Updated on March 25, 2023
Here’s a look at my graphic novel picks for July 2022 (and beyond).
Disclosure: The blog is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and will earn a commission for purchases made through Bookshop links.
Marvel
A full list of solicitations is available here.
- How to Read Comics the Marvel Way, on sale Sept. 6, $14 (Bookshop)
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Place in the World, on sale Sept. 6, $14 (Bookshop)
Viz
A full list of solicitations is available here.
- Moriarty the Patriot, vol. 8, on sale July 5, $10 (Bookshop)
Graphic novel thoughts
“Moriarty the Patriot” is the eight volume in the Viz manga that’s yet another take on the Sherlock Holmes mythos, this time centered around Holmes’ nemesis Moriarty. Holmes himself is presented as more boorish than most media portrayals. On a related note, Johanna Draper Carlson of Comics Worth Reading has started a second blog dedicated to media portrayals of Sherlock Holmes.
“How to Read Comics the Marvel Way” was originally a four-issue miniseries attempting to teach newcomers to comics how to read standard superhero comic books. It covers things such as thought balloons/captions, panel reading order, gutters, and so forth. It was originally going to be released in 2020, but the pandemic led Marvel to eventually release it onto Marvel Unlimited. The miniseries’ meta story: Mysterio has trapped Spider-Man inside a comic book, which Spidey must navigate to escape. Also included in the volume are reprints of the first issues of “Ms. Marvel,” “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man,” “Spidey,” and “Moon Girl.”
Speaking of Lunella, “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Place in the World” is a trade paperback wrapping up her original series’ run. With Lunella getting her own Disney+ series, I imagine she’ll get a new series at some point.
Here’s a teaser for the cartoon:
“Tales of the City” gets a graphic novel adaptation
A graphic novel adaptation of “Tales of the City” came out in June. Originally a series of prose books written by Armistead Maupin, “Tales” is about a group of friends and neighbors in 1970s and 1980s San Francisco. Given the author and the books’ setting, the series features plenty of era-specific references, plus multiple LGBTQ characters. “Tales” has also seen plenty of media adaptations (several miniseries, including for PBS and Netflix). However, I never expected to see a graphic novel.
The prose version wasn’t the first book I read with gay people (that’d be some random memoirs/biographies I got from the public library as a teenager), but “Tales” was a series I enjoyed when I was younger. Looking at my Amazon account, the “Tales” books were one of the first things I ordered from there. (I also note Amazon apparently keeps track of everything ordered for basically forever.)
Image from “Moriarty the Patriot” vol. 8. Art by Hikaru Miyoshi. (Viz)
