This spring’s best graphic novels showcase the power of comics to capture personal memories as no other medium can, from a friendship with one of histories most shocking mass murderers to the life of James Joyce’s troubled daughter. Nonfiction comics also take a trip around the world, from the streets of Jerusalem to the avenues of Cleveland.

Leading the list is the follow-up to Alison Bechdel’s revelatory Fun Home: Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama. While Bechdel’s first book explored her difficult relationship with her closeted father, the new one shines a light on her mother, a creatively frustrated woman trying to deal with her own demons stemming from her husband’s repressed life and suicide. The intertwined roots of father/daughter relationships are also explored in Dotter of Her Father’s Eye by Mary and Bryan Talbot, a dense, revelatory twin memoir of Mary’s life with her father—renowned James Joyce scholar James Atherton—contrasted with the life of Joyce’s own daughter, Lucia, who is seen as “a kind of casualty of modernism.” Mary Talbot is a respected scholar in her own right, and her husband Bryan’s nuanced artwork captures themes of feminism and family in stunning visual metaphors.

Even darker memories fill Derf Barkderf’s My Friend Dahmer, in which he recounts his teenage friendship with the future serial killer/cannibal. While we all had loser friends in high school, Backderf captures the origins of pure evil in chilling yet heartbreakingly human terms.

Turning to social history, two comics masters turn in very different views of very different places. Canadian Guy Delisle wanders the paradoxical streets of Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City in his latest travelogue; his clean, acute drawings bring alive both the brutal realities and stunning beauties as he and his family must deal with the three-week Gaza War. While Cleveland isn’t a place that many people think of as beautiful, to the late Harvey Pekar it was a home and a muse. His posthumous Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, brought to life by the earthy art of Joseph Remnant, is a place of storied history, struggle, and simple human dignity.

For everything else there’s The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons, first in a trilogy of giant volumes collecting comics version of world classics, from Robert Crumb’s adaptation of Boswell’s London Journal to Rick Geary’s take on Revelations. While many are reprints, brand new adaptations have been commissioned as well.

Of course, comics haven’t abandoned their imaginative side this spring. Batman gets a delightfully pulp mystery twist in Batman: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. And one of Europe’s most beloved characters gets a new American translation with Corto Maltese: Ballad of the Salt Sea, the elegiac and atmospheric story of a 1920s adventurer as drawn with peerless chiaroscuro by Italian artist Hugo Pratt. And noted contemporary cartoonist Brandon Graham gets his King City collected. A fusion of Japanese, European, and American influences, it’s a futuristic romp set in a loony future of airy cityscapes, feline hit men, and shady mobsters.

For an earlier cultural fusion, there’s Dal Tokyo, Gary Panter’s expressionist comic strip awash in SF, cowboy, and Japanese influences. Originally published in the L.A. Reader and a Japanese magazine from the ’80s, the strips, long unavailable, add an explosion of artful noise to the season’s comics.

PW’s Top 10: Comics & Graphic Novels

Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama

Alison Bechdel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Apr.

Dotter Of Her Father’s Eyes

Mary and Bryan Talbot. Dark Horse, Feb.

My Friend Dahmer

Derf Backderf. Abrams ComicArts, Feb.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City

Guy Delisle. Drawn & Quarterly, Apr.

Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland

Harvey Pekar and Joseph Remnant. Top Shelf/Zip Comics, Mar.

The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons

Russ Kick, Editor. Seven Stories, Apr.

Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. DC, Mar.

Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea

Hugo Pratt. Universe, Mar.

King City

Brandon Graham. Image, Mar.

Dal Toyko

Gary Panter. Fantagraphics

Comics Listings

2000 AD

(dist. by Diamond)

Judge Dredd: Crusade by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, illus. by Mick Austen and Carlos Ezquerra (Feb. 14, paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-907992-67-4). The Thing meets Where Eagles Dare as two of the world’s most popular comic book writers produce two high-octane Judge Dredd thrillers. Never published in graphic novel form before, this is a great introduction to Dredd and his world.

