ALIA Graphic August 2021 Roundup

Welcome back to ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics monthly roundup of all the latest and greatest comics’ news for the library industry.

This month we held our second Librarians' Graphic Book Club where we discussed graphic novel adaptations. Join us next month on the 26th of September when we'll be discussing women and comics and looking at: Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy (Boom! Box) by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, and Brooklyn Allen; X-23: Family Album (Marvel) by Mariko Tamaki, Juann Cabal, and Nolan Woodard; and Esther: A True Story (Write and Wrong) by Sarah Broman.

Also this month we have a much shorter list of new releases for you to pick through, but to make up for it we have included not one, but two excellent creator chats to keep you entertained until next time. So until then, please stay safe out there, or stick with the preferable alternative and curl up at home with a great comic. Later!

News

• The ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable talks about the what the GNCRT is doing and plans for the future in a great interview published by Diamond Bookshelf.
• Shannon Sandford has published an article on The Conversation about graphic medicine and how comic creators are changing our understanding of illness. 
• One of the comic industry's oldest and most prestigious awards, the Harvey Awards which have been around since 1988 released their list of nominees this month recognising outstanding achievement in multiple categories. You can find the whole list of nominees here. Australian Lee Lai, now living in Montreal, has been nominated for the Book of the Year category for Stone Fruit. Australian Simon Hanselmann now living in Seattle, has been nominated for Digital Book of the Year for Crisis Zone. You can read an interview with Simon Hanselmann published on Comics Beat talking about Crisis Zone here.
• Digital comics, particularly of the Webtoons endless scrolling type are incredibly popular. DC Comics is now partnering with Webtoons to offer some original DC content on their platform. More on this on Publishers Weekly.
• If you want to support indie Australian comic creators you can check the projects that are now live on Kickstarter and seeking funding right here.

Collections & PD

• This well-regarded website, No Flying No Tights, is packed with resources for librarians involved with graphic novel collections in the Comics 101 tab https://www.noflyingnotights.com/
• The ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable has a handy archive of webinars and panels with lots of content if you want to catch up and have some free PD.
• Catch up with what’s happening in the world of Manga with free chapters at Shonen Jump  https://www.viz.com/shonenjump
• Access the Reading Graphic: Part One (July 2021) and Part Two (August, 2021) from the Booklist webinar archives. https://www.booklistonline.com/webinars-archive
• Have a look at the Digital Review Copies from Diamond Book Distributors https://diamondbookdistributors.org/
• The yearly report that Comics Beat publishes looking at graphic novels sales for the previous year is finally out (later than usual). This is a report with US book sales data that includes 80% of bookstores and some comic stores who use the Bookscan system. It shows higher sales than ever. It’s quite an extensive report with lots of data crunching well worth a read, including top titles and top authors.

Media & Resources

• The Comics Beat Graphic Novel Club talks to Alison Bechdel about the recently published The Secret to Superhuman Strength. A great conversation worth checking out.
• We have published two creator chats this month. We talked to Mirranda Burton about her new graphic novel Underground that explores the Vietnam War and the conscription protests in Australia. We also talked to three young Indigenous creators who have published three exciting graphic novels with Stick Mob Studio. You can find all our podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts.
• Graphic Nature has a long chat with Campbell Whyte of Home Time. Listen to the podcast on your preferred podcast distributor or right here.

New Releases for August 2021

Junior 

• 
  Avatar The Last Airbender - Suki,Alone - Faith Erin Hicks (Dark Horse Books)
  
• Big Apple Diaries - Alyssa Bermudez (Macmillan)
• The Smurfs Tales - Peyo (Papercutz)
• The Super Adventures of Ollie & Bea: It’s Owl Good - Renee Treml (Allen & Unwin)
• The Super Adventures of Ollie & Bea: Squeals on Wheels - Renee Treml (Allen & Unwin)

YA

• The Witcher Volume 5: Fading Memories (16+) - Bartosz Sztybor(Dark Horse Books)
• Sailor Moon 1 (Naoko Takeuchi Collection) - Naoko Taekuchi (Kodansha Comics)
• Sweet Tooth: The Return - Jeff Lemire (DC Comics)

