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Top 35 Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga:
September 2021
Hello again, good to have you back here for my monthly preview. First up, Singapore’s triple Eisner Ward-winning graphic novelist Sonny Liew heads my top PG Tips this month, as he joins forces with writer Cherian George on Red Lines, their urgent interrogation of what lies behind the censorship of cartoons and cartoonists, both past and unfortunately also very present. Equally topical is Darryl Cunningham’s investigation into Putin’s rise to power and his determination not to relinquish it…
These meaty, historically-centred graphic novels stand out for their depth and evocation of America’s echoing past…
Lived experiences from the LGBTQ communities inform several recommended titles, notably these two above…
The psychological states of these two authors underpin these innovative works of graphic medicine from France and Spain…
And finally, discover Czech and Thai comics in these fascinating volumes. These and my other suggested titles are due to be released in shops starting from this September, of course subject to ongoing conditions and contingencies. Keep safe, keep in touch!
All My Friends
by Hope Larson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
$21.99 / $12.99
The publisher says:
From New York Times-bestselling and Eisner Award-winning creator Hope Larson comes All My Friends, the final standalone book in a middle-grade graphic novel trilogy about friendship, family and music. Middle-schooler Bina has everything she’s ever wanted. She has new friends and a new band whose song is about to be featured on her favourite television show. But being in the spotlight is hard. When Bina and her band are offered a record deal, Bina is thrilled. Her parents are not. Now, Bina is barely speaking to her mom and dad. To make matters worse, Bina and her best friend, Austin, are still awkward around each other after their failed first date. This is the story of how Bina finally figures out how to blend the various parts of her life together to make the perfect melody. 192pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
All Of The Marvels
by Douglas Wolk
Penguin Workshop
$28.99
The publisher says:
The first-ever full reckoning with Marvel Comics’ interconnected, half-million-page story, a revelatory guide to the “epic of epics”—and to the past sixty years of American culture—from a beloved authority on the subject who read all 27,000+ Marvel superhero comics and lived to tell the tale. The super-hero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961 are, Douglas Wolk notes, the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created: over half a million pages to date, and growing. The Marvel story is a gigantic mountain, smack in the middle of contemporary culture. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Every schoolchild recognises its protagonists: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men. Looking over close to sixty years of Marvel’s comics, Wolk sees fascinating patterns - the rise and fall of particular cultural aspirations, and of the storytelling modes that conveyed them. This is a huge treat for Marvel fans, but it’s also a revelation for readers who don’t know Doctor Strange from Doctor Doom. Here, truly, are all of the marvels. Douglas Wolk is the author of the Eisner Award–winning Reading Comics and the host of the podcast Voice of Latveria. A National Arts Journalism Program fellow, Wolk has written about comic books, graphic novels, pop music and technology for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Believer, Slate and Pitchfork. He lives in Portland, Oregon. 384pgs B&W hardcover,
Borders
by Thomas King & Natasha Donovan
Little Brown
$24.99
The publisher says:
From two celebrated Indigenous creators comes a powerful graphic novel about a family caught between nations. Borders is a masterfully told story of a boy and his mother whose road trip from Alberta to Salt Lake City is thwarted at the border when they identify their citizenship as Blackfoot. Refusing to identify as either American or Canadian first bars their entry into the US, and then their return into Canada. In the limbo between countries, they find power in their connection to their identity and to each other. A beautifully told tale with broad appeal, Borders resonates deeply with themes of identity, justice and belonging. Thomas King has written several highly acclaimed children’s books including A Coyote Solstice Tale (illustrated by Gary Clement) which won the American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book and A Coyote Columbus Story (illustrated by Kent Monkman) which was a Governor General’s Award finalist. King, who is of Cherokee and Greek descent and was born in California, was chair of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, before moving to University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He recently won a Governor General’s Award for his adult novel, The Back of the Turtle; he won both the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction and the RBC Taylor Prize for The Inconvenient Indian. Natasha Donovan is a Métis illustrator with a focus on comics and children’s illustration. She has illustrated several award-winning children’s books including The Sockeye Mother by Brett Huson and the graphic novel Surviving the City by Tasha Spillett-Sumner. She has a degree in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia, and has worked in academic and magazine publishing. 192pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
Call Me Nathan
by Catherine Castro & Quentin Zuttion
SelfMadeHero
$19.99
The publisher says:
A true coming-of-age story that explores transgender identity. “All I want is a proper body . . . ”Born as biologically female, Nathan spends his formative years facing questions without answers, social ostracism from his peers, and incomprehension from his family-because from as early as he can remember, he knows he has been born in the wrong body. But, as his family comes to recognise, a physical identity is harder to change than a piece of clothing or a haircut. So from the moment he is at last supplied with a professional term for his self-diagnosis-“gender dysphoria”-he is able to leave behind his complicated psychological history, the challenges of his self-harming and his struggles with sexual identity, and begin the difficult process of claiming his true self. Based on a true story, at first hand, Call Me Nathan issues a moving call for understanding, a powerful denunciation of prejudice and a celebration of everything it means to love. Catherine Castro is a reporter for Marie Claire. The author of several books, her investigations have led her to explore gender issues around the world. Quentin Zuttion is a widely published illustrator and artist who cites Brecht Evens, Julie Maroh and Egon Schiele among the influences on the airily physical style of his work. 144pgs colour paperback.
