Trueba and Mariscal (Chico and Rita) reunite for this well-researched yet stiff graphic narrative about a Brazilian jazz musician’s 1976 disappearance. In the framing device, music journalist Jeff Harris heads to Brazil in 2007 to conduct a series of interviews about the Rio de Janeiro jazz scene. He’s particularly enamored of Francisco Tenório Júnior, a pianist instrumental to the 1960s bossa nova sound—and curious why he stopped recording so early in his career. Conversations with jazz legends reveal a disturbing story: Tenório was a victim of a violent military coup in Argentina. The pianist was taken by police in Buenos Aires, then tortured and killed by the military. Trueba’s retelling of Harris’s journey through jazz history is part murder mystery, part who’s-who of the bossa nova scene, and in detailing the violent backdrop of this musical milieu, Trueba shines a light on the intersections of Latin American politics and culture. While Mariscal’s portraits capture a diverse array of jazz musicians, they’re rigidly rendered in an uncanny digital style that doesn’t quite do justice to the vibrancy of the period. Despite those flaws, it’s an intriguing window onto a forgotten chapter of Latin jazz history . (Dec.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

The fantasy worlds of video games and the reality of life in the 21st century collide in this resonant tale of camaraderie and acceptance from Thompson (Hunt for the Skinwalker) and Irrizari (XINO). Dreamwave, a technology that allows users to game as they sleep, brings together a crew of misfit teens battling the monsters of horror game Nightmare Cemetery. But the central protagonist, Birdie, becomes concerned when Pik, her older brother and the eldest of their group, begins to change. He’s always avoided talking about the accident that left Birdie using a wheelchair—and now he’s spending more and more daytime hours asleep and inside the game. When Pik won’t wake up one day, and other friends follow suit, it’s up to Birdie and the remainder of the “cemetery kids” to hunt down the dreaded King of Sleep and heal past wounds, both virtually and in real life. Distinctive character design, particularly the fantastic, shifting dayglow colors, helps this stand out from other teen fantasy series. Younger comics fans will delight in this breezier update to David Cronenberg’s ExistenZ. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Hartzell (Fox Bunny Funny) delivers a sly adaptation of the Adam and Eve creation myth. In an intentionally silly prologue, Hartzell claims this version of the story was documented by a long-lost sect called People of the Eighth Day and, over the centuries, bastardized into a graphic novel: “Outlandish beliefs are in vogue once more, and the visual language may be especially appealing to the emerging post-literate generation.” In Eden, earnest Adam tries to stay in God’s good graces while acerbic Eve focuses on maintaining the status quo. But seeds of doubt are sowed in her by the serpent, who is angry at being punished for questioning God and plots to “Take this garden back!” Meanwhile, a cranky God rattles on like a self-doubting artist, carping to Eve that she just doesn’t match the vision he had in mind, now that she’s cast upon the page of Earth. Hartzell is adept at intricate fantasy landscapes and sophisticated page layouts. His characters exhibit classic human longings and foibles, lending a warm counterbalance to the swirl of conflict. The result is a playful blend of satire and slapstick. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Frequent collaborators Bendis (the Ultimate Spider-Man series) and Maleev (the Daredevil series) craft a labyrinthine revenge caper modeled after a Hollywood-style heist. A biracial teen girl named Masterpiece Lawford (she prefers “Emma”) gets kidnapped from her high school by plutocrat Zero Preston. Years ago, Emma’s parents stole two billion dollars from him in an Ocean’s Eleven–like escapade. Now Preston wants payback and orders Emma to kill his unrequited love, lifestyle guru Katie Roots (a thinly disguised Martha Stewart). Emma’s a sarcastic web cartoonist on a skateboard, yet she remains curiously dull as a protagonist. The dialogue is glib and smart-alecky, trademark Bendis but interchangeable among speakers. Luckily, Maleev’s fabulous photorealistic art provides distinctive and emotive features to distinguish what are mostly talking head sequences. Bendis’s narrative unfolds languidly for most of the volume, then abruptly reaches a conclusion involving virtual reality and brain hacking. For Bendis regulars, the results will be satisfying but unsurprising. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Gureishi’s ornate fantasy showcases the cozy charms of iyashikei (“healing”) manga, character-driven stories designed to draw readers into a setting that seems real enough to step into the page. In a Miyazaki-influenced world inhabited by monsters, fairies, animal people, and other fantastical beings, humans have all but vanished, wiped out in a half-forgotten war. But a little girl named Somali survives, and a robotic, emotionless golem leaves his post as a forest guardian to help her find her family. Together they wander forests and fields, learn to survive on the road, and encounter colorful characters in whimsical settings. The history of their world and the fate of humanity are gradually revealed, but this narrative is more about the journey than the destination. Gureishi lavishes detail on the characters’ day-to-day: they fish and forage, encounter beings ranging from antlered rabbits to a talking “false cat,” learn from a forest herbalist how to make medicines, and visit a witches’ library infested with book-eating ghost fish. Though reminiscent of Nagabe’s The Girl from the Other Side, this series, with its lush nature art and creative creature designs, offers enchantments all its own. Fantasy readers will be transported. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

