Howard Cruse, Stuck Rubber Baby
Stuck Rubber Baby, a stone-cold classic, is a loosely autobiographical tale detailing the coming-of-age and coming-of-queerness of Toland Polk, its flawed but engaging hero, against the backdrop of the battle over segregation in early-1960s Alabama. Though Howard Cruse left us late last year (RIP dear Howard), this book above all his others will live on, a must-read.
MariNaomi, Life on Earth
A delightfully imaginative and stylistically varied but accessible YA trilogy about a group of high school kids of varying races and backgrounds navigating high school life, romance (both queer and otherwise), and . . . possible alien life forms infiltrating their ranks! (Insert eerie music here.)
Eric Kostiuk Williams, Condo Heartbreak Disco
This wild, weird trip involves a pair of centuries-old immortal creatures battling the evils of gentrification and cultural appropriation in modern-day Toronto. Williams’ fascinatingly detailed, phantasmagorical visuals and packed-with-ideas storyline make for a heady, memorable mix.
Sara Lautman
Lautman is a comics creator and teacher. Her work appears regularly in The New Yorker.
Sophie Yanow, The Contradictions
Beautifully paced travelogue/painfully resonant early 20’s relationship story. Yanow is seriously accomplished as a graphic journalist and as a personal narrative storyteller, and this book is a fantastic showcase of those skills. The Contradictions is due from Drawn & Quarterly this year, but Yanow has been serializing it paywall-free at thecontradictions.com.
Beatrix Urkowitz, The Lover of Everyone in the World
Beatrix Urkowitz is an out-of-time genius. Go buy this extremely no-bullshit fifty-tiered-princess-cake of a comics philosophical treatise.
Penelope Bagieu, California Dreamin’
This is a narrative biography of Cass Eliot. Much more nuanced and relationship-driven than a straight ahead career biography, and Bagieu’s drawing is intelligent and lovely. I, personally, pledge allegiance to Mama Cass, and offer my implicit trust to anyone who loves her.
MariNaomi
MariNaomi is the cartoonist behind Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume Ages 0 to 22.
Nicole J. Georges, Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home
Description: A comics memoir about the cartoonist’s relationship with a troubled rescue dog.
Why it’s perfect reading for the pandemic: It’s a touching story that illustrates (haha) a deep, complicated bond between a queer Syrian woman and her dog.
Yumi Sakugawa, There is No Right Way to Meditate
Description: An illustrated book filled with good intentions about your mental health and adorable drawings.
Why it’s perfect reading for the pandemic: You need this, trust me. It will help you breathe.
Sina Grace, Nothing Lasts Forever
Description: A comics memoir about Grace, a young cis gay Iranian-American cartoonist with a mysterious illness.
Why it’s perfect reading for the pandemic: This is perfect reading for always, a delicate, engaging, bittersweet memoir about love and loss.
Wendy MacNaughton, Meanwhile in San Francisco: the City in its Own Words
Description: MacNaughton illustrates the words and stories of city folk who don’t often get a voice in literature, including a bus driver, houseless person, farmers market vendor, and dog walker.
Why it’s perfect reading for the pandemic: This book is an amazing piece of art that connects the reading to humanity in a beautiful and extraordinary way.
Tillie Walden, On a Sunbeam
Description: A sci-fi graphic novel about spaceships and love
Why it’s perfect reading for the pandemic: It’s a gorgeous piece of escapism. This tome will engulf you.
Kelsey Wroten
A freelance illustrator and comics artist (and frequent illustrator for them.), Wroten is the creator of the graphic novel Cannonball.
