65 of the most anticipated graphic novels for Winter 2020

As 2020 kicks off, get ready for another year of graphic novels that cover every topic imaginable – and some you never even thought of. Whether you geek out on DC superheroes, follow the dramas of Archie and his gang, or seek out more serious slice-of-life or literary reads, there is something for everyone as we dive into a look at 65 highly-anticipated graphic novels for winter 2020 (January-March).

The year starts off with a bang with bestselling YA authors Shannon and Dean Hale and artist Victoria Ying taking on Wonder Woman, with Diana, Princess of the Amazons, and continues with new books from Gene Luen Yang, Gabrielle Bell, Lucy Knisley and John Pham, non-fiction books about Bruce Lee, the sinking of the Titanic and the Attica prison revolt, Isabel Greenberg’s take on the Brontë family, a 10th anniversary edition of the much loved Perry Bible Fellowship anthology, Noelle Stevenson’s first collection of her non-fiction comics and, as always, more. Whew! Are you excited yet? Some of these books are sure to loom large in awards season and when we compile our next Best Of lists.

Without further ado, here are new and upcoming graphic novels for winter 2020 to check out, listed in order of release date.

JANUARY

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Diana, Princess of the Amazons

Writers: Shannon & Dean Hale
Artist: Victoria Ying
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: Jan. 1 (Comic Shops), Jan. 7 (Bookstores)
List Price: $9.99

Cut off from the rest of the world, Diana had an idyllic childhood on Themyscira. But now 11-years-old, she’s beginning to feel more and more isolated. Though she has many “aunties” and a loving mother, she is an only child. THE only child, in fact. After an escapade goes wrong, Queen Hippolyta chastises Diana for not living up to the Amazon standard. Diana just can’t seem to measure up, no matter what she does! Literally every other person on the island is an adult proficient in their trade and mighty in body, while she is gangly, sometimes clumsy, and not particularly proficient in anything. She’s not Wonder Woman yet. What Diana needs is a friend; someone her own age whom she can talk to. But when she decides to take matters into her own hands—she may just make a monster instead.

Wonder Woman: Warbringer (The Graphic Novel)

Created By: Leigh Bardugo
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Kit Seaton
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: Jan. 1 (Comic Shops), Jan. 7 (Bookstores)
List Price: $16.99

She will become one of the world’s greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. Based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Leigh Bardugo, this graphic novel adaptation brings to life Diana’s first adventure beyond the hidden shores of Themyscira.

Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns, and Moonage Daydreams

Writers: Michael Allred & Steve Horton
Artist: Laura Allred
Publisher: Insight Comics
Release Date: Jan. 7
List Price: $39.99

BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams chronicles the rise of Bowie’s career from obscurity to fame; and paralleled by the rise and fall of his alter ego as well as the rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust. As the Spiders from Mars slowly implode, Bowie wrestles with his Ziggy persona. The outcome of this internal conflict will change not only David Bowie, but also, the world.

British Ice

 

Cartoonist: Owen D. Pomery
Publisher: Top Shelf
Release Date: Jan. 7
List Price: $14.99

Working for the British High Commission, Harrison Fleet is posted to a remote arctic island which is still, inexplicably, under British rule. As he struggles to understand why, and what interests he is protecting, Harrison learns just how much of the land and its community lies in the shadow cast by the outpost’s founder. Caught between hostile locals, the British Government, and an unforgiving physical environment, he begins dragging dark secrets into the light, unaware of the tragic repercussions they will cause. And help is very, very far away.

Constantly

Cartoonist: GG
Publisher: Koyama
Release Date: Jan. 7
List Price: $10.00

A poetic meditation rendered in beautiful pastels and black line on managing and struggling to get through the small tasks of every day. The claustrophobia of thought and the crippling of anxiety make any house haunted, any body possessed.

Third World War: Book One

Writer: Pat Mills
Artists: Carlos Ezquerra, Angela Kincaid, D’Israeli
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: Jan. 7
List Price: $24.99

Eve is unemployed after leaving university and is immediately conscripted as a soldier working for a corporation and discovers just how South American countries are being exploited to create food needed to feed the increasing population for their profit under the guise of western paternalism.

Go With The Flow

Writers: Lily Williams & Karen Schneemann
Artist: Lily Williams
Colorists: Kaley Bales, Lily Williams, Karen Schneemann
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Jan. 14
List Price: $14.99

Sophomores Abby, Brit, Christine, and Sasha are fed up. Hazelton High never has enough tampons. Or pads. Or adults who will listen. Sick of an administration that puts football before female health, the girls confront a world that shrugs—or worse, squirms—at the thought of a menstruation revolution. They band together to make a change. It’s no easy task, especially while grappling with everything from crushes to trig to JV track but they have each other’s backs. That is, until one of the girls goes rogue, testing the limits of their friendship and pushing the friends to question the power of their own voices.

