Short & Skinny

Mark Tatulli’s Short & Skinny (2018, Little, Brown) is a single-issue autobiographical graphic novel that captures the author’s own middle-school struggles with bullying and body image in the 1970s. Tatulli, best known for his syndicated comic strip Liō, turns inward to tell a heartfelt, funny story of a kid navigating the treacherous waters of early adolescence. This standalone work matters for its honest, empathetic take on a universal experience, rendered in Tatulli’s signature warm, cartoony style.