All throughout April, we’re crowdsourcing a coronavirus quarantine comics reading list. Each weekday for a month, we’ll post a new recommendation from someone in the comics industry to help folks get through the isolation. This includes writers, artists, letterers, editors, comics journalists, publicists, and more…all paired with a local shop that’s currently selling the books via mail order.

Today’s pick comes from letterer Taylor Esposito…enjoy!

If you want something with a little bit of everything, go check out Swords of the Swashbucklers. If you like space operas, if you like pirates, if you like the Starjammers — you'll love this book.

Written by Bill Mantlo (the creator of freakin' Rocket Racoon!) with art by Jackson Guice, Geof Isherwood and Colleen Doran, it's a dense story that'll draw you in and keep you entertained for hours. And when you’re done, you’ll have all that wonderful art to pour over again and again. Also, if you love lettering like me, you'll find some truly gorgeous lettering from greats Ken Bruzenak and Gaspar!

So good, in fact, when a sequel (Swashbucklers: The Saga Continues) was created 30-some-odd years later, and an all star team (Marc Guggenheim, Andrea Mutti and Chris Sotomayor) was assembled to do it — which little old me got to be a part of too — I did as close to a tribute to both of their work as I could. We even recreated their wonder cap lettering for the captions, painstakingly vectorized just for the book! I can't help but recommend that sequel as well, if you are jonesing for a bit more to the story.

This book is one of those gems from the ‘80s that due to being a creator-owned property and moving between several publishers, not everyone may know about. But you damn well will want to read it! -Taylor Esposito

Taylor Esposito has lettered comics for a wide range of publishers in the industry. He is the owner of Ghost Glyph Studios and an instructor at The Kubert School.

Swords of the Swashbucklers
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artists: Jackson Guice, Geof Isherwood, and Colleen Doran
Letterers: Ken Bruzenak and Gaspar
Release Dates: 1985 - 1987
Spirited teenager Domino Blackthorne Drake was just a normal girl… until she stumbled upon an alien artifact, acquired uncanny power, and became a beacon for intergalactic trouble! With her tabby cat Cap’n Kidd in tow, Domino joins the motley crew of the Starshadow – a spacefaring pirate ship captained by the charismatic and fearless Raader. Domino embarks on a cosmic odyssey to save her kidnapped parents and overthrow the evil Colonizer Empire. Imagine a young, bright-eyed girl on a galaxy-wide escapade, full of high-energy antics straight out of Guardians of the Galaxy and Pirates of the Caribbean, and you’ve got Swords of the Swashbucklers!

Swords of the Swashbucklers: The Saga Continues
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colorist: Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Release Date: 2019
The last we saw of the crew of the Starshadow in the pages of Bill Mantlo and Butch Guice’s Swords of the Swashbucklers, it seemed that all was lost. Decades later, Raader and her crew return to bring their adventuring to the cosmos once again! Marc Guggenheim (X-Men Gold, Spider-Man) and Andrea Mutti (Rebels, Port of Earth) team up to continue the epic space adventure. Learn of the return of the legendary space pirates as The Saga Continues!

Buy It Now: Get Swords of the Swashbuckers and its sequel, Swords of the Swashbucklers: The Saga Continues, from a local comic shop with this directory from the Comics Industry Collective of stores that are currently open and doing mail order!

Click here for the full coronavirus reading list!