New Comics for New Readers – October 31, 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.

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.)

Heads or Tails by Lilli Carré

Heads or Tails
Written and illustrated by Lilli Carré
Published by Fantagraphics Books
Genre: Anthology, Short Stories, Fiction
Ages: 12+
200 pages
$22.99

The creator of 2008’s acclaimed graphic novel The Lagoon — named to many annual critics’ lists including Publishers Weekly and USA Today’s Pop Candy — is back with a stunningly designed and packaged collection of some of the most poetic and confident short fiction being produced in comics today. These stories, created over a period of five years, touch on ideas of flip sides, choices, and extreme ambivalence.

Carré’s elegant short stories read like the gothic, family narratives of Flannery O’Connor or Carson McCullers, but told visually. Poetic rhythms — a coin flip, a circling ferris wheel — are punctuated by elements of melancholy fantasy pushed forward by character-driven, naturalistic dialogue. The stories in Heads or Tails display a virtuosic breadth of visual styles and color palettes, each in perfect service of the story, and range from experimental one-pagers to short masterpieces like “The Thing About Madeline” (featured in The Best American Comics 2008), to graphic novellas like “The Carnival” (featured in David Sedaris’ and Dave Eggers’ 2010 Best American Nonrequired Reading, originally published in MOME), to new work created for this book.

Through the Walls by Jean-Luc Cornette and Stéphane Oiry

Through the Walls
Written by Jean-Luc Cornette
Illustrated by Stéphane Oiry
Published by Humanoids Inc.
Genre: Anthology, Short Stories, Humor
Ages: 12+
96 pages
$29.95

A series of droll vignettes of everyday French life…except for the fact that each short story features one or more characters that have the very special ability of walking through walls, and through any other objects for that matter, which tends to “enliven” things quite a bit…

These touching and humorous chronicles by the talented team of Jean-Luc Cornette and Stephane Oiry are full of the European sensibility seen in titles such as the Monsieur Jean collection. Published here in its entirety (equivalent to the original 2 French albums) and in the English language for the first time.

Presented in a slightly oversized (8.5 x 11 inches) hardcover edition whose format more closely resembles the European standard, allowing for a better presentation of the graphic storytelling.

August Moon by Diana Thung

August Moon
Written and illustrated by Diana Thung
Published by Top Shelf Productions
Genre: Young Adult
Ages: 12+
320 pages
$14.95

“A dream of a book. August Moon hums with menace and wonder, like the coolest childhood you never had. Diana Thung’s work is beautiful in all the right ways, for all the right reasons.” — Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and This Is How You Lose Her

“August Moon did the thing I always hope a book will do: It took me someplace I hadn’t been before.” — Hope Larson, author of Mercury and A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel

The townspeople of Calico believe in family. In fact, some say that the souls of dead ancestors watch over this town, and on a clear night, you can see their “Soul Fires” dancing through the sky.

But when young Fiona Gan comes to town with her father, she finds that the Soul Fires are just the beginning of Calico’s mysteries. Strange graffiti appears all over town, a huge rabbit-like creature is found in an alley, and a peculiar street boy named Jaden claims to come from the moon.

Now time may be running out, because Fi and her dad are not the only newcomers to Calico. As the Soul Fire festival approaches and a creepy corporation starts to bulldoze the nearby forests, she finds herself drawn into Jaden’s battle for the soul of a community.

Diana Thung’s debut Top Shelf graphic novel is a true adventure, rooted in the diverse local traditions of Asia and the films of Hayao Miyazaki, with a modern sensibility and a hint of magic.