Now that we’ve looked at May 2021 offerings from DC, Marvel, Image, and manga publishers, it’s time to check out some stuff coming from literally everywhere else! May brings another Mignolaverse story, some fun-looking all ages titles, and plenty of esoteric and oddball stuff that make this medium so enduring.
10. Mignoltropy
I’m always happy to see Leila del Duca getting major work.
The House of Lost Horizons #1
Written by Chris Roberson
Illustrated by Leila del Duca
Published by Dark HorseA locked-room murder mystery puzzles paranormal detective Sarah Jewell and her associate Marie Therése when a weekend trip on a private island off the coast of Washington goes astray. Trapped by a storm and surrounded by myriad suspects who have gathered for an auction of occult items, the intrepid duo must unravel the supernatural mysteries surrounding the guests in hopes of uncovering the murderer! But all the while, bodies keep piling up, and at any moment Sarah or Marie Therése could be next!
Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson return to the world of Hellboy, accompanied by artist Leila del Duca and colorist Michelle Madsen.
Investigator Sarah Jewell (Rise of the Black Flame, Witchfinder: The Reign of Darkness) gets her own series in this murder mystery with an occult twist.
9. Boiling Cauldrons
Steve Orlando teams up with Oliva Pelaez for this magical urban adventure involving food and unorthodox kitchen designs. It’s like Labyrinth and “Hilda,” but with recipes.
The Kitchen Witch
Written by Steve Orlando
Illustrated by Olivia Pelaez
Published by 215 InkA Manhattan kitchen’s geography becomes a fantasy landscape. Hanging pots become floating iron islands, grills become steaming ore fields – a new Narnia garnished with culinary flourishes. The Kitchen Witch is for every boy who idolizes his dad. The night before the opening of his dad’s new restaurant, Kevin sneaks down to the kitchen and enters the fantastic world within its walls. There, the Gremlin Lord has stolen his secret family ingredient. To get it back, Kevin and Lovis, the Kitchen Witch, battle their way through towering mouse beasts, bacteria bandits, and fruit flywaymen. This is the distillation of childhood, when the fantastic still waits around any corner, combining Scandinavian folklore with raw childhood imagination and emotion.
8. Her Bodies and Other Stories
Several feminist artists come together to create this introspective, expressionistic collection. There are some talented cartoonists at work here and they have definitely brought something meaningful and insightful with them.
Embodied
Written by Wendy Chin-Tanner, Maggie Smith, JP Howard, and Others
Illustrated by Jen Hickman, Liana Kangas, Morgan Beem, and Others
Published by A Wave Blue World, Inc.Mystical, rooted, painful, joyous, and ecstatic; visions of the body, our genders, and our very identities from across the spectrum of contemporary poetry come together in this monumental intersectional feminist anthology where verse and comics unite in spectacular new ways. Beautifully illustrated and bracingly written, Embodied is a memorable collaboration between cis female, trans, and non-binary poets and comics artists showcasing the power of both forms.
7. Black Holes and Revelations
It’s Italian cartoonist Lorenzo Colangeli who grabbed my attention here. His work is abstract and shapely, filled with imagination and motion. I don’t know what energy he’s bringing to this book, or if it will resemble Sweeney Boo’s cover in any way, but I think it’ll be exciting to find out.
Becstar #1
Written by Joe Corallo
Illustrated by Lorenzo Colangeli
Published by Mad Cave StudiosBecstar is a star hopping mercenary-gone-full time-gambler light years away from Earth. Leaving her old life behind with the help of her magical luck dagger and her fan-turned-regret filled-friend Sally Soolin, Becstar ekes out a living under the nefarious Shadow Syndicate’s radar. But when a mysterious girl appears with grim news and an urgent quest where the fate of the universe hangs in the balance, Becstar has no choice but to join… and regret it immediately.
6. Black History is Our History
Continued below
This docu-comic from Alverne Ball and Stacey Robinson explores one of the most egregious tragedies to fall on a vibrant and flourishing Black community, committed in the name of White Supremacy. There’s no way this can be a comfortable read, but it’s undoubtedly an important read, one that hopefully pushes us further into trying to bring justice, real tangible justice, to this world.
