THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2026! Chie Hosaka is not new to the comics scene. In 2025, she created Tia and Guthrie, a warm short comic tracing the path of budding love.
In her latest offering, Nina, Tia and Guthrie are back but in very different circumstances. Guthrie only appears towards the last few pages, and most of the book revolves around Nina and her mother. Tia is now 32, and she has come back to her childhood home to stay with her mother. She appears depressed and her days are lived out around streaming her favourite TV series and consuming an impressive quantity of biscuits. When she experiences stabbing pains in her abdomen a few times, she goes to the hospital with her mother in tow. The diagnosis she receives is not what anyone expects, and is more embarrassing than serious. However, it unexpectedly disrupts the spiral she was in and sets her on the path towards confronting what she has been trying to suppress.
Hosaka adds little daubs of fantasy alongside plenty of humour to present Tia’s reality, to turn what could have been ineluctably bleak, into something tinged with hope. If you can laugh at yourself, smile at another, then you haven’t touched the deep, dark bottom yet. Tia’s relationship with her mother is the thread providing much of this levity even as she addresses questions of family expectations, generational differences, and problems of being a second-generation migrant.
Hosaka speaks volumes through her colours and lines too. While Tia and Guthrie was warm and vibrant to complement its account of newfound romance, Nina is entirely rendered in black and white. This stark, pared-back approach emphasises the pain of loss and the deep grief Tia is going through. The close panel arrangements allow moments of comedy and discomfort to literally sit next to each other with no space in between. Isn’t that reminiscent of life itself? Hosaka’s ability to communicate so much through different aspects is especially important in a story where Tia finds it difficult to articulate what she is experiencing.
This is a tender, promising longer-form debut; a beautiful book addition to the home library.
Chie Hosaka (W/A) • Fugu Editions, £15.00
Review by Swati Nair
Chie Hosaka will be at Table B16a in the Bubbleboy Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2026 runs from November 9th-15th with the convention weekend taking place on the 14th-15th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2026 coverage so far in one place here.
Poster art by Núria Tamarit
