It’s been a while that I managed to read all of the Graphic Story ballot, but this year things worked out. What a great list of finalists! We have some repeat authors, like Marjorie M. Liu, Kieron Gillen (they’re just really good, what can you say) as well as G. Willow Wilson whose comics I adore. But there are also new to the Hugos finalists, which I’m always happy about.
You can find my tentative ballots and thoughts on the other finalists here:
With zero out of the six finalists read, you’d think I’d panic a little trying to catch up. But it so happens that I had already read 5 entries of the existing 9 in the Monstress series, and I at least had a copy of My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Vol. 1 at home, just waiting to be picked up. The other finalists are either standalones or first books in ongoing series, so it actually wasn’t that hard to finish all of them in time.
The Finalists for Best Graphic Story
It’s been a while since I actively tried to read all the graphic stories on the Hugo Ballot, partly because of fatigue with the same series being nominated over and over, and partly because of time restrictions. This year, however, several titles on the list interested me, and I’m glad I prioritized the category.
I chose my first read mostly because I had just watched the two Star Trek: Lower Decks episodes that are also Hugo finalists, and I felt that I had enough knowledge to appreciate a graphic novel set in that universe. It couldn’t have been a better start! Star Trek: Lower Decks – Warp Your Own Way is a choose your own adventure story that had me giggle throughout. When it didn’t infuriate me with the question of how to solve it! I died so many times, but I would do it all over. Seriously, I had the time of my life following (or rather leading) Mariner through a series of options that all seemed to lead to certain doom.
I did eventually figure things out but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss a single page of the journey. What a blast this was. (8.5/10)
Next up, I first had to read My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Vol. 1, so I could read the nominated My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Vol. 2. I very much enjoyed, in a strange way, the first book in this duology. The art style is striking and unique, the themes were dark, the writing was good. Sadly, most of the mysteries of the first volume didn’t get resolved enough for me personally. The rather open end didn’t help matters. Overall, it was a good graphic novel and one I don’t regret reading, but I had too many nitpicks to find it truly great. (6/10)
In between the two Monster books, I read We Were Giants, which stands out for its gorgeous artwork. Sadly, the pacing was way too fast from the very beginning, there was no time for character depth, and the plot ended up being super thin. As a neat little short story, this would have been fine, but the pictures had to do all the heavy lifting in keeping me entertained. It also didn’t help that there’s no satisfying ending, nothing gets resolved, but it also didn’t feel like the beginning of a series. Beautiful as it was to look at, this story did not impress me. (5/10)
Next came G. Willow Wilson’s The Hunger and the Dusk whose art I also immediately loved. There is also such great world building done in the text as well as through the art, just as it should be in a graphic story. Humans and Orcs have to form an alliance to fight against a common foe and out of this necessity springs a lovely tale of budding friendship/potential romance, political alliances, magic, and epic battles. I enjoyed this very much and truly cared about the characters by the end. Will read the sequel! (7/10)
Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Deep Dark was available at my library, so I could read it in full, rather than just the sample provided in the Hugo Voter Packet. I really enjoyed this tale of accepting who you are, including all the dark stuff. Mags lives a life full of responsibility and not much joy. But when her childhood friend (who has a secret of her own) returns, Mags will have to do something that gets her own of her (un)comfort zone. I loved the use of color in this graphic novel and the central message. The plot was a bit thin, but overall, this was a beautiful and rewarding read. (7/10)
The last book (or rather series) I tackled was Monstress. I had already read up to volume 5, so that meant four more volumes to read in total. Volume 6 started out well, but then I was completely lost. I had forgotten a lot of details, but a good series will manage to catch up its readers with every volume, without doing a full re-cap. Volume 7 fared a little better and had some truly great chapters. Volume 8 was also somewhat confusing, but my favorite of the ones I had to read to catch up. And finally, volume 9 was pretty good again, although at this point, the entire series felt very repetitive in its themes and hadn’t progressed as much as I had hoped. The plot doesn’t move forward a lot, considering how many issues there are, and while I enjoy it overall, there’s only so many times the whole “I’m not worthy to live – yes, you are, we are family even though we’re not related” shtick can work. Found family is one of my favorite tropes and the art style is always gorgeous, but overall, this didn’t wow as much anymore.
My ballot (probably)
- Star Trek: Lower Decks – Warp Your Own Way
- G. Willow Wilson – The Hunger and the Dusk
- Molly Knox Ostertag – The Deep Dark
- Emil Ferris – My Favorite Thing is Monsters
- Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda – Monstress vol. 9: The Possessed
- Kieron Gillen – We Called Them Giants
Who do I think will win?
It’s hard to day. Monstress is a perpetual favorite, but this year, the Star Trek: Lower Decks fans seem to be quite numerous. I believe one of the two will win, but I think Monstress has better chances.
