13 comics and graphic novels to get drawn into this summer
It's the summer season in Canada! Check out these comics and graphic novels by Canadian and international creators that are perfect to escape into.
Time Zone J by Julie Doucet
In Time Zone J, Montreal artist Julie Doucet draws from her old diary entries to chronicle a whirlwind love affair from her early 20s. After developing an intimate correspondence with a reader overseas — not unheard of in the 1980s, when comic artists often mailed their work and communicated with readers through letters — Doucet flies from Montreal to France to meet the soldier, who's on furlough for a few days.
Julie Doucet began drawing and publishing mini comics in 1988, and was featured in the anthology Heck! Comic Art of the Late 1980s. She started her groundbreaking strip Dirty Plotte in the 1990s, becoming an underground heroine and winning the Harvey Award for best new talent. Her comics — part-dream, part-diary — have been published serially as well as in collected formats. She famously quit the male-dominated comics industry in the late 1990s to focus on her other artwork. Time Zone J is her first inked comic since that announcement.
Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser & Robyn Smith
Wash Day Diaries follows the daily lives of four best friends — Kim, Tanisha, Davene and Cookie — as they navigate the Bronx. The book's title pays tribute to the wash day rituals of Black women and girls — washing, conditioning and nourishing their hair. Wash Day Diaries includes a full colour version of Rowser and Smith's critically-acclaimed kickstarted mini comic Wash Day.
Jamila Rowser is an American comic writer, publisher and editor based in Miami. Her other comics include Wobbledy 3000 and A Little Esperanza.
Robyn Smith is a Jamaican cartoonist based in New York, Her other work includes The Saddest Angriest Black Girl in Town and DC Comics's Nubia: Real One.
Clementine: Book One by Tillie Walden
Set in the world of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, Clementine is a coming-of-age story that follows the titular character as she heads out on the road looking to start over. Joined by an Amish teenager named Amos, Clementine comes across a group of young people attempting to set up a settlement. They soon realize their biggest threat may be each other.
Tillie Walden is a two-time Eisner award winning cartoonist and illustrator based in Texas. Her other books include the graphic novels Spinning and On a Sunbeam.
World Record Holders by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher
World Record Holders collects set pieces from Guy Delisle's illustrious career as a cartoonist. Delisle includes wistful memories from childhood, as well as awkward moments as a well-known artist. He writes about meeting an angry woman at one of his own exhibitions who claimed he destroyed her marriage, about a childish Bows and Arrows game that turns life-threatening and about how a coded message from space is received and debated.
Delisle is an award-winning artist, cartoonist and author who was born in Quebec City and now lives in France. His books include Factory Summers and Hostage and the travelogues Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Pyongyang and Shenzhen.
Helge Dascher is a frequent translator of Delisle's comic books. She's also translated Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie, White Rapids by Pascal Blanchet and Paul Goes Fishing by Michel Rabagliati.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian #2 by Rodney Barnes and Georges Jeanty
Set in the Star Wars universe, The Mandalorian follows helmeted bounty hunter Din Djarin as he tries to protect a young force-sensitive child who is being hunted by the Empire.
Rodney Barnes is an award-winning American screenwriter and producer. He is an executive producer and writer of HBO series Winning Time and has worked on shows like Marvel's Runaways and American Gods.
Georges Jeanty is an Eisner Award-winning American illustrator and comic book penciler best known for his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Serenity.
July Underwater by Zoe Maeve
A hot Toronto summer begins without fanfare for recent high school graduate Lina, who mostly spends time with her best friend Cara. But Lina begins to unravel when she learns her childhood friend, Alicia, has died. She looks for answers in Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse and Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, and starts to think about what happens when friends drift apart from one another.
Zoe Maeve is a comics artist based in Montreal. She published her debut book, The Gift, in 2021 and was nominated for an Ignatz Award. Published in 2022, July Underwater was originally a zine which won an Expozine Award in 2016.
Batman #125 by Chip Zdarsky & Jorge Jiménez
Canadian comic writer Chip Zdarsky officially takes the reins of the Caped Crusader in Batman #125. The story features a new deadly villain called Failsafe who is murdering Gotham City billionaires as Batman tries to put an end to the gruesome crime-spree.
Chip Zdarsky is an Eisner Award-winning comic book creator from Toronto. He's contributed to series like Howard the Duck, Jughead and Spider-Man, and co-created comics like Kaptara, Sex Criminals and Afterlift.
