We can agree that 2022 was a banner year for graphic novels. Not only did Kate Beaton’s Ducks make President Barack Obama‘s list of favorite books for 2022, but Ducks landed among the nonfiction top ten lists of some pretty reputable newspapers and online magazines. Manga also experienced a banner year in 2022 as it became the number one graphic novel format in North America according to Kidscreen. And now as we enter 2023, we find no less than 10 manga licenses debuting on our list of 60 anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023, along with a new book of cartoon strips by Riad Sattouf, university press titles by Robin Cousin and Tracy White, and Tuttle Publishing’s expansion on Philippine comics by Arnold Arre, Paolo Chikiamco and Borg Sinaban.

In addition to the new books already mentioned, Drawn & Quarterly has plans to release Leslie Stein’s first novel while Fantagraphics looks to bring the raunchy underground comix of Joyce Farmer, Lyn Chevli, Roberta Gregory, Trina Robbins and Lee Marrs to a new generation of readers. David F. Walker, Chuck Brown, & Sanford Greene and Matt Kindt will see updated reprints of their respective books Bitter Root and Super Spy. And finally, a gorgeous, wordless visual meditation on depression by Staffan Gnosspelius will round out the anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023.

And now, let’s get the party started with our list of 60 anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023! 

JANUARY

Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story: The Graphic Novel

Created By: Edmund White

Writer: Brian Alessandro, Michael Carroll

Artist: Igor Karash

Editor: Ryan Runstadler

Publisher: Top Shelf Productions

Release Date: Jan. 4 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 3 (Bookstores)

List Price: $29.99 Hardcover

A Boy’s Own Story is a now-classic coming-of-age story, but with a twist: the young protagonist is growing up gay during one of the most oppressive periods in American history. Set in the time and place of author Edmund White’s adolescence, the Midwest of the 1950s, the novel became an immediate bestseller and, for many readers, was not merely about gay identity but the pain of being a child in a fractured family while looking for love in an anything-but-stable world. And yet the book quickly contributed to the literature of empowerment that grew out of the Stonewall riots and subsequent gay rights era. Readers are still swept up in the main character’s thoughts and dry humor, and many today remain shocked by the sexually confessional, and bold, nature of his revelations, his humorous observations, the comic situations and scenes the strangely erudite youthful narrator describes, the tenderness of his loneliness, and the vivid aching of his imagination. A Boy’s Own Story is lyrical, witty, unabashed, and authentic.

Now Let Me Fly: A Portrait of Eugene Bullard

Now Let Me Fly Anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023

Writer: Ronald Wimberly

Artist: Brahm Revel

Publisher: First Second

Release Date: Dec. 28 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 3 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.99 Hardcover

On the eve of World War I, Eugene Bullard was a refugee of the Jim Crow South who was determined to find a place where a Black man would be treated as a fellow human being. His search took him from rural Georgia to the streets of Paris, from the vaudeville stage to the boxing ring, and finally, from the muddy trenches to the open skies. In 1914, Bullard joined the fight to defend France—and made history as the world’s first African American fighter pilot.

In this candid but sensitive portrait of Bullard, author Ronald Wimberly balances the personal and the historical to interrogate concepts of cynicism, idealism, fear, glory, and the pervasiveness of anti-Black racism.

Shubeik Lubeik

Shubeik Lubeik anticipated graphic novels winter 2023

Cartoonist: Deena Mohamed

Publisher: Pantheon Graphic Library

Release Date: Jan. 11 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 10 (Bookstores)

List Price: $35.00 Hardcover

Three wishes that are sold at an unassuming kiosk in Cairo link Aziza, Nour, and Shokry, changing their perspectives as well as their lives. Aziza learned early that life can be hard, but when she loses her husband and manages to procure a wish, she finds herself fighting bureau­cracy and inequality for the right to have—and make—that wish. Nour is a privileged college student who secretly struggles with depression and must decide whether or not to use their wish to try to “fix” this depression, and then figure out how to do it. And, finally, Shokry must grapple with his religious convictions as he decides how to help a friend who doesn’t want to use their wish. Deena Mohamed brings to life a cast of characters whose struggles and triumphs are heartbreaking, inspiring, and deeply resonant.

 

Super Spy

Cartoonist: Matt Kindt

Publisher: Dark Horse Books

Release Date: Nov. 30 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 10 (Bookstores)

List Price: $49.99 Hardcover 

Super Spy is Pulp Fiction meets James Bond—fifty-two interwoven short stories about cyanide, pen-guns, heartbreak, and betrayal. Each story follows the life of a spy during World War II. Spanning the globe from Spain to France and Germany, this book takes the reader on a tour of the everyday life of the spy. From the small lies and deceptions to the larger secrets that everyone hides, Super Spy reveals the nature of espionage and how an individual can be lost and also find redemption. A children’s book is something more than it seems…a woman swims the English Channel to deliver a deadly secret…a German spy desperately seeks escape for herself and her daughter…and a spy continues to serve his country even beyond death.

This deluxe edition also collects Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers: a “secret spy activity book for grown-ups” including comics, toys, codes, sketches, diagrams, annotations to the original Super Spy, deleted scenes, standalone spy stories, sketchbook pages, 3-D comics, spy gadget diagrams, keys to unlock secret codes hidden throughout the original book, toys and stories for you to cut out and assemble! PLUS: illustrations, photos, and commentary from Matt explaining the real-world spy origins of his stories and techniques and also featuring a brand new cover illustrated by Matt Kindt. 

Drawing on Anxiety: Finding Calm Through Creativity

Cartoonist: Kate Sutton

Publisher: Leaping Hare Press

Release Date:  Jan. 17

List Price: $14.99 Paperback 

Part memoir, part self-help and self-care, this creative journal full of guided prompts and grounding affirmations is a mindful, positive tool for exploring your body’s natural response to stress. 

Illustrator and author Kate Sutton draws on her own personal experiences of dealing with anxiety to create a warm and friendly journal that encourages you to be kind to yourself, take a moment and explore your feelings through the act of drawing.

Built on art therapy principles and filled with prompts to help you express yourself on the page, as well as affirmations which help remind us that it will all be okay, this diary will help give you the resilience and strength needed to make it through those difficult moments. 

Queenie: Godmother of Harlem

queenie winter 2023 

Cartoonist: Elizabeth Colomba

Publisher: Abrams ComicArts

Release Date: Jan. 18 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 17 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.99 Hardcover

Queenie follows the life of Stephanie Saint-Clair—the infamous criminal who made herself a legend in Harlem in the 1930s. Born on a plantation in the French colony of Martinique, Saint-Clair left the island in 1912 and headed for the United States, eager to make a new life for herself. In New York she found success, rising up through poverty and battling extreme racism to become the ruthless queen of Harlem’s mafia and a fierce defender of the Black community. 

