Black, weird, awkward and proud of it. Welcome to the club! Tired of feeling like you don’t belong? Join the club. It’s called the Section. You’d think a spot to chill, chat, and find community would be much easier to come by for nerdy, queer punks. But when four longtime, bookish BFFs—Lika, Amor, Lala, and Tony—can’t find what they need, they take matters into their own hands and create a space where they can be a hundred percent who they are: Black, queer, and weird. The group puts a call out for all awkward Black folks to come on down to the community center to connect. But low attendance and IRL run-ins with trolls of all kinds only rock everybody with anxiety. As our protagonists start to question the merits of their vision, a lifetime of insecurities—about not being good enough or Black enough—bubbles to the surface. Will they find a way to turn it around in time for their radical brainchild, the Blackward Zine Fest? Lawrence Lindell’s characters pop from the page in playful Technicolor. From mental health to romance, micro—and macro—aggressions to joy, our crew tackles everything life throws at them in this heartwarming tale about building a place to belong and the power of community.

A seasoned cartoonist of epic proportions, Brandon-Croft carves out space for Black women s perspectives in her nationally syndicated strip. Few Black cartoonists have entered national syndication, and before Barbara Brandon-Croft, none of them were women. From 1989 to 2005, she brought Black women s perspectives to an international audience with her trailblazing comic strip Where I m Coming From. From diets to day care to debt to dreaded encounters with everyday racism, no issue is off-limits. This remarkable and unapologetically funny career retrospective holds a mirror up to the ways society has changed and all the ways it hasn t. The magic in Where I m Coming From is its ability to present an honest image of Black life without sacrificing Black joy, bolstered by unexpected one-liners eliciting much-needed laughter. As the daughter of the mid-century cartoonist Brumsic Brandon Jr. the creator of Luther, the second nationally syndicated strip to feature a Black lead Brandon-Croft learned from the best. With supplementary writing by the author and her peers alongside throwback ephemera, this long-overdue collection situates Brandon-Croft as an inimitable cartoonist, humorist, and social commentator, securing her place in the comics canon and allowing her work to inspire new readers at a time when it is most needed.

Hot Comb offers a poignant glimpse into black women s lives and coming-of-age stories as seen across a crowded, ammonia-scented hair salon while ladies gossip and bond over the burn. The titular Hot Comb is about a young girl s first perm a doomed ploy to look cool and stop seeming too white in the all-black neighborhood her family has just moved into. In Virgin Hair, taunts of tender-headed sting as much as the perm itself. My Lil Sister Lena shows the stress of being the only black player on a white softball team. Lena s hair is the team curio, an object to be touched, a subject to be discussed and debated at the will of her teammates, leading Lena to develop an anxiety disorder of pulling her own hair out. Throughout Hot Comb, Ebony Flowers re-creates classic magazine ads idealizing women s need for hair relaxers and products. Change your hair form to fit your life form and Kinks and Koils Forever call customers from the page. Realizations about race, class, and the imperfections of identity swirl through these stories and ads, which are by turns sweet, insightful, and heartbreaking. Flowers began drawing comics while earning her Ph.D., and her early mastery of sequential storytelling is nothing short of sublime. From her black-and-white drawings to her color construction-paper collages, Hot Comb is a propitious display of talent from a new cartoonist who has already made her mark.

Elise Gravel is back with a whimsical look at one of her family s most beloved pastimes: mushroom hunting! Combining her love of exploring nature with her talent for anthropomorphizing everything, she takes us on a magical tour of the forest floor and examines a handful of her favorite alien specimens up close. While the beautiful coral mushroom looks like it belongs under the sea, the peculiar Lactarius indigo may be better suited for outer space. From the fun-to-stomp puffballs to the prince of the stinkers?the stinkhorn mushroom?and the musically inclined chanterelles, Gravel shares her knowledge of this fascinating kingdom by bringing each species to life in full felt-tip-marker glory. The Governor General Award winning author Gravel s first book with Drawn and Quarterly, If Found . . Please Return to Elise Gravel, was a Junior Library Guild selection and an instant hit among librarians, parents, and kids alike. Fostering the same spirit of creativity and curiosity, The Mushroom Fan Club promises to inspire kids to look more closely at the world around them and to seek out all of life s little treasures, stinky or not!

