The Cute Girl Network by Greg Means and M.K. Reed

Jane has just moved to town when a skateboard accident turns into a date with the cute guy who sells soup on the corner. Jack and Jane get along great; they're both young, broke, and enjoying a laid-back lifestyle. But Jack has dated a lot of the women that Jane knows, and their bad experiences with Jack lead them to form the Cute Girl Network, which is dedicated to spreading the word about Jack and his many shortcomings. Will Jack shape up for Jane? Will Jane take her friends' advice? Will Jane and Jack break up? Living life according to yourself is hard to do, but sometimes it's necessary.

Appeal: adult relationships, friendship, good female characters

Art: Black and white, smooth lines

Text: Conversational, casual

Other: M.K. Reed writes the webcomic About A Bull.

Awards: M.K. Reed's Americus was a YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens in 2012.

Means, Greg. Reed, M. K. Flood, Joe. The Cute Girl Network. New York : First Second, 2013 . Print.

Safe Havens by Bill Holbrook

Safe Havens

Samantha Argus, 26, is the foremost expert in genetics at Havens University and perhaps in the world. In fact, she's cracked the code that lets ordinary humans transform into any living thing at the drop of a hat and has cloned a few dodos back to life. The world isn't quite ready for this knowledge yet, though, so she keeps it under wraps while she works as a dorm RA, professor, and researcher. But life isn't all boring-- her fellow RA is a talking cat, her husband's overseas agent is a time traveler, and her late grandmother can talk to her from heaven through any reflective surface.

Safe Havens began life as a syndicated comic strip in 1988, set in a daycare called Safe Havens. The characters have aged in real time and are having children of their own now. Dave Hamper grew into a professional basketball player and Samantha's husband; Thomas Volant is a Cirque du Soleil performer married to a mermaid, with a trapeze-swinging, half-fish son; and Bambi is a famous singer with plans to travel to Mars.

Safe Havens is available online at safehavenscomic.com. The first comic posted online is from October 2010.

Appeal: Science fiction, puns, black representation, anthropomorphism, adult relationships

Other: Bill Holbrook also writes Kevin & Kell, an anthropomorphic comic strip, and On the Fastrack, a strip set in the technology offices of Fastrack, Inc. Some characters from On the Fastrack appear in Safe Havens.

Holbrook, Bill. "Safe Havens." safehavenscomic.com. Web. 4 May 2014.

Something*Positive by R.K. Milholland

Something Positive

Following the lives of three friends in Boston--Davan, PeeJee, and Aubrey-- and their assorted friends, family, and enemies, Something Positive is sarcastic, cynical, and sometimes touching. The characters age in real time from the comic's 2001 debut to today. Davan dates many unkind women before moving back home to Texas and eventually marrying a newer character, Vanessa. PeeJee holds a number of unpleasant jobs, and now lives in Texas with Davan, helping to care for his witty, Alzheimer-diagnosed dad Fred. Aubrey started a successful phone sex hotline catering to nerds and gamers, and adopted a child with another character, Jason. The characters encounter little oddities like Davan's semi-liquid cat Choo Choo as well as everyday concerns like the Christian haunted house where Fred stages an impromptu protest. 

Something Positive is available at somethingpositive.net. Read from the first comic here.

Appeal: Sarcasm, cynicism, family relationships, adult relationships, work humor

Art: Realistic, it improves over time but the style is consistent. 

Text: Dark humor, conversational, mature

Other: R.K. Milholland writes two other comics: Super Stupor, a dark parody of superheroes, and Rhymes With Witch, watercolor illustrations of very dark children's cautionary tales. Both are available from somethingpositive.net.

Awards: Something Positive won the Web Cartoonists Choice Award for Outstanding Character Writing in 2005, and for Outstanding Dramatic Comic in 2006. 

Milholland, R.K. "Something Positive." somethingpositive.net. Web. 4 May 2014.

Aya by Marguetire Abouet and Clément Oubrerie

Aya

Aya is a serious-minded 19-year-old living in the Ivory Coast in the 1970s. It's a time of prosperity for the country, and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Aya tries to give her friends good advice and resigns herself to helping them manage the fallout of bad choices. In this first book of six, for example, Aya helps her friend Adjoua raise her newborn son as they try to prove his paternity so that Adjoua's boyfriend will marry her. Aya joins in the parties, and the gossip around her but always with an eye toward her future. This is a realistic, funny, soap operatic story about middle-class life from a talented storyteller.

Appeal: Ivory Coast, Africa, family relationships, adult relationships, drama, humor, high school plus

Art: Caricature, cinematic

Text: Conversational, vernacular, argumentative

Other: Aya was originally published in French. The comic was adapted into an animated film in 2012, co-directed by the authors.

Awards: Aya won the Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for First Comic Book in 2006, the Children's Africana Book Award in 2008, and several Glyph Awards.

Abouet, Marguerite. Oubrerie, Clément. Dascher, Helge. Aya. Montréal : Drawn & Quarterly ; 2007. Print

Johnny Hiro: Half-Asian, All Hero by Fred Chao

Johnny Hiro: Half-Asian, All Hero

Johnny Hiro loves his girlfriend Mayumi and tolerates his job at a sushi restaurant, but the monster that breaks through their apartment and takes Mayumi sort of puts a cramp in his style. So do the ninjas that try to steal the fine lobster he scored from the fish market. And the ronin that accost Johnny and Mayumi at the opera. Johnny's style consists mostly of frantically trying to survive, whether his current problem is assassins, rival restaurateurs, or his doubts about life in the big city. Through all of this Johnny and Mayumi lean on each other for support, and get a little help from the ubiquitous Mayor Bloomberg.

Appeal: Adult, adult life, kaiju, making it in the big city, humor, adult relationships

Art: Black and white, fine detail, dynamic

Text: Narrative, philosophical

Other: Johnny Hiro was included in The Best American Comics 2010.

Chao, Fred. Johnny Hiro: Half-Asian, All Hero. Richmond, Va. : AdHouse Books, 2009. Print.