A 30-Day Coronavirus Comics Reading List
By Zack Quaintance — We’re living through odd and difficult times, rife with slow-burning uncertainty. There are far more serious lenses to examine these times through, but comics is the one that unites us here. So — distribution of new comics physically is mostly paused, with indications suggesting it will remain this way for the foreseeable future. Yet, many of us need our hobby more than ever, confined to our homes and looking for bits of joy and escape.
With that in mind, we’re running a new post each weekday throughout April and into May. Essentially, it’s a crowdsourced coronavirus comics reading list. Each post features a recommendation generously picked by someone in comics — writer, artist, editor, journalist, publicist, etc. The motivation is twofold. This coronavirus crisis and resultant peril has made me anxious, and writing/reading/learning about comics is one of few things that relaxes me. My hope is the list helps others, too…contributors and readers alike. The other goal is to feature a different local comics shop that (as of the publication) is doing mail order or curbside service…so you can read a recommendation and then order a copy from a small business in need!
Bookmark this page or check back to the home page daily for the updates, which will go live at 3 p.m. ET/Noon PT, or you can (as always) keep an eye on the Twitter feed. It’s a bit scary to reach out and ask others to do more in the middle of a crisis, but, as always, I’ve been stunned by the generosity of comics people, who are selfless and game for collaboration always.
Here’s hoping you and yours are safe in these trying time!
A Coronavirus Comics Reading List
Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Richard Case…picked by writer Craig Hurd-McKenney
Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee…picked by artist Jacob Edgar
Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist by Eric Trautmann and team…picked by artist Blacky Shepherd
Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire…picked by comics art collector Josh Crews
Habibi by Craig Thompson…picked by wrtier/Comicraft founder Richard Starkings
If you’re a retailer who is doing mail order and is interested in being featured within this project, we’d love to have you! Please reach out via email!