We may be sequestered at home due to nasty weather, or anxiously ruminating about the second year of a pandemic that won’t go away. But the good news? We have plenty of time to curl up in front of warm fire with an excellent graphic novel. Here are 83 graphic novels for winter 2022 that you should consider for your TBR pile.

Sophie Burrows makes her debut with a meditation on love and isolation. Along with collected works by Noah Van Sciver (Fante Bukowski books), Skottie Young, Alejandro Jodorowsky (Incal), Johnny Ryan (Prison Pit), and Jonathan Hickman (Decorum), there are new biographies of  filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock by the team of Noel Simolo and Dominique Hé and of Romani musician Django Reinhardt by Salva Rubio.

Axelle Lenoir, Emily Carrington and Sophie Lucido Johnson use the comics medium to tell intimate stories of survival and belonging. Alan Moore, Tom Kaczyinski, and Lynda Barry have anniversary editions of longtime classics. Nnedi Okorafor’s Hugo and Eisner Award-winning graphic novel receives a deluxe makeover with exclusive extras and never-before-seen art by Tana Ford. Let’s not forget The Croaking, a Ringo Award-nominated series by Megan Grey and the ComiXology digital series Crema by the team of Johnnie Christmas and Dante Luiz.

On the winter 2022 calendar for manga are English language editions by Shotaro Ishinomori, Kazuo Umezz and murata, and manga legend Rumiko Takahashi (Urusei Yatsura) returns with a book of five magical-realist tales. As for English language translations, Fantagraphics will release Tardi‘s The True Story of the Unknown Solder and Antoine Cossé‘s Metax while Dark Horse has Castaways by Pablo Monforte and Laura Perez on their calendar.

Without further ado, we present to you 83 graphic novels for winter 2022, sorted by release month from January to March.  


January

Kamen Rider

Kamen Rider Cover

Author: Shotaro Ishinomori
Publisher: Seven Seas
Release Date: Dec. 15 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 4 (Bookstores)
List Price: $32.99

Fans the world over have long been enthralled by tales of Kamen Rider, the masked, motorcycle-riding superhero who protects the world from injustice. Kidnapped and experimented upon by the evil terrorist organization known as Shocker, Hongo Takeshi manages to escape their clutches and use his newfound strength to fight against their schemes. These are the first adventures in a legacy that spans dozens of television series and films, drawn and written by series creator and manga superstar Shotaro Ishinomori. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the classic 1971 publication, this collection is the first hardcover edition of Kamen Rider in English. It features the original Kamen Rider manga series plus special bonus materials and full-color inserts.

 

Blubber

Author: Gilbert Hernandez
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date:  Jan. 4 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

The great Gilbert Hernandez’s unfettered Id and imagination, unleashed! Absurd, explicit, and profanely funny, Blubber makes all other comics blush. Collecting the first five issues of Gilbert Hernandez’s comic book series Blubber, an absurdly X-rated showcase for the most surreally transgressive of Hernandez’s short stories. Weirdos (Blubberoo, Mr. Elvis, John Dick, the Mentor), creatures (the Mau Guag, Doogs, and Orlats…), and anthropomorphs (the Cloarks, the Kekeppy) visit places where most comics fear to go. Blubber veers between an absurdist satire of porn (and occasionally nature documentaries) as well as a defiant provocation to those unable to appreciate the difference between cartooning and obscenity. As R. Crumb said, “It’s only lines on paper, folks!” It is also a howlingly funny book, filled with a rogues gallery of colorful comic book monsters (the Pollum, the Junipero Molestat, the mythical Forest Nimmy) and characters (T.A.C. Man, Mr. Hippy, Padre Puto, the Snowman, Baron Mungo, Red Tempest) that echoes the sheer visual imagination of Jack Kirby.

 

Pogo The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips: Volume 8: Hijinks from the Horn of Plenty (Walt Kelly’s Pogo)

Pogo Vol 8 Cover 

Cartoonist: Walt Kelly
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Jan. 5 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $14.99

Collects the years 1963 and 1964 of the classic newspaper strip whose political satire feels more timely than ever. Walt Kelly’s newspaper comic strip Pogo was a platform for Kelly to express political satire and commentary via a wildly entertaining, motley group of swamp critters. He tackled many of the sociopolitical issues of his day: the Red Scare, civil rights, the environment, consumerism. But the strip is also a joyous, poignant, beautifully drawn, and occasionally profound work of 20th-century popular culture. It is such an all-time classic it is hard to believe that this series marks the first time that Pogo dailies and Sundays have been published in complete and in chronological order anywhere. Not only does each volume contain two full calendar years of restored black-and-white daily strips: it also includes all 104 Sundays from the same period. For the first time since their original appearance more than 50 years ago, the Sundays are in full, glorious color!

 

The Croaking

The Croaking Cover

Author: Megan Grey
Publisher: Rocketship Entertainment
Release Date:  Jan. 11 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99 (TPB) / $24.99 (HC)

The Roost – the world’s most prestigious military academy – has never accepted a Crow into its ranks. Until now. However, the conditions surrounding Scra’s acceptance are shrouded in conspiracy, and his new roommate Ky won’t rest until he finds out just where he goes every night. Between flight tests, classes, and Murders, Scra, Ky and Ree must band together to uncover the truth about their utopia and the whispers of a superweapon – “The Croaking” – that are seeping from the cracks. The Croaking was nominated for the 2020 Ringo Award for Best Webcomic.

 

Comic Book Women: Characters, Creators, and Culture in the Golden Age

Comic Book Women Cover

Authors: Peyton Brunet, Blair Davis
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Release Date:  Jan. 11 (Bookstores)
List Price: $45.00

The history of comics has centered almost exclusively on men. Comics historians largely describe the medium as one built by men telling tales about male protagonists, neglecting the many ways in which women fought for legitimacy on the page and in publishers’ studios. Despite this male-dominated focus, women played vital roles in the early history of comics. The story of how comic books were born and how they evolved changes dramatically when women like June Tarpé Mills and Lily Renée are placed at the center rather than at the margins of this history, and when characters such as the Black Cat, Patsy Walker, and Señorita Rio are analyzed.

 

Crushing

Crushing Cover

Author: Sophie Burrows
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Release Date:  Jan. 11 (Bookstores)
List Price: $22.95

Life in the big city means being surrounded by connections—making them, missing them, and longing for them. But is finding someone else really the answer to their problems? Crushing, the stunning debut graphic novel from Sophie Burrows, is a story told in silence; a story without words but bursting with meaning; a story about loneliness and love. Achingly beautiful, quietly defiant, and full of subtle wit and wisdom, Crushing is a unique meditation on the human condition in the twenty-first century, and a timely examination of young adult life in an age of isolation.

 

Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams

Cyberpunk 2077 Cover

Writer: Bartosz Sztybor
Artists: Filipe Andrade, Alessio Fioriniello
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Jan. 12 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Two scavengers in Night City make a living for themselves stealing cyberware and indulging in parties and braindances. One seeks to become the most famous gangster in the city. The other longs for something more–meaning, belonging, warmth . . . As they chase their dreams, their paths begin to deviate. But one thing they can both agree on, in a place like Night City–you run, you fight, you change, or you die.

 

Falconspeare

Falconspeare Cover

Writers: Mike Mignola, Warwick Johnson-Cadwell
Artist: Warwick Johnson-Cadwell
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Jan. 12 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 25 (Bookstores)
List Price: $17.99

Jump into an eerie Victorian-style mystery with an off-kilter, charming twist in the next knockout collaboration from Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell!  Monster hunters extraordinaire Professor Meinhardt, Mr. Knox, and Ms. Van Sloan have teamed up to slay spooks and investigate the uncanny before, but now they’ll tackle a question that’s haunted them for years: What happened to their friend and vampire slayer extraordinaire, James Falconspeare?

 

The True Story of the Unknown Soldier

True Story of Unknown Soldier Cover

Author: Tardi
Translator: Jenna Allen
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Jan. 19 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 18 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

The True Story of the Unknown Soldier follows a pulp novelist turned soldier who, driven to delirium amidst the trenches of WWI, becomes tormented by visions of his own seedy creations. This stream-of-consciousness tale visualizes the tortured psyche of its protagonist through dazzling dreamscapes and surreal scenarios. In The National Razor, a soldier returns from war a shattered man. Drowning himself in drink, he wanders the streets of Paris without purpose; in this numb stupor, he finds himself caught up in strange situations, lashes out in unexpectedly violent ways, and ultimately meets with a bloody end. At once a visceral depiction of the trauma wrought by war and a powerful denunciation of the death penalty and France’s iconic guillotine.

