Nine New Graphic Novels To Put On Your List

by Kate Beaton

With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush—part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can’t find it in the homeland they love so much. Beaton encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed.

by Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger

Dr. Amal Robardin, a Lebanese immigrant and a therapist in training, finds herself out of her depth when her first client, Yasmin, a schizophrenic, is visited by a nightly malevolent presence that seems all too real. Yasmin becomes obsessed with Robert Chambers’ classic horror story collection The King in Yellow. Messages she finds in the book lead Yasmin to disappear, seeking answers she can’t find in therapy. Amal attempts to retrace her patient’s last steps—and accidentally slips through dimensions, ending up in Carcosa, realm of the King in Yellow. Determined to find her way out, Amal enlists the help of a mysterious guide. Can Amal save Yasmin? Or are they both trapped forever?

by Kelcey Ervick

Growing up playing on a top national soccer team in the 1980s, Kelcey Ervick and her teammates didn’t understand the change they represented. Title IX was enacted in 1972 with little fanfare, but to seismic effect; between then and now, girls’ participation in organized sports has exploded more than 1,000 percent. Braiding together personal narrative, pop culture, literature, and history, Ervick tells the story of how her adolescence was shaped by this boom. 

by Elizabeth A. Trembley

Have you ever experienced a terror, grief, or confusion so great that when you try to share it you can only find shattered images floating in darkness? Look Again presents us with six variations of the same event, seen through the different lenses caused by other life revelations. It explores the fragmenting nature of trauma by tracing the convoluted evolution of the author’s story, a process often experienced by trauma sufferers and their loved ones.

by Arnold Arre

Halina Mitchell is half-Filipino, half-American. She's also a native New Yorker—sophisticated, beautiful, and confident. On her first visit to the Philippines, she arrives in Manila to reconnect with relatives only to encounter a world of surprises that turn all her assumptions on their head. With the intrepid film critic Cris as her guide, she discovers a Manila that few others get to see!

by Emma Ahlqvist

Emma Ahlqvist's graphic memoir about the birth and early moments of raising her first child is a wry and resonant portrayal of both the challenges and excitement of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and embracing the experience of motherhood. Ahlqvist considers everything from lactation woes to anxieties about late-stage capitalism and global warming, with drawings centered on the gendered division of labor, her efforts to maintain a professional and artistic life after having a baby, and the genuine rewards of bringing a child into the world.

by Malaka Gharib

An intimate graphic memoir about an American girl growing up with her Egyptian father's new family, forging unexpected bonds and navigating adolescence in an unfamiliar country.

by Nick Drnaso

Ten strangers attend an acting class taught by John Smith, a mysterious and morally questionable leader, and as the class demands increasing devotion, the line between real life and imagination begins to blur, and the group's deepest fears and desires are laid bare.

by Yugo Limbo

It's 1973, the town of Baths, cozy middle-of-nowhere American heartland. Traveling musician Wegg rolls in, content to busk for a beat and be on his merry way once more. That is, until he meets Mr. Neighbor, the disarmingly sweet man made of cloth who offers him company and a place to stay. As the two grow closer, they click together just right. Yet their growing romance is haunted by uncertainty and mystery...There's the town itself, plagued by repeated, ritualistic murders by the elusive Baths Heartbreaker. Then there's Neighbor, whose cheerful demeanor never falters, but who disappears like clockwork every month. And Wegg, who lives as though he's on borrowed time—what exactly is he afraid will catch up to him? A twisting graphic novel of love and deceit, all threaded together with lush psychedelia, folk horror, and a heaping helping of mirth. Turns out, sometimes the best way to conquer your past is to find a future.