IDW / Top Shelf Productions
$29.99
The publisher says:
Following the award-winning bestseller They Called Us Enemy, George Takei’s new full-colour graphic memoir reveals his most personal story of all—told in full for the first time anywhere! George Takei has shown the world many faces: actor, author, outspoken activist, helmsman of the starship Enterprise, living witness to the internment of Japanese Americans, and king of social media. But until October 27, 2005, there was always one piece missing—one face he did not show the world. There was one very intimate fact about George that he never shared…and it rhymes with Takei. Now, for the first time ever, George shares the full story of his life in the closet, his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68, and the way that moment transformed everything. Following the phenomenal success of his first graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, George Takei reunites with the team of Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger for a jaw-dropping new testament. From his earliest childhood crushes and youthful experiments in the rigidly conformist 1950s, to global fame as an actor and the terrible fear of exposure, to the watershed moment of speaking his truth and becoming one of the most high-profile gay men on the planet, It Rhymes with Takei offers a sweeping portrait of one iconic American navigating the tides of LGBTQ+ history. Combining historical context with intimate subjectivity, It Rhymes with Takei shows how the personal and the political have always been intertwined. Its richly emotional words and images depict the terror of entrapment even in gay community spaces, the anguish of speaking up for so many issues while remaining silent on his most personal issue, the grief of losing friends to AIDS, the joy of finding true love with Brad Altman, and the determination to declare that love openly—and legally—before the whole world. Looking back on his astonishing life on both sides of the closet door, George Takei presents a charismatic and candid account of how far America has come…and how precious that progress is. 336pgs colour hardcover.
Karmopolis: The Land of Cars
by Nick Bertozzi
IDW / Top Shelf Productions
$14.99
The publisher says:
Welcome to a world on wheels! It’s nonstop excitement in this nutty graphic novel starring two kids in a fast-paced future. Karmopolis is a world made up of super-highways and super-vehicles! Drivers zip from their wheeled houses to the moving super-mall without ever touching the ground, while the few mysterious Walkers skulk within the highway median. Two young Drivers, Pooja and her brother Om, are out shopping when they accidentally find a beautiful gem. After two angry men demand that they hand it over, a head-spinning adventure begins—Pooja and Om race across Karmopolis in search of the meaning of the gem, with the two creeps hot on their tailpipe. Award-winning cartoonist Nick Bertozzi combines old-fashioned comic book thrills with futuristic frenzy and super-cool diagrams in the endlessly imaginative Karmopolis: The Land of Cars. 128pgs colour paperback.
Kickturn
by Brie Spangler
Knopf Books for Young Readers
$17.99
The publisher says:
Lindy has gotten used to life on the road in her parents’ refurbished school bus. But when the bus breaks down in San Jose, will she finally get to meet her skateboarding idol—and maybe the chance to put down roots, too? This illustrated coming of age novel explores the importance of trying new things and the community you find when you do. Lindy doesn’t love living a nomadic life with her influencer parents in their renovated RV-school bus—but she’s used to it. They travel from national park to national park, where her mom creates #yogalife content. Lindy is supposed to be homeschooling, but really, she’s watching her favourite skateboarder on YouTube, day to night. When the bus breaks down in San Jose, Lindy happens to meet a few local girls who want to take her to a real, live skate park. And when they do, Lindy immediately falls in love. With skateboarding. With having friends that aren’t her cat. With staying in the same place for a little while. Lindy’s parents want to get back on the road as soon as the bus is fixed—but Lindy is willing to do anything to get them to stay. Even if that means sabotage. Will they ever be able to put down roots? And will Lindy’s parents ever forgive her if they do? 192pgs colour hardcover.
Kid Kong Goes Bananas!