Ciguatera Vol. 1
by Minoru Furuta
Vertical
$24.95
The publisher says:
A story of self-doubting youth from award-winning manga creator Minoru Furuya, in his English debut series, Ciguatera. This coming-of-age tale from contemporary master Minoru Furuya centres on seventeen-year-old Yusuke Ogino, a self-described loser whose only refuge from the bullying hell he experiences at school is his dream of freedom on a motorcycle. But the unexpected entrance of a beautiful young woman into his life threatens to upend his whole world, forcing him to re-evaluate his relationships and even his sense of self. Instantly relatable and painfully honest, Furuya’s manga blends pitch-black humour with pathos and the awkward realities of everyday life to produce a quintessential tale of youth. The meticulous yet uninhibited art swings from stark realism to laugh-out-loud caricature, while nuanced characters and complex emotions help Ciguatera transcend the bounds of genre to take its rightful place as one of the great masterpieces of graphic storytelling. Born in 1972 in Saitama Prefecture, Minoru Furuya trained to be a barber before trying his hand at manga. His prize-winning debut The Ping Pong Club was made into a hit anime, while his series Himeanole and Himizu have both been adapted for film, the latter winning the Marcello Mastroianni Award when it screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival. Furuya’s fans include Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), manga artist Inio Asano (Girl on the Shore) and video game visionary Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear). Ciguatera was serialised in Young Magazine, 2003-5, and published by Kodansha in 6 volumes. 452pgs B&W paperback.
Discipline
by Dash Shaw
New York Review Comics
$29.95
The publisher says:
A teenage Quaker joins the Union Army and experiences firsthand the brutality of the Civil War in this singular graphic novel by a beloved comics artist and animator. During the Civil War, many Quakers were caught between their fervent support of abolition, a desire to preserve the Union, and their long-standing commitment to pacifism. When Charles Cox, a young Quaker from Indiana, slips out early one morning to enlist in the Union Army, he scandalises his family and his community. Leaving behind the strict ways of Quaker life, Cox is soon confronted with the savagery of battle, the cruelty of the enemy (as well as of his fellow soldiers), and the overwhelming strangeness of the world beyond his home. He clings to his faith and family through letters with his sister, Fanny, who faces her own trials at home: betrayal, death, and a church that seems ready to fracture under the stress of the war. Discipline is told largely through the letters exchanged between the Cox siblings—incorporating material from actual Quaker and soldier journals of the era—and drawn in a style that combines modern graphic storytelling with the Civil War–era battlefield illustrations of the likes of Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer. The result is a powerful consideration of faith, justice, and violence, and an American comics masterpiece. Dash Shaw was raised Quaker in Richmond, Virginia, where he currently lives. He is the cartoonist of many graphic novels and wrote and directed two animated feature films, the most recent of which, Cryptozoo, won the 2021 Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT Innovator Prize and will be distributed by Magnolia Pictures. Shaw began working on Discipline in 2014, and it was drawn over the course of six years. 312pgs B&W paperback.
Dromedaries
by Marta Frej
Centrala
$17.00 / £12.00
The publisher says:
An important role was played in the armed struggle against the Russian authorities by women who were active within the Polish Socialist Party’s paramilitary units. In underground jargon they were known as ‘Dromaderki’, the feminine form of the Polish word for dromedaries—the one-humped Arabian camels used to transport people and goods—because they carried weapons, ammunition and explosive materials. In the Częstochowa district alone there were several dozen of them. Unfortunately, most of them have remained anonymous; the names or aliases of only a few of them have survived to the present day. In “civilian” life they were students, teachers, doctors, housewives or factory workers. Active involvement in the fight for independence meant the risk of imprisonment, lengthy sentences to hard labour, or exile to Siberia. Marta Frej is a painter, illustrator, and, through her role as chair of the „Kulturoholizm” foundation, an organizer of cultural events. She is well known for her feminist online memes, which combine sparkling, pointed wit and finely crafted graphics. Marta Frej was born in Częstochowa in 1973. She is a graduate of the Łódź Academy of Fine Arts. Her creative work dedicated to the defence of gender equality and women’s rights won her the 2015 Okulary Równości („Spectacles of Equality”) prize, awarded by the Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka Foundation. She also won the 2017 O!Lśnienia roku („Revelation of the Year”) award in the art category. Her most popular works are her captioned pictures illustrating modern women’s life in Poland, which have been exhibited in various galleries throughout the country. Dromedaries is her first solo publication in book form. 36pgs colour hardcover.
Generous Bosom Part 4
by Conor Stechschulte
Breakdown Press
£20.00
The publisher says:
This is the bumper-sized, final part of the cult psychological sci-fi thriller by the enormously talented cartoonist Conor Stechschulte. Generous Bosom has been adapted into a feature film, directed by Rob Shroeder and written by Conor himself. Ultrasound (2021) from Lodger Films is currently showing at film festivals globally. Conor Stechschulte grew up in rural Pennsylvania and graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art 2008. He is the author of The Amateurs, a graphic novel published by Fantagraphics in 2014, of Generous Bosom, a series for Breakdown Press and of several self-published comics including three broadsheets - There Was a Forest, The Sound of the Wind and Tea Kettle, and Monks Mound, available from Crepuscular Archives. 180pgs two-colour paperback.
Good Night Hem
by Jason
Fantagraphics
$19.99
The publisher says:
Three interconnecting short stories starring Ernest Hemingway comprise the latest graphic novel by the beloved Norwegian cartoonist, Jason. (1) Paris, 1925. Our story begins when Hemingway meets Athos, the last Musketeer, who, together with several more friends of Hemingway, travel to Spain’s Pamplona for the fiesta. Festivities and complications ensue. (2) Paris, 1944. The second story starts the day after the liberation of Paris when Hemingway, now a war correspondent, decides enough is enough, and takes action to end the war for good. With a group of adventurers and resistance fighters, he parachutes into Germany to do just that. (3) Cuba, late 1950s. Our literary lion is in his twilight years, writing his memoirs, remembering his first and second meeting with the seemingly immortal Athos. Mixing fact and fiction, Jason has imaginatively recreated one of America’s greatest and most controversial writers of the 20th century. Jason hails from Oslo, Norway, but currently resides in Montpellier, France. He’s won multiple Eisners, a Harvey and an Inkpot award. 160pgs colour hardcover.
