Heartstopper author Alice Oseman: ‘If you don’t have sex and romance, you feel like you haven’t achieved’

The writer and illustrator on turning her ‘weird hobby’ into a bestselling YA series and Netflix hit, the importance of asexual representation and lessons from her fans on love bites

Pow! Why female writers are a top draw in the world of comics

As 15,000 fans gather in Yorkshire this weekend, authors tell how the male domination of the genre was broken

Ever had a weirdly intense friendship? Tommi Parrish’s latest book is for you

The Australian artist and author spent three years hand-painting Men I Trust, a graphic novel about a relationship that becomes uncomfortably ambiguous

‘Remarkable’, ‘gorgeous’, ‘entertaining’: the best Australian books out in November

Each month, Guardian Australia editors and critics pick out the upcoming titles they’ve already devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on

Ghouls, demon slayers and socially anxious students: how manga conquered the world

They range from science fiction epics to high-school romance and are selling faster than publishers can print them. But what has driven this new appetite for Japanese comics?

Eternal Spring review – animated inquisition into Falun Gong’s Chinese media hijack

The story of a TV protest by the Falun Gong movement, and its painful aftermath, is told through the eyes of exiled Chinese comic-book artist Daxiong

Illuminations by Alan Moore review – a savaging of the superhero industry

A short-story collection from the Watchmen creator takes aim at the comics industry and populist fascism in America

Je Ne Sais Quoi by Lucie Arnoux review – the loneliness of a Frenchwoman in London

The Anglophile cartoonist’s account of her new life in the capital is charming and insightful

Protesters in Iran are ‘beautiful and inspiring’, says Persepolis creator

‘What I have lived, the youth is living now,’ says Marjane Satrapi, whose graphic novel depicted girl’s life in 1979 Islamic revolution

Watchmen author Alan Moore: ‘I’m definitely done with comics’

As he releases his first short story collection, the revered writer talks about magic, the problem with superhero movies and why he will never write another graphic novel

Ducks by Kate Beaton review – powerful big oil memoir

The cartoonist mines her time working in Canada’s oil fields to paint an angry and humane picture of the destructiveness of humankind

Longest single-volume book in the world goes on sale – and is impossible to read

The 21,450-page volume of manga series One Piece is physically unreadable, to highlight how comics now exist as commodities

Stop laughing at the back: why shouldn’t Joker 2 be a musical?

With Lady Gaga and Brendon Gleeson in the cast, director Todd Phillips sequel project would sit fine with the nuttiness of the current DC universe

El Alto: graphic novel depicts Bolivia city’s future as Indigenous and robotic

Altopía imagines the bustling working-class city that overlooks neighbouring La Paz in 2053 – with coca-chewing cyborgs and minibuses with legs

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero review – eye-candy anime is gloriously mesmeric

The immensely popular franchise is back with a bewildering cast of brightly coloured characters in a world of bad guys with outrageous quiffs