Beastars Vol. 1

Because COVID-19 has caused a major disruption in new comic books, for the next few weeks Scoop will reexamine issues, runs, trades, and titles that are already available. We’ll take a look at perennial classics, current titles we are enjoying, significant runs, and our overall favorite books to suggest some new reading material or inspire fellow comic fans to dust off the old favorites. And if you live near a comic shop that’s still open during this time, we hope our suggestions will prompt you to check out their back issue and collected edition inventory.

Beastars Vol. 1
Viz Media; $9.99

In a world filled with anthropomorphic animals, tensions between herbivores and carnivores are at an all-time high. It only gets worse following the murder of an herbivore student at Cherryton Academy. Legosi, a large grey wolf, finds himself caught up in the issue at hand after he meets the dwarf rabbit Haru – but are his feelings romantic or beastly in nature?

Beastars just hit Netflix as an anime series (and you should definitely check that out if you can, because it’s fabulous), but the manga itself is great too. If you enjoy some high-key drama as told through the lives of different animal species who are desperately trying to make their society function, Beastars is definitely for you. Consider it Zootopia but kicked up a few notches.

-Carrie Wood