52 New Comics and Graphic Novels for September 2023

With each new month comes fresh new reads being published! Here are 52 new comics and graphic novels for September 2023, perfect for cozying up for the fall season. Don’t forget to take a look at the bottom of the page for some recommendations for where to get your hands on these titles!

Slick attention to the details of a bustling, intimidating metropolis are softened with a palette of muted pastels, as though seen through the eyes of first-time travelers. The awe, wonder, and occasional stumble along the way all come to life with stunning accuracy in this sumptuous softcover with gorgeous jacket.

Roaming is the third collaboration from the critically acclaimed team behind Skim and Governor General’s Literary Award winner This One Summer. Moody, atmospheric, and teeming with life, the magic of this comics duo leaks through the pages with lush and exquisite pen work. The Tamakis’ singular, elegant vision of an urban paradise slowly revealing its imperfections to the tune of its visitors’ rhythms is a masterpiece–a future classic for generations to come.”

It’s even harder when you’re constantly fighting your sibling—and Zara and Zeeshan really can’t stand each other. During a family trip to Florida, when the bickering, shoving, and insults reach new heights of chaos, their parents sentence them to the worst possible fate— each other’s company! But when the twins find an ailing turtle, it presents a rare opportunity for teamwork—if the two can put their differences aside at last.”

In the aftermath, her family relocated to Portland, Oregon, where Julianna hopes to put everything behind her. Believing the fire to be the result of kids playing with fireworks, she certainly isn’t interested when her parents and younger sister start getting involved in the growing climate change protests.

All she wants to do is move on, but that becomes near impossible when Carson, an old friend from her hometown who may have had a hand in starting the wildfire, is suddenly back in her life. Julianna can’t seem to catch a break, but when two new friends invite her to join their school’s conservation club, she learns that maybe she can turn her anger into something powerful.

Emotional and inspiring, Wildfire shows readers that healing from tragedy can take many forms and demonstrates what it means to take action in the face of climate change—and how that action can be different for each of us.”

Here, our demolished planet’s would-be Adam and Eve try to create a new Eden in the nuclear aftermath…but some things simply weren’t meant to be.

Drawn in exquisite colored pencils, this is another of our lives’ loud, lonesome SWAN SONGS.“

Emma Reynolds shines a spotlight on sixteen incredible youth activists from around the world who are fighting to protect the planet and all life on Earth. From Autumn Peltier campaigning for clean water to Edgar Edmund Tarimo turning plastic waste into building materials—and many more—these inspiring true stories highlight the importance of taking charge and creating change.

Beautifully illustrated by sixteen different artists and accompanied by facts and pictures that explain the science, Drawn to Change the World is for anyone who wants to learn more about the climate and nature crisis and what we can do about it, with extensive front matter and back matter materials.

You are not too young and you are not too old to begin. We need everyone to help with the biggest challenge the human race has ever faced. We can do this if we work together.

For after all, change starts with you!”

At the turn of the 20th century in Nantes, France, Lucy Schwob met Suzanne Malherbe, and lightning struck. The two became partners both artistically and romantically and transformed themselves into the creative personas Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Together, the couple embarked on a radical journey of Surrealist collaboration that would take them from conservative provincial France to the vibrancy of 1920s Paris to the oppression of Nazi-occupied Jersey during World War II, where they used art to undermine the Nazi regime.

Cahun and Moore challenged gender roles and championed freedom at a time when strict societal norms meant that the truth of their relationship had to remain secret. Featuring 10 photographs by Cahun and Moore, this graphic biography by cartoonist Kaz Rowe brings Cahun’s inspiring story to life.”

To save their shot at diplomas, Dana and Lily join a community college film class. It gives Dana a chance to keep practicing her monster makeup, as she and Lily start work on a horror movie inspired by local ocean warming. And a search for filming locations puts Dana in the path of Daphne Ocean, an activist and self-proclaimed water witch—the perfect kind of inspiring outsider. But when filming starts, Dana finds herself growing apart from Lily, who doesn’t seem to need her closest friend much anymore.

Soon, tempers are flaring, and Dana’s pushing away old friends and her new mentor. But as everything starts going up in flames, Dana also begins to forge her voice. Night and Dana is a creative coming-of-age story for the climate-change era, a graphic novel about making art and growing up when it feels like the world is on fire.”