Adult General

• 
  1984 - George Orwell, Fido Nesti (Houghton Mifflin)
  
• Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? - Eric Powell, Harold Schecter (Albatross Funnybooks)
• Dune: House of Atreides - Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Herbert, Dev Pramanik (BOOM! Studios)
• Eve - Una (Virago Press)
• Run Book 1 - John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury, Nate Powell (Abrams)
• Sensor - Junji Ito (VIZ Media)
• Underground: Marsupial Outlaws and Other Rebels of Australia's War in Vietnam - Mirranda Burton (Allen & Unwin)
• X-Men Vol 3 - Jonathan Hickman, Various artists (Marvel Comics)

Food for Thought: a Selection of ALIA Graphic's Favourite Foodie Comics for National Science Week 2021

Food may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one is considers science and technology...

...but this National Science Week, running from the 14th to the 22nd of August, is an excellent opportunity to challenge that. Think about the humble grain of salt. From pickling vegetables, to historical preserving methods, and the pinch of salt in baking that brings the whole cake together, salt is highly chemical and endlessly interesting in cooking as in science. 

This Science Week, the theme is 'Food: Different By Design' and so we have compiled a list of comic book cookbooks and graphic novels that feature a recipe or few, which celebrate food in a variety of ways and show a connection between food, science, culture and community. The following graphic novels, from junior to adult-level materials and comprising fiction, non-fiction and memoir, span food and cooking in many guises (as well as serving up some delectable drawings of food). We hope you enjoy these sweet and savoury stories.

 
For starters, there are the colourful comic book cookbooks Let's Make Dumplings! (Penguin, 2021) and Let's Make Ramen! (Penguin, 2019) by the delightful due of Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan. These stunning graphic novels are absolutely packed with recipes, accurate and informative art, as well as information on food preparation, historical tidbits, and input from renowned chefs and foodies.

ALIA Graphic July 2021 Roundup

Welcome back for another month of ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics' roundup of all the latest news, media and professional development opportunities from the world of comics.

NAIDOC week was the 4th to 11th of July and some terrific new graphic novels by indigenous creators were released. There is also a lot of new information available relating to Manga and as well as some terrific lists to help fill out your collections, and we have an enourmous list of New Releases for you to check out this month!

It's been a big month for awards with the Eisner, Aurealis and Comic Arts Awards of Australia (formerly Ledger Awards) all being announced. These events were of course hosted online again this year due to the continuing pandemic, along with San Diego Comic-Con's slightly underwhelming event.

And July was ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics' first online bookclub! Thanks to everyone who joined the Zoom - we can't wait to see you again next month when we discuss some comic versions of other media. Just follow the link here to book your spot. So, without further ado, here is this month's roundup!

News

• UniSA published an excellent article by a bunch of their academics about comics. “Comic book and Superheroes: Escapist fantasy, a moral code, or literary Trash?” is an excellent read.
• The Eisner Awards have been announced. Follow the link for all the winners.
• The Aurealis Awards for Best Australian Fantasy and Science Fiction were announced early in July. The winner of the Best Graphic Novel/Illustrated work was Under Earth by Chris Gooch. You can check out all the winners here.
• Disney attempted to trademark Loki the Marvel movie character, upsetting many fans.
• For the second year in a row, the streets of San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter will be quiet this July as Comic-Con goes online again.
• The data is out thanks to Comichron and ICv2. Comics and graphic novels sales hit a new high in 2020, despite the pandemic. Also, after a dip in popularity in the early 2010s, anime viewership and manga sales reached an all-time high in 2020 with Manga sales soaring to an all-time high in 2020. You can read more on this topic here.
• A recent Hollywood Reporter article looks at how creators are paid for adaptations of their work at Marvel and DC, especially for characters and storylines they created.
• Something is Killing the Children, a Boom! Studios horror comic and one of the biggest indie titles currently on shelves is being adapted into a series thanks to Netflix and the makers of The Haunting of Hill House.
• Congratulations to all 2021 Comic Arts Awards of Australia recipients! 