 

Junkwraith

Junkwraith Cover

Author: Ellinor Richey
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Release Date: Jan. 19 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 18 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

What happens when our most precious belongings…no longer belong? When something we loved suddenly becomes junk, a powerful energy is unleashed. One night, ice-skating prodigy Florence Sato is overwhelmed by pressure and throws away her skates. This fateful moment accidentally summons a “junkwraith,” a terrifying ghost which seeks revenge for its abandonment by attacking the memories of its former owner. Before she forgets who she is, and to find out who she really wants to be, Florence must set off (with her trusty digital assistant Frank) on a long journey into the Wastelands to put to rest the monster she created.

 

Django, Hand On Fire: The Great Django Reinhardt

Django Cover

Writer: Salva Rubio
Artist: EFA
Publisher: NBM Publishing
Release Date: Jan. 19 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 18 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Django Reinhardt is a legend. But Django -which may have meant “He who wakens”- was twice born. A first time in the snow, during the winter of 1910 in a nomadic gypsy family stationed in Liberchies, Belgium. The second in Saint-Ouen, near Paris, in the fall of 1928, when a fire in his caravan mutilated his left hand. Writer Salva Rubio and artist Efa have already produced together a remarkable biopic on Monet, paying tribute to the painter’s obsession with light. Likewise, this biopic devoted to the youth of the prodigy musician features the passion and determination of the man who has always considered himself the greatest guitarist in the world. In this story-score, by laying out the panels like chords, the artist brings to life his passion in vibrating watercolor to better accompany the musical and technical development of the inventor of gypsy jazz. From musette to jazz, from violin to banjo then to guitar, Django’s destiny is that of his ‘hand on fire’, possessed by the supernatural spirit of the “duende” which burns in the soul of each gypsy musician. That of a miracle who is reborn from his ashes, more dazzling than ever. Cue the music!

 

Laguardia Deluxe Edition

Laguardia Cover

Writer: Nnedi Okorafor
Artist: Tana Ford
Publisher: Berger Books
Release Date: Jan. 19 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $29.99

Deluxe hardcover edition of the Hugo and Eisner Award-winning graphic novel! Exclusive extras include a chapter of Okorafor’s script, a new cover and never-before-seen art from Ford, a behind-the-scenes look at the creation process, an extensive process art section, and more! On a planet Earth bursting with integrated extraterrestrial life, pregnant doctor Future Nwafor Chukwuebuka is fleeing Nigeria under mysterious conditions. Her fiance doesn’t know she’s left, and she’s smuggling an illegal, sentient plant into NYC. There, she’ll be thrown into a vibrant immigrant community of humans and aliens, fighting for social justice and facing her past and her unexpected future.

 

The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski

Complete Fante Bukowski Cover

Author: Noah Van Sciver
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Jan. 19 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $34.99

Living in a beat-up motel, consorting with the downtrodden and mid-level literati, Fante Bukowski must overcome great obstacles: a love interest turned rival, ghostwriting a teen celebrity’s memoirs, no actual talent — to gain the respect and adoration of critics and, more importantly, his father. Van Sciver has created a scathing, hilarious, and empathetic character study of a self-styled author determined to prove that he’s just one more poem (or drink) away from success. Originally published in hardcover in 2020, The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski quickly sold out and is nominated for a 2021 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album. This expanded paperback edition includes additional content, including a 2020 Slate interview with Fante himself and a cover gallery of Fante’s previous books. Also: a foreword by novelist Ryan Boudinot (Blueprints of the Afterlife); a facsimile reproduction of Bukowski’s literary debut, 6 Poems (thought lost to time in the wake of a motel fire that destroyed the entire original print run); a “Works Cited” section; and a selection of “visual tributes” by over two dozen cartoonists — including Nina Bunjevac, Simon Hanselmann, Jesse Jacobs, Ed Piskor, Leslie Stein, and others.

 

Vann Nath: Painting the Khmer Rouge

Vann Nath Cover

Authors: Matteo Mastragostino, Paolo Castaldi
Publisher: Life Drawn
Release Date: Jan. 19 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 25 (Bookstores)
List Price: $22.99

In 1978, a young painter named Vann Nath was arrested by the Khmer Rouge, the violent and totalitarian Communist Party of Kampuchea that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Imprisoned in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, better known as S-21, painting became synonymous with survival for him. Ordered, like many Cambodian artists and craftsmen, to put his talent to use to glorify his captors, upon his release he continued painting—this time, to remember and pay tribute to the victims of Pol Pot’s regime.

 

Mister Miracle: The Great Escape

Mister Miracle Cover

Writers: Varian Johnson
Artist: Daniel Isles
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: Jan. 18 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 25 (Bookstores)
List Price: $16.99

From acclaimed author Varian Johnson (The Parker Inheritance) and popular sci-fi artist Daniel Isles, a.k.a. DirtyRobot, comes the story of an escape plan that will take a miracle to pull off. Luckily for Scott Free, everyone calls him MISTER MIRACLE! Okay, no one calls him that…yet. Once Scott pulls off his foolproof plan and becomes the first person to escape the fiery pits of the planet Apokolips, he’s sure to be considered one of the greatest superheroes of all time…at least among his friends. The only problem is: his plan never involved falling in love with the head of the Female Furies, Big Barda––the one person tasked with ensuring he never escapes..

 

Illustrating Spain the the U.S.

Illustrating Spain Cover

Writer:  María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco
Artist: Carla Berrocal
Translator: Marta González-Cutre
Editor: Ana Merino
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Jan. 26 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 25 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

Since the very founding of the United States, the country’s history has been intertwined with that of Spain’s, in many essential yet often overlooked ways. Illustrating Spain in the US brings together some of Spain’s most acclaimed cartoonists and scholars to celebrate and interrogate the contributions of Spanish immigrants to America’s political, cultural, and scientific history. Diplomat Eduardo Garrigues and cartoonist Rayco Pulido resurrect the historical figure of Bernardo de Gálvez, who played a crucial role in the Revolutionary War. Professor James Fernández, Filmmaker Luis Argeo and artists Ana Penyas and Seisdedos bring to life the rollicking immigrant enclave of Tampa, once known as the “Cigar Capital of the World.” Professor Estrella de Diego and cartoonist Carla Berrocal shed light on the Spanish actors, screenwriters and musicians who broke into Hollywood and made their mark on American cinema. Professor María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco and cartoonist Max lead readers through the labyrinthine history of Spanish art collecting in the US, and the influence of Spanish art on popular American art movements. And much more!

 

The Incal Black & White Edition

The Incal Cover

Writer: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Artist: Moebius
Publisher: Humanoids
Release Date:  Jan. 19 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 25 (Bookstores)
List Price: $99.99

The Sci-Fi masterpiece by Mœbius and Jodorowsky about the tribulations of the shabby detective John Difool as he searches for the precious and coveted Incal—released for the first time ever in English in this Black & White Special Edition. John Difool, a low-class detective in a degenerate dystopian world, finds his life turned upside down when he discovers an ancient, mystical artifact called “The Incal.” Difool’s adventures will bring him into conflict with the galaxy’s greatest warrior, the Metabaron, and will pit him against the awesome powers of the Technopope. These encounters and many more make up a tale of comic and cosmic proportions that has Difool fighting for not only his very life but for the survival of the entire universe.

 

Enter the Blue

Enter the Blue Cover

Author: Dave Chisholm
Publisher: Z2 Comics
Release Date: Jan. 26 (Comics Shops) / Jan. 25 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

For decades, seasoned players on the scene have spoken in whispered tones about The Blue: a mysterious meeting place for jazz history – a place where ghosts from this music’s storied past spring to life for those courageous enough to enter. When Jessie Choi’s mentor Jimmy Hightower collapses at a gig and loses consciousness, she finds herself reluctantly pulled back into the jazz scene she abandoned years earlier. In investigating the music and mystery behind Jimmy’s comatose state, every thread leads to the same question: is Jimmy somehow trapped in this enigma known as The Blue? In her search to save her teacher, Jessie rubs shoulders with legends, uncovers the secret history of Blue Note Records, and faces her own deepest fears.

 

Crema

Crema Cover

Writer: Johnnie Christmas
Artist: Dante Luiz
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Jan. 26 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

#1 New York Times bestselling cartoonist Johnnie Christmas and Prism Award-nominee Dante Luiz bring you a haunted tale of love, ghosts, and coffee beans. Esme, a barista, feels invisible, like a ghost . . . also, when Esme drinks too much coffee she actually sees ghosts. Yara, the elegant heir to a coffee plantation, is always seen, but only has eyes for Esme. Their world is turned upside down when the strange ghost of an old-world nobleman begs Esme to take his letter from New York City to a haunted coffee farm in Brazil, to reunite him with his lost love of a century ago. Bringing sinister tidings of unrequited love. Collects the ComiXology original digital graohic novel Crema in print for the first time.