A gorgeously illustrated and written debut graphic memoir about belonging, identity, and making a home in the remote American West, by New Yorker cartoonist Navied Mahdavian.

Before Navied Mahdavian moved with his wife and dog in November of 2016 from San Francisco to an off-the-grid cabin in rural Idaho, he had never fished, gardened, hiked, hunted, or lived in a snowy place. But there, he could own land, realize his dream of being an artist, and start a family-the Millennial dream. Over the next three years, Mahdavian leaned into the wonders of the natural Idaho landscape and found himself adjusting to and enjoying a slower pace of living. But beyond the boundaries of his six acres, he was confronted with the realities of America’s political shifts and forced to confront the question: Do I belong here?

Mahdavian’s beautifully written and unflinchingly honest graphic memoir charts his growth and struggles as an artist, citizen, and new father. It celebrates his love of place and honors the relationships he makes in rural America, touching on dynamics like culture, environment, and identity in America, and even articulating difficult moments of racism and brutality he found there as a Middle Eastern American. With wit, compassion, and a sense of humor, Mahdavian’s insider perspective offers a unique portrait of one of the most remote and wild areas of the American West.”

Introduction by award-winning author Ken Mochizuki 

Afterword by Devin Naar, author of Jewish Salonica

Marco Calvo always knew his grandfather, affectionately called Papoo, was a good man. After all, he was named for him. A first-generation Jewish immigrant, Papoo was hardworking, smart, and caring. When Papoo peacefully passes away, Marco expects the funeral to be simple. However, he is caught off guard by something unusual. Among his close family and friends are mourners he doesn’t recognize—Japanese American families—and no one is quite sure who they are or why they are at the service. How did these strangers know his grandfather so well?

Set in the multicultural Central District of Seattle during World War II and inspired by author and artist Josh Tuininga’s family experiences, We Are Not Strangers explores a unique situation of Japanese and Jewish Americans living side by side in a country at war. Following Marco’s grandfather’s perspective, we learn of his life as a Sephardic Jewish immigrant living in America and his struggles as he settles into an America gearing up its war efforts. Despite the war raging just outside US borders, Papoo befriends Sam Akiyama, a Japanese man who finds his world upended from President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. Determined to keep Sam’s business afloat while he and his family are unjustly incarcerated, Papoo creates a plan that not only changes the lives of the Akiyamas but of the entire Nihonmachi community.

An evocative and beautiful color-illustrated historical fiction graphic novel revealing the truth of one man’s extraordinary efforts, We Are Not Strangers converges two perspectives into a single portrait of a community’s struggle with race, responsibility, and what it truly means to be an American.”

Django Unchained meets Buffy The Vampire Slayer in David Crownson’s Harriet Tubman : Demon Slayer, a supernatural comic series based on the true life of the freedom fighter herself that is flavored with genre liberties in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

When slave owners can’t stop the formidable ninja warrior Harriet Tubman, they call on the help of Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, and Demons to stop her. Harriet Tubman must lead a family of slaves to freedom while battling an army of darkness.”

Perfect for fans of The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag, HeartStopper by Alice Oseman, and Jen Wang’s The Dressmaker and the Prince.

Tuva is starting seventh grade, and her checklist of goals includes: writing out a diary, getting a trendy look, building the best fort in the woods with her BFFs, and much more. But when she starts school, nothing is how she hoped it would be.

Seventh grade has split her friends into rival factions: TEAM LINNEA and the girls who fall in love and TEAM BAO and the girls who NEVER fall in love. Linnea has a BOYFRIEND, Bao hates everything related to love. Worst of all, Linnea and Bao expect Tuva to choose a side!

In this delightfully hand-lettered coming-of-age graphic diary, Tuva gets caught between feeling like a kid and wanting to know HOW to become a teenager. Then Miriam shows up and suddenly Tuva feels as if she’s met her soulmate. Can you fall in love with a girl, keep it from your friends, and survive? For Tuva, it may be possible, but it’s definitely not easy.”

The year is 2112, and it’s the apocalypse exactly as expected: rivers receding, oceans rising, civilization crumbling. Humanity has given up hope, except for a group of Indigenous outcasts who have discovered a time travel portal in a cave in the desert and figured out where everything took a turn for the worst: America. 