Grass of Parnassus
by Kathryn and Stuart Immonen
AdHouse Books
$29.95
The publisher says:
Join a huge cast including angry space techs, anxious energy workers, obsequious ramen robots, suspicious arcade owners, snack-driven vat-grown bears and correspondence-school druids in this backstage adventure aboard a malfunctioning flying space rock. Grass of Parnassus is the legendary Immonens at their breakneck best. This slip-cased volume expands the highly experimental story as it originally appeared online and includes over 50 pages of supplementary material. 224pgs colour hardcover.
Heaven’s Door: Extra Works
by Keiichi Koike, translated by Ajani Oloye
Last Gasp
$19.95
The publisher says:
A sci-fi manga collection of psychedelic short stories by Keiichi Koike. A drug in paper form! This is his first full-length book published in English. Contains these stories: ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’; ‘3,000 Leagues in Search of Mother’; ‘Lazarus Franco’s 4 A.M.’; ‘The Ronin and the Sea’; ‘Looper’; ‘Kenbo’s Diary’; ‘Sponge Generation’; ‘Airway’; ‘Stereo Scope’; ‘Horizon’; and ‘Landed’. Born in Tokyo, Koike won the prestigious Tezuka Award in 1976, when he was 16. His style, similar to Katsuhiro Otomo and Moebius, is marked by vivid representations of psychedelic experiences. Drugs are an important part of his inspiration: “Except peyotl, I have tried almost everything: hashish, heroin, cocain, acid, magic mushrooms… From a strictly graphical point of view, however, LSD is most important by far…” Edited by Colin Turner. Publication delayed from April 2020. 200pgs B&W paperback.
Moebius said:
‘A magnificent ronin, a warrior without a master, one of the few authors to resist the cynical formatting of the current manga industry…’
Himawari House
by Harmony Becker
First Second
$24.99 / $17.99
The publisher says:
A young adult graphic novel about three foreign exchange students and the pleasures, and difficulties, of adjusting to living in Japan. Living in a new country is no walk in the park — Nao, Hyejung and Tina can all attest to that. The three of them became fast friends through their time together in the Himawari House in Tokyo and attending the same Japanese cram school. Nao came to Japan to reconnect with her Japanese heritage, while Hyejung and Tina came to find freedom and their own paths. Though each of them has their own motivations and challenges, they all deal with language barriers, being a fish out of water, self discovery, love and family. Harmony Becker was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the illustrator of George Takei’s graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy. She currently lives in Mexico City. 384pgs colour hardcover/paperback.
How To Pick A Fight
by Lara Kaminoff
Nobrow
$18.99
The publisher says:
An all new graphic novel from cartoonist Lara Kaminoff, starring Jimmy Ruckus, the young rabble-rouser and trouble-maker who’s on a mission to achieve greatness by fighting his way to the top. How To Pick A Fight is the perfect fractured fable about a scrappy kid who means well, but never quite gets it right. The tenacious and stubborn young scrapper Jimmy Ruckus has plans to be the greatest wrestler in the world, and he’s up for fighting anyone. From his own family, his schoolwork, wild animals, sensitive artists, hard-drinking pirates and a heavyweight champ or two, he’s challenging the world one small fight at a time! But can his hopes and dreams take him all the way to stellar success? Or will Jimmy have to learn to stop living his life fist-first? Lara Kaminoff is a cartoonist and book-slinger living in Seattle with her beloved and their cat, Creeper. She’s inspired by an endless parade of podcasts, the magical world of fungi, brilliant friends, climbable trees and danceable floors. Right now she’s probably talking too fast, thinking too hard or trying to fix something that ain’t broke. 216pgs colour paperback.
Invisible Presence: The Representation of Women in French-Language Comics
by Catriona MacLeod
Intellect Books
£85.00
The publisher says:
This book looks at the representation of female characters in French comics from their first appearance in 1905. Organised into three sections, the book looks at the representation of women as main characters created by men, as secondary characters created by men, and as characters created by women. It focuses on female characters, both primary and secondary, in the francophone comic or bande dessinée, as well as the work of female bande dessinée creators more generally. Until now these characters and creators have received relatively little scholarly attention; this new book is set to change this status quo. Using feminist scholarship, especially from well-known film and literary theorists, the book asks what it means to draw women from within a phallocentric, male-dominated paradigm, as well as how the particular medium of bande dessinée, its form as well as its history, has shaped dominant representations of women. This is the first book to study the representation of women in the French-language drawn strip. There are no other works with this specific focus, either on women in Franco-Belgian comics, or on the drawn representation of women by men. This is a very useful addition to both general discussions of French-language comics, and to discussions of women’s comics, which are focused on comics by women only. As it is written in English, and due to the popularity of comic art in Britain and the United States, this book will primarily appeal to an Anglo-American market. However, the cultural and gender studies approach this text employs (theoretical frameworks still not widely seen in non-Anglophone studies of the bande dessinée) will ensure that the text is also of interest to a Franco-Belgian audience. This book will appeal both to an academic and to a more general readership with an interest in popular comic art. It will be useful to academics, researchers and students (undergraduates and postgraduates) in comic art, art history, contemporary art, French studies, gender studies, feminist studies and media studies. Excellent potential for inclusion on reading lists. With a focus on an art-form which also inspires a lot of public (non-academic) enthusiasm, it will also appeal to fans of the bande dessinée (or wider comic art medium) who are interested in the representation of women in comic art, and to comics scholars on a broad scale. Catriona MacLeod is a lecturer in French Studies and Politics at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP). Her research interests concern women in French-language graphic novels (bandes dessinées) and narratives of trauma and migration in bandes dessinées and caricatures. 256pgs B&W with 16 plates, 7 colour, 9 B&W, hardcover.
