Cartoonist Maxwell (Phantom Hearts) gives Aciman’s 2007 novel a lush, throwback, and ultra-romantic graphic treatment. In 1980s Italy, 17-year-old Elio welcomes Oliver, his professor father’s houseguest, who is working for the summer as a research assistant while studying for his PhD. Elio is immediately attracted to the handsome student but put off by what he takes to be Oliver’s standoffish attitude. (In particular, his habit of saying “Later” as goodbye, which to Elio sounds as if he “may not care to see or hear from you again.”) The apparent disinterest fuels Elio’s secret obsession. Eventually, both shed their protective shields, and they hook up—the scenes of pulling each other’s clothes “off, and off, and off, and off” are explicitly drawn with “tug,” “kiss,” and “blush.” They go on to form true intimacy, but Elio knows their romantic idyll must end with the summer: “I knew that our minutes were numbered, but I didn’t care to count them.” Maxwell’s visuals emphasize the sun-drenched, beguilingly sensual atmosphere. Her Elio and Oliver look like male leads from vintage romance comics, leaning more cheesecake than relatable, which readers of the novel may find less of a problem with Oliver than with Elio. Still. the story’s heady explorations of desire, passion, and heartbreak remain potent. This offers full-color escapism. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

The enlightening English-language debut from French cartoonist Lubie (A Fox in my Brain) takes on ethnic identity and beauty norms with passion and vulnerability. Rose, a biracial girl, lives on Réunion Island near Madagascar with her parents and brothers. She loathes her “hideous, unruly mane” and envies the popular “zoreil” (mainland French immigrant) girls at school. Intense bullying by classmates (“Did you do your hair with a firecracker?”) leads Rose to brutally cut her locks, which her mother then shaves off. The extreme style incites a retrospective journey through Rose’s anxiety-riddled collegiate years in Paris, where she finds “a woman’s appearance is a constant subject of unnecessary commentary” as she wears weaves, relaxers, and braids. Cheeky infographics and testimonials intercut the rounded, expressive and classically cartoony comics that show manga influences, drawn in appealing earth tones. The factoids—detailing the percentage differences in the gender-based prices of haircuts, or the exploitation supporting the global beauty industry—underscore gut-punching emotional revelations. The research interrupts the flow a touch too often, but comedic visual beats enliven the stuttering pace and showcase Lubie’s fondness for expressive anime flourishes. Rose’s self-acceptance arrives in a heartfelt full-circle moment that affirms those who’ve wrestled with their own complex heritage. This is for fans of Ebony Flowers’s Hot Comb and the graphic edition of Stamped from the Beginning. (May)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Phang (Erased) joins up with fine artist Bachelier to take readers on a sunny ramble through fashion history. In a loose frame narrative, Yves Saint Laurent and his longtime friend and muse, Betty Catroux, wander the streets of New York City in the 1960s, looking for a restaurant that will admit Betty even though she’s wearing—quelle horreur!—trousers. Yves has just developed Le Smoking, his groundbreaking tuxedo suit for women, and makes grandiose pronouncements like “Pockets can be so powerful” and “A woman in black is a pencil stroke.” Cameos are aplenty, as Coco Chanel, Candy Darling, George Sand, and Andy Warhol join the pair to discuss the role of fashion in gender identity, politics, religion, law, warfare, and more. The narrative is primarily concerned with the ideas driving Saint Laurent, but dips occasionally into the material of a traditional biography, touching on his background and visiting his atelier. Bachelier switches up his art style to suit the subject and mood of each scene, often using loose, fine-lined drawings that suggest fashion design sketches. The characters saunter through collages of line art, color daubs, swaths of thick black brushwork, and photorealistic backgrounds varied with impressionistic scenes suggestive of mood boards. It’s a smart, unconventional portrait of an artist, with enough style to do its subject justice. (May)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misidentified the setting of the frame narrative.

