I love comics and graphic novels, so what do I do with that love? Well, I turn it into a new feature!
From Panel to Panel is a new feature where I talk about the awesome (and perhaps not-so awesome) comic books and graphic novels I’ve read. Basically, this will be me pushing them onto your laps. You’re welcome.
September has a few comics I’m very excited for. You get graphic novels about strange creatures like guardian spirits and man-animal hybrids on an asteroid, a cop on the moon, a sarcastic teenager in plaid with cupid powers, and much more!
Get your shopping carts loaded with all these comics!
| MIRROR: THE MOUNTAIN TP |
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A mysterious asteroid hosts a collection of strange creatures – man-animal hybrids, mythological creatures made flesh, guardian spirits, cursed shadows – and the humans who brought them to life. But this strange society exists in an uneasy truce, in the aftermath of uprisings seeking freedom and acceptance, that have only ended in tragedy. As the ambitious, the desperate and the hopeful inhabitants of the asteroid struggle to decide their shared fate, a force greater than either animal or human seems to be silently watching the conflict, waiting for either side to finally answer the question: what is worthy of being human?
EMMA RíOS (PRETTY DEADLY, ISLAND) and HWEI LIM (LALAGE, HERO) present MIRROR: THE MOUNTAIN, the first arc of a story about the mage-scientists of The Synchronia and the sentient animals of Irzah colony. — Image Comics
Publication date: September 14, 2016 by Image Comics
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository · Indigo · Comixology
Why I’m excited: Lots of “strange creatures—man-animal hybrids, mythological creatures made flesh, guardian spirits, cursed shadows—“ will inhabit this society, struggling with humans for freedom and acceptance. Oh my god, can you just imagine it? Emma Rios, the artist of Pretty Deadly, is also writing this comic, so I’m excited to see how she tells this awesome sounding story, and how Hwei Lim illustrates it.
| OVER THE GARDEN WALL TOME OF THE UNKNOWN |
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Based on a Emmy Award-winning Cartoon Network miniseries, Wirt and Greg are brothers, lost in a strange and endless wood called the Unknown. To find their way home, they must make it through this eerie place, where their only guides are a sardonic bluebird named Beatrice, and an elderly Woodsman. But as things become stranger and stranger, can they find their way out…alive?
Written by the show creator Pat McHale (ADVENTURE TIME) and illustrated by show storyboarder Jim Campbell, OVER THE GARDEN WALL features tales that fill in the blanks of the critically acclaimed miniseries, making it an essential companion for your own journey into the Unknown! — Boom Studios
Publication date: September 14, 2016 by Boom Studios
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository · Indigo · Comixology
Why I’m excited: I loved Over the Garden Wall, the animated mini-series. It was creepy and delightful. Wirt and Greg filled me with so much joy as they navigated the strange land in the Unknown. I’m hoping it translate well in comic version.
| MOONCOP |
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The lunar colony is slowly winding down, like a small town circumvented by a new super highway. As our hero, the Mooncop, makes his daily rounds, his beat grows ever smaller, the population dwindles. A young girl runs away, a dog breaks off his leash, an automaton wanders off from the Museum of the Moon.
Mooncop is equal parts funny and melancholy. capturing essential truths about humanity and making this a story of the past, present, and future, all in one. Like his Guardian and New Scientist strips, as well as his previous graphic novel, Goliath, Mooncop is told with Tom Gauld’s distinctive, matter-of-fact storytelling and dry humor ― an approach that has earned him fans around the world. — Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date: September 20, 2016 by Drawn & Quarterly
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository · Indigo
Why I’m excited: Let’s take a moment, so I can shout MOONCOP! A police officer on the moon! What happens when everybody starts leaving this moon colony? What happens to this cop? How does he cope? I’ve heard excellent things about the writing in this. Heard it was sweet, and a bit melancholy with dry humor. (What I like to read!)
| JONESY |
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A sarcastic teenager with the powers of cupid unleashes her preternatural matchmaking abilities on her school with hilarious and charming results.
Jonesy is a self-described “cool dork” who spends her time making zines nobody reads, watching anime, and listening to riot grrrl bands and 1D simultaneously. But she has a secret nobody knows. She has the power to make people fall in love! Anyone. With anything. She’s a cupid in plaid. With a Tumblr. There’s only one catch—it doesn’t work on herself. She’s gonna have to find love the old-fashioned way, and in the meantime, figure out how to distract herself from the real emotions she inevitably has to face when her powers go wrong…
Written by Sam Humphries and illustrated by Caitlin Rose Boyle, this charming tale is sure to appeal to romantics and cynics alike.– Boom! Studios
Publication date: September 28, 2016 (at LCBS), but October 4 (for online retailers) by Boom! Studios
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository · Indigo · Comixology
Why I’m excited: Oh man, a sarcastic teenager in plaid with cupid powers? I know we’re in for a treat with that. Just imagine all her snark and the couples she tries to bring together and the possibility of her powers going wrong.
| MIGHTY JACK |
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Jack might be the only kid in the world who’s dreading summer. But he’s got a good reason: summer is when his single mom takes a second job and leaves him at home to watch his autistic kid sister, Maddy. It’s a lot of responsibility, and it’s boring, too, because Maddy doesn’t talk. Ever. But then, one day at the flea market, Maddy does talk—to tell Jack to trade their mom’s car for a box of mysterious seeds. It’s the best mistake Jack has ever made.
What starts as a normal little garden out back behind the house quickly grows up into a wild, magical jungle with tiny onion babies running amok, huge, pink pumpkins that bite, and, on one moonlit night that changes everything…a dragon. — First Second
Publication date: September 6, 2016 by First Second
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository · Indigo
Why I’m excited: Jack and the Beanstalk! It isn’t exactly like the fairytale; it’s been reimagined for the modern audience! It’s a creative reimaginng, and it has pretty cute art! Perfect for young readers. You can read more about why you should read Mighty Jack here!
SPECIAL MENTIONS: Lumberjanes to Max Edition Volume 2 HC, Batman Arkham Poison Ivy, Robin Son of Batman • Vol. 1: Year of Blood, Saints: The Book of Blaise, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Volume 1, Constantine The Hellblazer • Vol. 2: The Art of the Deal, From Under the Mountains, Captain America: Sam Wilson • Vol. 2: Standoff
Mirror: The Mountain has a very striking cover! I like the art style on it. And I think the story sounds weird and fascinating and intriguing! Might have to pick that one up ;)