Leonard Cohen On A Wire
by Philippe Girard
Drawn & Quarterly
$24.95
The publisher says:
A captivating, revealing biography of the legendary musician and poet. Leonard Cohen opens in Los Angeles on the last night of the man’s life in 2016. Alone in his final hours, the beloved writer and musician ponders his existence in a series of flashbacks that reveal the ups and downs of a storied career. A young Cohen traded in the promise of steady employment in his family’s Montreal garment business for the unlikely path of a literary poet. His life took another sharp turn when, already in his thirties, he recorded his first album to widespread international acclaim. Along the way he encountered a who’s who of musical luminaries, including Lou Reed, Nico, Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell. And then there’s Phil Spector, the notorious music impresario who held a gun to Cohen’s head during a coke-fuelled, all-night recording session. Later in Cohen’s life, there’s the story of “Hallelujah,” one of his most famous songs, and its slow rise from relative obscurity when first recorded in the 1980s to its iconic status a decade later with covers by John Cale and Jeff Buckley. And the period when Cohen went broke after his manager embezzled his lifetime savings, which ironically sparked an unlikely career resurgence and several worldwide tours in the 2000s. Written with careful attention to detail and drawn with a palette of warm, lush colours by the Quebec-based cartoonist Philippe Girard, Leonard Cohen is an engaging portrait of a cultural icon. Philippe Girard was born in Québec City, Canada, in 1971. He published his first comic in a children’s magazine when he was eight years old and has since published more than twenty books. His comics have received the Joe Shuster, the Bedelys Quebec and the Bedeis Causa Awards. 120pgs colour hardcover.
Lights! Planets! People!
by Lizzy Stewart
Avery Hill
$22.95
The publisher says:
Lights! Planets! People! is an intimate and exhilarating graphic novel about space science, mental health and communication – both interpersonal and intergalactic. Renowned astronomer Maggie Hill is giving a lecture about her career to inspire young women to work in science. She’s also attending her first ever therapy session, in order to overcome some debilitating anxiety. Both events force Maggie to examine her greatest achievements and biggest regrets. A new comic about legacy, loss, human curiosity and the economics of failure adapted by illustrator Lizzy Stewart and writer Molly Naylor from Naylor’s play of the same name. Molly Naylor is a writer and performer. Her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio and Sky One. She has performed at theatres, festivals and events all over the world. She has published two poetry collections. She has a feature film in development. Lights! Planets! People! is her first graphic novel. Lizzy Stewart is an illustrator and author based in London. She has written and illustrated two books for children and countless comics and zines. She teaches illustration at Goldsmiths University and has also taught courses at the Tate and on behalf of the National Portrait Gallery. She’s studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Central St Martins. 120pgs colour hardcover.
Lugosi: Rise & Fall of Hollywood’s Dracula
by Koren Shadmi
Humanoids / Life Drawn
$24.99
The publisher says:
A biography chronicling the tumultuous personal and professional life of horror icon Bela Lugosi. As horror cinema’s most iconic actor, Lugosi is forever remembered for his haunting role as Count Dracula, frightening filmgoers for many years. But once the cameras finally stopped rolling…that’s when Lugosi himself learned what true terror was. Lugosi, the tragic life story of one of horror’s most iconic film stars, tells of a young Hungarian actor and activist forced to flee his homeland after the failed Communist revolution in 1919. This first-of-its-kind graphic memoir details Lugosi’s flight after becoming an enemy of the state and his eventual move to the US, where his career flourished-for a while. Reinventing himself, first on stage and then in movies, he landed the unforgettable role of Count Dracula in what would become a series of classic feature films. From that point forward, Lugosi’s stardom would be assured…but with international fame came setbacks and addictions that gradually whittled his reputation from icon to has-been. Following a pivotal career mistake that allowed Boris Karloff’s star to rise while his plummeted, Lugosi’s pride, extravagant lifestyle, and addiction to drugs, women, and the high life led to his tragic decline and humiliating later years that saw him join forces with infamous B-movie director Ed Wood for one last shot at stardom. Lugosi details the actor’s fall from grace and an enduring legacy that continues to this day. Koren Shadmi is an American-Israeli, Brooklyn based graphic novelist and illustrator. His books have been published internationally and include: In The Flesh, The Abaddon, Mike’s Place and most recently The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television. Koren’s illustration and comics have appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Wired, BusinessWeek, the Village Voice, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy and many others. His illustration work has won several awards at the Society of Illustrators. 160pgs two-colour paperback.
Memories from Limón
by Edo Benes
Nobrow
£16.99 / $23.99
The publisher says:
A wholesome snapshot of reconnecting with generations of one’s family history, Costa Rican illustrator Edo Brenes unearths a trove of stories in his graphic novel Memories of Limón. He recounts tales of everything from affairs to adventurous escapades, all while taking time to share a laugh over life’s messier moments. Ramiro leaves the British drizzle and his beloved fiancé Yoss to investigate his family history back home in Costa Rica. What starts as an innocent fascination with an old family photo album leads to conversations with the older generations, and revelations he is not prepared for. This intimate and evocative graphic novel uncovers a family secret, set against the idyllic Caribbean coastline in one of the most beautiful countries in Latin America. Author Edo Brenes deftly weaves together the heartbreaking and humbling stories of three generations. Love and life is a struggle in paradise: welcome to Limón. Edo Brenes was born in Costa Rica, and studied a BA in Animation at Veritas University, Costa Rica, followed by an MA in Animation at the University of Sunderland. He then went on to work as a freelance illustrator and animator, as well as a lecturer at Veritas University and the prestigious Cambridge School of Art. In 2018 Edo won the Cheltenham Illustration Award short comic with Lunday. In 2019 he won the Observer/Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize, with a version of what became the first chapter of Memories From Limón. 272pgs colour paperback.
