WWACommendations: Honey Lemon, Paper Girls, Bad Girls, Batman, and More

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Happy February! What comics have you been enjoying lately? Every month, WWAC contributors sound off about the comics we’re reading for fun. Let us know on Twitter what you recommend!

Louis Skye: I’ve just marathon-read Paper Girls, by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson, and Jared K. Fletcher, and completely loved it! I read the first volume for a comic book club I’d recently joined, and couldn’t wait to read more. When my fellow book club members told me that Paper Girls would only get better, I decided to read the remaining volumes as soon as I could. It’s an amazing story–it’s got time-travel, dinosaurs, killer robots, and monsters–all brilliantly woven together to make a compelling plot. But, it’s the central characters–four teenage girls brought together through their paper run–that makes this series so memorable. Erin, Tiff, KJ, and Mac have very different personalities and dynamics with each other, but they all have one goal: to stay alive and make it back to 1988. I am actually a bit sad that the series will be ending in 2019–it’s been a fun and wild ride, and an absolute page-turner of a series.

Wendy Browne: February’s read for our monthly ladies night comic book club was Bad Girls by Alex de Campi and Victor Santos. The story takes place in Havana at a swanky nightclub called El Eden Casino. It is New Year’s Eve, and, unbeknownst to many, it’s also the night when dictator Fulgencio Batista flees the country and Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba. I probably should have paid closer attention to the political aspects spelled out quite clearly in the blurb, and maybe even done a little background research. Reading the book, I ended up feeling like la revolución moments were glaring juxtapositions to the experiences of the women who were trying to escape their oppressive lives in at the casino. Certainly, those moments should be incongruous and should stand out, but because there was so little background, I found them to be obtrusive instead. Still, I did enjoy the vibrant colours and costumes, and the way the music was threaded through the panels — which means I can check “A comic featuring music” off of my WWAC Reading Challenge!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtZtX8phpOI/

Nola Pfau: Thanks to DC’s recent reissuing of more complete editions of the collected Knightfall, I’ve been working my way through Post-Crisis Bat canon bit by bit. In the last month I’ve worked through Batman: Second Chances, Batman: Year One, and Batman: Caped Crusader Volume 1, which all-told reprint Batman issues #402-431, leaving out only A Death In The Family, which of course is another separate volume and next on my list. I know I evangelize a lot about the X-Men both here and on Twitter, but my other, less obvious love is late 80s-early 90s DC, and what the Bat books were doing in particular during this era is absolutely top quality comics, if a little (okay a lot) dated, politically. The next volume of Caped Crusader, due out later this month, collects both the Year Three and A Lonely Place of Dying story arcs, which are two huge favorites. I can’t wait!

Batman: Second Chances cover, published by DC Comics
Batman: Second Chances cover, published by DC Comics

Emily Lauer: I just read Abbott, written by Saladin Ahmed, with art by Sami Kivela and colors by Jason Wordie. It was a lot of fun! I had known going in that the main character, Elena Abbott, was a noir-style investigator in 1970s Detroit, and that the world in which she, a black woman, operated would be shaped by race and gender. I had not realized that she would be an investigative reporter, or that there would be elements of the supernatural to the mystery she solves. At one point, someone asks Abbott if she knows what “ley lines” are, and I thought, “Oh! This is one of my favorite subgenres.” I enjoyed that, and the book overall. Kivela’s art and Wordie’s colors are gorgeous; they work well together to be evocatively retro without feeling dated. Ahmed does a nice job addressing intersectionality, and the ways in which Abbott is underestimated by strangers, over and over again, ring true. The first issue was reviewed on WWAC last year, and I, the opposite of an early adopter, have been biding my time to read it as a volume. It was extremely gratifying to do so.

Christa Seeley: I’ve been on a bit of an audiobook kick lately so have fallen a bit behind on my comic TBR. That being said I did recently read Sheets by Brenna Thummler and fell in love with the enchanting artwork. The story of thirteen-year-old Marjorie Glatt and the young ghost (Wendell) she befriends is brought to life in beautiful pastel blues and pinks. I thought Marjorie’s story in particular really moving as she struggled to keep her family’s business afloat. And speaking of Thummler, if you’ve already read Sheets, her work on the Anne of Green Gables graphic novel adaptation is also incredible. Next up I’ve got a long list of X-Men comics I’ve wanted to read for awhile now and Bloom by Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau which I have such high hopes for – an adorable romance in a bakery is exactly the kind of story I’m in the mood for right now.

Draven Katayama: I’ve been obsessed with Honey Lemon by courtneywirthit, which you can read for free on Webtoon along with its 264,200+ subscribers. It’s about two roommates, Kyoungmi and Sora, and the guys they keep running into, Joonhyung and Jaechan. Oh, and there is Tuna, a cat who brings them all together, plus other adorable cats. The four main characters are all experiencing various degrees of highly relatable post-college listlessness (Jaechan is a server; Joonhyung works at a convenience store). courtneywirthit’s story and art are flawless and addictive. Reading this comic feels like watching a hilarious but poignant drama on Crunchyroll where you want to ship everyone with everyone. If you need to lose yourself in a beautiful story with characters whom you’ll quickly fall in love with, absolutely give Honey Lemon a try.

 

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Draven Katayama

Draven Katayama

Writer at Sidequest and WWAC; past executive editor of Kollaboration and writer at Newsarama and Comicosity. I'm a huge fan of Life is Strange, The Last of Us, TWICE, Blackpink, and ITZY. My MyDramaList: https://mydramalist.com/profile/loudlysilent Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/loudlysilent Tell me about the fandoms you love! @loudlysilent

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