2022 was a wild ride for comic book fans, taking readers from the center of the Earth to mutant cities on Mars. Narrowing down our favorite big press comics of the year was a monumental task, but with help from Laila Starr and Nubia, Queen of the Amazons, we were up to the challenge. Just…
REVIEW: You Died Anthology Explores a Gentle Afterlife
You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife from Iron Circus Comics collects two dozen original short comics about death. The anthology’s theme of death positivity is a welcome approach to the subject, and the tone of the comics is gentle and playful. Bestselling author Caitlin Doughty leads the anthology with a short essay introducing the…
ESSAY: The Role of Dōjinshi in Comic Fanzine Discourse
In December 2021, a conversation concerning the definition of the term “zine” unfolded on Twitter. This conversation arose from anxieties surrounding the rise of professionally printed and highly selective fanzines. Many comic artists lamented what they perceived as a betrayal of the DIY ethos of North American zine culture, while others expressed their frustrations regarding…
REVIEW: Fruiting Bodies Digs Deep into Botanical Horror
Fruiting Bodies is a graphic novella written and drawn by emerging indie artist Ashley Robin Franklin, whose soft and gentle art belies a haunting story about a world that is much stranger – and hungrier – than we like to acknowledge. Franklin’s previous work, That Full Moon Feeling (2021), is a fun and wholesome romcom…
REVIEW: Himawari House Finds a Home in Cross-Cultural Friendship
Himawari House by Harmony Becker (They Called Us Enemy) is slice-of-life diaspora fiction that revolves around the sense of home, belonging, and otherness experienced by three young women living in Japan. Having decided to take a gap year between high school and college, 18-year-old Nao moves into the Himawari share house in Tokyo, where she…
REVIEW: The Greatest Thing Is a Love Letter to Gay Teens and Queer Zines
The Greatest Thing by Sarah Winifred Searle (Sincerely, Harriet; Patience and Esther; and a former WWAC contributor!) is a bittersweet story about an aspiring artist who channels her dreams and anxieties into a series of comic zines. With its honest writing and soft pastel art, this graphic novel explores the realities of being a queer…
Roundtable: Creativity, Canvases, and Camaraderie, a Celebration of Akiko Higashimura
Akiko Higashimura is a manga legend. Since her debut in 1999, she’s been publishing award-winning hit comic after award-winning hit comic (including Princess Jellyfish, Blank Canvas, and Tokyo Tarareba Girls) and has now branched out to Webtoons in addition to serialized print manga. Paulina Przystupa got the WWAC crew together to discuss her long and…
REVIEW: Pixels of You Snaps an AI Romance in High Contrast
Pixels of You is a slow-burn, rivals-to-lovers human/AI romance. It’s also a nuanced narrative speculation on how near-future AI will shape human culture and be shaped in turn. This sleek and stylish graphic novel is a collaboration between a superstar indie creative team — writers Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh (Barbarous, Lucky Penny, and Johnny…
REVIEW: Comrade Himbo Embraces the Softer Side of Anti-capitalist Masculinity
The himbo, he who is “thicc of thigh and even thiccer of heart,” has enjoyed something of a cultural moment in recent years. Attention has shifted away from snarky genius characters like Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes and gravitated toward an interest in the types of gentle portrayals of masculinity personified by Chris Hemsworth in…
REVIEW: When I Was Me Captures Colorful Snapshots of Queer Joy
Trans narratives are filled with accounts of gender dysphoria, the pain of being misgendered. These stories are important, but their cumulative weight can be difficult to carry. This is one of the many reasons why it’s critical to share positive stories of gender affirmation and pride. When I Was Me: Moments of Gender Euphoria an…
Queering Cozy Classics for the Winter!
The weather is getting chillier where I live, and I’m starting to yearn for afternoons curled up with a hot drink, rereading something cozily canonical like Austen or Shakespeare. Part of what’s cozy about that scene, for me, is the interpretations of characters I developed on first reading, and still stand by. In fandom, “headcanons”…
REVIEW: Closing the Gaps in Queer Storytelling in Stone Fruit by Lee Lai
Lee Lai’s debut graphic novel Stone Fruit follows an overworked thirty-something named Ray as she ends her relationship with her girlfriend Bron and rekindles her friendship with her sister Amanda. Ray and Bron were at their most loving and creative while babysitting Amanda’s energetic six-year-old daughter Nessie, but they’ve drifted apart as their differences become…