Memories from the Civil War Vol. 1
by Richard Marazano & Jean-Michel Ponzio
Cinebook
$13.95
The publisher says:
In a not-so-distant future, mankind’s greed and short-sightedness have exhausted the planet. The vast majority of the population lives in misery among the ruins of civilisation, while a small, privileged minority continues to enjoy a luxurious existence inside a few fortress-cities scattered around the globe, the Enclaves. Vivian is a member of the elite forces that protect this utopia - but also regularly hunt down and capture people from outside the walls to use as cheap, forced labour. Richard Marazano is a jack of all trades – art, politics, physics, astrophysics, classical studies – who also does comics. He’s worked on over 30 series and one-shots, including SAM and The Chimpanzee Complex, both translated by Cinebook. Jean-Michel Ponzio made several 3D short films, and also worked for cinema and advertising. He worked with Marazano on series Genetiks and The Chimpanzee Complex. 56pgs colour paperback.
MonsterMind
by Alfonso Casas
Ablaze
$19.99
The publisher says:
Alfonso Casas’s MonsterMind is a very personal account of the inner monsters that live inside his head. But who doesn’t have a monster inside them? Who has never heard that voice inside their head undermining everything they do? You’re not good enough…You just got really lucky…There are people far better and more qualified than you… In a very honest exercise, Alfonso Casas identifies and introduces his own monsters to his readers: Mr. Past Traumas, Mr. Fear, Mr. Social Anxiety, Mr. Impostor Syndrome, Mr. Sadness, Mr. Doubt…the pessimistic, the insecure, the self-demanding, the monster that keeps you from sleeping while you think of what you could have said back in that conversation two years ago, or that keeps you looking over the punctuation of every text message to figure out the tone lurking beneath the surface. All those monsters make up the bestiary of contemporary society. But the anxiety generation is expert in more things: in looking inside themselves and their lives, and — why not? — in laughing at their own neuroses as best they can. In the end, if the monsters won’t leave us, we might as well get to know them and laugh at them! Anxiety is another pandemic, but the monsters dwelling inside us are funny, too (especially as drawn by Alfonso Casas). Includes a discussion guide to help readers further discuss anxiety and find ways to deal with it. 144pgs colour hardcover.
Nod Away Vol. 2
by Joshua W. Cotter
Fantagraphics
$24.99
The publisher says:
An SF graphic novel, the second in an epic series, set in a near-future where the internet is telepathic and its hub is a human child. Vol. 2 moves away from the deep space transport where Vol. 1 took place and moves to earthly terrain, peeling back layers of Cotter’s world-building to reveal the bigger picture of this graphic novel series in ways that upend expectations. Aveline Moiré is a headstrong but self-destructive young French woman. When she meets and moves in with a young artist, Walter Walker, little do they know that the wheels they set in motion may bring about the end of humankind. Working within the structure of SF, Nod Away explores what consciousness could be, its location, what function or point it might serve, and how a lack of personal responsibility and accountability will always corrupt it. At a projected seven volumes and over 2000 pages in all, Nod Away is poised to be one of the great comics classics of the 21st century. Joshua W. Cotter’s debut graphic novel, Skyscrapers of the Midwest, was nominated for an Ignatz award in 2005. He lives in rural northwest Missouri with his family and cats with an acute sense of impending mortality. They keep him making comics. 360pgs B&W paperback.
Noir Is The New Black: Noir Stories from Black Creators
Written by David Walker, Brandon Thomas, Melody Cooper, Brandon Easton O others, drawn by N. Steven Harris, MD Bright, Marcus Williams, Karen Darboe, Walt Barna, David Brame & others
Fairsquare Comics
$25.00
The publisher says:
Unhinged. Unfiltered. Unstoppable… This is Noir Is The New Black: Forty Black creators delivering sixteen Noir stories in a unique way. For the first time, the most successful Black American comic book creators like David F. Walker, Brandon Thomas, Brandon Easton, Melody Cooper, Md Bright and N.steven Harris, as well as a new generation of writers and artists of color from all around the world such as Karen S. Darboe, Walt Barna, Marcus Williams, Quinn Mcgowan, Roxxy Haze, Greg Burnham and many more, are banding together for a unique anthology of 100% creator-owned Black Noir comic stories. This new edition includes one new story: The Circuit by TC Harris and David Brame, as well as a behind-the-scenes bonus section featuring black and white art. With a Foreword by Shawn Martinbrough, 148pgs colour paperback.
Oksi
by Mari Ahokoivu, translated by Silja-Maaria Aronpuro
Chronicle
$20.99 / $14.99
The publisher says:
Poorling is a little bear. She’s a bit different from her brothers. Mother keeps their family safe. For the Forest is full of dangers. It is there that Mana lives, with her Shadow children. And above them all, Emuu, the great Grandma in the Sky. From the heart of Finnish folklore comes a breathtaking tale of mothers, daughters, stars and legends, and the old gods and the new. Mari Ahokoivu is an illustrator and comics artist from Finland. Her magnum opus, Oksi, was called “beautiful, clever, funny, vibrant, and full of magic” by the biggest newspaper in her home country; was shortlisted for the Jarkko Laine Award; and has now been translated into English as the first graphic novel on the Levine Querido list. Silja-Maaria Aronpuro is a Finnish translator. She finds bringing other people’s stories to life in a different language pretty magical. She is happy to have translated books that have been selected for the Finnish graphic novel of the year 2018 and the translation of the year 2019 by the panel of critics in the Finnish comics society’s magazine. 400pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
by Timothy Snyder, illustrated by Nora Krug
Ten Speed Press
$22.99 / $16.99
The publisher says:
A graphic edition of historian Timothy Snyder’s bestselling book of lessons for surviving and resisting America’s arc toward authoritarianism, featuring the visual storytelling talents of renowned illustrator Nora Krug. Timothy Snyder’s New York Times bestseller On Tyranny uses the darkest moments in twentieth-century history, from Nazism to Communism, to teach twenty lessons on resisting modern-day authoritarianism. Among the twenty include a warning to be aware of how symbols used today could affect tomorrow (“4: Take responsibility for the face of the world”), an urgent reminder to research everything for yourself and to the fullest extent (“11: Investigate”), a point to use personalised and individualised speech rather than clichéed phrases for the sake of mass appeal (“9: Be kind to our language”), and more. In this graphic edition, Nora Krug draws from her highly inventive art style in Belonging — at once a graphic memoir, collage-style scrapbook, historical narrative and trove of memories — to breathe new life, colour and power into Snyder’s riveting historical references, turning a quick-read pocket guide of lessons into a visually striking rumination. In a time of great uncertainty and instability, this edition of On Tyranny emphasises the importance of being active, conscious and deliberate participants in resistance. Timothy Snyder is the Housum Professor of History at Yale University and a member of the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He is the author of the bestselling books Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. His work has received the literature award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Hannah Arendt Prize and the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding. Snyder is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement and a former contributing editor at The New Republic. Nora Krug is the author of the graphic memoir Belonging and an associate professor at Parsons School of Design in New York. Her drawings and visual narratives have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian and Le Monde diplomatique. Her short-form graphic biography, Kamikaze, about a surviving Japanese World War II pilot, was included in editions of Best American Comics and Best American Nonrequired Reading. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Maurice Sendak Foundation, Fulbright, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and of medals from the Society of Illustrators and the New York Art Directors Club. 128pgs colour hardcover.
