There are days when you wake up feeling like absolute crap. On those days you can gather up all your determination to balance fluid and rest with getting some things handled around the house.
Well, I assume you can. People seem to. I prefer to be a big, whiny baby about it. I shuffle around, wrapped in blankets. I grumble. And I watch/read cozy things.
Books and movies? Not really my purview here, so that list will only live in my heart or whatever. But sick day comics? I got you on that.
Adventures of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin Hicks
I’ve talked about this one before, so I’ll refer you that for a more in-depth overview. The warmth and humor of the book, accentuated by Hicks’ masterful work with facial expressions, make it great for re-reading. Like I said, I like cozy things when I feel like twice-fried garbage. The relatability of SG’s frustrations about how others see her add a fullness to the story; the light tone keeps that shared feeling not being able to get things to go your way from sending me into some sort of fretful tailspin. Sick days are for hydration and rest. Not for anxiously revising your whole life plan.
Relish by Lucy Knisely
Oh, food comics, how I love you. Presumably because cooking (other than baking) is so confusing to me that it’s basically magic. Also, I just…really like food. Knisely’s Relish is a memoir told with food as the driving force. Both her parents and the family friends that populated her youth were foodies. Knisley herself has carried this love through her life and into this comic. It’s full of stories about family pickle recipes, college potlucks, and doomed forays into croissant-making. Knisely’s art is beautiful and clear, and she also includes illustrated recipes. It’s gorgeous, and wonderful, and is kind of making me super-hungry, so let’s move on.
X-Men: Season One by Dennis Hopeless and Jamie McKelvie
The Season One graphic novel series is a set of re-tellings of the origins for some long-running Marvel Heroes. Spider-Man gets a turn. So does Thor, along with Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, and a few others. The X-Men volume modernizes the original team (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, and Angel) and uses Jean as the perspective character. It does what my favorite X-Men stories do – it focuses first on who the characters are and how they interact. So when they go into a fight, that characterization shapes it. Also they fight a dinosaur.
Hopeless Savages by Jen Van Meter, Christine Norrie, and Chynna Clugston-Flores
At some point, I’ll stop talking about this book. Just, you know, not any time in the foreseeable future. There’s a specific joy in going back to something that spoke to you as a teenager and finding out that it’s still good. Not that it’s good enough to not break through your nostalgia, but genuinely good. It’s a loving and funny family story set in a punk rock world, and that’s never treated as incongruous by the people at its center. I’d say more, but I wrote about it once already. Plus, when Hopeless Savages: Break releases later this year, I anticipate being unable to shut up about it. So we’ll let this be enough for now.
Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
My current sick day is happening hours before I’ll finally get my hands on Beaton’s newest book, Step Aside, Pops, so a Hark! re-read seems to be in order. It’s probably a fair assumption that you’re aware of Beaton’s comics, including her brilliant history strips. If you aren’t, though it is absolutely a train you should jump on. You’ll laugh! You’ll cry (maybe. I don’t know your heart, bro)! You’ll learn a lot about Canada.
Well, that’s our show! All the titles above are Amazon affiliate links. Go check some stuff out, and feel free to hit me up with your sick day go-tos!
Now, if y’all will excuse me, I’m going to drink some tea, make needlessly sad-sack faces, and generally act pathetic.
Books I’m Picking Up This Week:
Princeless: Be Yourself #4
Runaways #4
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