Abrams ComicArts

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (Feb. 1, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-4197-0216-7). A fascinating and intimate look at Jeffrey Dahmer through the eyes of one of his high school friends. 5,000-copy announced first printing.

The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist by Alvin Buenaventura (Mar. 7, hardcover, $40, ISBN 978-1-4197-0208-2). The first monograph on the celebrated cartoonist Daniel Clowes, author of the bestselling graphic novels Ghost World and Mister Wonderful. 20,000-copy announced first printing.

AdHouse Books

American Barbarian by Tom Scioli (Mar. 14, hardcover, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-935233-17-6). A red-white-and-blue-haired hero must defend a post-postapocalyptic world from the immortal Two-Tank Omen.

Archaia Entertainment

Last Days of an Immortal by Fabien Vehlmann, illus. by Gwen de Bonneval (Apr. 1, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-936393-44-2). In the distant future, Elijah is a member of the “Philosophical Police,” who must solve conflicts that arise out of ignorance of the Other. Two species are fighting a war with roots in a crime committed centuries ago, and Elijah must solve the crime and bring peace between their species.

Sharaz-de by Sergio Toppi (May 21. hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-936393-48-0)/ A set of tales inspired by the Arabian Nights by European comics master Sergio Toppi explores a barbaric society where the supernatural is the only remedy to injustice, as Sharaz-de, captive to a cruel and despotic king, must each night spin tales to entertain her master and save her head.

Boom

Snarked: Forks and Hope by Roger Langridge (May 1, paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-60886-095-1). Langridge brings Lewis Carroll’s imaginative world to new heights in a humorous adventure that can only be explained as—.snarked. Presenting a fresh and incredibly modern Langridge spin on an already warped classic.

Cutting Edge Press

100 Months by John Hicklenton, intro. by Pat Mills (Apr. 1, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-936393-60-2). The final work of a visionary graphic artist, 100 Months is an intense, hallucinatory graphic novel with intense artwork that engages with ultimate themes of life, death, and salvation.

DC Comics

Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder, illus. by Greg Capullo (May 15, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1401235413). Writer Snyder begins a new era of the Dark Knight with artist Capullo as. a series of brutal murders rocks not only Gotham City to its core but also the Caped Crusader himself when the prime suspect is one of Batman’s closest allies—Dick Grayson.

Batman: Death by Design by Chip Kidd, illus. by Dave Taylor (June 5, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-4012-3453-9). Gotham City is undergoing one of the most expansive construction booms in its history. The most prestigious architects from across the globe have buildings in various phases of completion all over town. As chairman of the Gotham Landmarks Commission, Bruce Wayne has been a key part of this boom, which signals a golden age of architectural ingenuity for the city. And then, the explosions begin.

Justice League, Vol. 1: Origin by Geoff Johns, illus. by Jim Lee (May 8, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-4012-3461-4). In a universe where super heroes are strange and new, Batman has discovered a dark evil that requires him to unite the world’s greatest heroes, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, andn Green Lantern.

Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Blood by Brian Azzarello, illus. by Cliff Chiang (June 5; $22.99, ISBN 978-1-4012-3563-5). Wonder Woman must protect mankind from the warfare of the gods spilling over into the mortal world in this collection of issues from DC Comics: The New 52.

Xombi by John Rozum, illus. by Frazer Irving (Feb. 7, paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-4012-3346-4) centers on David Kim, a medical researcher, who was attacked in his laboratory by strange creatures and left for dead. His supernaturally induced mortal injuries were repaired by nanomachines injected into his body. All manner of really strange stuff occurs and somehow he’s in the center of it.

