Universe! by Albert Monteys. Image, 2021. 9781534318076. 196pp of story plus an afterward that includes sketches and other information on Monteys’ process, including one-panel gags. Contains Universe #1 – 5 originally published online at panelsyndicate.com where you can still name your price for this book and the rest of the issues of the series. The book opens with astronaut / chrononaut Thomas Marriot, an employee of Wortham Industries, and his digital assistant, Eye-3, in the whatever that preceded the Big Bang. With them is a strange device the purpose of which, if I explained it, would spoil the plot. But let’s say Wortham Industries decided the mission was a go even though this time jump consumed 23% of Earth’s resources. Does it have anything to do with the company’s undead CEO? Issue 2 involves a world in which people fall in love with their perfect robot companions, and of course they may be dangerous. #3 is about manned probes sent out to find intelligent life and report back to Earth. (The probe design is hilarious, as is the way the astronauts hibernate.) Issue 4 is too difficult to explain. #5 is another entertaining, unexpected story about time travel that unifies the book’s parts. My favorite part: the ants! Their story is wondrous and sad. Monteys adapted Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five into a graphic novel with Ryan North, and that book proved he’s brilliant. This one proves he’s both full of ideas of his own and hilarious.  

The Summer War by Naomi Novik. Del Rey, 2025. 9780593984703. 127pp.

“Celia was twelve years old when she cursed her brother.” Great opening line!

Celia’s brother, Argent, is the greatest knight and their father’s heir. On the day Argent renounces all of that and heads for the Summer Lands (think faerie) to become a hero, Celia accidentally curses him. Unfortunately, it’s also the day Celia comes into her power as a sorceress.

What follows is my favorite fantasy novella of 2025. Celia regrets her curse but has no way to undo it. Her father, a self-made man and cunning leader who “won” the Summer War for his King, falls apart at the loss of his son and loses focus. Her other brother, whom she has largely ignored, tries to get closer to her. And Celia is promised to a prince, which never goes well in these sorts of books.

If you’ve never read a book by Novik, this is a great place to start. Then read anything else she has ever written, you won’t be disappointed. (Personally, I recommend A Deadly Education and the books that follow, but that might be because I’m saving His Majesty’s Dragon and its sequels for a rainy season.)    

Lonergan (Hedra, All-Star, Arca, Man’s Best, Planet Paradise) creates an epic, mythic graphic novel about gods, heroes, elementals, the desire for power, and the dawn of civilization.

Blue is strong, tough, and seemingly immortal; it’s not long before all the people kneel to her. Red is a Hulk-like being who finds brotherhood in nature. His first meeting with Blue did not go the way I expected, and mankind demands justice for what he does. Together, they try to preserve civilization, though that proves difficult for several reasons, the least of which is a giant fire elemental.

Lonergan’s graphic novel remimds me of two others I loved: Jesse Moynihan’s Forming (new edition coming from Fantagraphics in 2026!) and Joseph Keatinge’s and Sophie Campbell’s Glory. It’s got a dash of superhero-ish style and a bit of Conan’s Hyperborea, plus a villainous human willing to do anything to get power and a creator who is less than kind.

My favorite parts: I was all-in as soon as I saw the battle with the giant crab, and I loved the layouts and art during the descent into the underworld that takes place later. Every page of this book is fantastic!

 

 

 

Cannon by Lee Lai. Drawn & Quarterly, 2025. 9781770468023. 304pp.

Cannon is everyone’s rock. She works in a kitchen that’s insane (her boss is truly the worst), and she’s taking care of her ailing Gung Gung, whose caregiver just resigned. Her mom, of course, won’t return her calls. Her best friend, Trish, never really listens to her, and even uses their friendship as fodder for her writing. (Trish is struggling with her own crap, plus she’s having an affair with a straight boy.)

The only thing that gets Cannon through it is running while listening to tapes about breathing and mindfulness. Her co-worker Benji’s support helps, too.

Lee Lai’s follow-up to Stone Fruit (2022) is just as amazing. Cannon’s characters navigate love, friendship, and family in ways that are both heartbreaking and uplifting. I’ve already read it twice.

My favorite parts: Trish coming to Cannon’s aid when a mean girl is trashing her at a party, back when they were in high school. Plus, the moment when Cannon finally explodes is epic, the more so because Trish is there to help.

     

These picture books published by Transit were all translated from Spanish, and each defied my expectations.

