Chicken Heart

Boecher’s tenderhearted graphic novel debut follows a stand-up comedian to his aunt’s funeral at Chicken Heart Love, the commune she founded. Jackie Locklear hasn’t spoken to his trans aunt Sheila in over a decade, ever since their family “disowned her after this one Thanksgiving,” but he unexpectedly gets an invitation from her found family, “the Chicken Hearters,” to speak at her memorial (she died by suicide). Jackie has also been considering a gender transition, and jokes about it in his stand-up set, quipping that he doesn’t want to “fight raccoons” while dumpster-diving “for a whole new wardrobe.” Secretly, however, Jackie admits that he’s a trans man: “I wince in pain every time someone calls me a ‘she.’ ” At Chicken Heart, “a place for misfits,” Jackie faces the commune’s complicated grief, his regrets around his estrangement from Sheila, and his “crushing loneliness”—particularly after he hooks up with the commune’s bard, Will (“Oh, stupid heart,” Jackie says to himself). Blending bubbly dialogue and moments of introspection, Boecher depicts how an interdependent community must carry on in the wake of its founder’s suicide. The thick, simple linework and three-color palette ground the proceedings, with a few whimsical flourishes, and emotions hold the spotlight. By turns sad and joyous, this is a moving treatise on the many meanings of love and loss. (Feb.)