what comics should I be reading?

[ursula]

My more ambitious weekend plans were derailed by a stronger-than-anticipated reaction to the updated Moderna vaccine (nothing major, I just wasn't anticipating anything more than a sore arm), so instead of cooking a complicated layered thing with polenta and eggplant, I ordered sushi and read the final volume of The Wicked + the Divine on the back deck, watching a combination of sunset and stormclouds illuminate the neighbor's fluffy pine.

This means I am out of comic! And--rare and fortunate in the present day--I have a really good local comic store on my walk home from work. What should I read next?

Some parameters:

• I'm finding I really like reading a longer arc one collected volume at a time.
  
• I haven't historically been a comics reader, so you can suggest obvious things.
  
• I'm not really into superheroes, and don't intend to start.
  

Comments

[yhlee]

CS Pacat's Fence if you like fencing with some queer teenage boys and a mastermind Black lady coach

[octahedrite]

Tillie Walden's work is really good! I would suggest starting with On a Sunbeam if your local store has it.

[yhlee]

I second this! I really loved it. If you can deal with reading on the web, it's actually available online; or if you want to support the store, the web version will let you preview the art/story.

https://www.onasunbeam.com/

I have Walden's Spinning out from the library, will report back - longish graphic memoir about (I think) competition figure skating.

[octahedrite]

I've read Spinning, I remember enjoying it! The subject matter is a bit dark so maybe look up the content warnings to be careful.

[fred_mouse]

Synchronised ice skating. Not quite figure, because minial jumps and spins.

Agree with octahedrite that it is pretty raw, because Walden wrote it at 21 and the experiences were still pretty fresh. content warnings: depictions of attempted sexual assault, homophobia, bullying

[shadaras]

Nimona! Everyone's talking about the movie right now, but it's super cool to read the original comic too.

+1 to On a Sunbeam; it's such a good story.

Check, Please! is a complete story about college hockey players, queerness, community, and coming out. If you're at all into either sports narratives or queer narratives, it's a good time!

The Tea Dragon Society comics are really lovely. They're not particularly long, but they're beautiful and I love the fantasy world they describe.

I haven't read it myself, but I hear so many people talking positively about Saga that I want to mention it.

[yhlee]

I haven't seen the movie but I also loved Nimona!

Older and ZOMG ALL THE CONTENT NOTES for violence/noncon/pretty much everything one could possibly warn for but I loved Preacher, which is a black comedy/drama take on a man who gains the power of compulsion, his girlfriend, and his best friend the vampire. It is often hilarious but also EXTREMELY DARK. It does involve a magical power but isn't IIRC a superhero/spandex take.

(more later)

[yhlee]

oh - let me know if you're open to completed webcomics, because in that case I think I know a couple that would be up your alley (I realize this isn't a comics store experience though)

[ursula]

I actually read & enjoyed the first couple of volumes of Preacher back in high school! (Aside from My Boyfriend is a Bear, I guess my limited graphic novel experience leans decidedly edgy?)

[yhlee]

Preacher completely shocked me because I was only a year or two out of high school. XD But I read it anyway because a friend had it.

[ursula]

Lol, I guess we know which of us was the bad kid :)

[yhlee]

I was a goody two-shoes in high school. I might have perched up on that one ledge and thought about how it made a perfect hideout for a sniper, but when almost everyone else in the class got busted for our senior year trip for (gasp) alcohol & smoking, I was one of the few people asleep in my room not carousing. XD

...I am trying to make up for it in my old age?! XD

[cmdonovann]

if you're open to webcomics, i really enjoy superpose! it starts here: https://superpose.superposecomic.com/comic/arc-i-prologue-01/

[catsidhe]

If you're into comics and don't mind being suggested obvious things...

Gaiman's Sandman

Ellis and Robertson's Transmetropolitan

Mignola's Hellboy

[fred_mouse]

Paper Girls - I think this is in five or six volumes, there might be an omnibus, finished story.

Ubby's Underdogs - no idea whether this will be available outside Australia. Three volumes, finished story. Set in Broome, Western Australia, when it was a pearling town, the Underdogs is a very mixed 'gang' of teenagers. Author is Indigenous.

Persepolis - lots of people love this, I struggle with the art work. Graphic memoir, Iranian revolution. Another difficult read is Maus which is the story of the author's parents surviving Jewish death camps in WWII Germany.

Stars In Their Eyes - another 'might only be in Australia' - this is a coming of age story with a teenager being taken to their first fan convention by their rather fannish parent. I think this is the only book by the author.

Check, Please! - also available as a webcomic. ?College? ice hockey team, mostly from the perspective of their one out queer character, who used to be a figure skater. Complete story collected in two volumes.

Fables - many collected volumes. The author has just put them all in the public domain, so you might be able to find electronic copies.

[catsidhe]

Fables - many collected volumes. The author has just put them all in the public domain, so you might be able to find electronic copies.

The author says he has, but he doesn't own the rights to the already published works, only to the characters, so it only allows new derivative works... only there's an argument that he doesn't have the right to allow that either, so DC may come after you anyway for your Fables fanfic.

[fred_mouse]

Ah! Thank you. I hadn't realised that was what was going on. I saw a reblog of a screencap of probably twitter, and have apparently taken the wrong info from it.

[psocoptera]

None of these are a longer arc with multiple volumes, so, so much for my reading comprehension, but I would like to recommend:

Queen of the Sea, Dylan Meconis. Alternate history coming of age, set in a convent on a small island, involving alt-history equivalents of Henry VIII and Elizabeth. A lot of really rich detail.

The Legend of Auntie Po, Shing Yin Khor. Historical fantasy set in a logging camp in CA in 1885.

The Magic Fish, Trung Le Nguyen. Emigration, family, and fairy tales.

The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor, Shaenon Garrity and Christopher Baldwin. SFF action-adventure comedy.

These are all middlegrade or YA, from the past five years. Going back further in time and not YA, Ursula Vernon's Digger is a neat fantasy-adventure, although I don't know whether a comic shop would have that. Ben Wilgus's Chronin, writing as Alison Wilgus, for time-traveling cross-dressing samurai - that's actually a duology. Delilah Dirk, swashbuckling historical fantasy, there's like three of those - my favorite was the first one. Hereville, about an 11-year-old troll-fighting Orthodox Jewish girl, there's also three of those. (Now we're back in middlegrade.) No idea whether any of these are in print/in stores.