We added another great batch of titles to Comics Plus last month and, please don’t think I’m complaining, but it was once again quite challenging to narrow them all down to a “manageable” short list — or at least one that won’t exhaust folks, especially my poor beleaguered editor. So this month I’ll really attempt to keep things short and sweet, and hit you with the “elevator pitch” for hooking a reader’s interest in each one. Maybe you’ll even check out a few of them yourself!
As the Comics Plus family is growing so quickly (3,500+ libraries and schools!), it’s possible this is the first time you’re reading one of my monthly advisories. If so, welcome! Or, welcome back! We seriously have so much good stuff to read every month — but for now, let’s run through some of the best of the newest additions.
Middle Grade
I’ll probably show my age here, but recommending titles for our youngest readers is often the most difficult for me, as I’m typically not the target audience for that part of our catalog. It’s not that we don’t always have great new stuff for kids (please be sure to check out the Honorable mentions below), but they don’t usually need our help finding the popular titles they already like, so I’m always looking for what I can spotlight that might be under the radar.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that, while Operation: Cover-Up by Tate Godwin (Andrews McMeel) is not really my cup of tea, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye in this cute anthropomorphic middle school drama, Visually, it also tickles a certain sense of childhood nostalgia for me, and as it’s also my only pick for this section, let’s just call this a skyscraper’s elevator pitch: think Arthur meets Doug with a Cyrano de Bergerac twist!
How far are two new kids at school willing to go to help each other fit in when the brainiac and class clown get mistaken for one another? With a quirky cast of animal folks straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, and a host of awkward (even cringy) jokes, there’s also a few life lessons along the way, including the importance of integrity and the joys of embracing failure. By highlighting the protagonists’ nearly identical struggles throughout the book, often literally in parallel, it showcases a sense of universality to the reader. Plus, there’s a whole scene where the smart kid starts looking at comedy from a purely scientific perspective, and his analysis is something that I find myself still musing about many days later.
Teen & Young Adult
It’s not unusual month-to-month for teen readers to be spoiled for choice on Comics Plus, but last month really stretched the limits. So, let me try to knock them all out as one-two pitches, and hopefully at least a handful will interest you enough to check out for yourself.
- The first volume of The Afterlife Kingdom by Marc Dubuisson and Margaux Saltel (Europe Comics) feels like Labyrinth meets Beetlejuice, filtered through the soft focus of a Disney movie.
- Budding weird fiction fans can rejoice, for Alabaster Shadows by Matt Gardner (Oni Press) reads as if Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle had been written for a kids cartoon!
- I loved the way Attaboy by Tony McMillen (Mad Cave) had me questioning my reality, with this weird mindbending trip that feels like Mega Man meets Bandersnatch.
- Teens and adults are sure to enjoy the first volume about aspiring young professional dancers/sisters Emma & Capucine by Jérôme Hamon and Léna Sayaphoum (Tokyopop), a full-color bande dessinée graphic novel approached with a pure manga style.
But, solely for personal reasons, my top pick for teens had to recognize the collaboration that produced Star Trek, Vol. 1: Godshock, by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo (IDW). This is a total Star Trek “All Stars” story that would seem like a piece of fan fiction if it weren’t for the fact that it’s officially ST canon! Call it coincidence, but the same week I’d had the random, “Which Star Trek captain would you serve under?” conversation with my intrepid editor (mine was Benjamin Sisko) does this little beauty cross my desk.
Not only does it feature Capt. Sisko’s return from the realm of the Prophets/Wormhole Aliens to help stop a mysterious force that threatens the gods themselves (all the gods), but his supporting crew reads like the nerdiest of Trekkie fantasy draft pics: Worf, Data, Dr. Crusher, Tom Paris, and even Scotty, just to name a few. Throw in some “helpless” Crystalline Entities, maybe a surprise visit from ol’ Q himself, as well as one or two other gods you probably weren’t expecting, and you have one hell of a fan-favorites thrill ride!
For older teens, things get even weirder. In a masterful demonstration of “creepy-cute” the first volume of Cult of the Lamb by Alex Paknadel and Troy Little (Oni Press) has an oddball animation style, sort of a misanthropic take on Gravity Falls crossed with a somehow even darker Pocket God.
