JUNE 2021

THE MAGIC FISH

TRUNG LE NGUYEN

Tien and his mother may come from different cultures—she’s an immigrant from Vietnam still struggling with English; he’s been raised in America—but through the fairy tales he checks out from the local library, those differences are erased.

But as much as Tien’s mother’s English continues to improve as he reads her tales of love, loss, and travel across distant shores, there’s one conversation that still eludes him—how to come out to her and his father. Is there even a way to explain what he’s going through in Vietnamese? And without a way to reveal his hidden self, how will his parents ever accept him?

This beautifully illustrated graphic novel speaks to the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together even when we don’t know the words.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF RANDOM HOUSE

MAY 2021

GHOSTWRITER

RAYCO PULIDO

The noirish, darkly comedic English-language debut of award-winning Spanish cartoonist Rayco Pulido.

Barcelona, 1943. As a scriptwriter for a popular radio advice column, Laia is embroiled in the romantic entanglements of others. Each day, she reads letters from troubled wives and girlfriends recounting their partners’ abuses and tries her best to counsel them. In contrast, her own life seems perfectly ordered, with a devoted husband and a baby on the way. But when the city is terrorized by a vengeful killer, who leaves behind cryptic messages in blood alongside the mutilated bodies of married men ― while at the same time, Laia’s husband goes missing ― her world begins to come apart.

Desperate to find her husband, she turns to Mauricio, a private eye practiced in hypnosis. During the course of his investigations, Mauricio soon suspects that there may be more to this unassuming young woman than meets the eye.

Rendered in a clean-line chiaroscuro style and masterfully paced, Ghostwriter takes the reader on a wild ride full of twists and turns right through to its thrilling conclusion

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF FANTAGRAPHICS

APRIL 2021

THE NEW WORLD

ALES KOTT // TRADD MOORE

The United States of America -- after the Second Civil War.

Two people meet and fall in love. One, a very orderly vegan hacker ready to make some mess. The other, a chaotic cop with a reality tv show that never stops.

Head. Over. Heels. With the entire Republic of New California after them, they run.

A ballistic SF action romance mini-series in the vein of MAD MAX and ROMEO AND JULIET by ALEŠ KOT, TRADD MOORE and HEATHER MOORE.

The entire story in one package..

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF IMAGE COMICS

MARCH 2021

SKIP

MOLLY MENDOZA

In this epic tale of friendship, compassion and growth, Molly Mendoza’s stunning art and gripping storytelling immerses you in alternate worlds filled with mystical creatures and dazzling landscapes.

When Bloom is thrown from their world, and Gloopy is exiled from their own, the two youngsters find in each other a much-needed kindred spirit. But as they skip through dimensions and encounter weeping giants, alligator islands and topsy-turvy 2D worlds, they find that their greatest challenge will be facing their own fears back home.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF NOBROW

FEBRUARY 2021

TWINS

VARIAN JOHNSON // SHANNON WRIGHT

Coretta Scott King Honor author Varian Johnson teams up with rising cartoonist Shannon Wright for a delightful middle-grade graphic novel!

Maureen and Francine Carter are twins and best friends. They participate in the same clubs, enjoy the same foods, and are partners on all their school projects. But just before the girls start sixth grade, Francine becomes Fran -- a girl who wants to join the chorus, run for class president, and dress in fashionable outfits that set her apart from Maureen. A girl who seems happy to share only two classes with her sister!

Maureen and Francine are growing apart and there's nothing Maureen can do to stop it. Are sisters really forever? Or will middle school change things for good?

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF SCHOLASTIC

JANUARY 2021

SNAPDRAGON

KATE LEYH

Snap's town had a witch.

At least, that’s how the rumor goes. But in reality, Jacks is just a crocks-wearing, internet-savvy old lady who sells roadkill skeletons online―after doing a little ritual to put their spirits to rest. It’s creepy, sure, but Snap thinks it’s kind of cool, too.

They make a deal: Jacks will teach Snap how to take care of the baby opossums that Snap rescued, and Snap will help Jacks with her work. But as Snap starts to get to know Jacks, she realizes that Jacks may in fact have real magic―and a connection with Snap’s family’s past.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF FIRST SECOND

DECEMBER 2020

WITCH HAT ATELIER VOL.1

KAMOME SHIRAHAMA

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch...until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she's never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody "knows" might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem...

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF KODANSHA COMICS

NOVEMBER 2020

GENDER QUEER

MAIA KOBABE

Gender Queer is Maia Kobabe’s (e/em/eir) intensely cathartic autobiography charting eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.

Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF LION FORGE / ONI PRESS

OCTOBER 2020

THESE SAVAGE SHORES

RAM V // SUMIT KUMAR

Two centuries after the first European ship sailed to the Malabar Coast and made landfall at Calicut, The East India Company seeks to secure its future along the lucrative Silk Route, in the year 1766.

An old evil now sails aboard a company ship, hoping to make a home in this new found land. But he will soon find that the ground along the Indus is an ancient one with daemons and legends far older than himself. Along These Savage Shores, where the days are scorched and the nights are full of teeth.

- SYNOPSIS IN PART COURTESY OF VAULT COMICS

SEPTEMBER 2020

HOT COMB

EBONY FLOWERS

Hot Comb offers a poignant glimpse into Black women’s lives and coming of age stories as seen across a crowded, ammonia-scented hair salon while ladies gossip and bond over the burn. The titular story “Hot Comb” is about a young girl’s first perm—a doomed ploy to look cool and to stop seeming “too white” in the all-black neighborhood her family has just moved to.

