There are two universal truths in today’s rapidly changing comics industry. The first is that Dogman remains the defining comic of our time. Second, more people are reading manga and webtoons (aka vertically scrolling comics) than ever before. Therefore, we at Comics Beat continue the bizarre adventures of Beat. Each week, three writers recommend their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea, and other countries. This week we’re featuring everyone’s favorite family of spies, a tricky retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and, of course, Yuri.
Spy x Family
Writer/Artist: Tatsuya Endo
Translator: Casey Law
Touch-up art and lettering: Rina Mapa
Design: Jimmy Pressler
Editor: Amy Yu
Publisher: VIZ
The Folgers look like a normal, normal family. Lloyd Forger is a psychiatrist at this hospital. Youl Forger works at City Hall. Their adorable pink-haired daughter Anya, who mysteriously has horns growing from her head, attends the prestigious Eden Academy. However, each one has a secret. Lloyd is a highly capable spy named Twilight who is tasked with maintaining peace between East and West through Operation Strix. Yor is an assassin named Princess of Thorns who possesses extraordinary powers. Anya can read thoughts. Only Anya knows everything.
Volume 1 of “Spy x Family” was ranked among the top mangas that fans want to see made into an anime. And who can blame them? It had the perfect ingredients: humor, action, mystery, and heart. Lloyd, Yor, and Anya were all very lonely before they met. Life as a war orphan shaped Lloyd into a cold, detached spy. How long did Anya continue to undergo the experiment? And even though Yor has a very, very loving brother, she still finds herself questioning her purpose as an assassin. By becoming a family, the three were freed from their alter egos. It helped them understand that being with other people you care about can be happy.
I have some complaints about the pacing. For example, when will Lloyd realize that Yor might be hiding something other than just being unusually strong? But I like certain aspects of life, and I appreciate the popularity of certain genres of life thanks to Spy x Family. Tatsuya Endo steadily creates an arc that moves the story. With some life chapters interspersed with more plot-driven chapters, it’s hard to predict what will happen next. The latest chapter of Spies x Family, episode 109, featured the most random reveal about an important character. A biweekly publication schedule would make the wait time unbearable. — Hilary Leon
A is Alice
Story and Art: PitchBlackKitKat
Platform: Webtoon
This choice came to my mind after a conversation with a friend about the new characters that entered the public domain in 2025. Then I remembered “A is for Alice,” a WEBTOON CANVAS series created by PitchBlackKitKat. This story of Alice in Wonderland begins in the present day as Alice investigates the murder of her parents. Her search leads her to her father’s Looking Glass.
I won’t spoil the story from here, but it combines the murder mystery genre with the fantastical elements you’d expect from an Alice in Wonderland story. Although not as dark as American McGee’s version of the story, A is for Alice is just as rewarding.
PitchBlackKitKat relies on clean line drawings with a weathered texture in the ink. Combined with slightly desaturated colors, the artist paints both The Other Side and Wonderland in dark visual tones. Unlike other Alice-inspired media, this series also has some very creative character designs, especially the humanized counterparts of the animal characters such as the Blue Caterpillar and the obvious Cheshire Cat .
My personal favorite is the human design of the blue caterpillar. The segmented and layered dress is paired with long blue hair that is parted into large round braids resembling the segments of a caterpillar. It’s subtle, but easily enhances the character of the book. PitchBlackKitKat also has a unique way of characterizing the series’ dialogue, using borderless bubbles and fonts not typically used in comics. This reminds me of how Rachel Smythe fonts dialogue in Tales of Olympus, but it works well here because of how it combines with PitchBlackKitKat’s art style.
If you are interested in this series, please read it on WEBTOON CANVAS. Updated regularly and continuing from 2022. If you like the story, you can also support PitchBlackKitKat on Patreon. Step into another wonderland today. — Justin Guerrero
moon on a rainy night
Writer/Artist: Kuzushiro
Translator: Kevin Steinbach
Lettering: Jamil Stewart
Editing: Andres Oliver
Publisher: Kodansha
From the moment Saki meets her beautiful and mysterious classmate, Kanon, on her way to piano practice, she begins to want to know more about her. But canon doesn’t make it easy. She is intelligent, hard of hearing, and understandably skeptical that anyone outside her family would bother to try to understand her. The way Saki puts her body on the line every day for Kanon shows us how much she takes her life for granted. But she keeps at it and sooner or later the two of them start to change.
“Rainy Night Moon” is a slow-paced yuri romance with a music theme. It is also a story about living with a disability. Importantly, Kuzushiro looks beyond simply asking, “What is it like to be deaf?” Kanon’s condition complicates all her relationships, from her disabled brother to her middle school classmates who did everything they could for her just to escape her own problems. This is a social inflection point. Navigating these shifting trends can be as difficult as following a group conversation in a crowded restaurant when none of your co-workers are aware of the fact that you’re struggling.
Kuzushiro draws fascinating characters, but as an artist he is unable to distinguish himself from other artists. Their real strength lies in their nuanced character performances. Saki and Kanon grow together in a believable way throughout the series. Other characters, who are initially introduced as villains, are given their own challenges to grapple with without compromising their spiky personalities. Adult characters with their own stories also appear, which is not a given in high school manga.
Now that volume 6 is out, I’m curious to see where this series goes next. Saki’s “kindness” hides the pain of unrequited love and is selfish, enriching her character. Meanwhile, Kanon himself begins to question what Saki means to him. Who will confess first? Regardless of the outcome, I think this comic is more than justifiably popular with fans. — Adam Wescott
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