 

Children of the Woods

Children of the Woods Cover

Writer: Joe Ciano
Artist: Josh Hixson
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Jan. 26 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

After a tale of revenge leads to a monstrous outcome, Amber and Quinn pay the price for power and magic as they become the newest children of the Black Woods. As Amber becomes intertwined with the secrets of woods and the town they live in, Quinn learns he is not alone in the woods. And not all who reside there are welcoming. Featuring art by Josh Hixson and story from Joe Ciano, Children of the Woods will explore the monster within and what is left when that monster finally comes out.

 

Castaways

Castaways Cover

Writer: Pablo Monforte
Translator: Silvia Perea Labayen
Artist: Laura Perez
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Jan. 19 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

Madrid in the eighties, and Barcelona ten years later. In these two vibrant locales, Castaways follows the relationship between Alejandra and Julio against the backdrop of these poetic urban spaces where dreams, love, and uncertainty intertwine. Drawn to one another but constantly pushed or pulled in different directions by work, family, and life, Alejandra and Julio circle in and out of each other’s lives, while first denying and then coming to accept the fact that by the time they are ready to love one another, the chance has already passed. Intensely emotive and poignant, this stunning graphic novel from Laura Pérez and Pablo Monforte depicts themes of maturity, responsibility, and human connection. Available in English for the first time with translation by Silvia Perea Labayen.

 

The Greatest Thing

The Greatest Thing Cover

Author: Sarah Winifred Searle
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Jan. 26 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $17.99 (TPB) / $25.99 (HC)

It’s the first day of her sophomore year, and Winifred is going to reinvent herself. This isn’t by choice—she was perfectly comfortable with the way things were when she was a freshman and a member of a well-established three-person clique. But now that her two best (and only) friends have transferred to a private school, Win must navigate high school on her own. But she isn’t alone for long. In art class, she meets two offbeat students, Oscar and April. They don’t look or act like the typical teenagers in her small New England town: They’re creative, a little rebellious, and seem comfortable in their own skin in a way that Win can only dream of. Through clandestine sleepovers, thrift store shopping, and zine publishing, Winifred finally breaks out of her shell. But there’s one secret she can’t bear to admit to April and Oscar, or even to herself—and this lie is threatening to destroy her newfound friendships. 


February

The George Herriman Library: Krazy and Ignatz 1922-1924

Krazy and Ignatz Cover

Cartoonist: George Herriman
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $49.99

One of the most renowned and celebrated comic strips in the art form’s history waywardly treks on through the 1920s, with all its madcap animal inhabitants in tow, in this gorgeous, archival hardcover collection. In this volume: precarious coconuts, incarcerated elephants, and witty weather patterns. Krazy Kat themself take a swing at singing, astronomy, and starring in … their own comic strip! It also features essays by Herriman scholars, plus ten rare full-color experimental strips by Herriman. This Eisner Award-nominated series, featuring all the Krazy Kat Sunday strips’ eternally beguiling love triangle, luminous language, and grand desert décor, makes it plain to Herriman fans and newcomers alike why historians, scholars, and cartoonists consider this the best comic strip ever created.

 

Halcyon

Halcyon Cover

Author: Ron Regé, Jr.
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

The sleeping figure on the cover hints at the dream logic that drives this visual feast of a graphic novel. It can’t all be explained, and it isn’t meant to be explained. Ron Regé, Jr. is one of the singular cartoonists of his generation, an unusual but skilled stylist and storyteller with an acutely passionate moral and idealistic core that stands out amongst his peers. Halcyon is a spiritual cousin to Regé’s 2012 graphic novel The Cartoon Utopia, which has garnered a following in new age and hermeneutic studies circles and in which higher beings try to communicate with us through art, music, and storytelling — a theme revisited here via the book’s central characters. Halcyon is the work of a cartoonist at the height of his powers, a superlative use of the form in the service of relating the author’s compassionate — and visually stunning — worldview.

 

Bermuda

Bermuda Cover

Writer: John Layman
Artist: Nick Bradshaw
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $17.99

There’s a region in the Atlantic Ocean where planes disappear, ships are lost, and traveling souls go missing… never to be heard from again. And there’s an island within this place, mysterious and uncharted, untouched by time and civilization, where all who are lost end up. It’s a mysterious place inhabited by dinosaurs, pirates, crazed magicians, strange monsters… and a girl named Bermuda. Sixteen-years-old, scrappy, and a survivor, this has been the only life she has ever known. Until today. Today she discovers something on her island that will either open a doorway between her world and ours… or destroy them both!

 

Decorum

Decorum Cover

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Mike Huddleston
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: Mar. 23 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $39.99

The highly lauded, mouthwateringly illustrated miniseries Decorum from the bestselling, comics titan Jonathan Hickman (House of X, Powers of X, East of West) and acclaimed artist Mike Huddleston (Middlewest, House of X) now collected in its entirety in a stunning hardcover edition for the first time. Decorum blends the high impact, event level storytelling of Hickman’s recent re-envisioning of X-Men with the sprawling, addictive worldbuilding of the recently concluded East of West. In the world of Decorum, there are many assassins in the known universe. Decorum is the story of the most well-mannered one. The perfect standalone story for fans of epics like Star Wars and assassin action tales like John Wick-but set in a lush science fiction world where the stakes are even higher.

 

The Me You Love in the Dark

Me You Love in the Dark Cover

Writer: Skottie Young
Artist: Jorge Corona
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: Feb. 1 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $16.99

Writer Skottie Young (I HATE FAIRYLAND, Deadpool, Strange Academy) and artist Jorge Corona (NO. 1 WITH A BULLET, Super Sons, Feathers) follow up their critically acclaimed series MIDDLEWEST with a brand-new haunting tale. An artist named Ro retreats from the grind of the city to an old house in a small town to find solace and inspiration without realizing the muse within is not what she expected. Fans of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman will enjoy this beautiful, dark, and disturbing story of discovery, love, and terror.

 

Cells At Work Complete Manga Box Set

Cells At Work Cover

Authors: Various
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $77.94

Welcome to the COMPLETE tour of the inside of a human body! This deluxe box set includes all six volumes of the fan-favorite manga series all about what’s happening inside you right now. Hailed by doctors and educators as well as fans for its fun and accurate depictions, the series has also spawned a popular anime. This deluxe box also includes an exclusive 60-page bonus book with the pilot manga, an author interview, and concept sketches, available nowhere else!

 

Animal Stories

Animal Stories Cover

Authors: Peter Hoey and Maria Hoey
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

After tremendous acclaim for their series Coin-Op Comics, two brilliant creators present their first graphic novel: a menagerie of wild tales. Pushing the boundaries of their dazzling and unique narrative style, Animal Stories weaves together six short stories exploring the mysterious relationships between humans and other animals. A girl who keeps pigeons starts receiving messages from a new bird in her flock. A ship’s crew rescue a dog, only to find far stranger things in the sea around them. A reincarnated cat with criminal intentions, a parrot who leads a revolution, and a squirrel who tempts a woman in a beautiful garden glade. Drawing inspiration from Aesop’s Fables, film noir, and the Old Testament, Peter and Maria Hoey apply their singular and sophisticated visual storytelling to create a new set of modern animal tales for modern times.

 

Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense (NBM Comic Biographies)

Hitchcock Cover

Writers: Noel Simsolo
Artist: Dominique He
Publisher: NBM Publishing
Release Date: Mar. 16 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $44.99

“Psycho” traumatized viewers around the world. Never before had the angst or the suspense been so well presented in cinema. But where does the talent of this Alfred Hitchcock come from, the one nicknamed the “Master of Suspense”? To find out, we must first go back to his youth, in England, during the first half of the 20th century. Having grown up in a Catholic family – a religious originality that will be felt in a large part of his cinema – “Hitch” is an atypical Englishman who, very early on, has a taste for telling chilling stories. The temptation to work for the cinema will not be long in coming, first as a graphic designer where his visual talent will lead him to make his debut behind the camera, as an assistant and then as a full director. It is also here that he will meet Alma Reville, his assistant and wife who will accompany him throughout his storied career, including the jump to the big time in Hollywood. Discover the life of undoubtedly one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, the in-depth story film by film, with plenty of juicy anecdotes and amazing insights from interviews with Francois Truffaut and others, of a colorful and quite simply extraordinary artist.