The Homestuck Epilogues: Volume Meat/Volume Candy

Cartoonist: Andrew Hussie
Publisher: Viz Media
Release Date: Jan. 14
List Price: $34.99

Ten years ago, a young man stood in his bedroom. The events set in motion that day would change his and his friends’ lives forever, for the better and the worse (and the ridiculous). Now, in the aftermath, he must make a choice: Meat or Candy?

Persona 5, Volume 1

Cartoonist: Hisato Murasaki
Publisher: Viz Media
Release Date: Jan. 14
List Price: $9.99

Akira Kurusu thought he was doing the right thing when he rescued a woman who was being attacked. Expelled from his school and sent away from home, he is reenrolled in Shujin Academy on probation. Trouble finds him again on his first day when he comes across delinquent Ryuji Sakamoto and the two somehow stumble into a castle in an alternate reality. Caught by the castle’s king, the schoolteacher Kamoshida, Akira discovers his will to rebel and awakens the power of his Persona!

Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker — The Manga

Created By: Ken Liu
Cartoonists: Akira Himekawa, Haruichi, Subaru, Akira Fukaya, and Takashi Kisaki
Publisher: Viz Media
Release Date: Jan. 14
List Price: $14.99

Who is Luke Skywalker? Across the galaxies many have heard his name, but few have met the legendary Jedi. There are those who call him a merciless war criminal, others say he’s not even a human, but a droid! Whether he is myth or man, those who claim they’ve encountered the elusive Luke Skywalker all have an unforgettable adventure to share.

The Strange Ones

Cartoonist: Jeremy Jusay
Publisher: Gallery 13
Release Date: Jan. 14
List Price: $19.99

Anjeline walks with an open heart, but alone, through a world that consistently rejects her; Franck, another loner, never smiles. After the hand of fate literally shoves them together in the roiling mosh pit at a Midtown rock concert, they bond over the long commute back to Staten Island, and begin a friendship that makes the world a little better for them both. Together, this strange pair turns the sharp-edged, gloomy New York City into their playground…even as pain and heartbreak await around the corner.

Bob Marley In Comics!

Writer: Sophie Blitman
Artist: Gaet’s
Publisher: NBM Publishing
Release Date: Jan. 15
List Price: $27.99

In the middle of a depressing youth in a ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica, Robert Nesta Marley sees only one way out: music. And that music will be what Jamaica made of rock and pop locally that had hardly been heard anywhere else: reggae! It is Marley who brings the unmistakable beat of reggae to the entire world. From small stages in Jamaica, his partners, The Wailers, accompany him all the way to the most fabulous world tours and adulation. In addition to a rocketing musical career, the most famous rasta wants to shake things up and proclaim his humanitarian and egalitarian values.

Green Lantern: Legacy

Writer: Minh Le
Artist: Andie Tong
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: Jan. 15 (Comic Shops), Jan. 21 (Bookstores)
List Price: $9.99

Thirteen-year-old Tai Pham lives in the apartment above his grandmother’s store, where his bedroom is crammed with sketchpads and comic books. But not even his most imaginative drawings could compare to the colorful adventure he’s about to embark on. When Tai inherits his grandmother’s jade ring, he soon finds out it’s more than it appears. Suddenly he’s being inducted into a group of space cops known as the Green Lanterns, his neighborhood is being overrun by some racist bullies, and every time he puts pen to paper, he’s forced to confront that he might not be creative enough or strong enough to uphold his ba’s legacy…will he learn to soar above his insecurities or will the past keep him grounded?

A History of Women Cartoonists

Cartoonist: Mira Falardeau
Publisher: Mosaic Press
Release Date: Jan. 15
List Price: $24.99

Mira Falardeau looks at the work of great women artists and their experiences in the industry to reveal advice and positive encouragement for future cartoonists. Heavily illustrated with cartoons and artwork from many of the best in the field, History of Women Cartoonists also asks serious questions about why there have been so few women cartoonists in the field of visual humor and if the digital age is opening more opportunities for female humorists in the future.

Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence

Cartoonist: Joel Christian Gill
Publisher: Oni Press
Release Date: Jan. 20
List Price: $19.99

Fights is the visceral and deeply affecting memoir of artist/author Joel Christian Gill, chronicling his youth and coming of age as a Black child in a chaotic landscape of rough city streets and foreboding backwoods.

A Letter To Jo

Writer: Joseph Sieracki
Artist: Kelly Williams
Publisher: Top Shelf
Release Date: Jan. 20
List Price: $19.99

This unforgettable graphic novel presents the gripping firsthand account of a Polish American machine gunner in World War II, adapted from a genuine letter home from the author’s own grandfather.

Ed Piskor: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition

Cartoonist: Ed Piskor
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Jan. 21
List Price: $150.00

Ed Piskor: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition highlights the work of this Eisner Award-winning cartoonist, focusing on his two best-known series: Hip Hop Family Tree and X-Men: Grand Design. In addition to excerpts from these two major comics projects, this impressive tome features dozens of other gems from Piskor’s archives, including commercial art, designs for a line of Public Enemy action figures, and much more.

