Petals by Gustavo Borges and Cris Peter is one of those books that, at first glance, appears deceptively simple. It’s not. The visual storytelling alone is complex and incredibly well crafted.

If you haven't seen the original Over the Garden Wall miniseries that aired on Cartoon Network, please stop whatever you are doing right now and go watch it. The whole series is the length of a single movie; an afternoon is all you need.

Sitting triumphantly on his command chair, Lord Morgan of the Black Sun Templars surveys the carnage around him during the battle of the White Monk’s citadel. Captain Janek offers his services to safeguard the malevolent leader who overconfidently replies back, “No need. The Black Knight already killed all incoming reinforcements. They’re out of surprises.”  

What proceeds to follow for the remainder of issue five, the final issue of book one of Sword of Ages, is nothing but continuous surprises.

I’m not a scholar of old English poetry by any means, but what I’ve read I’ve loved. I love how the words make you feel breathless. They elevate the events of the story to the point of being mythic. The Worm Ouroboros was one of the most unique reading experiences I’ve ever had. Heroes with the stature of mountains surmounting practically impossible tasks; they are almost god-like. This graphic novel adaptation of Beowulf from writer Santiago García creates an equally breathless feeling within me, and that’s in a large part thanks to the lush artwork of David Rubín.

Issue five of Coda is Simon Spurrier at his finest. Over the course of the first four issues, Spurrier has set up and filled in this world little by little with eccentricities and oddities, all making sense within the rules of the world he’s created. The world is post-fantasy, as if the magic in Lord of the Rings was stripped away and Terry Gilliam got hold of what remained and turned it into a George Miller-esque Road Warrior fight for what little magic remains. It’s a freaking romp.

Black Badge #2 from the Eisner-nominated team of Grass Kings - Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, and Hilary Jenkins - swings into some dark territory by the end, especially considering that the heroes of this book are elite Boy Scouts.

Issue four of Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s Black Hammer: Age of Doom dropped a huge reveal: What and where is this farm that the heroes of Spiral City have been trapped on? That’s a pretty big revelation considering they have been stuck here for the better part of a decade, and it’s a question that readers have been asking since the very first issue. Needless to say, the reveal changes everything and sends our heroes sling-shotting in another direction entirely.

Ether: The Copper Golems is the most bittersweet adventure fantasy I’ve ever read, and that’s a good thing. Boone Dias is a scientist who’s found his way into an alternate dimension called the Ether, where he fancies himself as a scientific Indiana Jones detective, solving all of their magical mysteries by stripping the magic away and relying on logic. There are, though, three things he can’t solve. One, he can’t eat in the Ether, so he has to jump back to our world every now and then. Two, he can’t stop his family from aging at a far greater speed; time works differently in the Ether and on Earth. Three, he can’t stop others from thinking and acting illogically.

In the world of Hellboy, villains are relentless.  They come after him with vigor and passion, driven by needs beyond those with which mortals toil from day to day. One such antagonist in Hellboy’s pantheon is Koshchei. The tale of Koshchei the Deathless is an epic and sad one. It is brutal and heartbreaking. It is high tragedy and intimate fable rolled into one. While it is all of those things, it is also about the need for redemption and to reclaim one’s humanity.

In a world of superpowers, realistically, not everyone would take up the mantle of a hero or a villain. A lot of them would probably go into sports. That’s the concept explored by SFC Comics, and the titles they release, like Kasai.