A racketeer and a bootlegger, Saint-Clair dedicated her wealth and compassion to the struggling masses of Harlem, giving loans and paying debts to those around her. But with Prohibition ending, and under threat by Italian mobsters seeking to take control of her operation, she launched a merciless war to save her territory and her skin. In an America still swollen by depression and segregation, Saint-Clair understood that her image was a tool she could use to establish her power and wield as a weapon against her opponents.

Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man: 17-21

 

Cartoonist: Tatsuki Fujimoto

Publisher: Viz Media, LLC

Release Date: Jan. 18 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 17 (Bookstores)

List Price: $9.99 Paperback 

See the origins of the mad genius who created Chainsaw Man! This short story manga collection features Tatsuki Fujimoto’s earliest work. It’s rough, it’s raw, and it’s pure Tatsuki Fujimoto!

Alien invasions, high school romances, and even bloody vampire action—all this and more awaits in four compelling short stories that reveal the starting point of Tatsuki Fujimoto, the twisted mastermind behind Chainsaw Man.

Esther’s Notebooks

Esther's Notebooks anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023 

Cartoonist: Riad Sattouf

Publisher: Pantheon Graphic Library

Release Date: Jan. 25 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 24 (Bookstores)

List Price: $30.00 Hardcover 

Every week, the comic book artist Riad Sattouf has a chat with his friend’s 10-year old daughter, Esther.  She tells him about her life, her family, her school, her friends, her hopes, her dreams and her fears. And then he creates a one-page comic strip based on what she says.

This book is a collection of 156 of those strips, comprising the first three volumes as they appeared in Europe, spanning Esther’s life from age 10 to 12.

As The Guardian noted: “Each page of Esther’s Notebooks is self-contained—there’s usually a neat punchline—but read them all, and you come to see that Sattouf has drawn a portrait of a generation: their hopes, dreams and cultural references; the way that their personalities, backgrounds—many of the children portrayed have parents who are immigrants—and preconceived ideas about sexuality begin to play out even before they’ve begun secondary school. The result is a bit like a cartoon version of Michael Apted’s landmark TV series, Up. These funny, well-observed comics are fantastically daring.” 

 

Find Rick and Morty: Seek ‘n’ Find

 

Cartoonist: Josh Freydkis

Publisher: Dark Horse Books

Release Date: Jan. 11 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 24 (Bookstores)

List Price: $19.99 Hardcover 

Spend your every waking moment pouring over intergalactic variations of unreality looking for Rick, Morty, their friends, foes, acquaintances, and adversaries so you can avoid considering your own existence by confirming theirs!

Presented by Dark Horse Books and Adult Swim, a confounding visual masterpiece like this is sure to please any fan of the Emmy® award-winning show, and draw the eye of attentive passers-by! 

 

Undesirables: A Holocaust Journey to North Africa

undesirables graphic novels for winter 2023 

Writer: Aomar Boum

Artist: Nadjib Berber

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Release Date: Jan. 24

List Price: $20.00 Paperback

In the lead-up to World War II, the rising tide of fascism and antisemitism in Europe foreshadowed Hitler’s genocidal campaign against Jews. But the horrors of the Holocaust were not limited to the concentration camps of Europe: antisemitic terror spread through Vichy French imperial channels to France’s colonies in North Africa, where in the forced labor camps of Algeria and Morocco, Jews and other “undesirables” faced brutal conditions and struggled to survive in an unforgiving landscape quite unlike Europe. In this richly historical graphic novel, historian Aomar Boum and illustrator Nadjib Berber take us inside this lesser-known side of the traumas wrought by the Holocaust by following one man’s journey as a Holocaust refugee.

Hans Frank is a Jewish journalist covering politics in Berlin, who grows increasingly uneasy as he witnesses the Nazi Party consolidate power and decides to flee Germany. Through connections with a transnational network of activists organizing against fascism and anti-Semitism, Hans ultimately lands in French Algeria, where days after his arrival, the Vichy regime designates all foreign Jews as “undesirables” and calls for their internment. On his way to Morocco, he is detained by Vichy authorities and interned first at Le Vernet, then later transported to different camps in the deserts of Morocco and Algeria. With memories of his former life as a political journalist receding like a dream, Hans spends the next year and a half in forced labor camps, hearing the stories of others whose lives have been upended by violence and war.

Through bold, historically inflected illustrations that convey the tension of the coming war and the grimness of the Vichy camps, Aomar Boum and Nadjib Berber capture the experiences of thousands of refugees through the fictional Hans, chronicling how the traumas of the Holocaust extended far beyond the borders of Europe.

  

Why Don’t You Love Me?

why don't you love me winter 2023 

Cartoonist: Paul B. Rainey

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Release Date: Jan. 25 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 24 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.95 Hardcover 

Claire and Mark are in the doldrums of an unhappy marriage. She doesn’t get out of her bathrobe and chain-smokes while slumped on the couch. Mark has lost track of the days and can’t get the kids to school on time. They’ve lost interest in family and have pizza and Chinese food delivered every night. Mark sleeps on the couch and has trouble remembering his son’s name. He feels like a fraud at work but somehow succeeds. Claire stalks an ex-boyfriend. How could he have left her to this life?

Claire and Mark are both plagued by the idea that this is all a dream. Didn’t they have different lives? When reports of an imminent nuclear war come on the radio, the truth begins to dawn on them: This is not the life they chose.

Why Don’t You Love Me? is a pitch-black comedy about marriage, alcoholism, depression, and mourning lost opportunities. Paul B. Rainey has created a hilariously terrifying alternate reality where confusion and pain might lead people to make bad choices but might also eventually lead to freedom . . . maybe.

 

Belit & Valeria: Swords vs. Sorcery

 

Writer: Max Bemis

Artist: Rodney Buchemi

Publisher: Ablaze

Release Date: Apr. 12 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 31 (Bookstores)

List Price: $19.99 Paperback

Rising from a watery grave, Belit once again finds herself commanding a ship, sailing the seas in search of adventure…and answers. But when a deal goes wrong, she finds herself teamed up with the woman she was holding prisoner: the equally beautiful and deadly, Valeria.

These two iconic characters will find themselves traveling across Hyperborea on a mission to find out how Belit lives once again that will lead them straight into danger…from the gods themselves!

Collected edition includes the hit 5 issue series, complete cover gallery plus as a bonus, contains Robert E. Howard prose featuring first appearance of Belit, Valeria and the origin of the Hyborian Age!

  

I Always Think It’s Forever: A Love Story Set in Paris as Told By an Unreliable but Earnest Narrator

 

Cartoonist: Timothy Goodman

Publisher: S&S / Simon Element

Release Date: Jan. 31

List Price: $22.00 Hardcover 

Renowned graphic artist Timothy Goodman planned to do what every young artist dreams of and spend a year abroad in Paris. While there, he fell in love in a way he never had before. For the first time in his life, he let himself be loved and finally, truly loved someone else. But the deeper the love, the more crushing the heartbreak when the relationship eventually fell apart, forcing him to look inwards. He confronted traumas of his past as well as his own toxic masculinity, and he learned to finally show up for himself. 