Collections & PD

• The ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable is building quite a library of panel talks and programming. You can access their archive here.
• No Flying No Tights is always an excellent resource and they have recently updated their suggestions for ‘Core Lists for Libraries’. Highly recommended!
• The Manga for Libraries catalogue by Viz Media is out and it’s worth checking out.
• The Penguin Random House LibraryCon archive is out.
• The New York Public Library has an excellent Beginner’s Guide to Manga worth exploring.
• A great selection of classic Manga adaptations.

Media & Resources

• Three new graphic novels written by young Aboriginal people in Alice Springs and produced by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation in partnership with Stick Mob and Gestalt Publishing and launched for 2021 NAIDOC week. The three graphic novels are written and illustrated by Declan Miller, Seraphina Newberry, Alyssa Mason and Lauren Boyle. Listen to the interview on NITV Radio.
• The Comic Conference for Educators and Librarians is online, and the recorded sessions are available for viewing. We’ve also made a playlist with some of the best San Diego ComicCon @ Home panel talks in the online event.  

New Releases for July 2021

Junior

• Batman Adventures: Riddle Me This! - Scott Peterson(DC Comics)
• Black Sand Beach 2: Do You Remember the Summer Before? - Richard Fairgray (NZ) (Holiday House)
• Cardcaptor Sakura Collector's Edition 9 - CLAMP (Kodansha Comics)
• Curse of the Crystal Cavern (Pathfinders Society book 2) - Francesco Sedita  (Viking)
• Dinosaurs Before Dark: Magic Treehouse - Jenny Laird(Random House)Mel The Chosen - Rachele Aragno (Random House Graphics)
• The Fox & Little Tanuki - Tagawa Mi (Tokyopop)
• Goosebumps Secrets Of The Swamp - Marieke Nijkamp (IDW Publishing Children’s)
• Max Meow Book 2: Donuts And Danger: Donuts and Danger - John Gallagher(RH USA Kids)
• Miles Morales: Shock Waves - Justin A. Reynolds, Pablo Leon (Scholastic)
• Plants vs. Zombies Volume 18: Constructionary Tales - Paul Tobin(Dark Horse Books)
• Sonic The Hedgehog: Bad Guys - Ian Flynn(IDW Publishing Children’s)
• Sue and Tai-Chan Volume 3 - Konami Kanata (Kodansha Comics)
• Super Geeks 2 : Planet Pancake - James Hart (Puffin)
• Tiny Titans: Pet Club! - David Lebovitz, Franco Aureliani(DC Comics)

Young Adult

• Attack On Titan 33 - Hajime Isayama (Kodansha Comics)
• Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Vol. 5 - ALAN GRANT(DC Comics)
• The Black Ghost - Monica Gallagher, Alex Segura (Dark Horse Books)
• Dark Nights: Death Metal: War of the Multiverses - Various (DC Comics)
• Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy - Jody Houser, Adriana Melo, Mark Morales (DC Comics)
• Hellboy Universe Essentials: Hellboy - Mike Mignola, Various (Dark Horse Books)
• Justice League : Galaxy of terrors - Simon Spurrier, Jeff Loveness, Aaron Lopresti, Robson Rocha (DC Comics)
• Sabrina: Something Wicked - Kelly Thompson, Veronica Fish, Andy Fish (Archie Comics)
• A School Frozen In Time, Volume 1 - Mizuki Tsujimura (Vertical Inc.)
• Shikimori's Not Just A Cutie 4 - Keigo Maki (Kodansha Comics)
• Stone Star Vol 1: Fight or Flight - Jim Zub (Dark Horse Books)
• Stranger Things: Science Camp - Jody Houser, Edgar Salazar, Keith Champagne (Dark Horse Books)
• Superman Vol 4: Mythological - Brian Michael Bendis, various artists (DC Comics)
• Weathering With You, Volume 3 (manga) - Kubota Wataru (Vertical Inc)
• The Witch And The Beast 5 - Kousuke Satake (Kodansha Comics)
• Devil’s Candy, Vol. 1 - by Rem (Creator), Bikkuri (Creator)

Adult General

• Berserk Deluxe Volume 8 - Kentaro Miura (Dark Horse Books)
  
• Celestia - Manuele Fior (Fantagraphics)
• Injustice: Year Zero - Tom Taylor, Roge Antonio (DC Comics)
• Raptor: A Sokol Graphic Novel - Dave McKean (Dark Horse Books)
• Everyone Is Tulip - Dave Baker  (Dark HOrse Books)
• One Line - Ray Fawkes (Oni Press)

ALIA Graphic June 2021 Roundup

Eisner nominees, screen adaptations and book clubs galore!

