November is shaping up to be a hell month in an already hellish year. Maybe some of these comics will help offer a distraction from the inevitable shitshow that will be the post-election weeks. Who even knows anymore?
10. Shake Down, 1969
The first run of “The Eternal” was already dark and bleak and cynical, an odd, eerie, intense fable. I don’t know how much harder they’ve planned to push it, especially to appeal to a more “mature readership,” but it’s interesting to see how creators build and grow and expand on their previous works. At times. In times when we’re suffering, sometimes we need to see characters suffering as well. It’s a connection that binds.
The Eternaut 1969
Written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Illustrated by Albert Breccia
Published by FantagraphicsThis is a psychedelically drawn, boldly political retelling of the 1950s graphic novel The Eternaut, whose imagery is still used as a symbol of resistance in Latin America to this day.
In the 1950s, pioneering comics writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld authored the serialized science-fiction adventure story The Eternaut, now a seminal Argentine graphic novel. In 1969, Oesterheld rebooted his narrative as a dark warning for a mature readership; Alberto Breccia manifested the tonal shift with an expressionistic, disorienting art style.
In The Eternaut 1969, a deadly “snow” falls. Juan Salvo’s small household of family and friends are spared, protected inside his home-but what horror awaits them in the silent, deserted streets of Buenos Aires? Venturing out in search of supplies, our everyday heroes soon join the resistance against an enemy far more sinister than anything they could have imagined.
9. Monster in the City
Reza Farazmand takes on some of the themes and motifs he’s explored throughout “Poorly Drawn Lines,” and fashions this story about a small monster in the big city from it. A new adult tale, expect zany antics and deep honesty.
City Monster
Written and Illustrated by Reza Farazmand
Published by Plume BooksFrom New York Times-bestselling author and artist Reza Farazmand, his first graphic novel about a young monster who moves to a big city. City Monster is set in a world of supernatural creatures and follows a young monster who moves to the city. As he struggles to figure out his future, his new life is interrupted by questions about his mysterious roommate, a ghost who can’t remember the past. Joined by their neighbor, a centuries-old vampire named Kim, they explore the city, meeting a series of strange and spooky characters and looking for answers about life, memories, and where to get a good beer.
8. A Single Image, a Thousand Lives
This comic, inspired by a true story, follows a French photographer as he tries to expose Nazi war crimes. Not that exposing Nazi crimes is difficult, per say, but we could chalk it up to the ’40s being a different time. Salva Rubio and Pedro Colombo’s book also serves as a reminder that the Nazis were defeated once, and they can be beaten back again.
The Photographer of Mauthausen
Written by Salva Rubio
Illustrated by Pedro Colombo
Published by Dead ReckoningThis is a dramatic retelling of true events in the life of Francisco Boix, a Spanish press photographer and communist who fled to France at the beginning of World War II. Interned in the notorious Mauthausen camp. Boix befriends an SS photographer and realizes that he has a chance to prove Nazi war crimes.
7. So Bleak It’s Opaque
Herman Oesterheld’s stories are so dark, so grimy, they’re opaque. This sounds like the more cynical, defeated version of a David Mitchell novel, tense and bleak and gut-wrenching. This is an earlier work from Oesterheld and Breccia, though their working relationship already had found its groove. Incidentally, Héctor Germán Oesterheld’s was so political and polarizing, he was disappeared, presumed dead in 1977.
Continued belowMort Cinder
Written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld
Illustrated by Alberto Beccia
Published by FantagraphicsThe great Alberto Breccia, in collaboration with the Argentine writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld (The Eternaut,) present Mort Cinder, a horror story with political overtones that follows the wanderings through time of a man who rises from the grave each time he is killed, bearing witness to the darkest sides of humanity. American comics creators such as Frank Miller (300, Sin City) and Mike Mignola (Hellboy) owe Breccia a great debt; these horror-adventure tales are as thrilling, dread-inducing, and accessible as when they were created a half a century ago.
6. Acid Iranian
In 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour released the dark, moody weird Iranian vampire western, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Now it’s getting a comic treatment from Behemoth, illustrated by Michael DeWeese. If he captures even a fraction of that film’s sensation, this could prove a singular achievement in its own right.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night #1
Written by Ana Lily Amirpour
Illustrated by Michael DeWeese
Published by Behemoth ComicsWritten by the director of the film of the same name rated 96% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, strange things are afoot in Bad City. The Iranian ghost town, home to prostitutes, junkies, pimps and other sordid souls, is a bastion of depravity and hopelessness where a lonely vampire, The Girl, stalks the town’s most unsavory inhabitants.
5. A Giant Job
Giant monsters and complicated capers. I’m not sure about much of the nitty gritty details for this title, except that it’s grabbed my interest. Check out this preview we posted!