Year of the Rabbit

Cartoonist: Tian Veasna
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Release Date: Jan. 21
List Price: $29.95

Cartoonist Tian Veasna was born just three days after the Khmer Rouge takeover, as his family set forth on the chaotic mass exodus from Phnom Penh. Year of the Rabbit is based on firsthand accounts, all told from the perspective of his parents and other close relatives. Stripped of any money or material possessions, Veasna’s family found themselves exiled to the barren countryside along with thousands of others, where food was scarce and brutal violence a constant threat.

Stranger Things: Zombie Boys

Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Valeria Favoccia
Colorist: Dan Jackson
Letterer: Nate Piékos
Cover Artist: Ron Chan
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: Jan. 22
List Price: $10.99

School is back in session in the normally quiet town of Hawkins, Indiana. Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Will are still grappling with the traumatic encounters with the Demogorgon and the Upside Down in season one of the hit Netflix series. As tensions rise and fractures begin to form in the group, a new kid shows up to AV club with a Betamax Camcorder and an idea. The new Spielberg-wannabe friend, Joey Kim, wants to make a horror movie about a local legend, but when he sees Will’s drawings, he discovers that his new friends are local legends.

Almost American Girl

Cartoonist: Robin Ha
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Release Date: Jan. 28
List Price: $22.99

A powerful and moving teen graphic novel memoir about immigration, belonging, and how arts can save a life—perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and Hey, Kiddo. For as long as she can remember, it’s been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn’t always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together. So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation—following her mother’s announcement that she’s getting married—Robin is devastated. Then one day Robin’s mother enrolls her in a local comic drawing class, which opens the window to a future Robin could never have imagined. 

J&K

Cartoonist: John Pham
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Jan. 28
List Price: $39.99

The story of two idiots trying to navigate the modern world, told in comics, posters, stickers, and even a little vinyl record! These simple-seeming comics stories weave in and out, with unexpectedly sad twists and hilarious turns; imagine Seinfeld mixed with Peanuts. J & K is also a singular art object unto itself. As Jay and Kay routinely reference pop culture, these cute, sad little artifacts are made real in the collection and will be included as separate extras and inserts. Pham combines his a gorgeous, big-foot cartooning and brilliant use of color with his innate grasp of printing, packaging, and graphic design. This book calls to mind the work of Chris Ware while completely staking out new ground in contemporary art.

The Man Without Talent

Cartoonist: Yoshiharu Tsuge
Publisher: New York Review Comics
Release Date: Jan. 28
List Price: $22.95

Swearing off cartooning as a profession, Tsuge takes on a series of unconventional jobs—used-camera salesman, ferryman, stone collector—hoping to find success among the hucksters, speculators, and deadbeats he does business with. Instead, he fails again and again, unable to provide for his family, earning only their contempt and his own. The result is a dryly funny look at the pitfalls of the creative life, and an off-kilter portrait of modern Japan. Accompanied by an essay from the translator Ryan Holmberg which discusses Tsuge’s importance in comics and Japanese literature, The Man Without Talent is one of the great works of comics literature.

The Parable of the Sower

Created By: Octavia Butler
Writer:Damian Duffy
Artist: John Jennings
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Release Date: Jan. 28
List Price: $24.99

In the year 2024, the country is marred by unattended environmental and economic crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher’s daughter living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her gated community. However, in a night of fire and death, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny . . . and the birth of a new faith.

Spring Rain: A Graphic Memoir of Love, Madness and Revolutions

Cartoonist: Andy Warner
Publisher: Griffin
Release Date: Jan. 28
List Price: $19.99

In 2005 Andy Warner travelled to Lebanon to study literature in Beirut, one of the world’s most cosmopolitan and storied cities. Twenty-one years old and recently broken up from his girlfriend, Warner feels his life is both intense and directionless. Immersing himself in the vibrant and diverse city, he quickly befriends a group of LGBT students, many of whom are ex-pats straddling different cultures and embracing the freedoms of the multicultural city. Warner and his friends party, do drugs, and hook up, even as violence breaks out in the city—the scars of a fifteen-year civil war reopening with a series of political assassinations and bombings. As the city descends into chaos and violence, Warner feels his grasp on reality slowly begin to slip as he confronts traumas in his past and anxiety over his future. 

The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack (10th Anniversary Edition)

Cartoonist: Nicholas Gurewitch
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Release Date: Jan. 29 (Comic Shops), Feb. 11 (Bookstores)
List Price: $24.99

Celebrate 10 years of Perry Bible Fellowship with this comprehensive collection of PBF comics, sketches, and more! Collects every Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip released between 2004 and 2007 including previously unseen comics and Nicholas Gurewitch’s PBF sketch book. This newly formatted 7″ x 10″ Almanack features every PBF comic strip which ran in alternative newspapers between 2004 and 2007–and simultaneously exploded online during the internet’s golden age! In commemoration of 10 years since its initial printing, this Almanack also contains content that is unavailable anywhere else, including previously undiscovered PBF comics from the era and numerous sketches for comics that never came to be.