Other Boys
by Damian Alexander
$21.99 / $14.99
First Second
The publisher says:
In Other Boys, debut author Damian Alexander delivers a moving middle-grade graphic memoir about his struggles with bullying, the death of his mother and coming out. Damian is the new kid at school, and he has a foolproof plan to avoid the bullying that’s plagued him his whole childhood: he’s going to stop talking. Starting on the first day of seventh grade, he won’t utter a word. But his vow of silence doesn’t work — his classmates can tell there’s something different about him. His family doesn’t look like the kind on TV: his mother is dead, his father is gone and he’s being raised by his grandparents in a low-income household. And Damian does things that boys aren’t supposed do, like play with Barbies instead of G.I. Joe. Kids have teased him about this his whole like, especially other boys. But if boys can be so cruel, why does Damian have a crush on one? Damian Alexander is a cartoonist and storyteller who grew up in and around Boston. His first graphic novel, Other Boys, is based off his viral and award-winning autobiographical webcomics. Damian’s illustrations and comic shorts can be found on The Trevor Project, Narratively, The Nib and others. He loves ghost stories, miniatures and watching cartoons with his cats on sunny afternoons. 208pgs colour hardcover/paperback.
Our Artists at War: The Best of the Best American War Comics
by Richard J. Arndt & Steven Fears
TwoMorrows Publishing
$27.95
The publisher says:
Our Artists at War is the first book ever published in the U.S. that solely examines War Comics published in America. It covers the talented writers and artists who supplied the finest, most compelling stories in the War Comics genre, which has long been neglected in the annals of comics history. Through the critical analysis of the authors, this overlooked treasure trove is explored in-depth, finally giving it the respect it deserves. Included are pivotal series from EC Comics (Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat), DC Comics (Enemy Ace and the Big Five war books: All American Men of War, G.I. Combat, Our Fighting Forces, Our Army at War and Star-Spangled War Stories), Warren Publishing (Blazing Combat), Charlton (Willy Schultz and the Iron Corporal) and more. Featuring the work of Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, Jack Davis, Wallace Wood, Joe Kubert, Sam Glanzman, Jack Kirby, Will Elder, Gene Colan, Russ Heath, Alex Toth, Mort Drucker and many others. Introduction by Roy Thomas, Foreword by Willi Franz, cover by Joe Kubert. 160pgs colour paperback.
Piece by Piece: The Story of Nisrin’s Hijab
by Priya Huq
Amulet Books
$22.99 / $12.99
The publisher says:
In this middle-grade graphic novel, Nisrin will have to rely on faith, friends, and family to help her recover after she is the target of a hate crime. Nisrin is a 13-year-old Bangladeshi-American girl living in Milwaukie, Oregon, in 2002. As she nears the end of eighth grade, she gives a presentation for World Culture Day about Bangladesh while wearing a traditional cultural dress. On her way home, she is the victim of a hate crime when a man violently attacks her for wearing a headscarf. Deeply traumatised by the experience, Nisrin spends the summer depressed and isolated. Other than weekly therapy, Nisrin doesn’t leave the house until fall arrives and it’s time for her to start freshman year at a new school. The night before class starts, Nisrin makes a decision. She tells her family she’s going to start wearing hijab, much to their dismay. Her mother and grandparent’s shocked and angry reactions confuse her-but they only strengthen her resolve. This choice puts Nisrin on a path to not only discover more about Islam, but also her family’s complicated relationship with the religion, and the reasons they left Bangladesh in the first place. On top of everything else, she’s struggling to fit in at school-her hijab makes her a target for students and faculty alike. But with the help from old friends and new, Nisrin is starting to figure out what really makes her happy. Piece by Piece is an original graphic novel about growing up and choosing your own path, even if it leads you to a different place than you expected. Priya Huq is a Bangladeshi-American cartoonist from Austin, Texas, who enjoys working in water-based media. Her stories deal with complex emotions in both real and fantastic locations. In her free time she likes to drink tea and look at trees. Huq has contributed to The Nib and other online publications. She lives in New York City with her spouse and two cats. 224pgs colour hardcover / paperback.
Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator
by Darryl Cunningham
Myriad Editions
£16.99
Master manipulator or gangster? The malign thrust of Putin’s domestic and foreign policy is exposed in Cunningham’s latest page-turning biography including his early life, political career, the wars in Chechnya, Crimea and the Ukraine, the crackdown on human rights, Brexit, Trump—and the poisonings. Author of more than six acclaimed graphic novels and well-known for his economical drawing and clear, explanatory narrative, Cunningham shows how the West and its leaders have been culpable in aiding Putin’s rise—Obama being a particular example. Areas covered include Brexit and Trump; the crackdown on human rights, especially on homosexuality in Russia; and the poisonings—among them, journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Russia, Alexander Litvinenko in London, Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. By putting all these events into a timeline, Cunningham aims to show that Putin is opportunistic rather than the master manipulator people make him out to be: ‘He’s essentially a gangster and not a particularly smart one. We need to demythologise Putin if we are to beat him.’ 144pgs colour paperback.
