# these comics have an exit

- Link: https://tacobout.online/2026/10/27/these-comics-have-an-exit/
- Published: 2026-10-27T13:00:00-05:00
- Author: schwegler

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are affiliate links.

Sometimes the most attractive thing a comic can offer is a last page. An actual 
last page, after which nobody needs to explain that the good part continues in three
different books called volume one.

These three graphic novels give you a complete story in one paperback. That gets
them through the door. The drawings are the reason to stay: a life assembled from
memories, a city rendered in impossible colors, and a spacecraft that looks like
it might need feeding.

## daytripper: a whole life in the margins

![Daytripper cover: a man and dog beneath a city, typewriter and memories rising
through a silhouetted profile.](https://i0.wp.com/tacobout.online/wp-content/uploads/
2026/10/daytripper-collected-paperback-cover.jpg?resize=292%2C450&ssl=1)

Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá’s _Daytripper_ follows Brás de Oliva Domingos, an aspiring
novelist who writes obituaries. Each chapter visits a different moment in his life,
finding an ending and then asking you to reconsider the life around it. Work, family,
love and disappointment give that structure its weight.

Look at the cover’s scale. Brás and a dog sit beneath an enormous profile filled
with a typewriter, buildings and objects. The individual is small; the accumulated
stuff of a life fills the page. Its shift from dark brown through pink into blue
gives those memories a physical shape, rather than leaving the premise to a blurb.

That is a more useful invitation than simply calling it a comic about death. The
[256-page collected paperback](https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781401229696) makes
room for the ordinary things that an obituary compresses. This is the pick for human-
scale drama, with grief and mortality built into the structure. [DC’s edition listing](https://www.dc.com/graphic-novels/daytripper-2010/daytripper)
has the collection details.

**Daytripper**

Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá · Collected paperback · 256 pages

[Daytripper — paperback on Amazon (paid link)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401229697?tag=schweg-20)

## the many deaths of laila starr: death has been made redundant

![Filipe Andrade’s Laila Starr cover, with a turquoise figure floating over a densely
drawn orange city.](https://i0.wp.com/tacobout.online/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/
laila-starr-collected-paperback-cover.jpg?resize=293%2C450&ssl=1)

Humanity is approaching immortality, which creates a staffing problem. In Ram V 
and Filipe Andrade’s _The Many Deaths of Laila Starr_, Death is sent to Mumbai to
live as a mortal woman. She knows where the person who will make her obsolete is
about to be born.

![Opening page of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr: coral and lavender Mumbai towers
above blue streets and a curving elevated road.](https://i0.wp.com/tacobout.online/
wp-content/uploads/2026/10/laila-starr-opening-preview-page.jpg?resize=595%2C1000&
ssl=1)

Andrade’s opening city page makes the setting an immediate attraction. Coral and
lavender towers rise over a dense blue foreground; a curving elevated road pulls
the eye across the lower half. The buildings are carefully drawn, but their colors
refuse to behave like an architectural photograph. Before the divine office politics
get going, Mumbai already has its own visual presence.

The cover pushes that palette harder, setting a turquoise figure against a hot orange
city. If the premise sounds abstract, these pages supply texture and a place to 
get lost. The [128-page paperback collects all five issues](https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781684158058),
making this the shortest of the three. [BOOM!’s first-look announcement](https://www.boom-studios.com/archives/the-many-deaths-of-laila-starr-1-first-look/)
introduces the book and its creators.

**The Many Deaths of Laila Starr**

Ram V & Filipe Andrade · Paperback collection of #1–5 · 128 pages

[The Many Deaths of Laila Starr — paperback on Amazon (paid link)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1684158052?tag=schweg-20)

## on a sunbeam: the spaceship is a fish

![On a Sunbeam cover by Tillie Walden: a young woman at a spacecraft window beneath
a black starfield.](https://i0.wp.com/tacobout.online/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/
on-a-sunbeam-paperback-cover.jpg?resize=450%2C623&ssl=1)

Tillie Walden’s _On a Sunbeam_ moves between a crew restoring ruined structures 
in space and two girls falling in love at boarding school. The two timelines lead
into a search for a lost love. It is the young-adult selection here, with queer 
romance and found family at its center.

![On a Sunbeam’s opening page: a face in a spacecraft window and a fish-shaped ship
beside a floating building, drawn in lavender, black and white.](https://i0.wp.com/
tacobout.online/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/on-a-sunbeam-chapter-one-opening.webp?
resize=1000%2C1332&ssl=1)

The opening page gives the journey a wonderfully unhurried shape. Broad panels leave
room for black space and scattered stars. A face in a cockpit window gives way to
a fish-shaped craft beside a tall, floating building. Lavender, black and white 
do most of the work; the intricately drawn architecture makes this universe feel
handmade rather than clinically futuristic.

At [544 pages in the First Second paperback](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250178138/onasunbeam/),
it is the long stay. You can also [read the complete webcomic free on Walden’s official site](https://www.onasunbeam.com/),
starting with [chapter one](https://www.onasunbeam.com/chapter-one/). That is a 
much better way to see whether its rhythm suits you than taking anyone’s word for
it.

**On a Sunbeam**

Tillie Walden · First Second paperback · 544 pages

[On a Sunbeam — paperback on Amazon (paid link)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250178134?tag=schweg-20)

Three different kinds of room to inhabit, and none requires a continuity chart. 
Start with the artwork that makes you want to turn the page.

Image credits: _Daytripper_ cover, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, DC/Vertigo, via [Penguin Random House Comics](https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781401229696);
_The Many Deaths of Laila Starr_ cover, Filipe Andrade, BOOM! Studios, via [PRH Comics](https://prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9781684158058).
Laila Starr [#1](https://tacobout.online/about/1/) opening-page preview: art Filipe
Andrade, lettering AndWorld Design, ©2021 Ram V, BOOM! Studios; [publisher preview via Comicsblog](https://www.comicsblog.fr/40269-Ram_V_preesente_sa_deeesse_de_la_mort_sans_emploi_dans_The_Many_Deaths_of_Laila_Starr_1),
original credit footer retained. _On a Sunbeam_ cover via [First Second/Macmillan](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250178138/onasunbeam/);
opening page from [Tillie Walden’s official webcomic](https://www.onasunbeam.com/chapter-one/),
©Tillie Walden. Covers and brief page excerpts accompany discussion; rights remain
with their respective owners. Featured library photograph: [Davide Cantelli](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Library_Books_Bookshelves_(Unsplash).jpg),
[CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en); illustrative, 
not a photograph of these books.
