Lindsey Cheng is like most college freshmen, trying to find herself even as everyone is trying to tell her who she should be. This includes everyone from her overbearing and very traditional Chinese mother to her best friends and bandmates. It seems like everyone has an opinion on who Lindsey should be and where her attention should be focused, be it the band or her studies.
The sole exception to this is Jason—the super-chill lead-singer of a different band, who stuns Lindsey by calling her his girlfriend as he tries to give her a gift while shopping for old records. This stuns Lindsey, who barely started dating Jason and never had a boyfriend before. This makes her anxious to be everything a good girlfriend should be. More, she wants to be cool enough to be the girlfriend of a cool guy like Jason. But is Jason really the best thing to ever happen to her? Or is she just stunned at the idea of any boy being interested in her after a sheltered childhood?
The early press for Lindsey Cheng Dates a White Boy described it as “perfect for fans of Bryan Lee O’Malley and Mariko Tamaki.” I can see why it might draw comparison to the Scott Pilgrim series. It is based around young adults and indie band culture in the early 21st century and Asia Miller’s art shares a certain aesthetic. The general plot even emulates the lessons of that comic, albeit through the female lens. However, it dramatically oversimplifies the story to write Lindsey Cheng off as an older Knives Chau, who has the good sense to realize that Jason is scum before it is too late.
What really sets this comic apart—and indeed inspires the need for a sequel—is the final chapter. This is told from the perspective of Lindsey’s friend and bandmate Mel; a fierce romantic who loves love. It is she who first gets an inkling of who Jason really is but puts on a false face because she wants to support her friend. At the same time, Mel copes with her growing attraction to their third bandmate, V, and the hint that V (who loves video games and hates boys) might return her feelings.
The opening of the book focused on Lindsey does deliver an important message upon the dangers of repressing yourself for the sake of a relationship. And yet, the chapter with Mel is the strongest and feels the most genuine. Personally, I’d love to read a comic about the awkward romance between tomboy V and girly girl Mel as a follow-up to Lindsey’s hard lessons regarding her first love.
There’s no official publisher rating for Lindsey Cheng Dates a White Boy!!! I would personally consider it appropriate for most teen audiences and indeed perfectly suited for that audience given the ultimate moral of the story. There is no sex or even so much of a mention of it. The closest we get is Lindsey taking off her T-shirt to reveal her bra while hanging out with Jason while lounging on his bed. There’s no violence or nudity and no language worse than what might be heard on broadcast cable.
Lindsey Cheng Dates a White Boy!!! By Asia Miller Andrews McMeel, 2026 ISBN: 9798881605827
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: Chinese-American, Queer, Character Representation: Chinese-American, Bisexual,
Tripping Over You, Volume 2, from Suzana Harcum and Owena White, picks up not long after the first graphic left off, showing unlikely couple Liam and Milo navigating their maturing relationship. This slice of life romantic comic was adapted from real life couple Harcum and White’s webtoon in February and promises more volumes to come. Fresh out of high school, the pair are growing into young adults and trying to allow their relationship to grow with them. Liam and Milo are in a very interesting phase, kind of semi-out to their families (who bring their own baggage into their relationship) and striving to make room for each other as their lives grow fuller. Liam doesn’t know what he wants out of his future and Milo seems plagued with self doubt, but they keep circling back to find comfort in each other. This volume catches our couple at a very real, very vulnerable time where a high school relationship can evolve into an adult one or where it can flounder under the weight of growing up.
This is a sweet story that young readers can easily connect with. The art is incredibly cute with Harcum and White using a style that hits me as a kind of Disneyified Manga: characters with big eyes and bold lines in a world of saturated color. It is very easy to read and honestly just pretty. Liam and Milo give classic black cat/golden retriever energy and seem hyper aware of the struggles that can come with relationships where people have different needs and communication styles. While this comic does show a growing young adult relationship and the intimacy that comes with it, there’s nothing explicit on page or even suggested and I would probably recommend it as young as 6th or 7th grade, depending on the reader. There are a couple of shirtless scenes and implied sex and Liam still hasn’t kicked his smoking habit from book one. But with that, their relationship maintains an innocence that will keep it accessible to a wide range of readers.
The plot beats were a bit of a hang up to me. The small domestic moments of our couple meeting new people, fighting to find time together, struggling with demanding families, and eventually moving in together feel almost like filler, like all of these moments are leading towards conflict in a future volume. The most striking of these involve Milo’s new friend Hebert, an American theater student. There isn’t immediate conflict but there is definitely unresolved tension and Hebert’s motives are questionable at best. Many of the plot points feel unresolved. Liam still does not have a clear career path and Milo still seems uncertain in aspects of their relationship. All of these things made this feel less like a step in their story and more like laying groundwork for the next book.
But honestly, I don’t know if I care. It was still a lovely read. The characters are ones you want to spend time with and their relationship is easy to invest in. It’s sweet and loving and a ready made next read for my Heartstopper fans. Parts of it do come off as wish fulfillment, particularly the moment where Liam comes out to his father. But queer kids deserve as much wish fulfillment as they can get. I can’t help but worry that these boys will have a tough time ahead of them, but my fingers are crossed for a happy ending.
Tripping Over You, Volume 2 By Suzana Harcum Macmillan First Second, 2026 ISBN: 9781250330734
Company Age Rating: 14-18
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: Lesbian, , Character Representation: Queer, Jewish ,
But I’m going to try, because the book deserves it.
Pastimes is a collection of four-panel vignettes by Saguenay-born Pascal Girard about his life as a 40-something man with a family. STICK WITH ME HERE!
The humor is bone-dry, the emotional points land with humor, and the other material… well, if you’re a fan of the works of Larry David, you’re in for a treat. Much of these comics come from Pascal’s every day life as a social worker for a hospital and the family he has at home and, subsequently, he experiences many baffling social interactions that result in confusion, frustration, or uneasiness (or a combination of all three). He’ll say the inside thoughts out loud and face the consequences. Not in a way that’s noble, but in a way that reminds us that our actions have consequences.
Pascal clearly loves his wife Rebecca and five-year-old daughter Lucie, and even though the strips don’t suggest much struggle past what could be expected in parenthood, the comics do a good job of showing that these struggles still exist. His little girl is obsessed with dying, a subject that gives both her and her father anxiety; it’s often a gateway into a larger subject—of the author losing his younger brother when he was also five-years old. Pascal is getting older; he has to put more of an effort in staying in shape, making healthy choices for himself, and going out to those loud, crowded, dive-y venues for the punk and hardcore music he tends to favor late at night is getting more difficult these days (though he doesn’t give it up, even sharing certain aspects of it with his daughter).
The strips don’t dabble in mature themes like sex, but death, recreational drug use, aging, and uncomfortable social interaction are explored. Not every page is a winner, but there are definitely a number of belly-laughs for me.
I would first describe the book as “cozy.” No Flying No Tights has reviewed literally thousands of comics that are visually complicated and layered and colorful and perhaps epic works of art and Pastimes… is not any of that. Nor does it need to be. The drawings are simple outlines, there is no color, but the characters are still expressive and the visual components of the punchlines land.
I find the book incredibly endearing. It’s not a deep exploration of things that we might think of as we age – perhaps sacrificed for the sake of humor—but it does suggest that there is more going on. Pastimes is deeper than just 4 panels of funny drawings. It’s a light in a dark hallway. And not just because I am also an aging punk rock adult who sees themself in Pascal’s work and therefore established a deep empathetic connection to his life with the first comic and see it as some sort of signal that everything is going to be okay.
Probably.
Maybe.
But the only way to find out is to pick this one up and read it yourself!
Pastimes By Pascal Girard Pow Pow Press, 2025 ISBN: 9782925114543
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: Canadian, Character Representation: Canadian,
Aisling is a princess about to turn eighteen, but a week before her big debut, she is kidnapped by Forget-Me-Not, who plans to get revenge for being replaced at birth by a changeling. Aisling is that changeling, although she had no idea of her fae heritage and neither did her parents because they don’t recognize her without the glamour she’s been wearing. As they travel through the fae lands, both Aisling and Forget-Me-Not discover they have more in common than they originally thought and start developing a relationship. We learn more about the fae lands through Aisling’s interactions (and almost disasters) and Forget-Me-Not’s backstory about growing up in an alien world that isn’t hospitable to humans. The story wraps up at the end of this volume and provides an epilogue to tie up all the loose ends of the relationship between our two main characters.
The saturated colors worked well with the fantastical setting, and I personally liked how the lighting was used to convey emotions and ambiance throughout the story. This is a standalone as opposed to the start of a series, which makes it a great choice for teen or adult readers looking for a one-and-done LGBTQ+ (specifically sapphic) fantasy romance. There is on-page kissing between two female characters (one that has a masculine look) but no sexual content. I would highly recommend this book for any public library and high school library looking to follow the romantasy trend with LGBTQ+ content. Your patrons will thank you for it.
Forgive-Me-Not By Mari Costa Macmillan First Second, 2026 ISBN: 9781250784179
Company Age Rating: 14-18
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: Brazilian, Portuguese, Character Representation: Lesbian,
Once upon a time in ye olde 2013, in the very blue state of Illinois, Chicago Public School (CPS) officials banned the use of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis in the entire district. 13 years later this feels disgustingly common, a story we’ve learned to tune out, but at the time it shocked the local community and the response was immediate. High school students led a protest, teachers and librarians were up in arms, free speech advocates were taking notice, and it was picked up by news outlets. But information coming from the school district was confusing and inconsistent and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests produced little information or clarity.
Roughly two years later, library graduate student Jarret Dapier, remembering his frustration with the ban and lack of answers, decided to dig deeper for a thesis paper. He interviewed former and current students, teachers, librarians, administrators, and journalists. With little hope of success he sent in his own FOIA request to CPS and was surprised with 42 pages of emails and all the answers he could ask for about the ban and who in the school district was responsible.
Wake Now in the Fire is Dapier’s debut graphic novel and a mingling of those true events with mostly fictional characters based on the students and teachers he interviewed. He follows several high school students (and a few teachers) as they discover the ban and take action. His diverse characters have varied and realistic lives, dealing with all the ups and downs of being a teenager. They struggle with homework, strict parents, and awkward crushes, but also grief, uncertainty, and mental health issues. I really loved that Dapier gave his student characters space to speak and share and develop their, sometimes messy, thoughts in and outside the classroom.
AJ Dungo illustrates Dapier’s narrative with a distinctive and fun graphical style. His clean lines and grayscale color palette are more than able to handle the relatively large cast of characters and complex situations. One detail that I really enjoyed was the use of red only when the book Persepolis is in view in a panel. It’s a nice pop of color that highlights the book’s presence in the lives of the characters.
It feels easy these days to get crushed emotionally by the routine threat of book bans, and I worried a graphic novel focused on it would really bring me down, but Wake Now in the Fire is largely positive. The students are fired up to stand up for their rights to read. The parents, teachers, and librarians are largely supportive. There is visible power in a community that rises against censorship. In his afterword, Dapier draws attention to how things have changed since 2013 with regards to the massive increases in book bans, growing control over marginalized bodies, and the escalating danger of armed government agents. Those comments snapped me back to reality after bathing in some good old fashioned hope during the narrative, but it’s important that our current reality is acknowledged.
The publisher rates this story for ages 14+, which are the ages of the main student characters. There aren’t too many things that would make this difficult for readers under 14, but some issues to be aware of are brief off-screen violence, depictions of mental health struggles in kids and adults, and alcoholism in one of the parents. That parent experiences an on-screen health emergency that his daughter has to respond to in an intense scene. The most stressful parts of the students’ lives are handled well and with grace. This book is a vital addition to a teen, or even an adult collection because it merges history and fiction to tell a compelling story with that crucial element of hope that is so desperately needed right now.
Wake Now in the Fire: A Story of Censorship, Action, Love, and Hope By Jarrett Dapier Art by AJ Dungo Ten Speed Press, 2026 ISBN: 9780593838044
Company Age Rating: 14+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16)
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales is a wildly successful series of historical stories told in graphic format. He’s also written short stories with the same style for various anthologies. In his 13th book in the series, he goes full tilt into the short story format with a series of creepy, gross, terrifying, and weird stories, most, but not all, centered around the United States.
The story is framed by his original narrators and characters from history—Nathan Hale, the hangman, the British provost, and, added in Major Impossible, Bill Richmond. Hale starts the story with his narrators peering at a sketch of the front cover, with the historical Nathan Hale explaining that “this book was created by hand by a real human artist.” There’s a humorous warning at the beginning about the scary content, then the framing plot opens.
The four narrators are sheltering from the rain under the gallows and decide to tell scary stories, starting with Captain Hale. Since it’s his thirteenth tale, he tells a scary story about a thirteen baby—the Jersey Devil. Black and white art, picked out with spots of green, illustrates the gruesome creature and its victims, ending with a short discussion on folklore and history. The provost demands a true story, so Hale begins “A Sip of Radiation” and the backgrounds glow a ghostly green as he tells the true story of Radithor, radium-infused water. The story jumps between Curie’s discovery of radium and the effects of Radithor on a welathy young man, Eben Byers, who died a gruesome death due to the “miracle cure” and ends with the radium girls and a creepy correlation between overuse of radium and the possible effects of unlimited internet use. The stories continue with the ghostly “The Demon Cat,” a grotesque tale from Edgar Allan Poe, “Hop-Frog,” and more. They include snapshots of US history, like a dream of Abraham Lincoln, a ghost story from the Civil War, and, of course, reappearances of the Jersey Devil.
Bill Richmond’s contribution, “The Boo Hag” is framed in a slightly darker green and features a cast of Black characters with creepy fleshless monsters, and placid, swirling waters in the South Carolina Sea Islands that hide dark secrets. Hale switches to a sharper contrast in “The Head in the Jar” which features the folk legend of Joaquin Murrieta. Stark white backgrounds on the small panels show the bare desert of the stockades and Gold Rush towns then switch to a mass of grays as Murrieta suffers and reenacts his vengeance in the dark of night.
The story ends with a transition that takes the readers to Denmark and introduces the berserkers of the title. Hale’s characters in this tale show sharply defined faces with pointed, craggy noses and long-haired, narrow faces contrasting with bulky, bearded warriors and fleshy tyrants. The story comes to a gory and dark end, featuring monstrous beasts and dense, packed panels showing heroes battling creatures in the dark. The stories return to the US and the true crime story of “The Butler Goes Berserk” featuring the mysterious crimes at Frank Lloyd Wright’s estate, Taliesin, committed by his butler, Julian Carlton. The collection is finished with a goofy story from the hangman, framed in glowing green and a final appearance of the Jersey Devil.
Hale ends the book with his usual meticulous research; in this case he adds additional information to the sources explaining which parts of each story are factual and which are folklore or legends. He also includes an encouragement for readers to explore short stories and some recommendations and sources.
This is a fitting transition to twelve wonderful historical graphic novels and hopefully marks the beginning of a new set of these histories. It’s also a fun way to get readers to try something new as well as stop to think a little more deeply about the media and stories they consume, since Hale includes lots of discussion points throughout the story as well as plenty of gore, monsters, and creepy happenings. A sure bet for middle school readers and anyone who enjoys creepy stories and interesting historical tidbits, this will delight both old fans of Hale and those new to his work.
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Bones and Berserkers By Nathan Hale Abrams, 2025 ISBN: 9781419773204
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Stories can make you sigh for all sorts of reasons. Frustration, contentment, resolve. Angelica and the Bear Prince, published by Random House Graphix in October 2025, pulls a deep, comforting, swoon-like sigh from the reader, at least this reader. This is a cup of cocoa of a graphic novel. A warm, joint popping hug of a graphic novel. A fully broken-in hoodie of a graphic novel. It’s the best kind of sweet, romantic, comfort read.
Angelica and the Bear Prince, author/illustrator Trung Le Nguyen’s follow up to the award winning The Magic Fish, is a very loose reimagining of the Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. It follows Angelica, Jelly to her friends, who is picking herself back up after hitting a pretty serious burnout wall. Jelly is an over-achiever and a people-pleaser who got so wrapped up in her desperation not to disappoint people that she ran herself right into the ground.
With perfect timing for her to realign herself, Jelly gets an internship at the theater company that was her happy place as a child. She gets to spend the whole winter stage managing her favorite play with her best friend Christine who is starring opposite the play’s lead and the theater’s mascot Peri the bear in Jelly’s favorite play. The mascot whose social media account Jelly has developed a pen pal style relationship with. The mascot who is embodied by a figure from Jelly’s past who is desperate to reconnect with her. The reveal here and the shift in their relationship takes a while to develop but is so, so satisfying.
Per Nguyen, this is a story about grief and it drips off every page. The grief that comes with growing up, grief of mourning a loved one, grief of dealing with mental health struggles. And with all that heaviness, this is an incredibly light, hopeful graphic, partially because of Nguyen’s stunning art. The illustrations are like a manga processed through a Disney lens, giving the graphic a bright, beautiful flow that is incredibly easy to read. The characters feel lived in and real and their hopes and struggles are incredibly relatable. The story is romantic and sweet and so beautifully told.
One of my favorite things about this graphic is that all the characters are given room to grow. So frequently in stories like this anyone who is not the central romantic couple just fade into the background, but Nguyen doesn’t fall into that. Jelly’s mom, still mourning the loss of her own mother, is anxious and uncertain and desperate to help her daughter grow while keeping Jelly her little girl. The stern manager of the theater is learning how to keep loving after their own loss and massive life changes. Christine, who easily could have been relegated to the barely-seen-best-friend role or the focus of Jelly’s jealous for landing the lead role of the Princess in the play, is a ride or die bestie throughout both being there for Jelly to lean on and going to her for support when she realizes her relationship isn’t what she deserves.
Angelica and the Bear Prince is such a lovely, cozy graphic. Teens and preteens alike can easily get wrapped into the romance and coming of age elements of the story and the focus on transformation and growth. It’s a legit pleasure to read.
Angelica and the Bear Prince By Trung Le Nguyen Penguin Random House Graphic, 2025 ISBN: 9781984892669
Company Age Rating: 12+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Vietnamese, Nonbinary , Character Representation: South Asian, Trans, Anxiety, Depression
Jade is a hot-tempered teenaged aristocrat in modern-day France. Her family has prestige but no money, so Jade’s mom keeps pushing her to cozy up to her wealthier peers—and, ideally, marry one of them. But Jade is focused on her secret passion: serious weightlifting.
In fact, Jade has already made so much progress with her lifting that it can be hard to hide her strength. Like when she gets mad at a boorish young rich boy at a party and sort of… launches him into the refreshments table. Society would never approve of her lifting weights, so Jade scrambles to explain her feat of strength before blurting out that she must have been overcome by… love!
Jade’s matchmaking mother is, of course, thrilled. She would be a lot less thrilled to know that the only boy Jade actually likes is a groom in a rich family’s stables—a groom with huge muscles, whose workout routine Jade is determined to discover. Not that Jade has time for romance anyway – she’s juggling friends and frenemies, high school and high society events, all while keeping her weightlifting a secret. But with multiple boys now pursuing her, romance may be in Jade’s future whether she’s ready for it or not.
Originally a successful French webcomic (Colossale), Colossal is a fun rom-com with a shojo manga vibe and an oddball premise that grabs your attention. Who would expect the feisty young socialite to be obsessed with weightlifting? But Jade’s passion for lifting isn’t just a weird quirk: the story weaves it into her backstory and the way she thinks. Jade can be impulsive and irritable, though she usually keeps her temper in check. Early in the book, she sometimes imagines using her huge strength to punch people she finds annoying, which feels a little extreme, but Jade stops doing it after the first few scenes. She often fumbles social situations, but she cares about her friends and doing the right thing.
The rest of the cast has plenty of personality, too. There’s thoughtful Alexander, the groom Jade likes, who is much more than an enviable set of muscles; his employer, a rich mean girl who is struggling to fit into high society; the handsome but unpleasant rich boy who becomes far more interested in Jade after she pitches him into a buffet; Jade’s new friend, a do-gooder who convinces Jade to help with a charity function; and a cute but ruthless boy who discovers Jade’s weightlifting secret and demands she train him. There are also various family members and Jade’s supportive and quirky weightlifting buddies.
The art style is grounded in realism but with touches of a more fanciful shojo manga style. It focuses on the characters, giving them expressive (sometimes comically exaggerated) faces and postures. Their outfits change frequently to fit the occasion as the plot romps through lively scenarios and settings: riding lessons from Alexander, a stag hunt, preparing and staging a costumed charity ball, working out at the gym, hosting a sleepover, and more. Backgrounds are mostly minimal, with just enough detail to establish the settings.
There is no nudity (though Alexander sometimes gets shirtless for non-sexual reasons), but there are a few references to sex and a few swear words. Mostly, though, the story is funny and silly, with some heartfelt moments and sweet emotional connections between characters. Hand it to fans of rom-coms and shojo manga who like the sound of the premise.
Colossal By Rutile Willcox Art by Diane Truc Abrams, 2026 ISBN: 9781419777813
Company Age Rating: 14-18
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: French, Mauritian, Character Representation: French,
A near apocalypse at the hands of an Aztec Earth goddess has led to the impossible: Pablo Ortiz is popular again. Since the publication of the first Monster Locker in October 2024, Pablo and his friends Takashi and Maggie have been working to banish the demons and mythical creatures that use Pablo’s basement locker as a FastPass into the human world back into their own dimension. Most of our trio is burnt out with all of their monster fighting, but Pablo is feeling the rush of finally being seen in a good way again and is pushing his friends to keep the monster banishing and their social capital up. The problem with being seen, though, is sometimes the wrong things are looking.
Monster Locker: Nine-Tail Trouble, scheduled for release April 21, 2026, sees creators Jorge Aguirre and Andrés Vera Martínez diving back into the world of the first book with a new focus and an equally lovely story. While monster banisher Pablo still acts as the protagonist, this story is really about his friend, the charmingly unhinged Takashi Rosenberg. Takashi is not overly thrilled with their heavily monster focused schedule and has a lot on his mind. He wants to get back to RPGs and becoming a J-Pop sensation and worrying about his upcoming Bar Mitzvah and missing his mom in Japan. Like many children from different, distinct backgrounds, Takashi doesn’t know how to reconcile his Judaism with his Japanese heritage and vice versa. He feels out of place in both, a situation escalated by his parents divorce and his mother’s physical distance. And this also leaves him vulnerable when a new, dangerous monster threatens not just the trio’s school and popularity, but the roots of their friendship.
I loved the first Monster Locker when it came out but felt like the side characters, like Takashi, didn’t get a lot of fleshing out and it’s like Aguirre and Martínez were reading my dream journal. This second volume not only gives Takashi amazing depth and a massive struggle with identity, but pulls folkloric characters from both of his heritages into the story. While the first book was like an ode to Pablo’s Meso American ancestry and Aztec gods, Nine-Tail Trouble sees Kitsune (the Japanese nine-tailed fox trickster) and a Golem (an animated, humanoid chunk of clay from Jew folklore) doing battle, turning Takashi’s internal struggle into a visibly destructive one.
With the shift in focus comes a shift in artistic style. While the first Monster Locker took a lot of visual inspiration from Meso American art, this one pulls in references to Medieval Jewish art to draw in the Golem’s background and soft Japanese watercolor for the Kitsune. It’s lovely to look at and the emotional heft is clear without being overpowering. Takashi’s struggle is universal and makes a powerful framework for this story.As much as I love the focus on Takashi, much like the first Monster Locker, the other characters are not given much time to grow. The story sees many of the characters from the first book return but all, even Pablo, our protagonist, take a backseat. I would love to see more balance between the characters and their growth in future volumes.
Aguirre and Martínez have created a world that has some of my favorite things about graphic novels: the stories are fun and surprising, the characters are unique but grounded in real emotional stakes, and the art is gorgeous. This series continues to please and I can’t wait for more.
Monster Locker: Nine-Tail Trouble By Jorge Aguirre Art by Andrés Vera Martínez Macmillan First Second, 2026 ISBN: 9781250749765
Company Age Rating: 10-14
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Colombian-American, , Character Representation: Japanese, Mexican-American, Jewish ,
Shining a light on a lesser know story from the Civil War era, Legion M Entertainment and Stranger Comics bring together a talented creative team including creatives from Disney, Marvel, and DC, for Defiant, this first volume chronicling the life of Robert Smalls.
Born to an enslaved mother in the American South, Smalls dreamed of freedom. Beginning with his childhood, Defiant follows Smalls as he grows through education, love, and eventually into working as a sailor when war breaks out against the North. It is in this war that Smalls sees an opportunity at freedom, to steal the Confederate transport ship he worked on and escape to Union-controlled territory with some of his fellow crew and their families.
It was this escape that made Smalls famous, but his life’s work did not stop there. He continued as an influential figure throughout the war and beyond, including time serving in Congress. There are many today who do not know the details of Smalls and his life, and in the supplementary material that accompanies this graphic novel, the creators, as well as Smalls’s great great grandson, reflect on the power of legacy and the necessity of telling stories like this in order to remember the past and inform the future.
Defiant opens with a framing narrative depicting Smalls later in life as he takes his grandson fishing. It is here, as they wait for the fish to bite, that he begins to recount his story. Each section of the book captures key moments of Smalls’s youth and adulthood. It’s a significant length of time to cover, but the creators pace the story well, showcasing the experiences that formed Smalls’s character and the sense of defiance that would later drive him to risk everything in pursuit of freedom. The story is told with fondness and dramatic flair, but it doesn’t lose sight of the Smalls’s humanity or the horrors of US slavery at the time.
Balancing cinematic sensibilities with a desire to share a true segment of history, the writing effectively moves between interludes with the older Smalls and the larger narrative chunks leading up to his dramatic escape. The dialogue is straightforward and occasionally on the nose, but the book does an excellent job identifying important details to convey and moving the story along, while also bringing the reader into Small’s life along with the lives of those around him. It’s a story told with concern for historical truth, but also with acknowledgement that some liberties were taken and some factual gaps filled in to bring the story to life.
With these same cinematic sensibilities, the artistic team uses bold coloring and some dynamic layouts that quickly grab the reader’s attention. There’s a general sense of realism to the visual sequences, but the art takes some compelling creative liberties at times which help to elevate the themes and content of the story. There is one pivotal moment early in the book where Smalls, as a child, witnesses the violence and cruelty committed against the Black people around him. With use of light and shadow as well as distortions of faces that once seemed less threatening, the artists bring us into the experience of the moment and the realization of the evil inherent to the institution of slavery. Here and elsewhere, the art reckons with the realities of the time without the need to linger over pain and suffering. As the book progresses into the dramatic escape that Smalls is most known for, the visuals continue to bring the reader into the action, with effective choices in framing and dramatic moments that heighten both the tension and the heroism of what Smalls and the other achieved.
