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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O Human Star Vol. 1
by: Eric Arroyo
It is an absolute treat that O Human Star is arriving on comiXology today. Blue Delliquanti’s (bluedelliquanti) science-fiction marvel achieves the perfect balance of high concept scifi, complicated and genuine personal relationships, and a captivating mystery to drive it all forward.
Alastair Sterling was a revolutionary roboticist who died on the verge of an AI breakthrough, unable to witness how his work would transform the world. That is, until he wakes up sixteen years later in a synthetic body of unknown origin. In a future of his own making, Al looks for answers from Brendan, his former partner, ex-boyfriend, and current head of Sterling, Inc., only to find something more surprising: Brendan’s daughter Sulla, another synthetic copy of Al that has pursued her own identity as a teenage girl.
This new family between Al, Brendan, and Sulla forms the heart of O Human Star. While a future full of artificial intelligences is enough to swallow, Al and Brendan must adjust to a world where Al’s still alive, and if they ever want to solve the question of Al’s resurrection, they’ll have to sort out their pasts and present together.
Delliquanti carefully builds the world of O Human Star around Al and Brendan’s relationship, weaving in and out of flashbacks that depict the romance and AI advancements blooming out of the roboticists’ relationship. From day one, their relationship is shown as a test of boundaries, with the younger and ambitious Brendan pulling Alastair’s brilliance out of a reclusive shell. Both in the past and the present, Al, Brendan, and Sulla navigate the challenges of moving between worlds: from a private lab to a robotics expo, to accepting one’s own sexuality and entering a gay relationship, between human and synthetic society, and at the heart of it all, between death and life and the past and the future. It’s never easy for them, but Delliquanti brings genuine life out of their struggles and highlights their humanity.
If you’re looking for a portrait of the future with an LGBTQ sensibility, I invite you to meet the family of the future in O Human Star Vol. 1.
[Check out O Human Star Vol. 1 on comiXology]
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots and listening to ABBA.
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Cross Game
by: Eric Arroyo
Cross Game is a coming-of-age story about adolescent romance, baseball, and struggling to discover the potential that other people see in you. Manga-ka Mitsuru Adachi takes a quiet and atmospheric approach to sports manga, avoiding the passionate shouting and white-knuckle suspense of conventional shounen sports manga. The story revolves around the relationship between Ko, son of the sporting goods store owner, and Wakaba and Aoba, the daughters of the batting center manager, who respectively love and resent Ko.
Although it started in 2005, Cross Game exhibits the best of Adachi’s 1970s style. Meticulously rendered environments convey a pastoral and nostalgic tone, and the sensitive art and writing depict the teenage cast in an honest way. Cross Game is full of nuanced characterization, revealing characters’ layers through small, quiet moments that still cut like a knife. As the seasons pass and Ko advances through high school, the status quo shifts in ways that keep the story fresh, seamlessly switching between interpersonal and baseball-related struggles.
I’d love Cross Game for the romantic story on its own, but it even manages to make me care about baseball. Despite being the son of the sporting goods shop owner, Ko doesn’t have a lot of stake in baseball. But Wakaba and Aoba’s passion for the sport infects him, and that passion reaches out to the reader, too. Cross Game effortlessly integrates the strategies and internal politics of high school baseball with the students’ personal lives, making baseball accessible and emotional, even to the layman.
Cross Game is a testament to Adachi’s emotive cartooning, highlighting the most beautiful and human parts of high school and baseball.
If you’re looking for more slow-paced and genuine comics about first love without the baseball, check out Sweet Blue Flowers. And if you’ve got a sports manga itch that you just can’t scratch, give the girls’ lacrosse team in Cross Manage a chance!
[Check out Cross Game on comiXology]
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots and listening to ABBA.
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Sea Urchin
by: Eric Arroyo
Knetzger has honed her ability to express feelings and ideas beneath the skin. Her cartooning communicates depression and internal challenges in ways that highlight the empathic power of comics. While the earnest and pained laughs throughout the book gently guide the reader into sympathy, the work doesn’t act like a private diary to list one’s problems in. It pulls you into another person’s fears and insecurities, making them tangible. Knetzger’s abstract imagery is not used as a disruptive veil between author and reader; instead, it carries a specificity and intention that captures the immaterial sensations that a camera could never show you.