 

The Moon Over the Mountain: Maiden’s Bookshelf

Cartoonist: Atsuko Nakajima

Publisher: Vertical

Release Date: Jan. 31

List Price: $19.95 Hardcover 

At what cost art?

In the course of a routine journey, government inspector Yuan Can encounters his old friend Li Zheng—but not as he remembers him. Transformed by obsession into a hideous beast, Li Zheng spins a tragic tale, and ultimately presents his confidante with a singular request.

Dressed in the trappings of 8th-century China, Atsushi Nakajima’s meditation on poetry and friendship nevertheless transcends time and language to speak directly to our hearts about what it means to be human.

 

The Restorer’s Home Omnibus 1

 

Cartoonist: Kim Sang-yeop

Publisher: Ablaze

Release Date: Jan. 31

List Price: $19.99 Paperback

High school freshman Sung-woo lives alone in a big traditional Korean house inherited from his grandfather. He has a great skill to restore objects such as antiques to their original condition. He also has a supernatural ability to see souls, which are sometimes tied to these objects. Trying not to reveal his ability, he secretly helps friends and people around him fix their broken stuff. Due to his abilities, Sung-woo soon finds himself surrounded by numerous ancient people/souls who help him fix things or solve difficult matters. And the more restoration projects and their related pieces of stuff he takes on, the more interesting his life becomes. But sudden visits from his missing father’s graduate school advisor and a cute girl from an ancient Korean Kingdom will soon make the world know his unique skills…whether he wants it or not! 

 

We’re All Just Fine

We're all just fine winter 2023

 

Cartoonist: Ana Penyas

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Release Date: Mar. 1 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 31 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.99 Hardcover 

Artist Ana Penyas’s grandmothers Maruja and Herminia live alone in their respective Spanish towns, largely neglected by their children and relatives, who never visit. But when Ana comes to see them, she realizes that these women, whose day-to-day existences now seem mundane, experienced firsthand an incredibly tumultuous and fascinating period of Spanish history.

In We’re All Just Fine, Penyas weaves the memories of her grandmothers to craft a narrative quilt that pieces together what it was like for women to assimilate to Spain’s dramatic political and cultural shifts in the late 1970s and ’80s. The sudden transition from the authoritarian, repressive Franco regime to lively and liberating democracy was at once incredibly freeing but also destabilizing for women used to their traditional roles as dutiful housewives. Through this intimate lens into her grandmothers’ daily struggle — of their silence, the small acts of rebellion, and great gestures of resilience — Penyas gives voice to an entire generation of “invisible” women whose stories have rarely been told. Combining collage and rough-hewn pencil drawings, and mixing past and present, Penyas offers a decidedly feminist tribute to the forgotten lives and legacies of her grandmothers.

 

FEBRUARY

Ashes

ashes graphic novels for winter 2023 

Cartoonist: Álvaro Ortiz

Publisher: Top Shelf Productions

Release Date: Feb. 8 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $19.99 Paperback 

Three old friends reunite for the mother of all road trips! One of Spain’s most brilliant graphic novelists finally makes his English-language debut in this elegantly unpredictable gem.

Polly, Moho, and Piter haven’t seen each other in years. Now they’ve piled into a car for a loooong journey to a mysterious cross marked on a map. All their old personality quirks and conflicts are resurrected with new wrinkles as this surreal reunion gets underway. Up ahead are car chases, alcohol, roadside motels, banjo-playing thugs, a ship graveyard, violence, sensual tension, and, of course, a monkey!

The captivating first graphic novel from internationally renowned cartoonist Álvaro Ortiz is an explosive mix of emotional road movie and hooligan thriller in which nothing is what it seems. 

 

The Extraordinary Part: Book One: Orsay’s Hands

extraordinary part winter 2023 

Writers: Florent Ruppert, Jérôme Mulot

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Release Date: Feb. 8 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $29.99 Hardcover

Renowned for their great conceptual and graphic originality, acclaimed French cartoonists Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot have masterfully contributed an instant comics classic to the annals of science fiction.

This first book in a two-volume graphic novel series is set in a near-dystopian present, where mysterious creatures called “whols” coexist with humans since their sudden appearance a few years earlier. At first, they aroused curiosity and wonder, then their seemingly harmless presence became commonplace. Nineteen-year-old Orsay leads an uneventful life in the French countryside, until the day he gains extraordinary powers in his hands after an atypically aggressive encounter with a whol. On a trip to Paris in search of a cure, he meets and falls for Basma, a passionate activist for whols’ rights. But Orsay isn’t convinced that whols should be granted the same status as humans. Especially once Melek, another human with similar powers, embarks on a murderous rampage to avenge those she sees as her kin.

 

Where I’m Coming From

 

Cartoonist: Barbara Brandon-Croft

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Release Date: Feb. 8 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $29.95 Hardcover 

Few Black cartoonists have entered national syndication, and before Barbara Brandon-Croft, none of them were women. From 1989 to 2005, she brought Black women’s perspectives to an international audience with her trailblazing comic strip Where I’m Coming From.

From diets to day care to debt to dreaded encounters with everyday racism, no issue is off-limits. This remarkable and unapologetically funny career retrospective holds a mirror up to the ways society has changed and all the ways it hasn’t. The magic in Where I’m Coming From is its ability to present an honest image of Black life without sacrificing Black joy, bolstered by unexpected one-liners eliciting much-needed laughter.

As the daughter of the mid-century cartoonist Brumsic Brandon Jr.—the creator of Luther, the second nationally syndicated strip to feature a Black lead—Brandon-Croft learned from the best. With supplementary writing by the author and her peers alongside throwback ephemera, this long-overdue collection situates Brandon-Croft as an inimitable cartoonist, humorist, and social commentator, securing her place in the comics canon and allowing her work to inspire new readers at a time when it is most needed.

 

Rockstar & Softboy Go To Space

Rockstar softboy winter 2023

 

Cartoonist: Sina Grace

Publisher: Image Comics

Release Date: Feb. 15 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 14 (Bookstores)

List Price: $8.99 Paperback 

The dirtiest, flirtiest bff of comics are back, and holy moly are they in dire straits After getting brutally rebuffed by the most influential dudes in Lost Angeles, Rockstar and Softboy pack their bags and GO TO SPACE. Acclaimed author SINA GRACE revisits the 2022 fan-favorite comic for more hijinx than ever before How… a world away from the world, can these two get into more trouble and learn more about their exquisite friendship ? Only one way to find out

 

Spa

 

Cartoonist: Erik Svetoft

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Release Date: Feb. 15 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 14 (Bookstores)

List Price: $34.99 Hardcover

Somewhere in northern Europe, a five-star spa and conference hotel caters to anyone who can afford it. But, at every turn, where luxuriance should reign, things are amiss. A demanding VIP client disappears without a trace. A business seminar is cut short. A young official gets lost looking for his room. A socially outcast masseuse struggles to find acceptance. Two lovers struggle to escape the horror of everyday life — which includes horrific apparitions routinely haunting them. An egocentric manager doubts himself. Abused employees accept their sad fate. Curious inspectors come to settle their accounts.

