5 new comics to read in August, including Adventure Time’s Bubbline in college

Nobody uses panel gutters like Jesse Lonergan. In his hands, the white space between panels becomes a tool to design ornate page layouts and experiment with the visual depiction of movement and the passage of time, making him a genuine innovator whose comics read unlike anyone else. Drome (23rd Street) is his most ambitious work yet, a 320-page sci-fi fantasy epic in which Lonergan creates his own sprawling mythology of gods, superhumans, giant creatures, and warring peoples. With very little text, the imagery carries the weight of worldbuilding, giving the book thrilling momentum as Lonergan introduces all of his big ideas from a very action-forward perspective. Originally published page-by-page on his Patreon, Drome emphasizes the infinite potential of the page as a single storytelling unit, a malleable canvas where entire universes can be created in the same space, where one action can be slowed down and stretched out to maximize its impact. It’s a comic that radiates passion for the medium, and Lonergan is a student of the masters who pulls from a century of sequential storytelling transformation to chart a powerful path for the future.

Writer G. Willow Wilson and artist M.K. Perker have been working together for almost 20 years, and their early works for Vertigo Comics—the 2007 graphic novel Cairo and 2008 ongoing series Air—were rooted in the mythologies of different cultures across the globe. Folklore continues to be the driving force of their collaboration with their new graphic novel, The Stoneshore Register (Dark Horse Comics), following Fadumo, a journalist and refugee, whose relocation to the Pacific Northwest town of Stoneshore puts her in the path of various supernatural beings. The book is a love letter to the region that Wilson calls home, exploring the dynamics of a small coastal town where people have longtime relationships that influence how they interact with a newcomer like Fadumo. These personal connections play to Perker’s strength with character acting, and he captures the beauty and mystery of a town sandwiched between the woods and the ocean, with each environment containing its own fantastic, dangerous secrets. 

Mariko Tamaki’s graphic novels are remarkable displays of collaboration, giving the artist equal authorship so that the visuals always drive the storytelling. The results are consistently incredible, and after winning multiple Eisners for 2023’s Roaming with her cousin, Jillian Tamaki, Mariko is back with a new YA graphic novel teaming her with Nicole Goux: This Place Kills Me  (Abrams Fanfare). It’s a shift away from Roaming’s sensitive slice-of-life drama, venturing into more heightened genre territory as a prep school is rocked by the sudden death and potential murder of its star student. Goux brings an illustrator’s sensibility to the story with splash pages that create a specific emotional tableau, using a limited color palette to explore how different levels of contrast shape the mood. There’s always a sense of freedom in Tamaki’s collaborations, giving the artist free rein to determine the pacing and encouraging them to think outside the box to make the reading experience as visceral as possible.