A few days later than normal but welcome to our BF Staff Picks for October! 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 returns as a monthly feature 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
The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic (Knockabout/Top Shelf Productions)
The long-awaited collaboration between Alan Moore and the late Steve Moore finally arrives on book and comic shop shelves this month. Described as “a sprawling and stunning introduction to magic in all its timeless forms” the book is illustrated by Kevin O’Neill, John Coulthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch, and Ben Wickey. O’Neill’s involvement, of course, making this a doubly poignant affair.
Compiling comics, instructional essays, activity pages, biographies and more The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic is a key release on multiple levels. In the words of Top Shelf’s Chris Staros: “It’s been a privilege to watch those magical minds spend years building this grimoire, and I’m proud to join Knockabout in finally sharing it with the world.” Check out a preview here at BF.
– Andy Oliver
Hibernation Guide for Rabbits and Hares (ShortBox Comics Fair)
The beginning of October marks a major event in all comic-lovers calendars: The ShortBox Comics Fair! Returning for its fourth year, the aim of the fair is to showcase all-new, original comics from creators around the globe.
One title I’m very much looking forward to picking up is Hibernation Guide for Rabbits and Hares by L. Adassovsky. Drawn in an adorably cutesy style, Hibernation Guide follows sweet Gentiane as she opens her hotel to rabbits who are seeking warmth from the chilly winter cold. Her assistant Thistle, is not so eager to hunker down, however, and heads off into the snow. His reasoning is yet to be revealed… Illustrated in sweet pastels with a host of cute rabbit characters, Hibernation Guide is sure to make us feel all warm inside as we head towards the winter months.
– Lydia Turner
Ditching Saskia (Flying Eye Books)
A ghost story seems to be a must to include on this list for October, and if you’re looking for one that sounds a little different then John Moore and Neetols’ Ditching Saskia from Flying Eye Books sounds most appropriate.
Living with his grandfather, Damien attempts to cope with his struggles at a new school by summoning the ghost of his mother. But things go wrong and he summons up the spirit of an annoying young girl called Saskia instead. She may be a pain but do Damien and Saskia actually have more in common than they may realise? Check out some hauntingly atmospheric preview pages here.
– Andy Oliver
Nightmare Factory (Fantagraphics Books)
I first discovered John Kenn Mortensen’s work in his gristly collection A Christmas Bestiary, a guidebook to festive horrors. Now, the Danish master of horror is taking over the Halloween season, with new collection Nightmare Factory, a collection of gruesome, skin-crawling poems following children’s worst nightmares.
With terrifying imaginative sequences playing out across gloriously gothic double-page spreads, Mortensen conjures a grand, nightmarish world of terror. Nightmare Factory has to be one of the most exciting collections to rear its deliciously ugly head in October, a perfect month to celebrate all things spooky and terrible.
– Lydia Turner
Graphic Novel Builder (Collins)
As small press and self-publishing aficionados here at Broken Frontier we have a vested interest in encouraging new voices to become involved in creating their own comics. In Graphic Novel Builder Edward Ross uses a small cast of teen characters to introduce the subject to aspiring comickers.
Character creation, plot and script construction, drawing tips and much more are covered in a book that Alice Oseman (Heartstopper) describes as “something I would have read and re-read obsessively as a young artist.” Check out our previous coverage of Edward Ross’s work in Filmish and Gamish.
– Andy Oliver
Jessica Farm (Fantagraphics Books)
When I picked up the first volume of Jessica Farm a few years ago it was as much the format and process of this fascinating project that caught my attention as it was the narrative. Josh Simmons has been drawing one page a month of this book since 2000, making it a genuinely career-spanning project.
It’s the strangest Christmas story you will ever read in comics as Jessica wakes up ready for the holiday but finds herself lost in the dreamlike structure of her ever-changing home; strange scenarios and the weirdest encounters lurking around every corner. This Fantagraphics collection will bring a truly unique graphic novel to a whole new set of readers.
– Andy Oliver
Forces of Nature (Drawn & Quarterly)
From Lindsay Pereira’s Broken Frontier review of Forces of Nature: A Book of Drawings by Edward Steed:
Regular readers of The New Yorker may recognise a Steed cartoon instantly by now, given the frequency with which he has been appearing there since debuting in its March 2013 issue. He obviously has that certain something, a je ne sais quoi that separates New Yorker cartoonists from the merely talented lot waiting in the wings for their shot.
Ultimately, one walks away from Forces of Nature with gratitude, not only because of how entertaining it is, but because of how one can tell that Steed is only going to get better. His point of view is brutal, but unique. And in a world where lines between the normal and fantastical increasingly blur, it feels as if it is people like Edward Steed who will emerge as soothsayers.
Read the full review here at BF
– Lindsay Pereira
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States: A Graphic Interpretation (Beacon Press)
Paul Peart-Smith adapts Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s book exploring the dark realities of the founding of the United States and its accompanying colonialism and genocide. Described as “a graphic interpretation” of its source material Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is one of those books that will obviously not be an easy read but will be an absolutely essential one.
The displacement and elimination of indigenous peoples is a part of history that continues to be very deliberately suppressed. Look for a new Broken Frontier resource list on the subject in the not too distant future.
– Andy Oliver