June represents an exciting time for graphic novels and comics with the announcement of the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards, representing the cream of the crop of this year’s comics and potentially important additions to your library’s collection. Take a look below at the full list, featuring some established names and new players in the field.

At ALIA Graphic, we are always chuffed to see graphic novels take on new life as other forms, which is becoming wonderfully more common as their popularity grows. As June is also National Pride Month, we are even more excited to hear from Alice Oseman about adapting their LGBTIQ+ graphic novel series Heartstopper into a live action Netflix series.

With a recent resurgence of sorts in Manga, we have also included a bunch of news and resources (and an excellent podcast!) on the topic for your listening and reading pleasure.

Looking ahead to July and our first ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics Book Club is slated for Sunday July 25th at 3:00pm AEST. Through a fun monthly chat about graphic novels and comics, we aim to celebrate the medium, share ideas and enhance our collective Readers’ Advisory skills. We have also added a brand new ‘Graphic Novel Club’ tab to our website for all of your book club information needs. Read all information and register your interest in the event - we hope to see you there!

News

• If you’re in the Northern Territory in July, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation has organised a launch for not one but three graphic novels with Indigenous creators. Follow the link to book your place.
• Nominations Announced for 2021 Will Eisner Awards: The Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards, honoring the best comics of the year, announced this year's nominees, which are led by publishers Image and Fantagraphics, with 17 and 18 respectively, and cartoonist Gene Luen Yang, who led all artists with five nominations. A full list of the nominations for the 2021 Eisner Awards can be found on the San Diego Comic-Con website.
• The Conversation has published a great article about comics and graphic novels examining refugee border-crossing experiences. On that note, we hope you listened to our Creator Chat with Safdar Ahmed talking about his graphic novel Still Alive: Notes From Australia’s Immigration Detention System.
• Melbourne creator Rachel Ang has signed a two book deal with Drawn & Quarterly.
• Alice Oseman talks about adapting her graphic novels for the screen. Alice Oseman is the author of four contemporary YA novels with HarperCollins Children’s, including Loveless, which was recently awarded the YA Book Prize 2021. She is also the creator of LGBTIQ+ YA graphic novel series Heartstopper.
• The Comics Beat has published an extensive article covering the ALA’s Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable and how libraries are responding to the surge in popularity of graphic novels.
• Skybound Entertainment, a multiplatform entertainment company and an imprint of Image Comics, which was founded by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, announced plans to launch Skybound Comet. The new imprint will publish original graphic novels aimed at young adults and middle grade readers, and will begin releasing titles in 2022.
• Z2 Comics' newest graphic novel Uzo focuses on its titular warrior's struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, based on Jason Derulo's concept.

Collections & PD

• We’re currently in the middle of another wave in popularity for Manga. We had an excellent chat with Ashley Hawkins where she took us through the basics and suggested great titles for all age brackets. You can watch the chat on our YouTube Channel or listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
• The Manga webinar series organised by the NYCSLA and the GNRCRT continues. This month’s episode covered representation of women and girls in Manga. You can find all the info (and some more) on Ashley’s handy blog post.
• Register now for the free Reading Graphic Part 1 webinar organised by Booklist and listen to representatives from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Penguin Young Readers, Random House Children’s Books, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing presenting upcoming graphic novels and guest appearances from author/illustrators.
• You can also register now for the free Library Con coming up July 15 organised by Penguin Random House. A free event featuring authors, creators, the inside scoop, & more!

Media & Resources

• Graphic Nature podcast has a new episode out with Australian comics legend Tim McEwen.
• Why graphic novels could be an antidote to 'doom scrolling'.
• If you ever dreamed of listening to Neil Gaiman, Karen Berger and Paul Levitz talking about the origins of Sandman this is your lucky day thanks to the Comics Beat.

