Books Your Customers Won’t Find Anywhere Else!
As the owner of a toy store, you’re looking for unique products that will delight your young customers. You want items that will inspire and spark wonder! Set your shop apart from big box stores and online juggernauts with small press comics! Radiator Comics’ titles are not available through national distributors, and have been crafted by artists rather than corporate board rooms! Let us help you stock your customers’ favorite new books!
We offer a 40% discount on all titles, free domestic shipping on orders over $60, and allow returns for sellable stock to our wholesale customers.
Wholesale Application Page.
* * * Adventure Comics * * *
Autumn Wing and the Crown of Fire
Brandon Hankins’ Autumn Wing and the Crown of Fire follows Autumn, a half-angel on a quest to gain his halo by defeating a powerful monster. Through his journey, he learns who is “pure” and who is a “monster” is more complicated than he’s be taught.
Thick brushy drawings, tons of action, and a message of compassion and empathy makes this ongoing series a great read for younger readers! We carry both print editions of Brandon’s ongoing webcomic!
86-100 pages, perfect bound books
Middle Grade+
Isle of Elsi
Stuffed to the brim with word play and puns, the Isle of Elsi is home to dragons, wizards, and kids doing whatever they can to save the day!
Alec Longstreth self-published Isle of Elsi vol. 1, a gorgeous hard cover book, which tells the story of the bookish RJ J.R. who risks everything to stop a dragon from destroying his tiny home. Vol. 2 collects three short stories (originally available as Isle of Elsi Adventures 1-5), shifting the focus to other characters, including the sleuthing Sally Sanders, the level-headed Liz Tekcar, and the industrious Randy Remarf as they solve problems the adults are too stubborn to take care of.
We’re currently carrying issues 6 & 7 of Isle of Elsi Adventures, fun floppy comics that will ultimately be collected into Isle of Elsi vol. 3!
136-184 page hardcover books + 28 page floppy comic books!
Nominated for 2021 & 2022 Best Webcomic Eisner Awards!
Winner of the 2019 Divisional Reuben Award for Online Comic-Long Form!
Middle Grade+
The Mourning Star
In Kazimir Strepek’s The Mourning Star, years ago, a regular harvest event ended in a cataclysmic disaster that threw a modern civilization back to a brutal, lawless world! Now once mild-mannered elf-like people will have to do anything they can to survive strange monsters and murderous gangs who rule with an iron fist!
Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings, with tons of humor, fun world building and cartoon violence in two thick hand-sized volumes!
220 – 256 page perfect bound books
Young Adult+
The Plot
Neil Brideau’s all-ages coming-of-age adventure, The Plot, is full of humor, mystery, and heart! In a small secluded village, three friends are nervous about their rite of passage into adulthood. When they accidentally lead a strange creature into their village, the history as to why they’re cut off from the rest of the world will start to fall apart!
Neil self-publishes this series in hearty volumes issues that will captivate readers with this character-focused narrative!
40-100 page perfect bound comics
Middle Grade+
Waxfellow
Tori A. Rielly’s Waxfellow are beautiful hand-assembled comics about Alma, an incredibly gifted—yet socially isolated—engineer on a deep-space outpost. They seek connection with those around them while a mysterious conspiracy swirls around them.
28-32 page saddle-stitched comic books
Young Adult+
* * * Thoughtful Stories * * *
Comics by Lauren Hinds
Lauren Hinds self-publishes all-ages minicomics from Trinidad and Tobago. Her stories focus on small moments of friendship, curiosity, and harsh realities of life.
Comics like Boy Days, Staying Friends, and Waiting for my Sister are particularly great reads for younger readers, while cautionary tales like Safiya, Float, and I Can Handle It are more appropriate for teens.
6-20 page saddle-stitched comics
Middle Grade – Teen+
The Gift
The Gift, written by Jamila Rowser and drawn by Sam Wade confronts the pain of a stolen ancestry. A Black girl and her father visit African artifacts in a museum and explore the knowledge, sadness, and anger of not knowing where their ancestors were kidnapped from.
Jamila and Sam create a quiet, beautiful, heartbreaking, and inspiring story of loss and healing, mixing reality and magic.
