Punk’N Heads
Writer: Dave Baker
Artist: Nicole Goux
Publisher: IDW Publishing – Top Shelf
Publication Date: April 2026
“Someone to crowd you with love,
Someone to force you to care,
Someone to make you come through,
Who’ll always be there,
As frightened as you”
-Being Alive, Stephen Sondheim
There’s an old joke about how when you’re young, you constantly think the world is ending. That no matter what you do, say, think, or believe, you will fail miserably. And because of that failure, you will ruin every single relationship you’ve ever had, make all your dreams impossible to succeed at, be stuck in a dead end job that you hate but keep at because it’s the only job you have experience in and it actually pays the fucking rent and you just want every single inch of your being to stop screaming long enough to realize that you are a worthless piece of shit who doesn’t even deserve to die a slow, painful death.
And then you turn 30, and the world keeps spinning.
In many regards, Punk’N Heads is about a group of twenty somethings going through that generational angst. Our main character, Hannah Lipsky, has just had her heart broken and realized that she didn’t want the life she was living. So she decides to leave it behind for an unknown that she doesn’t even know she wants.
Visually, this is depicted through Nicole Goux’s artwork. Each page is separated into a number of rectangular panels of varying sizes, often structured into grids. While on the surface, this might imply a degree of control on the behalf of the characters, Goux will frequently shrink the panel sizes to show small, intimate moments or split up a character’s face.
It’s only when performing their songs that the page becomes electric with spreads and non-rectangular panel designs. A sense of freedom is presented to the characters that they rarely feel in their day to day lives of skimming by as a minor punk band. Even in moments where they should be happy, the sense of compression is expressed to highlight the constant need to blow up their lives.
Additionally, the limited color pallet, constantly changing with each chapter, provides a mood of uncertainty. Never going for primary shades of reds, yellows, and blues, the effect highlights the transitional nature of our various characters. (And when the shades are that hue, it’s slightly off, never a pure primary shade.) Additionally, Goux’s artstyle has a slightly cartoony edge to it. Not in the sense of unrealty visible within a Looney Tunes cartoon, but rather the simplified features of an old Saturday Morning Cartoon. Characters have dots for eyes, standard clothing and hair styles, and a general vibe that doesn’t fully change, even as their personalites clearly are.
Baker’s script, meanwhile, is a delight, wonderfully dancing between comedy, heartbreak, and the general assholery of being in your 20s. Each of the characters, minor or major, has a rich life to them that makes them a delight to uncover. Even characters presented with a degree of hostility are nevertheless presented to have a humanity within them.
Overall, the comic is a lot of fun to read, a worthy reminder of what it’s like to be in your 20s and having no idea what you’re going to do with your life. It’s messy, terrifying, and, if I’m being honest, a hell of a lot of fun.
Punk’N Heads is due out this month via IDW Publishing / Top Shelf
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