Indie Edge: Monsters and Murder Mysteries

by Andrea Purcell

If you've ever browsed through a PREVIEWS catalog, you know how packed full each issue can be. It's so packed, that you might have overlooked a choice comic tucked away on one of its many pages. There are so many sections to look through each month, it can be almost impossible to search out all of the awesome comic books that you want to pre-order at your local comic shop. The Indie Edge column is made to help by taking a look at just some (and trust us, there's a lot) of the amazing small press, alternative, and indie titles currently available in this month's catalog!

The "indie" umbrella can be wide, and these comics cover a lot of different story types and styles, but you can find just about any comic you've ever wanted and maybe a few you never knew you needed. Take a look at the books highlighted below and if anything is begging to be read, wander over to your local comic shop to pre-order these comics and anything else from this month's PREVIEWS catalog!

There’s so much to choose from in December’s Indie Edge column!

Go on a wild science fiction adventure in Quantum Teens Are Go, solve a murder mystery in My Favorite Thing is Monsters, slow down with Decelerate Blue, and more! The December PREVIEWS catalog is full of amazing books that you might have overlooked. Dive into the small press side of comics with Indie Edge!

Foggy Notions

The darkly humorous work of November Garcia is coming stateside with her first American release from Alternative Comics. The autobiographical Foggy Notions (DEC161196) follows Garcia as she visits a San Francisco stuck between the tech bubbles and shrouded in fog. As she meanders through bad jobs and nights of debauchery she herself becomes shrouded in a fog, making bad decisions and listening to Lou Reed. An ode to Lynda Barry that doesn’t seem derivative, this is an unabashed, self-effacing, and self-reflective story told magnificently.  

Quantum Teens Are Go #1

Magdalene Visaggio is back with another punk rock, take no prisoners science fiction epic from Black Mask Comics; mad science has never been this mad in Quantum Teens Are Go #1 (DEC161341). Nat and Sumesh are teenage sweethearts who break into abandoned superlabs to find the last key component to build a time machine, but mysterious entities are doing everything they can to keep them from turning it on. It’s a bad-ass battle of the wills as Nat and Sumesh take down anyone in their way to achieve their dream and travel through time.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters

A murder mystery, family drama, historical epic, and psychological thriller; the buzz surrounding Emil Ferris’ debut graphic novel, My Favorite Thing is Monsters (DEC161677), is immense and well earned. Published by Fantagraphics, this trippy and kaleidoscopically beautiful work is set in late 1960’s Chicago and the politics it entails. As Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her mysterious upstairs neighbor she must deal with monsters both real and imagined. Echoing the style of Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Robert Crumb, My Favorite Thing is Monsters is a standout work of true originality. 

Decelerate Blue

A gorgeous science fiction love story from First Second, Adam Rapp and Michael Cavallaro’s Decelerate Blue (DEC161692) will leave you breathless. Taking place in a future where life literally goes a mile a minute just slowing down to take a deep breath is considered treasonous. Teenaged Angela seems to be the only one in her family who thinks living at high speed isn’t normal and is quickly recruited into an underground resistance where rebellion means taking life slowly. It’s up to Angela and her new found friends to liberate the world – albeit slowly. 

Nightlights

A beautiful new series from Nobrow Press in the vein of Luke Pearson’s Hilda, Lorena Alvarez’s Nightlights (DEC161806) is an enchanting story that’s not quite as all ages as it seems. Tiny lights come out of young Sandy’s walls every night when she goes to bed that she catches and creates wonderful creatures out of, and when she wakes in the morning she brings them to life again as fantastical drawings. No one pays much mind to her art until a strange new girl appears at school who becomes fascinated with Sandy’s talent. The fascination quickly turns into something more sinister and Sandy must do what she can to protect herself and her night lights.

**********

Andrea Purcell is a Web Content Writer for PREVIEWSworld.com and a part-time assistant to busy comic creators. Her favorite past times are singing karaoke at comic conventions and memorizing obscure trivia about random pop culture.