8 New Comics to Read in January

Aziza, Nour, and Shokry each buy a wish in Cairo, but it’s not as simple as it seems. Despite the magic that surrounds the characters and infuses the world they live in with exciting whimsy, the wishes aren’t as easy to execute. The wish is a magical solution, but all the characters have very relatable and real issues they have to grapple with.

Riad Sattouf has been writing comic strips about his friend’s daughter Esther and her life in Paris. They talked every week, and Sattouf made it into an equal parts funny and hopeful story about growing up in Paris. Esther’s life as the daughter of immigrants, and her discovery of the weirder parts of growing up, recalls for me the many joys of reading Calvin & Hobbes as a young girl.

My beloved Gene Luen Yang (of Avatar comics and American Born Chinese) is writing the latest Chinese American DC superhero. This volume collects #1–6 of Monkey Prince, wherein our hero Marcus Sun starts at Gotham City High School and unlocks his true powers and his superhero self.

If you’re like me and ingest every Carmilla-adjacent piece of media released, you’ll be super excited about this comic. The 19th century original vampire finds herself in New York City in the 1990s. A young woman tries to solve a series of murders targeting homeless queer women that no one else seems to care about, and she gets drawn into Carmilla’s world. Instead of a gothic castle, Carmilla owns a nightclub with dark secrets. This is the perfect retelling for fans of all things queer vampire.

The epic quests of the Norse Gods continue on in this new collection, which involves a bunch of great new artists. For fans of the series, this is an exciting addition to the bookshelf. Casual readers who love epic action will also find a lot to love in here, from Thor’s adventures with a giantess to the epic story of Ragnarok.

Ponijirou is an actor and trying to make it in an industry notorious for discriminating against people based on their size. Konnosuke is a pastry chef, and he sends Ponijirou sweets. The anonymous care package invigorates Ponijirou to follow his dreams in this sweet story about love.

The unhappy marriage between Claire and Mark is the starting point for a science fiction story about the roles we’re forced into in life. Neither Claire nor Mark is entirely sure why they’re in their marriage or what to do about their sadness, and they get a look into an alternate reality where they were free to make different choices. It’s a thoughtful story that blends sci-fi and reality extremely well.

This graphic novel takes on the major discomfort of puberty in middle school with sweetness and comedy. Toshihiko is a boy who has not developed any body hair yet, while Ayako is a girl who feels like she can’t pursue her swimming talent because of an excess of body hair. The setup of lack and abundance leads to an unlikely friendship.