 

Barcelona, City of Comics: Urbanism, Architecture, and Design in Postdictatorial Spain

barcelona cover

Author: Benjamin Fraser
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Release Date: Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Barcelona, City of Comics introduces readers of English to a range of Spanish- and Catalan-language comics published after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. During this time of palpable social change, the Catalonian capital regained its reputation as the hub of comics publishing in Spain. Comics collectives such as El Rrollo and Butifarra, as well as individual artists from Montse Clav to Mariscal, contributed to a thriving comics subculture that drew from and pushed beyond the countercultural comics tradition in the United States. As the Sal n Internacional del C mic de Barcelona (1981-) drew greater attention to the city, comics magazines teemed with graphic depictions of urban scenes. On the comics page, themes of architecture and city life were employed as social critique, while the city of Barcelona itself increasingly solidified its reputation on the global stage through urban planning. With a foreword by Pere Joan, Barcelona, City of Comics delves into the relationship between comics and urbanism in one of Europe’s most notable global cities.

 

Next Time Everything Will Be All Right

Next Time Everything Will Be All Right Cover

Author: Lene Ask
Publisher: Centrala
Release Date: Jan. 5 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $22.00

With her previous books (including published in English ‘Dear Rikard’), Lene Ask got a lot of attention especially for her personal and humorous descriptions of the daily life. ‘Next time everything goes right’ is Ask’s first cartoon that is not about herself. The artist handles the transition to the new format excellently. She tells the story about the village girl Marte who has moved to Oslo to study and work at a library. When her father dies, Marte has to go home again, and among other things try to find out her relationship with the strictly religious mother. With persistent idealism, she strives to make the right choices, but throughout history gets new insights into what is important in life. Lene Ask again shows her ability to describe people with great empathy and credibility. She glides freely between the big existential themes and the small everyday events. Her clear drawings and effective use of colour drive the story forward and support the characters’ characteristics.

 

A Spark Within the Forge: An Ember in the Ashes Graphic Novel

Spark Within Forge Cover

Writers: Sabaa Tahir, Nicole Andelfinger
Artist: Sonia Liao
Publisher: Archaia
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

REBELLION IS FORGED IN THE HEART OF THE EMPIRE. Before they were torn asunder, Laia lived happily and quietly with her Nan, Pop, and brother Darin within the Scholar district of Martial-ruled Serra. Although Laia is afraid to venture outside her home due to the heavy Martial presence, Darin loves to explore all parts of their home city… even those that are forbidden. A chance encounter with famed swordsmith Spiro Teluman, who sees in Darin a talent for forging weapons, leads him down a path that pulls him away from his family but towards hope for his people. While Laia is forced to take her brother’s place accompanying Pop to combat a dangerous illness spreading quickly through Serra. When Laia discovers a surprising cure, will she brave exposure and the heavily-patrolled streets so she can save the city and someone she loves?

 

Come Over Come Over

Come Over Come Over Cover

Author: Lynda Barry
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Release Date: Feb. 9 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $21.95

The classic book featuring Maybonne Mullen and her little sister Marlys is back in print! Lynda Barry captures all the glorious magic and excrutiating pain of junior high school in this Ernie Pook Comeek collection from the early 90s. The star of this collection is 14 year old Maybonne who relays the angst and insecurity of life through hand scrawled diary entries, class assignments, and letters, in cursive with doodle and bubble letters. Of course, there is the ever-annoying yet adorable little sister Marlys who never fails to read her big sister’s diary. Barry deftly portrays the capricious nature of teen friendships, adolescent peer-pressure, and the kill or be killed nature of a middle school’s social scene in her signature style.

 

Metax

Metax Cover

Author: Antoine Cossé
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $34.99

In the dystopian city-state of Kronin, the chief engineer is in charge of all mining of Metax — a precious material that has become indispensable to survival because of its extraordinary qualities. Meanwhile, a police officer investigates the mysterious killing of royal horses, suspecting a terrorist insurrection. Sabrina, the engineer’s daughter, is a member of this resistance group, which appears to be comprised of children. Meanwhile, the King’s hidden hand sets in motion a power play that will change the destiny of the kingdom forever, and all of these characters get caught up together in a whirlwind of violence and faith. This lusciously illustrated, science fiction fantasy by French cartoonist Antoine Cossé moves with the grace of a swan. Dark, romantic, and compassionate, it is an exploration of greed, its consequences, and the possibility of escape.

 

Olympia

Olympia Cover

Authors: Jérôme Mulot, Florent Ruppert, Bastien Vivès
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 23 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

Alex, Carole, and Sam use technology, know-how, and some serious chutzpah bordering on hubris to reinvent a profession that has lost much of its fun and insolence since the early 20th century. After successfully stealing Le Grande Odalisque by Ingrés from the Louvre, the art thieves have a new mission: nab Édouard Manet’s Olympia — plus two other masterpieces — from the Petit Palais in Paris. Naturally, complications ensue, and not just from the fact that Carole is nine months pregnant at the time of the heist! Forming a trio as formidable as their protagonists, Bastien Vives, Jérôme Mulot, and Florent Ruppert deliver an explosive, grand symphony of adventure, as well as a very touching and funny character study in this eagerly anticipated sequel to The Grande Odalisque.

Pinball

Pinball Cover

Author: Jon Chad
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Feb. 9 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

In 1976, champion player Roger Sharpe stepped up to a pinball machine in a Manhattan courtroom. The New York City Council had convened to consider lifting the city’s ban on pinball—a game that had been outlawed since 1942 for its supposed connections to gambling and organized crime. Sharpe was there to prove that, unlike a slot machine, pinball wasn’t a game of chance designed to fleece its players—it was a game of skill that required a measure of patience, coordination, and control. To prove his point, he proclaimed that he would launch his ball into the center lane at the far end of the playfield—much like Babe Ruth famously pointing to the fences. Sharpe pulled back the plunger and released, and the fate of this industry and art form hung in the balance. Thus opens Jon Chad’s comprehensive graphic novel to the history of the captivating, capricious—and at times infuriating!—game of pinball. Tracing pinball’s roots back to the Court of King Louis XIV, through the immigrant experience of early 20th century America, the post-War boom and bust, right up to the present day, Chad charmingly ushers readers through the myriad facets of this most American of pursuits—capturing not just the history but also the artistry, cultural significance, and even the physics of the game.

 

Across a Field of Starlight

Across a Field of Starlight Cover

Author: Blue Delliquanti
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Release Date: Feb. 9 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $16.99 (TPB) / $23.99 (HC)

When they were kids, Fassen’s fighter spaceship crash-landed on a planet that Lu’s survey force was exploring. It was a forbidden meeting between a kid from a war-focused resistance movement and a kid whose community and planet are dedicated to peace and secrecy. Lu and Fassen are from different worlds and separate solar systems. But their friendship keeps them in each other’s orbit as they grow up. They stay in contact in secret as their communities are increasingly threatened by the omnipresent, ever-expanding empire. As the empire begins a new attack against Fassen’s people–and discovers Lu’s in the process–the two of them have the chance to reunite at last. They finally are able to be together…but at what cost?

 

Secret Passages

Secret Passages Cover

Author: Axelle Lenoir
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Release Date: Feb. 9 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Many LGBTQ adults look back on their youth and wonder: what might have been? Growing up “in the closet” tends to produce a sort of double identity, between the inner self and the self seen by the outside world. Now, cartoonist Axelle Lenoir, in her unpredictable and imaginative way, makes this metaphor real. Secret Passages, narrated by the adult author, begins with the death of her (male) “cosmic twin.” From there it launches into a rollicking ride of childhood antics, set in 1985 small-town Québec. We get to know Axelle (a rebellious little girl who dreads Grade 1 and is captivated by the spooky forest near the house), her brothers (who share her off-the-charts enthusiasm for cartoons and toys), and their long-suffering parents (who may or may not be aliens). These lively comic-strip style anecdotes, reminiscent of Calvin & Hobbes and packed full of pop-culture parodies, are juxtaposed with surreal twists as Axelle’s existential crisis mutates the narrative, building to a mind-bending climax.

 

Howard the Duck by Zdarsky & Quinones Omnibus

Howard the Duck Cover

Writers: Chip Zdarsky, Chris Hastings, Ryan North
Artists: Joe Quinones, Danilo Beyruth, Veronica Fish, Kevin Maguire
Publisher: Marvel
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comic Shops) / Feb. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $60.00

Trapped in a world he’s grown quite accustomed to! Howard the Duck returns, courtesy of the sensational creative team of Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones — they’re the duckiest! The furious fowl is taking on weird cases as the Marvel Universe’s newest and most feathery private investigator — and his new job will take him everywhere from the Savage Land to across the cosmos! Howie shares offbeat adventures with Rocket Raccoon, Squirrel Girl, Gwenpool, She-Hulk and more — but his strangest case of all may just be the disappearance of Hollywood’s Lea Thompson! Plus, what’s a duck to do when the Ten Realms go to waugh…sorry, we mean war? COLLECTING: Howard the Duck (2015A) 1-5, Howard the Duck (2015B) 1-11, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2015B) 6, War of the Realms: War Scrolls (2019) 1 (Howard the Duck story).