Meanwhile, Soma by Fernando Llor and Marc Ellerby (Oni Press) is a different sort of manga-inspired western comic, which reads like a War of the Worlds / Evangelion mashup, with a high-energy style that should appeal to fans of the The Girl and the Glim (IDW).
My top pick for this entire section has to go to Mage and the Endless Unknown by SJ Miller (Iron Circus), which joins the mysterious and ever-growing catalogue of sequential pantomime, or “wordless” comics. A stunning use of black & white, with ziptone techniques that feel somewhat more reminiscent of a manga than a western comic. Imagine Bone meets Over the Garden Wall, coupled with Miyazaki-style sensibilities, blended with the body horror of Junji Ito. It will disarm with its charm, only to tear hearts out (sometimes literally) a few panels later. It’s stark, and brutal, and a number of its pages land with a gravitas that honestly only visual art can deliver.
Adult
Every month, there’s always a handful of great books for mature readers, and March was no exception. There’s naturally more to cover than just these three, but in the interests of length, be sure to consider the Honorable Mention titles at the end.
My first pick is the wildly goofy, yet darkly existential (and undeniably cool) “spy-fi” thriller, The Weatherman by Jody Leheup and Nathan Fox (Image Comics). Imagine Firefly blended with Cowboy Bebop, shaken (not stirred), over the Bourne Identity, with an Angel Heart twist. By the second volume, things get weirder and stuff even starts to get a little Avatar meets The Last of Us.
There was heavy contention for my top Adult pick, and the only reason Earthdivers, Vol. 1: Kill Columbus by Stephen Graham Jones and Davide Gianfelice (IDW) was my runner-up is because the whole experience seriously left me wanting more. The ultimate revenge fantasy; smart as it is brutal — this is the Native American version of the classic sci-fi trope of travelling back in time to kill Hitler. It’s also the kind of “big idea” sci-fi story that really needed more than just six issues to breathe. The “Ice Age” spin-off story is fun, but I could have dedicated multiple volumes worth of reading to the original idea about a time-travelling polyglot/assassin set on killing Christopher Columbus before he reaches America.
I’m not likely to suggest this often, but some parts are so nuanced, they may have worked even better as a traditional novel, which only makes sense given Mr. Jones’s background as a novelist. Regardless, it’s definitely worth a gander.
Upon reflection, my top pick was probably the undeniable choice, because it was bittersweet to see Berserk Volume 42 by Kentaro Miura, Koji Mori, and Studio Gaga (Dark Horse) arrive on Comics Plus. It’s the first volume of the series that was not drawn by the late mangaka, Kentaro Miura, who sadly passed away in 2021. Certainly no one understands better than his close friend Mori-san that no artist on Earth could ever replace Miura-sama, but this is a true and earnest attempt to carry on the torch of his manga’s dark legacy.
And if I’m being honest, they even scaled back on a lot of the crazier ziptone techniques, which were so prevalent in latter volumes of the series… so there! Not that I’m implying it’s actually been an improvement… Wait, am I?
Honestly, that’s just a small sample of the great comics and manga 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, so be sure to check in every month for more highlights. You can also browse our expanding list of past Rob’s Advisory selections.
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:
- Ain’t No Grave, Vol. 1 (Image Comics)
- Best of My Little Pony, Vol. 1: Twilight Sparkle (IDW)
- Birdking Volume 3 (Dark Horse)
- Cartoonists Against Racism (Dark Horse)
- Cyber Force: Shootout (Image Comics)
- Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior Graphic Novel: Journey to the Far Lands (Andrews McMeel)
- Double Booking (Papercutz)
- Dread The Halls (Image Comics)
- EC Cruel Kingdom (Oni Press)
- Falling In Love On The Path To Hell Vol. 1 (Image Comics)
- FTL, Y’all! (Iron Circus)
- Gunsmith Cats Omnibus Volume 1 (Dark Horse)
- The Herculoids (Dynamite)
- Hex Americana (Iron Circus)
- Indiginerds (Iron Circus)
- Junkyard Joe Deluxe (Image Comics)
- The Lucky Poor (Iron Circus)
- Minecraft: Out of Order Volume 1 (Dark Horse)
- The New Adventures of Disney Pixar’s Turning Red #1 (Papercutz)
- Radiant Pink Vol. 1 (Image Comics)
- Wine Ghost Goes To Hell (Iron Circus)
Rob Randle is the Director of Content Management 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).
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