Okay so maybe the end of January/beginning of February is pushing it in terms of when to drop a ‘best of 2022’ list, BUT. Now is the time to crack into one of these recommendations — the holidays are over, Christmas is put away, and all you have to do is hibernate until spring. The perfect time to pull up a Webtoon or nab indie book that you might have missed and drink some mulled cider. Or I guess read at the beach if you’re in a different hemisphere. You do you.
PEOW #2
Jane Mai
PEOW Studios
2022 was the final publishing year for PEOW Studios, and it’s also the year Jane Mai gifted us PEOW #2, the second collection of autobio comics detailing all the shenanigans of the PEOW crew as they attend conventions, spitball ideas for making big money, and — in Mai’s case, specifically — say hello to familiar mental health struggles. This volume also contains the surprise third installment of “Pond Smelt,” Mai’s gritty Animal Crossing doujinshi.
It is no secret that I am partial to Mai’s work, but this collection hits differently after the long pandemic shutdowns of conventions. PEOW #2 has little undercurrents of financial stress and exhaustion — a theme that will be very familiar to artists who rely on cons to sell their work — but for the most part this collection is full of joy. Mai loves to make fun of Patrick Crotty (the “P” in PEOW) and depict him as a money-grubbing businessman, and their on-page interactions had me cackling out loud. Olle and and Elliot (the “O” and “E”) are not spared, especially in “Pond Smelt III,” a gritty murder mystery in which Crotty reprises the role of capitalist zealot not-Tom Nook, Olle is his partner-relegated-to-lackey in the face of Crotty’s horrible ambitions, and Elliot is their victim… or is he?! “Pond Smelt III“ is a DARK meditation on the horrors of making art for money, and amazing to read in this awful era of AI art.
Mai is, unsurprisingly, unafraid to throw herself to the wolves. We see her crawl under tables in public to retrieve lost items, get tricked into overpaying for water in a foreign airport, and getting a picture with Junji Ito — only to learn, too late, that half her face is completely off-frame in the photo. These are silly and embarrassing moments that are hopefully cathartic to draw, but they’re also moments belonging to an era that now draws to a close. I’m grateful to have this joyful and strange piece of PEOW, trapped in amber — just kidding, trapped on a page that Mai points out on the cover is flammable — to celebrate an era of publishing from which I, an introvert who mostly ordered their books online, only benefited. Thanks for the stories and the memories.
— Alenka
Wash Day Diaries
Jamila Rowser (writer) & Robyn Smith (art), Bex Glendining (color), Kazmir Lee (color)
Chronicle Books
Friends Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith Kickstarted their black and white comic Wash Day a few years ago. It was a well loved short comic offering that elaborated on the lives of Black women and the comforts and rituals in a slice of life type paced story. Wash Day Diaries expands the lives of the original duo Kim and Cookie with two new friends Nisha and Davene into a full-color graphic novel, and the reworked original story serves as the first chapter.
The book’s interconnected chapters link each friend to another through the ups and downs: the anxieties of relationships, being supported through depression and even making amends with family members that you don’t see eye to eye with. Gorgeously colored by the combined team of Robyn Smith, Bex Glendining and Kazmir Lee, this graphic novel really makes me feel seen and loved and just held. Wash Day Diaries is a superb tribute to Black women everywhere, exploring how their hair is tied to them and also worth celebrating and honoring.
— Carrie
Little Red Hood
Priya Huq
self-published
I have been a longtime fan of Priya Huq’s art and her approach to storytelling that veers into poetic and autobiographical avenues of comics. One of their newest comics, Little Red Hood, is a visually stunning offering that uses a well-known folktale to weave together a narrative dealing with metaphorical child sexual abuse. At only 36 pages, the artist brilliantly uses a color scheme of mostly red, black and blue to quietly devastate readers, visually. Little Red Hood’s narrative of a small child being vulnerable, violated and being isolated will make you uncomfortable, it may make you weep–it will definitely confront you with emotions as you read.
With resources for survivors at the end, Huq carefully crafted a tale centered on how children are failed by adults and how their young bodies don’t grant them access to protection and agency. Available to purchase in print or digitally, and free to read online via the artist’s website, Little Red Hood is one of the year’s comics that continues to stay with me, evoking a myriad of emotions each and every time I read it.
To call Huq brave to tackle such a controversial topic in a comic feels like an empty handed compliment. I’d rather appreciate her intent and talent in making comics centering young ones and why their safety is of the utmost importance. Here’s to hoping their comic reaches the hands of those who appreciate the necessary comics that make us uncomfortable and more so those who need this comic to help validate themselves from the trauma they’ve endured and survived.
