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 noteworthy picks, including a star-studded Kaya special, a new crime series from Grand Theft Auto’s head writer, and a stunning slice-of-life collection.
Banana Sioule Vol. 1: Helena by Michaël Sanlaville (November 5)
Tournaments are a ubiquitous narrative device for many reasons: They provide a clear story structure and main goal for the competitors, and allow for a wide range of characters whose relationships can very quickly change in drastic ways. Michaël Sanlaville has played in this sandbox before as the co-artist on the Lastman series of graphic novels, and he takes full creative control with Banana Sioule, offering a fantastic spin on the medieval French game that combines rugby and dodgeball. Banana Sioule Vol. 1: Helena (Magnetic Press) takes a young farmgirl away from the countryside to enroll in the Superior School of Sioule, where she meets an eclectic cast of teammates and opponents and discovers the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated sport. Sanlaville’s experience on Lastman honed his action storytelling to create thrilling sequences with beautifully clean lines, and Banana Sioule brings that explosive energy to each jump, dodge, and ball slam.
Harley And Ivy: Life And Crimes #1 by Erica Henderson (November 5)
Three-time Eisner Award winner Erica Henderson is an exceptional artist, but last year’s Harley Quinn 2024 Annual showcased how much fun she can bring to the comics page when she’s also in the writer’s seat. That one-shot was overflowing with style, personality, and wit, and Henderson gets the opportunity to go even bigger with Harley And Ivy: Life And Crimes (DC Comics), a six-issue miniseries telling the canonical story of how the two supervillains first met, fought, and fell in love. It’s rare to have a superhero book written, drawn, and colored by a single creator, and even rarer to have that book center a queer romance. Check out this spread for a gorgeous example of how Henderson is able to capture the intimacy between the two women while also depicting different phases of their relationship, packing loads of emotion and plot in just two pages. It’s a brilliant pairing of creator and characters, and hopefully these first six issues do well enough that DC extends it to the 12 issues Henderson already has outlined.
American Caper #1 by Dan Houser, Lazlow, David Lapham, Chris Anderson, and Lee Loughridge (November 12)
As the wait for the next Grand Theft Auto game gets longer and longer, fans of the franchise can enjoy a new dark comedy crime miniseries by one of the video game’s creators, writer and Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser. He isn’t involved with GTA6 — he resigned from Rockstar Games in 2020 — but Houser brings his over-the-top satirical sensibility to American Caper #1 (Dark Horse Comics), following a Mormon hitman and gambling-addict lawyer as they deal with the aftershocks of a botched real estate deal. The sprawling story takes readers from Wyoming to Brooklyn to Florida, with each locale offering a unique environment and political landscape to explore. Featuring additional writing from another GTA veteran, Lazlow, with art by David Lapham—creator of the crime masterpiece Stray Bullets—Chris Anderson, and Lee Loughridge, there’s a lot of talent behind American Caper, and this team can take the story to even greater extremes without the limitations of a video game that is confined to one city.
(Dark Horse Comics)
Colossal Kaya #1 by Wes Craig, Nathan Fox, James Harren, Mike Huddleston, Declan Shalvey, and Ryan Stegman (November 12)
If you’re not reading Wes Craig’s Kaya, you’re missing out on one of the best ongoing series being published today. A fantasy sci-fi epic about a girl with a mechanical arm protecting her maybe-messiah brother from tribes of monsters and a robot empire, Kaya delivers in every way: tight plotting, complex character development, striking designs, and absolutely exhilarating action sequences. Colossal Kaya (Image Comics) functions as both an expansion and an entry point to this world, with Craig recruiting some of the industry’s top artists for five short stories. Nathan Fox, James Harren, Mike Huddleston, Declan Shalvey, and Ryan Stegman all have very different artistic styles, and it’s especially exciting to see them all tackle a property that has thus far been defined by a singular creative voice. The one-shot also includes a six-page introduction to the series, making it a savvy way to garner attention in a publishing landscape where it is difficult to sustain a creator-owned series long term.
(Image Comics)
Slices Of Life: A Comic Montage by Qu
Two friends having a conversation while walking in the rain. A woman brushing her teeth with an electric toothbrush. Children watching a vending machine serviceman refill a stock of capsule toys. These are some of the everyday scenarios that cartoonist Qu captures in Slices Of Life: A Comic Montage (Bulgilhan Press), a collection of short comics that spotlight how page design, composition, linework, and color all work together to turn the mundane into something enchanting on the page. Originally created as an Illustration Practice MFA thesis project, Slices Of Life explores the intersection between traditional illustration and sequential comic-book storytelling, and Qu has a deep understanding of how to make the individual panels of a scene enrich the overall impact of the full page. Through these snippets, Qu finds the moments of wonder and connection sprinkled throughout our routines, encouraging the reader to look for the same in their own lives. (Slices Of Life does not have a set release date, but online preorders will be filled in November.)
