Kelley "It’s my birthday and I’m a size Omnibus" Malloy

I will not reveal his secret real middle name. Although you do have all the letters necessary to create it.

I’m not a needy person nor am I the type that makes a big deal out of my birthday anymore. However, I have made it abundantly clear to my friends and family how much reading, sharing, and receiving books is my love language. And yeah, I’d like to go out crushed to death by my giant library while my loved ones are finally forced to pick up and look at the books I love to dig me out (Don’t tempt ME with a good time - The Editor).

So, I made a list of the top ten(ish) books I am looking to add to my collection next. Let the record show I am more than happy to just have you with me celebrating my birthday. But I (Ahem, we. - The Editor) started Comic Rex to build a community and share my love for comics, so I’d be even more than happy for anyone to pick up and read these books based off my recommendations. Maybe you’ll be moved and inspired like I was to demand what you like for your birthday!

Off We Go

Roaming
By Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Drawn & Quarterly
Released 9/12/23
439 pages, paperback

Roaming is a story about three young women who travel to NYC after their first semesters at university in 2009. As soon as I read it I knew I had to own it. And man, am I a lucky birthday boy: my fiancée just bought me a signed copy! Jillian and Mariko Tamaki are wonderfully talented at telling poignant and real stories about love and the awkwardness of finding yourself in your teens and early twenties. Just check out anything else by them like This One Summer or Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me. Roaming is another terrific addition to their work.

Basically the Bible

Understanding Comics
Writing and Art- Scott McCloud
Lettering- Bob Lappan
Tundra
Released 1993
224 pages, paperback

I read this book yearly. Scott McCloud is one of the foremost experts on what makes comics work and why. Understanding comics is his first book on the subject and was followed up by Reinventing Comics and then finally Making Comics. Out of the three books, though, Understanding is my favorite because of how digestible and back to basics McCloud’s approach and teaching is. I have to add this to my shelves eventually.

Damn Do We Love Tights

Do a Powerbomb!
Created, Written, and Illustrated by Daniel Warren Johnson
Colors- Mike Spicer
Letters- Rus Wooton
Image Comics
Released 3/1/23
168 pages, paperback

Daniel Warren Johnson is a rare talent. He can write and draw the most electric, kinetic, and hardcore stories around but still deliver extremely deep emotional gut punches. Do a Powerbomb! is his most recent standalone graphic novel which earned him an Eisner Award this year for a Best Publication for Teens. It’s about a wrestling tournament that a young woman enters to bring back her mother who died in the ring. The epic scale of his art is perfect to capture the movement of pro wrestling and his writing is a great match for the deeply tragic and triumphant story. I’m actually rereading this right now, but had to get it from the library!

This Is A Long Title About A Different Title

The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott
By Zoe Thorogood
Avery Hill
Released 7/1/21
168 pages, paperback

It’s not surprise that I love Zoe Thorogood’s work. She’s a singular talent that I haven’t seen the likes of in my comics journey this far. After reading It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, I wanted to track down her other works and read them. The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott follows a young artist who gets mugged and in the aftermath is told she is losing her eyesight. In an attempt to race the clock, she sets out to make a number of portraits of interesting people to put in a gallery before she is completely blind. This book was hilarious and sad and beautiful and I gotta have it!

Octal Number System

Eight Billion Genies
Story by Charles Soule & Ryan Browne
Written by Charles Soule
Art, Colors, Design & Covers by Ryan Browne
Additional Colors & Design by Kevin Knipstein
Letters by Chris Crank
Production Design by Erika Schnatz
Image Comics
Released 7/19/23
246 pages, hardcover

This book blew my mind! Eight Billion Genies is a super unique apocalypse story. What if everyone in the world was given a genie to grant them one wish? Chaos ensues. Each issue of this series follows what happens in the first 8 seconds, 8 minutes, 8 hours, 8 days…and so on which is such an innovative storytelling device. There is so much creativity on display in this book by Soule and Browne. Also it looks like it’s being adapted into its own movie and TV show universe soon? Either way, someone buy this book for me!