Alec Worley & Karl Dixon
Rebellion / 2000AD
£9.99 / $11.99
The publisher says:
He’s Ape-solutely Incredible! Kid Kong is an adorable young ape who lives with his wacky, human granny. With a gigantic appetite for bananas to match his huge size, Kid and Gran often find themselves in incredible situations. Whether they’re hairdressing with aliens in outer space or time-travelling on Gran’s special scooter, fun and laugher are 100% guaranteed! Written by Alec Worley (Star Wars Adventures, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and featuring the playful art of Karl Dixon (The Beano’s Beryl the Peril), Kid Kong is a firm favourite bounding from the pages of the monthly Monster Fun comic. Part of the Monster Fun Collection, spinning from the pages of the hit UK comic, this brilliant range of books aims to inspire children to love reading through incredible stories and cool characters. 144pgs colour paperback.
Love, Misha
by Askel Aden
First Second
$25.99 / $17.99
The publisher says:
In this stunning YA adventure, debut author Askel Aden weaves a story of family schism and reconciliation that effortlessly enriches the complex dynamics of mother and child. Can this road trip get any worse? Yes, Mom (Audrey) wanted to spend time with Misha. And yes, she’s never around and they don’t even live together, so this is a rare opportunity. But Audrey still thinks of Misha as her daughter, despite Misha being non-binary and trying to talk to her openly about it. Misha even tries to write how they feel in a letter, but that isn’t going well either. Then a wrong turn down a forest road leads the mother-child duo straight into the Realm of Spirits! Suddenly in peril and without a clue how to return to their world, Misha and Audrey will have to work together to find their way back home. But can they find a way back to each other? Askel (he/they) is a transgender cartoonist based in Copenhagen. He graduated from The Animation Workshop in 2017 with a BA in Graphic Storytelling and has since worked as a background artist on cartoons, in the Danish comic scene, and on various ongoing webcomics. 320pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
Memen & Mori
by Shinsuke Yoshitake, translated by Ajani Oloye
JY
$20.00
The publisher says:
Meet Memen, the calm and collected older sister, and Mori, the curious younger brother. When Mori asks big questions like, “What is the meaning of life?,” how does big sis Memen respond? Through humorous and tender moments, the two siblings teach that sometimes, the answer to life is less complex than we think. Shinsuke Yoshitake is the author-illustrator of many award-winning picture books, including New York Times Notable Children’s Book There Must Be More Than That!, New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book The Boring Book, I Can Be Anything, I Won’t Give Up My Rubber Band, I Can Open It for You, and I Can Explain. His books have been translated into more than ten languages. He lives in Japan. 144pgs colour hardcover.
Miss Ruki
by Fumiko Takano, translated by Alexa Frank
New York Review Books
$19.95
The publisher says:
A young woman rejects the fast-paced consumer culture of 1980s Japan in favour of a slower, more carefree lifestyle in this tenderhearted, sweetly funny classic of slice-of-life manga. A classic of Japanese manga, Miss Ruki is a warm and vivid portrait of the lives of two young women in Tokyo during Japan’s 1980s bubble economy. The titular Miss Ruki spurns the fast-paced consumer culture of the era in favour of a lighthearted life dedicated to her hobbies, her books, and spending time with her anxious but far more pragmatic friend, Ecchan. Takano’s art moves with all the warmth, grace, and clarity of the everyday moments it depicts. Sweet and funny, these vignettes of a long-gone time still resonate today with readers and authors in Japan, with famed contemporary manga artist Keigo Shinzo noting, “To read it is to grasp something of the essence of Japan…. This is the kind of manga I want to draw.” Fumiko Takano is a Japanese manga artist. Influential among the “New Wave” manga artists in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Takano was one of the first women manga artists to publish in outlets not explicitly aimed at a female readership. She won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2003, and in 2015 she was the second-ever manga artist to win the Iwaya Sazanami Literary Award. She lives in Tokyo. 120pgs colour paperback.