Dark Horse

Dollhouse, Vol. 1: Epitaphs by various (Apr. 24, paper, $18.99, ISBN 978-1-59582-863-7). .The Rossum Corporation’s Dollhouse technology has gone viral with a synchronized phone call that wiped the minds of everyone it reached, turning them into mindless killers. Those who avoided the call—including show favorites Echo, Alpha, Mag, Zone, and Griff—must try to survive.

Dotter Of Her Father’s Eyes by Bryan Talbot and Mary M. Talbot (Feb. 21, hardcover, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-59582-850-7). Part personal history, part biography, Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes contrasts two coming-of-age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and that of author Mary Talbot, daughter of the eminent Joyce scholar James S. Atherton. Social expectations and gender politics, thwarted ambitions and personal tragedy are played out against two contrasting historical backgrounds.

Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Promise, Part 1 by Michael Dante DiMartino, Brian Konietzko, Gene Luen Yang, and Bryan Gurihiru (Feb. 7, paper, $10.99, ISBN 978-1-59582-811-8). This sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender rejoins Aang and friends for exciting new adventures, beginning with a face-off against the Fire Nation that threatens to throw the world into another war, testing all of Aang’s powers and ingenuity.

Hellboy, Vol. 12: The Storm and the Fury by Mike Mignola, illus. by Duncan Fegredo and Dave Stewart (Mar. 20, paper, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-59582-827-9). Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo conclude their epic collaboration that began with 2007’s Darkness Calls. In this volume, Hellboy cuts a deal with the devious Baba Yaga that may secure the survival of mankind.

DC/Vertigo

Get Jiro by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose, illus. by Langdon Foss (July 3, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-4012-2827-9). Top chef Anthony Bourdain co-writes with Joel Rose this stylized sendup of food culture and society, with detailed and dynamic art by Langdon Foss. In a not-too-distant future L.A., where master chefs rule the town like crime lords and people literally kill for a seat at the best restaurants, a bloody culinary war is raging.

Gone to Amerikay by Derek McCullough, illus., by Colleen Doran (Apr. 3, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-4012-2351-9). Ciara O’Dwyer is a young woman raising a daughter alone in the Five Points slums of 1870; Johnny McCormack is a struggling actor drawn to the nascent folk music movement in Greenwich Village 1960; and Lewis Healy is a successful Irishman who’s come to present-day Manhattan promising to reveal the connection between him and O’Dwyer and McCormack. The mystery originates with Ciara’s runaway husband, who disappeared after promising to join her in America, and carries into mid-century.

Drawn & Quarterly

Ed the Happy Clown by Chester Brown (May 3, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-77046-075-1). A hallucinatory tale that functions simultaneously as a dark roller-coaster ride of criminal activity and a scathing condemnation of religious and political charlatanism. As the world around him devolves into madness, the eponymous Ed escapes variously from a jealous boyfriend, sewer monsters, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and a janitor with a Jesus complex.

Goliath by Tom Gauld (Feb. 14, hardcover, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-77046-065-2). This is the story of David and Goliath as seen from Goliath’s side of the Valley of Elah. Quiet moments in Goliath’s life as a soldier are accentuated by Tom Gauld’s drawing style, which contrasts minimalist scenery and near-geometric humans with densely crosshatched detail reminiscent of Edward Gorey.

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle (Apr. 4, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-77046-071-3). Acclaimed graphic memoirist Guy Delisle returns with his strongest work yet, a thoughtful and moving travelogue about life in Israel. Delisle and his family spent a year in East Jerusalem as part of his wife’s work with the nongovernmental organization Doctors Without Borders, during the short but brutal Gaza War.

Jinchalo by Matthew Forsythe (Feb. 14, paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-77046-067-6). A companion to Matthew Forsythe’s vastly successful Ojingogo, Jinchalo stars the same little girl. When the mischievous shape-shifter Jinchalo hatches from a mysterious egg, he starts our heroine adventuring anew.

The Making Of by Brecht Evens (May 3; paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-77046-073-7). An Angoulême Award winner returns with a parable about life in the art world. Pieterjan is invited to the festival as an honored guest. From the moment he arrives, things start going wrong, and since no one seems ready to step in, Pieterjan takes over the show.