— Carrie
Arrive In My Hands: Queer Erotic Comics
Trinidad Escobar
Black Josei Press
Along with the asinine assumption that women don’t read comics, there are some that would believe women also don’t read erotica. Go figure. Cue my big belly laugh. When one of my favorite indie comics publishers, Black Josei Press announced they would be publishing the multi-talented Trinidad Escobar’s Arrive In My Hands: Queer Erotics Comics, I was ecstatic. I did review it for the site yet I find myself coming back and rereading it every so often and I remain so impressed and blown away by the playfulness, vulnerability, and sensuality of this collection.
As I mentioned in my review: erotica as a genre has been long damned and misunderstood and Escobar’s work here presents a bold reclaiming of not just the genre but works by creatives who love women and actively dismiss the male gaze. I am also reminded of the publisher’s efforts in handling this work when faced with the very present and oppressive overreach by way of censorship towards adult content on certain websites and platforms like Shopify. (Shout-out to Jamilla Roswer, head of BJP for navigating that mess and being super transparent and communicating with the fans.) Arrive In My Hands: Queer Erotic Comics is a gem not to be missed full of magic, poetic wandering and passion. If you haven’t had a chance to read this spectacular collection yet, here’s your reminder to get to it.
— Carrie
Song for Medusa
Grace Desmarais
Self-published
Greek mythology continues to be very On Trend right now and there is a lot of great content coming from that. One of my recent faves playing in that sandbox is the zine Song for Medusa, which is a sapphic exploration of the gorgon as she falls in love with a blind princess, who isn’t affected by her curse. Part 1, which premiered at SPX last year, is available now through Grace’s shop.
— Stephanie Cooke
Shades of Fear
edited by Ashanti Fortson & Allison O’Toole
Balustrade Press
Ashanti Fortson and Allison O’Toole’s Shades of Fear anthology collects ten short horror comics themed according to the strong use of a single color. The artwork is nothing short of spectacular, offering the reader both dazzling beauty and horrific imagery. As befitting the rich banquets of color, many of the stories share the theme of being devoured, either metaphorically through toxic relationships and generational trauma – or quite literally.
My favorite piece is Mar Julia’s “Bellies,” a work of poetic yet intense body horror about an order of immortal priestesses who dine well, so they may endow themselves with the fortitude necessary to make appropriate sacrifices to a (mercifully) unseen deity. The narrative depth of every short comic in the anthology recalls the gothic masterpieces of Emily Carroll, and I’ve often found myself returning to Shades of Fear to dig deeper for creative inspiration and visceral chills.
— Kathryn Hemmann
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Kate Beaton
Drawn & Quarterly
I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that in the future, graphic memoirs will be talked about with terms like “B.D.” and “A.D.” – before Ducks and after Ducks. Kate Beaton’s sprawling account of working in Alberta’s oil sands in the late aughts is carefully observed and brilliantly told.
Eager to pay off her crushing student loans, “Katie” Beaton moves away from her home in Cape Breton to the oil boomtown of Fort MacMurray. Beaton is woefully unprepared for what she finds in the oil sands – including ecological devastation and rampant sexual harassment from her isolated, predominantly male coworkers – but her experiences there shape her identity in a myriad of unexpected ways. By turns hilarious and haunting, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands tells her story with grace and humility. As a longtime fan of Beaton’s work, who remembers when she shared her prototypal “Ducks” comic strips nearly a decade ago, I am so grateful to finally read this fully realized book. This hefty tome is as vital as a heartbeat.
– Kayleigh Hearn
Mr. Boop
Alec Robbins
Silver Sprocket
An X-rated Who Framed Roger Rabbit for the digital age, Alec Robbins’ comic strip Mr. Boop – originally published on his Twitter account – can now be read in a glorious hardcover volume from Silver Sprocket. Initially a series of four-panel gag comics about a fictionalized version of Robbins and his marriage to nonagenarian cartoon sex symbol Betty Boop, Mr. Boop gradually morphs into a psychosexual romp about the inanity of copyright law and the emotional hold certain fictional characters – whether they’re Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, Sonic the Hedgehog, Girl Ranma, or the Angel Ramiel from Neon Genesis Evangelion – can have on our gnarly little brains.
Besides the joy of simply having a physical copy of Mr. Boop on hand as a conversation piece – conversations like “What are Bugs Bunny and Peter Griffin doing to each other??” – Silver Sprocket’s collected edition is a must-have for extras such as an illuminating introduction by F. Stewart-Taylor and bonus guest strips by artists including Carta Monir and Casey Nowak. Check out Mr. Boop and see why it won the 2022 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Collection.