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Yudori follows Raging Clouds with a lushly drawn, subtly observed love story set in occupied 1920s Korea. Jun Seomoon, the son of impoverished nobles, stoically works off his family’s debt to a nouveau riche department store owner. This requires living under the same roof as the wealthy commoner’s headstrong daughter, Arisa Jo, “the girl with the slimmest eyebrows” at their school. The two teenagers grow up in a world of rapid change, as Korea is torn by harsh Japanese colonial rule and the seduction of Western culture. Arisa embraces the future and chafes against old-fashioned expectations for Korean women, while Seomoon quails at his first escalator ride (“The stairs are moving!!!”), flinches at an on-screen movie kiss, and is appalled when he’s served steak Western-style: “Just a chunk of meat? What is this savagery?!” Seomoon is determined not to fall for the charms of a “modern girl” and tries to to take Arisa down a peg, criticizing her trendy taste for French novels and Japanese food, but she gives back as good as she gets, and the two grow closer in spite of themselves. Yudori’s stunning art has the retro appeal of 1920s East Asian pulp illustration combined with the elegance of classic printmaking. In softly glowing organic colors and decorative layouts framed by flowers and art nouveau patterns, she draws meticulous historical details, such as the journey a block of tofu takes from a street vendor to a lunch box. Fans of Pachinko will sink with pleasure into this opposites-attract romance. (June)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Loke (Sound) and Chikiamco present an intriguing but scattershot collection of short comics by Southeast Asian creators, including work from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. Highlights include “Syncopation” by Aime Marisa and Bonnibel Rambatan, about two refugee girls who share a love of dance while waiting for Malaysian citizenship; “The Other World,” in which Cathlyn Vania visualizes the problems of daydreaming through imaginative patchwork paneling; and the lushly illustrated “Delayed” by Peter Lin and Angela Wu, which revisits a grandmother’s past as a glamorous Singapore Superjet flight attendant. Other pieces are less polished or less clearly connected to the theme. While Loke’s previous volume in the publisher’s series of themed anthologies delivered canny depictions of “sound” in comics, the challenge of showing “delay” here seems less inspiring. One clever exception is Paati Philosophy’s “Fish Curry Tastes Better the Next Day,” which demonstrates the power of patience through a slow cooking recipe. “There’s room and space for the occupants of the pot and the house to breathe,” Philosophy explains as characters drift on a rowboat through a giant curry pot. The black-and-white printing showcases a range of artistic styles and the breadth of Southeast Asian comics talent, but only a few entries stand out as exceptional. Still, curious readers with time to pause and peruse will find some treasures. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

The aftermath of one woman’s real-life quest for freedom is rendered in stark black charcoal in this haunting historical account by D’Salete (Run for It). In 1866 in São Paulo, Tiodora da Cunha Dias is enslaved by the priest Canon Terra. Long separated from her husband, Luís, and son, Inocêncio, Tio calls on the help of Claro, one of the few enslaved people in the city who can write. Claro crafts letters to Luís in Campinas, pleading with him to “scrape together” enough money to buy Tio’s freedom. The journey of one such missive as it passes from hand to hand illuminates the social and political backdrop, including a growing resistance movement. After missing a cattle drover who was scheduled to carry the request to Luís, a young boy named Benê vows to take the letter himself. Along the way, he encounters a violent white boy, people generous with food and wisdom, and Inocêncio, Tio’s son, now serving as an overseer on a coffee plantation—where Benê is captured and held by men with guns. Inocêncio takes pity and helps Benê escape back to Tio. Back matter includes period photos and research notes and references; while some elements of the narrative are fictionalized, Tio and Claro’s core story is true. Simply told but powerful, it’s an evocative work. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

Gomont’s kinetic and assured English-language debut captures the Wild West atmosphere of northern Russia in the post-Communist 1990s. Slava and Lavrin loot abandoned Soviet estates, scavenging artworks, chandeliers, and other remnants of the old regime to peddle to the newly affluent. Lavrin is a born hustler, but this is only a gig for Slava, a lapsed painter demoralized by the “petty gatekeepers of good taste.” After a violent run-in with rival looters, they’re rescued by Nina, a sharpshooter squatting with her bear of a father in a deserted mansion. Through her, the pair stumble into a campaign to save the mine where Nina works from a shady investor whose “restructuring” proposals barely paper over his intention to strip the mine for parts. Slava throws himself into the cause—and into charcoal sketches of Nina in the nude—but Lavrin sees the makings of another score. As the pair’s paths diverge, Gomont’s canvas widens to capture the era’s profiteering, worker marginalization, and industrial collapse. Brushy, gestural cartooning maintains a brisk pace, while the text smuggles in an elegiac, almost Zweigian lilt. It’s an action-packed tale that explores the limits of loyalty when everything is up for sale. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