Muros Within Magical Walls: The Case of the Cemetery Girl
by Paolo Chikiamco & Borg Sinaban
Tuttle Publishing
$13.99
The publisher says:
An intrepid detective tracks a girl lost amidst Manila’s many temptations. Can he crack the case and find the girl before the city erupts into violence? Muros is an urban fantasy set in an alternate Manila which has been sealed off from the rest of the world for decades. In this fast-paced graphic novel the walled city of Manila, recently freed from a dictator’s iron-fisted rule, is a magical metropolis where monsters flit and feed along neon-lit streets. The city, now governed by mysterious Societies, faces rising tensions between the human and nonhuman inhabitants that are nearing a breaking point. The story’s hero, Carlos “Caloy” Loyzaga, a “Taga-Sagot” (literally translated to Person Who Answers), is tasked with finding the runaway daughter of a small town Mayor. Caloy knows that there’s more to the story—but in a world where magic and modernity make for uneasy bedfellows, there are some secrets you simply can’t prepare for. Especially secrets that involve a cast of nonhuman characters, such as one-eyed Yomaws (hybrid human-canines), Asu-Gamis (half Aswang, half Inugami) and slinky Silat immortals—the hated weapons of the tyrant God. Paolo Chikiamco is a Filipino writer of prose, comics, and interactive fiction. He is the editor of Alternative Alamat: Myths and Legends from the Philippines and his work has been published in anthologies such as The Sea Is Ours and The Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction. In the field of comics, he’s the co-creator of Mythspace: Ignition (Ablaze Publishing), and A Sparrow’s Roar (BOOM! Studios). He has also served as a judge for the Graphic Literature category of the National Book Awards, and is the creator of the #RP612fic Twitter hashtag. Borg Sinaban is a freelance comic artist and illustrator based in Manila. He’s a sci-fantasy enjoyer and a lover of both soft and hard magic systems. He currently does character designs and book covers when not making graphic novels of his own. 112pgs black-&-blue paperback.
Nancy Wears Hats
by Ernie Bushmiller
Fantagraphics
$24.99
The publisher says:
The first volume in a new series collecting Ernie Bushmiller’s timeless Nancy! The cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller stated that his beloved Nancy was created for “the gum chewers” and not the “caviar eaters,” and this new collection of classic Nancy comic strips is perfect for gum chewers of all ages! Featuring over 300 comic strips, Nancy Wears Hats is a hilarious introduction to the timeless classic, beloved by generation after generation of children and adults. Nancy, along with on-and-off again boyfriend Sluggo, deliver absurd laughs panel after panel, all rendered in Bushmiller’s chiseled cartoon perfection that feels untethered to time or place. An acknowledged masterpiece of humour and cartooning, Nancy’s brand of lowbrow absurdism and unexpected visual delights have held sway over generations of early readers, artists and celebrities, to say nothing of its impact on American culture as a whole! Bushmiller created Nancy from 1938 to 1982, and in recent years, interest in his work has surged to a fever pitch. This volume collects strips from the years 1949–1950, when Bushmiller was cresting to the peak of his powers and presents the work in a fresh and contemporary format that will entertain for ages. 216pgs B&W paperback.
Neightborhood Craftsmen: Stories from Kanda’s Gokura-chou Vol.1
by Akihito Sakaue, translated by Ko Ranson
Yen Press
$20.00
The publisher says:
It’s not about the money. It’s about heart. Here in this masterpiece historical anthology, that heart will be laid bare to you: the spirit of craftsmanship, flowing from fingertip to final product, be it a barrel, indigo cloth, razor-sharp sword, soft tatami mat, or even complete plastered building… The series was irregularly serialised in Leed Publishing’s Comic Ran magazine from October 2020 to February 2022, before beginning a weekly serialisation on the website Torch Web in October 2022. 224pgs B&W paperback.