Meanwhile, mysterious moisture damage is spreading. Amidst the extravagant decor, black and viscous liquid flows slowly in the labyrinthine alleys of the resort and trickles down the walls. Hot and humid, the dampness is suffocating. Mold sets in and with it skin diseases, hallucinations, ghosts, malevolent spirits, hybrid creatures, and other monsters both dead and alive. Spa is a horrific graphic novel debut marked by grotesque and whimsical humor.

 

The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz

Writer: Will Franz

Artist: Sam Glanzman

Publisher: Dark Horse Books

Release Date: Jan. 11 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 14 (Bookstores)

List Price: $49.99 Hardcover

This series was written by a sixteen-year-old Will Franz and illustrated by the already-seasoned comic book creator and WWII veteran Sam Glanzman. The entire story arc, collected here and finally finished, is one of the most dramatic, moving, and controversial comic book stories ever told! An American soldier of German heritage finds himself on the wrong side of World War II in this sweeping epic. This war story is, at its heart, an anti-war story and a story about universal human nature in the hellhole of war. Also includes a new final chapter drawn by Wayne Vansant and a new historical essay by Stephen R. Bissette about the series.

Thomas Girtin: The Forgotten Painter

Cartoonist: Oscar Zárate

Publisher: SelfMadeHero

Release Date: Feb. 15 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 14 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.99 Paperback 

Part historical narrative, part modern fiction, this book consists of two interlinked stories: The first focuses on the 18th-century painter Thomas Girtin and his relationship with his friend and rival J.M.W. Turner; the second tells the tale of three amateur artists in the present day, united by a shared interest in Girtin’s art. Using this dual narrative to draw parallels between two eras of rapid technological advancement and sociopolitical turbulence, Oscar Zárate’s long-awaited new graphic novel restores to modern eyes this unjustly forgotten figure, whose work has been almost entirely ignored despite his huge influence in British painting. At the time of death, aged just 27, Girtin had already established himself as a pioneer and a master: His expressionist approach was a significant turning point in the British watercolor tradition. But the brevity of his career, coupled with his chosen medium (compared to oils, watercolors were a humbler and less easily exhibited form) meant that his work came to be overshadowed by that of Turner. As Turner himself famously remarked, “If Tom had lived, I should have starved.

 

Golden Record

 

Cartoonist: Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Publisher: Silver Sprocket

Release Date: Feb. 15

List Price: $19.99 Paperback

It is an amalgamation of words and images brought together to become more than the sum of their parts, exploring the body as the site and host of all pleasure and pain, and, as its name pays homage to, a collection of dispatches from life on earth.

 

Evita: The Life and Work of Eva Perón

 

Writer: Héctor Germán Oesterheld

Artists: Alberto Breccia, Enrique Breccia

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Release Date: Feb. 23 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 21 (Bookstores)

List Price: $19.99 Hardcover

In 1952, the death of Evita, “The Spiritual Leader of the Nation,” at the age of 33, devastated the Argentine people — children, the poor, and women— that she had tirelessly advocated for as the First Lady. She has since become an international icon, inspiring many works such as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Tim Rice’s 1976 Broadway musical, Evita.

Published in 1970, writer Hector Germán Oesterheld and the father and son illustration team of Alberto and Enrique Breccia intended Evita: The Life and Work of Eva Perón to be the follow-up to the successful and controversial 1969 graphic biography Life of Che. But the script was taken away from him and depoliticized by another writer. In 2002, a restored, revised, and updated version of Evita, featuring Oesterheld’s original script, which takes a uniquely symbolic approach to her life and career, was finally published in Argentina. Here, it is in English for the first time.

  

Last on His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century

 

Writers: Youssef Daoudi, Adrian Matejka

Artist: Youssef Daoudi

Publisher: Liveright

Release Date: Feb. 22 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 21 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.99 Hardcover 

On the morning of July 4, 1910, thousands of boxing fans stormed a newly built stadium in Reno, Nevada, to witness an epic showdown. Jack Johnson, the world’s first Black heavyweight champion-and most infamous athlete in the world because of his race-was paired against Jim Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion then heralded as the “great white hope.” It was the height of the Jim Crow era, and spectators were eager for Jeffries to restore the racial hierarchy that Johnson had pummeled with his quick fists. Through a combination of breathtaking illustrations and striking verse, Last on His Feet honors a contentious civil rights figure who has for more than a century been denied his proper due.

  

Marry Me a Little

 

Cartoonist: Rob Kirby

Publisher: Graphic Mundi

Release Date: Feb. 8 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 21 (Bookstores)

List Price: $21.95 Paperback 

In Marry Me a Little, Rob Kirby recounts his experience of marrying his longtime partner, John, just after gay marriage was legalized in Minnesota in 2013, and two years before the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges made gay marriage the law of the land. This is a personal story–about Rob’s ambivalence (if not antipathy) toward the institution of marriage, his loving relationship with John, and the life that they share together–set against the historical and political backdrop of shifting attitudes toward gay rights and the institution of marriage. With humor and candor, Rob relates how he and John navigated this changing landscape, how they planned and celebrated their wedding, and how they and others in the gay community are now facing the very real possibility of setbacks to marriage equality.

Heartwarming and humorous, Marry Me a Little is both a celebration of a romantic partnership between two men and a personal account of a momentous and historic moment in the fight for gay rights.

 

The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour

 

Writers: Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Justin McElroy

Artist: Carey Pietsch

Publisher: First Second

Release Date: Feb. 22 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 21 (Bookstores)

List Price: $27.99 Hardcover / $19.99 Paperback

The Bureau of Balance has located yet another Grand Relic, and this time it’s…time? A small mining town called Refuge has been locked away behind an arcane bubble, and somewhere inside it the Temporal Chalice is causing unknown mayhem. Taako, Magnus, and Merle are launched into their investigation, but they’ve barely had a chance to get their feet under them before the situation literally falls apart. When the town clock tower strikes noon, Refuge and its citizens are destroyed in a sudden chaos of flame and ruin, and our heroes’ relic hunting— along with their lives—comes to an abrupt end.

But woah, what’s this? It’s 11AM, they’re alive again, and Refuge definitely hasn’t just been exploded? Looks like a classic time loop, friends. This town is trapped in its final hour, and so are the three of them. And in order to escape, they’ll not only have to solve the mystery of what happened to the Chalice, they’ll also also have to resist what it offers: the chance to rewrite the worst days of their own pasts.