Kaiju Score #1
Written by James Patrick
Illustrated by Rem Broo
Published by AfterShock ComicsIt’s the most dangerous heist ever attempted. Four desperate criminals are going all in on a once-in-a-lifetime chance to steal millions in art and turn their miserable lives around. The catch? They have to pull it off under the nose of a one thousand-ton Kaiju. And a giant monster might just be the least of their problems.
Brought to you by James Patrick (Grimm Fairy Tales, Death Comes to Dillinger, The Monsters of Jimmy Crumb) and Rem Broo (The End Times of Bram and Ben, Terminal Protocol), THE KAIJU SCORE is what happens when a Quentin Tarantino film takes place smack in the middle of a Godzilla movie.
4. A New League, The Oldest League
This educational comic is directed toward a younger audience to help introduce feminist concepts in a more accessible manner. The real star here is Mirion Malle, whose work is expressive, impressionistic, and even retro. (Her character designs seem to come straight from ’60s European animation.) Pick this up to explore what feminism means, but keep it around to lose yourself in the pictures.
The League of Super Feminists
Written and Illustrated by Mirion Malle
Published by Drawn & QuarterlyThe League of Super Feminists is an energetic, fierce, and disruptive comic wherein cartoonist Mirion Malle guides young readers through some of the central tenets of feminism. Issues of consent, intersectionality, privilege, inclusivity, body image, and gender identity are demystified in the form of a witty, down-to-earth dialogue. Malle’s insightful and humorous comics effectively transport lofty concepts from the ivory tower to the eternally safer space of open discussion. The League of Super Feminists is an asset to the classroom, library, and household alike.
3. A Mess of Life
Here’s a new comic vying for that coveted “Blue is the Warmest Color” spot. It seems sweet, empathetic, and quietly powerful, an illustrated life-shattering event that passes by in a whisper.
Contradictions
Written and Illustrated by Sophie Yanow
Published by Drawn & QuarterlySophie’s young and queer and into feminist theory. She decides to study abroad, choosing Paris for no firm reason beyond liking French comics. Feeling a bit lonely and out of place, she’s desperate for community and a sense of belonging. An anarchist student-activist committed to veganism and shoplifting, Zena offers Sophie a whole new political ideology that feels electric. Enamored – of Zena, of the idea of living more righteously – Sophie finds herself swept up in a whirlwind friendship that blows her even farther from her rural Californian roots as they embark on a disastrous hitchhiking trip to Amsterdam and Berlin full of couch surfing, drug tripping, and radical book fairs.
2. Bone Full Color
“Bone” is the greatest comic of all time. I think it works best in the original black-and-white, but Steve Hamaker’s colors bring out a richness and depth that enhances the world. They aren’t necessary but remain nevertheless gorgeous. This was originally released for the 20th anniversary and quickly became a collector’s item. Now it’s back and that’s something to notice, even as the 30th anniversary looms ahead.
Continued belowBone: 20th Anniversary One-Volume Color Edition
Written by Jeff Smith
Illustrated by Jeff Smith, Steve Hamaker
Published by Cartoon BooksThe 20th Anniversary Full Color One Volume Collector’s Box Set starts with the most requested Bone item of all time: all 1344 full color pages of Bone in a single volume. This hardcover comes in a beautiful, illustrated red box with a magnetic clasp, filled to the brim with limited collectibles such as a signed and numbered art print, a miniature facsimile of the Bone #1 comic book in b&w, a Bone cover gallery, a new essay by Jeff Smith called “Twenty Years with Bone,” an illustrated timeline, and the award-winning feature length documentary DVD Jeff Smith, BONE, and the Changing Face of Comics.
1. Nightmares in Handfuls of Drops
A crossover I never expected but one that at least makes sense for their respective stories. I will give DC credit, especially within this modern era where it doesn’t matter the integrity of the original because they’re going to reboot it again and again dammit, that Gaiman is still allowed to effectively oversee the Dreaming. It’ll also be interesting to see how Gabriel Rodriguez handles this universe because, for as wild and weird “Locke & Key” was, it was on a different wild and weird wavelength than “Sandman.”
The Sandman Universe /Locke & Key: Hell and Back #1
Written by Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez
Published by IDW PublishingIf you think you can unlock the gates of Hell and just invite yourself in, you must be Dreaming!
The epic crossover between two of the most beloved fantasy universes in comics begins here. John “Jack” Locke is ten years dead, but that hasn’t stopped him from posting the occasional letter home… from Hell. Now Mary Locke will do anything to save her brother’s soul, including cut a deal with Roderick Burgess-the most evil man in England-to search for answers in the House of Mystery and risk the walking nightmare known as the Corinthian to find help in a disintegrating Kingdom of Dreams!
Well, that was fun. Let me know what you’re excited for in the comments!