FEBRUARY

Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier

Writer: Jim Ottiavani
Artist: Maris Wicks
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Feb. 4
List Price: $19.99

The U.S. may have put the first man on the moon, but it was the Soviet space program that made Valentina Tereshkova the first woman in space. It took years to catch up, but soon NASA’s first female astronauts were racing past milestones of their own. The trail-blazing women of Group 9, NASA’s first mixed gender class, had the challenging task of convincing the powers that be that a woman’s place is in space, but they discovered that NASA had plenty to learn about how to make space travel possible for everyone.

The Boy Who Became a Dragon: A Biography of Bruce Lee

Cartoonist: Jim Di Bartolo
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: Feb. 4
List Price: $14.99

The astonishing story of martial arts legend Bruce Lee . . . told in spectacular graphic form. Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940 – in both the hour and the year of the dragon. Almost immediately, he was plunged into conflict: as a child in Hong Kong as it was invaded and occupied by the Japanese; as the object of discrimination and bullying; and as a teenager grappling against the influence of gangs. As the world knows, Lee found his salvation and calling through kung fu – first as a student, then as a teacher, and finally as a global star. The Boy Who Became a Dragon tells his story in brilliant comic form.

I Survived The Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 (I Survived Graphic Novels)

Adapted By: Georgia Ball
Writer: Lauren Tarshis
Artist: Haus Studio
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: Feb. 4
List Price: $10.99

A thrilling graphic novel adaptation of Lauren Tarshis’s bestselling I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912! Ten-year-old George Calder can’t wait to explore every inch of the Titanic, even if his little sister, Phoebe, has to tag along. But when George sneaks away without her and ventures into the first class baggage room, a terrible boom shakes the entire boat. Suddenly, water is everywhere, and George’s life changes forever…

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: The Legend of the Fire Princess

Created By: Noelle Stevenson
Writer: Gigi D.G.
Artist: Paulina Ganucheau
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: Feb. 4
List Price: $24.99 (hardcover), $12.99 (paperback)

Even after everything that’s happened, the world outside the Horde’s walls is still a strange one to Adora. Each day she’s learning more about her growing powers as She-Ra, including something new: the ability to heal corrupted runestones. Runestones are the magical source from which princesses like Frosta, Mermista, and Perfuma draw their power, but Glimmer knows of another runestone — one with a dark past. Long ago a fire princess ruled the lands to the west, until her thirst for power corrupted her, and led to the ruin of her kingdom. Glimmer thinks the lost fire runestone could give the Rebellion an edge in the fight against the Horde, but claiming this ancient power won’t be easy… especially not when the Horde has their eyes set on the same prize.

Why Did We Trust Him?

Cartoonist: Shannon Wheeler
Publisher: Top Shelf
Release Date:Feb. 4
List Price: $14.99

Wheeler demonstrates what won him a couple of Eisner Awards with a more personal set of single panel comics. Relationships, social norms, cats, dogs, food, and himself, are all targets of his urbane wit. It’s a gem of a book.

Sports Is Hell

Cartoonist: Ben Passmore
Publisher: Koyama
Release Date: Feb. 5
List Price: $15.00

Some wars are for religion and some are for political belief, but this one is for football. After her city wins the Super Bowl for the first time, Tea is separated from her friend during a riot and joins a small clique fighting its way through armed groups of football fanatics to meet a star receiver that just might end the civil war or become the city’s new oppressive leader.

Beyond the Clouds

Cartoonist: Nicke
Publisher: Kodansha
Release Date: Feb. 11
List Price: $12.99

A boy with a talent for machines and a the mysterious girl whose wings he’s fixed will take you past the ordinary. In the tradition of the high-flying, resonant adventure stories of Studio Ghibli comes a gorgeous tale about the longing of young hearts for adventure and friendship! Young Theo works as a mechanic, putting his knack for machines to use in the industrialized city where he lives. But when he finds an injured, amnesiac girl with wings, his life changes forever. Her name is Mia, and although Theo’s talents make quick work of repairing her injured wing, their quest to find her home will take them beyond the clouds and further than they would ever have imagined.

Goblin Girl

Cartoonist: Moa Romanova
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 11
List Price: $24.99

Moa is in crisis. Suffering from increasing panic attacks and depression, she continues to withdraw from everything and everyone around her. In the midst of this, she meets an older man online— a public figure who offers his financial and emotional support as a patron of her art. But this seemingly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity soon proves to be just as fraught as the rest of her life.

The Golden Age

Writers: Roxanne Moreil & Cyril Pedrosa
Artist: Cyril Pedrosa
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Feb. 11
List Price: $19.99

A medieval saga with political intrigue reminiscent of Game of Thrones, The Golden Age is an epic graphic novel duology from Roxanne Moreil and Cyril Pedrosa about utopia and revolution.