 

The Phantom Scientist

 

Cartoonist: Robin Cousin

Publisher: The MIT Press

Release Date: Feb. 21

List Price: $24.95 Hardcover 

An isolated institute laid out in a Fibonacci sequence, hidden deep in the forest. Twenty-four labs. Twenty-four researchers. Until one of them disappears . . .

When physicist Stéphane Douasy arrives to occupy the vacant twenty-fourth lab at the Institute for the Study of Complex and Dynamic Systems, an ominous problem rises in his wake: what has happened to his missing neighbor in Building F?

When Stéphane’s neighbors, a discouraged linguist and a computer scientist bent on predicting the future, discover that the missing researcher may have solved the P versus NP problem—a coup in computer science with revolutionary implications for everything from mathematics to philosophy—before vanishing, things turn stranger still, and even more menacing. Solving the mystery of the Institute and its devolution into mayhem and violence every seventh year quickly shifts from being an intellectual exercise to a matter of life and death.

  

Sugar & Other Stories

 

Cartoonist: Joy San

Publisher: Silver Sprocket

Release Date: Feb. 22

List Price: $21.99 Paperback 

A devoted yet amoral creature ensures a girl’s blood sugar stays up. A gory ritual creates a charming woman’s perfect smile. A neglected and overworked wife is slowly subsumed by violent fantasies. In this collection of short horror comics, cartoonist Joy San masterfully explores the ways in which we contort and control ourselves, balancing the bloody and brutal with unexpected levity. 

 

Bear

 

Artist: Staffan Gnosspelius

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Release Date: Feb. 23

List Price: $19.95 Hardcover

Bear, Staffan Gnosspelius’s debut book, is a gorgeous visual meditation on depression. In this deeply affecting, wordless picture book for adults, a bear is maddeningly afflicted with a cone that covers his head and that he is unable to take off. He furiously stomps and yells and tears at the cone, he implores the skies and fate for relief, he is drawn to dark and wild and scary places. The depths of his sadness feel like a defeat. It’s a battle he wages until he’s mentally and physically exhausted.

Then, one day, Bear hears notes of music, the humming of a friendly hare. The hare hovers nearby, concerned, sometimes driven away by Bear’s frustration and anger, more often staying close and gently offering support. The author began drawing a bear with a cone on his head as a way to make sense of how a person close to him was suffering from mental illness. The resulting book is both an emotional gut punch and a warm embrace, recognizable immediately to anyone who has ever suffered or loved someone who has suffered in similar dark places. In other words, all of us.

 

Bitter Root Hardcover Omnibus

 

Writers: David F. Walker, Chuck Brown

Artist: Sanford Greene

Publisher: Image Comics

Release Date: Feb. 22 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 28 (Bookstores)

List Price: $59.99 Hardcover 

For generations the Sangerye family has fought to protect the world from the evil plague of the jinoo-hideous creatures born out of hate and racism. But now the family must face an even greater evil that has arisen to destroy humanity and threatens to rip the family apart. Collects: BITTER ROOT #1-15 BITTER ROOT Red Summer Special

 

Lifeform: Vivian: An Angels & Airwaves Graphic Novel

 

Writer: Helen Mullane

Artist: Amilcar Pinna

Publisher: Z2 Comics

Release Date: Feb. 28

List Price: $19.99 Paperback

Angels & Airwaves and creative studio Tension Division bring the psychedelic story behind the  2021 album, Lifeforms, to a new graphic novel—Lifeform: Vivian. Co-written by Helen Mullane (Superstate, Nicnevin and the Bloody Queen) and drawn by Amilcar Pinna (Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes, Eternal Blue: A Spiritbox Graphic Novel), the story will unspool the tale behind the mysterious woman at the center of the band’s sixth studio LP as she wanders from the New Mexico desert into the life of a low-level government employee, Victor. The pair ignites a tentative romance as their world erupts in chaos, with secret agents following Vivian’s every move as events erupt around the amnesiac woman that defy explanation.

 

Witch of Mine Vol. 1

 

Writer: Haeyoon

Artist: Mas

Publisher: Ablaze

Release Date: Apr. 12 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 28 (Bookstores)

List Price: $19.99 Paperback 

In these times, if you’re too good or bad at something or simply too beautiful, you’re called a witch. But there also exist magical beings called witches, who have the power to travel through both time and different dimensions, and sometimes do in the pursuit of love with human beings.

Up against twists of fate and time, an outcast young boy and a mysterious witch, shunned because they’re different from what’s considered normal, one due to his imperfection and one due to her perfection, will need more than just magic spells and incantations; they’ll need each other.

Beautifully written, with interconnected stories that will keep you guessing, Witch of Mine asks: “How far would you go for love?

MARCH

Brooklyn’s Last Secret

 

Cartoonist: Leslie Stein

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Release Date: Mar. 7

List Price: $29.95 Paperback

Welcome aboard the tour van of Major Threat—Brooklyn’s finest rock band yet to catch a break—as they traverse the US of A on a last-ditch summer festival tour. On drums we’ve got “band dad” Ed, the stoic drummer who keeps bumping into tech bro coworkers that he can’t quite relate to. On bass, there’s Paul, a man of mostly mystery, who drinks hard and yet manages to glide through life, intelligible to no one except energy-drink–guzzling Marco, the baby of the band and newest replacement lead singer. And of course there’s the gentle and serene Lilith, a weed–lollipop–sucking, stuffed-animal–backpack–wearing guitarist healing from heartbreak.

There’s sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, sure, but there are also tender moments as the motley crew take turns behind the wheel, compiling lists of the hottest hunks and best guitar riffs to pass the miles. From tour fashion to breakdowns—mechanical and emotional—Leslie Stein holds no bars in this incredibly funny and heartfelt love letter meets parody of life on the road.

Her first full-length fiction, Brooklyn’s Last Secret expertly showcases Stein’s trademark cocktail of charm, wit, and whimsey, leaving readers decidedly affected by their time spent in her world.

 

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves — The Feast of the Moon (Movie Prequel Comic)

 

Writers: Jeremy Lambert, Ellen Boener

Artists: Eduardo Ferigato, Guillermo Sanna

Publisher: IDW Publishing

Release Date: Mar. 8 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $14.99 Paperback

When their latest heist ends in failure, Edgin and his band of thieves find themselves stranded in a town under siege! The Bandit King and his thugs have been extorting the locals for years, but nothing is what it seems, and, as the Feast of the Moon begins, a greater evil lurks.

Edgin and his friends—roguish Forge, barbarian Holga, and sorcerer Simon—promise to help, but will they honor their word? Or will the unlikely heroes abandon the last of the Harper principles Edgin used to hold so dear? 

Then, in a special bonus story, the paladin known as Xenk swore to protect an artifact of dangerous and mysterious power. But the terrors of the Underdark will test his oath more than he could have imagined!

