Heartstopper Volume 5 gets a cover and more updates. Oni Press announces I Feel Awful, Thanks, a supernatural book about mental health. Echolands has won a French comics award. All on Comic Book Club News for September 29, 2023.
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Episode Transcript:
Alice Oseman teases Heartstopper Volume 5.
Oni Press feels awful, thanks.
Echolands wins French comics award.
This is Comic Book Club News for September 29, 2023.
Alice Oseman Teases Heartstopper Volume 5:
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman is a rare, modern comic book hit. First launched on Webtoon, the series has also become a best-selling graphic novel series. And now, Oseman and Scholastic have revealed the cover of the fifth volume, via Cosmopolitan.
The cover is about what you’d expect if you know the series, with main characters Nick and Charlie holding each other, their faces hidden. However, fans of the story know that this volume is leading up to the two high school-aged lovebirds possibly having to say goodbye after graduation.
Here’s the official synopsis for Heartstopper Volume 5, via Scholastic: “Charlie and Nick have finally told each other ‘I love you.’ Charlie is wondering whether they’re ready to take their relationship to the next level. Meanwhile, Nick must decide what to do after he graduates. This is the highly anticipated fifth volume of the bestselling and beloved graphic novel series about life, love, and everything that happens in between.”
While Volume 5 was originally announced as the final volume in the Heartstopper series, Oseman announced back in April that there will be a sixth volume to wrap up the adventures of the whole gang.
Along with the cover, the new volume looks to have a new on-sale date. Internationally, it will hit stores on December 7; while in the United States, you can purchase Heartstopper Volume 5 on December 19. However, if you want to get a head start, the full story is up on Webtoon right now.
Oni Press Feels Awful, Thanks:
Continuing to talk about graphic novels with gentle takes on serious issues, Oni Press has announced I Feel Awful, Thanks, a supernatural new book about mental health.
The book focuses on Joana, a young witch working with a coven in London creating potions. However, when her dream job turns stressful and she starts to feel alone in the big city, she’ll have to deal with fatigue, sadness, and doubts. That is before she begins talking to a professional who may help her tame dragons both real and metaphorical.
Said writer/artist Lara Pickle via press release: “I created this comic in the hopes that if people identify with it, then it will serve as a gentle reminder that they’re not alone. It’s very important to give visibility to mental health issues, because the more we talk about them and how differently they appear and affect us, the easier it will be for everyone—ourselves included—to be kinder to us.”
Oni Press Editor-in-Chief Sierra Hahn likens the book to other favorites such as Sheets and Mooncakes. It will hit stores in March of 2024.
Echolands Wins French Comics Award:
Echolands, the absolutely wild fantasy series created by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, has won the prestigious ACBD Critics’ Comics Prize this year. Or it’s called the Le Prix Comics de la Critique ACBD 2023 (deux mille vingt-trois), if you’re nasty.
The award is given out to a publication that is an adaptation from an English-speaking country into French. So while this news was trumpeted via press release by Image Comics, the winning version of Echolands was actually the Panini edition.
Before you think someone took this beautiful book, put it on some ciabatta, and flattened it down real nice until toasty and warm, Panini is actually the storied Italian publisher that began life as Marvel Italia, before branching out into other, non-Marvel stories.
Also up for the award this year, though ultimately beat out by Echolands, was Daniel Warren Johnson’s Do a Powerbomb. If you’re curious to find out more about Echolands, you can listen to Comic Book Club Live’s interview with Williams and Blackman from August of 2021.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. Or in French, je suis Alex Zalben.
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