In Pieces: Someplace Which I Can Call Home

Cartoonist: Kirk Ankenny
Publisher: Adhouse Books
Release Date: Feb. 11
List Price: $25.00

In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home is Kurt Ankeny’s debut graphic novel. A series of short meditative vignettes which are by turns comedic, poetic, or absurd reveals the personality of the small New England town where he lived for five years with his family. 

Original Art: Daniel Clowes (The Fantagraphics Studio Edition)

Cartoonists: Daniel Clowes
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Feb. 11
List Price: $175.00

Original Art: Daniel Clowes turns the spotlight on one of the medium’s most dynamic creators. A vital entry of the Fantagraphics Studio Edition series, this volume draws from Clowes’s nearly 30 years of comics art, ranging from his seminal one-man anthology, Eightball (in which Ghost World was originally serialized), to his most recent graphic novel, 2016’s best-selling time travel thriller, Patience. The edition features over 150 pages of art from 1989–present, each reproduced as exact facsimiles of the original to best showcase every detail of the artist’s cartooning process. The book also includes new covers, endpapers, and other surprises from Clowes, including five unpublished pages of an abandoned graphic novel and an illustrated glossary of obsolete production techniques used for their original publication.

750cc Down Lincoln Highway

Cartoonists: Barroux & Bernard Chambaz
Publisher: NBM Publishing
Release Date: Feb. 17
List Price: $12.99

“I hate marathons. Hate running. An hour before the start, I received a text. Instead of ‘Good luck,’ it was ‘We’re finished.’ So, I went to a bar next to the subway on 96th. Had a few bourbons with some other mope. Then I got on a bike and took off down the old Lincoln Highway.” Forget Route 66. This is the original cross-country highway that takes you through REAL America, the first to cross all of the US from the Big Apple to the City on the Bay. This is THE road trip. On a 750cc bike.

Big Black: Stand at Attica

Writers: Frank “Big Black” Smith & Jared Reinmuth
Artist: Ameziane
Publisher: Archaia
Release Date: Feb. 18
List Price: $19.99

In the summer of 1971, the New York’s Attica State Prison is a symbol of everything broken in America – abused prisoners, rampant racism and a blind eye turned towards the injustices perpetrated on the powerless. But when the guards at Attica overreact to a minor incident, the prisoners decide they’ve had enough – and revolt against their jailers, taking them hostage and making demands for humane conditions. Frank “Big Black” Smith finds himself at the center of this uprising, struggling to protect hostages, prisoners and negotiators alike. But when the only avenue for justice seems to be negotiating with ambitious Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Big Black soon discovers there may be no hope in finding a peaceful resolution for the prisoners in Attica.

Downfall

Cartoonist: Inio Asano
Publisher: Viz Signature
Release Date: Feb. 18
List Price: $14.99

Selling copies is the only thing that matters. So what if your first series just ended and you have no idea how to start the next one, your marriage is breaking up, your pure love of manga has been destroyed by the cruel reality of the industry and nothing seems to fill the sucking void inside you…Find the secret combo for a new hit manga series and everything will be okay. Right?

Becoming Horses

Cartoonist: Disa Wallander
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Release Date: Feb. 25
List Price: $22.95

Sometimes I dream about myself
and in my dream I’m someone else
But also, I am me
becoming the horse that I want to be.

Was it always like this? What if your self portrait was a collection of weird shapes? Have you ever felt like an abstract painting? Do you ever simultaneously wish and worry that the boundaries of your body will melt away and you’ll become a magnificent horse? Becoming Horses is a book about squinting hard and looking from the right angle to find that everything around you sparkles—just a little—and the shapes of things are not firm but fuzzy. The You you know may shift and take form as a beautiful horse, a sunset, or something so special, so huge that you could never describe it.

Go to Sleep (I Miss You): Cartoons from the Fog of New Parenthood

Cartoonist: Lucy Knisley
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Feb. 25
List Price: $14.99

Lucy Knisley is one of the great memoirists of the graphic novel format. Following the completion of her pregnancy memoir Kid Gloves (and the birth of her baby), Lucy embarked on a new project: documenting new motherhood in short, spontaneous little cartoons, which she posted on her Instagram, and which quickly gained her a huge cult following among other moms. The best of those wildly popular little cartoons are collected in this adorable gift book, Go to Sleep (I Miss You), a perfect read for expecting parents, new parents, and anyone who loves funny, relatable comics storytelling.

Inappropriate

Cartoonist: Gabrielle Bell
Publisher: Uncivilized Life
Release Date: Feb. 25
List Price: $19.95

Gabrielle Bell returns with Inappropriate, a brilliant new collection of hilarious short stories. Meet Theodor, the human pet. Did you know there’s a third prince the House of Windsor doesn’t want you to know about? Join her on an expedition to find a 46-year-old spider. Oh and there’s a new version of Red Riding Hood… and scores of essential facts about polar bears. Gabrielle Bell revels in skewering modern mores with razor-sharp humor and wry observations. Inappropriate collects Bell’s best short comics form the last several years.

