From the Boston Comic Arts Foundation...

LOCAL CREATOR SPOTLIGHT Jess Ruliffson Jess Ruliffson chronicles the lives of real people in extraordinary situations. Her book Invisible Wounds, published by Fantagraphics in 2022, is a collection of veterans' first-hand experiences of war and its aftereffects, and she collaborates with ICU nurse Ernesto Barbieri on the interactive comic series ICU Stories in the Boston Globe. Her work has appeared in many other publications, including The Nib, the Oxford American, and the Wilson Quarterly, and she teaches at Boston University and the Sequential Artists Workshop. BUY THE BOOK

WHAT WE'RE READING

Comics in Color team member Kristen Halbert is forever outside in Roxbury, so the best way to find her is to leave the house and follow the sounds of community. Though raised by a devout Trekkie, she lives for fantasy, magic, and alternate realities to keep her nerd heart full (with a sizeable side of Nintendo). She is also known to get excited over, well, everything because she believes joy is a muscle to be exercised daily. A social impact consultant by day and reviewer at pop culture site Forces of Geek by night, Kristen will always be just a "Hey, girl!" away.

Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory

In a world where a catastrophic outbreak of the bird flu killed 23 million Americans, the FDA has become the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, enforcing the law that makes all chicken and other bird meat illegal. This John Layman + Rob Guillory series is easily one of my favorites, even on a reread, thanks to the protagonist: Agent Tony Chu. He's an excellent detective on his own but also has a unique ability to help with the FDA's most weird and wild cases: He's a cibopath. This basically means that Chu gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats, whether it's the life of the cow before it becomes his burger or glimpses of the last moments of a murder victim's life after a quick nibble of the corpse's ear. The series brings us across the country, the world, and the beyond to find what's really behind the crackdown on avian products while engaging a quirky cast of fellow foodie supernaturals.

BLACK, by Kwanza Osajyefo

Kareem Jenkins, a young Black teen, gets racially profiled and viciously shot by police. However, upon getting up, he realizes that he is more powerful than they (or he) could have ever known. In a world that already hates and fears his face, his skin, and his people, having superpowers presents as both a benefit and a burden. Kwanza Osajyefo uses BLACK to explore how the struggle to control people and power is both novel and a tale as old as time. Even inside the Black superpowered community there are factions that demand choosing a side - honor in service or justice thru blood. Khary Randolph has blessed this series with some phenomenal cover art that is a cultural conversation in itself. BLACK is also an entire universe with additional titles like WHITE, BLACK [AF]: Devil's Dye, BLACK [AF]: Widows and Orphans, and BLACK: America's Sweetheart, which all explore different aspects of society's interaction with the superpowered Black population.

The Wicked + The Divine, by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Every ninety years, twelve gods known as the Pantheon reincarnate as extraordinary humans. In today's world, that makes them the ultimate tier of pop stars. Whether they drive you to love them or hate them, the world's passion burns intensely towards their worship-worthy aura. But the flame is bright and fast, and in two years, they are dead again. Well, sometimes less than two years. Immortal ≠ living forever. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie leaned heavily into religion, fantasy, and the endless well that is human ego for this incredibly diverse and deliciously dark series. The story is told through Laura WIlson, a super fan of the Pantheon who finds she is about to get a lot closer than she ever dreamed. Or maybe nightmared. Full of complex explorations of fame, life, and death, The Wicked + The Divine reminds us that the journey to fame has historically not been all it's cracked up to be.

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