- Bitch Planet
- Giant Days
- Monstress
- Ms. Marvel
- ODY-C
Now go read them.
Just kidding! So all of these are currently ongoing series. This means that they will have new issues coming out. You will have to wait longest for ODY-C because it is currently on hiatus and Matt Fraction has promised us 12 more issues. Why exactly twelve? Well I’ll tell you in a second, or an hour, or you can skip down to the ODY-C segment at the end. I chose ongoing-series in case anyone out there is interested in starting a pull list. Because these are established series, I recommend grabbing the first trades and then picking up floppies after that.
Also, all of these should be available at your local library or local comic book shop as they are not obscure titles. I picked rather widely published books, aka from the major comics publishers, because of that accessibility and, depending on your familiarity with comics, it can be hard to decide what in the “indie” world, Kickstarters or zines, interests you. If you already know, great! I also chose to exclude webcomics because in many cases people are already familiar with the medium because of memes, xkcd, and Penny Arcade. This means that when people ask me for comics recommendations they mean stuff from the floppies -> trade paperback pipeline.
The above are not meant to be read as a “best to less best” list. Each of the titles rotates to bottom of my reading list, for savoring until the end. These are also all things I currently read and collect (except for Monstress on which I am behind and my partner Mychal called dibs on for collecting but I recommend regardless).
Bitch Planet
writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick | artists: Valentine De Landro and Robert Wilson IV | colorist: Kelly Fitzpatrick | letterer: Clayton Cowles | logo and cover designer: Rian Hughes | editor: Lauren Sankovitch | backmatter and design consultant: Laurenn McCubbin | stylist and research assistant: Dani V
Synopsis: Non-compliant women are arrested and sent to a prison planet. What makes you non-compliant? Basically anything a man takes offense with.
Why do I love this book recommend it: Now more than ever we need books like this. Science fiction like Bitch Planet regularly exposes and critiques the faults in our society allowing us to discuss them in a safe space. Additionally, the creators do an extremely thorough job with their research, taking the time to bring all sorts of intersectional feminist issues to bear in technicolor. This is not a book we want, its one we need.
Giant Days
writers: John Allison | illustrators: Lissa Treiman and Max Sarin | colorist: Whitney Cogar | letterer: Jim Campbell
Synopsis: Three first year university students become fast friends.
Why do I love this book recommend it: Its funny and exceptionally down to earth. The characters are people you know. You might not have been friends with them but you know them. It’s not gritty but doesn’t flippantly deal with serious issues. One of the character is training to be an archaeologists too, which doesn’t hurt. I also occasionally forget that it’s set in the UK because the situations have so much applicability to anyone attending university.
Monstress
writer: Marjorie M. Liu | artist: Sana Takeda | lettering and design: Rus Wooton | editor: Jennifer M. Smith | editorial assistant: Ceri Riley
Synopsis: This high fantasy world where an ongoing tension between two kingdoms threatens their world.
Why do I love this book recommend it: Mychal first saw this so got dibs on collecting the individual issues but honestly it’s just an amazing work. There is a great discussion of the issue and variation of being mixed-race, though in fantasy rather than in reality. The art is fantastic and creates a fully immersive world that draws from Asian fantasy genres and designs that people familiar with Manga will find familiar but rests more easily on a balance between a blend of Asian and European aesthetics.
Ms. Marvel
writer: G. Willow Wilson | editor: Sana Amanat | artists: Adrian Alphona, Sara Pichelli, Jacob Wyatt, Takeshi Miyazawa
Synopsis: Comics superfan gets what they’ve always wanted: superpowers. Now what do you with those in Jersey City?
Why do I love this book recommend it: It’s got enough interactions with other superheroes to make their well developed appearances meaningful and has avoided since it started most crossovers. Its full of great references and heartfelt discussions about relationships and identity. It got all the superhero punching you could want and new villains that fit with our modern world and modern problems balanced expertly with genuine interpersonal moments that keep you coming back.
ODY-C
writer: Matt Fraction | artist: Christian Ward |
Synopsis: It’s the Grecian epic The Odyssey but in space and also, Zeus burned all men in existence to death and created Sebex so that women could procreate sans the dudebros.
Why do I love this book recommend it: I love this comic so much I wear the first cover as tights. And well, I recommend it because it’s freaking awesome. Every issue is a psychedelic Grecian inspired righting of a historical wrong and it’s written in hexameter and Limerick as an ode original Homeric presentation styles. It’s a dense worthwhile book and is really the only version of the ODY-C I want to recommend to people, as it has keeps the core of the story without being horrible to women. There will be 12 more issues to round out the cycle following the chapters in the Homeric form. Also the first issue had an 18 page opening spread.
My hope is that based on this recommendation list one of these will be something that you enjoy. I try to give a breadth of genre to deconstruct one of the most common comics myths. Aka it has never been, and never will be, just superheroes. Any time you think that, remember Sunday comics, political cartoons, manga, and Archie. Reading broadly genre-wise in comics is also key to finding what you want to read in a particular moment. Sometimes a book doesn’t work for you, and that’s fine, but there’s lots to read comics-wise so I guarantee there’s something for you.
