We celebrate our fifth anniversary by finally tackling a seminal work by one of the biggest names in comics: Smile by Raina Telgemeier, published by Scholastic/Graphix!

In this Eisner Award-winning graphic memoir, sixth-grader Raina suffers a dental injury that upends her entire world, kicking off a years-long succession of visits to various "odontists" involving surgery, braces, headgear and a retainer with fake teeth attached.

And as if all that weren't enough, she also has to deal with middle-school crushes, some toxic friends and the 1989 San Francisco earthquake!

Can Raina overcome her insecurity about her teeth and learn to accept herself? And can this orthodontic odyssey graduate to that ivory league known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

• Newspaper comic strips
• M. Forster on plot vs. story
• A cosmic Community coincidence
• No one wants to be judged by who they were in middle school
• Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection
• The Expanse Book 5: Nemesis Games
• Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
• Lumberjanes Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy

Join us in two weeks as we discuss Ultimate Spider-Man: Death of Spider-Man!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!