Spring/Summer 2026 Selection Survey!
We're trying to figure out what to read for 2026
It’s That Time Again!
We’re getting close to the end of our scheduled readings here at the Comics Book Club. If you’re curious about how we decide on what to read, you can visit the Welcome page or look at the last time we had one of these. The main criteria for a comic’s eligibility are usually that the library have enough physical copies and that it’s available as an eBook or on hoopla.
I’m including a poll for each book again, since the public-facing Google form I tried last time led to some confusion. That makes this a little too long for email, but feel free to open this in your browser and vote away!
Here are the titles we’ve chosen for this round! I’m sending this out while we discuss Dandadan, Volume 1, and there are a couple more manga titles on here. Let’s see how popular that is! Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below. What do you think we should read? What would you add?
(Note: All images and descriptions taken from the Chicago Public Library’s online catalog.)
Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose, José Villarrubia, and Various
On a dark, haunted night, a Russian oligarch dares a circle of international chefs to play the samurai game of 100 Candles—where each storyteller tells a terrifying tale of ghosts, demons, and unspeakable beings—and prays to survive the challenge.
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
The author describes her experiences as a young Vietnamese immigrant, highlighting her family’s move from their war-torn home to the United States.
Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? by Harold Schechter and Eric Powell
This book provides an in-depth exploration of the Gein family and what led to the creation of the necrophile who haunted the dreams of 1950s America and inspired such films as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.
The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. by Jaime Hernandez
The second volume in the chronological reprinting of Jaime Hernandez’s “Locas” stories from Love and Rockets. This collection features the spunky Maggie; her annoying, pixie-ish best friend and sometime lover Hopey; and their circle of friends, including a bombshell, a weirdo mentor, and an aging but heroic wrestler.
I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together by Maurice Vellekoop
Maurice is the youngest of five children raised by Dutch immigrants in the 1970s in a middle class suburb of Toronto. He is really, really gay. Which is a huge problem, because his family is part of a strict Calvinist sect not accepting of homosexuality. This is an enthralling portrait of what it means to be true to yourself, to learn to forgive, and to be an artist.
Loving, Ohio by Matthew Erman and Sam Beck
A teenager’s suicide in the town of Loving, Ohio, leads a group of their friends down a terrifying path of cult conspiracy and supernatural horror. The teenagers have been mysteriously vanishing day-by-day, but when a bizarre killer begins terrorizing the town, Sloane and her friends vow to make it out of Ohio, even if it kills them.
Minor Arcana, Volume 1: The Fool by Jeff Lemire
Returning to her hometown to take care of her phony psychic of a mom is the last thing on Theresa’s bucket list. But when Theresa finds out these abilities might be real, it will up to her to confront the failures of her past and help the people she’s spent her life running from.
Our Dreams at Dusk, Volume 1 by Yuhki Kamatani
Not only is high schooler Tasuku Kaname the new kid in town, he is also terrified that he had been outed as gay. Just as he’s contemplating doing the unthinkable, Tasuku meets a mysterious woman who leads him to a group of people dealing with problems not so different from his own.
Search and Destroy, Volume 1 by Atsushi Kaneko, based on Dororo by Osamu Tezuka
This is the only one available solely through hoopla and not the library, that’s why the cover is so much bigger than the rest. Search and Destroy transplants the vengeful action of Dororo from feudal Japan into a dystopian future with mercenary robots, an orphaned thief, and a mysterious girl in a stinking animal hide with deadly cybernetic implants.
Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History by Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee, adapting C. L. R. James
When C. L. R. James’s play opened in London featuring Paul Robeson in 1936, it marked the first time Black actors starred on the British stage in a play written by a Black playwright. After the script was lost for almost 70 years, this extraordinary drama has been turned into a graphic novel.
I’d love to hear any and all feedback (provided we keep it positive around here). Thanks for reading and for voting! Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already to see how it all turns out.