THE DRAMATIC CONCLUSION TO THE AYA SERIES Aya: Love in Yop City comprises the final three chapters of the Aya story, episodes never before seen in English. Aya is a lighthearted story about life in the Ivory Coast during the 1970s, a particularly thriving and wealthy time in the country's history. While the stories found in Aya: Love in Yop City maintain their familiar tone, quick pace, and joyfulness, we see Aya and her friends beginning to make serious decisions about their future. When a professor tries to take advantage of Aya, her plans to become a doctor are seriously shaken, and she vows to take revenge on the lecherous man. With a little help from the tight-knit community of Yopougon though, Aya comes through these trials stronger than ever. This second volume of the complete Aya includes unique appendices--recipes, guides to understanding Ivorian slang, street sketches, and concluding remarks from Marguerite Abouet explaining history and social milieu. Inspired by Abouet's childhood, the series has received praise for offering relief from the disaster-struck focus of most stories set in Africa. Aya is the winner of the Best First Album Award at the Angouleme International Comics Festival; was nominated for the YALSA's Great Graphic Novels list; and was included on best of lists from The Washington Post, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal.

Alan Burnett and Paul Dini return once more to the world of Batman: The Animated Series! Someone is targeting the Muscle now that he's locked up in Blackgate Penitentiary. With his deep ties to the criminal underbelly of Gotham, the worst villains are calling for his head before he turns them over to the police! Batman will need to protect him, but can even the Dark Knight figure out where the next attack will come from? Collects #1-7!

A full-color hardcover art book chronicling the renowned Nightdive Studios’ faithful recreation of the iconic cyber-sci-fi action thriller video game, System Shock! When a powerful artificial intelligence named SHODAN is liberated of her ethical constraints, the inhabitants of the Citadel space station are rapidly corrupted into bloodthirsty cyborgs and mutants and placed under her control. It’s up to a resourceful rogue hacker to traverse the station level by level, battling the monstrous crew and computer-controlled robots before ultimately facing down with the AI herself! Now fans of the groundbreaking cyber-action shooter can explore the development of the lovingly recreated System Shock in intricate detail—including art of Citadel Station’s mysterious interiors, vile enemies, clever props, and much more. Nightdive Studios and Dark Horse Books invite readers to relive the unforgettable experience of the classic game, remade with enormous care for a new generation . Celebrate the return to Citadel Station with The Art of System Shock.

From New York Times bestselling writer Brian Michael Bendis (Superman, Ultimate Spider-Man, Jessica Jones) and artist Michael Avon Oeming (Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye), comes this new collection of the adventure comic for all ages. Taki and Olivia are sisters in an adoptive family—and they're driving each other crazy! Every day, their overprotective mother makes them walk to school together, eat lunch together and play together—they can't get away from each other! But when a secret experiment goes catastrophically wrong, the squabbling siblings suddenly find that they have superpowers. They're the first actual superheroes in the entire world—and it is awesome! But are the girls ready to face the daunting challenges posed by their amazing new abilities? And is the rest of the world ready for real-life superheroes? Find out in Takio: The Complete Collection from the acclaimed creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming—an electrifying tale of adventure for comics fans of all ages! Collects the original graphic novel Takio and its sequel miniseries issues #1–#4.

Return to Wonderland in this twisted sequel perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples, Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy, and Fables! Alice first visited Wonderland as a child. Now an adult, it’s her only escape from her cold, strange reality. But in order to return, Alice needs something stronger than mushrooms, and is forced to resort to crime to feed her growing addiction… When this fateful decision takes her a step too far down a terrible path, Alice finds herself committed to the dreaded asylum. What horrors await her in the bowels of this twisted place? And will Alice ultimately choose to escape from her uncaring family and childhood trauma in Wonderland, or find the courage to face her demons in the real world? Return to Wonderland in this dark sequel by superstar artist and writer Dan Panosian (An Unkindness of Ravens, Canary) and artist Giorgio Spalletta (Red Sonja: Black, White, Red), perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples, Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy and Fables. Collects Alice Ever After #1-5.