 

Flung Out of Space: Inspired By The Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith

Flung Out of Space Cover

Writer: Grace Ellis
Artist: Hannah Templer
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Release Date: Feb. 16 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

Flung Out of Space is both a love letter to the essential lesbian novel, The Price of Salt, and an examination of its notorious author, Patricia Highsmith. Veteran comics creators Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer have teamed up to tell this story through Highsmith’s eyes—reimagining the events that inspired her to write the story that would become a foundational piece of queer literature. Flung Out of Space opens with Pat begrudgingly writing low-brow comics. A drinker, a smoker, and a hater of life, Pat knows she can do better. Her brain churns with images of the great novel she could and should be writing—what will eventually be Strangers on a Train— which would later be adapted into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. At the same time, Pat, a lesbian consumed with self-loathing, is in and out of conversion therapy, leaving a trail of sexual conquests and broken hearts in her wake. However, one of those very affairs and a chance encounter in a department store give Pat the idea for her soon-to-be beloved tale of homosexual love that was the first of its kind—it gave the lesbian protagonists a happy ending.

 

Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator

Putin's Russia Cover

Author: Darryl Cunningham
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Release Date: Feb. 16 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.95

Darryl Cunningham (Billionaires) returns with the riveting life story of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s infamous autocrat. He traces Putin’s development from schoolyard thug in Soviet-era Leningrad, to KGB officer, to corrupt commodities dealer, all the way to his presidency and beyond. In this educational and frank biography, Putin’s journey is characterized by shifting loyalties, brutal treatment of detractors, and lawless financial dealings. Despite all of this, Putin has retained public support and tremendous importance in Russian society, due to his ever-tightening control over the media and harsh muzzling of critics. Born in 1952, Putin grew up idealizing the KGB, and he became a member of its ranks by early adulthood. Cunningham posits that the speed with which Putin advanced politically was a reflection of the KGB’s need to cement their control of the Russian political system after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since Boris Yeltsin appointed him to the presidency in 2000, Putin has annexed Crimea, rolled back democratic reforms, and led a life of luxury, all the while fostering a cult of personality. In Putin’s Russia, Cunningham situates the contentious leader in an analytical framework that is at times hilarious and always compelling.

 

Prison Pit: The Complete Collection

Prison Pit Collection Cover

Author: Johnny Ryan
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 16 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $29.99

Originally collected in hardcover in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, Prison Pit: The Complete Collection sold out immediately and fans have been clamoring for a mass market paperback ever since. Combining Ryan’s love for WWE wrestling, Gary Panter’s Jimbo comics, Kentaro Miura’s Berserk, and other influences into a brutal showcase of violence, survival, and revenge, this hilarious, all-original fantasy is for anyone who’s ever wielded a plus-five vorpal blade, lost an afternoon to World of Warcraft, devoured a stack of seinen manga, or cheered when a colorfully costumed villain leaped into the ring to beat someone down with a chair. A funny, filthy, epic sci-fi odyssey, The Complete Prison Pit is a masterclass in comics storytelling and has earned a place in the comics canon.

 

The Forest

Forest Cover

Author: Thomas Ott
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 16 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $16.99

The Forest is a graphic novella told via twenty-five singular illustrations, without words, of which only Swiss artist Thomas Ott is capable. A young boy sneaks away from a family funeral and sinks into the forest depths, where he confronts man’s greatest fear and must choose his path. Drawing with a technique called scratchboard, where a white surface is covered with a black layer and scratched away, Ott creates images out of negative space to harrowing effect. In Ott’s hands, the medium becomes the perfect vessel for his eerie, horror-imbued morality tales. This gorgeous volume will be printed on heavy art paper with Pantone Black ink to best showcase every exquisite detail of Ott’s virtuosic talent.

 

My Badly Drawn Life

MBDL Cover

Author: Gipi
Translator: Jamie Richards
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 2 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $22.99

“You’ve always got to laugh at tragedy. That’s why I laugh about my ailment. Ailments. About being a sexual spastic. About my perennial, cowardly, tantalizing desire to die. You can laugh about anything. Almost.” Spoken by his self-depiction, these bitter words set the tone for Gipi’s pitch-black humor in this unvarnished and uncompromising autobiographical tale. A young adult adrift in the world, Gipi’s stand-in grapples with sexuality, insecurity, deception, depression, drug use, fading friendships, and the capricious cruelties of the world as he struggles to determine whether his life is worth living. Drawn in Gipi’s signature elegantly scribbled ink style and punctuated by vivid watercolor splashes, My Badly Drawn Life weaves through the past and present, through narratives both real and imagined, to create an impressionistic account of his complex inner life. In this kaleidoscopic journey into the depths of his psyche, Gipi processes the shadowy traumas of his upbringing; in doing so, he produces a gripping work of utter cartooning mastery.

 

Chronophage

Chronophage Cover

Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Ilias Kryiazis
Publisher: Humanoids
Release Date: Feb. 16 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

When Chloe begins a passionate relationship with a traveling businessman, her life suddenly changes for the better, and not just because she’s getting laid. Lost friends return, and new opportunities suddenly appear. Soon, though, she begins experiencing horrific encounters with ghostly beings, eventually revealed to be the echoes of moments she has now no longer lived. Her new lover, Heath, stands revealed as a chronophage, a terrifying alien being who subsists on days literally stolen from Chloe’s personal history. Can Chloe recapture her lost moments, or is the life she once knew—including the daughter she had at sixteen years old—gone forever?

 

Came The Mirror & Other Tales

Author: Rumiko Takahashi
Publisher: Viz Media
Release Date: Feb. 16 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $17.99

Five intimate magical-realist tales from manga legend Rumiko Takahashi! A supernatural mirror compels a teenager to draw out and destroy the evil lurking within others. But will his duty destroy him? A has-been manga creator acquires the power to curse his competition. Is it worth it? A pet cat possesses a human—warning, side effects may include partial transmogrification… And more! Plus, a rare behind-the-scenes autobiographical story about Takahashi’s lifelong love affair with manga (and friendship with manga creator Mitsuru Adachi)!

 

The Eightfold Path

Eightfold Path Cover

Writers: Steven Barnes, Charles Johnson
Artist: Bryan Christopher Moss
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Release Date: Feb. 23 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

Eight strangers looking for enlightenment from an ancient spiritual teacher are trapped in a cave high in the mountains on their way to his temple. One of his acolytes directs them to each tell a story that the group can learn from as they wait out the horrible snowstorm that rages outside the cave’s entrance. One by one the travelers each share a story that, unbeknownst to them, is actually a morality tale representing one of the aspects of final enlightenment as taught in Buddhism. As the wind howls through the night, they tell symbolic stories of horror, dystopia, high adventure, cyberpunk, and urban fantasy. Each story is a spoke on the symbolic Dharma wheel, and each interlocking tale gets the travelers closer to their true destiny—unveiling the future of the entire human race.

 

Headland

Headland Cover

Author: Kate Schneider
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Mar. 30 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

Following a stroke, 95-year-old Ruth wakes up in a cold, unfamiliar hospital. To escape her grim surroundings, she retreats into a wilderness within her mind. In this interior world she befriends a tortoise who accompanies her on a journey into the unknown. As the days pass, Ruth’s hold on the material world wanes and she moves deeper into her own landscape. In Headland, artist Kate Schneider pays tribute to her departed grandmother, presenting with deeply felt empathy a perspective little represented in popular literature. Drawn with soft pencils and lush colors, this graphic novel explores the tensions between safety and autonomy, language and silence, holding on and letting go.

 

Our Little Secret

Our Little Secret Cover

Author: Emily Carrington
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Release Date: Feb. 23 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: $29.95

At 15, Emily is a relatively typical teenage girl living in the Maritimes. She lives with her eccentric dad as he prepares to build a log cabin. She rides her beloved horse and spends all her free time taking in the fresh air. But things aren’t perfect, the winters are harsh and her dad’s place is cold and draughty. Enter their neighbour who sees a girl in need and offers to lend a hand. Three words: “OUR LITTLE SECRET,” and Emily’s fate is sealed. Twenty five years later, Emily is adrift and depressed when she spots her neighbour again on a ferry. The events of that long-ago winter come rushing back, and she is forced to reckon with the past anew. She vows that she will bring him to justice, tell her secret, and come to terms with the wounds that defined so many years of her life. Inept lawyers, expensive therapy, and a broken justice system block Emily’s path to peace. Only when she rediscovers her youthful artistic talent by putting pen to paper does she see a way out. Now in her fifties, Carrington has crafted a compulsively readable debut that shows a powerful command of the comics medium. Our Little Secret is a testament to survival and to the importance of telling your story your way.

