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Soliciting Multiversity: The Best of the Rest for April 2022

By | February 4th, 2022
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Comics are a vast and diverse medium. We’ve looked at offerings from DC, Marvel, Image, and manga publishers, so now it’s time to look at everything else slated to come out April 2022. It’s the Best of the Rest!


0. The Fool

Cover by Valentine Barker

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of queer coming-of-age stories offered to us. The books, movies, TV, and comics that receive the most exposure tend to be coming-of-age narratives. While “The Airless Year” fits into this subgenre, its story revolves around a young Black girl in middle school, one of those times where it’s most difficult to figure out who you are or what you’re doing. It’s important for kids to see themselves in the media they consume, and each story that features someone who resembles them is needed. (Although I do hope Knave and Barker approach the material with sensitivity and knowledge, since neither of them are queer Black women.)

Airless Year
Written by Adam P. Knave
Illustrated by Valentine Barker
Published by Dark Horse Comics

For Kacee, a queer Black girl in middle school, everything feels like a struggle. When she fails a class as a result of her stress and ends up in summer school, she starts to wonder why she even bothers trying-and ultimately begins to discover her own power to improve the things in her life she can control, and try to let go of what she can’t.

From writer Adam P. Knave (The Once and Future Queen) and artist Valentine Barker, with letters by Frank Cvetkovic (Punch-Up), The Airless Year is a story of self-discovery and empowerment about taking control where you can, and learning to let the rest go.

XVII. The Star

Cover by Aimee De Jongh

Based on a true story, Duth cartoonist Aimee De Jongh spins the story of an American photographer covering the Dust Bowl in the 30s. It’s an ambitious book with a difficult subject matter, told with charged emotions. Already a bestseller in the Netherlands and France, “Days of Sand” receives an English translation through Selfmadehero. Also, check out the research De Jongh did for the story on her website.

Days of Sand
Written and Illustrated by Aimee De Jongh
Published by Selfmadehero

A moving and unforgettable tale, inspired by real-life stories of courage and perseverance during the Dust Bowl of 1930s America.

United States, 1937. In the middle of the Great Depression, 22-year-old photographer John Clark is brought in by the Farm Security Administration to document the calamitous conditions of the Dust Bowl in the central and southern states, in order to bring the farmers’ plight to the public eye. When he starts working through his shooting script, however, he finds his subjects to be unreceptive. What good are a couple of photos against relentless and deadly dust storms? The more he shoots, the more John discovers the awful extent of their struggles, and comes to question his own role and responsibilities in this tragedy sweeping through the center of the country.

IV of Pentacles

Cover by Amanda Castillo

Look, I’m a sucker for a good adventure comic. And if this one has a fraction of the energy, verve, and excitement its cover promises, then I’m sure it will be a delight.

Mapmakers and the Lost Magic
Written by Cameron Chittock
Illustrated by Amanda Castillo
Published by Random House Graphic

A young girl finds herself faced with an impossible choice-run away from her beloved valley, or unleash a hidden magic and become a Mapmaker to save her home from its new overlords.

For centuries, the Mapmakers kept peace in the Valley, but they’ve long since disappeared. Now the Night Coats hold power with an iron grip-there are only rules, punishments, and consequences. Until one night, on the run from the Night Coats (again), after breaking another rule (again), Alidade stumbles upon a secret door leading to a magical hideaway that belongs to the Mapmakers. There, she finds a map of her home, and accidentally brings to life Blue, a magical creature called a memri who is meant to protect the Valley. Blue needs Alidade’s help to find the Mapmakers and save the Valley from the Night Coats!

But the Mapmakers are long gone.

Alidade has a choice: leave the Valley like she’s always wanted…or become a Mapmaker and save the only home she’s ever known.

Continued below

VI of Cups

Cover by Kat Fajardo

Another book for middle grade audiences. Fajardo’s style features the best hallmarks of animation, from the fluid gestures to the distinct silhouettes to the vibrant color palettes. It lends itself well to a ceremony full of energy, ritual, and crazy characters. Graphix is also simultaneously releasing this title in Spanish.

Miss Quinces
Written and Illustrated by Kat Fajardo
Published by Graphix

Rising star Kat Fajardo’s debut middle-grade graphic novel about a girl who would rather do anything other than celebrate her quinceañera! A funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about navigating the expectations of family and cultural tradition.

Sue just wants to spend the summer reading and making comics at sleepaway camp with her friends, but instead she gets stuck going to Honduras to visit relatives with her parents and two sisters. They live way out in the country, which means no texting, no cable, and no Internet! The trip takes a turn for the worse when Sue’s mother announces that they’ll be having a surprise quinceañera for Sue, which is the last thing she wants. She can’t imagine wearing a big, floofy, colorful dress! What is Sue going to do? And how will she survive all this “quality” time with her rambunctious family?

Miss Quinces is the first graphic novel published by Scholastic/Graphix to be
simultaneously released in English and Spanish editions!

XIX. The Sun

Cover by Mady G

For thirteen years, Matt Bors’s online comics magazine has released a slew of innovative and challenging comics. In their latest book, Inkwell collects a series of pieces revolving around food. Food production, culture, travel, it’s all in here, in wonderfully illustrated interstitials.

