Author name: Stephen Geigen-Miller

Stephen Geigen-Miller writes comics, prose and free-associative paragraphs that seemed to make some sort of sense at the time. His geekdoms are many and long-standing, and include science fiction, fantasy, comics, tabletop role-playing games, and endearingly bad kaiju movies. Stephen co-created and co-wrote the scifi comic series Xeno’s Arrow with writer/artist Greg Beettam. He co-created and wrote the trope-tacular urban fantasy webcomic Cold Iron Badge with artist Patrick Heinicke. Stephen lives in Toronto, works at the University of Toronto, and has two children. He writes in the bits and pieces of time in between everything else. You can learn more about him via his blog, or follow him on Twitter.

Covers of 3 Best Graphic Story Hugo Nominees - The Deep Dark, Monstress Volume Nine, and Star Trek Lower Decks Warp Your Own Way
Blog Posts

Comics Review: The 2025 Hugo Award Best Graphic Story Finalists, Part 1

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If we use the finalists for the Best Graphic Story Hugo as a proxy for broader recognition, then SFFH readers over the past eight years have absolutely been casting a wide net and looking at a tremendous, a truly impressive and inspiring range of comics and graphic novels, holding them up as award-worthy works that need and deserve to be read. And that very much includes this year’s finalists.

Image from 'Bvlbancha Forever' by Ida Aronson and Tate Allen in INDIGENERDS: Tales from Modern Indigenous Life
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Comics Review: Indiginerds: Tales From Modern Indigenous Life

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The representation of Indigenous people in comics and in SF&F alike has historically been … as someone who’s not Indigenous, I’m just going to say that my understanding is that on balance, and despite some notable exceptions, it’s been not great. Viewed most frequently through the understanding and expectations of white creators and readers, the depiction of Indigenous characters has often been profoundly stereotypical. And whether those stereotypes were entirely negative or partly positive, they were reductive and limiting. Of course, Indigenous people have always been telling their own stories, but which stories were able to reach a wider audience was heavily influenced by the expectations of, again, white publishers, reviewers, and readers – and that means that the works that broke through often focused on present or historical Indigenous trauma.

But Indigenous people are more than their pain. Indigenous creators shouldn’t have to perform pain to be considered worthy of our attention.

Cover of The Order of the Circle
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Comics Review: The Order of the Circle

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Elisabeth Mkheidze’s art is strong throughout. Characters are clearly delineated and distinct, and their emotional states are conveyed effectively through expression and body language. Some comics artists tend towards conveying intense expressions too strongly, and characters’ faces look like caricatures or theatrical masks as a result. This seems like a small point, but in a graphic novel with a protagonist who spends virtually all her time on the page some combination of furious, terrified, and grieving, it’s important.

Cover of DIE Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker
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Comics Review: DIE Volume 1 – 4

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Although graphic novels and books sold well overall during the pandemic, with comic shops and book stores closed, discoverability and conversations around new books took a hit. Some amazing work was released without the fanfare it deserved. One of those was a remarkable 20-issue dark portal fantasy, since collected in four volumes. It asked what would happen if a group of teenagers was transported to the world of their table-top roleplaying game – and what would happened if, twenty-five years later, as traumatized, broken adults, they had to go back.

Let’s take a look at DIE.

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