New Releases June 2021

Junior

• The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher: A Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel - Ryan North, Derek Charm (DC Comics)
• Pawcasso - Remy Lai (Allen & Unwin)
• The Tea Dragon Tapestry - K. O’Neill (Oni Press)
  

YA

• Alone in Space - Tillie Walden (Avery Hill)
• Castlevania: The art of the animated series - FREDERATOR STUDIOS (Dark Horse Books)
• The Girl From the Sea - Molly Knox Ostertag (Graphix)
• Kyle’s Little Sister - BonHyung Jeong (Yen Press)
• Suki, Alone - Faith Erin Hicks, Peter Wartman, Adele Matera (Dark Horse)
• Renegade Rule - Ben Kahn, Rachel Silverstein (Dark Horse)
• Seven Secrets - Tom Taylor, Daniele Di Nicuolo (Boom!)
  
  

Adult General

• DCeased: Hope at World’s End - Tom Taylor, Various artists (DC Comics)
• The Down River People - Adam Smith, Matthew Fox (Archaia)
• Under the Air - Osamu Tezuka (Digital Manga)
• The World Of Black Hammer Library Edition Volume 3 - Jeff Lemire, Tate Brombal, Tyler Crook, Gabriel Hernandez Walta (Dark Horse Books)
• The Way of the House Husband, Vol. 5 - Kousuke Oono (Viz Media)
• Resident Alien Vol. 6: Your ride’s here - Peter Hogan (Dark Horse)

Talking Manga with Ashley Hawkins

ALIA Graphic's Tara talks to our second international guest, Ashley Hawkins otherwise known as @MangaLibrarian on Twitter. They discuss different types of Manga, the different ratings, collection development and shelving.

Ashley also suggests lots of great titles for different age brackets. 

You can follow Ashley on her blog: https://mangalibrarian.com and Twitter.

If you like what we're doing, hit the subscribe button on our YouTube channel to stay up to date with our chats. You can also follow us on Twitter and don't forget to check our blog for updates, monthly roundups of news and new release titles. You can also subscribe to our blog and receive an email every time we post (a couple of times a month).

Remember that all our video chats are also released as podcasts. We also publish more content as podcast only so please subscribe to the ALIA Graphic Podcast.

These are the titles recommended in the video by Ashley.

Jnr readers ( 5-10)

Chi’s Sweet Home

Yokai Watch

Middle grade 10-12 yrs

Must have shonen: My Hero Academia (early volumes)

Must have shojo: Kitchen Princess, Flying Witch

New titles to look out for:

Yotsuba&! Is coming back

Penguin & House by Akiho Ieda

Teens 13 - 16

Must have shonen: Case Study of Vanitas

Must have shojo: Horimiya, The White Cat's Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King's Lap

New titles to look out for: 

Play It Cool, Guys, Blue Period, Hello, I am a Witch and my Crush Wants me to Make a Love Potion! 

Older teens

Must have shonen: Chainsaw Man

Must have shojo: A Sign of Affection

New titles to look out for: 

My Dad is the Queen of All VTubers?!, Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, I Was Reincarnated as the Villainess in an Otome Game but the Boys Love Me Anyway!

Mature/Adult

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan, Eniale & Dewiela, Our Fake Marriage, Perfect World, Way of the Househusband, Escape Journey

New titles: 

They Were Eleven (2022), Lil Leo

Light novel suggestions for purchase

Marielle Clarac

Full Metal Panic

I'm in Love with the Villainess

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!!

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki

I Have a Secret (by author of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas)

ALIA Graphic May 2021 Roundup

 Welcome back to another ALIA Graphic Roundup of all the latest news, new releases and updates on all things comics. 

This month The Ledger Awards, also known as the Comic Arts Awards of Australia revealed their 2021 shortlist. This seems like a great opportunity to spend the last of your yearly budget topping up the graphic novel collection with a great list of Aussie graphic novels! And just a reminder, when you add works from Australian creators to your library collections, those creators can be compensated through the Australian Lending Right Schemes (ELR/PLR) for the loss of income through the free multiple use of their work in Australian public and educational lending libraries. 