Realizations about race, class, and the imperfections of identity swirl through Flowers’ stories and ads, which are by turns sweet, insightful, and heartbreaking. Flowers began drawing comics while earning her PhD, and her early mastery of sequential storytelling is nothing short of sublime. Hot Comb is a propitious display of talent from a new cartoonist who has already made her mark.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF DRAWN & QUARTERLY

AUGUST 2020

THEY CALLED US ENEMY

GEORGE TAKEI // HARMONY BECKER

In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten “relocation centers,” hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard. “They Called Us Enemy” is Takei’s firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother’s hard choices, his father’s faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS

JULY 2020

PRINCE OF CATS

RONALD WIMBERLY

“PRINCE OF CATS” is the B side to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, played at an eighties block party in an NY where underground sword dueling blossomed alongside hip-hop, punk, disco, and no wave.

It’s the story of the minor players with Tybalt at the center. The definitive printing of RONALD WIMBERLY’s critically-acclaimed first work, presented as intended for the first time.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF IMAGE COMICS

JUNE 2020

LAURA DEAN KEEPS BREAKING UP WITH ME

MARIKO TAMAKI//ROSEMARY VALERO-O’CONNELL

Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley's dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There's just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend.

Mariko Tamaki (Skim, This One Summer) and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (Lumberjanes, What is Left) are at the top of their game in Laura Dean, starting with the premise of a teenage romance and carefully revealing a story about friendship and self-worth set at the point in life when we all start to become the type of people we are.

Much more than a high school-based drama, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me is a poignant character study, expertly told and super fun to read.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS

APRIL 2020

THIS WAS OUR PACT

RYAN ANDREWS

It's the night of the annual Autumn Equinox Festival, when the town gathers to float paper lanterns down the river. Legend has it that after drifting out of sight, they'll soar off to the Milky Way and turn into brilliant stars, but could that actually be true?

This year, Ben and his classmates are determined to find out where those lanterns really go, and to ensure success in their mission, they've made a pact with two simple rules: No one turns for home. No one looks back.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS

MARCH 2020

CROWDED VOL. 1

CHRISTOPHER SABELA // RO STEIN

Ten minutes in the future, the world runs on an economy of job shares and apps—like Reaper, a platform for legal assassination. When the apparently average Charlie Ellison wakes up one day to find out she’s the target of a million dollar Reapr campaign, she hires Vita, the lowest rated bodyguard on the Dfend app. Now, with all of Los Angeles hunting Charlie, she and Vita will have to figure out who wants her dead, and why, before the campaign’s 30 days—or their lives—are over.

Crowded is a story about tech and human connection that never veers into the preachy or cliche; an actually rollicking adventure that never loses sight of the deep characters at the center of the action. Crowded is funny, affecting, and easily one of the best serialized comics released over the past year. Do not miss this one.

- SYNOPSIS IN PART COURTESY OF IMAGE COMICS

FEBRUARY 2020

20TH CENTURY BOYS VOL. 1

NAOKI URASAWA

Humanity, having faced extinction at the end of the 20th century, would not have entered the new millennium if it weren’t for them.

In 1969, during their youth, they created a symbol. In 1997, as the coming disaster slowly starts to unfold, that symbol returns. This is the story of a group of boys who try to save the world.

- SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF VIZ MEDIA

JANUARY 2020

RUSTY BROWN

CHRIS WARE

Rusty Brown collects and presents the last 15 years of cartooning master Chris Ware’s deep, heartbreaking examination of a single day in the life at a school in Nebraska. Through themes of loneliness, vulnerability, and anxiety, Ware offers a glimpse of the human condition that is at once both profoundly intimate and, at the same time, universal.

Chris Ware is a master of comics. Rusty Brown is exhibit A in the argument placing him among the pantheon of our most important living artists in any medium. This work is a must read, both for fans of the cartooning medium looking to experience comics at its highest level of craft and for newcomers alike as an example of what the artform has to offer.

DECEMBER 2019

BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2019

EDITED BY JILLIAN TAMAKI

Jillian Tamaki, co-author of This One Summer, picks the best graphic pieces of the year.

“The pieces I chose were those that stuck with me, represented something important about comics in this moment, and exemplified excellence of the craft. Surveying the final collection, I’m moved by the variety of individual approaches. There are so many ways to make us care about little marks on a page.”—Jillian Tamaki, from the introduction

The Best American Comics 2019 showcases the work of established and up-and-coming artists, collecting work found in the pages of graphic novels, comic books, periodicals, zines, online, in galleries, and more, highlighting the kaleidoscopic diversity of the comics form today.

Featuring Vera Brosgol, Eleanor Davis, Nick Drnaso, Margot Ferrick, Ben Passmore, John Porcellino, Joe Sacco, Lauren Weinstein, Lale Westvind, and others.

-SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

NOVEMBER 2019

THE HARD TOMORROW

ELEANOR DAVIS

Hannah is a thirty-something wife, home-health worker, and antiwar activist. Her husband, Johnny, is a stay-at-home pothead working—or “working”—on building them a house before the winter chill sets in.

Told with tenderness and care in an undefined near future, Eleanor Davis’s THE HARD TOMORROW blazes unrestrained, as moments of human connection are doused in fear and threats.

-SYNOPSIS COURTESY OF DRAWN AND QUARTERLY

OCTOBER 2019

ABBOTT

SALADIN AHMED// SAMI KIVELA

Hugo Award-nominated novelist Saladin Ahmed (Black Bolt) and artist Sami Kivelä (Beautiful Canvas) present one woman’s search for the truth that destroyed her family.

Hard-nosed, chain-smoking tabloid reporter Elena Abbott investigates a series of grisly crimes that the police have ignored. Crimes she knows to be the work of dark occult forces. Forces that took her husband from her. Forces she has sworn to destroy.