Pageant
by Justin Gradin
Fantagraphics Underground
$29.99
The publisher says:
Justin Gradin’s sophomore graphic novel combines keen verbal and visual wit with a host of memorable characters to create an anarchic, absurdist comedy about lonely souls and the lonely soulless. Ponce Melee is a lonely clock-puncher working for Twin Labs in the cloning dept. When he uses a strand of hair to clone a companion; it’s successful, but she immediately leaves him for greener pastures. So, he clones another potential companion. And that one leaves. And again. And again. Soon, multiple clones begin causing confusion and havoc around town. Meanwhile, one of the errant clones makes a pact with the devil that goes awry and strands Satan in town, forcing him to get a job. Justin Gradin’s sophomore graphic novel (after 2023’s Mystic Debris) combines keen verbal and visual wit with a host of memorable characters ― Mandrake the Soda Jerk, private investigator Butterfly Latté, pop superstar Attilla the Hunny, and many more―to create an anarchic, absurdist comedy about lonely souls and the lonely soulless. Gradin’s work has echoes of Gary Panter, Gary Leib, Marc Bell, and Mark Beyer (and even some other cartoonists who may or may not be named Gary or Mark) while remaining a singular, sui generis voice in contemporary comics. Justin Gradin is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, sound, music, animation, video and performance. As director, writer, producer, and art department, Gradin has completed twenty music videos for companies such as Sub Pop, Converse Shoe Company, and Domino Records to name a few. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. 180pgs colour paperback.
Rowlf and Other Fantasy Stories
by Richard Corben, with an introduction by Hayao Miyazaki
Dark Horse
$39.99
The publisher says:
Richard Corben’s fantasy masterpiece Rowlf, long out-of-print, is finally collected in a trilogy of werewolf stories in the next volume of the Richard Corben Library. Rowlf is a postmodern take of Beauty and the Beast that mixes high fantasy with dystopian science fiction. It is the first masterpiece in Corben’s long career. The Beast of Wolfton and its sequel The Spirit of the Beast are ironic love stories of a werewolf family saga. The book closes with a poignant free adaptation of one of the Japanese legends by Lafcadio Hearn called The Story of Oteg. All packaged in a beautiful new printing with meticulously restored artwork and featuring a new introduction by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away). All presented in a gorgeous hardcover with a dust jacket. Well known for his legendary fantasy underground masterpieces published by Fantagor Press as well as Heavy Metal, Richard Corben’s work has been recognised internationally having been awarded one of the most prestigious recognitions in comics literature the Grand Prix at Angoulême as well having been inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame. 128pgs colour hardcover.
Shiver As You Read!: Atlas Comics Library No.6
by various
Fantagraphics
$34.99
The publisher says:
Among the short, sharp shocks included in this volume are the mini masterpieces “The Eerie Escape” by B. Krigstein, “The Torture Master!” by Russ Heath, “The Drowning Witch” by Reed Crandall and “The 3rd Corpse” by Bill Everett. Stories by Gene Colan, John Romita, Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Jim Mooney, Paul Reinman and George Tuska, all of whom remained through the shift to Marvel Comics, additionally fill out these issues, along with Atlas regulars Fred Kida, Mort Lawrence, Mike Sekowsky and Myron Fass. Notably included is the first appearance of “Gorilla Man” by Robert Q. Sale, a character brought back in Marvel’s contemporary Agents of Atlas series, and part of their ongoing continuity. 304pgs colour hardcover.