Red Lines: Political Cartoons and The Struggle Against Censorship
by Cherian George & Sonny Liew
MIT Press
$34.95
A lively graphic narrative reports on censorship of political cartoons around the world, featuring interviews with censored cartoonists from Pittsburgh to Beijing. Why do the powerful feel so threatened by political cartoons? Cartoons don’t tell secrets or move markets. Yet, as Cherian George and Sonny Liew show us in Red Lines, cartoonists have been harassed, trolled, sued, fired, jailed, attacked and assassinated for their insolence. The robustness of political cartooning—one of the most elemental forms of political speech—says something about the health of democracy. In a lively graphic narrative—illustrated by Liew, himself a prize-winning cartoonist—Red Lines crisscrosses the globe to feel the pulse of a vocation under attack. A Syrian cartoonist insults the president and has his hands broken by goons. An Indian cartoonist stands up to misogyny and receives rape threats. An Israeli artist finds his antiracist works censored by social media algorithms. And the New York Times, caught in the crossfire of the culture wars, decides to stop publishing editorial cartoons completely. Red Lines studies thin-skinned tyrants, the invisible hand of market censorship and demands in the name of social justice to rein in the right to offend. It includes interviews with more than sixty cartoonists and insights from art historians, legal scholars and political scientists—all presented in graphic form. This engaging account makes it clear that cartoon censorship doesn’t just matter to cartoonists and their fans. When the red lines are misapplied, all citizens are potential victims. Cherian George is Professor of Media Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Communication. A former journalist, he is the author of Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and Its Threat to Democracy (MIT Press). Sonny Liew is a celebrated cartoonist and illustrator and the author of The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, a New York Times bestseller, which received three Eisner Awards and the Singapore Literature Prize. 448pgs colour paperback.
Secret Passages 1985…1986
by Axelle Lenoir
IDW / Top Shelf
$19.99
The publisher says:
Welcome to an autobiography from another dimension. A wildly inventive cartoonist begins her imaginary memoir — exploring the girlhood she never had. ‘Ever since my cosmic twin disappeared, nothing makes sense anymore. Friends, work, life-well, you get the picture. For all of five minutes I thought therapy might be the answer. But then I remembered: I’m a cartoonist. Why waste a skilled professional’s time when I could just spend 10 years of my life making an autobiographical comic and call it a “voyage of self-discovery”? So here it is: the opening chapter of my life. It’s 1985 in a small Quebec town called Notre-Dame du Lac. We’re going to get to know a little girl who enjoys chatting with the forest (that’s me!), a younger brother with demonic tendencies, a tyrannical older brother, and two marvellous parents who may or may not be aliens. And please, PLEASE, take my advice, dear reader. If you ever find yourself in the midst of an existential crisis, don’t make a comic about it. See a therapist instead. Much love!’ Axelle Lenoir started out as a 2D artist in 1999, for a Quebec City video game company. In 2003, craving more creative freedom, she quit and made her first steps in comic books. Her Mertownville trilogy was released by the Swiss publisher Paquet in the mid-2000s. Since then, Axelle has worked with publishers in France, Belgium and Canada. Her first English-language graphic novel, Camp Spirit (Top Shelf), is a coming-of-age story about an unlikely friendship between two summer camp counsellors. Her next book, a comic strip collection named What If We Were..., portrays two teenage girls who invented a weird and funny game to fill their spare time. Axelle’s writing style is a mix between humour, everyday life situations, fantasy and comic strips. She likes to write about women, teenagers, folklore, parallel universes and stupid cats. 184pgs one-colour paperback.
Strays
by Chris W. Kim
SelfMadeHero
$19.99
The publisher says:
An enigmatic parable of the modern city, where strangers can become friends and vice versa. A young man flees a disaster at home and comes to live in the city with his sister. He makes ends meet by taking a job as a deliveryman — only to encounter a flood of old friends and past acquaintances on his daily route. At first elated by the company of these waifs and strays, eventually their own desperation for work begins to trouble his conscience-but what happens when you can’t deliver help to everyone? Chris W. Kim’s distinctively detailed graphic style embodies an elusively disquieting parable of modern isolation and the ties that bind—or fail to bind—society together. Chris W. Kim is a comics artist and illustrator. A graduate of OCAD University in Toronto, his clients include the New York Times and the Hollywood Reporter. Herman by Trade (SelfMadeHero, 2017) was his first graphic novel. This is his second. He lives in Canada. 184pgs B&W paperback.
The Adventures of The Mad Tsar
by Tarek & Lionel Chouin
Black Panel Press
$29.99
The publisher says:
It all starts in the capital. To be closer to his subjects, the Tsar, dressed in peasant clothes, strolls through the streets of St. Petersburg. Disaster strikes! The Tsar is captured by a group of conspirators wishing to use his uncanny “resemblance” to the Tsar (himself) for sinister ends. What fate awaits the true Tsar, now a simple peasant, in the hands of his enemies? And most importantly, what do they have in store for him next? The three volume French graphic novel now appears in English in a single volume. View sample pages https://www.blackpanelpress.com/en/product/the-mad-tsar/here… 148pgs colour paperback.