The sweeping English-language debut from Chinese creator Xiaoyu brings the florid, raucous spirit of Peking opera, with a touch of Frankenstein, to the comics page. In war-torn 1930s Yangtze, Western-educated scientist Fan Zhihuai toils away at the creation of a robot/puppet duplicate of his lost love, Mingfeng. He earns his keep at a streetside theater, where the artificial Mingfeng becomes a star dancer and performs so well that audiences think she’s human. But Feng’s creation attracts troublemakers, too, including a gang of foulmouthed street kids, a crime syndicate whose boss falls for the faux Mingfeng, and a cocky American soldier. The theater itself houses many more characters, with its bustling backstage of actors, musicians, acrobats, and impresarios. Soon the cast is dealing with murder and a missing head, and the plot has reached an operatic pitch even before the real Mingfeng shows up. Xiaoyu’s ink-washed black-and-white art evokes the period setting with equal parts elegance, drama, and earthy humor. He works in marvelous period details, like the vendors selling peanut candy in the theater, and the story has the scope and spirit of opera: characters recite poetry, break into song, and invoke classic Chinese folk characters like the Monkey King or Green Serpent and White Serpent. Replete with action, melodrama, music, martial arts, and even science fiction, this show entertains in high style. Readers will be transported. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

With gore caking its grill and devil’s blood boiling in the tank, the heaven-sent 18-wheeler starring in musician Malone’s antic and enthusiastically lowbrow metal-as-metal-gets comics debut mows down demon hordes in a besieged medieval Europe. It’s driven by a holy roller sporting scraggly sideburns, a trucker’s cap, and a tragic backstory. Known now only as Trucker (formerly John), the driver antihero hails from a Templar order that somehow boasts a working-class road-warrior division. How exactly Trucker goes from excommunicated priest to ramming this war-truck packed with 21st-century weapons into fiends outside walled cities is not immediately explained. The script surges along through the end-of-days action, inviting readers to roll with it. While the creators make a minor mystery out of their conceit, the focus remains on the mayhem at present. Artist Gooden (Barbaric) excels at toothy beasts, vehicular mayhem, and the pleasures of a winsome Viking witch greeting the demonic host with a chainsaw (“Come get some, you maggot-hearted filth!”). There are promising characterizations within the ensemble that forms around Trucker—and in their tense confrontations with hell’s princes and generals. The episodic storytelling loses some momentum in late chapters. Still, readers who light up at the thought of a rig crashing into Lucifer will relish the frenzy. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

This creepy-cute collection introduces English readers to Naono, a cult favorite artist of horror manga originally published in 1970s Japanese girls’ magazines. The volume’s gruesome material arises from the conflicts and petty jealousies of children’s everyday lives—gone melodramatically awry. In “Whose Child Is Mariko?” a little girl envies her new baby brother enough to kill him; in “Wool Pants,” a boy goes to murderous extremes to avoid the embarrassment of wearing his grandma’s hand-knitted clothes to school; in “Our First Family Trip,” a masterpiece of tension escalating to histrionics, a girl is driven to distraction worrying about whether she turned off the iron before leaving for vacation. Many of the stories revolve around guilt, revenge, and protagonists doing horrible things only to realize, too late, that they misunderstood a crucial detail. Naono’s beguiling, comical artwork—characters mug for the camera and get into Looney Tunes–type dust-cloud fights—contrasts the psychologically unbalanced plots. Her doe-eyed, doll-like characters slide through fluid backdrops that turn shadowy and sinister. Included on the title pages is the delightfully over-the-top magazine promo text: “Prepare for your soul to be seized and never let go!” Horror fans and shojo manga fans alike will want to seek out Naono’s strange delights. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink