Nafu Wants Food by Subi Bosa. Graphic Universe, 2025. 9798765629963. 112pp.

Nafu is the gigantic, hungry creature on the cover, and as the title suggests, he’s hungry. In fact he eats all of Mongo Village’s food then drinks all of their water and still he wants more. The Chief says it’s okay because Nafu protects the village’s residents and its temple, but a young girl named Doya points out that Nafu is a greedy bully.

Nafu soon wanders off into the desert and literally begins to fall apart. Then this becomes a much stranger story. Nafu’s head wanders for 15 years and finds a new village where food is controlled by a single family. There, creatures race for a chance to eat dinner, and then (minor spoiler) Nafu’s head ends up on the menu.

I’d have loved this weird graphic novel as a kid! And I hope to have a chance to read more of South African Subi Bosa’s comics.

 

The Fire-Breathing Duckling by Frank Cammuso. TOON, 2025. 9781662665332. (Easy-To-Read Comics Level Two)

Cammuso (Max Hamm: Fairy Tale Detective, Otto’s Orange Day, Knights of the Lunch Table) has fun with an ugly duckling story about a “duckling” who is clearly not a duck. The animals are all cheerful and full of personality; the stand-out is the little blue bird, who helps the title character figure out what kind of duck he is .

    All The Hulk Feels by Dan Santat. Abrams Fanfare, 2025. 9781419776137.

When scientist Bruce Banner gets angry, he turns into the Hulk. Hulk thinks Banner is mad for the wrong reasons. And Hulk wishes he could feel something other than anger. Santat’s drawings of the Hulk and a few Marvel villains are incredibly fun, as is the fact that this is an epistolary picture book — the text is mostly notes between Hulk and Banner.

    Giant Baby! by Liz Rozenberg, illustrated by Eva Byrn. Marble Press, 2025. “9781958325247.

After his parents put him to bed, Ezra grows into a giant baby and heads out into the night. He towers over buildings! He uses real cars as toys! Will he make it back home before his parents find out he’s gone? I love Byrn’s drawings, particularly the cows at the end.

 

Here are two visually striking Batman graphic novels that have great stories, too.

Batman: City of Madness by Christian Ward. DC Black Label, 2024. 9781779527028. 160pp.  Contains #1 – #3. Publisher’s Rating: Ages 17+.

Ward (Invisible Kingdom, ODY-C, Blood Stained Teeth, more) produces art that absolutely wows me. He proves his bright, unexpected colors can even succeed in creating a dark Batman story. The story. It involves the Court of Owls, a mirror Gotham City, and a young man out for vengeance. It’s bloody. There are tentacles. My favorite part is the way Ward draws Two-Face.

 

The Boy Wonder: Book One by Juni Ba. DC Comics, 2024. 9781799500322. 184pp. Contains #1-#5. No publisher’s rating.

Ba (Monkey Meat, Djeliya, more) illustrates the hell out of the story of Damian Wayne as Robin as he works to overcome his childhood training as an assassin with the help of those who were Robin before him.

Ba’s storytelling reminds me of the best books by Mike Mignola and Darwyn Cooke, especially in terms of pacing, and his page layouts are inspired. (Chris O’Halloran’s colors are stunning and somehow make every page work better; he knows when to shift into overdrive and when to back off in a way that’s beautiful.) It ends, as all great stories do, with a sword fight.

   

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!