Wow… each month it seems like the list of amazing new titles to arrive on Comics Plus just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I typically struggle to fit recommendations for younger readers in my monthly advisories, but this month there were just so many truly notable titles for the older crowd that not giving more of them their due feels almost like a dereliction of duty.
There are still plenty of recommendations for the little ones in the Honorable Mentions below (such as Haru: Book 3: Fall, a series I’ve written about before), but this month my focus will solely be on titles for teens and (well) above.
And I promise you, every single one of them is worth checking out yourself, if for no other reason than to get a sense of what all the fuss is about — and not just my fuss, of course.
Teens
For teen readers we’ll start things off with something light and fun. I’d given a little shout out to the first volume back in June, but the latest installment of The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt by John Allison and Max Sarin (Dark Horse) was also such a pleasure to read, I want to make sure the series gets more attention.
Imagine if everything you love about British television was distilled into a quirky cartoon and suffused with strong manga sensibilities. It’s fast-paced, funny, and chock-full of a totally memorable cast of characters. Honestly, it’s worth a look for the character design alone.
If that got you in the mood for the excitement of culinary competition, then you’re going to love my top pick, especially if you were already a fan of The Great British Bump-Off or perhaps even more appropriately, Space Battle Lunchtime (Oni Press).
The first two volumes of Magda, Intergalactic Chef by Nicolas Wouters and Mathilde Van Gheluwe (Lerner) became available this month and I found myself continually impressed at how engrossing (and at times weirdly exciting) the oddball story of a talented “intergalactic chef” wound up being. It’s also another great example of a blending of styles from all over the world that almost feels like some kind of surrealist fever dream that crossed Winsor McCay with Hayao Miyazaki.
Fun stuff!
Young Adults
As we move into YA territory, first let me tip my hat to the latest installment of The Goon, which is full of all manner of callbacks that long-time readers of this wacky series (like me) are sure to enjoy. If you aren’t already a fan, there are four omnibuses (literally decades) of published material to get caught up on first, or just dive straight into the newest volume. The Goon: Them That Don’t Stay Dead by Eric Powell (Dark Horse) because this brand-new material is just as much crazy, unhinged fun as it ever was.
Even Mr. Powell’s labor intensive “side projects” like Mr. Werthless (Dark Horse) or Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Dark Horse) couldn’t completely keep him away from the beer and blood-soaked streets of Nameless Town, and I fervently hope we have many more installments just like this to look forward to.
Next, things have really started to get interesting in the latest volume A Witch’s Life in Mongol, Vol. 2 by Tomato Soup (Yen Press). I didn’t really talk about the first volume (other than give it “Runners Up” status in my summer retrospective) so I’m glad to have this latest volume available, as this is a series that really deserves some wider attention.
Done in a charming (almost disarming) style that’s all its own, this meticulously researched piece of historical fiction dramatized the true story of Fatima, an enslaved Persian woman who eventually rose to a position of great influence in the Mongol Empire. While I’m fairly certain we shouldn’t be hoping for some kind of happy ending with this series, there’s no doubt it’s going to be one hell of an informative ride. You gotta love books like this that are just as exciting as they are educational.
But my top pick really was no contest, though.
It’s hard to think of an example of poetry or philosophy as influential and widely read (or numerously translated) as its source material, but the graphic novel adaptation of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, A. David Lewis, and Justin Rentería (Graphic Mundi) offers an entirely new way to experience this well-beloved masterpiece of free-verse poetry. Every word of the original is present, but we are additionally treated to Lewis and Rentería’s interpretations of the times, peoples, and (we can hope) as honest a take on Gibran’s meaning as one could dare.
I couldn’t help but think that setting any kind of specific imagery (even if it truly is “timeless”) to this classic work might arguably diminish certain elements of its universality (to say nothing of some of its deeper metaphors), but the gravity of the original text landed just as hard as when I’d first read it oh so many years ago. The entire project is a fascinating adaptation, and for some folks, comics may be just the right medium to introduce them to this important work.
Adults
Now to be fair, the reason that half of this advisory wound up dedicated to titles for mature readers stems from a simple source, namely we recently received a big influx of titles from one publisher of particular note. These ran the gamut from classic collections to titles that were hot off the presses, and while there’s still plenty more for us to get through, so many notable books went live last month that I’d feel remiss if I didn’t at least highlight the ones below.
These titles aren’t necessarily going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s at least worthwhile to know they are now available on Comics Plus for discerning readers.
We’ll start with an absolute classic, and one of the most important foundational books of the indie comic scene, the seminal The Complete Hate by Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics). Serving as a time capsule of the wider Grunge scene of 90s Seattle — warts and all, sometimes literally — we can now revisit Buddy, Stinky, and the rest of the cast of slackers, misfits, scumbags, and weirdos from the very beginning as they made comix history one panel at a time.
Sure, there’s plenty about it that hasn’t aged as gracefully as some might hope, but if you think about it like it’s been cast in a sort of “Gen X amber”, it all becomes an unflinching look back on that uniquely formative — yet often overlooked/underestimated — time and place.
Speaking of indie classics, look no further than Lovers and Haters by the one and only Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics), which is now the newest volume to join the storied Love and Rockets universe. This latest edition has (perhaps) more than its fair share of controversial content that made the series so memorable when it first appeared in the 80s and 90s; pervy, erotic, unapologetically deviant, and always as twisted as it is compelling.
