One of our favorite time of the year is here: summer reading for grown-ups, and getting to recommend books for it! The Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts and Lectures partner up every summer to bring the city an Adult Book Bingo, with 25ish squares to read and fill. Finding so many books to read can be a challenge though, so that’s why we’re happy to recommend some great graphic novels for your book bingo needs!
Most of these comics are available online through our store, just follow the link to order for shipping or in store pickup! Or maybe come by and check them out in person and get some more in-person recommendations? There are a couple that we don’t have / are out of print though… but they are available at your local SPL branch or on their ebook lending app!
Without further ago, here’s so comics for your bingo needs…
New-to-You Format
Putty Pygmalion by Lonnie Garcia
Out of grief and despair, a lonely radish creates a boyfriend using an illegal children’s toy. This queer reinterpretation of the Pygmalion myth is a multimedia masterpiece mixing clay and illustration into an emotional graphic novel unlike any other.
Also works for: Grief, Monsters
Censorship
No Rules Tonight by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada
A fictional story based on truth, No Rules Tonight tells the story of a group of young people and their one night of freedom in a South Korea where the police are always watching. Perhaps paralleling their work, Kim and Estrada also recently announced that they have cancelled their US book tour in fear of illegal detentions of visitors by US authorities.
Also works for: Resistance, BIPOC Historical Fiction
Author from Another Continent
Sweet Paprika by Mirka Andolfo
From Italian author and illustrator Mirka Andolfo comes a two volume sexy office comedy—set in a world with angels and devils—about a powerful business woman and a mail room boy toy! It’s actually about intergenerational trauma. Oops!
Buy Volume 1 at Outsider Comics!
Buy Volume 2 at Outsider Comics!
Also works for: Humor
TW: Explicit Sexual Content, Emotionally Abusive Parents
Flower in the Cover/Title
A Boy Named Rose by Gaëlle Geniller
Gaëlle Geniller’s, darte I say, cozy (!!!) graphic novel follows Rose after his debut as he figures out who he is, who he wants to be, and how to deal with fame. The use of color and French art deco motifs in the background plus the floral themes surrounding the La Jardin cabaret are just stunning. If you liked Prince and the Dressmaker, you’ll love this.
Also works for: Author from Another Continent, Gender Bender, Intergenerational Friendship, Hope
Intergenerational Friendship
Golden Rage by Chrissy Williams, Lauren Knight, and Sofie Dodgson
In a terrible but not unbelievable future, old women are sent to an island to die. What results is a grandma Battle Royale for survival. When the law changes and a young woman with early onset menopause is sent to the island, she’s hunted down by the island’s powers since, at a third the other women’s age, her strength outmatches almost everyone else…
Also works for: Dystopia, Found Family, Resistance, Grief, Great Escapes
Dystopia
Monkey Meat by Juni Ba
The most well known creator-owned work from one of comics’ best artists Juni Ba, this anthology of satirical / sci-fi / horror??? short stories are all set on Monkey Meat Island, a wonderful land full of history and creatures and other lovely things that are being exploited to hell and beyond by Monkey Meat Corporation. Ba’s unique art style and storytelling brings this terrifying future to life and makes it so you can’t stop reading.
Also works for: Resistance, Humor, Monsters
Found Family
Anzuelo by Emma Rios
At the end of all things, when the seas rise and drown the world, three young people find themselves placed on an island by mysterious beings. There, their bodies and spirits change to adapt to this new world. Painted entirely in watercolor Anzuelo is absolutely gorgeous, unique, and is a challenging but emotional and satisfying read.
Also works for: Grief, Monsters, Hope
TW: Body Horror
Disability
The Jellyfish by Boum
We recommended this one last year’s book bingo and we love it so much we’re recommending it again! Boum’s depiction of a developing disability and its accompanying depression and despair continue to be heartfelt and relatable.
Also works for: Grief
TW: Medical Negligence
Suggested by an Independent Bookseller
The Science of Ghosts by Lilah Sturges and El Garing
She may be a scientist trying to solve a murder involving forces that may not exist, but dang if she isn’t the best portrayal of a trans woman who came out later in life in comics so far. Lilah Sturges hit it out of the park with The Science of Ghosts and you should read it. :3
Also works for: Grief, Recommended by a Library Worker (Thanks Margot!)
Resistance
Little Bird: The Fight for Elder’s Hope by Darcy Von Poelgeest and Ian Bertram
In a, once again, too believable dystopian future, the American Empire has annexed Canada after decades of war. Now the only hope against the totalitarian theocracy of America is a young First Nations freedom fighter who will risk everything to win back her people’s freedom.