Fantagraphics

Barnaby, Vol. One by Crockett Johnson (June 12, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-1-60699-522-8). Before authoring one of the most beloved children’s book series of all time—Harold and the Purple Crayon—cartoonist Crockett Johnson created the comic strip Barnaby, revolving around a precocious five-year-old named Barnaby Baxter and his fairy godfather Jackeen J. O’Malley.

Dal Toyko by Gary Panter (June, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-1-56097-886-2). Gary Panter began imagining Dal Tokyo, a future Mars that is terraformed by Texan and Japanese workers, as far back as 1972. But none of these conceptual descriptions will prepare the reader for its confounding visual and verbal richness, as Panter’s famous “ratty line” collides and colludes with near-Joycean wordplay.

Corpse on the Imjin and Other Stories by Harvey Kurtzman, edited by Gary Groth (July 31, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-60699-545-7). Among Harvey Kurtzman’s comics landmark are the scrupulously researched and superbly crafted war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. Finally war comics without heroic, cigar-chomping sergeants, wisecracking privates from Brooklyn, or cartoon Nazis and “Japs” to be mowed down by the Yank heroes, but an unflinching look at the horror and madness of combat throughout history.

“Came The Dawn” and Other Stories by Wallace Wood and Al Feldstein, edited by Gary Groth (July 31, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-60699-546-4). Wallace Wood applied his preternaturally lush brushwork to more than two dozen stories in the thematically overlapping (“dreadful things happen to people, both innocent and guilty”) horror, crime, and suspense genres.

FSG/Hill and Wang

Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me by Harvey Pekar, illus. by JT Waldman (June 14, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8090-9482-0). In Harvey Pekar’s final memoir, he recounts the entire history of the Jews to explain how he lost his faith in the state of Israel.

Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb by Michael Gallagher, illus. by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (May 16, hardcover, $22, ISBN 978-0-8090-9468-4). Illustrator Jonathan Fetter-Vorm tells the history of the race to build and the decision to drop the first atomic bomb, and the ethical debates that followed.

Harper Perennial

The Art of War: A Graphic Novel by Kelly Roman, illus. by Michael DeWeese (Apr. 18, paper, $22.99, ISBN 978-0-06-210394-9). A stunning and gritty graphic novel integrating the iconic strategy text by Sun Tzu into a sweeping thriller set 20 years in the future, when Wall Street is militarized and China is the world’s dominant economy. 20,000-copy announced first printing.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel (Apr. 4, hardcover, $22, ISBN 978-0618982509). From the bestselling author of Fun Home, Time magazine’s No. 1 Book of the Year, a poignant and hilarious graphic memoir of Alison Bechdel becoming the artist her gifted mother always wanted to be. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

IDW Publishing

Berkeley Breathed’s Outland: The Complete Collection by Berkeley Breathed (Apr. 1, hardcover, $39.99, ISBN 978-1-61377-176-1). Berkeley Breathed, the mad genius who boggled and bewildered us with Bloom County, is back. Soon after retiring Bloom County—at the peak of its popularity—Breathed returned with an all-new Sunday-only newspaper strip: Outland.

Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth by Bruce Canwell and Dean Mullaney, illus. by Alex Toth (Apr. 1, $49.99, ISBN 978-1-61377-024-5). Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell continue their comprehensive review of the life and art of Alex Toth. Covering the years from the 1960s to Toth’s poignant death in 2006, this oversized 9.5-in.×13-in. book features artwork and complete stories from Toth’s latter-day work at Warren.

Womanthology by various (Feb. 21, hardcover, $50, ISBN 978-1-61377-147-1). A large-scale anthology showcasing the works of women in comics is created by more than 140 women of all experience levels, from young girls who love to create comics all the way up to top industry professionals. All of the short stories will center around the theme for this volume: Heroic.

