Heartstopper Forever

It's okay to be an eternal teenager.

Boop that little heart if you love Nick & Charlie! And if you don’t!

Art by Alice Oseman.

Friends, the day I’ve been both waiting for and dreading has finally arrived. Heartstopper Vol. 6 is out now!! I, along with a couple million other Heartstopper maniacs all over the world, have been anxiously waiting to see what would happen with teenagers-in-love Nick and Charlie, along with friends-turned-romantic partners Tao and Elle, kind-of-in-love-from-the-start couple D’Arcy and Tara, not-particularly-interested-in-romance-but-patient-with-friends-going-through-romance-related-angst Aled, and the rest of the Heartstopper gang.

OMG, it’s here!! Well, not here yet, like in my hands, but hopefully tomorrow…

If you’re not familiar with the story, here’s a brief, spoiler-free summary: Nick and Charlie are two teenage boys at a British school. They meet, become friends, Charlie develops a crush on Nick, but there’s some angst because rugby dude Nick is likely straight. HowEVer, turns out Nick likes Charlie too. And that’s just the beginning.

Let’s Get All Swirly with a Flashback

Somewhere post-lockdown, when it was safe to go outside again, my beloved hubbins and I went gleefully to our favorite little beach town. Among the obligatory stops that include the burrito joint and various surf shops (because surf gear rules), we went to a small indie bookstore where we always find cool stuff. I picked up this book:

We went to the beach, where I devoured the first volume of Heartstopper. I closed the book with tears in my eyes and told my BH, “I need to go back to the bookstore. NOW.” There, I got Heartstopper Volumes 2 and 3. (There’s a lot to be said for being late to a party: You can get three of the book series you just fell in love with, you can binge two or three seasons of an amazing show, etc.)

There, the bookseller said something interesting. “These have been flying off the shelves—people have been coming to us saying Amazon is sold out!” I said teenagers must love this series, and I said it somewhat sheepishly because I am several decades away from my teenage years; maybe the bookseller thought I was buying these graphic novels for a child, or even (dear gods) a grandchild. ← common assumption due to my silver hair

“Teenagers do love the series,” the bookseller said, “but we’re selling just as many to adults, who love it too.”

Cue Angelic Choir for That Great Moment of Realization

When the bookseller said I wasn’t the only adult buying a book meant for teens for themselves—in fact, I was one of many—worlds opened up for me.

I’ve liked teenage stuff since I was, well, a teenager. Boy bands, Hello Kitty (when I interviewed Mariah Carey, we bonded over this), comics, teen novels. Back then, this was less common. Friends of mine were undergoing some strange metamorphosis, doing things like buying homes and having children, becoming…adults.

In addition to discussing mortgages and Montessori schools, these adults watched important films and read literary works. I, the child-free renter, was watching Smallville (and, to my credit, writing three original Young Adult novels based on Smallville, and yes, they were published, by an actual publisher!) and reading Sweep, a Young Adult series by Cate Tiernan about a teenage girl who discovers she’s a witch. (Fantastic series, BTW—you should check it out.)

I felt like a misfit at best, or a misfit with a case of arrested development at worst. But I found some other misfits, so that was cool. And over time, something interesting happened…

Montage: Pop Culture Eats the World

I credit Star Wars for being the moment a generation never got over. People saw that movie when they were kids, their minds were blown and their hearts were lodged in that galaxy far, far away, and they wanted to keep those feelings forever.

So they did. Granted, some truly crappy SW movies came out, but there were still figurines, and Lego Death Stars, and Yoda dolls, and enough merch to tide people over until the movies got good again.

Just like where there’s a Godzilla there’s also a Mothra, as Star Wars refused to die, ComicCon was growing from a small gathering of comic book fans in a sleazy midtown hotel to a multi-million dollar convention. It’s now the main launch pad for big sci-fi and fantasy movies, anime, games—oh, and comic books, which some of the highest-grossing films of all time are based on.