Convinced that the only way to save the world is to rewrite its past, they send one of their own–a reluctant linguist named Tad–on a bloody, one-way mission to 1492 to kill Christopher Columbus before he reaches the so-called New World. But there are steep costs to disrupting the timeline, and taking down an icon isn’t an easy task for an academic with no tactical training and only a wavering moral compass to guide him. As the horror of the task ahead unfolds and Tad’s commitment is tested, his actions could trigger a devastating new fate for his friends and the future. 

Join Stephen Graham Jones and artist Davide Gianfelice for Earthdivers, Vol. 1, the beginning of an unforgettable ongoing sci-fi slasher spanning centuries of America’s Colonial past to explore the staggering forces of history and the individual choices we make to survive it.”

When Akira spots a strange creature outside her window, she and her new friends organize a search. If no one else can explain the uncanny appearances, the investigation club will get to the bottom of it!”

This time, however, she has help from her new friends: Biyi, a carefree adventurer; Toye, the bookworm; and Ekun, the magical and opinionated giant leopard! Together, all four—also known as Team Chosen—embark on an epic adventure full of twists, turns, and laughs that will change their lives forever!

Dark Horse and YouNeek Studios continue stories in a shared universe of African fantasy and superhero stories—the YouNeek YouNiverse!”

A hilariously honest comic collection that explores all things parenting, from stepping out of the hospital for the first time to losing a kid in the grocery store, except everyone is cats.

From the creator of the popular Instagram and Webtoon comic Litterbox Comics comes a collection of her most popular comics, including never-before-seen artwork, character bios, stickers, word searches, and more. Both long-time fans and those who are unfamiliar with Litterbox Comics will enjoy this humorous, fresh take on what it’s like raising two boys… er, kitties… in the age of the internet. A perfect purchase for both parents and cat-lovers.”

But little does Mo know that there’s more to Rubin than meets the eye, and the mortals play a darker role in the show than they were prepared for… 

Entice your palate with the follow up offering from the Eisner, Harvey, and Ringo Award-nominated team of Ram V (Detective Comics, Blue In Green) and Filipe Andrade (Fantastic Four, Star) in this series painstakingly prepared for fans of Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts and Eat The Rich!”

Shinomiya Teiichiro is a prolific, workaholic novelist who is too consumed with writing to take care of himself. To prevent him from neglecting his well-being, his editor, Sano Satoru, moves in with him. But when the calm and collected Shinomiya finds himself flustered by Sano’s constant presence and good looks, he begins to question their relationship. After all, Sano is just his editor, isn’t he?!”

But when four longtime, bookish BFFs—Lika, Amor, Lala, and Tony—can’t  find what they need, they take matters into their own hands and create a space where they can be a hundred percent who they are: Black, queer, and weird.

The group puts a call out for all awkward Black folks to come on down to the community center to connect. But low attendance and IRL run-ins with trolls of all kinds only rock everybody with anxiety. As our protagonists start to question the merits of their vision, a lifetime of insecurities—about not being good enough or Black enough—bubbles to the surface. Will they find a way to turn it around in time for their radical brainchild, the Blackward Zine Fest?

Lawrence Lindell’s characters pop from the page in playful Technicolor. From mental health to romance, micro—and macro—aggressions to joy, our crew tackles everything life throws at them in this heartwarming tale about building a place to belong and the power of community.”

He dreams of whisking himself and Wolf away to a time when they can live and love freely. But when crazed Detective Felt raids Irina’s lab, the couple dive into the freshly powered up portal to escape capture.

Steve Orlando (Eisner+GLAAD Nominated writer of Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man 2099, Wonder Woman) and Giopota (artist+creator of beloved webcomic Mothersea) hurl you across time with Irina and Wolf, as they encounter famous queer people throughout history and fight back against all who would see their names and love erased!”

More September Releases!

I’m working with limited space on this website’s server (and limited energy in this body 😂), so I can’t highlight the covers and details for all the comic releases, but there are still a ton more great looking comics coming out this month! Check them out!

How to Read

Which comics are you looking forward to reading this September? Have any of these caught your eye? Let me know in the comments!

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*Comic creators and publishers, I do my best to get the details accurate in my posts, but if you catch a mistake, feel free to reach out to me! You can email me at hellojbeoin [at] gmail [dot] com; it’s much appreciated!