Santos Sisters, Vol. 1

In their debut graphic novel, collaborators Greg and Fake deliver an energetic, sun-kissed celebration of comic book characters and sequential storytelling. While relaxing on the beach one fateful summer afternoon, sisters Ambar and Alana discover a magical medallion in the sand which grants them the power to transform into flying, masked crime-fighters. Their epic battles against a rogues’ gallery of bizarre villains provide plenty of entertainment, but what makes this first collection of the ongoing series so much fun isn’t so much the swashbuckling action—its’s Greg and Fake’s knack for twisting seemingly innocuous, everyday situations into unpredictably absurd adventures for the sisters to bicker, banter, and blast their way through. Greg’s illustration references classic Archie comics, capturing a sense of vibrant energy and innate innocence, in total contrast to the disaffected cool with which the titular sisters maneuver their bizarre and sometimes violent misadventures, but ultimately results in an uncommonly invigorating reading experience.