Nevsky by Ben McCool and Mario Guevara (May 15, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-61377-181-5). A true legendary Russian hero, the basis for a groundbreaking Russian film, Alexander Nevsky is a central figure in Russian history, having lived during one of Russia’s darkest periods: the invasion of the Teutonic Knights.

The Comic Book History of Comics by Fred Van Lente, illus. by Ryan Dunlavey (May, hardcover $24.99, ISBN 978-1613771976). The inspiring, infuriating, and insane story of comics, graphic novels, and manga is presented in comic book form. The award-winning Action Philosophers team turn their irreverent-but-accurate eye to the stories of Jack Kirby, R. Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Alan Moore, Stan Lee—and more.

Image

King City by Brandon Graham (Mar. 6, paper, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-60706-510-4). The long-awaited collection of the complete series is here, full of comic book games, puzzles, and wordplay. King City, an underbelly of a town run by spy gangs and dark magic with mystery down every alleyway.

Between Gears by Natalie Nourigat (Mar. 6, paper, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-60706-504-3). This autobiographical account of a college senior’s life transports the reader to the land of Jell-O shots, term papers, job interviews, road trips, and sanguine optimism in the face of uncertainty and change. This collection presents the entire comic in its entirety, plus 30 pages of new material.

IPG/Allen & Unwin

The Sacrifice by Bruce Mutard (Apr. 1, paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-74175-117-8). Set in Melbourne in the shadow of WWII, this first in the Robert Wells trilogy deals with war, ideals, family. and love.

Marvel

Avengers: The Heroic Age by Brian Michael Bendis, illus. by John Romita Jr., Stuart Immonen and Alan Davis. (Mar. 28, hardcover, $39.99, 978-0785161981). Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America must forge a new team in the wreckage of Asgard.

Daredevil, Vol. 1 by Mark Waid, illus. by Paolo Manuel Rivera and Marcos Martin (Feb. 8, hardcover, $19.99, ISBN 978-0-7851-5237-8). Mark Waid joins neo-legendary artists Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin for a new spin on Daredevil; having turned his world upside over the past several years, Matt Murdock realizes that justice may not be blind to his past and villains may not be the only ones looking for answers.

Defenders, Vol. 1, by Matt Fraction, illus. by Terry Dodson and Stuart Immonen (June 20, hardcover, $19.99, 978-0785158509). Marvel’s superheroic misfits must band together to solve a mysterious conspiracy deep at the heart of the Marvel Universe in this relaunch of Marvel’s best known nonteam.

NBM Publishing

Rohan at the Louvre by Hirohiko Araki (Apr. 1, hardcover, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-56163-615-0). The next gorgeous volume in the Louvre collection, this time by a leading mangaka with a suspenseful horror/fantasy angle.

Oni Press

The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart (May 16, hardcover, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-934964-53-8). November 1989. Communism and the Berlin Wall are collapsing. An MI6 officer is killed in Berlin, carrying a list that contains every espionage agent working Berlin, but the list is missing. Lorraine Broughton must recover the list and save the British agents whose names are on it.

Roaring Brook/First Second

Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks (Feb. 28,; paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-159643-556-8). After an idyllic childhood of homeschooling, Maggie has to face the outside world—and the ghost who won’t stop following her around—on her own.

Mastering Comics by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden (May 8, paper, $34.99, ISBN 978-1-59643-617-6). The 2011 School of Visual Arts course on making comics, introducing such topics as perspective, narrative, coloring, file formatting, and getting published.

Baby’s in Black by Arne Bellstorf (May 8, hardcover, $24.99 978-1-59643-771-5). A story of the early years of the Beatles in Hamburg, Germany, following fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe’s romance with the beautiful Astrid Kirchherr, who recruits the Beatles for a sensational (and famous) photography session during their time in Hamburg.

