Oddly Normal

Half witch and half human, 10-year-old Oddly Normal is used to being outcast at school%E2%80%94her green hair and pointy ears immediately mark her as different, and her family's home, a haunted house lookalike among cookie-cutter suburban colonials, sticks out just as much. Frustrated that her parents are so happy while she is so isolated, Oddly makes a birthday wish for them to disappear%E2%80%94and they do (along with the house). Her auntie promptly shows up and brings Oddly to her mother's homeland of Fignation, where zombies rub shoulders with robots, giant insects serve as public transportation, and Oddly feels as lonely as ever. Over five chapters (originally published as separate comics), Frampton addresses relatable topics like feeling like an outsider and trying to make friends in an unfamiliar, unfriendly setting. Vivid cartooning, in the vein of '90s cartoons like Gargoyles or Recess, meshes well with the goofy goings-on in the story (at one point, a smiling sun yanks a curtain across the sky to turn night into day). Little is resolved in this first installment, with the fate of Oddly's parents left to future books. Ages 9-up. (July)