– Kayleigh Hearn
Thieves
Lucie Bryon
Nobrow
Thieves is so, so pretty! I’ve been a fan of Lucie’s art for a while, and I was excited to see her use her talents for a full-length graphic novel. The limited color palette, off-white paper, and adorable art style create a dreamy, classy reading experience. It’s also a lovely story about partying, first love, the end of high school, and stealing stuff! Ella has a problem: it’s the day after a party at her crush’s house and her apartment is full of things that do not belong to her. Fortunately, Madeleine not only likes her back, she’s willing to help Ella secretly return all the stolen stuff to its rightful owners… and more. Ella, Madeleine and their friends all feel like such real, believable characters. I love how cheerful and extroverted Ella is and how well that contrasts with Madeleine’s more reserved nature. Thieves is funny, beautiful, and full of heart!
— Masha Zhdanova
Love and Leashes
Winter
Webtoon
Love and Leashes is the only Webtoon I’ve read this year that made me laugh out loud at every single episode. Ji-u Jeong and Jihu Jeong, coworkers with similar names, enter an unusual arrangement in which Jihu, a submissive who’s been hiding his kinks from everyone around him his whole life, asks Ji-u to be his master. Ji-u, who’s cool and competent on the outside and shy on the inside, considers running away immediately, but instead decides to try this thing out for a bit and see if she likes it. Spoiler: she does! Despite the subject matter, the actual content of this Webtoon is fairly safe for work.
What really makes Love and Leashes stand out is the eccentric cast of characters surrounding the main couple, as well as the couple themselves. They care a lot about each other and prioritize clear communication, trying to figure out how to best make each other happy while not causing problems at work or with their friends and family. And boy, are their friends and family… a lot. Jihu has a group chat of fellow BDSM enthusiasts he met on a forum, Ji-u has a younger brother and work friends, Jihu’s high school friend owns a bar, and they all have so much going on. And whenever all of these people intersect, it is so, so funny. I don’t know how accurate the BDSM stuff is as depicted here, but the characters focus on consent, communication, and mutual enjoyment, and figuring out how to live in a way that makes them happiest.
I spent money on this comic! I can’t think of anything else I straight-up enjoyed, just had fun reading, as much as Love and Leashes this year. I’m going to tell my kids this was 50 Shades of Grey or however that meme goes.
— Masha Zhdanova
Clown Corps
Joe Chouinard
http://clowncorps.net/
If you’ve seen that Frasier meets Columbo comic going around on Twitter, you may not be surprised to learn the guy who drew it also does an ongoing webcomic about organized battle clowns. Clown Corps follows the adventures of reformed burglar turned reluctant clown college student Mary McBell and her clowning cohort as they work to stop a shadowy organization bent on destroying the entire Clown system. It’s hysterical, with great stylized action sequences, physical comedy and fourth-wall-bending humor, but also moments of surprising gravity as the characters grapple with the troubled pasts that brought them to clowning in the first place. The art improves quickly for a webcomic, and the characters are both silly and serious (one of the best fighters in the class can only kick ass when he’s asleep!) I caught up in a day and wished I could keep reading.
— Masha Zhdanova
Invisible Parade
MISSISSIPPI (creator), Emuh Ruh (editing & design), Tim Sun (letters), Anna Schnell, Jocelyne Allen, MISSISSIPPI, Andy Jenkins, Jun Kitamura, Emuh Ruh (translation)
Glacier Bay Books
Invisible Parade is a collection of old and new comics from MISSISSIPPI, a Kyoto-based comics artist and painter. The style varies but is always recognizable, and there is no publication date on any of the comics to distinguish when each was originally published. This helps add to the timeless feeling in each short, whether it be about a hungry lion or the vacation adventures of Chan and Ando in the year 2029 or a quiet comic that reads like a diary entry.
The connecting thread is a melancholy whimsy — there are fewer animals than ever in 2029, but there are still spectacular sights to be had. Your bike is an unhappy alien. An encounter with a stranger turns into something secret and spectacular. The near futures here, and the blue presents, are depicted with casual but careful cartooning; backgrounds can include detailed buildings but our main characters are broad and simple, faces animated and malleable.
Mississippi’s shorts are the flat calm surface of a lake, emotions and implications smoothly gliding underneath. You catch them out of the corner of your eye like a character does a sea monster. “Winter Break 2029” was nominated for an Ignatz in 2022, there’s something about it that keeps bringing me back. The matter-of-fact protagonist Chan as she narrates one of those almost-romantic, shimmer moments of her youth, the near-future setting, the beepers! Mississippi’s way of drawing you in with simple panels of talking heads and then hitting you with an incredible landscape or image is showcased here, the artificial pleasures of the city in this comic contrasting with the light of the moon, or a wild bird, in its neighboring shorts. The push and pull between nature and the city is explored with both existential wonder and gentle humor, and that tension is why it was one of my favorite books of the year.