Don't forget there's only a little more than a month to go until our inaugural ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics Book Club commences! Our first meeting will be all about introducing new readers to comics and so we will be looking at some good starters: They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker; Ms Marvel volume 1: No Normal, by G Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona; and Alone by Christophe Chabouté.

Our first online meeting is planned for Sunday July 25th at 3:00pm AEST. Please send an email to aliagraphicinfo@gmail.com to let us know if you’re interested. We can't wait to get started sharing our passion for this medium to Librarians, Library Technicians and all other library staff and supporters around Australia!

News

• Blake Lively and Diablo Cody have teamed up to adapt Lady Killer, a feature adaptation of a comic book from Dark Horse Comics.
• The life and times of one of the world’s greatest singers, Freddy Mercury, is soon coming to bookshelves from Z2 comics! Freddy Mercury: Lover of Life, Singer of Songs, will chronicle his life from his childhood in Zanzibar, growing up in England, to becoming beloved by millions of fans the world over.
• Publishers Weekly have published two great profiles this month worth checking out. One is with Australian creator Lee Lai about her recently published graphic novel Stone Fruit. The other one is with Ed Brubaker who is publishing Friend of the Devil, another graphic novel in the Reckless series. For more Lee Lai - check out this month's Creator Chat Podcast.
• The #DisneyMustPay Joint Task Force has announced that BOOM! Studios have begun to work with them to achieve the Task Force’s goals to ensure that all writers who are owed royalties and/or statements for their media-tie in work are identified and that Disney and other companies honor their contractual obligations to those writers after acquiring the companies that originally hired the writers.
• There have been a lot of tributes upon the death of Kentaro Miura (May 6, 2021), world famous creator of best selling manga, Berserk. ‘Mr. Miura was known for his spectacular, apocalyptic style; specific images - a humongous sword, a monster cloaked in shadow - are immediately recognizable to his fans...The influence of “Berserk” can be seen in popular video games like Dark Souls - whose monsters adopt the gargantuan scale of Mr. Miura’s - and on such TV shows as “Castlevania,” on Netflix.’ (NY Times). There has been a huge outpouring of grief and shock in the manga fandom.

Collections & PD

• New York Public Library has published a helpful list of great graphic novels to add to your classroom library.
• New York City SChool Librarians’ Association are developing a series of webinars called Manga in Libraries. The May webinar has been uploaded to the NYCSLA YouTube channel and it’s available here. The series continues through June to August. You can find all the info here. 
• Continuing with Manga, The Graphic Library has published an excellent blog post: Beginning Buyer’s Guide of Manga for High School Librarians. Library Journal has also published a pretty handy guide of Must Have Manga worth checking.
• Kevin Wolf has compiled and reviewed a list of titles related to climate change and environmentalism for the Graphic Medicine website. A really interesting set of books.
• And we have two great webinars about comics in the classroom. The first is from Comic Con International’s YouTube channel, and the second is a Library Pass webinar. Both of them are worth a watch. 

Media & Resources

• Book Riot have published this excellent article discussing 3 great comics anthologies and why they are worth reading.
• Are comics for kids or aren’t they? This article from Book Riot discusses how comics and readers have changed from The Golden Age to The Modern Age.
• Circulating Ideas episode 199 - Steve chats with John Ballestro, editor of The Library’s Guide to Graphic Novels, along with many of the contributors, to discuss the ever-changing ways that graphic novels are created, packaged, marketed, and released, exploring such topics as the history of comics, collection development, cataloguing, and specialized resources. 