Also works for: Dystopia, Hope
Grief
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade
When humanity is on the verge of discovering immortality, the god of death is stripped of her godhood and sent to live in Mumbai as a young woman named Laila Starr. There she lives and dies and lives and dies and lives and dies, and her brief lives intersect with that of the man who is destined to invent the cure for death. This melancholic comic is a certified Outsider Favorite and is sure to bring Feelings to anyone who reads it.
Also works for: Author from Another Continent
Great Escapes
Bolero by Wyatt Kennedy and Luana Vecchio
When her life shatters from a breakup a woman has nowhere to run… except to a parallel universe to try again and again to find happiness. Will she find it before her Key expires? What will she do when she does? In Bolero, the multiverse is messy, queer, and beautiful, and hope is less than 53 jumps away.
Also works for: Grief, Found Family
TW: Explicit Sexual Content, Depictions of Suicide
BIPOC Historical Nonfiction
Madame Choi and the Monsters by Sheree Domingo and Patrick Spät
A South Korean actress and her director ex-husband were kidnapped in 1978 by Kim Jong-il to make him movies, including what is to be North Korea’s greatest monster movie. While Kim tries to convince the world that they defected to North Korea willingly, they plot their escape from Hell to an American embassy in this mostly non-fiction historical thriller.
Also works for: Author from Another Continent, Great Escape, Dystopia, Monsters
Read in Public
Violent Flowers by Maria Llovet
Maria Llovet’s latest series continues her traditional of bold, sensual storytelling and hypnotic art with a tale of a vampire seeking revenge and falling back into the blood curse she has avoided for so long. The settings and art are fantastic, and sexy as hell (literally). Llovet’s works are some of our favorites and Violent Flowers is no exception.
Also works for: Flower on the Cover / in Title
TW: Explicit Sexual Content, Extreme Violence
BIPOC Historical Fiction/Nonfiction
I Run to Make My Heart Beat by Rachel Khan and Aude Massot
Base on Rachel Khan’s Les Grandes et les Petites Choses, this graphic novel adaptation tells the story of a young woman with a Black Muslim father, a Jewish mother, and a life in a France full of racism, sexism, and microaggressions. Nina will need to make choices, sometimes bad ones, to survive. But one thing is certain: when she’s running, she’s not running away.
Also works for: Author from Another Continent, Resistance, Hope
Does not work for: Great Escape
TW: Sexual Assault, Racism
Gender Bender
Reversal by Alex di Campi
When the leylines reversed, the world is once again full of magic… and fear. The city-folk are all but ready to firebomb the mysterious forest, and the only person who can save both worlds is a young Black girl who found a magic sword. Problem: the magic sword turns her into a magical white guy? But also it takes her chronic pain away so… maybe she’s okay with this curse? And she isn’t the only one in this story that wants a new body and never give it up…
Also works for: Found Family, Monsters, Disability, Hope, Intergenerational Friendship, Grief
Recommended by a Library Worker
Transformers (IDW)
We asked SPL librarian Rachel what her favorite comic is and she said: the IDW run of Transformers! Don’t let the robots and guns fool you, this is a comic series with so many queer feelings and relationships!
Humor
Soma by Fernando Llor and Carles Dalmau
When a burned out comic artist is running out of ideas, one literally falls into her lap in the form of a Little Guy from space! Unfortunately, the Little Guy also comes with an invading armada of other Little Guys and despite being cute they also have laser firing robots. Can a bunch of sad zoomers fight off an alien invasion? Or at least find something to hold on to? Literally? While being blasted by lasers???
Also works for: Found Family, Author From Another Continent, Hope, Resistance
Monsters
The Fables of Erlking Wood by Juni Ba
Beware and stray not from civilization, for the Erlking dwells in the woods and he is older than time itself. The Fables weave together the stories of a girl, a fox, and the terror of the woods, breathing new life into European folklore with influences from trickster tales and folklore from so many other traditions and Juni Ba’s unique art style. It will give you Feelings. So many of them.
Also works for: Author From Another Continent, Found Family
One Big Book
The Wicked and The Divine Compendium
Finally… we have one very, very big book in which where gods come to live as humans, and then they burn out, literally. Collecting all 10 volumes of the Image series The Wicked and The Divine, this compendium is a lorge boi and contains the entire saga of one of the best urban fantasy comics from the last decade.
And there’s it! 20 suggestions for your 2025 SPL Adult Book Bingo. Keep an eye out on our socials and blog for more recommendations for the SPL Teen Book Bingo later in the summer. In the meantime, stay cool and read comics!