BOY, I LOVE YOU
Boy, I Love You is a comics anthology celebrating the boys’ love genre. Seven stories from seven creators will introduce you to radio hosts, models, mecha pilots, & scientists, and the challenges they’ll face at the intersection of life & love.
Boy, I Love You features the work of Aatmaja Pandya, Kou Chen, Shivana Sookdeo, Emily Forster, Marlena Konglau, Eric Alexander Arroyo, and S.M. Vidaurri, with a cover by Caelin Cacciatore.
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Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #55 @idwcomics
Written by James Roberts/Art by Alex Milne
As you might be able to tell by the amount of “comixologist reccomends” piling up for this series, there are some pretty big fans of More Than Meets the Eye here at comiXology. Naturally, we spend a lot of time during the monthly wait making wild theories and predictions. Then with every new issue, I have to ask myself: why do I try? It always takes a completely unexpected turn somewhere, or at least arrives in the place I thought it would by means I could never have dreamed up.
There was a lot riding on this much anticipated issue, the final installment of Dying of the Light as well as the “season 2” finale, but at the center of it all was the question of Megatron’s fate. Ever since he first declared himself an Autobot in the Dark Cybertron finale two possible conclusions have loomed in the distance. Would he die, having left behind the war and the cause that defined him, his story come to an inevitable end? Or would he eventually turn on his new companions and reclaim the Decepticon badge? Well… my lips are sealed, but once again events lead us exactly where we expect to go, only to unfold in a way no one could have anticipated.
Like the previous installments of Dying of the Light, this issue is packed with revelations. It feels like Roberts is taking nearly every dangling thread he’s woven together over the past 55 issues and bringing all of them to a close, shockingly, explosively, leaving us with wide open space for season 3. It’s a bit of a strange feeling, looking out at uncharted territory again just when things had started to feel so cozy and familiar. It’s exciting, too, to think that with the status quo so thorougly destroyed, both Rodimus & company and us readers may find ourselves completely off the edge of the map when the journey continues.
This is actually the last issue of More Than Meets the Eye (don’t panic, let me finish) under that name - the story will go on in Transformers: Lost Light. Here’s where I should say something about what a good jumping on point for new fans this fresh start will be, but I cannot in good conscience encourage anyone to miss out on 10 volumes of the best comics I have ever read. So catch up quick or hop on at the next stop, but get on this robot train already! Whatever happens next, I’m sure it will be fantastic - it’s the only prediction I’ve always been right about so far.
Emily Forster is a Digital Editor and spends her free time thinking almost exclusively about various kinds of sentient space robots.
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Voltron: Legendary Defender #1 (Lion Forge)
by Tim Hendrick, Rich Iverson and the Digital Art Chefs
Five giant robot lions that combine into one REALLY giant robot to fight aliens in space: an awesomely ridiculous concept that could only have come from the 80s. Voltron is back and looking absolutely fantastic the new Voltron: Legendary Defender animated series, created by much of the same incredible team that brought you Legend of Korra. Of course, as awesome as the robot is, the real draw of this story is the friendship between Hunk, Pidge, Lance, Keith, and Shiro, the new paladins of Voltron. And this week, from Lion Forge, the team stumbles into a new adventure in Voltron: Legendary Defenders #1. (For the continuty conscious, this issue takes place after episode 8.)
While Princess Allura recuperates from their latest face-off with the Glara Empire, Coran takes the paladins out for some rigorous training. Their plans are waylaid, however, when a stop at a dodgy bar leads to a run-in with someone who Coran owes a debt - one that’s overdue by about ten thousand years! While their training must be postponed, the new defenders of the universe will get plenty of hands-on experience as they fight to obtain a Yalexian pearl valuable enough to pay for their friend’s release.
Though this adventure stands apart from the main plot of the animated series, it seems there’s at least one juicy hint of backstory tucked in among the action that fans will be eager to add to their theories and discussions. Who knows what else may be revealed down the line? At the very least, if you blasted your way through 11 episodes of Legendary Defender and are now desperate for more, this 4-part series looks to be a fun bonus chapter to help tide you over until the next season. Which is… when exactly? I have an urgent need to mark my calendar.
Emily Forster is a Digital Editor and spends her free time thinking almost exclusively about various kinds of sentient space robots.