This fantasy, the North American debut from Irish comics writer Moloney, with art by Romero, aims high but falls short of its target. Meabh, once a formidable warrior with the Adventurers’ Guild, now runs an inn and tavern in an out-of-the-way village. Flashbacks gradually reveal the chain of events that led her from narrowly escaping death at the hands of her ruthless former commander, Darius, to building a new life with the help of a kindly innkeeper. In the present day, the guild comes to town, led by Darius, forcing Maebh and her dwarf friend Fergus to face the past. “I already lost one life because of the Guild,” Meabh vows. “I don’t plan on losing another.” Despite outbursts of bloody violence, the script has a subdued tone, focusing on Meabh’s efforts to oust the guild through debate and civic action. The theme of a former warrior struggling to maintain peace has promise, but the narrative doesn’t develop it fully before reaching a rushed climax. Romero’s sketchily inked, workmanlike art excels at establishing the loosely Celtic medieval setting, especially Meabh’s rollicking bar, but he sometimes struggles with faces and expressions—though the eternally smirking Darius is effectively sinister. It’s a mixed bag. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Momoko (the Demon Days series) teams up with Davisson (The Ultimate Guide to Japanese Yokai) to lend the X-Men a pastel jolt of teen-friendly J-horror. At her middle school graduation, Hisako—whom X-fans may already know as Armor—accidentally activates her mutant power: a pink bubble of samurai armor that surrounds her like a force field. In high school, she meets more mutant teens, including Mei, who can control the weather, and Nico, who uses a magnifying glass to focus her psychic powers. (“You’re like a super hero,” Mei reassures Hisako. “That’s so cool.”) Meanwhile, Hisako is stalked by a shadowy figure who haunts her with ghostly visions and the painful memory of a classmate’s suicide. Hisako and her friends investigate this phenomenon and learn about the Children of the Atom, a cult that believes in mutant superiority and is recruiting other young mutants for sinister purposes. Momoko’s loose and inviting watercolor art blends the visual languages of Japanese and American comics. Her talent for spooky imagery transforms the superhero tropes into a tale of supernatural horror, and her lively character art makes the interpersonal conflicts as dynamic as the fight scenes. This fast-paced introduction to an eccentric new team of superteens is perfectly calibrated to draw younger manga readers into Marvel fandom. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Koike (the Heaven’s Door series) brings readers into a dazzling, drugged-out cyberpunk future in the first English language translation of the series widely regarded as his masterpiece. Cub, a stubble-faced junkie who escapes his grimy apartment through daily drug trips, is a typical citizen in a Blade Runner–esque urban landscape where the populace has been medicated into complacency. At “pump bars,” doctors serve up customized drug cocktails that can deliver any desired mental state; those who can’t afford bespoke pharmaceuticals take street drugs with names like Alice and Peter Pan or trip out on cybernetic VR “amps.” “Who in the world isn’t a junkie these days?” Cub shrugs, risking death for a steady high. But even he fears that he’s taken more than he can handle when a walleyed dealer hooks him up with Ultra Heaven, a hallucinogen that shreds Cub’s—and the reader’s—sense of time, space, identity, and reality. Like Akira as envisioned by Philip K. Dick, this manga uses the language and imagery of science fiction to delve into altered states and transcendental expanses. Koike’s hyperrealistic artwork, which renders the futuristic city in obsessive detail, makes his eye-melting depictions of altered states both hypnotic and disorienting. Fans of new wave science fiction, classic underground comics, and psychedelic poster art will want to take this trip. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Trees are like people—they feel and connect, and deserve similar respect—argues conservationist Wohlleben in this earnest graphic primer on the science of forest communities. Skillfully adapted from Wohlleben’s original 2016 treatise by Bernard with watercolor-style art by Flao, the volume is organized by the seasons and combines biographical details and scientific research to explore the “majestic” and “mysterious” forests that humanity’s survival depends on. In Spring, Wohlleben describes the anatomy of trees, demonstrating how forests are advanced super organisms “like the intricate workings of a clock.” Summer finds him diving into trees’ reproductive cycles; Fall tackles parasites, bugs, and invasive species; and Winter underscores the importance of mitigating human interventions. Throughout, the ways that trees communicate with one another is highlighted, as well as how fragile this ecosystem is in the face of climate change. Flao’s brightly colored, loose-lined drawings include textbook-like spotlights on various organisms and profound moments from Wohlleben’s lifelong fascination with forests. In this colorful call to “keep trying to change things for the better,” Wohlleben’s passion for nature is contagious. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 11/15/2024 | Details & Permalink

Dean (I Am Young) immerses readers in sun-drenched, claustrophobic beauty in this compassionate saga about a young woman’s awakening in the 1970s. Greer, a young mixed-race secretary, flies from Pittsburgh to Key West so her married lover (and boss) can get her away from prying eyes before her pregnancy shows. She’s taken in by a born-again Christian couple, Kate and Donald, whose charity comes with judgments, demands, and misguided efforts to line up a shotgun wedding. Meanwhile, Greer clings to the hope of being rescued by one man or another: her distant lover; a coworker she carries a torch for; sympathetic groundskeeper Pablo. But a series of vivid pregnancy dreams about a little girl living in the 1920s, which Greer feels compelled to commit to paper, sets her instead on the path toward self-expression and self-sufficiency. Dean captures the period setting in bold shapes, chunky lines, and a 1970s palette of saturated greens, golds, and mustard yellows. The script unfolds luxuriantly, taking time to soak in the details of island life as Greer reshapes herself. Illuminating universal themes in a tale of well-observed specificities, this dazzles. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 11/15/2024 | Details & Permalink