Laura’s drawings carry a raw honesty, with each line appearing precise and full of intention. I’m taken aback by how expressive and unpredictable her drawings are, iterating upon and transforming the iconic imagery that forms her style, while still being focused and clear above all else. From above, Knetzger’s pages can look loose and improvised, but her strength in communicating emotion comes from a marriage of directed, formal expertise with honest drawing.
Sea Urchin is a portal into another person’s pain, shared with a passionate sense of whimsy and a reminder that even if we never recover, we can still keep growing. Knetzger’s cartooning can help you understand and feel the burdens that other people carry into their everyday lives, and you may find some solace in seeing your own sea urchin reflected back at you.
Sea Urchin reminds me that I’m not alone, and I’d climb a mountain for that.
[Read Sea Urchin on comiXology]
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots and listening to ABBA.
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Eric Arroyo recommends Pressure/Sensitivity Vol. 1
Pressure/Sensitivity Volume 1, edited by Caleb Goellner and designed by Dylan Todd, is a rich blend of tone and style, uniting unique voices from all over the cartooning field to tell stories about dealing with pressure. The stakes range from personal to apocalyptic, and the only bit of consistency is the energy and talent across these four stories.
Both “Jump Block” by bensears, a continuing story, and “Ada'mas” from mingdoyle (The Kitchen) share a sense of otherworldly wonder and suggest rich mythologies. Sears’s story explores the relationship between a girl, her cat, and her distant father through techno-fantasy environments that evoke Mobius and 16-bit adventure games. The story’s limited color palette and sensitive lines drive the emotional journey behind the mysterious Jump Blocks.
Where Sears’s work emphasizes quiet moments, Doyle’s piece presents a supernatural battle from the dawn of Earth. “Ada'mas” approaches epic poetry with a gestural sensibility. Doyle’s depiction of a heroic metamorphosis and trial by fire leans toward literalism, capturing the evocative spirit of classical mythology with fresh and cosmic visuals.
While also apocalyptic in scale, “Combat Robot Rhynie” from Giannis Milonogiannis - milonogiannis (Old City Blues) is about the end of the world instead its beginning. Milonogiannis brings humor to doomsday, unleashing an amalgam of 1980s anime references without the pretense of seriousness you’d find in his other works. The first chapter of this continuing story is full of colorful transformation sequences, doomed cityscapes, and special attacks brought to life with his dynamic and scratchy style.
Meredith Gran - octopuspiecomic (Marceline and the Scream Queens) and Mike Holmes - therealmikeholmes (Bravest Warriors) deliver my favorite twist on the theme with “Ethel,” the tale of a hen who can’t be bothered to feel pressure, even with an ax at her throat. The humor’s on-point and the commentary hits home in all the right ways, wrapping the book with a reminder that even if you have all the right tools, it’s up to you to sit down and get work done.
Pressure/Sensitivity is a fantastically curated showcase of some of the most defining voices in today’s comics, starting what I hope to be a long journey exploring the breadth of variety in the comics community. Check out Pressure/Sensitivity Vol. 1 for free from ComiXology!
[Read Pressure/Sensitivity Vol. 1 on comiXology]
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots and listening to ABBA.
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Eric Arroyo recommends Sweet Blue Flowers
“You’re such a crybaby, Fumi.”
Those five words leapt across the ten years we had been apart like they weren’t even there.
Reading Sweet Blue Flowers feels like reminiscing about your adolescence, weaving through fractions of memories of your most important friendships. This beautiful girls’ love manga from Takako Shimura is as genuine as it is touching, showcasing Shimura’s exemplary storytelling with a cast of complex, honest, and handsome girls.
Sweet Blue Flowers follows Fumi Manjome and Akira Okudaira, a pair of childhood friends who are reunited during their first year of high school. Although they don’t recognize each other at first, the girls grow to support each other as they face trials of young adulthood, exploring their sexualities and entering new relationships, and balancing romance with friendship.
