Expanded reissue of COME AGAIN this fall!

Weaving my literary universe together, I’m happy to reveal the new cover of my Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel Come Again— to be reissued as an expanded paperback from Abrams ComicArts on September 15th, available for preorders now anywhere books are sold!

Come Again is a horror-tinged 1970s Ozark fairy tale, originally released by Top Shelf in 2018 and nominated for Eisner Awards for both Best Graphic Novel and Best Writer/Artist. Along the way, there’s a scene in the book debuting the punk band Diamond Mine, producing an on-page time paradox which exploded onto the pages of Fall Through and Diana.

"Rendered in fluid, magical brushwork tinted in the colors of a sunrise and filled with mysterious shadows and crannies... this enchanting solo effort reveals even greater depths to Powell’s gift for visual storytelling and creating appealing, human characters." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Spooky and off-kilter, Come Again shows Nate Powell's virtuosity... it's a delight to accompany such a fertile imagination." — NPR (Best of 2018)

"Rich with mystery, magic, and a depth of understanding about human relationships—and the color and line work is just gorgeous." — Publishers Weekly Critics Poll (Best of 2018)

"Even the word balloons can give you chills in Come Again. In fact, they do so with startling regularity, looping and crashing across negative space, bearing letters that slip in and out of consciousness as the story unfurls. Nate Powell... presents his first solo masterwork." — Vulture (Best of the Month)

Through a combination of corporate apathy and global pandemic, the original publisher’s parent company effectively killed Come Again a year after its publication, backing out of any efforts to keep the book in print (thankfully, my contract for all my solo work has expired with IDW) or pursue potential tv/movie interest— and at last, this one returns to print alongside Fall Through and Diana to make an interconnected triptych.

Come Again will be an expanded paperback reissue, with a new 18-page section covering my creative process and shedding light on the long path toward this idea’s final form as a published work. Fall Through will also be reissued as a paperback alongside Come Again, hitting bookshelves just a few weeks ahead of Diana.

My utmost thanks to everyone at Abrams ComicArts for helping this ambitious, time-hopping, feelings-heavy saga make its way into the world— please spread the word and preorder!

I’ll be touring and doing plenty of events during the fall for these books— stay tuned.

Announcing DIANA-- the triptych is complete!

At long last, I’m proud to reveal the cover of my forthcoming lovely monster of a graphic novel, Diana— out October 6th from Abrams ComicArts! It’s available for preorders now, anywhere books are sold (ISBN 9781419790867).

Diana is both a self-contained graphic novel and a prequel to Fall Through, weaving these stories together with Come Again to make an interconnected triptych. This book idea took me by complete surprise, transforming my understanding of these characters I’ve grown to love so deeply— and making Diana was the most fulfilling creative experience of my life.

Diana largely takes place in the year before Fall Through, delivering us on that book’s doorstep— but not unscathed. Yes, there’s music, bootleg magic, relationship drama, curses, demons, queerness, and punk. But if Fall Through is fundamentally about connection, then Diana is about isolation. It’s about the dangers of rigid thinking and mythologizing. It’s about the slow-motion tragedy of a loved one rejecting opportunities to choose differently, instead digging deeper into the destructive allure of self-alienation. Above all, it’s about love as an ever-expanding openness in direct opposition to control.

This story was built around embracing the sense of mystery I pursue— not a set of unknowns to be solved and revealed, but a deepening sense of journeying into the unknown. People are hungry for strange things in a monochrome world, for the radical uniqueness of being alive, for the thrill of not knowing and not being told how to think about a story.

In that sense, my writing was guided by the perspectives of both Ursula K. Le Guin and David Lynch when pressed about the content and meaning of their own stories. But Diana is also about young adults trying to live their ideals while also being short-sighted, self-serving, horny idiots. It’s about the fog generated by attraction.

Diana also performs a bit of quantum-magic for us as readers, retroactively transforming our understanding of events in both Come Again and Fall Through— making them different books before and after reading Diana. I look forward to everyone being able to have this flexible reading experience.

There’s more to announce this week regarding Come Again and Fall Through— stay tuned, and thank you for your continued faith and support!


Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday— wishing everyone feasting and mirth, surrounded by people who love you and each other.

(Artwork from Fall Through, of course!)

'DIANA' is finished.

Clocking in at 308 pages, Diana is finished. I started work on this book exactly two years ago, and have spent the last 13 months inking, lettering, and painting the pages full-time, 6-7 days a week. (I also had to completely re-pencil 200 pages of the book as I went, due to a defective batch of Strathmore paper!) These characters are so alive to me, and it’s bittersweet to know that this wraps up the whole saga. Release dates, ordering info, etc. will be available in the coming months.

This will also be my final solo fiction graphic novel for quite a while. A fresh start will take patience and openness for new ideas to brew. My fiction is my lifeblood, but it’s increasingly difficult to make these books in a way that’s even partially sustaining— so if my work is meaningful to you, please buy my books, spread the word about them, and have your local library order copies. Thank you!

Diana is both a stand-alone character-centered novel and a prequel to my 2024 book Fall Through, for which I’ve been nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Lettering. If you’re a comics professional, creator, journalist, or anything else you can likely register to vote in the Eisners here— please consider your vote for me amidst a sea of fantastic books released last year! Voting is open until June 5th. Thank you so much!

2025 Eisner Award nominee!

I’m honored to find I’m a nominee for the 2025 Eisner Awards in the “Best Lettering” category, covering my work in both Fall Through and Lies My Teacher Told Me!

I love lettering my comics, and there’s a special thrill in it— lettering really is the underappreciated step in the process which makes much of the comics magic happen. With each book, I find my hand-lettering becomes increasingly interwoven with the artwork itself. I was nominated for Best Lettering one prior time, in 2009 for my debut graphic novel Swallow Me Whole. Being recognized by a win in this category would be incredibly meaningful to me.