The Art of Thai Comics: A Century of Strips and Stripes
by Nicolas Verstappen
River Books Press
$45 / £32.50
The publisher says:
After the first Thai comic strip was published in 1907, comics flourished in Siam and developed in uniquely Thai ways. With diverse and leading artists working in each generation there is a wealth of material to consider. Gory horror tales, anti-communist propaganda and socially-engaged graphic novels bear witness to the country’s darker years. From 1990, Thai comics struggled to compete with the sudden influx of unlicensed Japanese manga and went through a hiatus, making a comeback in the late ‘90s with a new and alternative scene that deserves wider recognition. Each page of The Art of Thai Comics opens a unique window onto Thai society - a distilled vision of its hopes, fears, delights and horrors. From 20th century interpretations of Jataka tales, which replay the Buddha’s various reincarnations, to tales of modern-day millennial angst. Thai comics past and present offer an entertaining and enlightening viewpoint onto the country’s history, culture and enduring creativity. Nicolas Verstappen, a Belgian national, is a full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Communication Arts at Chulalongkrn University in Bangkok where he teaches Comics Art History and Composition. 288pgs colour paperback.
The Jewish Brigade
by Marvano
Dead Reckoning
$24.95
The publisher says:
In the waning years of World War II, a Jewish fighting force, known as the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, was born as part of the British Eighth Army. Leslie Toliver, a racing car driver in the pre-war years, eagerly joined the all-volunteer force for a chance to fight with his people against those who sought to murder them. When the war in Europe ends and the “savage continent” sits on the brink of continental civil war from chaos, terror and famine, Leslie and the Brigade move to Tarvisio, Italy, a border triangle city perfect for covert action. While out searching for Holocaust survivors, Leslie undertakes vigilante missions in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe hunting down Nazis on the run for both vengeance and justice. With each Nazi found or refugee rescued, he looks for more information to complete his most personal mission: to find his mother and fiancée who went missing in the upheaval of the war. Born in Belgium, Marc Vanoppen, known as Marvano, started out as an interior designer. Years later, he began an alternate career as an illustrator, eventually becoming editor-in-chief of the magazine Kuifje, then managing the comics department of Flemish publisher Den Gulden Engel. All the while he published his own comics and went on to write and illustrate dozens of graphic novels over decades, most notably adapting Joe Halderman’s famous novel The Forever War. 144pgs colour paperback.
The Short While
by Jeremy Sorese
Boom! Studios
$29.99
The publisher says:
What is the price of love… and redemption? After a party, two men accidentally swap their jackets and are thrust into a most opportune meeting. In each other they find what they’ve been missing. Love. Companionship. Trust. Honesty. Vulnerability. And they find everything they feared. Tragedy. Loss. Loss of self. Loss of freedom. Loss of each other. Acclaimed cartoonist Jeremy Sorese (Curveball) presents a tragic but redemptive love story about two men who meet, quickly fall in love and are divided when an act of violence delivers an unforgettable trauma to their lives. 432pgs colour hardcover.
The Sisters Dietl
by Vojtěch Mašek
Centrala
$35.00 / £25.00
The publisher says:
A horror detective story about two sisters, whose world is created from the surreal visions of Vojtěch Mašek, one of the most acclaimed Czech comics authors. When one of the Dietl sisters ends up in hospital after what appears to be a brutal attack, leaving her with a mutilated face and unable to move, Mašek leads the reader on a detective story exploring change of identity, doppelgängers, deformation, hallucination and altered states of mind in contrast with idyllic family life. This comics takes place in a fictional world woven from dreams, hazy and distorted memories of childhood fears, fear of the unknown and the desire for a safe hiding place. Reality is constantly disrupted by doubts, changing points of view, the neurotic need to find objective truth. All this is contained in the story about the Dietl sisters – many theories, many possibilities but seemingly with only one solution. Mašek employs a unique multilayered art style, combining backgrounds created from various texts, newspaper cuttings and patterns with the main plot taking place in the foreground. With slight exaggeration it could be said that whatever discipline Vojtěch Mašek (born 1977) turns his hand to, his work always meets with incredible success: he was one of the screenwriters on the film Křižáček (The Little Crusader, 2017), which won best film at the festival in Karlovy Vary, while the children’s book Panáček, pecka, švestka, poleno a zase panáček (Puppet, Plum Pit, Plum, Plank and Back to Puppet, 2018), story by Mašek and art by Chrudoš Valoušek, won the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Award. However, he is most at home in the world of comics, which he creates either on his own or in partnership with other artists and writers. Since 2002, he and Džian Baban have been developing the surreally farcical world of Monstrkabaret Freda Brunolda (Fred Brunold’s Monster Cabaret), which has appeared in five comic books, more than a dozen stage adaptations and in short films. They have also written two award-winning graphic novels with art by Jiří Grus. He also recently worked with the writer Marek Šindelka on the contemporary graphic novel Svatá Barbora (Saint Barbara, art by Marek Pokorný, 2018), and his list of projects continues to grow. 248pgs colour hardcover.
This Is How I Disappear
by Mirion Malle, translated by Aleshia Jensen & Bronwyn Haslam
Drawn & Quarterly
$24.00
The publisher says:
An affecting glimpse into the ways millennials cope with mental health struggles. Clara’s at a breaking point. She’s got writer’s block, her friends ask a lot without giving much, her psychologist is useless and her demanding publishing job leaves little time for self-care. She seeks solace in the community around her, yet, while her friends provide support and comfort, she is often left feeling empty, unable to express an underlying depression that leaves her immobilised and stifles any attempts at completing her poetry collection. In This Is How I Disappear, Mirion Malle paints an empathetic portrait of a young woman wrestling with psychological stress and the trauma following a sexual assault. Malle displays frankness and a remarkable emotional intelligence as she explores depression, isolation and self-harm in her expertly drawn novel. Her heroine battles an onslaught of painful emotions and while Clara can provide consolation to those around her, she finds it difficult to bestow the same understanding on herself. Only when she allows her community to guide her toward self-love does she find relief. Filled with 21st century idioms and social media communication, This Is How I Disappear opens a window onto the lives of young people as they face a barrage of mental health hurdles. Scenes of sisterhood, fun nights out singing karaoke and impromptu FaceTime therapy sessions show how this generation is coping, connecting and healing together. Mirion Malle is a French cartoonist and illustrator who lives in
