Girl Town

Nowak (Lumberjanes) tosses off more wildly imaginative ideas per page than some creators have over their entire careers in this invigorating collection of short stories. In the opening piece, a woman kicked out of astronaut school for being too attractive pines for her neighbor, whose arm mysteriously vanishes overnight. The next story, which follows two friends as they shop at a market specializing in fantastic goods and bizarre attractions, is charming and funny right up until the end, when it becomes extremely poignant. The standout piece follows and stars a woman with an electric tongue (she lost the original in a motorcycle accident) who attempts to get over her ex by purchasing a robot boyfriend. That might sound like a premise straight out of Black Mirror, but Nowak makes it her own by eschewing heady speculation about artificial intelligence in favor of a probing yet tender character study.