All throughout April and May, we’re crowdsourcing a coronavirus quarantine comics reading list. Each weekday for a month, 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/Comicraft founder Richard Starkings…enjoy!

When I first saw this at APE in San Francisco, I didn’t need any encouragement to pick it up as I’d already read and loved Craig’s Top Shelf book BLANKETS. Even then, when I sat down to read HABIBI one bright sunny Sunday morning in Los Angeles, I was not ready for the captivating, heart breaking and magnificent work of art that Craig created here. I had planned to read just a few pages of this outstanding graphic novel but as Sunday lunchtime came around I was not about to put HABIBI down and didn’t do so until I was finished with the whole book.

Habibi follows the paths of two characters, Dodola and Zam, child slaves brought together by chance and circumstance, and ultimately by love. But HABIBI is also about the cultural divides between the first and the third world, about the differences and similarities between Islam and Christianity and an incredibly unique and beautiful discourse on the arabic language, from which its title is taken. My parents worked in the Middle East a long, long time ago and my Dad would often call my Mum, “Habibi,” and my Mum explained to me that it was a term of endearment like “ sweetheart “ Craig Thompson has helped me understand the term in a whole new and extremely touching way. –Richard Starkings

Richard Starkings is the creator/writer of the long running Elephantmen comic series and Ask for Mercy and co-creator of The Beef with Tyler Shainline and Shaky Kane. He is also the founder of the lettering studio Comicraft.

Habibi
Writer/Artist: Craig Thompson
Publisher: Pantheon Graphic Library
Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in a world (not unlike our own) fueled by fear, lust, and greed; and as they discover the extraordinary depth—and frailty—of their connection.

To find a local comic shop near you, check out his directory from the Comics Industry Collective of stores open and doing mail order!

Click here for the full coronavirus reading list!