If you’d like to know more about a title feel free to leave a comment below. Or, better yet, stop by your local independent comic book shop and ask the friendly folks behind the counter. Some of these titles from smaller presses may need to be special ordered. If you need recommendations for a store near you consider using the Comic Shop Locator.

Ladycastle.

Boom! Studios

What it us…

Once upon a time in a faraway magical kingdom all the men went to war and never came back. Now its up to the women to defend their castle keep from wicked curses, malicious harpies, and indefatigable black knights. Wackiness and anachronistic pop culture references ensue.

Who it’s for…

people who miss the first two seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; feminist Monty Python fans

Soviet Daughter.

Microcosm Publishing

What it is…

A remarkable first person account of the Soviet revolution in Kiev, the Holocaust and World War II, incredible poverty and deprivation, and finally escape from Stalinism to the United States. Also multiple love affairs, family frictions, and secular reflections on Jewish identity. A graphic memoir worthy of a place next to Maus and Fun Home on your book shelf. It’s that good.

Who it’s for…

folklore grad students; the descendants of irrepressible grandmothers

Lowriders to the Center of the Earth.

Chronicle Books

What it is…

In search of their lost cat, three friends take a road trip to the land of the dead and along the way run into various characters from Mexican folklore, like La Llorona and Chupacabra. Finally, in the epic climax, they must defeat the Aztec god of the underworld in a lucha libre contest to win their pet back.

Who it’s for…

Coco obsessed 10 year olds; kids who draw in class instead of taking notes

Alters.

AfterShock Comics

What it is…

Dastardly villains! Valiant heroes! Explosions! Cool gadgets! Secret hideouts! Cute girls in short skirts! Alters is very much a classic superhero story, but with a twist: the hero is trans. Fans of the X-men will recognize many familiar themes of identity crisis, a changing body, coming of age, and a hero that saves people who are potentially prejudiced against her.

Who it’s for…

legit superhero fans; queer teenagers

Lissa.

University of Toronto Press

What it is…

Superb work of ethnographic fiction that follows two friends, one an Egyptian medical student and the other an American anthropology student with BRCA1. Each must struggle with matters of personal and public health as seen through the lenses of their respective cultures, in a story of enduring long distance friendship that plays out against the events of the Arab Spring in Cairo. Back matter comes with end notes and discussion questions.

Who it’s for…

undergrad anthropology majors; professors with a novel hidden in a desk drawer somewhere

Monstress.

Image Comics

What it is…

Lush, absolutely gorgeous manga and steampunk inspired art draws the reader into an engrossing story of war, magic, and sleeping gods on the verge of reawakening. “Strong female protagonist” doesn’t even begin to do it justice! This is a whole world of compelling, powerful women from heroes and villains, to supporting characters, to background characters, to the very language they speak. Think Princess Mononoke meets Lord of the Rings, but its a horror story.

Who it’s for…

your goth gf; feminist Lovecraft fans

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye.

Pantheon Books

What it is…

Tells the life story of a fictional, forgotten comic book author looking back on his life’s work. Each stage of his career is represented by a different style of illustration that itself pays homage to a significant figure in comic history, which is in turn framed by the national history of Singapore. In each of these vignettes the main character reappears as an elder, in a separate illustrative style, to comment on his personal life, his art, and national events from the point of view of the present. There simply are not enough superlatives to describe this book. Awe inspiring.

Who it’s for…

“serious” comic book fans; anyone up for a challenge

Black History in its Own Words.

Image Comics

What it is…

Stylized portraits of prominent African Americans — artists, athletes, civil rights figures, intellectuals — paired with a quote from that person that speaks to their uniqueness or personal philosophy. An iconoclastic cast of figures, including several Black Panthers, is what really makes this collection stand out.

Who it’s for…

young person graduating from high school or turning 18; people who like inspirational quotes

Anne of Green Gables.

Andrews McMeel

and

A Wrinkle in Time.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

What it is…

Beautiful and fun high quality adaptations of children’s classics. If you’re a fan of either of these titles and your young person is put off by the old fashioned language or length of the originals, both of these are winners. Bonus: you can reread them too and feel all warm and tingly inside.

Who it’s for…

precocious elementary schoolers or teenaged reluctant readers; nostalgic grown ups

(H)afrocentric.

PM Press

What it is…

Follows the adventures of a clique of radical college students in Oakland, CA, as they attempt to fight gentrification with bloc parties (sic) and hip hop references. The serious business of passing class, applying for internships, and sticking it to the man drifts into magical realism territory as the main character, Naima, indulges in zany, cartoonish day dreams.

Who it’s for…

Wakanda University alumni; fans of the Boondocks comic strip

Bitch Planet.

Image Comics

What it is…

In a dystopian future, “non-compliant” women are sent to an off-planet prison colony where they are forced into gladiator style combat for the amusement of their sadistic captors. That is until they stage a revolt and BURN THIS MOTHERFUCKER DOWN!!!

Who it’s for…

bad bitches; rabble rousers; people with a black sense of humor

My Brother’s Husband.

Pantheon Books

What it is…

A Japanese single father and his daughter are surprised by a burly Canadian claiming to be the lover of his estranged, recently deceased twin brother. Slowly, the big-hearted and generous daughter gets her skeptical dad to open up to their visitor as he learns that the cultural differences between Canadians and Japanese are greater than differences between gay and straight men. Awwww! Reads right to left, manga style.

