Children of the Whales #11

Abi Umeda's watercolor-delicate artwork is on full display in this eleventh volume of *Children of the Whales*, where a auburn-haired, red-eyed young man cradles a vivid bouquet of orange, red, yellow, and pink flowers against his chest, vines curling outward around him beneath an open sky. The tension between his quietly intense gaze and the gentle, almost hopeful act of holding those blooms gives the image a striking emotional weight that's become a hallmark of Umeda's visual storytelling. At $12.99, this 2019 volume continues one of manga's more hauntingly beautiful ongoing series.