7 new graphic novels to get you through the coronavirus crisis

Drew And Jot: Dueling Doodles (Boom! Studios)

A lot of parents forced to work from home are panicking about how to keep their kids busy, and Art Baltazar’s graphic novel gives children ideas on how to take their drawing and coloring game to the next level. Baltazar’s work on books like Tiny Titans and Superman Family Adventures is all about offering kid-friendly takes on superheroes with an art style that is easy for readers to replicate at home, and he takes this idea even further as he tells a story involving a group of kids creating and sharing their own superhero characters. In Drew And Jot, two young boys build their own universe of costumed crusaders and villains, which is massively disrupted when a little sister gets involved and brings her own chaotic ideas into the mix. The book alternates between scenes in the real world and on the page, a distinction Baltazar makes very clear because the doodle pages overflow with visual stimuli. Anything goes when it comes to the kids’ artwork; they work on pages made from crumpled pieces of paper and bubble wrap, frantically apply vibrant colors, and enthusiastically draw outside of the panel borders. Baltazar shows young readers that they are free to follow any creative impulses on the page, and he does it by giving kids what they really want: superheroes fighting a giant monster made of poop.

Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence (Oni)

“I got myself together.” Joel Christian Gill repeats variations of this phrase over and over in his graphic memoir about how violence shaped his upbringing. Broken apart by the verbal and physical abuse he both witnesses and suffers, the young Joel pulls those pieces back together in order to survive. A gentle, creative boy becomes hard and confrontational in the process, but Gill’s story is ultimately one of empathy and recognizing the pain that drives others to lash out. Fights features a cartoonish style that allows for exaggerated expression, but the narrative is very much grounded in reality as it deals with domestic abuse, sexual assault, racism, and gang violence. Gill creates a visual shorthand for emotional beats with symbolic imagery: A little candle flame appears over Joel’s head when he feels resentment and anger, and that flame reappears over other characters later in the book to quickly establish antagonistic relationships. We see Joel submerged in water when he talks about the drowning feeling he gets when he’s overcome with aggression, and that image repeats with a new subject when Joel’s friend-turned-rival goes into attack mode. Fights builds to a twist that shows just how catastrophic this internalized violence can be when it’s fully unleashed, but in recounting these tragic moments, Gill achieves catharsis that ends the book on a hopeful note.

Glass Town: The Imaginary World Of The Brontës (Abrams)

Isabel Greenberg is a cartoonist fascinated by storytelling and how it shapes both individuals and the world. Her latest graphic novel continues exploring this theme through the lens of historical fiction, imagining the circumstances surrounding the development and destruction of the fantasy world the young Brontë siblings created after the sudden deaths of their older sisters. Greenberg pulls Glass Town and its characters directly from the Brontës’ juvenilia, giving readers a look into the early creativity of an iconic literary family with a playful visual style that captures the Brontës’ enthusiasm as they discover what fiction can do. Glass Town is also a character study of Charlotte Brontë, the last surviving sibling, and Greenberg frames the story with conversations between Charlotte and Charles Wellesley, her primary character in Glass Town. Through Charlotte, Greenberg delves into the dangers of losing yourself in an escapist world. Fictional characters become obsessions that threaten Charlotte’s relationships with her siblings, and in order to be a better sister, she needs to bring herself back to reality. Variations on the characters introduced in Glass Town would reappear in the novels that made the Brontë sisters famous, and this graphic novel inventively weaves the fictional narratives of the young siblings with their own family drama to show how both elements inform their later works.

The Golden Age: Book One (First Second)

Instead of binge-watching Game Of Thrones one more time, journey to a new medieval fantasy land with The Golden Age, a magnificent story of palace intrigue and social uprising by Cyril Pedrosa and co-writer Roxanne Moreil. When Princess Tilde’s ascent to the throne is violently interrupted, she goes on the run with two companions and discovers a new future for herself, one tied to a magical book with the potential to change the world. Pedrosa and Moreil introduce a compelling royal lead who doesn’t fully fit the hero mold, and there’s a lot of internal and external conflict that arises as Tilde negotiates her privileged past with what’s expected of her as a revolutionary leader. But the real magic here is the artwork. The Golden Age is so gorgeous you might need to set it down to catch your breath at regular intervals, and First Second gives it the oversized hardcover treatment so that readers can experience the full splendor of Pedrosa’s artwork. A student of Paris’ prestigious Gobelins animation school who went on to work on Disney’s The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and Hercules, Pedrosa is a master of character and environmental design. He creates a cast that radiates personality and sprawling settings that force the reader to slow down and take in the detailed linework and lush colors, but also incorporates abstract visuals that are less common in mainstream animation. Every page gives readers something to pore over, and if you can’t leave the house, at least you can get lost in Pedrosa’s art.

Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt (Dynamite)

We should have predicted how rough 2020 would get given the resurgence of Watchmen as a cultural force in 2019. HBO had a huge hit in its Watchmen TV show, expanding on the work of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons with an all-star cast and a pull-no-punches story that made these concepts especially relevant to modern America. While DC was slowly putting out issues of the much-delayed Doomsday Clock miniseries, Dynamite used its Peter “Thunderbolt” Cannon license to offer a very meta look at Watchmen and its influence on the superhero genre. The character who inspired Watchmen’s Ozymandias, Peter Cannon is at the center of a reality-hopping experiment written by Kieron Gillen with art by Caspar Wjingaard, colorist Mary Sabo, and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, a team that embraces the malleability of the medium while still adhering to Watchmen’s nine-panel grid. Gillen is both reverent and critical toward Watchmen in his script, recognizing how it pushed comics forward while also expressing his frustrations at creators that pulled the wrong lessons away from it. The art team does phenomenal work bringing this complex narrative to the page, making stylistic shifts that drastically change the tone and feel of the book as Cannon uncovers other versions of himself. On a macro level, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt asks an industry to reconsider the formal and moral values it has upheld since Watchmen’s debut, a plea wrapped in one super-genius’ multiverse quest to learn how to be a better man.