4. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me - Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
First Second/Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
Mariko Tamaki has been having an amazing couple of years. Whether she's writing the adventures of Laura and Gabby in X-23 or presiding over a new take on Harleen Quinzel in Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, Tamaki keeps on finding ways to craft some really brilliant stories.
Tamaki's talent is arguably best represented in Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, a First Second Books work centred around a queer romance that grows toxic. Tamaki is joined by artist Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, who beautifully relays the story of Frederica Riley, the girl Laura Dean keeps breaking up with.
The story itself is remarkably heartfelt, and also full of wisdom. Within Laura Dean lies a really valuable message about love, and how everyone deserves genuine, real, authentic love. It's occasionally painful, but the best coming-of-age romances typically are - and this one has added value in that its main protagonist is a young, queer teen trying to navigate the perils of growing up.
Tamaki and Valero-O'Connell's comic stands out as a must-read this year, and exemplifies the strength of newer comics geared towards the young adult market.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
