Welcome to The A.V. Club’s monthly comics preview, where we recommend new books to check out over the next few weeks. This month, we’ve got five exciting picks, including a YA take on a Norwegian fairy tale, a collection of Nick Dragotta shorts, and a gay mafia romance.
Good Devils: Don’t Play Fair With Evil by Nick Dragotta and David Brothers (October 1)
Artist Nick Dragotta’s profile has skyrocketed after the massive success of Absolute Batman, and readers who like what he’s doing on that title need to check out his creator-owned work. Good Devils Don’t Play Fair With Evil (Image Comics) collects three short stories that Dragotta drew over the three years leading up to the Batman gig, and these collaborations with writer David Brothers showcase the energy, scale, and personality of Dragotta’s artwork across genres. Inspired by works as varied as the Fist Of The North Star manga and the writing of Gil Scott-Heron, these tales take readers from gritty city streets to postapocalyptic wastelands, with each new environment giving Dragotta the opportunity to show off his design skills. Two of the pieces feature Dragotta’s art in stark black-and-white, accentuating the graphic impact of his linework and composition, and it’s a rare treat to see Dragotta coloring his own work, as he does in the aptly named boxing story “Fight Like Hell.” Brothers and Dragotta have brilliant chemistry together, and each page radiates a shared passion for the works that shape their creative voices.
Good Devils Don’t Play Fair With Evil (Image: Image Comics)
Angelica And The Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen (October 7)
With his debut graphic novel, The Magic Fish, cartoonist Trung Le Nguyen displayed a keen talent for incorporating fairy tales into an adolescent coming-of-age narrative, using three different stories across cultures to explore the challenges faced by a second-generation Vietnamese-American teenager grappling with his sexuality. For his follow-up, Angelica And The Bear Prince (RH Graphic), Nguyen turns to a Norwegian fairy tale, “East Of The Sun And West Of The Moon”, to shape the romance between two theater teens. In this case, the bear prince is the mystery person who runs the social media account for a community theater’s cartoon bear mascot, and their online messages are a source of comfort for an overwhelmed young girl in the midst of a debilitating burnout. The book represents a major step forward in Nguyen’s evolution as an artist, refining his cartooning to maximize character expression with as few lines as possible. The lush coloring makes everything feel even more alive, with a vibrant palette that imbues everyday teen experiences with a sense of magic.
Black Arms To Hold You Up: A History Of Black Resistance by Ben Passmore (October 7)
In a time when the federal government is making a concentrated effort to erase the history of marginalized communities, Ben Passmore’s new graphic novel, Black Arms To Hold You Up: A History Of Black Resistance (Pantheon), is an essential look at how past generations have fought against oppression. Incorporating autobiographical elements into the history lesson, the book’s journey to the past begins with Passmore at his Philadelphia home in the summer of 2020, refusing to join the protest that overtakes the city following the fatal shooting of Philando Castile by a police officer. A smack from his father sends Passmore careening back through time, where he learns of major activists and revolutionaries by witnessing their struggles first-hand. This conceit adds a personal layer as Passmore becomes politically activated by what he sees, as well as opportunities for humor through his (and his father’s) commentary. His take on historical events is active and immediate, and he pushes himself to explore different visual styles for different subjects, giving the book extra visual punch. It’s a candid and incendiary look at how knowledge of the past shapes who we are in the present, highlighting why Passmore is one of the most exciting political cartoonists working today.
Black Arms To Hold You Up: A History Of Black Resistance (Image: Pantheon)
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Anaïs Flogny (October 7)
The world of the mafia is fertile ground for gay romance stories, and the mob’s culture of extremely heteronormative masculinity creates a lot of tension for gay male characters. The Sopranos takes advantage of this with the closeted Vito Spatafore, but romance isn’t a part of that narrative the way it is in Anaïs Flogny’s new graphic novel, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Abrams ComicArts). When Jules, a poor Italian immigrant, meets Adam, a handsome crime kingpin, in 1930s Chicago, mentorship turns into a deeper relationship that is complicated by Jules rising through the ranks. The tenderness of their bond is at odds with the violence of their lifestyle, and Flogny uses this dynamic to fuel the drama as they flee from Chicago to New York City, where Jules’ Italian heritage becomes a distinct advantage. Flogny’s crisp artwork nails the period details, from cars to clothing to interior design, and her understanding of body language enriches the character interactions. Just take a look at the cover and the hesitation in Adam’s hand just above Jules’ shoulder, immediately indicating the desire for connection as well as the fear of actually making one.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Image: Abrams ComicArts)
The Five Wolves by Peter McCarty (October 14)
The line between picture book and comic book is blurry, and you can make an argument that all picture books are comic books because they use the combination of images and words to tell a story. Peter McCarty comes from the world of children’s picture books, receiving the prestigious Caldecott Honor award for 2002’s Hondo And Fabian, and his gentle, occasionally surreal, and beautifully illustrated works have enchanted young readers for decades. These qualities all carry over to his graphic novel debut, The Five Wolves (First Second), a nearly 300-page “epic poem” about five wolves on a dreamlike journey to paint the wonders of their strange world. McCarty drastically intensifies the interplay between images and words by presenting all of the text in densely packed blocks akin to word clouds, mixing phrases with numbers and tiny drawings to bombard the reader with visual information. These blocks feel like a literalization of the idiom “a picture says a thousand words,” complementing the meticulously cross-hatched illustrations with complex arrangements of text and shapes that evoke calm, chaos, and everything in between.
