Greetings to you from a place of calm: my day off after my biggest program of the year. This is a perfect moment to dive in to recommendations! A great stressor – albeit an important one that I value very much! – has been lifted, and there is space in my brain to really, truly start reading again. Appropriately, we’ve got a fun mix of comics from which to choose. I’m re-recommending a hopefully familiar title but from a different perspective, Emily’s got a historical comic from an artist who typically illustrates picture books, Kathryn’s here with some meticulously drawn but silly manga, and Paige has something from good ol’ DC comics just for you. If you’re also someone whose summers are the opposite of relaxing, I hope the end is in sight for you, as it is for me.
Alenka Figa: If you feel like you’re having deja vu that’s because Emily already recommended Punk Rock Karaoke by Bianca Xunise in a previous WWACommendations! Xunise is a Chicago local, and now that I’ve read it I’m re-recommending it with a little local Chicago insight. Anyone who loves punk music, loves going to live shows and is part of their own local DIY/punk/goth scenes will enjoy this comic, but it’s very much a Chicago story. Punkin Donuts, the donut shop the teens frequent late at night after the shows wrap, is a reference to an actual, historical Dunkin Donuts whose parking lot was a key community space for Chicago punks in the eighties and nineties. Xunise also renders loving portraits of key Chicago performance venues in vibrant colors. A gorgeous neon green seems to be reserved for special places, and I was really struck by turning the page to see a wonderful full page illustration of the Aragon, a building I pass almost every day. The rats and pizza also feel distinctly Chicago, although I can acknowledge that other cities also have a lot of rats and distinct pizza opinions.
In addition to being a story strongly rooted in its specific home, Punk Rock Karaoke is incredibly dynamic and emotional. Xunise’s character designs are much cartoonier than they are realistic, allowing characters to leap from the crowd and into the pit when excited and to have passionate temper tantrums that let them hop high in the air. Backgrounds melt away in exchange for bright colors and carefully drawn dance moves to convey the connections characters are forging through music. You will FEEL this story as you read it, and despite the relationship struggles and issues with toxic white men in the punk scene, you’ll be overjoyed to follow these teens as they fall apart, come together and spit absolute fire onstage.
Emily Lauer: Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout will be coming out in January of 2025! It is a story of the Dutch Resistance during World War II, interspersed with the story of a contemporary person learning about her family’s involvement.
Reader, I cried. Song of a Blackbird is historical fiction, based on real events, and for me, personally, the most affecting part was reading the historical stuff at the end. The story is very good, though! And I bet the fictional veneer will be welcome to the 14-18 year-olds the book is aimed at.
I knew Maria van Lieshout’s name from when my kid was a toddler, from such absolute classics as I Use the Potty: Big Kid Power. Now, that one is great and I was very glad to read it to my kid when she was 2, but Song of a Blackbird, Maria van Lieshout’s comics debut, is on a really different level. In addition to the weaving of two different eras’ storylines, Song of a Blackbird also has a sophisticated art style with historical photographs mixed with cartoony figures, and some art mimicking the look of a printing press. The whole effect is a rich and layered feeling that works well with the depth of the story being told.
Kathryn Hemmann: This month I’d like to recommend Kawo Tanuki and Choco Aya’s fantasy manga series Dragon Goes House-Hunting, whose tenth and final volume was just released in English translation by Seven Seas. Dragon Goes House-Hunting follows the misadventures of a gentle but cowardly dragon named Letty and his real estate agent Dearia, a massively powerful and inhumanly beautiful dark wizard. Letty is searching for a comfortable house that will accommodate his size while also protecting him from the pesky adventurers trying to hunt him for crafting materials. While Letty pictures himself in a lovely cottage, Dearia encourages him to be more pragmatic and dungeon-minded.
What makes Dragon Goes House-Hunting stand out in the “slice-of-life fantasy” genre is the consistently high quality of its art, which references the detailed monster designs from video game manuals of the 1990s while still feeling fresh and contemporary. For video game fans especially, it’s quite entertaining to look at dungeon design from the perspective of the monsters, who are just trying to make it through the day without being harassed by heroes. The manga’s situational humor is gentle and sweet, but each volume still managed to surprise me with at least three or four devilishly sharp jokes.
Perhaps the easiest way to describe Dragon Goes House-Hunting is to say that it’s the high fantasy version of the wholesome Yakuza comedy The Way of the Househusband. Like The Way of the Househusband, Dragon Goes House-Hunting is designed to be accessible to all ages, but it will resonate most strongly with readers old enough to have some experience with real estate (even if that experience is limited to looking for a student apartment). For a more action-oriented and kid-friendly take on the concept of “building homes for monsters,” I’d also like to recommend the ongoing shōnen series Soara and the House of Monsters, which is a gorgeously creative celebration of fantasy architecture.
Paige Lyman: This time around I’m going to recommend Poison Ivy (2022), from G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara. I’ve been reading it in its entirety (up to issue #24 as of July 17, 2024) for the first time over the last few days and it’s been such a great read. For me, who hasn’t really read anything that had Poison Ivy as a main focus until now, it’s been such an interesting story to follow – the series follows Poison Ivy as she goes on a cross-country revenge mission where she’s fully intent on infecting everyone she comes across with a fungal infection that will wreak havoc.
There’s a lot of internal and external introspection that Ivy goes through, particularly about the environment and just the state of humans on Earth as she drives across the country. It feels very timely as a story given the general state of the world at the moment, and it really kind of hit a few chords for me as a reader. And even for a series that feels particularly heavy at times, there’s still a lot of humor as well which makes this one I’ve really enjoyed reading through. Takara’s art style also stands out to me as especially lovely.
