Before the pandemic BF’s Staff Picks feature had run for many years, with members of the team giving a weekly overview of recommended new releases. Now, retooled and reimagined to fit the site’s current ethos, it has returned as a monthly series designed to spotlight a few key releases that appeal to us. This is not, then, intended as a comprehensive, exhaustive or extensive round-up but rather to point you in the direction of some top projects that caught the eyes of BF contributors. Please also remember these aren’t intended as reviews and full coverage of the comics/books below may follow in due course!
Comic of the Month
Life Drawing (Fantagraphics Books)
February sees the publishing schedules spring back to life again after the relative lull of the pre-holiday season and the early weeks of the new year. It’s a strong month for new releases but when it came to February’s ‘Comic of the Month’ the interest in Jaime Hernandez’s new graphic novel Life Drawing was always going to place it at the top of this monthly round-up. From the pages of the seminal Love and Rockets this is a love story across generations, focussing on the drama that ensues when student Tonta’s crush on her art teacher Ray brings her into conflict with Maggie, Ray’s wife. A book that will no doubt be eagerly anticipated by regular L&R readers but will also provide new ones with an entry point into the sprawling cast of L&R characters.
– Andy Oliver
Raised by Ghosts (Fantagraphics Books)
Following in the footsteps of other ghostly titles like The Sad Ghost Club and Sheets, comes a new, reflective tale from Fantagraphics: Raised by Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn. Set in Loewinsohn’s teenage years, this semi-autobiography focuses on Brianna, a teenage reflection of the author, whose life is a bit of a mess. As the title implies, Brianna is incredibly lonely, with absent parents and flighty friends. As time goes on, and Brianna enters her teenage years, she is forced to face deep questions about her self-worth, sense of belonging, and the relationships she forms with others. This is Loewinsohn’s first new graphic novel since 2023’s breakthrough Ephemera, and looks set to be just as ground-breaking.
– Lydia Turner
Bring Me the Head of Susan Lomond (Silver Sprocket)
Silver Sprocket achieved the double placing of Best Publisher and Hall of Fame entrants in the 2024 Broken Frontier Awards. Much deserved from a publisher whose output continues to combine social activism with the very best in alternative comics storytelling. Connor B.’s debut book is a tale of high school obsession as teen evil genius Monroe Poole sets her sights on revenge against high-achieving student and her ultimate nemesis Susan Lomond. Everything from the direction of Silver Sprocket is worth your attention and the preview pages on their site sell the project all the more.
– Andy Oliver
Surrounded (NBM)
Europe Comics have done so much to bring translated European work to English-speaking audiences over the last decade and it was in that capacity that we first reviewed Wilfrid Lupano and Stéphane Fert’s Surrounded (or White All Around as it was titled then). Now picked up for print by NBM this is the story of America’s first school for Black girls, founded in Connecticut in 1832, and the hostility it and its students faced from the local community. You can read Tom Murphy’s Broken Frontier review of Surrounded here.
– Andy Oliver
There’s No Time Like the Present (Drawn & Quarterly)
If you’re a UK comics aficionado of a certain vintage you will remember nascent small press sections in stores often feeling like they were 90% Paul B. Rainey comics. There’s No Time Like the Present was one of those game-changing self-published series in its day and, after the success of Rainey’s Why Don’t You Love Me? in 2023, Drawn & Quarterly are following up with a new collection of TNTLTP. This sweeping time-travel story focusses on what the effects of an available mastery of time would be on people like you and me, and that sheer humanity is what makes this such a special example of its genre. You can read a scene-setting interview with Paul B. Rainey at BF from the last time TNTLTP was collected by Escape Books in 2015 here.
– Andy Oliver
The Murder Next Door
Street Noise Books are another comics publisher with a socially conscious mission at the heart of their publishing ethos. February sees them bringing Hugh D’Andrade’s graphic memoir to us; one that chronicles the effects a murder in the house next door during his childhood would have on his later life. Street Noise consistently bring us powerful stories from the world around us, and their catalogue of books deserves your consideration.
– Andy Oliver
