With Should I Be Reading… ?, ComicsAlliance hopes to offer you a guide to some of the best original ongoing comics being published today. This week, we're focusing on fantasy comics as part of a week of articles looking at the very best in the genre. From urban fantasy to high fantasy, from the sword and sorcery of Conan to the magic and madness of Doctor Strange, the fantastical has always offered a rich vein of imaginative worlds to explore, and we're putting the spotlight on some of the very best.

Started in 2012, The October Girl is a Monkeybrain Comics series by Matthew Dow Smith that explores the world of reality, fantasy, and everything in between.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A dead-end life. A dead-end job. No hope. Remember what it was like when you were young? Full of joy, fears, magic and belief? Remember your best friend, the one that no one but you could see? Sure, you’ve started to call them your imaginary friend, but to you they were real.

 

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What if he came back? And what if he told you were in danger? What if, when you were eighteen, worn down by life, your imaginary friend --- someone who looks a bit like a fairy, but a bit not --- came to you and told you he was real, that creatures like him were real, and not all of them were as kind? What would you do?

 

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WHO’S IT BY?

Art and words by Matthew Dow Smith. Even if you don’t recognize his name, you’ve seen his work in dozens of comics --- he’s drawn Doctor Who, Nightcrawler, and Hellboy, and written a handful of Doctor Who comics. At the moment, he is co-writing the childhood prequel of Mulder and Scully's adventues in IDW’s The X-Files Origins, and providing art for Batman '66 Meets Steed and Mrs Peel.

 

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WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL?

The October Girl is a soft story that feels more like being told a fairy tale, or reading a novel, than an episodic comic book. The art is gorgeous and unique. It doesn’t feel like a story belonging to some other world; it seems like the type of tale that could happen on your street, around the corner, down that alley… to someone you know.

WHO SHOULD READ IT?

If you ever had an imaginary best friend that you wished was real, or stayed up all through the night to finish a fantasy, or walked through an empty park, feeling as content as could be, then you’ll find something to love in this series.

 

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WHERE CAN I READ IT?

Issues one to four can be found on Comixology. Be warned, though, the production schedule is a bit messy. The first issue came out back in 2012. Another popped up later that year, and then another two were published in 2015. Issue five is in the works, with Smith saying it’s “coming soon.” Hopefully it's worth the wait, because it's been great thus far.

 

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