50 page perfect bound comic
Nominated, 2024 Outstanding Story Ignatz Award
All Ages
In The Sounds and Seas
Get lost in Marnie Galloway’s self-published three-part epic, In The Sounds and Seas! This trilogy is full of dense patterns and magical imagery that follow the adventure of three friends seeking to connect with the creation myth of their world.
This series is told entirely without words! Curious readers have an ocean’s-worth of room to explore and interpret the meaning of this deeply heartfelt story!
60 page perfect bound books
Teens+
Lemonade Summer
Lemonade Summer by Gaby Mendez collects seven short stories about LGBTQ and non-binary youth coming of age. From a plucky band of pirate girls, to the new girl in town struggling to make new friends. These comics explore emotions around being misunderstood and feeling alone, and making sure you’re there for your friends!
Gabi’s cartooning and use of color are great complements to her ability to weave meaningful narratives in just a few pages!
140 page perfect bound book
Published by Cow House Press
Middle School+
Mae and Bean
Mae is a young interstellar scientist, collecting all sorts of cosmic specimens! One day she finds a new life form that does not show up in any scientific, records and names them Bean. Part baby, part pet, Bean becomes a constant companion to Mae as she continues her work, until one day, tragedy strikes!
Both lighthearted and heartbreaking, Mae and Bean is a great short comic by Allison C.M. that explores ideas of scientific research, friendship, and loss.
Ode to Keisha
In Ode to Keisha, Jamila Rowser reflects on her childhood when she was the only Black student in an international school in the Netherlands, and what changed when a second Black girl joined her class. Young Jamila and Keisha feel protective of each other in a White environment, but also draw strength and kinship from each other.
Beaming with joy, Trinidad Escobar’s drawings are full of energy and capture several quiet moments between Jamila and Keisha that speak volumes. Through a strategic use of dialogue and powerful panel composition, Jamila and Trinidad create a stirring comics reading experience about foundational friendships!
7″ Kara
Tackle big adventure with larger than life friendships! In Becca Hillburn’s 7″ Kara, a diminutive girl sets out on a big adventure, meeting giants and cats along the way, and discovers that what she desires most might be more dangerous than she bargained. But can she keep her adventures secret from her parents?
Beneath an old porch. Up in a forgotten attic. In a dusty corner of a basement. Lilliputians are tiny people who occupy the in-between spaces of our world. Sometimes, if you’re careful, you can catch a glimpse of one. Kara is a Lilliputian girl who lives with her parents in an old dollhouse, hidden away in the back of an old shed. Isolated her entire life, she has few Lilliputian friends her own age and even less experience with the world around her. Everything she knows has been learned either first hand or taught to her by her parents. But her life changes drastically when a human family moves into the house her family lives by. Will Kara make a new friend? Or is there something darker, possibly more dangerous waiting there for her?
Super Dawg and the Pet Crew No. 1
Gabriel Joy Reid crafts a story about finding intrinsic value within yourself in Super Dawg and the Pet Crew No. 1! When villains cause trouble in Tailu City, a ragtag band of heroes, The Pet Crew, is here to save the day! Super Dawg is a little new to this whole superhero thing, but when the evil Dr. Retriever re-emerges from the shadows, The Pet Crew must leap into action… and Super Dawg is finally a part of the adventure!
Will this be the mission that Super Dawg discovers what his true superpower really is? Find out in this exciting, wacky, action-packed, pretzel-filled pilot issue of Super Dawg and The Pet Crew!
Toto & Co
Aimee Pong has crafted a comic all about friendship and family in Toto & Co! Toto is just a little toad trying their best in a big frog world. This introductory collection of tender and humorous strips captures a day in Toto’s life, full of time spent with good friends and a most beloved Nana.
Comics don’t get sweeter than this!
* * * Laugh Out Loud Comics * * *
Be Cool Karl
In Be Cool Karl! by Henry Uhrik, Karl’s got it all! Being a zookeeper has its perks—decent pay, a dynamic work place, animal friends—but when he finds out zookeeper is on the “Top 10 Lamest Jobs” list right before his high school reunion, Karl and his friends take the road to reinvention at high speed!
Henry has crafted a cute and silly comic about friendship and being true to yourself. The stars are definitely the animals in the zoo. I want to be their friend.
