The best comics to read on the beach in 2023
It’s beach season, and you know what that means: Beach reads. But here at Polygon, we have a suggestion: What if, instead of finally reading That One Novel on your vacation, you did something way cooler?
What if you read That One Graphic Novel?
Polygon staffers Susana Polo and Tasha Robinson have put our heads together to distill the essential categories of the Summer Beach Read — and then convert them to equally stimulating, escapist, or aspirational comic books. So don’t bring a big ol’ book out onto the sand this year; bring a big ol’ comic!
And if you have other ideas for comic book beach reads, let us know in the comments!
By Dan Nott
The fundamental idea behind the nonfiction graphic novel Hidden Systems is that we’re all surrounded by and dependent on networks that we don’t understand, and maybe we’d all feel a little more connected to the world if we knew more about it. The book’s full title, Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day tells the full story: This is the Understanding Comics of network technology, and it uses simple, clear language and panel-based illustrations to walk readers through how the named networks were developed and how they function today. It’s easy to grasp, but written for adults, and guaranteed to make you come away with some interesting and highly relevant trivia you can pull out at the next summer barbeque. —Tasha Robinson
By Scott McCloud
Speaking of Understanding Comics, it’s coming up on its 30-year anniversary, and it’s still as relevant as ever. It was revelatory when Scott McCloud first published it — a funny, breezy, but insightful walkthrough of the language of comics symbolism, comics panels, and the language of
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