A comiXologist Recommends (her favorite comics of 2015)
Transformers: Holiday Special #1
IDW’s Transformers Holiday Special is out this week, just in time to take its place as once of my absolute favorite single issues of 2015. It’s made up of three short stories from IDW’s Transformers continuity, all of which had me laughing out loud on every page. I would recommend picking this issue up to anyone with even a passing childhood remembrance of Transformers, if only for the hilarious Christmas poem about a grinchy, scroogey Starscream.
Of course, because I’m a die-hard More Than Meets The Eye fan, the highlight for me is Silent Light, a cheeky side story which, in typical fashion for the series, gets in some quality jabs at your heart and a bunch of juicy character development in between 10 pages of hijinks. Kotteri’s art in this story, accompanied beautifully by Joanna Lafuente’s colors, is lively and bursting with personality in every line. After seeing all these characters (especially Whirl) come to life in this style, I’m really hoping Kotteri lends their wonderful work to the main series someday in the future. Finally, my favorite Former-Decepticon & His Dog duo Thundercracker and Buster star in their very own holiday film noir (it’s a new genre.)
It’s still balmy here in New York City, but when I read this comic I swear I heard sleigh bells ringing… or maybe that was Lightbright and Sparkstalker’s wedding bells?
EMILY FORSTER is a Digital Editor at ComiXology and a cartoonist. These days, robots kissing is all she can think about.
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Archie #1
by: Emily Forster
Recently, we’ve seen bold new stories like Afterlife With Archie, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Archie Vs. Predator mash up the horror genre with the bubblegum world Riverdale. While I’m also a fan of these series (check them out!) what impresses me about Archie #1 is that it is equally bold in a way that can’t be described with one simple sentence. There’s no twist. It just does what every reboot aspires to do: it truly reinvents an old story without changing anything that made the original beloved in the first place.
Gossip is flying at Riverdale High following the breakup of Archie Andrews and Betty Cooper. Everyone is absolutely dying for details on the mysterious “lipstick incident” that triggered the split. The couple themselves seem resolved to move on and get past the drama, but their friends aren’t giving up on them so easily… and if you’ve ever read an Archie comic, you probably know without me telling you that plenty of hijinks ensue. But this isn’t just the latest twist in the road for Archie and the gang - it’s the beginning of Archie #1, kicking off a total relaunch of the series for the first time since the 1940s.
Writer Mark Waid has struck a perfect balance between preserving the goofy tone of classic Archie and gently pushing it into something a little more believable, with snappy dialogue that’s got just a touch of teenage angst mellowing out the silliness. No one says “gee,” but no one goes out of their way to drop obtrusively current slang either, maintaining the kind of timeless quality that is purely Archie while still grounding it in the present day. It is Fiona Staples’ art that takes this comic to another level, though. Her characters are so wonderfully observed and true to life that for the first time in many years, Archie and his friends feel like real teenagers again. Oh, and I have a crush on everyone. Especially Jughead.
It was also strikingly wonderful to read a first issue of Archie where characters who were introduced over the years to diversify the cast were there from the get-go, instantly lending a new authenticity to their friendships. The student body of Riverdale High feels more alive than ever before, and I can’t wait to see what they get up to this time around.
[Read Archie #1 on comiXology]
Emily Forster is a Digital Editor at ComiXology and a cartoonist. She likes comics about food and fights to the death.
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Emily Forster recommends
Ouran High School Host Club
Haruhi Fujioka, a scholarship student at the Ouran school for the rich elite, only wants to study in peace. But from the moment she breaks an expensive vase and is assumed to be a boy, her life is changed. Breaking the vase is catastrophic - it’s worth thousands more than she can afford! Being seen as a guy, she really doesn’t mind. So to work off her debt, she’s got to keep up the appearance of a male student and entertain young ladies as a member of the school’s popular “host club.”
The boys of the host club are beautiful, super-rich, and, in Haruhi’s eyes, incredibly foolish. The hosts serve tea, flirt with patrons, and dabble in homoerotic displays with one another, to the swooning delight of their guests. At the center of the elaborate performance is their “Prince,” Tamaki Suoh, the others caught up in his ludicrous schemes to bring happiness to everyone.
Haruhi couldn’t be more unimpressed. She thinks it’s all totally pointless. But, okay, maybe she’s having a little fun.