New Release Graphic Novels - May 2021

Junior & YA

• Goblin - Eric Grisson, Will Perkins (Dark Horse)
• Metropolis Grove - Drew Brockington (DC Comics)
• Minecraft: Wither without you Vol 2 - Kristen Gudsnuk (Dark Horse)
• Ms Marvel Vol 3: Outlawed - Saladin Ahmed, Minkuy Jung, Joey Vazquez (Marvel Comics)
• The Sprite and the Gardener - Joe Whitt, Rii Abrego (Oni Press)
• Sunshine - Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Scholastic - Graphix)
• Wynd: Book 1 - James Tynion IV, Michael Dyalinas (Boom! Box)

Adult General

• Coma - Zara Slattery (Myriad Editions)
• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Volume 3 - Spike Chunsoft, Kuroki Q (Dark Horse)
• Dark One Vol 1 - Brandon Sanderson, Jackson Lanzing, Colin Kelly, Nathan C. Gooden (Vault Comics)
• Finder: Chase the lady - Carla Speed McNeil (Dark Horse)
• Gideon Falls Vol 6 - Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino (Image Comics)
• Invisible Kingdom Vol 3 - G. Willow Wilson, Christian Ward (Berger Books)
• The Neil Gaiman Library Volume 3 HC - Neil Gaiman, Colleen Doran, Scott Hampton, Paul Chadwick, Troy Nixey, Michael Zulli (Dark Horse)
• Resistance - Val McDermid, Kathryn Briggs (Profile Books Ltd.) 
• Save it for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest - Nate Powell (Abrams)
• The Secret to Superhuman Strength - Alison Bechdel (Vintage)
• Stone Fruit - Lee Lai (Fantagraphics)
• Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol 3 - Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette (DC Comics)

Prefer to listen to the monthly roundup on a Podcast? Each month we select a few favourite news items and new releases to discuss on our ALIA Graphic Podcast Roundup. Listen at Apple Podcasts. 

Adventures in Space and Time - ALIA Graphic celebrate Library & Information Week 2021

This week ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics celebrates Libary & Information Week!

To celebrate this year's theme of Adventures in Space and Time, the team have decided to share a few of their very favourite comics about space and time. There are of course hundreds, if not thousands and even millions of comics and graphic novels that delve into the adventures in space and time theme. 

I mean practically every superhero comic ever written has a main character from another world and lets face it, a browse through any collection would likely see almost every comic having some connection to this genre! 

We have some obvious ones, but our team also thought it might be a nice change to check out a few of the less mainstream titles that you wouldn't usually come accross. Please enjoy this eclectic selection of comics to take you on an adventure through space and time.

Here by Richard McGuire is a comic about a corner of a room and the events that have occurred in that space over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. For an in depth review check out this article by Wired - 5 reasons to read the time-traveling graphic novel Here.

Saga by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image Comics) - This series is an epic space opera/fantasy that follows a mixed-race family from opposing sides of an interstellar war. This best selling series has 54 issues to date (which in Brian Vaughan's words is the half point of the story) and is currently on hiatus, so you have time to catch up.

Park Bench by Christopher Chabouté is a silent comic that details a simple park bench and the lives that it witnesses over time. Un peu de bois et d'acier (The Park Bench) was adapted into a silent black and white 45-minutes short film directed by Antonin Le Guay (Sandgate Productions) in 2014.

Black Hammer series by Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston (Dark Horse Comics) - This Eisner Award-winning super hero saga follows a group of super heroes who get trapped in space and time after saving Spiral City from the Anti-God.

Meanwhile: Pick Any Path. 3,856 Story Possibilities by Jason Shiga  - This children's original graphic novel is a new take on a “choose your own adventure.” A boy stumbles upon the lab of a mad scientist who asks him to choose between testing a mind-reading device, a time machine, and a doomsday machine.

Laika by Nick Abadzis - a young adult / children's graphic novel based on the true story of the Soviet space dog that was the first living creature to orbit the Earth on Russia's Sputnik II in 1957. Laika has been continuously in print since it was first published in 2007, when it received numerous international storytelling awards and has been translated into ten foreign language editions. It is widely considered to be a classic of the medium and continues to be a gateway book for those who have never experienced the joy of graphic novels and comics.

The Time Machine By H.G. Wells, Illustrated by Rajesh Nagulakonda Adapted by Lewis Helfand. Wells’ classic adventure gets the graphic novel treatment in this ultra-compelling and concise adaptation. Just one of at least 6 comic adaptations of the classic.

We hope you've enjoyed our picks. Stay tuned at the end of the month for our monthly roundup blog post and podcast of all latest news, resources and graphic novels.

Seeya!