Discover how the lovable and hilarious heroes of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves landed themselves in an unforgettable adventure with these thrilling tales set before the events of the film!

  

Frida Kahlo: Her Life, Her Art, Her Home

 

Cartoonist: Francisco de la Mora

Publisher: SelfMadeHero

Release Date: Mar. 8 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $18.99 Hardcover 

Frida Kahlo, remembered as one of the most inspiring personalities of the 20th century, was a woman of two intertwined parts: she was both a charismatic and empowered artist exploring themes of resistance, authenticity, cruelty, and suffering, and a more private person whose wounded body caused her a lifetime of pain that underpinned the many successes and disappointments that marked her time in the world. Revealing and exploring these two Fridas, Francisco de la Mora’s graphic biography—completed with the endorsement and support of the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City—allows the reader to see just how far ahead of her time this complex artist was in her understanding of gender inequality and the culture of machismo, topics that remain relevant to this day and continue to lend resonance to Kahlo’s painting. Diego Rivera, Kahlo’s husband and fellow artist, described her work as “Acid and tender, hard as steel but delicate and fine as a butterfly’s wing.” His words might apply equally to Frida herself.

  

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Comic / Manhua) Vol. 1

 

Writer: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Artist: Luo Di Cheng Qiu

Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment

Release Date: Mar. 8 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $19.99 Paperback 

Feared and hated for his sinister abilities, Wei Wuxian–the grandmaster of demonic cultivation–was driven to his death when the most powerful clans united to destroy him.

Thirteen years later, Wei Wuxian is reborn. Summoned by a young man who sacrificed his soul in a forbidden ritual, Wei Wuxian is now bound to seek vengeance on the stranger’s behalf or risk the destruction of his own soul. But when an evil entity emerges, a familiar face from Wei Wuxian’s past suddenly appears amidst the chaos–a powerful cultivator who will help shine a light on the dark truths that surround them.

Don’t miss this full-color xianxia fantasy manhua/comic from China about two powerful men who are drawn to each other through war and across lifetimes! 

 

Mimosa

 

Cartoonist: Archie Bongiovanni

Publisher: Abrams ComicArts

Release Date: Mar. 8 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.99 Hardcover

Best friends and chosen family Chris, Elise, Jo, and Alex work hard to keep themselves afloat. Their regular brunches hold them together even as the rest of their lives threaten to fall apart. In an effort to avoid being the oldest gays at the party, the crew decides to put on a new queer event called Grind–specifically for homos in their dirty thirties.

Grind is a welcome distraction from their real problems: after a messy divorce, Chris adjusts to being a single parent while struggling to reconnect to their queer community. Elise is caught between feelings for her boss and the career of her dreams. Jo tries to navigate the murky boundaries of being a supportive friend and taking care of her own needs. And Alex is guarding a secret that might change his friendships forever.

While navigating exes at work, physical and mental exhaustion, and drinking way, way too much on weekdays, this chosen family proves that being messy doesn’t always go away with age.

  

Muros: Within Magical Walls: The Case of the Cemetery Girl

Writer: Paolo Chikiamco

Artist: Borg Sinaban

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Release Date: Mar. 8 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $13.99 Paperback

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.

Readers looking for a different take on magic, or those interested in seeing an alternative history set in the Philippines, will find plenty to sink their teeth into here. Fans of Tan & Baldisimo’s Trese or Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files will also find a heady mix of the familiar and the strange.

 

Teen Titans: Robin

 

Writer: Kami Garcia

Artist: Gabriel Picolo

Publisher: DC Comics

Release Date: Mar. 7

List Price: $16.99 Paperback

Raven Roth, Garfield Logan, Maxine Navarro, and Damian Wayne are on the run…from Slade Wilson, from H.I.V.E., and from the horrible experiments H.I.V.E. conducted at their expense.

But where will they go? Who can they trust?

Dick Grayson just wants to know what happened to his brother, Damian. Is Damian okay? Does he need help? Why hasn’t he been in contact? And why did his tracking device go silent?

One thing is for sure—they all need answers and there is only one person that might be able to help them defeat H.I.V.E. for good.

  

The Exile

 

Cartoonist: Erik Kriek

Editor: Sean Michael Robinson

Publisher: Living the Line

Release Date: Mar. 8 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $40.00 Hardcover 

After seven years of exile, battle-hardened Hallstein Thordsson returns home to Iceland, only to find that old wounds haven’t healed. A remarkable decades-spanning epic, Erik Kriek’s The Exile is equal parts action “Western” and family drama, with a surprising story of violence and consequences at its core. Kriek is a decorated illustrator known for his work on In the Pines (2015) and Gutsman. This is his debut graphic novel. 

 

Tits & Clits: 1972-1987

 

Cartoonists: Joyce Farmer, Lyn Chevli, Roberta Gregory, Trina Robbins, Lee Marrs

Editor: Samantha Meier

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Release Date: Mar. 8 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 7 (Bookstores)

List Price: $59.99 Hardcover 

In 1972, underground cartoonists Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli produced Tits & Clits — a funny, rowdy, raucous underground comix series about female sexuality that one reviewer described as “the ultimate in vaginal politics” — and became the first American women ever credited with writing, drawing, and publishing their own comic books.

A feminist answer to Zap, Tits & Clits quickly became an anthology showcase for other women cartoonists, featuring the work of Mary Fleener, Roberta Gregory, Krystine Kryttre, Lee Marrs, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Trina Robbins, Dori Seda, among others. Like other underground comix, Tits & Clits leaned into being lewd in order to satirize women’s experiences with so-called sexual liberation. Featuring stories about birth control, abortion, menstruation, masturbation, and more, Tits & Clits featured intimate politics which occasionally clashed with contemporaneous feminist concepts about sex and sexuality.  As Chevli put it: their work had something to offend everyone. (In 1973, conservative legal authorities in Orange County deemed their work pornographic and even threatened the two editors with arrest on obscenity charges.)

Now, for the first time in half a century, a new generation of readers will be shocked, entertained, enlightened, and scandalized by the bold satirical cartoonists that comprised the band of sisters in Tits & Clits. In addition to reprinting the seven-issue run of the Tits & Clits series, this collection also includes in their entirety two classic solo comics from 1972 written and drawn by Farmer and Chevli — Abortion Eve and Pandora’s Box. Also included is an introductory essay providing context to Tits & Clits’ place in the history of women’s cartooning by the book’s editor, Samantha Meier.

  

Golden Sparkle

 

Cartoonist: Minta Suzumaru

Publisher: SuBLime

Release Date: Mar. 15 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 14 (Bookstores)

List Price: $12.99 Paperback 

Himaru Uehara’s first year of high school is off to a good start, minus one problem—he keeps having wet dreams. With only his mom and sister at home—and having skipped health class in middle school—he thinks it means there’s something wrong with him. Thankfully, a new friend has just the remedy and teaches Himaru exactly how to deal with those pesky dreams! But his solution only leads to more confusion, and the two find themselves navigating feelings they’ve never felt before.