Jorge Jiménez is a Spanish comic book writer and artist. His work has been featured in Super Sons, Teen Titans and Nightwing.
Little Monsters #5 by Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen
The titular little monsters are a group of vampire children living in the ruins of humanity. Little Monsters #5 follows the children as they find themselves running from the wreckage of a human compound as they are pursued by an unknown assailant.
Sweet Tooth creator Jeff Lemire on seeing his comic book series adapted for Netflix
Jeff Lemire is an author and illustrator whose work includes Roughneck, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Royal City and Gord Downie's Secret Path. The Toronto comic creator has also worked on Justice League and Green Arrow for DC Comics and Hawkeye for Marvel.
Dustin Nguyen is a Vietnamese American comic book artist. He won the 2016 Eisner Award for Best Painter/Multimedia artist for his work on Image Comics series Descender.
Detective Comics #1061 by Mariko Tamaki, Sina Grace & Nadia Shammas
Robin's mother and Batman's on-again-off-again fling Talia al Ghul is back in Gotham City, meaning anything can happen. At the same time, Batman tries to stop the Riddler from turning Gotham into a life or death riddle and the mystery behind the Gotham Girl website begins to unravel.
Mariko Tamaki is an award-winning Canadian comics writer, contributing to Marvel and DC Comics, based in California. She was named comics writer of the year at the 2020 Eisner Awards. Her other books include the YA novel (you) Set Me On Fire and the graphic novels Laura Dean Keeps on Breaking Up With Me, illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, Skim and This One Summer, which were both illustrated by Jillian Tamaki.
Sina Grace is an American comic writer, artist and social media personality. His work has appeared in books by Image, Marvel, DC Comics and BOOM!
Nadia Shammas is an Arab American comic writer from Brooklyn. She has written for HarperCollins, Tor, Marvel, DC Comics and IDW Publishing.
Saga #60 by Fiona Staples & Brian K. Vaughan
Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan began the Saga series — a space opera about lovers from warring worlds — nearly a decade ago and have since sold 6.8 million copies. Saga #60 is the final issue in this latest run in the series, which promises to deliver an emotional gut-punch to longtime readers.
Staples is a comic book artist from Calgary. Besides her award-winning work on Saga, she's drawn comics for series Mystery Society, Done to Death, Archie and more.
Vaughan is an award-winning American writer, whose previous comics include Y: The Last Man and the Paper Girls series.
Verse Book Two: The Second Gate by Sam Beck
Verse Book Two: The Second Gate continues the story of Fife, a boy who knows magic doesn't exist anymore and Neitya, a girl whose existence challenges everything Fife believes. With Neitya held captive, she must tap into the dark side of her magic abilities as the pair must face their fears to find a way back to each other.
Sam Beck is a comic book writer and illustrator based in Toronto. Her work focuses on themes of identity and relationships through the lens of sci-fi and fantasy. Her other books include Verse Book One: The Broken Half and Winter Parting.
There's Something Wrong With Patrick Todd #1 by Ed Brisson
Telepathic fifteen-year-old Patrick Todd lives on the run while trying to take care of his sick mother. In order to make money, Patrick uses his abilities to force criminals to rob banks, taking the money before having the criminals turn themselves in. But when someone catches on to his scheme, Patrick's life is in danger.
Ed Brisson is a Canadian comic book writer based in Halifax. He has written several books for Marvel, DC and Image Comics.
Naomi: Season Two #5 by Jamal Campbell, Brian Michael Bendis & David F. Walker
In the fifth issue of the DC miniseries, Naomi McDuffie, also known as Powerhouse, must give her all to protect her adopted hometown from a full-scale invasion.
Jamal Campbell is a comic book artist from Toronto. He's also the artist behind the Far Sector comics, written by N.K. Jemisin, and has contributed to series like Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Justice League of America and Nightwing.
David F. Walker is an award-winning comic book writer, filmmaker and adjunct professor from Portland. His writing appears in series like Luke Cage, Occupy Avengers and Nighthawk.
Brian Michael Bendis is an Eisner Award-winning American writer for DC Comics. He previously wrote and consulted for Marvel, contributing to comics like Daredevil and The Avengers and co-creating Spider-Man: Miles Morales. He also created the comic book series Jinx and won a Peabody Award as the co-creator and consulting producer of Netflix's Jessica Jones.