Ashimpa: The Mysterious Word by Catarina Sobral. Translated by Juliana Barbassa. Transit Children’s Editions, 2025. 9798893380026.

I’m sure that any book that opens with a researcher making a discovery, in a book of all places — in this case, finding the long-lost word “ashimpa” — is going to be a hit with the library crowd. As people start using it, and then arguing about how to use it, “ashimpa” goes from a verb to a noun and on and on, getting kids to think about how we use different types of words. My favorite thing: Sobral’s illustrations are totally ashimpish!

    A Sleepless Night by Michaela Chirif and Joaquín Camp. Translated by Jordan Landsman. Transit Children’s Editions, 2024. 9798893389050.

This book had me from the title page, which features animals dressed as fruit, dancing. In the book, Elisa won’t stop crying, and it disturbs everyone, even people on the other side of the planet. Nothing can get her to stop. Everyone is exhausted. (Minor spoiler: then grandma arrives!) My wife claims she saw the surprise ending coming a mile away and refuses to believe I didn’t.

Giant on the Shore by Alfonso Ochoa and Andrés López. Translated from Spanish by Shook. Transit Children’s Editions, 2024. 9781945492877.

The illustrations are beautiful, and the story is melancholy; it’s about an invisible giant that does not come ashore, and that does not have a story written about it.

       

Masters of the Nefarious: Mollusk Rampage by Pierre La Police. Translated by Luke Burns. New York Review Comics, 2024. 9781681378343. 176pp.

An absurd, surreal graphic novel made of one-panel comics, one on each page. It begins with a tidal wave that “conceals occult creatures” and ends with a thumbs-up. Aliens figure in, as do the eponymous Masters of the Nefarious, a trio out to solve the supernatural problems. Every page feels both unpredictable and inevitable as the story moves forward. The pages about a toilet made me laugh out loud, as did the results of a trip to Mexico. Enjoy!

 

Dear Jackie by Jessixa Bagley, illustrated by Aaron Bagley. Simon & Schuster Books for Young People, 2025. 978-1534496576. 288pp. Jackie and Milo are nervous about starting middle school, and they’re so close that Jackie’s mother calls Milo Jackie’s “replacement brother.” (Jackie’s real brother, Jabari, has just moved away from home.) Milo is the kind of boy who cries while reading comic books, and Jackie is not at all a girly girl. They’re perfect friends. At school Milo immediately makes new friends while playing sports, and Jackie doesn’t like them at all. Her locker is below Adelle’s; Adelle wants to give Jackie fashion advice, and isn’t nice about it at all. As notes start to get passed and kids start pairing off, Jackie deals with her isolation by writing herself notes on a typewriter she finds in Jabari’s room. At first they’re the kind of things she wishes someone would say to her, to give her a boost. But soon, tired of more and more people telling her to act and dress more like a girl, Jackie types herself a note from a secret admirer and sticks it in Adelle’s locker “by mistake.” When Adelle finds it, people are shocked, but they also become nicer to Jackie. As everyone tries to figure out who likes Jackie, the whole situation becomes more and more precarious. Worth noting: Early in the book, Jackie tries to dye her hair with disastrous results. (It’s pretty funny, too.) And Jabari is the best older sibling ever. This is the second tween graphic novel by the Bagleys, who also wrote/created/illustrated Duel, the fencing graphic novel with lots of sibling rivalry.  

Cat People: A Comic Collection by Hanna Hillam. Running Press, 2024. 9780762486033. 100pp. A human woman falls through a portal to a world where cats rule and humans are pets. And she arrives on Halloween. My favorite parts: visiting the pet store; cats trying to deal with a moody, incomprehensible human; and when the cat introduces a second human to its home. Hilarious, but intended for adults and older teens rather than kids.    

North Continent Ribbon: Stories by Ursula Whitcher. Neon Hemlock, 2024. 9781952086847. 172pp.

This book contains short stories that stand together as a novella. It was shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, and my friend Gina recommended it to me during Seattle’s Worldcon back in August.

The stories explore the culture of the planet Nakharat, a slightly futuristic society obsessed with secrets and promises that take the form of ribbons hidden in one’s hair, and that has an AI, which they don’t trust but make extensive use of. It’s worth reading the book without knowing more than that.

The sense of the culture that emerges from the six stories was beguiling, and their characters brought me back over and over. It stands with The Left Hand of Darkness and Ancillary Justice in what it accomplishes in terms of world building, and it’s all the more impressive in that it’s much shorter than either book. Highly recommended.