If you’re eligible to vote in the Eisner Awards, voting is open from now until June 5th— you’ll likely have a link in your inbox. Thank you so much for your consideration as you vote! Winners will be announced on July 25th at San Diego Comic Con.

There are lots of fantastic nominees this year, across the comics spectrum, but I would like to endorse one in particular: my good friend and brilliant comics scholar Caitlin McGurk is nominated for “Best Comics-Related Book” for her fantastic debut work, Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, which is very deserving of your vote. Thanks!

Nationwide protests today.

These are the stakes.

Things are going to get unimaginably worse, but we— and only we, meaning all of us— can counteract and stop this death march. Love and solidarity to everyone, from all walks of life, who are showing up at noon today in cities across the nation to speak out against fascism, and for the fundamental tenets of a functional society which values humanity and compassion.

(panels below from my book Fall Through)

Happy birthday to 'FALL THROUGH.'

Fall Through was released one year ago today, and I’m immensely thankful for the deep personal and emotional responses people have had about it, and about its exploration of our fragile free spaces in a world insistent on codifying, flattening, and mythologizing what we create together.

An earnest plea: if you enjoy my work, please buy a copy of Fall Through and/or have your library order a copy— I worked my ass off on this thing. Thank you!

There’s more to the story coming in 2026.

'FALL THROUGH' in best-of-2024 roundup at The Comics Journal

I’m very pleased and honored to see Fall Through in both Alex Deuben’s and Valerio Stive’s best-of-2024 roundups at The Comics Journal! This was a stellar year for comics, so check out all of these lists and follow your curiosity.

If you’re interested, Barnes & Noble is currently selling Fall Through at 50% off along with a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy titles!

Miami Book Fair this weekend.

I’ll be at Miami Book Fair this weekend to discuss my two newest book, Fall Through and Lies My Teacher Told Me! Here are my panels:

Saturday, November 23rd I’ll be discussing Fall Through and my magical realist fiction alongside writer extraordinaire Brian Michael Bendis and moderator/editor Charlie Kochman for the “Fantasy World: Survival, Spells & Sorcery” panel, with Q&A and a signing afterward! 12pm in the MAGIC screening room (Building 8, Room 1).

Sunday, November 24th I’ll be discussing Lies My Teacher Told Me in the “Taking Another Look: Rethinking Historical Narratives” panel alongside David F. Walker, Marcus Kwame Anderson, and Tim Wendel, with Q&A and signing afterward. 2:30pm in the MAGIC screening room as well.

See you there!

'LIES' roundup + upcoming September events!

September has been very hectic, so I’ll catch up— here’s a little more praise for my adaptation of James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me (available everywhere from The New Press, distributed by Ingram and Diamond— please ask your comics shop or bookstore to order some!):

I’m back from a whirlwind trip to SPX, in which I sold out of both new books and sold all remaining copies of the now-very-out-of-print Come Again within two hours. A highlight was getting to meet and share a panel discussion with the talented & haunting cartoonist Laura Perez— I highly recommend her books Ocultos and Totem from Fantagraphics!

I’ll be doing several events in the next two weeks:

  • This Sunday, September 22nd at 3pm ET, I’ll be on a virtual panel for Brooklyn Book Festival titled “The Sounds of Subversion,” discussing Fall Through alongside Bianca Xunise (Punk Rock Karaoke), Walter Greason & Tim Fielder (Graphic History of Hip Hop), moderated by Whit Taylor! Register here at the link.

  • I’ll be back in Little Rock, AR for the Six Bridges Book Festival on September 26th, discussing my two new books Fall Through and Lies My Teacher Told Me in a joint author interview with illustrator Sally Nixon, moderated by Omaya Jones. It’ll be at Ron Robinson Theater (100 River Market Ave.) at 7:30pm, with a signing to follow. Register at the above link— See you there!

  • I’ll be returning to the beloved Cartoon Crossroads Columbus this year as a special guest— selling my usual jams at table 47 all weekend.

    Panels & special signings:

    Saturday 3:30-4:30pm: “Processing Our Modern World Through Comics and Activism” panel w/ Ben Passmore and Cole Pauls (moderated by Rob Lee), 1st floor auditorium.

    Sunday 2:00-3:00pm: “Nonfiction Comics & History: Youth Explosion” panel w/ Derf Backderf and Chris Oliveros (moderated by Andy Kunka), Room 1A on the first floor.

    Sunday 3:00-3:30pm: I’ll be signing at the official CXC signing tables (107-108), then back to my booth for the rest of the afternoon.

That’s all for now— much more brewing behind the scenes, and many more events throughout the fall here. See you out in comicsland!

SPX!

I’ll be returning to the beloved Small Press Expo in North Bethesda, MD this September 14-15— it’s at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center (5701 Marinelli Rd.).

I’ll be slangin books all weekend at table H14.

Here are my deals: My two new books, Fall Through and Lies My Teacher Told Me, are $25 each or $42 for both. March boxed sets are $40. Limited signed & numbered Fall Through prints are $15 each or $25 for both. I’ll also have the very last copies of my Eisner-nominated 2018 book Come Again at the show— it’s probably gonna be a few years before this favorite is back in print, so don’t sleep on it.

Panels I’ll be on:

  • "Altered Realities" with Christi Furnas, Peter Kuper, and Laura Perez, moderated by Rob Clough— Sunday 9/15, 2:00-3:00pm in the White Flint Auditorium.

  • "Big Ideas in Non-Fiction" with Glynnis Fawkes, Bill Campbell, and Dan Nott, moderated by Jonathan W. Gray—Sunday 9/15, 3:30-4:30pm in the White Oak Room.

See you there!