There have been a great number of imitators, but nothing else out there could ever replace the authentic Love and Rockets experience.
As far as my personal tastes are concerned, I was even more excited about another brand-new title from another big-name indie comics creator: Death in Trieste by Jason (Fantagraphics). Done in the cartoonist’s signature minimalist, anthropomorphic style, it is just as absurd, surreal, and hilarious as anything I can ever remember him doing.
I know I’m not alone here at LibraryPass for sharing a deep love for Jason’s wider body of work, so we’ll be on the lookout for more of his backlist. However, if the idea of a time-travelling David Bowie (as a bear-man… I think?) fighting Nazis in pre-WWII Berlin doesn’t sound awesome to you, the rest of his books probably aren’t for you, either.
I also want to briefly point out how impressed I was by Comfortless by Miguel Vila (Fantagraphics), a relative newcomer to comics, but with a crisp, subtle, sophisticated design sensibility that reminded me of classic Chris Ware. However, in this case the “mundane” lens Vila uses seems more directed with a profound (borderline nihilistic) focus on what feels like our “collective human ugliness”.
This quietly dystopian imagining of a fictional nuclear accident and the fallout (both figurative and literal) that corrodes the already tentative relationships between its myriad of already morally gray characters is as engrossing as it is heart-wrenching — at times even frustrating. It got under my skin like I too had somehow been irradiated by something.
Chances are after reading you’ll feel somehow affected by it as well.
Next, you simply cannot overlook the critically acclaimed Okinawa by Susumu Higa, Jocelyne Allen, and Andrew Woodrow-Butcher (Fantagraphics). Inspired by true WWII accounts, this important manga highlights the many struggles of the people of that island chain, and its problematic (oftimes violent) position between the invading US Army and the Imperial defenders from the Japanese mainland
Fascinating not just for its historical perspective, but especially its cultural insights into both pre and post-war Okinawa, this series of loosely strung together narratives showcase both the harsh brutality as well as the simple acts of courage which forever shaped that period of history. An instant classic, and a must read for any WWII history enthusiast
But finally, my top pick for the month is probably also going to be one of my top picks for the year as well, because Kill Six Billion Demons Book 1 by Tom Parkinson-Morgan (Image Comics) has quickly become my new favorite book.
A darkly religious fantasy of the most epic of scopes, with a level of detail that sends one’s imagination into a tailspin, and a lore so deep it’s mind-boggling… I must admit that within the first dozen pages, I was instantly hooked. Imagine if you crossed the wild designs of Wayne Barlow with James Stokoe’s level of exquisite detail, and used it to illustrate a kind of blend of Monte Cook’s Planescape and the Kult: Divinity Lost universes (where my gamers at?). If that doesn’t make sense to you, then great… you get to go into this book even less prepared than I was — and I was completely unprepared for what I was about to experience.
I have nothing left to add; it truly is awesome, and a great way to close out another amazing month of new additions to Comics Plus!
Honorable Mentions
That was a lot of books to cover in one advisory, and yet there are still so many more I didn’t get to. Remember, there’s always more to read every month on Comics Plus! 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.
Until next month, here are some more honorable mentions that, mostly for space reasons, didn’t quite make my list, but you (and/or your readers) may also enjoy checking out:
- Crystal Heart (Dark Horse)
- Deep Cuts (Image Comics)
- Disney Epic Mickey: The Comics Collection (Fantagraphics)
- Gargoyles X Fantastic Four #1 (Dynamite)
- GG: Life Is A Video Game Vol. 1 (Ablaze)
- Haru: Book 3: Fall (Andrews McMeel)
- Hip Hop Family Tree: The Omnibus (Fantagraphics)
- In the Twilight of Our Adolescence (Tokyopop)
- The Lion King #1 (Dynamite)
- Masters of the Universe/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles of Grayskull (Dark Horse)
- ORISHA, Volume 1: With Great Power (Saturday AM)
- Pocket Peaches: Game On (Andrews McMeel)
- Rat God (Dark Horse)
- Red Room: Crypto Killaz! (Fantagraphics)
- Scarlet Ship: An Original Graphic Novel (Andrews McMeel)
- Search and Destroy Vol. 1 (Fantagraphics)
- Star Wars: The Sequel Trilogy (Dark Horse)
- Whose Poo Is This? #1 – The Golden Poo (Lerner)
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).
Read All The Comics!
“An absolute game changer.” School Library Journal
With Comics Plus, schools and libraries can offer readers unlimited access to thousands of digital comics, manga, and picture books from popular publishers like ABDO, Andrews McMeel, Capstone, Cherry Lake, Dark Horse, Europe Comics, Fantagraphics, Humanoids, IDW, Image Comics, Kodansha, Lerner, Mad Cave, Manga Classics, Oni Press, Papercutz, Tokyopop, TOON Books, UDON Entertainment, Yen Press, and dozens more.
No holds, wait lists, or monthly borrowing limits—all at a price that won’t break your materials budget.
Learn more at comicsplusapp.com and sign up for a free demo account.
We curate high-interest, immersive digital content that helps schools and libraries expand and diversify their collections—without breaking their materials budgets.
