Akissi #1

Marguerite Abouet and Mathieu Sapin bring their irrepressible young heroine to life in this delightful Gallimard Bande Dessinée volume. The cover captures Akissi mid-sprint through a sun-baked neighborhood street, clutching a bag of fish while a scraggly cat and a wide-eyed monkey give chase — with more cats, teal and orange, prowling the foreground and a third perched menacingly on a rooftop above a market stall. It's a wonderfully chaotic snapshot of everyday West African street life, told with warmth, humor, and Sapin's loose, expressive linework that makes every character — from the bemused shopkeepers to Akissi's colorful hair beads — utterly full of life.