'The Talk' is an epic portrait of an artist making his way through hardships

(Darrin Bell/Henry Holt & Co.)

In the prologue to Darrin Bell's expansive debut graphic memoir, The Talk, he illustrates, in comics, his memory of being six years old and coming face to face with a pack of snarling, snaggle-toothed dogs. The children around him kneel and hold out their hands to the terrifying animals, but in the moment young Bell can only freeze.

(Henry Holt & Co.)