New comics & upcoming books I'm excited about (with queer characters, themes, romances or authors)…
On Kickstarter for one more week: The Second Safest Mountain
Otava Heikkilä has a really interesting project funding on Kickstarter RIGHT NOW
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/quindriepress/the-second-safest-mountain
"The Second Safest Mountain is a story about leaving the mountain dedicated to sacred women, and the repercussions of entering the world below. When Aru ventures into the land beneath the mountain, they are soon confronted with what it means to leave the safety of being holy and beloved."
Otava's work is some of the most exciting in comics right now and I'm VERY excited about there being a print version of this visceral, philosophical comic!! A HARDCOVER, NO LESS!!
Just released: BUNT! Striking out on financial aid
Having a queer graphic novel coming out soon-ish in the strange world of mainstream publishing, I've been catching up on a few other recently-released GNs which are at the older / more plot dense end of ‘technically YA’. I especially enjoyed BUNT, which I haven't seen that much hype about, but it's so good???
Personally I do not care about sports, but this comic MADE ME CARE so much and actually yell out loud about the sports drama. Truly a testament to how well-crafted it is.
The premise is a college student has to put together a softball team and win one game to get a scholarship and be able to afford her fees... but all the possible student players are art school nerds.
It turns out I don't understand US art schools (apparently they actually have classes and learn things?? and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone wear cat ears in an educational environment, so not all the nerd references land tbh.) That meant I was a little slow to get into it, but the MOMENT it got into the main Sports plot I was extremely on board.
It's written by Ngozi Ukazu who, if you’re not familiar, did the wildly popular gay sports webcomic Check, Please, and it’s drawn by Mad Rupert who does Sakana - so both of them are basically extremely experienced at comics and very skilled at the FORM.
The comic storytelling is just SO dynamic and strong and inspirational. I also enjoyed the underlying theme of “profit-oriented unis destroying a small town” and “it's genuinely fine to drop out”. And the way it was coloured was amazing, I want to study its low-contrast colour background secrets.
Some stuff to look out for, coming soon
If you're interested in a quiet, introspective look at growing up and exploring queerness through fandom, I’d really rec Sunhead by Alex Assan, out in May.
I also really enjoyed Molly Knox Ostertag's The Deep Dark, a sapphic YA graphic novel but definitely with an older/ darker tone than her other books that I found really compelling, out in June.
(Possibly paywalled but I've… also been enjoying her gay Sherlock Holmes fan comics that are very closely based on the books and short stories.)
And while the pages are only on Patreon right now, in late summer there's a new Quindrie press book coming called Ruin of the House of the Divine Visage that is VERY GOOD. Hard to describe, but it's sort of about forbidden love at a monastery where nobody's allowed to look at each others' faces, only the face of the god who lives at the heart of the monastery. Probably the best way to hear about the crowdfund is subscribing to Quindrie's newsletter.
Ruin of the House of the Divine Visage - preview from the webpage linked above, © Spire Eaton & Eve Greenwood