Pick it up at your Local Comic Book Shop!
(You can also get it on Comixology)
From the first issue:
A NEW ONGOING SERIES from Lumberjanes creator GRACE ELLIS and talented newcomer SHAE BEAGLE that tells a story of monsters, romance, and magical hijinks! The first arc also includes an additional short story with artist KATE LETH! Fantasy creatures are living typical, unremarkable lives alongside humans, and barista Julie strives to be the most unremarkable of all. Normal job, normal almost-girlfriend, normal...werewolf transformations that happen when she gets upset? Yikes! But all bets are off when she and her centaur best friend Chet find themselves in the middle of a magical conspiracy. Will Julie and Chet be able to save their friends? Is Julie's dogged determination to be normal a lost cause? Who's going to watch the coffee shop while our heroes are out saving the world?? These questions and more will be answered in MOONSTRUCK, coming July 19 from Image Comics.
Issue 1 was a delightful exercise in world-building, with character introductions and little bits of plot underscored by various creatures and magical happenings in the background.
Our main characters appear to be a writer/barista werewolf and her centaur BFF and fellow barista. Julie, the wolfy one, is at the beginning of a relationship and, though we haven't yet met the lady of her affection, I'm already shipping them. Chet, a punny centaur with an ambiguous gender identity, appears to be crushing hard on a minotaur who comes in for coffee regularly.
There's also a book-within-a-book, which is total catnip for me. It's as if the creators sat down, said "what are the best things in the world? coffee? books? magic?" and then put them all in one comic.
The art is fittingly adorable and the storyline (so far) is a mix of humor, pathos, and warm fuzzies.
I'm already signed up for more.
Meet Roger Hare. He's an up and coming novelist and single father of triplets. One night after a long trip he finds a man passed out in front of his apartment door and decides to bring him inside. What kind of sane person does that? Who's this mystery man and how much is he going to change Roger's life?
No End is a webcomic about a group of people struggling to survive in a post apocalyptic country ravaged by an unyielding winter and hordes of undead.
Living amid a world of horror doesn’t erase the cast’s day-to-day worries about identity, family, friendship and betrayal, as they seek people they can trust, as well a legendary place called “Haven” rumored to be free of the cold and horror. Just as none of them are sure that it even exists, they aren’t sure what their place in their world is. But each step forward leads towards who they are, who they should become, and where they belong.
Due to it’s initial inspiration from an RP shared by the creators, No End has always strongly focused on its characters - their growth, their motivations, and the bonds woven between them. The post-apocalyptic setting is used to add suspense, and to put emphasis on the character’s internal struggles.
This webcomic also features LGBTQA+ themes and characters – all the characters in the main cast are queer.
Sibylla always wanted adventure, but she didn't know it would come in the form of a giant, magical bull. Is he a man or a monster? And who knew a prophecy could be so literal?
The first title in a new series co-created by sibling writer/artist team CAT SEATON and KIT SEATON, begins the adventure of a lifetime.
It is 17th century France, the age of discovery and scientific revolution. Sulvain, a mysterious traveler, is absorbed in the Parisian academic scene. Through his friendship with the renowned Christiaan Huygens, Sulvain has the chance to study the latest discoveries of the distant cosmos. Deep in the library of Academy of Sciences, however, our traveler will meet Huygen's apprentice--Raziol Quamar--who will truly spark new lights in Sulvain's universe. But as the two grow closer, trouble brews in the city.
NOVAE is a beautiful comic. As of this writing, KaiJu has released two full chapters/issues and is part-way through a third. I would have kept reading this all day had I not run out of content. It's that kind of lovely.
I have a limited knowledge (and interest, tbh) in astronomy, but the building relationship between Sulvain and Raziol has got me hooked. Sulvain is mute, leaving the two to supplement their written conversation with a lot of facial expressions and touch. Long glances, subtle blushes, awkward excuses... it all rings true.
The story so far is centered around Raziol's study of Saturn's rings, a presentation, and a stargazing interlude. With humor, mystery, and a hint of something magical, this story will draw readers in and keep them there.
Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan’s widely acclaimed Oh Joy Sex Toy (OJST) is a free weekly sex education webcomic that debuted April 2013 and updates every Tuesday. It covers everything sex related from, sexuality and the sex industry, to toys, workshops, birth control and much more. With the aid of guest contributors giving us us many perspectives as possible, we strive to be relevant to a wide variety of genders, body types, and sexualities.
(There is a much longer explanation here.)
I wrote a review of this comic for one of my favorite romance blogs, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. You can read it here!
POWER & MAGIC: The Queer Witch Comics Anthology collects fifteen original comics about queer witches of color as they master their abilities, discover their traditions, and navigate love as beings with incredible power. This edition of POWER & MAGIC is 178 pages, black and white, and features the work of 17 women, demigirls, and bigender creators of color. From the euphoria of holding the stars in your grasp, to the sacrifices we make to reach them, POWER & MAGIC explores what it means to be a person of power in all its complexity.
The second volume of Power & Magic is funding on Kickstarter right now (7/14/17) and the first volume just won a PRISM Award. Since I've had the PDF on my iPad for a few weeks, I figured it was time to give it a read. It's... wow.
What you get for your $10 (digital) is 15 stories about queer witches of color, some more magical than others, all of them accessible and engaging and evocative. I don't know if I've ever truly liked every story in an anthology before this one, and that alone makes this volume a stand-out. Lest this turn into an incoherent episode of fan-girling, I'm going to bullet this out:
In short, it's obvious why this beautiful, inspiring, comforting, heart-achingly real yet magical anthology won an award. I can't wait to read the second.
When the heroic princess Amira rescues the kind-hearted princess Sadie from her tower prison, neither expects to find a true friend in the bargain. Yet as they adventure across the kingdom, they discover that they bring out the very best in the other person. They’ll need to join forces and use all the know-how, kindness, and bravery they have in order to defeat their greatest foe yet: a jealous sorceress, who wants to get rid of Sadie once and for all. Join Sadie and Amira, two very different princesses with very different strengths, on their journey to figure out what “happily ever after” really means--and how they can find it with each other.
Quick note to say that we've rated this as PG13 because that's as low as we go BUT it's really an "all-ages" comic, recommended for 3rd grade and up.
In Pumpkinheads, beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell and Eisner Award–winning artist Faith Erin Hicks have teamed up to create this tender and hilarious story about two irresistible teens discovering what it means to leave behind a place―and a person―with no regrets.
Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends.Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world. (Not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is.) They say good-bye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September 1.
But this Halloween is different―Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last good-bye.
Josiah’s ready to spend the whole night feeling melancholy about it. Deja isn’t ready to let him. She’s got a plan: What if―instead of moping and the usual slinging lima beans down at the Succotash Hut―they went out with a bang? They could see all the sights! Taste all the snacks! And Josiah could finally talk to that cute girl he’s been mooning over for three years . . .What if their last shift was an adventure?
Hitting the road on a journey of self discovery and acceptance, this coming-of-age tale gives a backstage look at friendships and the plights of fame as experienced by a modern British rock band.
On the fast track toward fame, the five members of the fictional British rock band, Radio Silence, enter into an exciting new life on the road with their best friends. As they tour across the United Kingdom, they excitedly embrace this new lifestyle and all the resulting challenges, including living in close quarters with each other with little privacy, and the overwhelming reaction of the public to their new-found success.
This comic explores mature themes, such as domestic abuse, self harm, sexism, sexuality, neglect, and life threatening medical conditions. It will also contain swearing and the occasional sexual themes, albeit avoiding being explicit.