really liked this. love the art & i appreciate the use of panels with no text that still clearly communicate the story. sometimes i feel like graphic novels can come off more as a story that has pictures rather than a story told through both the text & the art. buff soul was a great balance :)

I really liked this one. This road trip about Moa and two of her friends turns into a messy but cathartic adventure. The art style is very pretty with thin and precise lines and pastel and minimal colours, some pages were breathtaking. I liked the intimacy of some of the scenes, the characters felt very real and engaging to read.
At the end of the journey I was quite satisfied with the story, I've become a huge fan of Moa Romanova's work.

Thank you Fantagraphics and Net Galley for a digital ARC.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Fantagraphics Books for early copy for

Thais was granted as a wish for me on NetGalley and I made the wish because the summary sounded of Euphoria and I was interested in that. The art style was not for me. I did not like it at all. While I got through the story for the chance to review it I also did not really enjoy it. If you like this this art style you’ll probably enjoy this more than me.

This was a very interesting graphic novel. I appreciated the art style, though sometimes the little heads to body ratio made me feel weird (personal problem!). I thought the colors used made it so interesting. I think the overall storyline is interesting and to see the growth in each character by the epilogue made me happy. This was filled with a few different emotions and is great for anyone who is interested in/in the music scene.

thank you to fantagraphics & netgalley for an e-arc!

loved the art sooo much! this was a very heartfelt & oftentimes funny story of #girlsontour. i craved a bit more depth, or more complex dialogue, at times, but writing is not always every comic artist's strong suit...

will definitely be checking out more by moa romanova!

It was a great comic with a well-defined style and a beautiful color palette. I liked the comic, but I’m not sure the story itself really resonated with me.

I recommend it to anyone who loves well-styled comics.

Thank you to Fantagraphics and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Shared on Edelweiss and StoryGraph:
Buff Soul is an introspective, sometimes emotional journey alongside the authors rockstar friends on their tour through the USA. The much-needed silliness and joy between the young friends makes the harder topics, including drug use, self harm, suicide, and intimate partner violence, all the more meaningful.

The art style is so beautiful and unique and was what initially drew me to this graphic novel, the story inside was just as interesting. The pace was a bit slow for my liking but that's just personal preference and because the illustrations are so fun to look at there wasn't a single panel wasted.

Wonderful art, love the colours and textures. The plot was interesting, it could have been longer, My full review is on my youtube channel here: https://youtu.be/Z7C37-hfQKs

What an interesting graphic novel. I was intrigued when I read the summary of this and wanted to read it. It deals with some really tough topics and is not for everyone. Trigger Warning are necessary for this before people read it. I thought that it was so real and dealt with these topics well.

Thanks NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Buff Soul is a unique and brilliant work of art. I found the emotional landscape along with distorted stylized character depictions to be ironically realistic and relatable. I really enjoyed this graphic novel!

BUFF SOUL is gritty with the distorted figures somehow adding to the realism, more than a photograph or a more photo-realistic style might. This is also fun to read and with garish logos, unusual color combinations, and clean delineations between grit and line. The story reminded me of reading a musician memoir where all the warts are revealed; there’s also a fair share of tragedy in the book and you can feel the physical discomfort and pain in a number of scenes. Noses are broken, legs are skinned, nights are lost, and these sleep-deprived bandmates could very well have been in your life too had you given up everything and headed down the rock n’ roll rollercoaster for glory.

Buff Soul is a journey that stands out at first glance for its artistic style, but also presents a fierce exploration of emotions.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this advanced reader's copy.

Buff Soul is a simultaneously real and dreamlike depiction of contemporary artist culture. Moa is an artist. She goes to the US with the band Shitkid: her best friend Asa and bandmate. A wild roadtrip ride of partying, addiction, grief, friendship, and self discovery ensues. This book is hilarious and heartwarming. I rofl’d at the pittbull-chihuahua dog, Boss, and gushed over Moa and Asa’s nuanced friendship. Throughout all the partying, Moa finds herself reflecting about past traumas. It’s revealed at the end that Moa wants to take better care of herself. For her late friend and for her living ones and for herself. Finding that balance in life is a constant journey.
The art style reminds me of Bim Eriksson’s “Baby Blue”. BIG bodies, hands, and feet with little heads. The color palette is SO FUN! Pinks and teals and creams and purples gave an 80s/90s pop art derivative vibe.
The line that gives this work its title is unforgettable. “You’re just a thinker. And thinkers have buff souls. From all the thinking.”

A devastating graphic memoir with gorgeous stylized art, a beautiful limited palette, and storytelling both psychedelic and brutally grounded in reality.

Took me a while to get into Buff Soul, but it won me over. The storytelling here is slow, subtle and conversational, and the way the characters' backstories are drip-fed felt super organic and well-paced; it felt like a natural progression, and the memory elements are seamlessly integrated. I do find the way the characters' faces are drawn a bit difficult to parse :') my eyes just naturally read the little chin lines as the mouth and the mouths as noses, so several times I had to go back and reassess what emotions their expressions were conveying. But something about the bodies having impractically massive legs does work for me. Beautiful, meticulously illustrated, honest maybe to a fault - I really enjoyed this.

Not my cup of tea. I don’t dislike it but the story didn’t really connect with me. But the graphic design goes well with the narration.

Buff Soul does what the best of graphics novels always do: melt the world around you away, sucking you in completely. Romanova uses a gorgeously restrained palette to realise a tale of friendship, loss, and longing. As Moa travels around the US following her closest and dearest loves on tour, we gradually learn that all of them are losing their centers as drugs, booze, and grief take hold. It’s genuinely hilarious, moving, and beautiful in ways that only the graphic form can be. An understated triumph.

I loved this so much.

It didn't fall into the autobiographical graphic novel trap of being beautiful but purely narrative. It was so much more than a carnet de voyage.

It gave me so many feels as a post-tumblr era baby who was promised this "Almost Famous" type of teen experience. Encouraged to do stupid shit as soon as possible as to avoid the repercussions. Buff Soul includes some bad decision making, but it is such an important story of female friendship. It was tragic, relatable and just everything. I am glad it exists.

In Buff Soul, Moa joins her BFF on a drug-fueled, rock-and-roll adventure in the United States. As her crew feverishly pushes forward toward connection and numbing out, the reader cannot look away. The narrative barely keeps up alongside the trio, following them through wired nights punctuated with moments of boredom and daily brutal hangovers. Moa’s flirtation with the edge brings up heavy memories of loss, and this memoir is a moving reflection on closeness, boundaries, and grief.

Romanova’s artistic style sizzles in a slow burn. Her swollen figures bubble in muted pastels with small heads, big knees, and wide eyes. She frames these figures wobbling precariously through backdrops that evoke 80s-LA illustrative aesthetics and reminded me of posters by Hiroshi Nagai and Patrick Nagel. There’s a post-trip exhaustion to Romanova’s stretching and compressing of forms that made me envious AND nauseous.

This book brought me to tears several times. I found my breath catching in my throat with worry, and my heart pounding with joy. Romanova’s characters are running from (and headlong into) bitter pain, loss, and fear. There’s an ambiguity of who has your back and where the bottom is that may resonate with anyone who regrets (or thanks their lucky stars for) the foggier adventures of their twenties. There’s a certainty of love for those lost along the way.

Content warnings: Drug use, self-harm, adult language, physical assault, and nudity.