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The Association of French Comics Critics and Journalists (ACBD) announced their ten essential reads for summer 2025, with three familiar US books catching the attention of the organization so far this year – Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno’s The Nice House By The Sea, plus the James Sturm and Joe Sutphin adaptation Richard Adams classic 1972 novel Watership Down.
Formally announced over the weekend at the Amiens comic festival, the ACBD picked these ten “essential” 2025 titles via a vote of its 96 active members based across French-language media in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. This annual list coincides with summer break and gives an early indicator of what books might be in the running for awards later in the year.
Posting on their website, ACBD said (translated via DeepL)
“Throughout the year, the journalists from the Association of Comic Book Critics and Journalists (ACBD) have the opportunity to read thousands of comic books. They want to help readers navigate the vast array of new releases. To help you choose which comics to take on vacation, here are the 10 titles that have caught their attention the most in recent months”
While the original editions of two of the three familiar titles were released not-so-recently in English, all had their French release between January 1 and May 31 this year. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (IDW, 2024) debuted in French with manga/YA publisher Ankama, while Watership Down (Ten Speed Graphic, 2023) was published in French by Monsieur Toussaint Louverture – a boutique literary publisher with a very small catalogue when it comes to comics. That said, Monsieur Toussaint Louverture are the French publishers of Emil Ferris’ My Favorite Thing is Monsters which has done very well critically and commercially in that country.
The Nice House By The Sea was first published in English by DC Black Label in single issues between July 2024 and March 2025, with the collection hitting shelves in the US earlier this month. The French edition from Urban Comics actually came out in April, with Tynion and Bueno both doing a signing tour. Interestingly, Tynion and The Nice House… series has drawn critical acclaim and public attention in a French comics market that broadly overlooks US material. French comics magazine dBD gave Tynion a cover feature (exceptionally rare for any dedicated comics media in France) and compared him to Stephen King.
No translations are currently listed online for any of the remaining seven titles but given Magnetic Press entered a partnership with Label 619 to bring their entire catalogue to English, Mathieu Bablet & Guillaume Singelin’s Shin Zero could show up sooner or later.
Among the eclectic mix of remaining 2025 titles there is Fantasy, where Yoann Kavege tells two genre stories in one – from the front cover and from the back cover. You don’t often see that done much in traditional publishing and his art looks great.
Sibylline: Chronicles of an Escort Girl (Sibylline, chroniques d’une escort girl) is the debut work of animator Sixtine Dano who bases the fictional piece on interviews and testimonies. The story follows its 19-year-old lead character who is an architecture student by day and a call girl at night.
According to her Dano’s publisher (translated via DeepL):
“With elegant ink and charcoal drawings, [Dano] depicts the existential questions of the transition from childhood to adulthood, the exploration of femininity and power relations in a society marked by patriarchy and capitalism. Through her script and illustration, the young artist has created a strikingly modern story that is both intimate and political: a successful graphic gem that is not to be missed.”
Trous de mémoires [tr. ‘Memory Lapses’] has an intriguing premise: looking at the drama that ensues as different parties come together to erect a memorial to victims of the 1954-62 Algerian War in the wake of a celebrity photographer’s passing.
ACBD ‘s Ten Essential Summer 2025 Reads
The full list of ACBD ‘s Ten Essential Summer 2025 Reads [listed in alphabetical order]
- Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, by Patrick Horvath (Ankama) — first published in English by IDW
- Fantasy, by Yoann Kavege (Bubble éditions)
- The Nice House… vol 3: By the Sea, by James Tynion IV & Alvaro Martinez Bueno (Urban Comics) — originally published in English by DC Black Label
- De pierre et d’os [tr. ‘Of Stone & Bone’], by Jean-Paul Krassinsky; based on the novel by Bérengère Cournut (Dupuis)
- Les Poissons, eux, ne pleurent pas [tr. ‘Fish Do Not Cry’], by Laurent Galandon & Jean-Denis Pendanx (Daniel Maghen)
- Shin Zero vol. 1, by Mathieu Bablet & Guillaume Singelin (Rue de Sèvres – Label 619)
- Sibylline, chroniques d’une escort girl [tr. ‘Sibylline – Chronicles of an Escort Girl’], by Sixtine Dano (Glénat)
- La Terre verte [tr. ‘The Green Land’], by Alain Ayroles & Hervé Tanquerelle (Delcourt)
- Trous de mémoires [tr. ‘Memory Lapses’], by Nicolas Juncker (Le Lombard )
- Watership Down, by James Sturm & Joe Sutphin, based on the novel by Richard Adams (Monsieur Toussaint Louverture) — first published in English by Ten Speed Graphic
English (US)