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Comics Plus Spotlight: December 2024 | Rob’s Advisory

by | Dec 6, 2024 | Comic Spotlight, Comics Plus, Resources

New additions to Comics Plus

I’ll admit I can be quite verbose at times, especially when we’re talking about comics, but last month’s spotlight was definitely long — even by my standards. I want to give everyone (but especially my poor beleaguered editor) a break this month and focus on the very cream of the crop of last month’s new additions to Comics Plus. No thematic evaluations or philosophical musings this time, just focusing on the books themselves, and what I personally liked about each of them.

So, let’s get right into it.

Young Readers

Wild Greens, Beautiful Girl by Erica Lee Schlaikjer & Cinyee ChiuBaby Bat Bedtime (Cherry Lake) is an adorable bedtime companion that adults are sure to enjoy as much as the emerging readers they’ll share it with. Highlighting how many different types of mammals display behaviors similar to humans, the amazingly sweet bedtime rituals mother bats will perform to get their own babies to sleep is sure to warm the heart of any child. And the informative scientific appendix is equally likely to enlighten any adult long after they’ve managed to shuffle their little one off to dreamland.

My top pick goes to Wild Greens, Beautiful Girl (Cherry Lake), a picture book of particular artistic and cultural richness. Featuring both English and Chinese text, readers will be instantly transported by the lush watercolors to the bountiful greenery of Taiwan. There we join a young indigenous girl as she accompanies her mother to forage in their garden for the delicious plants that will comprise their next meals. We get more than just a culinary lesson here, though, as both characters have a proud sense of cultural ties to the past, and a deep connection to the varieties of nature that we’re invited to consider. It’s a small refreshing dose of spirituality that many readers (including myself) will always be hungry for… as well as for some local Taiwanese home cooking!

Middle Grade

Takio by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon OemingI was pleased to see Haru: Book 2: Summer (Andrews McMeel) arrive on our digital shelves. If you missed it, everything positive I said about Haru: Book 1: Spring earlier this year still applies to the latest installment; the fun of Lord of the Rings meets Bone (Cartoon Books) meets Adventure Time (Oni Press)—except now the more subtle dystopian elements hinted at in the first volume have have started to become much more integral. While still sweet and engaging, like any good hero’s journey, Book 2: Summer seems to have “grown up” a bit from its predecessor—and I’m only too excited to see what we’ll experience come Autumn and Winter.

My top pick is from the powerhouse creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming — the latest Jinxworld story to arrive from its new publisher, Dark Horse. Unlike some of this team’s more well known properties (like say Powers), Takio is targeted towards the “all ages” reader. It’s definitely a fun take on the “kids become real life superheroes” story, especially considering the original publication was inspired by the creators’ own daughter and wife, respectively. It still features the realistic, snappy dialogue Bendis is famous for — even if it’s suddenly more appropriate for a schoolyard than a prison yard — along with Oeming’s signature loose, frenetic, high-energy art style. The story’s real appeal for me, though, was its grounded approach of utilizing classic superhero tropes that sneak up on you quite organically — of course your BFF gets powers, too, and becomes your enemy… duh! It winds up being pretty non-stop exciting, and arguably a higher caliber of storytelling a superhero comic aimed at middle graders would typically have. I mean, Bendis did create Miles Morales (Spider-Man) after all.

Teen & Young Adult

Angelic Vol. 1: Heirs & Graces by Simon Spurrier & Caspar WijngaardChoosing a top pick for teens was tougher, as I had a couple of great titles to choose from. Fortunately, there’s actually one title each for younger and older teens, so let’s just think about them that way.

