In this month’s roundup Marissa and Iurgi go through some of the latest news, their recent reads and their favourite picks from this month’s crop of new titles.

01:04 News in brief

04:22 Recent reads:

• Ranma ½ by Rumiko Takahashi
• Who Made Me a Princess? by Spoon, Plutus
• The Top Dungeon Farmer by Lim Hyeong, Lee Ha-kyung, sdcknight
• I Killed the Main Player by Greenkirin, HELP.ME
• The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide by Greenkirin, Korita
• The Royal Tea by Captain Juuter
• Duchess’s Lo-Fi Coffeehouse by Nuova, Nyangmi.Page.IIAKI, Kimdimsum
• Night Shift in Another World by Cooljamon, Sadsnake
• Criminal Volume 5 The Sinners and Volume 6 The Last of the Innocent by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips
• Frieren Beyond Journey’s End Vol 14 by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe
• Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa
• The Friendship Paradox by Aśka.
• 
  

14:07 News:

A debut manga about a second-hand bookshop owner has won the top prize at Japan’s prestigious Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prizes, highlighting new talent and stories centred on book culture.

Rainbow reads - since June is Pride Month, several organisations have put together lists of not-to-miss LGBTQ+ titles. School Library Journal, NY Public Library, Global Comix; NYPL’s list of suggested reads for adults included Australian author Campbell Whyte’s recent release Luna Express, set in Perth and featuring magical girls kicking butt in the moonlight

A panel explores graphic medicine, showing how comics communicate health experiences, combining storytelling, art, and science to humanise illness, support education, and connect audiences.

Lee Lai’s graphic novel Cannon continues to win. Taking the top prize at the 2026 Doug Wright Awards, highlighting excellence in Canadian comics and celebrating emerging and established creators.

For people living in Melbourne, there’s a new indie comics festival in town. MAKE, the Melbourne Alternative Comics Expo will be taking place in October. The full program is not out yet, but the festival has announced it will go for three days.

ALIA Graphic’s Notable Australian Graphic Novels of 2025 list is out now. This year, for a second time the notables were judged by a judging panel from all across Australia. Library staff who put their hand up to help us judge and decide the most outstanding graphic novels by Australian creators from last year. The ALIA Graphic committee wants to sincerely thank everyone who volunteered, read the graphic novels and gave us their thoughts and reviews. We really appreciate it and congratulations to all the Notables and to all Australian creators. Check out the notables list here: https://graphic.alia.org.au/notables-lists/

28:30 New titles:

Billie B Brown’s Secret Mystery Club Book 1: Spooky House by Sally Rippin, Aki Fukuoka (Figment Books)

Lore Olympus: Volume Ten by Rachel Smythe (Inklore)

Encore! by Miles Toriko Burks (HarperCollins)

Unordinary Vol. 4 by uru-chan (Harper Collins)

Ichi the Witch Vol. 2 by: Osamu Nishi, Shiro Usazaki (VIZ Media)

Fish and Water by Gengoroh Tagame (Pantheon Graphic Library)

Charity and Sylvia by Tillie Walden (Drawn & Quarterly)

To stay up to date, for the full roundup of news, resources and new titles and our social media links visit our website: https://graphic.alia.org.au/

The ALIA Graphic Groove Theme 2025 courtesy of Clint Owen Ellis https://www.clintowenellis.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this creator chat Mia sits down for a conversation with Li Chen the creator of the delightful Detective Beans series. Li Chen, from New Zealand, always loved drawing and has been working as a full-time comic artist since 2012. Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat was her first graphic novel and she's just published the third book in the series: Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery.

In this conversation they talk about:

• The origin and influences of Detective Beans
• How Li Chen started making webcomics
• How well Detective Beans has been received
• Li Chen coming to Australia
• and more!

For more on Detective Beans visit: https://detectivebeans.com/

To stay up to date, for the full roundup of news, resources and new titles and our social media links visit our website: https://graphic.alia.org.au/

The ALIA Graphic Groove Theme 2025 courtesy of Clint Owen Ellis https://www.clintowenellis.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Luke sits down for a chat with Gregory Mackay the creator of the Anders graphic novels, a delightful series for young readers (and for all ages really).

They discuss:

• the newly published Anders and the Mountain, the fourth book in the adventures of Anders series,
• the themes and inspiration behind the Anders series
• the publication of Anders in French and French comics culture
• other work that Gregory is doing (which is not for children)
• and Gregory mentions what he's reading now, which is not children's books

Anders and the Mountain is out now through Allen & Unwin: https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Gregory-Mackay-Anders-and-the-Mountain:-Anders-4-9781761066238

To stay up to date, for the full roundup of news, resources and new titles and our social media links visit our website: https://graphic.alia.org.au/

The ALIA Graphic Groove Theme 2025 courtesy of Clint Owen Ellis https://www.clintowenellis.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.