Manga-ka Takako Shimura is also the author of Wandering Son, a superb series about transgender adolescents that has regularly been on the ALA’s Rainbow Project Reading List. In Sweet Blue Flowers, Shimura portrays homosexuality with the same complexity as she does with gender in Wandering Son, featuring lesbian characters with varied perspectives on their own sexual identities, while still giving herself room to indulge in some all-girl school clichés. Shimura also creates a comfortable atmosphere in which characters openly accept and embrace queerness, while simultaneously acknowledging the realities of homophobia.
Sweet Blue Flowers focuses on the sensitive moments of friendship instead of the great dramatic arcs of romance, building a genuine and heartwarming portrayal of high school relationships that’s still layered and complicated. This isn’t a story that teases with will-they/won’t-theys or depends on melodramatic conflicts or situations. Instead, Shimura highlights the characters’ self-exploration; their romantic relationships are a natural part of their adjustment to young adulthood, and these relationships often involve leveraging past heartbreak with the possibility of new love.
Shimura’s sparse art is full of delicate linework and the perfect amount of detail to project the characters’ thoughts and emotions. Her use of the spatial relationships between characters can say more than the dialogue, and the scenes in which she draws characters kissing without focusing on the kiss itself are some of the most breath-taking moments in comics. They don’t just remind you of being in love; they bring you back to your first kiss, where you remember your short breaths and red-hot cheeks and not much else.
Having more of Takako Shimura’s work available in English is a treat, and Sweet Blue Flowers is an exceptional book for anyone looking for slice-of-life or romance comics.
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots and listening to ABBA.
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Eric Arroyo recommends Exterminite #1
When your deepest worries and darkest fears assault your dreams, a strong cup of coffee might not be enough to help you face the world. But for a small fee, you can hire Nat to help you conquer your traumas and get a restful night’s sleep. Nat’s flavor of therapy isn’t covered by most insurance plans, though; he literally enters your thoughts and faces your fears head-on.
In Exterminite #1, Mikey Neumann and Len Peralta have teamed up to introduce an equally-quirky pair: Kylie, a nightmare-afflicted Clevelander with her job and her sanity on the line, and Nat, an air-headed nightmare consultant with a fashion sense that matches his poor acumen for business. Kylie’s desperate and sleep-deprived enough to mind-meld with Nat, beginning a psychedelic adventure through which the pair begin sorting each other’s lives.
Within the Mare-Space, Nat coaches his clients on using lucid dreaming to take control of their dreams; in practice, this allows Kylie to empower Nat to fight off her monstrous nightmares. Together, Kylie and Nat explore their own fears and insecurities, and ultimately wield their emotions as weapons to fight off their inner-darkness - literally. Exterminite explores genuine experiences and fears, and effectively uses the weird domain of the Mare-Space to tackle true-to-life issues with humor and satisfying physicality. Tim Switalski’s colors bring an extra dimension of life to the battles in the Mare-Space, adding a fluorescent haunted house aesthetic that highlights the whimsical and unsettling nature of our dreams.
Ultimately, Exterminite isn’t about letting a hero swoop in and solve your problems. This opening tale reminds us that trusting others and working together can empower us to take control of our lives, and I look forward to seeing what Kylie and Nat accomplish with this power.
[Read Exterminite #1 on comiXology]
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots and listening to ABBA.
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Eric Arroyo recommends Gotham Central #1: Special Edition
It’s the middle of summer in Gotham City, and Detectives Driver and Fields are chasing a final, desperate lead in a kidnapping case. But this last door unexpectedly leads to Mr. Freeze, who promptly murders Fields to send a message to the GCPD. The Major Crimes Unit scrambles to take Freeze down, and Detective Driver resolves to get justice for his partner before night falls and the Batman gets involved.
In Gotham Central, writers Greg Rucka (ruckawriter) and Ed Brubaker and artist Michael Lark present a new perspective on the Batman mythos, setting a gritty police procedural in the crossfire of the Dark Knight’s crusade. Though this critically-acclaimed 2003 series is not coming back for an encore, DC is rereleasing Gotham Central #1 as a special edition tie-in to the new Gotham TV-series.