Bisco Hatori’s 18 volume series is a loving parody of shojo manga tropes and stock characters, with plenty of winks at shonen-ai (boys’ love) to boot. If the words “shojo manga” mean absolutely nothing to you, never fear; Ouran makes a surprisingly good introduction, as it both exemplifies and pokes fun at just about every hallmark of the genre. If enormous glittering eyes and pages overflowing with flowers bewilder you - but you’re a bit curious as to what the appeal is - this is the book for you. By the end, you’ll be a shojo expert, and even if some of the parody elements go over your head, the slapstick madness of Ouran is sure to get you laughing one way or another. There’s real drama hiding beneath the over-the-top comedy as well - expect to be genuinely moved by the same exact cliché that was roasted for laughs only pages earlier. The result is a heartfelt story of friendship, family, and identity, spun out of pure silliness as if by magic.
For more gender-bending romantic comedy, check out Hana Kimi. And if you, like the girls who frequent the host club, become starry-eyed and faint at the idea of two cute boys in love, try Classmates, My Sempai, or Rainy Day Love.
[Read Ouran High School Host Club on comiXology*]
Note: VIZ Manga is only available on comiXology in the US and Canada
Emily Forster is a Digital Editor at ComiXology and a cartoonist. She likes comics about food and fights to the death.
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Emily Forster recommends The Sleep of Reason
If you’ve been let down by supposedly scary stories that fail to scare, you must read The Sleep of Reason. If you want to read something “different” but nothing so far has been different enough, you must read The Sleep of Reason. If you’re an appreciator of the impressive range of style and vision in comics, you must read The Sleep of Reason. In short, you must read The Sleep of Reason - if you’re feeling brave enough.
This independent horror anthology boasts “No Zombies. No vampires. No werewolves. No familiar solutions… Let us give you something to be afraid of.” They mean it. Each of the 34 creators featured in this book has done their part to remind us that the genre of “horror” means more than just “containing monsters or spooky elements,” and should mean “actually horrifying.” The suspenseful, the gruesome, the psychological, the fantastical, and even the all too real - every flavor of creepiness you can think of has a place in this collection. Each short comic is so different from the next that it might seem odd for them to be in the same book at all, if it weren’t for the same pure relish in the eerie and sinister they all share.
Any anthology of works by so many different contributors tends to have a few great comics mixed in with some not-so-great ones, so I was surprised and delighted to find that every one of these 26 stories is exceptional in its own right. A few of my favorites are “Old Echoes” by Lety R-Z and Stevan Zivadinovic, a classicly creepy tale with a fantastic payoff, “Growth” by Melanie Gillman, which legitimately made me lose my appetite, and “Artifacts” by Evan Dahm, which might be one of the most brilliantly imaginative comics I’ve read all year. Of course, many more than just these stuck with me… including some I kind of wish I could forget.
If your hunger for the weird and the wicked can’t be satisfied by just one book, check out dark fantasy series Locke and Key and collection of Jack Davis’ classics ‘Taint the Meat… It’s the Humanity! But before you rush off to read The Sleep of Reason, take note that it does contain some pretty disturbing content - whether that’s a warning or an encouragement is up to you.
[Read The Sleep of Reason on comiXology]
For fans of: horror, anthologies, supernatural
Emily Forster is a Digital Editor at ComiXology and a cartoonist. She likes comics about food and fights to the death.
A comiXologist Recommends - MANGA EDITION:
Emily Forster recommends Naruto
Ninja have seen a lot of action in comics, but no series has reimagined the idea of a “ninja” quite like Naruto. In Masashi Kishimoto’s fictional world, ninja are assigned missions ranging from pet-sitting to assassination. Naruto, an orphan with a loud mouth and a dedication to the color orange, is determined to become the most powerful ninja and win the respect of his whole village - but he doesn’t seem to have much talent. On top of that, he carries the stigma of the dreaded Nine-Tails, a demon fox of enormous elemental power that happens to be sealed inside him. Still, he won’t give up on his dream, though he soon finds himself fighting for a lot more than his own reputation.
Like other great Viz titles, Naruto is defined by the themes of friendship, teamwork, and the will to never give up. The action is fantastic - the focus on strategy and deception makes for a much more exciting read than your basic face-punching. But what really makes Naruto special is the pure heart of its characters; the kind that get under your skin until you want to cry when they’re suffering and cheer when they’re victorious.
Naruto is sometimes silly (get past Naruto’s battle with indigestion before you pass judgment) and sometimes tragic (you only have to read until Vol. 4 to know if this manga is going to give you feelings - trust me.) It’s an incredibly fun read and there’s plenty of it - dive in!
For fans of: Action, Martial Arts, Humor
Emily Forster is a Digital Editor at ComiXology and a cartoonist. She likes comics about food and fights to the death.