 

Beta Testing The Ongoing Apocalypse

Beta Testing Cover

Author: Tom Kaczynski
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 23 (Comics Shops) / Feb. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: $14.99

This groundbreaking collection, originally published in an Eisner-nominated, smaller edition a decade ago, has only proven more prescient and resonant to our contemporary times than ever. For this new edition, Kaczynski created the original stories “Billion Dollar Budget” and “Rediscovery of the Real” and annotations. There’s also a new foreword by science fiction writer Christopher Brown (Tropic of Kansas) and an entirely new cover design. Tom Kaczynski’s graphic short stories trace a complex space-time trajectory from the smallest corporate cubicle out to farthest fathoms of the multiverse. Occult economics, metaphysical traffic jams, Marxist zombies on Mars, secret architectural societies, designer ghosts from the future, and demographics demons are just a few elements of a new untested future eschatology.


March

Azimut

Azimut Cover

Author: Wilfrid Lupano
Artist: Jean-Baptiste Andreae
Publisher: Titan Comics
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $39.99

This Crayon d’Or prize-winning graphic novel is an incredible Terry Gilliam-esque fantasy tale, penned by the award-winning author of the acclaimed Valerian spin-off. Azimut features a host of quirky characters in a colourful fantasy world whose lives are turned upside down when the magnetic North pole simply disappears! Time and death are not what they seem in this world – old professor Aristide Breloquinte spends his time studying the peculiarities on his laboratory ship, fearful of the dreaded Time Snatcher! The beautiful Manie Ganza, who seems convinced that time is money, daringly robs and outwits the pompous rulers across the land. Add in an intrepid explorer who can’t find North, and an aeronaut/talking rabbit duo on a personal quest for love, and you’ve got a fantasy adventure full of nonsense and excitement!

 

The Elephant In The Womb

Elephant in the womb cover

Author: Kalki Koechlin
Publisher: India Penguin
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $14.95

In this unique graphic narrative, we finally have that candid, funny and relatable book on pregnancy and parenting that mothers, expectant mothers, and anyone even thinking about motherhood have been waiting for. Actor and writer Kalki Koechlin opens up about so much that we don’t talk about-the social stigma of abortions and unmarried pregnancies, the toll that pregnancy takes on a body, the unacknowledged domestic labour of women, the emotional rollercoaster of giving birth, bouts of postpartum melancholy, the unsolicited parenting advice from every corner, and of course the innumerable moments of joy and delight in bringing a real little person into this very weird world. With whimsy and compassion, with uproariously funny art and spellbinding honesty, The Elephant in the Womb blends the deeply private with the blazingly political. It’s an eye-opener for anyone who has ever thought that pregnancy was all about the glow and that motherhood was all about fulfilment. From fixing broken parts to enduring untimely farts, Koechlin’s nuanced prose-gorgeously illustrated by Valeriya Polyanychko-tells us the bare-faced truth about the physiological discomfort and manic expectations that make it a bittersweet experience.

 

Adora and the Distance

Writer: Marc Bernardin
Artist: Ariela Kristantina
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $14.99

Adora and the Distance is a YA fantasy graphic novel following the epic adventures of Adora, a brave young woman of color who lives in a fantastical world with underground pirates, ghosts, and a mysterious force called “the Distance” which threatens to destroy it all and only Adora can stop it. Collects Adora and the Distance original digital series in print for the first time.

 

Girl On Fire

Girl on Fire Cover

Writers: Alicia Keys, Andrew Weiner
Artist: Brittney Williams
Publisher: HarperAlley
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Lolo Wright always thought she was just a regular fourteen-year-old dealing with regular family drama: her brother, James, is struggling with his studies; her dad’s business constantly teeters on the edge of trouble; and her mother . . . she left long ago. But then Lolo’s world explodes when a cop pulls a gun on James in a dangerous case of mistaken identities. Staring down the barrel, with no one else to help, Lolo discovers powers she never knew she had. Using only her mind, she literally throws the cop out of the way. Problem is that secrets like Lolo’s don’t stay a secret for long. Skin, a dangerous dealer with designs on taking over the neighborhood, hears of Lolo’s telekinetic abilities and decides that he needs her in his crew. Skin might not have Lolo’s powers, but he’s got nothing to lose and is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. And what he wants is Lolo. Lolo’s not willing to let Skin use her to hurt the people—and neighborhood—that she loves. But it’s going to take a whole different kind of bravery to stand-up for what’s right, especially after Lolo’s mom returns suddenly and turns Lolo’s whole world upside-down. For too long, it’s true, Lolo’s had her head in the clouds, but this time, it’s on her . . . and she’s not backing down.

 

Dear Sophie, Love Sophie: A Graphic Memoir in Diaries, Letters, and Lists

Dear Sophie Cover

Author: Sophie Lucido Johnson
Publisher: HarperOne
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $21.99

Inspired by the journals she kept growing up, Sophie Lucido Johnson began an interactive conversation between her younger self and her current self. When she began the exercise, Sophie envisioned sharing important lessons on what it means to love your body, navigate relationships, and discover what fulfills you, no matter where life takes you. But as these “exchanges” deepened, adult Sophie discovered she had much to learn about life from young Sophie as well. Fully illustrated with handwritten text, Dear Sophie, Love Sophie deftly explores topics like queer identity, body image, inherited trauma, belonging, privilege, heartbreak, first love, and much more in a unique and captivating way. Charming, witty, and poignant,  it reminds us that wisdom is not limited by age.

 

Chef’s Kiss

Chef's Kiss Cover

Writer: Jarrett Melendez
Artist: Danica Brine
Publisher: Oni Press
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $14.99

Watch things start to really heat up in the kitchen in this sweet, queer, new adult graphic novel! Now that college is over, English graduate Ben Cook is on the job hunt looking for something…anything…related to his passion for reading and writing. But interview after interview, hiring committee after hiring committee, Ben soon learns getting the dream job won’t be as easy as he thought. Proofreading? Journalism? Copywriting? Not enough experience. It turns out he doesn’t even have enough experience to be a garbage collector! But when Ben stumbles upon a “Now Hiring—No Experience Necessary” sign outside a restaurant, he jumps at the chance to land his first job. Plus, he can keep looking for a writing job in the meantime. He’s actually not so bad in the kitchen, but he will have to pass a series of cooking tests to prove he’s got the culinary skills to stay on full-time. But it’s only temporary…right? When Ben begins developing a crush on Liam, one of the other super dreamy chefs at the restaurant, and when he starts ditching his old college friends and his old writing job plans, his career path starts to become much less clear.

 

The Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales Box Set

Cautionary Fables Cover

Editors: Kate Ashwin, Kel McDonald
Publisher: Iron Circus Comics
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $14.99

The first three books in the Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales series from Iron Circus Comics is now available in an attractive box set Including The Girl Who Married A Skull, The Nixie of the Mill-Pond, and Tamamo the Fox Maiden, the Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales Box Set contains over 600 pages of comics chronicling traditional folk tales from Africa, Europe, and Asia, both the well-known and the obscure. A fantastic present for the young reader in your life, eager to learn about traditional stories from around the world. Features work by a plethora of well-known creators, including CARLA SPEED MCNEIL, NILAH MAGRUDER, JOSE PIMIENTA, and GENE LUEN YANG.

 

Policing the City: An Ethno-Graphic

Policing the City Cover

Writers: Didier Fassin, Frédéric Debomy
Artist: Jake Raynal
Publisher: Other Press
Release Date: Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $25.99

What we know about the forces of law and order often comes from tragic episodes that make the headlines, or from sensationalized versions for film and television. These gripping accounts obscure two crucial aspects of police work: the tedium of everyday patrols under constant pressure to meet quotas, and the banality of racial discrimination and ordinary violence. Around the time of the 2005 French riots, anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin spent fifteen months observing up close the daily life of an anticrime squad in one of the largest precincts in the Paris region. His unprecedented study, which sparked intense discussion about policing in the largely working-class, immigrant suburbs, remains acutely relevant in light of all-too-common incidents of police brutality against minorities. This new, powerfully illustrated adaptation clearly presents the insights of Fassin’s investigation, and draws connections to the challenges we face today in the United States as in France.

 

George Orwell’s 1984: The Graphic Novel

Orwell's 1984

Created By: George Orwell
Artist: Matyáš Namai
Publisher: Palazzo Editions
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party’s seemingly omniscient leader, Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even the people’s history and language. Now, the Party is forcing the use of an invented language called Newspeak which will prevent political insurgency by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. Such thoughtcrime is, in fact, the worst of all crimes. But a seed of dissent grows in Winston—one that will bring him into direct conflict with the Party, and with devastating consequences.