The ways Gotham Central intersects with the greater world of Batman help elevate it to a masterful series. Batman exists as whispers and as a constant reminder of police failures, while his rogues range from distractions who get in the way of important police work to frightening forces to be reckoned with. The MCU’s head-to-head encounters with costumed villains are rare and effectively scary, as the detectives must put their wits against deadly superhuman powers.
But Gotham Central would be a great comic even without the looming shadow of the Bat. Cases and personal dramas naturally weave in and out of each other, giving the series an exciting rhythm in which story beats click together where you least expect them. The MCU struggles to deal with regular crime while supervillainy lurks around every corner, and all they have are their loud personalities and richly-developed relationships to pull them through each crisis. The MCU’s greatest strengths are also the story’s: Gotham Central provides a richer ensemble cast than most superhero titles, letting side-characters like Renee Montoya and Capt. Maggie Sawyer shine. Every scene of the MCU coming together suggests real interpersonal relationships and a strong history, putting a soul in standard cop drama scenarios.
If the Gotham TV-series ends up half as good as Gotham Central, it would be a force to be reckoned with. Revisit Gotham Central with 99-cent digital issues all this week!
[Pick up Gotham Central #1: Special Edition here!]
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots or listening to ABBA.
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Eric Arroyo recommends Giant Days #2
John Allison’s (scarygoround) Giant Days brings the sass and flavor of Bad Machinery and Scary-Go-Round to the first weeks of college, where freshmen form bonds with the first people they see and navigate the challenges of independence, often disastrously. After cementing their friendship through brawling a gang of former head girls/martial artists, Esther de Groot, Daisy Wooton, and Susan Ptolemy find themselves simultaneously stumbling through matters of love and that annoying band upstairs that won’t stop practicing at night.
Although Esther, Daisy, and Susan are still figuring out their identities, cartoonist John Allison has a firm grasp on their characters. Allison cements the girls’ personalities and dynamics through authentic dialogue and playful mannerisms. As they play off each other, they naturally roll into the kind of young adult tussles that are easy to identify with, but portrayed with enough wit and self-awareness to be as hilarious as they are embarrassing. Matters of long-distance relationships and unrequited love are dealt with with a frankness and lack of melodrama that’s awfully refreshing; characters aren’t villainized for their poor decisions, and the young women’s agency over their sexuality isn’t scandalous.
Giant Days #2 may not feature the more fantastic beat-downs of its first issue, but it maintains the well-paced, interlocked rollercoaster of humor and teen drama, synching the two rails at the end for a fiasco of a climax. If you fondly remember the neighbors you met the first time you locked yourself out of your dorm, or if you hate their awful mugs, dive back into university with Giant Days.
For fans of: female leads, slice of life
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots or listening to ABBA.
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Eric Arroyo recommends Boss Snake - Cold Blood, Cold Streets
Gate City’s underbelly is home to more than enough crime lords and cults for a single pulp action hero to take on. Covered in foreboding geometric spot-blacks and brought to life with ink wash textures, this post-WWII setting recalls the first decades of the superhero genre, with all the mobsters, mysticism, and mad science to go with it. But unlike Doc Unknown, the heroic pulp-revivalist adventure comic that introduced Boss Snake, Boss Snake: Cold Blood, Cold Streets turns its snake-eyes on the story’s villain and explores his rise to power.
In Doc Unknown #1, our hero summed up Boss Snake’s life as a brutal rags-to-riches story. But this embellished tale shows that on the road to controlling Gate City’s underworld, Snake lost much more than he could ever gain. Unlike Doc Unknown’s more whimsical adventures, Cold Blood, Cold Streets is a down-to-earth, Depression-era tragedy, with the most fantastical element being Snake’s own reptilian mug. Artist Ryan Cody and writer Fabian Rangel Jr. craft a world that’s out to get Snake, with deep shadows and gritty brush strokes lurking even in the corners of Snake’s happiest moments. The slick, contrast-rich art style couples design sensibilities that recall the time period with contemporary storytelling sophistication. Cody suggests time and place with specific and iconic details, making Gate City feel fully realized with just a few marks of the pen.
