All throughout this crisis, we’re crowdsourcing a coronavirus quarantine comics reading list. Each weekday for through the end of May, we’ll post a new recommendation from someone in the comics industry to help folks get through the isolation. This includes writers, artists, letterers, editors, comics journalists, publicists, and more…all paired with a local shop that’s currently selling the books via mail order.

Today’s pick comes from writer Kieron Gillen…enjoy!

Blue Monday Vol 2 Absolute Beginners.jpg

Let's recommend Blue Monday: Volume 2 Absolute Beginners, as this is where I started, which means you can start there, which means you can fall in love there too. And you'll inevitably buy the first volume at the same time, and then be doubly as grateful for me bullying you into it.

I've never read Archie, but I imagine if I did, I'd say something like "Blue Monday is Archie if Archie was honest about teenagers being fuckmoneys, but still treating it with the John Hughes movie clear enchantment and romance." That sounds credible. Blue Monday, conversely, is incredible. It pops. It fizzes. It is the absolute definitive early-00s oni book which gave birth to a big chunk of ‘00s indie comics culture. Scott Pilgrim was pitched as "Blue Monday meets Dragon Ball Z". Hell, Phonogram was pitched as "Blue Monday meets Hellblazer." It's the missing link. So many people read this, recognized themselves and gave us permission to write about people like us. It is so human and funny and light that I feel terrible putting the awful mantle of "Importance" on its shoulders, but there it is.

Blue Monday makes the sky bigger, and you'll be happier with it in your life. -Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen is an award-winning writer with a long list of creator-owned books including Phonogram and The Wicked + The Divine, as well as Once and Future, The Ludocrats, Die, and more. He’s also worked on a range of Marvel Comics titles, including Young Avengers, Uncanny X-Men, and Star Wars.

Blue Monday, Vol. 2: Absolute Beginners
Writer/Artist: Chynna Clugston Flores
Publisher: Oni Press
Release Date: 2001
Teenage warfare between the hormone-crazed girls and boys of Jefferson High erupts! The gang throws a fancy dinner party, but after the boys attempt to videotape Bleu taking a bath, the whole ordeal ends in a social status disaster. To restore her reputation, Bleu agrees to go on a date with Alan in exchange for the evidence.

Support Local Comic Shops: Gosh Comics in London is currently doing mail order and keeping customers there updated on their status via their website!

Search for it at a local comic shop with this directory from the Comics Industry Collective of stores open and doing mail order!

Click here for the full coronavirus reading list!