Maker Comics: Grow A Garden

Cartoonist: Alexis Frederick-Frost
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Feb. 25
List Price: $12.99

Will, Violet, and Basil must be the unluckiest students at the Garden Gnome Academy. They’ve been stuck with Mr. Butternut, the school’s most unpopular (and unusual) teacher. Will and his friends have to learn about soil and compost while their classmates get to study exotic plants and butterflies. Although things get a little messy (and stinky) in his class, Mr. Butternut does know a thing or two about growing delicious veggies.

Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs

Cartoonist: Minetaro Mochizuki
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Release Date: Feb. 25
List Price: $19.99

This manga adaptation of the film by legendary director Wes Anderson features a new take on the story about the banished bowsers of trash island. Here we follow a young orphan boy and his dog Spots on an adventure that all fans of the film will want to follow.

MARCH

Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës

Cartoonist: Isabel Greenberg
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Release Date: Mar. 2
List Price: $24.99

A graphic novel about the Brontë siblings, and the strange and marvelous imaginary worlds they invented during their childhood. The story begins in 1825, with the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, the eldest siblings. It is in response to this loss that the four remaining Bront. children set pen to paper and created the fictional world that became known as Glass Town. This world and its cast of characters would come to be the Brontës’ escape from the realities of their lives. Within Glass Town the siblings experienced love, friendship, war, triumph, and heartbreak. Through a combination of quotes from the stories originally penned by the Brontës, biographical information about them, and Greenberg’s vivid comic book illustrations, readers will find themselves enraptured by this fascinating imaginary world.

The Art of Steven Universe: The Movie

Cartoonists: Rebecca Sugar & Ryan Sands
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: Mar. 3
List Price: $18.99

Go behind the scenes of Cartoon Network’s highly anticipated film with this unique art book! This magical deep-dive into Steven Universe The Movie is designed by Ryan Sands (Frontier) in conjunction with Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar! See preliminary character designs, witness the formation of settings and storyboards, and discover the art that shaped the full-length movie! It’s a new kind of artistic adventure with with Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and–of course–Steven.

Blossoms and Bones: Drawing A Life Together

Cartoonist: Kim Krans
Publisher: HarperOne
Release Date: Mar. 3
List Price: $28.99

With pen and paper as her trusted allies, revered visionary artist, spiritual seeker, and bestselling author of The Wild Unknown, Kim Krans chronicles her deeply personal journey of recovery through drawing. After cancelling her flight home to wellness-obsessed Los Angeles, where Krans had been secretly experiencing a debilitating eating disorder, she finds her way to an ashram and seeks spiritual and creative refuge.

For forty days she relies on “drawing the feeling” as a way to realign her relationship to food, addiction, fertility, perfectionism, and the endless messaging of “never enough” echoing throughout current culture. She makes the ashram her home and embarks on the healing process through intricately hand-drawn narration of both her inner and outer worlds, cancelling forthcoming high-profile teaching obligations and international travel. Radical simplification, meditation, community, and creativity bring her through the darkest chapter of her life. What emerges from Krans’ deeply personal undertaking is a raw and beautiful never-before-seen artists’ document that explores what it means to prioritize truth and self-discovery in a world of relentless expectations and distractions. A memoir at its heart, Blossoms and Bones is a lifeline of light and beauty, a call to embrace our creative power, and a courageous example of realigning with one’s destiny.

Familiar Face

Cartoonist: Michael DeForge
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Release Date: Mar. 3
List Price: $21.95

The bodies of citizens and the infrastructure surrounding them is constantly updating. People can’t recognize themselves in old pictures, and they wake up in apartments of completely different sizes and shapes. Commuter routes radically differ day to day. The citizens struggle with adaptability as updates happen too quickly, and the changes are far too radical to be intuitive. There is no way to resist—the updates are enacted by a nameless, faceless force. Familiar Face’s narrator works in the government’s department of complaints, reading through citizens’ reports of the issues they’ve had with the system updates. The job isn’t to fix anything, but rather to be the sole human sounding board, a comfort in a system so decidedly impersonal. These complaints aren’t mere bug reports—they can be anything: existential, petty, just plain heartbreaking.

Fax From Sarajevo

Cartoonist: Joe Kubert
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: Mar. 3
List Price: $19.99

A brand-new edition of the greatest work from comics master Joe Kubert! The astonishing true story of a family in Sarajevo, Bosnia, trapped in a city under siege as war and genocide rage around them, with only a fax machine to communicate. On the receiving end of these faxes from his trapped friend, Kubert brilliantly illustrates their struggle toward freedom against the worst kind of odds. It’s the tale of a very real war, told from the perspective of innocent victims, but it’s also full of strength, survival, and love.