  

I Didn’t Mean to Fall In Love

 

Cartoonist: Minta Suzumaru

Publisher: Seven Seas

Release Date: Mar. 14

List Price: $14.99 Paperback 

Inexperienced Yoshino is about to turn thirty. He’s nearly given up on ever falling in love, let alone having decent sex—until one day he steels himself and goes to a gay bar. There he meets Rou, a charming, silver-haired college student who is everything that Yoshino isn’t: mysterious, assertive, and experienced with both men and women. Yoshino finds himself hopelessly attracted to Rou, as their awkward courtship simmers into something more. But is it love? 

 

Ms. Davis: A Graphic Biography

 

Writer: Sybille Titeux de la Croix

Artist: Amazing Ameziane

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Release Date: Mar. 15 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 14 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.99 Hardcover 

In Ms Davis, the acclaimed French cartooning duo tell a story of this seminal, revolutionary, 1970s icon through an accessible graphic novel narrative.

Born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, Angela Davis’ family fought in the civil rights movement against racial segregation enforced by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1968, she joined the Black Communist Party and traveled to Cuba, a journey which left its mark on her forever. In 1971, the FBI put Davis on their 10 Most Wanted List. They accused her of orchestrating a politically motivated Marin County courtroom gunfight because she owned the guns. She went to prison despite her protestations of innocence. The Black People in Defense of Angela Davis formed, and soon the entire world would know her story and demand her freedom. In 1972, she was found not guilty by an all-white jury. Since then, she has dedicated her life to the fight for justice.

The graphic biography also includes illustrated educational supplementary material that adds historical context about the various political organizations and programs referred to in the book, such as COINTELPRO, an illegal FBI program dedicated to destroying U.S. political groups it deemed “subversive.”

 

Starman: David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust Years

Cartoonist: Reinhard Kleist

Publisher: SelfMadeHero

Release Date: Mar. 15 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 14 (Bookstores)

List Price: $19.99 Paperback 

The genesis and near apocalypse of a rock ’n’ roll messiah

In 1972, the rock ’n’ roll messiah Ziggy Stardust was born. His provocative play on sexual identity and gender roles laid the foundation for David Bowie’s ascent to legendary status as one of the most successful pop musicians of all time. Reinhard Kleist weaves the gripping tale of this dazzling character’s genesis, tracing both Bowie’s hapless efforts on the London music scene before Ziggy’s conception and his struggles with his own creation at the height of his fame. As Bowie transforms himself, ever more dizzyingly, into a self-portrait of an egocentric rock star, his extravagant lifestyle threatens to bring the real world collapsing around his ears.

  

The Dragon’s Betrothed, Vol. 1

 

Cartoonist: Meguru Hinohara

Publisher: SuBLime

Release Date: Mar. 15 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 14 (Bookstores)

List Price: $12.99 Paperback 

Troubled writer Chiharu Izunome reluctantly returns to his rural hometown, hoping some R & R will refresh his creative juices. Instead of finding respite, he’s quickly entangled by an old promise to wed a local god!

Rin, the water dragon god to whom Chiharu has been betrothed, can be disarmingly friendly and charming, but inside lurks an animalistic ferocity. Can Chiharu escape Rin’s protective embrace, or is his fate already written?

 

Harvey Knight’s Odyssey

 

Cartoonist: Nick Maandag

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Release Date: Mar. 22 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 21 (Bookstores)

List Price: $24.95 Paperback 

Solarism is a religion that acknowledges there is a balance of light and dark in the Universe. But while Solarists believe it is possible to achieve a state of Pure Light by exposing themselves to the rays of the sun (or tanning beds on cloudy days), the Forces of Dark conspire against them and send hooded Shadow Men to eliminate the Light. Subsequently, Solarists must kill these Shadow Men. It’s the only way. When a thief infiltrates the sacred chambers of the Solarists, Assistant-to-the-Master Harvey Knight must test the strength of his beliefs in order to restore order. Or maybe he’s plotting to overthrow the leader and make the religion his own. Either way, it’s an odyssey.

 

Comics for Choice: Illustrated Abortion Stories, History, and Politics, 2nd Edition

 

Editors: Hazel Newlevant, Whit Taylor, O.K. Fox

Publisher: Alternative Comics

Release Date: Mar. 22

List Price: $29.99 Paperback 

Comics for Choice is an anthology of comics about abortion. As this fundamental reproductive right continues to be stigmatized and jeopardized, over sixty artists and writers have created comics that boldly share their own experiences, and educate readers on the history of abortion, current political struggles, activism, and more. Lawyers, activists, medical professionals, historians, and abortion fund volunteers have teamed up with cartoonists and illustrators to share their knowledge in accessible comics form.

 

March Comes in Like a Lion, Volume 1

March graphic novels for winter 2023

 

Cartoonist: Chica Umino

Publisher: Denpa Books

Release Date: Feb. 15 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 28 (Bookstores)

List Price: $12.95 Paperback

Rei Kiriyama is a child prodigy. Rei Kiriyama is also an orphan who lives alone in an empty apartment. Rei Kiriyama is a teen working in an adult’s world. Life is complicated for Rei. He’s an up-and-coming shogi (Japanese chess) player on the verge of turning pro but he has no home life or much of a life period outside his board game but thankfully with the help of some life-long friends he has an opportunity to start all over again.

 

Marvel Value Stamps: A Visual History

Marvel value stamps graphic novels winter 2023

 

Writers: Marvel Entertainment, Roy Thomas

Publisher: Abrams ComicArts

Release Date: Mar. 29 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 28 (Bookstores)

List Price: $29.99 Hardcover 

In 1974 Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee devised an ingenious promotional campaign—Marvel Value Stamps, which appeared on the letters pages of their monthly comics. Readers could cut out all 100 of these super hero and super villain stamps and place them in a special mail-order booklet. Once complete, these stamp books could then be redeemed for special discounts and exclusive merchandise. The program was so successful, a second set was released in 1975. And now, for the first time, these original stamp books, stamps, and all of the surrounding ephemera and source material are collected into one must-have volume for collectors and fans, along with text from Marvel Comics historian Roy Thomas and an all-new cover by Alex Ross.

 

The Heavy Bright

 

Cartoonist: Cathy Malkasian

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Release Date: Mar. 29 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 28 (Bookstores)

List Price: $39.99 Hardcover 

Once, the world lived in harmony. People trusted and aided each other, dreamed freely, and communed with their ancestors. And then one day the eggs appeared. One thousand black eggs, heavy as pure lead, which by some mystical property, provoked greed and violence in all who came in contact with them. A family of brutish men managed to hoard the eggs and build a misogynistic dynasty that held all of the land in an iron grip. Years later, Arna, an orphaned young woman immune to the beguiling power of the eggs, is charged with a monumental mission: hunt down these formidable men, pilfer their eggs, and release the bright from the heavy. Along the way, she falls for the enchanting Sela, who shows her how beautiful the world can be.

