Our Fresh Friday Features returns with four new worlds to get lost in! A spoiled brat, a soldier longing to return home, a young man who wastes no time and pays for every sin with more sin, and a mysteriously haunted coastal town greets a young woman returning home.
Each week, KeepingitGeekly and ArtCrumbs have picked out four titles that they feel deserve more reads! In our line-up this week, we've got one comic from each category to give you a varied list of must-reads for your weekend!
- Comic - The Unicorn Coat: A spoiled girl gets a wild ride thanks to her entitlement!
- Graphic Novel - Red Leaves: A Serbian story of the horrors when loneliness and war meet legends and folklore.
- Manga - Vemhel - A campfire that doesn't go as planned when time is precious.
- Webcomic - MoonWake - A young woman returns to her coastal hometown only to find that its supernatural threats still lurk just below the surface and just behind the treeline.
Now that we've met our four fresh picks, let's dig into each of them! KeepingitGeekly and ArtCrumbs will provide comments about the comic and why you should read it too!
The Unicorn Coat, 66 pages - Published by Cowsloveclover, (cc/ @Cowsloveclover)
Giselle is the absolute worst princess in the world. Since she's a princess, she always has gotten what she wants. Until she wants a unicorn. Everything unraveled after that.
Story and Art by Cowsloveclover
Comments from @ArtCrumbs:
An incredibly clever and smart comic. The rougher artstyle fits this work in a satisfying way. I love seeing unconventional artwork, and this definitely didn't disappoint.
We all love seeing karmanic justice be handed out, and after this girl, spoiled rotten, demands a coat of Unicorn, she gets far more than she bargained for! Bugs in her mouth, a wild ride on a less than pleased unicorn, a curse, and the absolute horror that is dry bread.
I'm curious to see where this story goes, and I'm looking forward to see if our Princess can turn herself around. The art is endearing, and the humor was great too. I had to read it all in one go!
Red Leaves, 90 pages - Published by New Friday - A Lev Gleason Imprint, (cc/ @AllisonD)
During the war, the dead walked among us, infecting those they loved the most. Driven by the animalistic desire to return home. Siberia. A mother and daughter wait shrouded in loneliness for the father's return, who was sent to the battle raging Finland. The two have been alone for months, hundreds of miles from the closest city when a terrible presence and overwhelming paranoia begin to surround their home and their daily lives. Red Leaves takes you on a bleak journey into folklore and the frightening secrets that the great mother Russia holds in her belly
Story and Art by Ivan Fiorelli and Massimo Rosi
Comments from @ArtCrumbs:
I have been waiting for weeks to share this with you all. I saw this Graphic Novel right before holiday break started and I was so excited to read it. The cover art is just beatiful, and if you love the creepy, the edgy, the mysterious, and paranormal, this book is for you! Serbian folklore is something I didn't know about, so reading this was a fun introduction even among all the sad realities within the pages. The limited color really added to the impact and was a fantastic choice.
A dead soldier and his desire to reach home turns out into a twisted and not-so-happy reunion. Hundreds of miles away, his wife can feel something isn't quite right in the woods around her. In such a desolate place, there isn't a lot of people around to save you if something goes wrong. I definitely didn't expect the ending, yet still satisfying if not left on edge a little bit. It's one of those books that is fun to read a second time and see all the clues you missed! If you want to see what I mean, check out Red Leaves today! Amazing work, Ivan Fiorelli and Massimo Rosi!
Vemhel, 21 pages - Published by goob, (cc/ @goob)
In a land where the virtuous are on borrowed time and where humanity's last bastion is conceit, Nahel seeks something lost from the past. He is sure to find aid, but nothing is as it seems in Vemhel, where sin is atoned with sin.
Story and Art by goob
Comments from @KeepingitGeekly:
In a land where Sin is atoned with Sin, Nahel is seeking something from the past in Vemhel. We begin with a nice slow burn, allow us to really delve into the world with our protagonist beginning to wake. I really loved the way goob utilized darkness mixed with the light from the fires to open the scene with. We begin with what appears to be a normal campfire but the mystery hidden behind Nahel is so thick it’s eerie. The color and character designs have such life within them…or did. Vemhel had a twist I honestly did not see coming and heads will ROLL.
Goob did a fantastic job building up a mysterious feeling and then swiftly bringing it to a halt. Ending on a strong cliffhanger, Vemhel left me wanting more!
MoonWake, 20 pages - Published by Erin Dodge, (cc/ @ErinDodge)
A dark fantasy comic series of otherworldly adventure, horror, and romance. When Anna Parsley moves back to her coastal hometown, she is drawn back in to an eerie Other World, and must face supernatural mystery and danger she thought she had left behind.
Story and Art by Erin Dodge
Comments from @KeepingitGeekly:
Undertow brings us a darker introduction of someone trodding in stormy waters, hiding a sneak peak of something lurking in seaweed. We then transition to our protagonist Anna on a public bus when her next stop is called and it’s questionable at best. Overgrown and taken over by nature, it would appear that society hasn’t visited in quite some time. Judging by the lack of signal on her phone she is a long way from anyone at all, and this is when the seeds of horror really begin to plant and take root. Soon it begins to rain and the creatures of the woods start appearing in the pockets of darkness.
Time flies and soon her phone is dead, with no idea how long she has been there or if another bus is even coming things aren’t looking good. Anna decides to take matters into her own hands but this place doesn’t want her to leave.
That's all for now, but we'll have another set of Fresh Friday reading recommendations next week. If you're looking for more recommendations, make sure to opt in for our weekly reading list email! You can find that in your User Profile Notification settings. You can also browse through our Featured Comics news section!
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