Who it’s for…

people who like cute things; This Is Us fans

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness.

Seven Seas

What it is…

What at first seems like a coming of age and coming out story becomes a revealing autobiography of mental illness. Our protagonist’s journey to self acceptance, managing her many neuroses, advancing her career, and placing her parent’s expectations in perspective culminates with her hiring a lesbian prostitute, an experience that’s less sexy than it is heart-warming. Reads right to left, manga style.

Who it’s for…

queer teens; teens with mental illness; anyone whose life is touched by mental illness

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson is Community Services Librarian for the public library in Suffolk, Virginia. He has a doctorate in anthropology from the University of North Carolina and has been blogging with Anthrodendum née Savage Minds since 2010.

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Hey, ya’ll its been a minute but now I’m back with another installment of Illustrated Man, my semi-irregular series where I discuss comic books and illustration from an anthropologist’s point of view. I had ten posts at our old place Savage Minds, now here’s my first in our new home.

We’re starting things off with a piece I received through my work with the Virginia Library Association, (H)afrocentric, written by Juliana “Jewels” Smith and illustrated by Ronald Nelson. A trade paperback collecting the first four issues was published by the reliably righteous PM Press in 2017. Ask for it at your favorite independent comic or book store, or order a signed copy straight from the publisher.

Following the trials and trevails of a multi-complected crew of outspoken west coast undergrads, (H)afrocentric does an excellent job of tackling serious issues without taking itself too seriously. The star of the show is habitual line crosser Naima Pepper, her habit of getting up on a soapbox (will it be one high heeled boot… or two?) becomes a reoccurring sight gag. Rounding out the loyal crew is her grumpy brother the musically inclined Miles and gender bending best friend Renee. Comic relief comes from Miles’ boy, El Ramirez, whose Latinidad offers a consistent counterpoint to black perspectives and priorities, and entrepreneurial duo Kwame and Rahsaan, who just want to sell you some herbal tea and preach on ancient Egypt.

Set in Oakland, California, in and around the fictional Ronald Reagan University, our story opens with the (H)afrocentric crew facing the reality of rising rents and gentrification. Not unlike Selma Jezkova, Bjork’s character in Dancer in the Dark, Naima is prone to flights of fancy where the otherwise straightforward, realistic fiction of the narrative breaks down into alternate realities and imagined futures. In one of these moments of inspiration Naima rallies her friends into taking action, here to organize a block party to fund the creation of an anti-gentrification website, mydiaspora.com.

Throughout the reader is treated to comic commentary, witty one-lines, word play, silly gags, and Naima’s romantic day dreams, all of which genuinely calls to mind the deep hanging out and playful bullshitting of college students. At the end of their escapade, as the cops close in turning their block party into a “blockade party”, it becomes clear that Naima and her friends haven’t really been able to achieve their lofty goals. They have not single handedly stopped gentrification in Oakland. Reality crashes the party and the crew has to find solace in the partial, the incomplete.

In the fourth issue, for which Julianna Smith won a 2016 Glyph Award for best writer, things take a turn towards magical realism, the madcap, and the zaney, with the addition of a fairy godmother character. In this story each member of the crew has easily set up sweet summer internships, with Naima struggling to reconcile her political passions with her professional and academic needs. POOF! The fairy godmother appears to grant her wish and Naima finds herself interning at an organization specializing in “racial translation.” Her job: to explain blacks to white people. Several soapbox moments later and its clear that things aren’t going quite as smoothly as Naima hoped.

The story ends with the introduction of a time machine and all crew piling on board to cries of “Get on the bus!” before zapping off the page.

Like many, many other comics, the first book of (H)afrocentric starts off a little rocky as it lays out the origin stories of the team members. The art is also a little inconsistent as the creators experiment with how best to express the characters’ diversities in a black and white printing. But by the fourth issue much of this has been ironed out leaving me very optimistic for the future of (H)afrocentric, especially given the change in tone to include more cartoony elements like time machines and magic.

Blurbs and blogs have frequently drawn connections to the Boondocks but I’m not really sold on that comparison. Here I’m not talking about the TV show, but the strip as captured in “Because I know you don’t read the newspapers” and “Fresh for ’01… you suckas”. Those were fish-out-of-water stories with two kids from inner city Chicago transplanted to the suburbs. They were more topical and focused on satirizing current events. While there is a weekly (H)afrocentric strip, this graphic novel length work is brainy and subtle, more radical in its politics than the Boondocks, and, at times, a little more uneven in its quality than Aaron McGruder’s early books. However, I am very, very interested to see where this story is going next and/or what other works these creators will share.

(H)afrocentric should be of interest to anthropologists seeking to learn from marginalized peoples about how they are taking control of their own representations. With the first story about gentrification and the second about the impossible task of the translator I could see this being used in the classroom in some contexts. A little further afield into cultural studies, this would be a good way to teach students to read creative works as embedded in social material processes.

Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson is Community Services Librarian for the public library in Suffolk, Virginia. He has a doctorate in anthropology from the University of North Carolina and has been blogging with Anthrodendum née Savage Minds since 2010.

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