 

Two Heads: A Graphic Exploration of How Our Brains Work with Other Brains

Two Heads Cover

Writers: Uta Frith, Chris Frith, Alex Frith
Artist: Daniel Locke
Publisher: Scribner
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $30.00

Professors and husband-and-wife team Uta and Chris Frith have pioneered major studies of brain disorders throughout their nearly fifty-year career. Here, in Two Heads, their distinguished careers serve as a prism through which they share the compelling story of the birth of neuroscience and their paradigm-shifting discoveries across areas as wide-ranging as autism and schizophrenia research, and new frontiers of social cognition including diversity, prejudice, confidence, collaboration, and empathy. Working with their son Alex Frith and artist Daniel Locke, the professors examine the way that neuroscientific research is now focused on the fact we are a social species, whose brains have evolved to work cooperatively. Using an engaging and approachable style, they delve into a wide range of complex concepts and explain them with humor and clarity. You’ll discover what happens when people gather in groups, and how people behave when they’re in pairs—either pitted against each other or working together. Is it better to surround yourself with people who are similar to yourself, or different? And, are two heads really better than one?

 

Voice of the Fire (25th Anniversary Edition)

Voice of Fire Cover

Author: Alan Moore
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $14.99

In a story full of lust, madness, and ecstasy, we meet twelve distinctive characters that lived in the same region of central England over the span of six thousand years. Their narratives are woven together in patterns of recurring events, strange traditions, and uncanny visions. First, a cave-boy loses his mother, falls in love, and learns a deadly lesson. He is followed by an extraordinary cast of characters: a murderess who impersonates her victim, a fisherman who believes he has become a different species, a Roman emissary who realizes the bitter truth about the Empire, a crippled nun who is healed miraculously by a disturbing apparition, an old crusader whose faith is destroyed by witnessing the ultimate relic, two witches, lovers, who burn at the stake. Each interconnected tale traces a path in a journey of discovery of the secrets of the land. Throughout, the image of the fire resonates between the tales, while Moore finds a different voice for each character – though most are inherently duplicitous in some manner, leading to a further commentary on the disparity between myth and reality, and which is more likely to endure over time.

 

Sensei’s Pious Lie 1

Sensei's Pious Lie Cover

Author: Akane Torikai
Publisher: Vertical Comics
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 1 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.95

24-year-old Misuzu Hara is a shy, introverted high school teacher, content to play the passive role of observer…until her quiet life is shaken to its foundations by two men: one her friend’s fiancé, the other her own student. In Sensei’s Pious Lie, Akane Torikai weaves a complex web of sex, ambivalence, desire, and violence that combines to produce one of the most nuanced and affecting explorations of the intersection between power and gender available in any medium.

 

Chivalry

Chivalry Cover

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Colleen Doran
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

A delightfully humorous and sweet fantasy story brought to you from the Eisner-award winning team of Snow, Glass, Apples: Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran! An elderly British widow buys what turns out to be the Holy Grail from a second-hand shop setting her off on an epic visit from an ancient knight who lures her with ancient relics in hope for winning the cup. From the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy, Nebula award-winning, and New York Times bestselling writer Neil Gaiman (American Gods) comes this graphic novel adaptation by Colleen Doran (Troll Bridge, Snow, Glass, Apples)!

 

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer: The Tales of John Lee Hooker

One Bourbon Cover

Writer: Gabe Soria
Artists: Kyle Baker, Evan Cagle, Chris Brunner
Publisher: Z2 Comics
Release Date: Mar. 2 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 29 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker lived more life in one of his songs than the collective lifetimes of many. Spanning several decades of the American experience, One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer tells three tales of Hooker’s storied life through the perspective of those who lived within his massive orbit, weaving textured and interpretative stories that rise to the lofty creative heights of his music and fall to the gritty reality of trying to thrive in several unforgiving eras.

 

Hakim’s Odyssey: Book 2: From Turkey to Greece

Hakim's Odyssey Book 2 Cover

Author: Fabien Toulme
Publisher: Graphic Mundi
Release Date: Mar. 16 (Comic Shops) / Mar. 8 (Bookstores)
List Price: $29.95

You know, Haidi, we’re going on a trip. A really big trip to find our way to Mama. In exile and far from his homeland, Hakim finds a bit of hope in the birth of his son. But between unstable jobs and selling what he can in the streets, it’s hard to survive and impossible to stay together. Reluctantly separated from the woman he loves and alone with his child, Hakim will have to overcome incredible odds and seemingly impossible obstacles to reunite his family, which leads him to make the most difficult decision of his life. Captivating and deeply moving, this second book of the critically acclaimed Hakim’s Odyssey follows the true story of a Syrian refugee as he tries to find his way in Turkey and then makes the perilous trek to what he hopes will be a more settled life in Europe..

 

Bandits, Misfits, and Superheroes: Whiteness and Its Borderlands in American Comics and Graphic Novels

bandits cover

Authors: Josef Benson, William Singsen
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Release Date: Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $30.00

American comics from the start have reflected the white supremacist culture out of which they arose. Superheroes and comic books in general are products of whiteness, and both signal and hide its presence. Even when comics creators and publishers sought to advance an antiracist agenda, their attempts were often undermined by a lack of awareness of their own whiteness and the ideological baggage that goes along with it. Even the most celebrated figures of the industry, such as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Jack Jackson, William Gaines, Stan Lee, Robert Crumb, Will Eisner, and Frank Miller, have not been able to distance themselves from the problematic racism embedded in their narratives despite their intentions or explanations. Bandits, Misfits, and Superheroes: Whiteness and Its Borderlands in American Comics and Graphic Novels provides a sober assessment of these creators and their role in perpetuating racism throughout the history of comics. Josef Benson and Doug Singsen identify how whiteness has been defined, transformed, and occasionally undermined over the course of eighty years in comics and in many genres, including westerns, horror, crime, funny animal, underground comix, autobiography, literary fiction, and historical fiction. This exciting and groundbreaking book assesses industry giants, highlights some of the most important episodes in American comic book history, and demonstrates how they relate to one another and form a larger pattern, in unexpected and surprising ways..

 

The Way Forward: From Early Republic to People’s Republic (1912-1949)

Way Forward Cover

Author: Jing Liu
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
Release Date: Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $16.95

China entered the 20th century as an agrarian society, weakened under internal and external pressures. Revolutionaries came together to bring down the last imperial dynasty but quickly split over the direction of reconstruction. Civil wars ensued, followed by WWI. The fate of the country appeared to be in the hands of industrial powers like Britain, Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States. All seemed lost when Japan seized all Chinese seaports, railways, industries, and fertile farmland. Yet Chinese resistance continued for eight years and the entire society was mobilized. After decades of struggling, China finally regained independence that laid the foundation for its own modernization.

 

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: The Idiots Abroad and Other Follies

Freak Brothers Cover

Authors: Gilbert Shelton, Paul Mavrides
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Mar. 16 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $22.99

With the imminent release of a new animated series, Gilbert Shelton’s legendary underground comix heroes find a new crash pad at Fantagraphics. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers are the most iconic and enduring underground comix characters ever created, having sold over 45 million comics in 16 languages.  Created in 1968 by Gilbert Shelton, widely recognized as one of the funniest cartoonists who ever lived, the Freak Brothers’ rollicking and hilariously self-destructive escapades are comedic masterpieces of farce and satire.

 

Life of Che: An Impressionistic Biography

Life of Che Cover

Writers: Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Erica Mena (Translator), Pablo Turnes (Afterword)
Artist: Alberto Breccia, Enrique Breccia
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Mar. 30 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Life of Che is one of the most anticipated entries in Fantagraphics’ The Alberto Breccia Library. Originally released as part of a graphic biography series in January 1969, it came out in Argentina only a year after Ernesto “Che” Guevara had died and reached an audience beyond comics readers. In the 1970s, the military government raided its publisher, destroying the means to reprint the book. The comic was presumed to be lost to history, until a publisher in Spain restored it in 1987. It has never been translated into English until now.

 

Death of Doctor Strange Companion

Death of Doctor Strange Cover

Cartoonist: Various
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: Mar. 16 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

Doctor Strange is dead! And without Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme to hold back the darkness at the edges of reality, the world is suddenly under siege from all kinds of mystical threats. Now, as an unexpected investigator races the clock to solve Doctor Strange’s murder, it’s up to the rest of the heroes of the Marvel Universe — from Spider-Man to Blade to White Fox, plus the students of the Strange Academy and an uncanny alliance between the X-Men and Black Knight — to pick up the shattered pieces! Can they combat magical incursions and keep the Earth safe while the mystery is unraveled? COLLECTING: Death of Doctor Strange: Avengers (2021) 1, Death of Doctor Strange: Strange Academy Presents (2021) 1, Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man (2021) 1, Death of Doctor Strange: White Fox (2021) 1, Death of Doctor Strange: Blade (2021) 1, Death of Doctor Strange: X-Men/Black Knight (2021) 1.

