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Papaya Salad

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by Felix Cheong   War memoirs usually announce their scars, complete with bandaged words that barely conceal old wounds. Elisa Macellari’s Papaya Salad does something quieter, and perhaps more effectively. Her debut graphic biography retells the picaresque life of Sompong, her Thai great-uncle. When the young Macellari meets him at a family gathering, he regales her with his rags-to-rattled story—one so dramatic that it could only be true. Born to a humble family, Sompong applies for and lands a Thai military scholarship. But before he can be sent abroad to a military academy in Berlin, World War II breaks out,… Read More

Dumb Reminders

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by Fernando Gabriel Sosa Dumb Reminders (2026), written by Humberto Avila and illustrated by Kat Penrose, is a poignant and fiercely honest autobiographical short comic exploring the aftermath of a traumatic C4-C5 spinal cord injury. Originating from a life-altering motor vehicle accident near Christmas, the narrative shuns conventional “inspiration porn” or over-dramatized heroics. Instead, it invites the reader into the quiet, claustrophobic reality of living with quadriplegia, confronting the erosion of social support, the grief of physical loss, and the difficult psychological adjustment to a radically altered life. The title itself touches upon the core paradox of living with a… Read More

Tiny Dancer

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by Saily Marrero   Tiny Dancer authored by spouses Siena Cherson Siegel and illustrated by Mark Siegel follows Siena’s life as a dancer and the injury that lead to her decision to quit ballet. Siena chronicles her introduction to ballet and aspirations of joining the New York City Ballet in the first half of the book. For readers it’s a crash course into ballet culture as she explains the different class levels, roles within a show, and ballet programs available to ballerinas in New York. Illustrated beautifully in shades of purple, perhaps alluding to that “royal feeling”, Siegel adds stars… Read More