Mark & Zark
Mark & Zark by Dan Moynihan is a zany series of adventures that are both down-to-earth and out-of this world! Mark is the new kid in town, and Zark is the Martian on earth. Mark hides Zark in plain sight as they enter a science fair, do a bad job playing soccer, and go on a field trip to the natural science museum.
The pair will have to dodge suspicions from their families, their classmate, Marcia, and even the U.S. Government! Inventive, brightly colored, and pretty silly, this comic is great for all ages!
Issues 1-5 feature a full story arc, issue 6 follows the events in the first five issues
52-page floppy comics!
All Ages+
Vern and the Vagabond Veil
Poor Vern. This vulture values voluptuous hair, but is bald as a baby’s butt! What treatment will help such a forlorn feathered fellow? Wigs? Hats? What?!
In Vern and the Vagabond Veil, Natalie Elliott presents a great little comic about longing and belonging! This wordless comic may look like pretty simple line work, but Natalie fills it with some very amusing detail, demanding a slow read!
* * * Learning Made Fun * * *
Días de Consuelo
A tender biography filled with struggle and hope, Días de Consuelo by Dave Ortega brings to life the memories of the author’s abuela as they coincide with the storm of events that framed one of the most important uprisings of the twentieth century: The Mexican Revolution.
This graphic novel introduces middle grade through adult readers to the captivating story of Consuelo, her mother Evarista, grandmother Isabel and sister Beatriz as their lives are upended apart by civil war. Días de Consuelo is also the perfect introduction to revolutionary figures like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, the series of uprisings that they led to put an end to centuries-old systems of oppression, and the toll that this violence took on daily life.
With its expressive cartooning style, this book celebrates the Mexican-American experience in a way that has yet not been seen in the comics medium.
published by Radiator Comics (that’s us!)
Lost Diamonds etc.
Ellen Lindner’s ongoing series tells the history of gender rebellion in America’s pastime! The common history of baseball is exclusively about cis men, and has been dominated by white supremacy. Ellen’s series shares the stories of women and trans and nonbinary folks, especially Black and POC players who carved out their own spaces within professional baseball. Ellen also documents all the ways white supremacy and misogyny clawed those spaces back.
The first three issues of this monochromatic history cover baseball and its precursors from the 1620’s to the 1950’s! We also carry Ellen’s Cranklet’s Chronicles, and her stand-alone full-color biography of Ida Schnall!
Paleozoic & Mesozoic Books
Through seven volumes, illustrator Estrella Vega has depicted 397 million years of evolution on planet earth across a 64-foot illustration! Each volume features accordion-fold guts with a vibrant and dynamic prehistoric illustration (that connects with the books before and after it)! On the other side is tons of researched information about the prehistoric era depicted on the front!
Part art-object, part book, part poster, part science text! The Cambrian, Ordovician & Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic have to be seen to be believed!
Snake Pit
Cara Bean (author of Here I Am, I Am Me) created Snake Pit to visually process a workshop she attended, led by Randy P. Auerbach, PhD, Director of Child and Adolescent Mood Disorders at McLean Hospital.
Snake Pit attempts to destigmatize depression, and explores the symptoms, outside forces that can amplify depression, and lasting effects of depression. Cara also investigates what you can do to help others or yourself work through depression, and address the risk of suicide.
A lovingly made comic, Snake Pit isn’t shy about talking about difficult subjects and encourage readers to seek help. It can be helpful for teenagers struggling with depression, their friends, family and teachers.
Why Draw?
When Cara Bean isn’t drawing her own comics, she’s encouraging others (through workshops & classes & an encouraging personality) to get more comfortable with drawing. In Why Draw, Cara explores both why you should draw, and how to get past any drawing hang-ups you might have.
Cara backs up her reasons why you should draw with real research by real scientists. When it comes to tips on how to draw without all the hang-ups grown-ups bring to a blank page, Cara uses years of teaching experience, plus quotes from the likes of Louis Bourgeois and Hokusai Katsushika.
Cara’s drawings are light and charming, seemingly effortless and simple, they exude a positive vibe, and encouragement for anyone thinking about picking up a pencil!