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Indiginerds

Tales from Modern Indigenous Life

(2024) Iron Circus Comics

Edited by Alina Pete

Sometimes community is by design. In this anthology, stories by Indigenous writers and artists are gathered in good company by nehiyaw (Cree) artist and writer Alina Pete. Embracing intersectional identities and a vibrant array of illustration styles, Indiginerds shares tales of contemporary urban Indigenous youth making connections through technology, activism, and creative expression. A gamer streams Mi’gmaq language lessons on Twitch; friends review Indigenous horror films; an artist finds freedom from her daily mask in virtual reality; D&D players roll against imperialist narratives; a writer revisions Star Trek from an Indigenous lens. Through shared passions, characters affirm cultural identities and senses of self.

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Side Quest

A Visual History of Roleplaying Games

Steenz & Samuel Sattin

(2024) Harper Alley

TTRPG fans and newcomers alike will encounter a dragon’s hoard of insights in this fascinating history roleplaying games. Creators Steenz and Samuel Stattin act as visual guides, immersing readers in gameplay and historical accounts, then pausing to explain logistics and ideas, such as “TTRPGs require improv, statistics, and community.” From their personal encounters with RPGs, Steenz and Sattin lead us to ancient practices in China, India, and Rome, then on to Napoleonic wargames, popular twentieth-century parlour games, and the rise of Dungeons and Dragons. Following  LARPING and efforts to make games more inclusive, Side Quest concludes with a separate playable adventure, glossary, and helpful bibliography.

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Thief of the Heights

Son M. & Robin Yao

(2024) Harper Alley

In the vertical city of Muqadas, social strata are mirrored in geographical strata, with the poorest living in perpetual gloom along Lake Saha, while the wealthiest reside in airy districts high above. The lake is polluted with a dangerous virus; those who catch it must amputate their infected limbs in order to survive. Basem, Mustafa, and Aarfah—three close friends and gifted engineers—have made a name for themselves crafting prostheses to help those afflicted. When a talent scout elevates them to the opulent upper tiers, they must each decide how to bring justice to all those left behind.

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No Rules Tonight

Hyun Sook Kim & Ryan Estrada

(2024) Penguin Workshop

In this fictionalized memoir, Hyun Sook Kim shares her experiences as a university student living under a dictatorship in 1980s South Korea. With informants filling classrooms and protests filling streets, Hyun Sook finds community in her folk dance team and in an underground banned book club. When Hoon, both dance team president and book club leader, is arrested before the team’s annual camping trip, Hyun Sook is torn between her desire to resume the club and the dangers of being caught. Estrada’s illustrations bring warmth and sweetness to this humorous account of poor planning and a few days of freedom.

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Luminous Beings

(A Quiet Film of Cosmic Fury)

David Arnold & Jose Pimienta

(2024) Viking

Best friends Ty and Burger made a pact to take a gap year and film a documentary about the recent zombie squirrel apocalypse—but Ty has secretly applied to film school and is about to leave Burger behind. Arnold and Pimienta’s sharply funny homage to ‘80s- and ‘90s-era music and film delivers a purple- and pink-hued 24 hours of “squizzie” infested adventures as Ty, Burger, and friends Miles and Fib track down their missing boss, a $20,000 reward, and footage for their film. Cinematic action and curse-laden quips are balanced with moments of poetry and reflections on love and friendship.

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Brooms

Jasmine Wall and Teo DuVall

(2023) Levine Querido

1930s Mississippi brews with magical realism in this tale of illegal broom racing by witches of colour. In a segregationist South where Indigenous children are forced to attend residential magic academies, Luella, who is Choctaw, convinces her family to let twins Mattie and Emma race to pay for school exemption. Luella turns to her sweetheart Billie Mae, who is Black, to teach the girls. Billie Mae is captain of the Night Storms and determined to move out west where she’d be free to legally compete. This defiant tale of ingenuity against injustice sensitively renders a range of identities and abilities.

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Phobos and Deimos

Volume 1

J Dalton

(2023) Cloudscape Comics Society

[Vancouver, BC]

Maida Kilwa works hard to fit in as an Earther and excel at school, her one chance to escape her status as a Martian refugee. In Dalton’s elaborately imagined future, Modern English has evolved into an East-Londonesque “Yinglish,” and the ruling elite enforce strict divisions of class, religion, and gender. Facing bullies at school and forced to survive on charity, Maida finds freedom in a poetry club at a less restrictive school, where she meets self-proclaimed revolutionary Thamaseb. Maida begins infiltrating her school’s surveillance systems, attracting unexpected attention and an impossible choice. What will she risk to change the world?

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The Baker and the Bard

A Cozy Fantasy Adventure

Fern Haught

(2024) Feiwei and Friends

This airy confection serves up friendship, self-acceptance, and a sprinkling of romance with a quest at the centre. Blue demon Hadley is an aspiring bard who longs for adventures worth singing about. They work at a bakery with Juniper, a tall, pink-haired faun who dreams of opening her own shop one day. When their boss needs a magical ingredient from a distant forest, the friends set off, and soon encounter a city whose crops have mysteriously been eaten. An adventure! Following a glowing trail through the trees, Hadley and Juniper make surprising discoveries that harmonize both ecological and personal wellbeing.

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Bad Medicine

Christopher Twin

(2023) Emanata

Five friends light a fire one night beneath a bridge by Loon River. Looking over the dark water, one shares a creepy story of a guy who went fishing and was never found… but was drowned by mimiskiwaw, ferocious beings from Cree legends. Another friend joins in with a chilling tale of a kidnapped Indigenous girl and the ghost of a murdered girl who saves her. Twin’s artwork lends dread and horror to these stories of spirits, shapeshifters, and all-too-real demons that youth in their community must face. Walking home by flashlight and the moon, they agree to meet again soon.

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Bunt!

Striking Out on Financial Aid

Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert

(2024) First Second

In this satirical yet big-hearted take on the pitfalls of paying for higher education, Molly Bauer is thrilled to be attending a prestigious art school in her hometown—until she discovers her full-ride scholarship no longer exists. Frantic, Molly and her cynical friend Ryan—a dropout from the same institution—uncover an old scholarship that just might work; that is, if she can convince nine students from eight different majors to join her on a softball team and actually win a game. Rupert’s comic illustrations emphasize the humour in Molly’s quest to stay enrolled by creating athletic communal performance art.

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Punk Rock Karaoke

Bianca Xunise

(2024) Viking

Punk Rock Karaoke explodes off the page with riotous exuberance and in-your-face aesthetics drawing inspiration from Xunise’s punk- and zine-scene Chicago roots. Ariel and best friends Michele and Gael have just graduated from high school, leaving the future of their band in question as ‘adulting’ pressures mount. Ariel’s infatuation with a punk idol gives them hope—and exposes them to exploitation. Xunise introduces characters by name, pronouns, astrological sign, and soundtrack, and cues each scene to a different song, immersing readers in a fast-paced narrative that reverberates with rage, power, and pride in being Black, queer, and authentic misfit selves.

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Himawari House

Harmony Becker

(2021) First Second

Nao was born in Japan but grew up in the American Midwest. Returning to Tokyo for a gap year before college, she is anxious to fit in. When Nao arrives at Himawari House, a share house for Japanese-language students, she is immediately befriended by Hyejung, from Korea, and Tina, from Singapore. The three are relieved to speak English, to the amusement of Shinichi and the alarm of his brother Masaki (who studies English but can’t understand their rapid conversations). Becker masterfully conveys the bittersweet complexities of living between languages with shifting art styles, bilingual speech bubbles, and authentically accented English.

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Big Jim and the White Boy

David F. Walker & Marcus Kwame Anderson

(2024) Ten Speed Graphic

Mark Twain’s iconic tale of friendship and adventure is expansively reimagined in this multilayered graphic novel. Opening with Twain’s account of Jim and Huckleberry Finn’s encounter with a shipwreck, the scene abruptly changes as Jim, white-haired and rheumy-eyed, declares “It didn’t happen that way.” He and Huck—old friends still interrupting and correcting each other—tell spellbound grandchildren of his search for his wife and children, sold away by Huck’s villainous father. Reframing Jim as a hero, Walker and Anderson’s powerful epic ranges from the 1850s to the present day, foregrounding the experiences of enslaved people and their enduring legacies.

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The Greatest Thing

Sarah Winifred Searle

(2022) First Second

It’s 2002, and Winifred faces the start of her sophomore year with loneliness and anxiety as her closest friends have transferred to another school. When she meets April and Oscar in photography class, she feels hopeful again. The three soon bond over their love of art and music. They start a fantasy zine (issues included, complete with how-to instructions for the reader) called Gutterglimmer. Win throws herself into creating stories with her friends, but her struggles with an eating disorder become harder to keep secret. Searle’s semi-autobiographical story uplifts queer identities and offers a gently honest account of overcoming depression.