New Comics for New Readers – October 3, 2012

Wednesday is New Comics Day! Each week, The Comics Observer spotlights three brand new releases worth checking out that should be suitable for someone who has never read comic books, graphic novels or manga before. This is such a great week, we’re compelled to squeeze in three honorable mentions. We don’t usually include adaptations from other material but there’s a special release this week that demanded to be the exception to our New Reader rules.

These are out today! If you like what you see here, click the links to see previews and learn more about them. Then head to your local comic book store, or check out online retailers like Things From Another World and Amazon. Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.

For a full list of this week’s new releases, see comiXology and ComicList.com.

(Disclaimer: These aren’t reviews. Recommendations are based on pre-release press, previews, and The Comics Observer‘s patented crystal ball. Product descriptions provided by publisher.)

The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song by Frank M. Young and David Lasky

The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song
Written by Frank M. Young
Illustrated by David Lasky
Published by Abrams ComicArts
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography, History
Ages: 13+
192 pages
$24.95

The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song is a rich and compelling original graphic novel that tells the story of the Carter Family — the first superstar group of country music — who made hundreds of recordings and sold millions of records. Many of their hit songs, such as “Wildwood Flower” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” have influenced countless musicians and remain timeless country standards.

The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song is not only a unique illustrated biography, but a moving account that reveals the family’s rise to success, their struggles along the way, and their impact on contemporary music. Illustrated with exacting detail and written in the Southern dialect of the time, its dynamic narrative is pure Americana. It is also a story of success and failure, of poverty and wealth, of racism and tolerance, of creativity and business, and of the power of music and love.

Includes bonus CD with original Carter Family music.

Sailor Twain, or the Mermaid in the Hudson by Mark Siegel

Sailor Twain, or the Mermaid in the Hudson
Written and illustrated by Mark Siegel
Published by First Second Books
Genre: Mystery, Romance
Ages: 18+
400 pages
$24.99

One hundred years ago.

On the foggy Hudson River, a riverboat captain rescues an injured mermaid from the waters of the busiest port in the United States. A wildly popular — and notoriously reclusive — author makes a public debut. A French nobleman seeks a remedy for a curse. As three lives twine together and race to an unexpected collision, the mystery of the Mermaid of the Hudson deepens.

A mysterious and beguiling love story with elements of Poe, Twain, Hemingway, and Greek mythology, drawn in moody black-and-white charcoal, Sailor Twain is a study in romance, atmosphere, and suspense.

Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa

Paradise Kiss, Volume 1
Written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa
Published by Vertical, Inc.
Genre: Young Adult
Ages: 13+
280 pages
$19.95

A Fashionable Coming-of-Age

One of the most popular comic artists in the world, Ai Yazawa, returns with a new edition of the fashion-inspired comic that made her an international sensation! High fashion and hot drama collide in Paradise Kiss. One of the manga to launch the global manga boom, Paradise Kiss combined stunning design work and YA-themed narratives that made it an international best-seller.

Yukari Hayasaka is a studious, straight-laced high school senior, racing towards college exams yet with no real sense of purpose in her life. One day she’s kidnapped by a troupe of fashion design students and whisked away to their lounge-like atelier. There they ask her to be their model for their school fashion show. At first she resists, scornful of the odd-looking design students, until George, the lead designer, uses his wiles to join them while forcing Yukari to take a good, hard look at her life.

Ai Yazawa’s entrancing artwork and spirited dialogue create a colorful range of endearing, comical, and above all human characters who are struggling to define themselves and their life choices as they face the looming prospect of adulthood.

Honorable Mentions:

• The Best American Comics 2012, edited by Françoise Mouly (series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden)
• The Nao of Brown by Glyn Dillon
• A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L’Engle and Hope Larson