The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir In Pictures

Cartoonist: Noelle Stevenson
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: Mar. 3
List Price: $19.99

In a collection of essays and personal mini-comics that span eight years of her young adult life, author-illustrator Noelle Stevenson charts the highs and lows of being a creative human in the world. Whether it’s hearing the wrong name called at her art school graduation ceremony or becoming a National Book Award finalist for her debut graphic novel, Nimona, Noelle captures the little and big moments that make up a real life, with a wit, wisdom, and vulnerability that are all her own.

The Phantom Twin

Cartoonist: Lisa Brown
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Mar. 3
List Price: $17.99

Isabel and Jane are the Extraordinary Peabody Sisters, conjoined twins in a traveling carnival freak show—until an ambitious surgeon tries to separate them and fails, causing Jane’s death.Isabel has lost an arm and a leg but gained a ghostly companion: Her dead twin is now her phantom limb. Haunted, altered, and alone for the first time, can Isabel build a new life that’s truly her own?

The Book of Forks

Cartoonist: Rob Davis
Publisher: SelfMade Hero
Release Date: Mar. 10
List Price: $19.99

The Motherless Oven and The Can Opener’s Daughter may have raised more questions than they answered, but The Book of Forks explains everything. Castro Smith finds himself imprisoned within the mysterious Power Station, writing his Book of Forks while navigating baffling daily meetings with Poly, a troubled young woman who may be his teacher, his doctor, his prison guard . . . or something else entirely. Meanwhile, back home, Vera and Scarper’s search for their missing friend takes them through the chaotic war zone of the Bear Park and into new and terrifying worlds.

I Think He’s Crazy!: The Art of B.K. Taylor from the Pages of the National Lampoon

Cartoonist: B.K. Taylor
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Mar. 10
List Price: $22.99

For fourteen years, cartoonist B.K. Taylor regaled and baffled the readers of National Lampoon with the good-natured goofiness of his odd suburban family, “The Appletons,” and his innocent cast of Canadians who encountered the outside world and the trials of everyday life in “Timberland Tales.” Now Fantagraphics brings you the complete collection of Taylor’s own special brand of off-center wackiness with I Think He’s Crazy!, showcasing the complete run of “The Appletons,’ “Timberland Tales,” and his other crazy creations. Talyor’s art is richly, realistically, and subversively detailed. 

All My Friends Are Ghosts

Writer: S.M. Vidaurri
Artist: Hannah Krueger
Publisher: Kaboom!
Release Date: Mar. 17
List Price: $14.99

Effie is lost, and feels like a ghost. She skips school because she doesn’t think anyone will notice, and doesn’t feel like she belongs, or that school offers her anything that she wants. Simply, she has stopped trying. One day, when she realizes that no one will notice, she escapes from her every day life… and discovers a ghost school in the nearby woods. But just as she’s beginning to learn all about the amazing things that ghosts can do – like possession, poltergeist-ing, demon magic and more – Effie is asked by her new friends to help track down a mysterious spirit that’s been spotted. But if Effie’s going to succeed, she’ll not only have to show her friends that she’s got something special,but also learn to believe she’s got it too.

The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski

Cartoonist: Noah Van Sciver
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Mar. 17
List Price: $39.99

From the dive bars of Denver, Colorado, to the seedy motels of Columbus, Ohio, Fante Bukowski has lived a literary tradition as identifiable and essential to American writings as it is currently at odds with contemporary mores: a tradition of toxic masculinity, white privilege, Daddy issues, alcoholism, and narcissism, all in the name of art. This landmark volume compiles the trilogy of works that have preserved Bukowski’s legacy—Fante Bukowski, Fante Bukowski Two, and Fante Bukowski Three: A Perfect Failure—as chronicled by acclaimed cartoonist Noah Van Sciver.

DC’s Wanted: The World’s Most Dangerous Supervillains

Cartoonists: Various
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: Mar. 17
List Price: $39.99

One mission. One goal. To take down all the superheroes we know. Take a journey into the dark minds of DC’s most dangerous super-villains! DC’s Wanted: The World’s Most Dangerous Supervillains spotlights not so much the heroes of the DCU, but rather their most notorious foes. Featuring villains such as Signalman, the Puppeteer, Clock King, the Joker, the Mist, Captain Cold and Mr. Who. Follow each one of these super-villians as they plot to destroy the superhero in their path.

Dragon Hoops

Cartoonist: Gene Luen Yang
Publisher: First Second
Release Date: Mar. 17
List Price: $24.99

Gene understands stories—comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn’t get sports. As a kid, his friends called him “Stick” and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it’s all anyone can talk about. The men’s varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that’s been decades in the making. Each victory brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the California State Championships. Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he’s seen on a comic book page. He knows he has to follow this epic to its end. What he doesn’t know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons’s lives, but his own life as well.

Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraka

Cartoonist: Yuji Kaku
Publisher: Viz Signature
Release Date: Mar. 17
List Price: $12.99

Gabimaru the Hollow is one of the most vicious assassins ever to come out of the ninja village of Iwagakure. He’s ruthlessly efficient, but a betrayal results in him being handed a death sentence. He has only one hope—in order to earn his freedom, he must travel to a long-hidden island and recover an elixir that will make the shogun immortal. Failure is not an option. On this island, heaven and hell are just a hair’s breadth away.