Across the Tracks
Written by Alverne Ball
Illustrated by Stacey Robinson
Published by Abram Comicarts/MegascopeIn “Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre,” author Alverne Ball and illustrator Stacey Robinson have crafted a love letter to Greenwood, Oklahoma. Also known as Black Wall Street, Greenwood was a community whose importance is often overshadowed by the atrocious massacre that took place there in 1921. We learn about Greenwood and why it is essential to remember the great achievements of the community as well as the tragedy which nearly erased it. With additional supplementary materials including a detailed preface, timeline, and historical essay, Across the Tracks offers a thorough examination of the rise, fall, and rebirth of Black Wall Street.
5. Bad Houses
Carla Speed McNeil is a treasure of comics.
Bad Houses
Written by Sara Ryan
Illustrated by Carla Speed McNeil
Published by Dark HorseLives intersect in the most unexpected ways when teenagers Anne and Lewis cross paths at an estate sale in sleepy Failin, Oregon. Failin was once a thriving logging community. Now the town’s businesses are crumbling, its citizens bitter and disaffected. Anne and Lewis refuse to succumb to the fate of the older generation as they discover-together-the secrets of their hometown and their own families.
4. Contact!
Claudio Avella has proven a versatile and long-reaching cartoonist, producing works of varying maturity levels, but always with a sense of style. It sounds like he’s throwing everything he can into “Junky Cable,” and it’ll end up collapsing under its own narrative weight or just be the crazy fun you need.
Junky Cable #1
Written and Illustrated by Claudio Avella
Published by BehemothYear 29XX: Allister, the death surgeon and Cheap, the code thief, are two criminals and lovers out searching for their step daughter Siri. Their journey begins in the bounty city Nibel and will stretch to industrial city New Okinawa, and along this journey they will encounter numerous enemies, trials, cyborgs and nutcases, while a mysterious enemy emerges from the past to hunt them down.
3. See You Space Cowboys
I have to credit Alex de Campo for always teaming up with exciting artists. Eduardo Ocaña grew up in a culture that values comics and it shows in his work. De Campi’s direction almost always leads to intense, brutal stories. This intergalactic chase adventure will be sure to provide plenty of opportunities for that.
Full Tilt Boogie
Written by Alex de Campi
Illustrated by Eduardo Ocaña
Published by Rebellion/2000ADTee, along with her grandmother and cat, is a wannabe bounty hunter, odd-jobbing across the galaxy in her ship, the Full Tilt Boogie, constantly on the lookout for the bigger, better payday. Some days, though, it’s less bounty-hunting and more baby-sitting, especially when they rescue the narcissistic Prince Ifan from Debtor’s Prison. Accidentally sparking an intergalactic war, suddenly Tee finds herself chased across the universe by sacred knights and unstoppable undead warriors. Planet conquering, prince rescuing, and ramen eating – it’s all in a day’s work!
2. Big Machines
One part Fallout, one part “Kamandi,” and another part “Nausicaä,” Victor LaValle and Jo Mi-Gyeong’s post-apocolyptic romp makes for a desperate plea toward salvation. Mi-Gyeong’s work is clear and concise, cel-ready and flexible. And anyone who’s ever read Victor LaValle knows how much control and insight he brings to all his projects.
Continued belowEve #1
Written by Victor LaValle
Illustrated by Jo Mi-Gyeong
Published by BOOM! StudiosWhen the ice caps melted, most of humanity was lost to the hidden disease that was released.
Now, a mysterious girl named Eve has awoken in secret and must deal with a world that’s nothing like the virtual reality she was raised in.
In order to save her real father, Eve must embark on a deadly quest across the country, but she has no idea of the threats that await her – or the price she will pay to restore life to a dying planet…
1. The New McKean
We always think we know what to expect from a Dave McKean comic, but the celebrated cartoonist has made a career out of constantly surprising us. Now, Neil Gaiman’s best illustrator returns with a brand new comic, about a man who jumps back and forth between two different timelines in two different realities. Expect it to be full of striking visuals to fit its inevitably deranged story as McKean pushes and presses against this medium.
Raptor
Written and Illustrated by Dave McKean
Published by Dark horseA visual tour-de-force graphic novel from artist and writer Dave McKean (Black Dog, The Sandman).
The Raptor, Sokol, flickers between two worlds: a feudal fantastical landscape where he must hunt prey to survive, and Wales in the late 1800s where a writer of supernatural tales mourns the passing of his young wife. He exists between two states, the human and the hawk. He lives in the twilight between truth and lies, life and death, reality and the imagination.
World Fantasy, Harvey, British Science Fiction Association, and V+A Book Award winner Dave McKean’s first creator-owned character is a wandering spirit for our times.
All right, that’s it for this month. Let us know what you’re excited about in the comments below!