 

Alice in Borderland, Vol. 1

Alice In Borderland Cover

Author: Haro Aso
Publisher: Viz Media
Release Date: Mar. 16 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Eighteen-year-old Ryohei Arisu is sick of his life. School sucks, his love life is a joke, and his future feels like impending doom. As he struggles to exist in a world that can’t be bothered with him, Ryohei feels like everything would be better if he were anywhere else. When a strange fireworks show transports him and his friends to a parallel world, Ryohei thinks all his wishes have come true. But this new world isn’t an empty paradise, it’s a vicious game. And the only way to survive is to play. The first game starts with a bang, but Ryohei manages to beat the clock and save his friends. It’s a short-lived victory, however, as they discover that winning only earns them a few days’ grace period. If they want to get home, they’re going to have to start playing a lot harder.

 

Orochi: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 1

Orochi Cover

Author: Kazuo Umezz
Publisher: Viz Media
Release Date: Mar. 16 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 15 (Bookstores)
List Price: $26.99

A deluxe edition of Orochi, featuring all nine of the classic interconnected short stories by horror master Kazuo Umezz, the creator of The Drifting Classroom! A mysterious young woman slithers her way into the lives of unsuspecting people like the legendary multitailed serpent for which she is named—Orochi. Umezz’s classic horror manga opens with “Sisters,” in which Orochi affects the lives of two wealthy siblings who couldn’t be more alike…or more different. Next, in “Bones,” Orochi helps a man come back to life after a terrible accident, but resurrection can be a deadly business…

 

Mortals

Mortals Cover

Writer: John Dermot Woods
Artist: Matt L.
Publisher: Radix Media
Release Date: Mar. 21 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.95

There isn’t a role Francis has played well. An actor well past his prime, he barely has an acting career to speak of. His ex-wife, Claudette, finds him pathetic and he routinely disappoints his precocious young son, Courtney. When an opportunity to play the dying father of a teenage pop sensation chasing indie film credit comes along, Francis must sacrifice his ego and heightened self-importance for this one last shot at legacy. The mortality of his on-screen character is a stark reminder of his own end that day by day feels closer than ever before. In the end, what will Francis have to show for the life he has lived?

 

In The Flood

Author: Ray Fawkes
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Mar. 23 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: $19.99

Trapped and separated by an apocalyptic rainfall, Mike and Clara, devoted husband and wife, have sworn to find their way back to one another. But they quickly discover that the rain–and their predicament–is not what it seems. Can they figure out the grand trick that’s being played on them and overcome it to reunite? <i>In the Flood</i> is the disturbing, surreal graphic novel by acclaimed, groundbreaking creator Ray Fawkes, author of One Soul, Intersect, Gotham by Midnight, Black Hammer ’45, and more. Collects the original digital series in print for the first time.

 

Hound

Hound Cover

Writers: Paul Bolger, Barry Devlin
Artist: Paul Bolger
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Mar. 9 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: $49.99

In 50 BCE, Morrigan, the goddess of war, has become restless as a long-lasting peace settles over Ireland. Deciding the time of peace must end, she chooses Setanta, the nephew of the king of the north, to become her ward. After a young Setanta slays the demon-hound of Cullan, he becomes known as Cú Cullan—The Hound of Cullan. As Cú Cullan grows older, it is apparent that an extraordinary power lies within him . . . and a great darkness. When he chooses the quiet life of a farmer over the sword, Morrigan, angry at the betrayal, instigates an invasion of his homeland and Cú Cullan must challenge fate itself to keep the goddess at bay.

 

Keeping Two

Keeping Two Cover

Author: Jordan Crane
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Mar. 30 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: $29.99

A young couple is stuck in traffic, reading a book aloud to each other to pass the time. The relationship is already strained, but between the encroaching road rage, and a novel that hits way too close to home, tensions are running especially high by the time they arrive back at their apartment. When one of them leaves to get takeout and a movie, each of the young lovers is individually forced to confront loss, grief, fear, and insecurities in unexpected and shocking ways. Crane’s formal use of the comics medium — threading several timelines and the interior and exterior lives of its protagonists together to create an increasing, almost Hitchcockian sense of dread and paranoia — is masterful. But as the title hints, there are dualities at its core that make it one of the most exciting works of graphic literary fiction in recent memory, a brilliant adult drama that showcases a deep empathy and compassion for its characters as well as a visually arresting showcase of Crane’s considerable talents. Keeping Two is ostensibly a story about loss, but by the end, it just might also be about finding something along the way — something that had seemed irredeemable up to that point. In that way, it’s also a deeply romantic book.

 

The Song of Yoru and Asa

Song of Yoru and Asa

Author: Harada
Publisher: Kuma
Release Date: Mar. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: $14.95

When Asaichi decides to start up a band to pick up chicks, he soon realizes his band’s in trouble. He’s a bad singer. Thankfully his bassist Yoru is there to help but Asa isn’t interested in his help or his advances. Will the stubborn Asa open up to Yoru or will their relationship be nothing but screaming and violence?

 

Catch These Hands!

Catch These Hands Cover

Author: murata
Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: Mar. 23 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 22 (Bookstores)
List Price: <a$13.00

One day, Takebe, a former delinquent trying to leave that part of her past behind for good, runs into her high-school rival, Soramori. The two fight for the first time in years, and thanks to being desperately out of practice, Takebe loses-leaving her no choice but to accept Soramori’s request to start dating her…?!

 

Gnartoons

Gnartoons Cover

Author: James The Stanton
Publisher: Silver Sprocket
Release Date: Mar. 23 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 23 (Bookstores)
List Price: $29.99

The long-awaited collection of James the Stanton’s beloved Gnartoons comics is here! Drink a 40 with a skateboarding dog, light a cop car on fire with a herd of friendly forest critters, and eat a pizza brunch with a bunch of radical dinosaurs. Stanton’s trademark trippy humor wriggles and shines its way through each lushly illustrated comic vignette, now lovingly presented in a deluxe hardcover.

 

The Poorcraft Cookbook

Poorcraft Cookbook Cover

Author: Nero Villagallos O’Reilly
Publisher: Iron Circus Comics
Release Date: Mar. 30 (Bookstores)
List Price: $15.00

The Poorcraft series is the essential comic book guide to practical urban and suburban frugality Whether you’re new to independent living, a recent college graduate, or just downshifting to a simpler lifestyle, Poorcraft comics can help you with everything from finding a home to finding a hobby, dinner to debt relief, education to entertainment. We’ve shown you how to live better, travel better, and now . . . learn how to eat better on the cheap with THE POORCRAFT COOKBOOK. This comprehensive guide features tips and tricks for vegetarian and vegan meals, cocktails, budget food shopping, kitchen equipment ideas, and loads of delightfully illustrated recipes from around the world.

 

Things We Create

Things We Create Cover

Author: Axel Brechensbauer
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Mar. 30 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 29 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

We all live in a world of objects, yet we rarely stop to think about how and why they came to exist, why they look and feel the way they do, or what shapes our preferences and why we own and use the ones we do. In Things We Create, renowned concept designer, cartoonist, and sculptor Axel Brechensbauer pulls back the curtain and provides a visual guide to civilization’s endless quest for the perfect human-made object. Told in eight chapters covering topics such as “The Need of Objects,” “Recreating Nature, “Objects as Communication,” and “Objects as Power,” Brechensbauer takes the reader on a rollicking tour through the history and creation of objects that comprise our world. He digs into the basics of design, discusses why certain some objects please us while others repel us, considers how the design of one object influences another, reveals how human curiosity keeps in step with technology. He answers questions such as, what makes objects so pleasing to use? Why do we create objects that are so contrary to those that appear in nature? What’s the difference between an object that fills an emotional need and one that fulfills a practical one? What determines if a piece of furniture is a copy, an artifact, or art? What is the relationship between shape and emotion?

 

Gun Honey

Writer: Charles Ardai
Artist: Ang Hor Kheng
Publisher: Titan Comics
Release Date: Mar. 30 (Comics Shops) / Mar. 29 (Bookstores)
List Price: $17.99

Award winning Charles Ardai, co-founder of Hard Case Crime, brings his noir expertise to the fore in his debut graphic novel about a sexy weapons smuggler. She’ll get you the weapon you need, when you need it, where you need it — no matter how impossible. But when a gun smuggled into a high-security prison leads to the death of dozens and the escape of a brutal criminal, Joanna Tan is suddenly forced by the U.S. government to do a job for them: find the man she set loose and bring him down.


Are you looking for upcoming graphic novel releases for the kiddos? Check out the 41 Anticipated Graphic Novels for Kids, Winter 2022 edition.