The best comic of the 2010s you never read: Soft by Jane Mai

Features Marceline Chevako | September 2, 2026 Let’s say the year is 2015 and you’re at a local comic shop perusing the indie section. Hiding in the shadows of larger works you find a slender, purple volume. The spine is folded rather than flat, so no title would be visible at first glance. Removing it from the shelf would only raise more questions. The cover looks scarcely like a cover at all, more a rolling tapestry of flowers. A tired school girl is placed at its center, a Band-Aid covering the crook of her neck. The title, Soft, is etched into the side of her desk, the author’s name — Jane Mai — on the spine of her binder. The back of the book is filled by an enormous pool of black. In lieu of a plot description is a quote from the story fashioned into a poem: “Sweet, / Precious Laura / Who fears / Death.” Here begins your introduction to Jane Mai’s singular masterpiece, a work whose interior mystery and allure matches that of its cover. Its story centers on the aforementioned Laura, a school girl caught on the cusp of adulthood. Her life is ordinary: she bikes to school, visits her best friend June at the mall and tries not to get into too many fights with her single dad. She’...