Spun

Spinning
By Tillie Walden
First Second
Released 9/11/17
400 pages, paperback

Tillie Walden may just be my favorite cartoonist. She is ridiculously talented at telling quiet, reflective stories usually centered on queer characters or twins or kids and preteens. I’ve started amassing any of her books I can get my hands on because they are my happy place. But one book I don’t have yet is her first book, Spinning. Spinning is a graphic memoir telling the story of Walden’s childhood as a figure skater as she is forced to move from New Jersey to Texas and also come to terms with her coming out. This book made Walden one of the youngest Eisner winners ever and for very good reason.

All I, All I, All I Wanna Do Is Free Your Mind

Hip-Hop Family Tree: The Omnibus
By Ed Piskor
Fantagraphics
Released 10/17/23
504 pages, hardcover

Just in time for my birthday, fellow Pittsburgh native, Ed Piskor is releasing Hip Hop Family Tree as an omnibus! This 4-book series chronicles the rise of hip hop music, culture, fashion, and art from its earliest influences. Piskor’s approach to the storytelling is rhythmic and comprehensive. These books were some of my favorite to read this year because of Piskor’s bombastic and loud art style paired with the educational and super interesting subject matter. It’s also out just in time for the 50th anniversary of hip hop! Perfect time to get it for me.

Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Gutters

Gwenpool Omnibus
Christopher Hastings- Writer
Gurihiru & Various- Artists
Marvel Comics
Released 12/20/22
1184 pages, hardcover

Gwenpool is a book I always wrote off as silly and not for me before I actually read it. Now it’s a story I’m certainly going to return to year after year because of how fun and cute it is but also how much it twists your heart and completely breaks and reworks the medium of comics. There are mind-bending effects happening in the pages of this book that I have planned to write about for some time (coming soon I swear!), but I think the magic really lies in the partnership of Christopher Hastings’ writing and Gurihiru’s art. If you too want to see a villain get thrown off panel and onto comics abyss, or have a main character reference other comics unironically, Gwenpool is that book!

It’s like Campbell Soup Cans but Aliens

Silver Surfer by Slott & Allred Omnibus (New Printing)
Dan Slott and Michael Allred- Storytellers
Laura Allred- Color Artist
VC’s Clayton Cowles & Joe Sabino- Letterers
Allred and Allred- Cover Artists
Marvel Comics
Released 3/1/23
688 pages, hardcover

This may be the best book I’ve read all year. It is certainly my favorite Marvel story of all time. Dan Slott and the Allred’s have created one of the greatest romance stories of all time in their run in Silver Surfer. On my first read through, the finale had me in a puddle of tears by the end. This book is hilarious, sad, has visual gags, does breaks comic book conventions like Gwenpool does, but just has so much damn heart. And yeah maybe it’s just a rip off of Doctor Who (which Dan Slott wanted to write at the time) but it’s beautiful and cannot be ignored. That’s why the omnibus just got a shiny new reprint this year!

Transcending Palomar

Love and Rockets: The First Fifty Years
By Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, and Mario Hernandez
Fantagraphics
Released 11/22/22
2200 pages, hardcover box set

If you’ve got $400 to spend on me, I really need my brakes replaced, but I’d prefer to own this gorgeous Love and Rockets collection instead. This series, created by Los Bros Hernandez in the 80’s, is still going strong and is easily one of the best examples of slice of life, drama, soap opera, sometimes sci-fi, action, adventure as well! This is also the only book(s) on this list that I haven’t read all of. However I’ve read enough Love and Rockets to know I gotta own it someday just so I can, whenever I want, pull it out and point to what influences me as a reader.

Dream A Little Dream of Me

Sandman Books
Sandman created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg
Vertigo (DC)
Originally released January 1989

Sandman may be my all time favorite comic and I love EVERYTHING adjacent to it as well. I’m currently only missing two books to complete the 75 issue run, volumes 6 & 9. Although, my favorite entry into the Sandman Universe is the Death miniseries which follows Dream’s sister, Death and her many adventures. Death is my favorite comic book character. She is so bubbly and sweet and gentle and kind. Many people are afraid to meet her that they avoid her their whole life, but when she comes, she is like an old friend there to help guide you to the sunless lands. Finally, since the Sandman Universe continues to grow every year, that means more books! I’ve read just about every new Sandman U book, but I don’t own any of them yet and I certainly need to remedy that soon!