My top pick for younger teens is another fantastic title from the great Si Spurrier, Angelic Vol. 1: Heirs & Graces (Image Comics), featuring some high-grade dystopian science fiction, but just fun enough to not skew overtly bleak. Mankind has abandoned the Earth, and now its various genetic and technological creations have inherited their war over the planet—and tensions between these factions run high. Think Planet of the Apes (BOOM! Studios) meets Ridley Walker — and yes, I think the writing here is similarly clever to that great piece of post-apocalyptic fiction. Much like that beloved classic, the morphed and broken language of the characters is immersively transportive, offering us tantalizing clues to the setting’s cataclysmic past, even as the (scientifically) anthropomorphized protagonists dare to widen their own world views as well. Plus, the main character is an actual flying monkey. (Again I bury the lede!)

Lost at Sea: Tenth Anniversary Edition by Bryan Lee O'MalleyMy top pick for older teens definitely caught me by surprise, but in a good way. This was my first time encountering what is now an anniversary edition of Lost at Sea (Oni Press), the debut graphic novel by Bryan Lee O’Malley. Oddly enough, I first talked about the arrival of Scott Pilgrim to Comics Plus the same month Haru (above) debuted with us. I’ll leave my comments about the Pilgrim series there, but what I really enjoyed about this long, slow burn of a graphic novel was its measured pacing. There’s a tantalizing mystery through-line that at one point gave me an actual “bang” moment of fear-induced frisson, but ends with such a “whisper” I was left questioning what to think about anything I’d just read. It’s probably a good sign it left me wanting more, as the ending was perhaps unsatisfying in a “that’s life” kind of way, but from a storytelling perspective demonstrates a measured, sophisticated nuance I’m not quite sure we see again in his more popular titles. Sorry if that sounds like a backhanded compliment, so I’ll say it another way: I think I liked Lost at Sea better than Scott Pilgrim.

Adult

A notable pick for mature readers is the third (and darkest) dystopian title on this month’s list. Jason Howard’s Big Girls (Image Comics) is an intense, post-apocalyptic slugfest that feels like Neon Genesis Evangelion (Dark Horse) meets Attack on Titan (Kodansha); a bloody love letter to all things kaiju. It’s definitely an entertaining read, but be warned; it really isn’t afraid to turn super-grim quite quickly, and there’s definitely a few reasons why it’s for mature readers only.

Our Common Shores by Zabus & NicobyIf we’re being honest, it’s only the casual European sensibilities towards nudity that makes my top pick suitable for mature readers. It’s got some sexy bits, but everything about this book is really quite tastefully done. Our Common Shores (Europe Comics) is the sort of graphic novel that’s right up my alley, really. Cerebral, surreal, evocative, poignant, existential, and just the right level of meta that actually pulls you through the fourth wall rather than shattering it. A series of slice-of-life dramas unfold around a small town, seen via the varied (and often harsh) perspectives of the local animal life—for some ultimate, ineffable goal we ourselves are left to ponder the scope of. I’ve got no choice but to be particularly vague here, as this is one of those books you really just need to jump into to fully get—but if you’re anything like me, it’ll linger with you long after you finish reading. Whether you believe it actually had a purpose or not, I hope the experience leaves you as content as the story’s wise old toad—an embodiment of the raw appreciation of Life!

Honestly, that’s just a small sample of the great comics, manga, and picture books added to Comics Plus last month. With literally thousands of titles to choose from across a wide range of genres, I could keep writing forever! Be sure to check in every month for more highlights, and browse our expanding list of past Rob’s Advisory selections.

Rob Randle: Read All the Comics!Until next month, here are some more honorable mentions that (mostly for space reasons) didn’t quite make my list, but you may also enjoy checking out:

Read All The Comics!

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Rob Randle is the Production Director for LibraryPass, and has worked in and around the comic book industry in various capacities, including as a book reviewer for the NY Journal of Books, and a judge for various comic book industry awards—the 2006 Eisner Awards, among others. Before joining LibraryPass, he had been the Director of Publishing for iVerse Media LLC since 2010, and prior to that was a purchasing manager for Diamond Comic Distributors where he helped to manage the monthly Previews catalog for close to a decade starting in 2002. Additionally, Rob occasionally does freelance work as a comics creator, and is the author of the critically acclaimed graphic novel Serial Artist. Rob holds a B.A. of Illustration from the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA).