The story opens with David, a brown-skinned, lanky middle-schooler, imagining the “spark” of creativity and ideas as a cute little cartoon creature. He arrives home and meets up with his neighbor Marta, a lively homeschooled 2nd grader with red-rimmed glasses and the two investigate an explosion in David’s basement. It turns out his mom has successfully created a tool to shrink herself down so she can travel between dimensions into a “micro universe.” Unfortunately, she’s left the tool behind.
David and Marta go on a brief adventure to rescue David’s mom and, while in the microscopic dimension, encounter the blue spark of David’s imagination. It’s pictured as a blue ball with a purple cape, gloves, and boots on it’s stick-like arms and legs and a splash of blue “hair.” Together, with the help of David’s experiments, they rescue his mom from a crowd of purple creatures like Spark that seem to be sucking her creativity.
Inspired by Spark and their adventure, David tries again to start a Science Club and gets more interest this time. With the enthusiastic participation of Marta, he demonstrates how to make “space mud” at the club’s first meeting in his backyard and even gets the interest of a girl, Lisa. She’s shown wearing tights, a long skirt, and a loose jacket with curly black hair and a blue knit cap. David’s audience includes a kid with long blonde hair in a wheelchair.
However, the story is far from over – Spark isn’t the only creature that came through the portal from the microscopic universe and David’s mom is working on a new project in their basement that could mean disaster! David will have to bring out his trusty experiments and depend on Marta’s inexhaustible energy to save the day with science and keep the spark of inspiration alive.
There’s not a lot of variation in body types pictured, but that’s due more to Loux’s art style than a studied lack of diversity. Loux’s characters all have long, thin, flexible limbs and show exaggerated emotions with their wide mouths, heavily-drawn eyebrows, and the rapid changes in their eyes. The science experiments have a few illustrations, but these are mostly part of the story – the instructions are primarily in the text.
The other dimension is colored in orange-hued pinks, pale purples, and yellows with lots of ripples, creatures with multiple legs, and speech bubbles that look like tropically patterned easter eggs. This contrasts with the everyday suburb where David lives with blue skies and green trees and lawns.
The story includes 18 simple science experiments, from slime to a straw rocket and there is a QR code that has videos to accompany each experiment. The book is sponsored by a science organization called High Touch High Tech which creates fun science experiences.
There is some disconnect in the story – David is supposed to be a middle schooler, but the science experiments are more something an elementary student, like Marta, would enjoy doing. They do somewhat interrupt the flow of the story. As Marta points out, they’re running from monsters so why didn’t David just bring a compass instead of magnetizing a needle in the middle of a chase? However, the story is mostly a vehicle to carry the science experiments and a younger audience will enjoy the light story and be interested in trying the different projects. Manning is an experienced author who is used to creating nonfiction/fiction graphic novel scripts and the plot moves smoothly despite the sometimes jarring science elements. Older readers who like Matthew Loux’s art and are interested in the science-fiction genre are more likely to enjoy his own graphic novel series, The Time Museum.
The Spark Experiment By Matthew Manning Art by Matthew Loux Andrews McMeel, 2026 ISBN: 9798881601928
This short graphic novel opens with a stereotypical bullying scene – Lucas, our main character, duct-taped upside-down to his locker by the bullies and his “friend”, eco-warrior Julia hiding in her locker. Lucas, a skinny little kid with pale skin and huge glasses, is determined that nothing is going to ruin his thirteenth birthday, but soon finds himself stuck in detention with Julia. Julia, a tall, stocky girl dressed in all black with white hair dyed green that contrasts with her brown skin, is exasperated by Lucas, but goes along with his escape plan and helps him get home in time for his birthday dinner.
She’s startled by the tiny, run-down house where Lucas lives, but drops him off. Lucas enters and the house is revealed as a giant, maze-like mansion, complete with stuffy elderly butler. As Lucas searches for his parents, readers find out why he’s so excited about his birthday: Family tradition rules that he takes control of the magical Gloom Stone that grants wishes when he turns thirteen. He’s shocked and outraged when his parents, a wildly eccentric duo who are wrapped up in their own projects and his baby sister, decide he’s not mature enough to handle the stone.
Naturally, things get even more chaotic from this point with Lucas promptly proving his parents’ point, a talking stuffed cat named MewMew (sorry, majestic red panda), foolish wishes old and new, and even Julia getting mixed up in the story as she tries to get everyone to care as much as she does about climate change. Lucas optimistically thinks he can fix everything, until the true secret of the stone comes to light – even his optimism may not be enough to fix this disaster!
This graphic novel originates in France and the art and story have a slightly European flair. Lucas is a very young thirteen, especially compared to the graphic memoir-style comics like Raina Telgemeier. He wears a puffy-sleeved jacket, shorts, and has a mop of messy blue-black hair. His eyes always seem to be surprised and shocked by the consequences of his actions. Julia is a somewhat one-sided character; her aggressive “friendship” and gloomy demeanor are paired with her more mature appearance and it’s only near the end of the story that she shows concern for Lucas as a person outside her focus on climate change and teaching people, including Lucas, “a lesson.” The villain is a Victorian stereotype, complete with tall hat, mustache, and world-conquering plans.
This is a quick, fun read with plenty of humorous touches and a cliffhanger that leaves room for sequels. The comic panels are smaller and more detailed with a lighter palette than many kids are used to reading, but the book still pulls the reader along from each fresh wish and the disaster it brings. A light-hearted, humorous fantasy about the dangerous of wish-fulfillment that will attract readers who enjoy graphic novels and short, quick reads.
Atomic Lucas By Pirate Sourcil Art by Francesca Carita Andrews McMeel, 2026 ISBN: 9798881601720
Victor is a necromancer, with magic in his blood that lets him cast spells. If anyone finds out, he would be put to death: necromancy is illegal and fanatically persecuted by the religious order that polices the city. And it’s not easy to hide, given that every transaction–from buying a snack to getting married – requires a blood signature, and necromancer blood visibly glows with magic. So Victor keeps to the shadows, solitary except for his cute one-eyed cat, just trying to survive.
Then wealthy young banking heir Enrique makes him an offer: use magic to resurrect his dead bride, and Enrique will use his vast resources to smuggle Victor out of the city to a place where necromancy isn’t illegal, where he can live a normal life. Victor reluctantly agrees, though he isn’t familiar with the spell Enrique instructs him to use. And neither of them expects the result: Enrique’s bride, Mercedes, is resurrected, but her life is bound to Victor’s. If they get too far apart, she’ll die. She has also come back a little… different. For one thing, she has no memories. For another, her beautiful body is now crisscrossed with stitches–and extremely strong. And then there’s the awkward fact that she’s extremely drawn to Victor. Is it just because of the spell, or something more?
Even if Mercedes doesn’t remember him, Enrique isn’t ready to give up on her. And if she can’t be separated from Victor, well, the three of them will just have to stay together. Which might just lead to more romance than any of them was expecting.
Love Me to Death started as a popular Webtoon, inspired by Frankenstein and influenced by Disney films like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It also reflects the creators’ love for Mexican culture, especially in its lush visuals, which often call to mind Day of the Dead celebrations.
The story revels in cute, often silly romantic tropes. Oops, Mercedes saw Victor shirtless, and he’s hot! Oh no, they tripped and fell on top of each other! People keep mistaking them for a couple! Blushing abounds! There are serious elements to the plot – it’s dangerous to even associate with a necromancer, let alone be one, and also Mercedes is starting to wonder if she might have been murdered. Sometimes the romance, too, is more serious: Victor has major emotional scars, Mercedes is confused and scared by her new situation, and both have trouble believing that someone could want them when most people would consider them monsters. But there’s also lots of humor and sweet moments. There are a few hints in the direction of the three main characters ending up in a polyamorous relationship, but that’s as far as it goes in this volume, though the author’s note at the end confirms that that’s where things are going.
The artwork is colorful and expressive, full of pretty settings and even prettier people. Victor and Enrique are both cute while being very different types, and Mercedes looks like an attractive woman in a very effective “sexy Frankenstein” Halloween costume. (During a costume party, another character basically assumes that’s what she is.) There are a few manga-esque elements, like roses appearing around Enrique when he smiles and characters looking chibi sometimes in funny moments. We see elegant architecture, fun outfits, colorful festival décor, and lots of sparkly magic. This volume also contains a bonus short story about Victor’s past, which is mostly text with just a few illustrations.
Love Me to Death combines an interesting fantasy setting, sympathetic characters, and hefty doses of both angst and humor. Hand it to fans of shojo manga and fantasy romance.
Love Me to Death By Toonimated Little, Brown, 2026 ISBN: 9780316587198
Company Age Rating: 14+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16)
Note: This is a review of the ARC, which is 200 pages long and not the complete manuscript.
What should have been a normal trip to the local flea market for Tâm and her older brother Dennis becomes the start of a deadly mystery when Tâm helps a desperate girl, Hoa Bin, in a car. That chance encounter embroils Tâm and Dennis in a matter of life or death – as if navigating life as teenagers wasn’t difficult enough…
Nirvana is Here, drawn by Mikael Ross and translated from German by Nika Beauchamp,is a modern take on the classic thriller offset by a coming-of-age story. In a scene that echoes Stand by Me, Tâm and her schoolmate Alex follow clues that lead to the discovery of a severed finger and, ultimately, self-discovery. Though intriguing, the mystery and danger are the framework in which the character-driven story is realized. Nirvana is Here touches on universal themes such as family, young love, and growing up as well as immigration and LGTBQ issues, which not everyone experiences personally but can become more familiar through the nuance of stories like this.
Despite the social issues it addresses, Nirvana is Here is never preachy. The characters are the core of the story, and Ross never loses sight of that. If there is a critique of Nirvana is Here, it is that the reader may wish for some of the side characters to be more developed: some are shown to be more than the tropes they embody and are interesting enough that readers may want to learn more, while others are one-dimensional. In particular, there is a subplot between Alex and an old woman named Jutta that will hopefully be reconciled in the final edition.
Ross’ art is perfect for the tone of his story. Rendered in black and white, Ross uses loose, almost-cartoony lines and features for the characters, a style that can convey humor in one panel and then urgency and seriousness in the next. The fluid style of the characters is offset by the detailed and sometimes gritty backdrop of urban Berlin. Nirvana is Here is the ideal graphic novel in which the contrasting art techniques between characters and environments successfully works with the various themes of the narrative. Everything works.
The publisher’s age rating for Nirvana is Here is adult, but the story will resonate with older teens as well. There is violence, and the stakes are high for the siblings and Hoa Bin, and, due to the ARC only a portion of the story, how our characters ultimately fare is still up in the air. However, the story in the ARC rings of hope and a celebration of self and the people around you. Ultimately, it’s worth it for librarians and parents to check out Nirvana is Here to see if and how it will fit into their collections.
Like a filmmaker having a soft spot for movies about movies, I am a sucker for a book or comic on the importance of stories. The Author Immortal is for anyone who has a soft spot for the stories that made you.
The plot follows a writer named Hector Ramirez when he is given the opportunity to reboot a classic young adult fantasy series. The opportunity comes with a cost and what’s worse is that his loved ones may pay the price. By the time he learns that the original author was sucked into his own fiction, it is too late. He and his nonbinary teen, Al, are whisked away to a fantasy land corrupted by dark magic and ink that runs like blood. There, they meet the very characters of this story, but something is wrong. Monsters run rampant and the heroes have changed into something wilder and more dangerous. We follow Al and their father as they navigate the corrupted land of The Mage’s Apprentice, a fantasy series with a strong influence from C.S.Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Even the title is a nod to The Magician’s Nephew, the first and often forgotten book in the series. What follows is an exploration of identity, the role stories play in our lives and the things you are willing to do for the ones you love.
This queer fantasy is a love letter to the stories we got lost in. Childhood hours spent lost in the pages of a book, going on adventures in a world far from ours. This new world of magic and monsters is from the new creative duo: Frank J. Barbiere (he/him) and Morgan Beem (she/her). Both creators have worked in the industry for years, but this is their first collaboration. Barbiere has written on titles like Violent Love and Lobo, meanwhile Beem has drawn for titles like Swamp Thing and You Belong Here. This debuting duo complement each other’s styles marvelously.
Barbiere’s biting script full of emotion is elevated to eleven through Beem’s expressive art. Her watercolor illustrations create a world not bound by limitations similar to how her paints are not bound to the pencilling on the page. Her color palette contrasts itself to match the changing tone of the scenes within the comic. The pair really knocked it out of the park with this one.
There is no publisher’s age rating but the violent and horror elements are geared towards older audiences.This new and terrifying world is not for the faint of heart. Vol. 1: Death of the Author collects issues #1-5. There is currently no release date for issue number 6. Image comics would be remiss if they do not continue this run to a conclusion. The story does not strike me as one made for an ongoing series, but a satisfying ending is for sure a possibility if allowed to run its course.
The Author Immortal Vol.1: Death of the Author By Frank Barbiere Art by Morgan Beem Image, 2026 ISBN: 9781534334786
Die is back with a new party of players and whole new corners of the world left to explore. Penned by the original creative team of Gillen and Hans, Die: Loaded picks up a year after the original series. After having fallen into the world of a sentient role-playing game twice already, and with one of their number dead from the last time it happened, the remaining members of the friend group are doing their best to pick up the pieces and find something resembling normalcy in the real world. But living so much time in a fantasy land changes a person, and unable to explain to their loved ones the truth of what happened, to say things are uncomfortable would be putting it mildly. The kicker, Sol—who remains tangled in the game’s ambitions—has plans to release Die the game to the public. All is not well for our heroes who barely managed to find their way home the last time—but they are not the ones setting out on this next adventure.
The dice come as gifts, delivered discreetly to loved ones of the original adventuring party. Unaware of the danger, each unwitting hero touches their token and falls into a world of magic and monsters, proud gods and devastating prophecies. The first is Ash’s wife Sophie. Ignorant about Die and the rules of role-playing games in general, it now falls to her to navigate these strange landscapes, find the other players, and escape back home—but to do that, she’ll have to learn the rules, and quickly. Because death is all too real in Die, and nothing can be trusted. Especially not the game itself.
For anyone who read the original story arc, there’s plenty to settle back into here. Familiar faces fill the opening before tossing Sophie and the others into Die’s fantastic realms. Familiar character classes take on new flavors in response to the griefs and traumas of the players—because the game certainly does love to play off people’s darkest secrets. There’s a whole pantheon of gods looking to trade for favors. One entire realm is made of art while another is full of chosen one characters, all seeking to fulfill their destinies. With its meta-textual awareness, complex themes, and inside jokes aimed at gamers, Die has lost none of its edge.
In some ways, this series offers a landing pad for new readers. With a cast of characters not familiar with the rules of the game, there’s some explanation naturally woven into the reintroduction of the world. And being a new campaign, it’s not necessary to know every detail that transpired previously. At the same time, the shadow of the previous campaign looms over everything, with references to characters and events that will mean little to anyone who missed the previous story.
For new and familiar readers alike, Die: Loaded is full of the darkness and complexity the series showcased on the last outing. Lore and character conflicts unfold over time, but it’s the baggage that the players bring with them that sits at the core of the story. Grief, identity, betrayal—the nature of Die forces the characters to confront themselves and each other if they want to make it home alive. With volume 1, this new arc feels tighter and more intimate than before but remains a remarkable feat of storytelling to bring all these elements together, balancing humor and horror with an ensemble cast and a world that just keeps getting bigger.
While the writing remains on point, the art from Hans is also as gorgeous as ever. Shifting styles and palates across the story, the bold colors and sharp detail float in the watercolor landscapes and stranger spaces of the fantasy world. It’s dreamy, it’s horrifying, and it brings each character to life with vivid emotion. Even for readers who may be hesitant to dive into this world, it’s worth it to wander these realms for a while and discover what might be hiding around the next corner, with artwork that helps shape Die into such a unique title.
Image hands Die: Loaded a Mature rating. With graphic violence, strong language, mature themes, sexual references, and some heavy content in general, it’s definitely a title aimed at adults. For those more mature readers though, there’s so much here to love. Obviously, many readers of the original series will be interested to see what unfolds in this new chapter, and the series will have the most appeal for fans of fantasy stories and role-playing games. However, for anyone open to a fantasy comic with a lot of layers, complex characters, and a good bit of darkness, Die is one of those titles that may challenge the boxes people sometimes try to stick graphic novels into. I found it delightful to return to this world, and with the adventure only getting started, I eagerly await the opportunity to see where things go next. Things are already looking pretty dire, and if we’ve learned anything from Die—it’s that the situation can always get worse.
Die: Loaded Vol. 01: Zero Sessions By Kieron Gillen Art by Stephanie Hans Image, 2026 ISBN: 9781534335356
The graphic novel medium has the ability to convey complex ideas and emotions through images, revealing many interesting aspects of the human condition. Then there are books like Final Boss, Vol. 1, written and drawn by Tyler Kirkham with additional art by David Miller.
Final Boss is not a story that will have its readers feel a variety of emotions or discover any universal truths, save for the truth that seeing people hit extremely hard appeals to many people. However, it’s important to note that this book is not trying to be anything complex or grandiose; Kirkham and Miller seem perfectly fine with Final Boss being a vehicle to show characters that could have stepped out of a video game pummel each other.
The person that does the majority of the pummeling in this story is Tommy Brazen, which is a name that could have been picked up from any martial arts movie script floating around Hollywood or Hong Kong during the 90’s. Brazen earns money by being really good at hurting people, whether it’s through his job as a paid enforcer or competing in underground street fighting matches. He’s recently acquired an ancient talisman left to him by his grandfather that not only increases his strength but lets him acquire the strengths of the various opponents he dispatches. This newfound power will be put to the test as he and his best friend Rabak travel to the mysterious country of Farthica for a fighting tournament, and while there, he meets several enemies that feed his and his talisman’s power.
The setup Kirkham presents of a mysterious fighting tournament is the same basic premise for nearly every fighting game that’s been played on a computer, gaming console, or arcade cabinet, and Kirkham leans heavily into the plot merely being the connecting tissue between bloody, high-octane fighting. In fact, Kirkham’s story could be one used for a fighting game that follows a particular protagonist. Brazen might be an ex-Special Forces guy searching for information about his grandfather, but he’s not exactly a well-developed, multifaceted character. He ultimately doesn’t need to be well-developed, though, as long as he beats the enemies he encounters within an inch of their lives, often in cinematically violent ways.
And “cinematically violent” seems to be what Kirkham and Miller are going for in their artwork, along with equating this book to a fighting game/online role-playing game. Among the splattered skulls and bisected bodies, all rendered in stunningly vivid reds, the book is presented like a video game. Panels will describe the stats of Tommy and whoever he’s fighting before a panel declares “FIGHT!” and victories are announced with words like “BRUTALITY!” plastered across the page. After Tommy kills his opponent, the book details Tommy’s updated stats in the same way many online role-playing games do.
Final Boss isn’t a book that requires deep thinking, going straight for the readers’ collective hypothalamus. To clarify, many studies have concluded violent video games don’t necessarily cause violence, but for fans of fighting games and online role-playing games, reading this book will feel like picking up a controller and playing. Librarians who count these video games fans among their patrons should consider getting this book and letting their patrons play.
Final Boss Volume 1 By Tyler Kirkham Image, 2026 ISBN: 9781534334243
Before Superman and superheroes came to dominate American comics, there was an age undreamed of. Pulp fiction was gaining in popularity, and it occurred to advertising agent Joseph H. Neebe that there might be a market for comic strips based on action and adventure rather than comedy. He approached Edgar Rice Burroughs (who had just set up shop in what would become Tarzana, California) about licensing his Tarzan character as a comic strip. Burroughs, who was already aiming to make movies based on the Lord of the Jungle agreed, but this still left the question of who would draw the comic.
Enter Harold “Hal” Foster—a Canadian illustrator who had little interest in drawing comics. However, with times being tough (and about to become tougher when The Great Depression hit), Smith got the comic off the ground by drawing the daily strip in 1929. He would later return, reluctantly, to draw a full-color Sunday strip in 1931. And yet, over the next few years, Smith began to believe he could take the comics he crafted and turn them into the high art he’d wanted to create.
However, Foster grew increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of the scripts he was given. He was also unhappy with the increasingly inadequate flat fee he was paid when the writers were given a percentage of the profits. He eventually left Tarzan for a more lucrative deal with King Features, where he was given more money, creative control, and the ability to write and draw his own adventure comic, the equally revolutionary Prince Valiant.
This history is detailed in the introduction to Hal Foster’s Tarzan. The Complete Sunday Comics 1931-1937. However, it understates just how important these comics were to the medium. Legends like Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, Bernie Wrightson and Jack Kirby all cited Hal Foster as a major influence on their own comics. And without the success of the first Tarzan newspaper comics fueled by Foster’s work, it is possible that the action/adventure comics and the later comic books might never have come about. For that reason alone, this volume is well worth studying on a scholarly level.
Another reason is Foster’s command of anatomy, which was impressive and unlike anything appearing in the funny pages at the time. Foster took his research seriously and lamented that some of the writers he worked with failed to consider things like what kind of trees were likely to line an African river. Alas, his dedication was not appreciated by his employers and one of the chief reasons Burroughs considered Foster the best artist to handle Tarzan was that he was very good at drawing attractive women. (This skill, it might be noted, was honed by Foster’s work as a commercial artist, drawing women in lingerie in catalogs in the days before photography became inexpensive.)
On that note, there is no publisher rating for this collection. The amount of sex and violence within it was shocking for its time, but there’s nothing that would be inappropriate for a teenage audience today. There are a few bare male backsides and one naked boy who comes to Tarzan’s aid in one story, but nothing more overtly sexual than various queens of lost cities informing Tarzan that he is now theirs.
It should also be noted there is some material in these comics that has not aged well. There are multiple instances of the white goddess trope, with superstitious African natives taking in a white woman as their leader. Thankfully, Smith does not present these characters as the offensive caricatures that were commonplace in other comics of the time, but the four-color recreations for this book do feature some Asian characters with dimly yellowed skin.
One final warning. At $200 this volume may be a bit expensive for a library collection. Serious collectors of Tarzan lore and comics history should consider this a must-have. However, unless one’s library has a special collection devoted to Platinum Age comics or something similar, this one may be a bit of a budget breaker.
Hal Foster’s Tarzan: The Complete Sunday Comics 1931-1937 By Dian Hanson Art by Hal Foster TASCHEN, 2026 ISBN: 9783754402641
Related media: Book to Comic
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Canadian,
When most people think of Robert Kirkman’s zombie apocalypse story The Walking Dead, they likely remember two aspects of the show. The first is, of course, the zombies (or “walkers,” as they were called on the show). Everpresent and always hungry, they drove much of the story’s survival narrative. The second aspect, and perhaps the secret of the show’s popularity, was its non-zombie characters, humans who once had jobs, families, and lives before society collapsed and are now stuck simply trying to survive this new, deadly world. Everything Dead & Dying, a zombie apocalypse tale by writer Tate Brombal and illustrated by Jacob Phillips, shows Kirkman’s legacy throughout its DNA, even as it makes a subtle but poignant tweak to his formula.
The series focuses on Jack Chandler, the lone survivor of a zombie outbreak that has decimated the community and is consuming the world, but Jack cares little about the outside world. All he cares about is the community that had once welcomed him and the husband and daughter he loves. Despite the fact that they are zombies, he still treats them like human beings. He makes sure his zombified husband and daughter eat at the dinner table and that the members of their community, despite showing minimal awareness, are able to still go about the routines they performed while alive. Jack is able to maintain this precarious pantomime of existence until a group of survivors come to his community to “rescue” Jack by destroying all the zombies that were his family and friends.
Brombal’s zombie tale might seem like a lot of other zombie apocalypse stories that came before it, but he adds his own spin. The story takes place between two narratives, before the zombie outbreak and after. The reader is introduced to these characters as living, breathing human beings with personalities before showing them in their current undead state, sometimes on the same comic page. Readers also see these people accept Jack’s lifestyle when his own father doesn’t, which makes their zombified state even more tragic. Salt is finally poured into the emotional wounds when the book delves into Jack’s time with his husband Luke, revealed to be a man who was many times Jack’s anchor, and his daughter Daisy, a precocious child whom he loved dearly. In other zombie stories, the zombies are seen mostly as obstacles or environmental dangers; Brombal forcefully reminds readers that these zombies with a taste for human flesh were once human.
That isn’t to say that the book ever downplays the fact that these zombies eat human flesh. Phillips’s art showcases the dichotomy between the community pre and post zombie apocalypse. Many of his panels are bursting with reds, showcasing blood and viscera no longer contained by human skin. The zombies definitely look like zombies, with skin sloughing off and mouths and clothes stained red from previous meals. However, the realistic way Phillips illustrates human faces and anatomy hammers home the similarities and differences between these people when they were alive versus after they became zombies. Finally, Philips’s rural landscapes evokes a bucolic rural existence, even if that existence becomes a grim, bloody parody of itself.
This book should be resting in the same section as Kirkman’s The Walking Dead and other horror graphic tales that skew toward adults. It offers enough gnarly illustrations to attract graphic novel gorehounds, but the story is a tragic, heartbreaking tale of a man who’s trying to hold onto his humanity by helping his community hold onto theirs. Like The Walking Dead, this book ultimately asks how long a person can remain human when so much of humanity has become inhuman.
Everything Dead & Dying By Tate Brombal Art by Jacob Phillips Image, 2026 ISBN: 9781534332539
Are you afraid of the dark? For within the dark lurks a multitude of wonders hidden from the naked eye, yet a cautionary reminder prevails: “The night does not belong to us.” In another alluring graphic novel, Spanish illustrator and comics artist Laura Pérez guides readers on a journey into the depths of the night and everything that lies dormant—or awake—in the darkness.
Like an opening to a film zooming in on an establishing shot, the scene begins at dusk and gradually dims into darkness where denizens of the night—bats, centipedes, and owls—awaken from their natural habitats while humans take shelter. Dancing flames of fire offer illuminating warmth in a cave carved on the side of a mountain.
From there, the bonfire from within shifts to an isolated light in a side window of a building, leading to the fire on a kitchen stove top. These scenes transition fluidly, transporting readers from one scenario to another in just a few panels. Full-page panels on a two-page spread depict a medium long shot of the night in the forest and throughout the city. A brief caption reads: “Since time immemorial, night has been a place we’ve tried to conquer and in a way we’ve succeeded.” Despite the change from one time period to another, the setting may have evolved technologically from a rural to an urban locale, but the cloak of night still envelopes the same space from one era into the next.
As the narrative unfolds, a solitary owl sporadically appears—a winged creature of the night that swoops through time and space, transcending the physical world. Subtle yet pervasive details coalesce into Pérez’s deceptively simple, silent world. Shades of black and dark teal accentuate the mood and time. A young girl donning a red hoodie ventures forth from an RV at night into the woods, echoing snatches of Little Red Riding Hood. Punctuating these scenes are a night owl that sweeps through the night air as well as a dead deer lying on a deserted road, for the night camouflages and shelters, furnishing a sanctuary while rendering secrets out of sight, melting everything away in its embrace like a black hole.
Pérez plays around with metaphysical themes of universal consciousness and telepathy, of people and places stretched across time and space, echoes of a distant, primordial past. The panels, minimalist at times, accrue more meaning upon successive viewings as though beckoning readers to delve deeper into the mysteries buried within. As a graphic novel, a visual poem, and a meditation on the sublime enchantment of the night, Nocturnos bears repeated readings and integrates well with thought-provoking titles in adult graphic novel collections, offering a pictorial Zen-like exploration that generates insight through repeated readings that will tease, tantalize, allure, and enchant.
Nocturnos By Laura Pérez Fantagraphics, 2025 ISBN: 9798875001260
Company Age Rating: Series ISBNs and Order Related media:
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Spanish,
The story opens with David, a brown-skinned, lanky middle-schooler, imagining the “spark” of creativity and ideas as a cute little cartoon creature. He arrives home and meets up with his neighbor Marta, a lively homeschooled 2nd grader with red-rimmed glasses and the two investigate an explosion in David’s basement. It turns out his mom has successfully created a tool to shrink herself down so she can travel between dimensions into a “micro universe.” Unfortunately, she’s left the tool behind.
This short graphic novel opens with a stereotypical bullying scene – Lucas, our main character, duct-taped upside-down to his locker by the bullies and his “friend”, eco-warrior Julia hiding in her locker. Lucas, a skinny little kid with pale skin and huge glasses, is determined that nothing is going to ruin his thirteenth birthday, but soon finds himself stuck in detention with Julia. Julia, a tall, stocky girl dressed in all black with white hair dyed green that contrasts with her brown skin, is exasperated by Lucas, but goes along with his escape plan and helps him get home in time for his birthday dinner.
Victor is a necromancer, with magic in his blood that lets him cast spells. If anyone finds out, he would be put to death: necromancy is illegal and fanatically persecuted by the religious order that polices the city. And it’s not easy to hide, given that every transaction–from buying a snack to getting married – requires a blood signature, and necromancer blood visibly glows with magic. So Victor keeps to the shadows, solitary except for his cute one-eyed cat, just trying to survive.
Note: This is a review of the ARC, which is 200 pages long and not the complete manuscript.
Like a filmmaker having a soft spot for movies about movies, I am a sucker for a book or comic on the importance of stories. 
Who’s ready for a new campaign?
The graphic novel medium has the ability to convey complex ideas and emotions through images, revealing many interesting aspects of the human condition. Then there are books like Final Boss, Vol. 1, written and drawn by Tyler Kirkham with additional art by David Miller.
When most people think of Robert Kirkman’s zombie apocalypse story The Walking Dead, they likely remember two aspects of the show. The first is, of course, the zombies (or “walkers,” as they were called on the show). Everpresent and always hungry, they drove much of the story’s survival narrative. The second aspect, and perhaps the secret of the show’s popularity, was its non-zombie characters, humans who once had jobs, families, and lives before society collapsed and are now stuck simply trying to survive this new, deadly world. Everything Dead & Dying, a zombie apocalypse tale by writer Tate Brombal and illustrated by Jacob Phillips, shows Kirkman’s legacy throughout its DNA, even as it makes a subtle but poignant tweak to his formula.
naked eye, yet a cautionary reminder prevails: “The night does not belong to us.” In another alluring graphic novel, Spanish illustrator and comics artist Laura Pérez guides readers on a journey into the depths of the night and everything that lies dormant—or awake—in the darkness.
