Tony Concrete is back with the sixth chapter and final of his ongoing illustrated series The Witches Cycle. Today, in addition to the final chapter of the Witches Cycle, he shares some personal recommendations for other comics for further reading. Check it all out below!

This is already the sixth chapter of the Witches cycle, the last chapter of the first volume. Thanks a lot for following me so far! I said I’d post one chapter a month, but in the end (as expected) I dragged my feet. I also said that I would release the second part of this manga shortly after the first, but I have to admit that I’m not very far along in the making. So there will be quite a long pause between this chapter and the publication of the rest of the story. In the meantime, I can make a few recommendations if you’ve developed a taste for indie comics.

I’m going to limit myself here to a selection of authors from my comics community, who live in the France-Belgium-Switzerland area. But this is an absurd and arbitrary critérium. The independent comics community is made up of artists from all over the world, as the last link may give you a nice overview.

Most of the titles presented here are available in English, but first I’m going to talk about two bikepacking comics that are currently only available in French. Perhaps, thanks to your interest, they could be translated for the English-speaking audience.

The first comic is Plouheran by Isabel Del Real. Isabel is a young genius who decided, on a whim, to go on a huge cycling trip. Then, on a second whim, she decided to tell the whole story in comics, even though she had never drawn a single page. The result is a very funny and heartfelt graphic novel, which she first crowdfunded two years ago, which was re-released this summer in France by a traditional publisher and is fast becoming a best seller. Right now Isabel is on a sailboat in the southern seas, so she’s certainly up to something cool.

The second bikepacking comic is called La Ride, a title that’s going to be difficult to translate since it plays on the French use of an English word to designate a bike outing. Authors Simon Boileau and Florent Pierre are avid bikepackers who have done a lot of traveling together. They took anecdotes from their various travels and condensed them into a fast-paced fictional comedy. It’s good to see creative people who continue to explore and innovate in the tradition of Franco-Belgian comics, while most young people are corrupted by manga (sic).

Let’s move content available in English, not specifically about bikes…

First of all, I wanted to tell you about the books by Mathilde Kitteh, Luca Oliveri, and Mathilde Van Geluwe published in the USA by an amazing independent publisher called Peow. But then I realized that these books were no longer available. Indeed, Peow closed doors a few years ago… But in 2024, a miracle happened, and Peow came back to life, with many exciting books in the pipeline. They’ve re-released Michael Furler’s Bark Bark Girl, published some new books I couldn’t put my hands on yet, and they are about to release a collection of vampire-themed short stories in November. The program for 2025 should be epic, so this is a publishing house to keep an eye on.

For those who prefer to fill their Steam library rather than their bookshelves, let me introduce you to Still Heroes by Exaheva. It’s an interactive comic available on Steam and Itch.io, and its themes are kind of close to those of The Witches Cycle: precarious young adults chasing illusions in a beloved city of old Europe… Exaheva is a comic artist and musician from Bruxelles, and she crafted a unique reading experience with this experimental comic.

Finally, if by chance October is not over when this content is released, that means you still have a few days left to discover the comics of the ShortBox Comics Fair 2024. This is an online event that takes place every October. On this occasion, artists from all over the world each propose a complete unpublished story, in English, which are available for sale only for the duration of the festival.

If you want to stick to the “delusional witches in Alsatian landscape” theme, I can recommend Bobo Has an Offer For You by Pavina, a Strasbourg-based artist who’s super good at drawing expressive characters.

But above all, I encourage you to browse the ShortBox Comics Fair catalog, in search of the comic that will thrill you. Maybe you’ll discover your new favorite artist. Hurry up, time’s running out!

For my part, I look forward to 2025 for the second part of The Witches Cycle. But in the meantime, I’ll certainly have something new! Those of you who follow me on Instagram may know that I spent part of the spring preparing prints for The Witches Cycle…

See you all! Thanks a lot for your support! Thank you Mercedes for this amazing translation, it’s a pleasure to work with you. Special thanks to John, Josh, Spencer, and Hailey who brought this manga to you on this great website. Support the Radavist!