In The Heavy Bright, masterful cartoonist and animator Cathy Malkasian propels the reader into a lushly watercolor, Ghibli-esque fantasy world tinged with equal parts whimsy and menace. Her characters are vulnerable and relatable, made real through deep, psychological underpinnings. Perhaps Malkasian’s most ambitious and impactful work to date, The Heavy Bright is an allegorical graphic novel that grapples with the themes of greed, corruption, ignorance and bigotry, toxic masculinity, female empowerment, gender and queerness, love, death, and the urgent necessity for all to come together to heal our ailing world.

  

The Mare

 

Cartoonist: Seth Christian Martel

Publisher: Graphic Mundi

Release Date: Mar. 15 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 28 (Bookstores)

List Price: $21.95 Paperback 

While she battles her own demons during the day, Indigo’s nights are haunted by something much darker.

Everyone else may be enjoying the summer, but Indigo’s life isn’t going so well. Her dad’s marriage just ended in a very public divorce, and now he’s drinking again. Indy barely graduated from high school, she just lost her job, and she doesn’t know what to do with her life. The stress is causing her nightmarish sleep paralysis–or so she thinks.

Indy confides in her best friend, Kasia, who blames “The Mare” for her troubles–the spirit of someone wronged that saps its victim’s energy at night. It sounds crazy to Indy, but is it?

Steeped in the nostalgia of lazy summers and mixtapes, concert tickets and coffee, The Mare is a story about friends, family, and finding one’s way–with a touch of the supernatural and a powerful, surprising twist. 

 

The World of Andong Agimat: The Mystery of the Talisman

andong agimat graphic novels for winter 2023 

Cartoonist: Arnold Arre

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Release Date: Mar. 29 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 28 (Bookstores)

List Price: $17.99 Paperback

In this spellbinding action-adventure from Arnold Arre–the great master of the graphic novel, the age-old divide between good and evil widens. Catch a glimpse of a Manila privy to only a few of the supernatural and magically inclined, while following a superhero born and raised by its streets in The World of Andong Agimat.

In a world yearning for stability, a renegade force arrives, spreading chaos amidst the populace in the form of a gruesome plague. This is when the world needs Andong Agimat–an ex-gang leader turned vigilante with superpowers bestowed unto him by his mysterious amulet. He cooperates with the police and helps them keep Manila’s underground, steeped-in magic and the supernatural, in check, but the people of Manila live in growing fear as acts of terrorism are committed by a cult growing within the city.

Follow Andong as he uncovers this violent cult’s scheme, which threatens the very balance of the world. He trudges through the underbelly of Manila, teaming up with old friends, and even old rivals, to put an end to this cult’s evil plans. Can Andong Agimat and his talisman’s secret powers repel the forces of chaos?

 

Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection

Tombs anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023 

Cartoonist: Junji Ito

Publisher: Viz Signature

Release Date: Mar. 29 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 28 (Bookstores)

List Price: $25.00 Hardcover

Countless tombstones stand in rows throughout a small community, forming a bizarre tableau. What fate awaits a brother and sister after a traffic accident in this town of the dead? In another tale, a girl falls silent, her tongue transformed into a slug. Can a friend save her? Then, when a young man moves to a new town, he finds the house next door has only a single window. What does his grotesque neighbor want, calling out to him every evening from that lone window?

Fresh nightmares brought to you by horror master Junji Ito.

 

Unaccompanied: Stories of Brave Teenagers Seeking Asylum

unaccompanied anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023

 

Cartoonist: Tracy White

Publisher: Street Noise Books

Release Date: Mar. 28

List Price: $19.99 Paperback

This book tells the true stories of five brave teens fleeing their home countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guinea, on their own, traveling through unknown and unfriendly places, and ultimately crossing into the US to find refuge and seek asylum. Based on extensive interviews with teen refugees, lawyers, caseworkers, and activists, Tracy White shines a light on five individual kids from among the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who enter the U.S. each year. In stark black and white illustrations, she helps us understand why some young people would literally risk their lives to seek safety in the US. Each one of them has been backed into a corner where emigration to the US seems like their only hope.

 

Fart School

fart school anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023 

Cartoonist: Mel Stringer

Publisher: Silver Sprocket

Release Date: Mar. 29

List Price: $24.99 Hardcover

Mel is excited about moving to Brisbane and starting art school She imagines collaborating with other artists in a vibrant community, honing her craft, and becoming an accomplished artist. But it turns out that art school isn’t quite the same in real life. Can Mel finish college with her love of art still intact? 

 

We Are On Our Own: A Memoir

 

Cartoonist: Miriam Katin

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Release Date: Mar. 29 (Comics Shops) / Apr. 4 (Bookstores)

List Price: $22.95 Paperback

With the heartrending We Are on Our Own, Miriam Katin recounts the story of her escape from German-occupied Hungary as a child, led by her determined mother. The two fled Budapest near the end of WWII and at the age of sixty-three Katin enshrined her memory in these extraordinary pages, originally published in hardcover more than fifteen years ago.

In 1944, Miriam is a toddler beloved by her dog Rexy, but when her mother is forced to give up their “Jewish dog” to the German authorities, Miriam’s world begins to unravel. The two flee to the countryside after faking their deaths and traversing lands blanketed with snow. Miriam’s fragmented childhood memories of forests, chocolate, strange men, and the noise of war are reconstituted in this beautifully told epic journey where the innocence of a child is set against unthinkable violence.

Another crisis, one of faith, haunts the severed family on their path. Struggling to reunite with Miriam’s father who has been conscripted to the Hungarian army, mother and daughter contemplate God, wondering how He could allow such destruction. Poetic words of the Torah combine with images of war as Miriam examines the theological dilemma of both victims as well as survivors of the Shoah. When Miriam and her mother hide with a winemaker, they soothe their nerves with the tonic, reciting “God is red. God is in the glass.” God, they understand, is in the very human will to survive, and in that pursuit of survival, we are truly on our own. 

 

Queen in Comics!

Queen anticipated graphic novels for winter 2023

 

Writers: Sophie Blitman, Emmanuel Marie

Publisher: NBM

Release Date: Mar. 22 (Comics Shops) / May 3 (Bookstores)

List Price: $27.99 Hardcover

Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Freddie Mercury form one of the greatest rock bands in the world. Under the leadership of its charismatic singer, Queen is a planetary success for each hit with its decadent shows, inimitable aesthetics, and style. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Are the Champions,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” or even “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” are just some of the hits! Discover the great stories and little secrets surrounding the legend!


Looking for more great reads? Check out The Beat’s list of anticipated elementary and middle-grade graphic novels for winter 2023!

1 COMMENT

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