Schocken

Unterzakhn by Leela Corman (Apr. 3, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8052-4259-1). A mesmerizing, heartbreaking graphic novel of immigrant life on New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century, as seen through the eyes of twin sisters whose lives take radically and tragically different paths.

Secret Acres

Only Skin by Sean Ford (Apr. 30, paper, $20, ISBN 978-0-9831662-0-7). A Best American Comics 2009 Notable Comic, Sean Ford’s Only Skin is a grim exploration of the hallucinatory and tragic landscape of modern rural America, as seen by two orphaned siblings, searching for answers in a world filled with terrible questions.

Seven Stories Press

The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons by Russ Kick (Apr. 3, paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-60980-376-6). The classic literary canon of Western civilization meets the comics artists, illustrators, and other artists who have remade reading in the last years of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st, in Russ Kick’s magisterial, three-volume, full-color work.

Soft Skull Press

(dist. by PGW)

Al-Qaeda’s Super-Secret Weapon by David Zelman, illus. by Aleix Pons (June 12, paper, $10.95, ISBN 978-1-59376-442-5). In response to Osama bin Laden’s assassination, al-Qaeda accelerates its plot to destroy America. When don’t ask, don’t tell is repealed, and John McCain reveals the U.S. Defense Department’s greatest weakness (openly gay soldiers are a “deadly distraction”), al-Qaeda seizes the opportunity.

Sterling Publishing

At the Mountains of Madness (Eye Classics) by H.P. Lovecraft, illus. by Ian N. J. Culbard (Feb. 7, paper. $14.95, ISBN 978-1-4027-8042-4). H.P. Lovecraft’s terrifying horror story gets an illustrated interpretation by one of today’s finest graphic novel artists.

TOP Shelf/Zip Comics

Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland by Harvey Pekar, illus. by Joseph Remnant (Mar. 13, hardcover, $21.99, ISBN 978-1-60309-091-9) presents key moments and characters from the city’s history, intertwined with Harvey’s own ups and downs, as researched and rendered by artist Joseph Remnant. At once a history of Cleveland and a portrait of Harvey, it’s a tribute to the ordinary greatness of both.

Universe

Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea by Hugo Pratt (Mar. 6, paper, $25, ISBN 978-0-7893-2498-6). Treasure hunter, sailor, and adventurer, Corto Maltese remains one of the most popular characters from graphic literature in Europe and maintains a devoted cult following among American readers and creators.

VIZ Media

A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 1 by Miyoshi Tomori (Feb. 7, paper, $9.99, ISBN 978-1-4215-4164-8). Meet Maria Kawai—she’s gorgeous and whip-smart, a girl who seems to have it all. But when she unleashes her sharp tongue, it’s no wonder some consider her to be the very devil. Maria’s frank nature gains her more enemies at her new school, but her angelic singing voice inadvertently catches the attention of Yusuke Kanda and Shin Meguro.

The Earl and the Fairy, Vol. 1 by Ayuko and Mizue Tani (Feb. 7, paper, $9.99, ISBN 978-1-4215-4168-6). Lydia Carlton is a fairy doctor, one of the few people with the ability to see the magical creatures who share our world. During one of her rare trips to London to visit her father, Lydia’s quiet life is transformed when she is rescued from kidnappers by a mysterious young man.

Yen Press

Is This a Zombie?, Vol. 1 by Shinichi Kimura (Mar. 27, paper, $11.99, ISBN 978-0-316-21036-2). Ayumu Aikawa may seem like an ordinary high schooler, but in fact he’s the zombie bodyguard of a dangerous necromancer, and his already complicated existence becomes even more outlandish when he accidentally steals the powers of a magical girl, transforming into one himself.

Soulless: The Manga, Vol. 1 by Gail Carriger (Mar. 1, paper, $12.99, ISBN 978-0-316-18201-0). Gail Carriger’s New York Times bestselling Parasol Protectorate series, a tale of vampires, werewolves, and parasols, comes to life in this steampunk-fueled adaptation.