The Rough Pearl

Cartoonist: Kevin Mutch
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Release Date: Mar. 17
List Price: $22.99

Thirty-something Adam Kline is an aspiring artist with bleak prospects, stuck in a thankless adjunct teaching gig and married to an ambitious woman tired of supporting his starry-eyed pipe dreams. Just as things seem to be looking up for hapless Adam, he begins to black out at random and awaken in a pitch-dark void surrounded by billions of probing eyes. When these uncanny visions appear in his real life, he starts to worry that he’s losing his mind…In The Rough Pearl, Xeric Award-winning cartoonist Kevin Mutch skewers the pretentious world of academia and the soul-crushing New York art scene — and enlivens this wry, slice of life (and death) tale with a touch of the surreal.

Siberian Haiku

Writer: Jurga Vile
Artist: Lina Itagaki
Publisher: SelfMade Hero
Release Date: Mar. 17
List Price: $25.99

An intense, touching, and informative glimpse into life in exile. One morning in June 1941, a quiet village in Central Lithuania is shaken out of its slumber by the sudden arrival of the Soviet Army. Eight-year-old Algiukas awakes to the sound of Russian soldiers pounding on the door. His family is given 10 minutes to pack up their things. They are not told where they’re going or for how long. An airless freight train carries them from the fertile lands of rural Lithuania to the snowy plains of the Siberian taiga. There, in the distant, dismal North, they begin a life marked by endless hunger and unrelenting cold. And yet the darkness of exile is lightened, for Algiukas, by flights of imagination. Drawing on her father’s exile in Siberia, writer Jurga Vilė brings to light a neglected episode from the history of the Soviet Union. Beautifully drawn by Lina Itagaki, Siberian Haiku uses a child’s perspective to tell an unforgettable story of courage and human endurance.

Umma’s Table

Cartoonist: Yeon-Sik Hong
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Release Date: Mar. 17
List Price: $29.95

Madang is an artist and new father who moves to a quiet home in the countryside with his wife and young baby, excited to build a new life full of hope and joy, complete with a garden and even snow. But soon reality sets in and his attention is divided between his growing happy family and his impoverished parents back in Seoul in a dingy basement apartment. With an ailing mother in and out of the hospital and an alcoholic father, Madang struggles to overcome the exhaustion and frustration of trying to be everything all at once: a good son, devoted father, and loving husband. To cope, he finds himself reminiscing about their family meals together, and particularly his mother’s kimchi, a traditional dish that is prepared by the family and requires months of fermentation Memories of his mother’s glorious cooking—so good it would prompt a young Madang and his brother into song—soothe the family. With her impending death, Madang races to learn her recipes and bring together the three generations at the family table while it’s still possible. A beautiful and thoughtful meditation on how the kitchen and communal cooking—both past, present and future—bind a family together amidst the inevitable.

The Prisoner

Created By: Stephen King
Writers: Robin Furth & Peter David
Artists: Piotr Kowalski & Nick Filardi
Publisher: Gallery 13
Release Date: Mar. 24
List Price: $24.99

Enter once more the world of Roland Deschain—and the world of the Dark Tower…presented in a stunning graphic novel form that will unlock the doorways to terrifying secrets and bold storytelling as part of the dark fantasy masterwork and magnum opus from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King.

Cankor

Cartoonist: Matthew Allison
Publisher: Adhouse Books
Release Date: Mar. 25
List Price: $19.95

A young man makes a rare excursion outside the comfort of his home to see a rock & roll show. That choice is met with violence and humiliation. When he calls out for help to his unresponsive savior (the sad sack cyborg CANKOR), it sets off a cherry bomb of psychedelic mayhem. A candy colored nightmare of tangled wires, bubbling flesh and the towering corpses of superhumans… CANKOR takes a deep dive into parts of the brain that are better left sealed.

Grafity’s Wall Expanded Edition

Writer: Ram V
Artists: Anand Radhakrishnan, Aditya Bidikar, Jason Wordie & Irma Kniivila
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: Mar. 31
List Price: $19.99

When an aspiring street artist “Grafity” sees the illegal tenements outside his home destroyed, he finds in the debris, a lone, standing wall–one that’ll go on to become a summer-long canvas for the lives of four friends getting by and growing up in the constantly changing and challenging environment that is the city of Mumbai.

Notes On a Case of Melancholia, Or: A Little Death

 

Cartoonist: Nicholas Gurewitch
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: Mar. 31
List Price: $19.99

Death becomes a patient of a recently-bereaved psychoanalyst. The topic of discussion? His frolicsome child, who has no apparent interest in grim-reaping! Featuring an unfathomable number of lines which have been hand-chiseled into inked clay, this labor of love by Nicholas Gurewitch invokes the morbid humor of his comic strip (The Perry Bible Fellowship) and the spooky silent-film qualities of the late Edward Gorey.