Cold Blood, Cold Streets doesn’t set out to reveal that Boss Snake deep down has a heart of gold. Instead, it builds his worldview, showing what happens when a man who’s hardly given a chance has to take everything that life refuses to give him. Boss Snake is a villain you learn to respect, but never forgive.
If you ever wanted to see the dark side of pulp adventure like The Rocketeer and The Spirit, coupled with a classic mob story, look no further than Boss Snake: Cold Blood, Cold Streets. And if you’d rather stick with the high-flying adventure, read about Doc Unknown’s exploits in his own title.
[Pick up Boss Snake - Cold Blood, Cold Streets here!]
For fans of: crime, supernatural
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots or listening to ABBA.
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Eric Arroyo recommends Head Lopper #1
Head Lopper is a rich and kinetic comic that explores the essence of sword and sorcery.
This opening story follows Norgal, the titular Head Lopper, to Scotland, where his profession of hired decapitator brings him into conflict with a towering beast. But his challenges only begin with feats of extreme violence, traveling through a world of corrupted morals and cursed with the heckling of a witch’s severed head.
Norgal is a mile-wide warrior of few words, and neither he nor cartoonist andrewmaclean has much need for those. MacLean depicts a battle of great combatants and greater stakes with precision and clarity; his streamlined art style breaks each beat of action down to its essential elements, yet never loses any dynamism in the process. Coupled with meticulously laid out panels, the visual storytelling keeps the reader involved with every step of the chaotic battle. Even in the book’s quieter moments, MacLean’s page structure and use of clear icons show a strong sense of visual timing that brings the page to life.
And that world that MacLean and colorist Mike Spicer bring to life is harsh and brooding, ripe with desolate architecture and complicated characters. Spicer’s colors add a haze of dread that grounds the comic’s over-the-top adventure. While the action-adventure storytelling is thrilling and efficient, the carefully curated details of the world surrounding Norgal’s adventure highlight its unique flavor, revealing a place where greedy men are the true monsters, sinister magic lurks behind every pebble, and a man finds his own way to stand for justice.
If the pulp adventure of gailsimone and Walter Geovani’s Red Sonja makes you let out a barbarian roar, or if you’re haunted by the gloomy fantasy in Becky Cloonan’s The Mire, swing for the neck with Head Lopper!
[Pick up Head Lopper #1 here!]
For fans of: comedy, fantasy, mythology
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots or listening to ABBA.
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Eric Arroyo recommends Cyclops #1
Cyclops is a sentimental father-son roadtrip, where the father is a space pirate, the son is the teen leader of the X-Men, and the car is a stolen spaceship tearing through a hostile galaxy.
This first issue directly follows the events of All-New X-Men, where a time-displaced teen Scott Summers (the titular Cyclops) is dealing with two revelations: he grows up to become a jerk, and his dead dad is actually alive and a space pirate known as Corsair. And if you’re just as confused as Scott is, this issue will catch you up to speed, with clever exposition that delves into Scott’s insecurities and shows writer Greg Rucka’s (ruckawriter) command of a teenage voice.
So how do a teenage mutant superhero and a notorious space outlaw overcome their self-doubt? By getting caught up in a thrilling dogfight and hijacking a spaceship like only Errol Flynn with a spacesuit and eyebeams could!
Writer Greg Rucka (Lazarus, Batwoman: Elegy), artist russelldauterman (Supurbia), and colorist Chris Sotomayor have gone to great lengths to establish a whimsical tone and conflicted relationships at the start of this journey. The respect that Corsair commands from his crew is frequently contrasted with the fears he faces as an absentee father with a second chance. Dauterman captures Scott’s emotional clumsiness through gesture and body language just as well as he composes a cosmic pirate raid. Dauterman and Sotomayor’s environments are beautiful and desolate, effectively conveying Scott’s wonder and fears regarding his new surroundings. But the team’s greatest accomplishment is in portraying Scott and his coming-of-age dilemmas as empathetic and genuine, in spite of the world of cat-like alien stepmothers, zero-G swashbuckling, and organic spacecraft surrounding him.
The real magic at the heart of Cyclops is an outrageous sense of adventure with an honest emotional core.
For fans of: superheroes, cosmic, rad facial hair
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots or listening to ABBA.