Stranger Comics lists Defiant as suitable for all ages. There are a range of areas in the content to be mindful of—violence and death in war and toward enslaved people, occasional slurs, briefly implied nudity, and some sequences of tension and threat which at times include children. However, none of these are presented for shock value or in graphic detail; even the creators state that their intention is not to linger over the violence and other horrors of the time. What detail we do see in the pages is relatively brief, maintaining focus on Smalls as a central figure and celebrating what he achieved without glossing over the reality that helped shape him.
As such, it’s a suitable read for older kids and upward, not only for the book’s sense of adventure, but also for the rich and important history it seeks to convey. In the afterword, writer Rob Edwards reflects on the importance of telling stories and why he sees such value in remembering the life of Robert Smalls. There is value, not only in the history recorded here, but in the discussions offered by Edwards and the others in this book who reflect on what it can mean for us today, to remember the bravery and steadfastness of those who have come before. In this way, Defiance is a perfect read for the current moment, and a great addition to shelves in schools, libraries, and home collections, especially with a movie also in production.
Defiant The Story of Robert Smalls By Rob Edwards Art by Sean Damien Hill Legion M and Stranger Comics, 2025 ISBN: 9781939834379
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16) Creator Representation: Black, Character Representation: Black,
to tell her who she should be. This includes everyone from her overbearing and very traditional Chinese mother to her best friends and bandmates. It seems like everyone has an opinion on who Lindsey should be and where her attention should be focused, be it the band or her studies.
couple Liam and Milo navigating their maturing relationship. This slice of life romantic comic was adapted from real life couple Harcum and White’s webtoon in February and promises more volumes to come. Fresh out of high school, the pair are growing into young adults and trying to allow their relationship to grow with them. Liam and Milo are in a very interesting phase, kind of semi-out to their families (who bring their own baggage into their relationship) and striving to make room for each other as their lives grow fuller. Liam doesn’t know what he wants out of his future and Milo seems plagued with self doubt, but they keep circling back to find comfort in each other. This volume catches our couple at a very real, very vulnerable time where a high school relationship can evolve into an adult one or where it can flounder under the weight of growing up.
revenge for being replaced at birth by a changeling. Aisling is that changeling, although she had no idea of her fae heritage and neither did her parents because they don’t recognize her without the glamour she’s been wearing. As they travel through the fae lands, both Aisling and Forget-Me-Not discover they have more in common than they originally thought and start developing a relationship. We learn more about the fae lands through Aisling’s interactions (and almost disasters) and Forget-Me-Not’s backstory about growing up in an alien world that isn’t hospitable to humans. The story wraps up at the end of this volume and provides an epilogue to tie up all the loose ends of the relationship between our two main characters.
Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis in the entire district. 13 years later this feels disgustingly common, a story we’ve learned to tune out, but at the time it shocked the local community and the response was immediate. High school students led a protest, teachers and librarians were up in arms, free speech advocates were taking notice, and it was picked up by news outlets. But information coming from the school district was confusing and inconsistent and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests produced little information or clarity.
with the same style for various anthologies. In his 13th book in the series, he goes full tilt into the short story format with a series of creepy, gross, terrifying, and weird stories, most, but not all, centered around the United States.
Random House Graphix in October 2025, pulls a deep, comforting, swoon-like sigh from the reader, at least this reader. This is a cup of cocoa of a graphic novel. A warm, joint popping hug of a graphic novel. A fully broken-in hoodie of a graphic novel. It’s the best kind of sweet, romantic, comfort read.
her to cozy up to her wealthier peers—and, ideally, marry one of them. But Jade is focused on her secret passion: serious weightlifting.
of the first Monster Locker in October 2024, Pablo and his friends Takashi and Maggie have been working to banish the demons and mythical creatures that use Pablo’s basement locker as a FastPass into the human world back into their own dimension. Most of our trio is burnt out with all of their monster fighting, but Pablo is feeling the rush of finally being seen in a good way again and is pushing his friends to keep the monster banishing and their social capital up. The problem with being seen, though, is sometimes the wrong things are looking.
creative team including creatives from Disney, Marvel, and DC, for Defiant, this first volume chronicling the life of Robert Smalls.
