IN

Guy who works from home, wanders between all these coffee shops and bars, feels like he has countless repetitive and meaningless verbal exchanges with people, but no real conversations. Never saying what he really thinks and feels, or asking what he is actually curious to know. What would happen if he said out loud, those […]

The Faint of Heart

June lives in a world where everyone she knows has given up their emotions- by having their hearts removed and preserved alive in a jar of numbing solution. To avoid feeling pain, disappointment, sadness, anger, etc- but they also cannot feel any positive emotions. June is an artist and resists the social pressure to give […]

Thieves

YA graphic novel where a high school senior lives alone in a tiny studio apartment (her parents had to relocate abroad and didn’t want to disrupt her final year). She seems to spend the entire book going to parties- at first because wants to connect with another girl- but gets very drunk and steals a […]

Flamer

Graphic novel about a boy who is gay but afraid to admit it, even to himself. He’s worried about starting high school in the coming year, looking foward to a summer at Scout camp first. But has to deal with bullies and jerks who pick on him for being slightly chubby, soft-spoken, and of mixed […]

Phuan on a Chinese Carpet

I am finally caught up with all the puzzle posts from during recovery! But this one took the longest- I have been working on it off and on, for nearly a month. I was really eager to get this puzzle because I believe it’s the same artist as Cosmopolitan Cat– one of my dear favorites. […]

Hungry Ghost

About living with an eating disorder. Val has always just wanted to please her mother, who puts constant pressure on her to watch her eating habits and stay thin. To an unhealthy degree. Val has the support of a caring and loving friend- but is confused why her friend gets attention from boys even though […]

Layers

Stories from the author’s life, based on her actual journals. Not in chronological order. Loving and loosing a cat (poignant to us since we recently lost our nineteen-year-old cat). Awkward interactions with boys. Obsessing over some of them, never speaking to friends again over others, and then some awful moments- being groped on public transit […]

All’s Faire in Middle School

Imogene’s parents work at a renaissance fair, and she’s been homeschool with her younger brother until now. This year she gets to be an actor in the fair, instead of just helping in her mom’s shop. She’s also training to be a knight, and she’s going to attend public school for the first time. Middle […]

My Brother’s Husband

Concludes the visit Mike has with the Japanese family of his late husband. Very sweet and heartwarming, seeing how close they grow to each other, and how being together helps Mike start to heal from his loss. But also frankly depicting how uncomfortable or awkward some social situations can be- especially when some of Kana’s […]

My Brother’s Husband

Yiachi is raising his daughter Kana alone- at first (like another character assumed) I thought the mother had died, but actually they’re divorced and the daughter has occasional visits with her mom. This family situation alone seems unusual in Japan (or at least not discussed much?) but even more socially awkward is what becomes apparent […]