Nib Food
Written and Illustrated by Various
Published by Inkwell Comics

The Nib explores food from around the world with an ode to the rice cooker, slavery in the supply chain, community fridges, food allergy disasters, organizing workers, and more. Featuring 30 cartoonists including Sage Coffey, Lucy Knisely, Rosa Col n, Max Loh and Noah Van Sciver.

XVII. The Moon

Cover by Inio Asano

Horror from Inio Asano. Asano is a maximalist, and his panels writhe with detail and atmosphere. His sense of space, of frame, of image, of the page make the experience of reading these comics resonate, echo in your imagination. Expect this to be bonkers, expect this to be bananas. Because that’s what we want out of horror manga.

Nijigahara Holograph
Written and Illustrated by Inio Asano
Published by Fantagraphics

Eisner award nominee Inio Asano (Solanin) enters Lynch-ian territory with this small-town horror story involving murder, subterranean creatures and, perhaps, the end of the world. Rendered in the traditional Manga style, Asano’s crisp and detailed panels are a welcome addition to Fantagraphic’s expanding literary Manga line.

King of Cups

Ignatz nominee Rumi Hara brings together a collection of neo-Americana stories. Hara’s illustrations carry so much life in every frame and have more imagination than the page can hold. Her colors, usually watercolors, are sharp and efficient, a world that you wish you could live in. Everything points to this being a cool book.

The Peanutbutter Sisters and Other American Stories
Written and Illustrated by Rumi Hara
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

The Peanutbutter Sisters is a glorious balance of contradictions, at once escapism and realism, science fiction and slice of life. Two students explore the urban landscape while following Newton Creek, the polluted Queens-Brooklyn border. As they do, they plan a traditional Japanese play with contemporary pop culture. Another story features an intergalactic race of all living things set in the year 2099 and is a dazzling treatise on the environment and journalism. Hara’s innate control of the comics language is refreshingly unrivaled.

II of Pentacles

Cover by Ivan Sharvin

Steve Orlando is usually good for a solid read and Ivan Sharvin’s compositions tend to be that kind of wild that sucks you in. If for nothing else, Heavy Metal’s the place where their imaginations can run wild, and I hope Orlando and Shavrin release whatever crazy they have on the page. This is a miniseries.

Continued below

Starward #1
Written by Steve Orlando
Illustrated by Ivan Shavrin
Published by Heavy Metal Magazine

Stephanie Cohen’s life is all going according to plan. The only problem is…the plan isn’t hers! She’s crushing it at college, but her fast track to a medical degree is something her parents decided for her, seemingly at birth. Stephanie was never consulted on her own life. So, now she’s drowning in pre-med when she’d rather be studying classics, folklore, and mythology. But on the eve of her twentieth birthday, as Stephanie prepares to stare into her own personal summer abyss for yet another day…she gets a gift unlike any she could possibly expect.

XII. The Hanged Man

Cover by Jake Wyatt

Destined to be a fantasy favorite. Jake Wyatt’s work has featured rich characters and fascinating locations. Mona Choo’s art is dynamic and odd. Their combined talents ought to render the world created in “The Well,” a sort of fractured fairy tale, one that echoes.

The Well
Written by Jake Wyatt
Illustrated by Choo
Published by First Second Books

In The Well, Jake Wyatt and Choo have created a modern fable that explores the power-and limits-of wishes.

Li-Zhen’s life on the archipelago is simple. Known to friends and family as Lizzy, she takes care of her grandfather and their goats, she flirts with the woman who helps row the ferry, and she stays away from the fog that comes in the night-and the monsters hiding within it.

But Lizzy’s life comes apart when she steals a handful of coins from a sacred well to cover a debt. The well requires repayment, but it doesn’t deal in coins. It needs wishes, and its minions will drown Lizzy in its depths if she doesn’t grant them. Lizzy finds herself on a quest to uncover hidden memories, bestow great wealth, and face the magical secrets that nearly destroyed her family-and are now returning to threaten everything she has ever known.

Ace of Pentacles

Cover by Ed Luce

What else is there to say about “Wuvable Oaf”? If you read the first one, you’re bristling with anticipation for the sequel. (Fantagraphics is also putting out the first volume again, too.) If you missed it the first time around, you’re missing out on a goofy, hysterical, taboo-busting romp. Yes, yes. It’s wuvable.

Wuvable Oaf: Blood & Metal
Written and Illustrated by Ed Luce
Published by Fantagraphics

Following the wildly popular Wuvable Oaf debut comes this full-color sequel! Blood and Metal collects a number of Oaf short stories celebrating Ed Luce’s love of all things wrestling/metal/queercore to create an immersive environment recalling Scott Pilgrim, Love and Rockets, and Archie. Also featuring tales of Oaf’s formative childhood years, and much more.


O.K., that’s all from me. Let us know what you’re excited about in the comments.


//TAGS | Soliciting Multiversity

Matthew Garcia

Matt hails from Colorado. He can be found on Twitter as @MattSG.

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