Soul Machine
by Jordana Globerman
Annick Press
$24.99 / $17.99
The publisher says:
A Wrinkle in Time meets Brave New World in this thought-provoking debut graphic novel about one girl’s quest to save her family’s livelihood—and maybe existence itself. Chloe and her older sister make souls by hand in an empty old house in the countryside. When their supply of ‘breth’—the raw material needed to make souls—runs dry, the evil McCorp tries to force them to franchise and make synthetic souls instead. Chloe sets out to the big city in hopes of finding a new source. And maybe a way to modernise their business that Lacey is so determined to keep in the past. On a journey to find a real breth crop, untouched by MCorp’s greedy hands, Chloe uncovers long-buried family secrets—and starts to question whom to trust and what reality even is. A beautifully rendered debut, Soul Machine is at once a metaphysical science-fiction story and a nuanced exploration of big ideas: spirituality, family, consciousness, and connection, but also unscrupulous consumption, megacorporations, and how egomaniac entrepreneurs impact our lives. 228pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
The Woman with Fifty Faces: Maria Lani & The Greatest Art Heist That Never Was
by Jonathan Lackman & Zachary J. Pinson
Fantagraphics
$29.99
The publisher says:
A revelatory biographical graphic novel chronicling the elusive life and tumultuous times of Maria Lani. On April 7, 1928, Maria Lani blew into Paris claiming to be a famous German actress and proceeded to seduce the cultural elite with her undeniable charisma and strangely enticing enigmatic aura. She persuaded fifty artists ―Pierre Bonnard, Marc Chagall, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Georges-Henri Rouault, Fernand Léger and Suzanne Valadon among them― to immortalise her in paintings and sculptures, which would appear as an important plot device in a forthcoming film. Unveiled as an exhibition in New York, the art works traveled to Chicago, London, Berlin, Rotterdam, and Paris. But, in 1931, as legend eventually had it, she and her husband Max Abramowicz vanished without a trace, and so did the art. The film was never made. The Woman With Fifty Faces is about uncovering as much of the truth about Maria Lani as possible. The images that cascade through the book are stunningly beautiful, deeply compassionate, and farcically grotesque, capturing the essence of Lani’s life. From Poland’s antisemitic pogroms to the vulgar glamour and decadence of 1920s Paris to the Nazi occupation of France in the ‘40s, the tumultuous Europe Lani traverses becomes nearly as much of a character as Lani herself. Jonathan Lackman spent two decades researching Lani’s life and Zachary J. Pinson spent 5,000 hours putting pen to paper. The result is a masterful collaboration about identity and the power and limits of reinvention. 232pgs B&W hardcover.
The Wrestler
by John Kenn Mortensen
Fantagraphics
$22.99
The publisher says:
John Kenn Mortensen’s mordant, black-and-white inked images have taken you to The Nightmare Factory, scared you with The Bestiary, and given you Night Terrors―now in the internationally best selling artist’s debut graphic novel, you’re going to fight like hell! Freestyle wrestler The Sledgehammer has never met defeat, not at the hands of Painkiller, Handsome Jens, Fezzik the Giant or the Angel of Death. But over the course of 80 pages, Danish illustrator John Kenn Mortensen’s surreal black and white graphic novel will take Sledgehammer to the limits of reality, to show that he’s motivated by far more than hubris―it’s also love. Mortensen’s first English-language graphic novel delivers on the promise that his delightfully macabre books of illustration had previously made to readers around the world. With his spidery black-ink style, reminiscent of Edward Gorey’s gothic line, we’re taken to a world in which heavy metal mixes with the WWE by way of The Seventh Seal and Faust. 80pgs B&W hardcover.
Yellow Singing Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China
by Yinfan Huang
Little Brown Ink / Kids Can Press
$16.99
The publisher says:
For fans of New Kid and Stealing Home, an unforgettable portrait of childhood during the one-child era in China. In her early years, Yinfan lives in the small Chinese county of Xintian, surrounded by family members. But when they move for her father’s new job to the city of Guangzhou, her life changes dramatically. Not only does Yinfan need to adjust to a new dialect, but she also has to comply with many new rules at home and in school, and deal with her loneliness. Yinfan yearns to make a good friend, and she does her best to try and fit in. That is, until a girl in her class helps her realise she likes herself just the way she is. This graphic memoir from author and illustrator Yinfan Huang offers a heartwarming look at a girl’s struggle to forge her own identity in her quest for friendship. Full of fascinating details about life as a child and adolescent in 1990s China, it offers a timely message about how the challenges of growing up are universal. 184pgs colour paperback.
