Cursed Pirate Girl is a wildly draw Wonderland-ish swashbuckling adventure. Cursed Pirate Girl knows that her father is a famous pirate captain, sailing the fabled Omerta seas, though she has never seen him. Undeterred, she sets out with a talking parrot and two armored swordfish to find him. Bastian has peopled her world with giants and dwarfs, sea monsters, part humans and a whole spectrum of bizarre and fantastical creatures. The story is beautifully drawn, but so full of tiny detail it almost made my eyes hurt to read it.

Goliath is Tom Gauld’s minimalist take on the story of David and Goliath. In his version, Goliath is a peaceful pencil pusher maneuvered into a warrior’s role because of his extreme height. Dry humor mixed with quiet sadness.

You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack is a collection of stand-alone cartoons created by Tom Gauld for The Guardian. Each and every one is a hilarious gem- full of references to sci-fi and literary classics. I highly recommend it!

Hildafolk is a small wonderful book published by Nobrow press. Hilda is a curious girl who lives with her mother in a mountain valley filled with strange folk of all kinds- trolls, gnomes, living logs and even odder beings. Delightful, and wonderfully drawn. It's reminiscent of the Moomin Troll books.

Blacksad was described to me as ‘the ultimate furry detective comic’ and I’ll stick with that description. Set in an alternate Europe in the 1940s/50s, this book draws on many stereotypes of noir crime drama: a square jawed hero, femme fatales, unscrupulous villains and damsels in distress. The luscious artwork keeps things interesting when the plot occasionally gets weak.

I had been hearing everywhere that Saga absolutely amazing, and it turns out that is 100% true. The set up may sound familiar: two young soldiers from opposite sides of an intergalactic war meet, fall in love, and desert their respective armies to be together. But Saga begins where most stories end. On page one Alana and Marko are already married, already on the run, and Alana in giving birth to their daughter essentially in a war zone. The story of the young family’s flight into exile is narrated by their just-born daughter Hazel. The family has to navigate their way through cursed ghosts, wooden spaceships and meeting the in-laws while being pursued creepy bounty hunters and the agents of two armies. Excellent space opera fun, and Fiona Staple’s art is to die for.

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance is 17th and most recent book in the Vorkosian saga, one of the best sci-fi space opera series of all time (in my opinion). When I first discovered this series I ripped through 14 books in one summer and was still desperate for more. That being said, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance was not as good as most of the earlier books. This book focuses on Miles’ under-the-radar cousin, Ivan Vorpatril- and it starts out well. Within the first 50 pages Ivan has uncovered two Jacksonian fugitives and foiled several plots for their re-capture with ridiculously harebrained schemes. But the book stalls out in the middle with a long section where very little happens. Things pick up again towards the end of the book, and if it had been written by a different author I probably would have been satisfied. But the majority of Bujold’s books are so staggeringly awesome that a book of hers which is merely good comes off as a bit of a disappointment.

On the first page of Wildwood Prue McKeel’s baby brother is carried off by crows while she is supposed to be minding him. Worse than that, the crows take baby Mac into the Impassible Wilderness that grows in a scary forbidden tangle outside St Johns, near Portland Oregon. Prue McKeel knows her parents will be heartbroken if they lose Mac. Prue knows what she has to do- sneak into the Wilderness and steal Mac back from the crows. Written and illustrated by a husband and wife team who live in Oregon. One of my favorite YA books read so far this year.

The Wrong Place is a gorgeous and odd book. It’s painted entirely in vibrant watercolor and without panel borders or speech bubbles. It took me a few pages to get the hang of reading the loosely structured pages, but the fact that each character’s dialogue is written in a different color helps a lot. The story opens up at a very awkward party hosted by Gary, the one person in the book painted all in gray. Gary is guy that no one wants to talk too, but a collection of his old school and work friends have shown up at the party because of a rumor that Robbie might be there. Robbie is the coolest guy in town- all the girls want to do him, all the guys want to be him- but by some quirk he and Gary are very good friends. This is a story about social interactions, chance meetings, loneliness and friendship.

Clockwork Heart is just what I want in a steampunk novel: enough clever inventions to keep things interesting, not so many that the story gets bogged down with them. Taya, the heroine, is an Icarus: trained as a messenger, she soars over her city on light metal wings carrying news and packages from one sector to another. Everything changes when she pulls off a dangerous mid-air rescue of two high-ranking passengers in a wire-rail crash. Suddenly Taya has caught the attention of a handsome politician, a bad-tempered clock maker and a circle of terrorist engineers. Much drama ensues.