And who was going to these big blockbuster comic book movies and rather expen$ive comic book conventions? Not just teenagers. Older teenagers. Adult teenagers. Eternal Teenagers.

Over time, I realized I was definitely not alone. Along with me, there are now lots of adults—the kind with kids and homes and cars and stuff—who dress up as their favorite comic book characters, and who read Heart stopper and watch the TV series.

Oh yeah, there’s a Netflix TV series. That’s how big Heartstopper got.

Scene: An Author, Writing in a Home Office

Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman is a bit of a wunderkind. She (one of her preferred pronouns) wrote a novel at school when she was 17, and it was published after a bidding war when she was 19. So were her follow up books.

Two characters from that debut novel, Solitaire, stuck with Oseman: Charlie, the main character’s younger brother, and his boyfriend, Nick. When Oseman decided to expand on their story, she realized they’d be better off in graphic novel form, rather than prose.

Wait, let Alice tell you about it. It’s a cool story.

Remember when I said that bookseller moment opened up a couple of worlds for me? One, that I wasn’t the weird adult buying books meant for teens. Here’s the second: Alice Oseman was a writer, like me, who then became a graphic novelist. When she realized she wanted Heartstopper to be a graphic novel instead of a prose book, she didn’t ask her publisher to find an artist for her; she just started drawing it herself.

A Brief Break-the-Fourth-Wall Monologue

I’d always wanted to be an artist—a comic book artist. I even went to art school for comics, but when that didn’t work out, I became a writer. While I didn’t achieve Oseman-level wunderkindness and success, I worked for some great magazines (shout out to my Star Hits people, WHOOOO!!), and I wrote books. I even worked for Oprah Winfrey! Still, I never stopped wanting to draw. At times, I couldn’t even read comics books because I was so heartbroken over not being able to make my own, or draw as well as Jaime Hernandez, creator of the Locas part of Love And Rockets.

And then…. Here was Alice Oseman, highly successful novelist, who decided to become a graphic novelist because (OMG I’m tearing up here) she had the confidence, the danged moxie to learn how to make comics and translate her story into drawings herself.

So… Like… If she did it… ?

From humble beginnings, the derps arise! (Art by me this time.)

Cut to: Oh Hai, Centaurs

In addition to being a beautiful, funny, sensitive, very well told story, Heartstopper means so, so much to me because Alice Oseman showed me that a writer could become a comic book artist. I went back to school (shout out to my Sequential Artists Workshop people, WHOOOOO!!), learned how to make comics, and, along the way, fell in love with a side project to my graphic novel/memoir. A couple of Centaurs, of all things, who had nothing to do with anything I’d thought about or had been working on. And, just like Nick and Charlie and their friends became Oseman’s life for the past ten years, Jerry, Frankie, Ari, and the gang have become my life. (Note: I will not be at all upset if a publisher and Netflix come knocking.)

Like every good movie, book, or series, everything comes to an end. Oseman announced that Heartstopper 6 would be the final installment. As much as all teenagers, chronological and eternal, want this next book, we’re kind of dreading that last page.

Oh, but there’s a movie coming out on Netflix on July 17!

And there’s also a coloring book, a yearbook, spin-off novellas, and super-cute full color 2027 planner. And it has stickers!! ←totally ordered

Plus I can always go back to the beginning and read the whole series again. And again. Because I’m going to be a Hello Kitty hair clip-wearing, bubble tea-drinking, comic book-reading, Heartstopper-loving Eternal Teenager forever, and I’m happy about that.

In Other News…

Thanks to all the lovely folks who’ve been sharing my post about The Books That Make Me Want to Make Art! We have a bunch of new people here (shout out to new subscribers, WHOOOOO!!), and I want to know: Do you want an update with more art books? Lemme know…

#Selfietember is not that far off! (I cannot believe it’s July already…) I’m prepping prompts for our month of self portraits, and remember, you can use ‘em or not—#Selfietember has very, very few rules (almost none, in fact, other than that you have fun with it). Stay tuned for updates as I start gearing us up for #Selfietember 2026 in August! I guess now would be a good time to make sure you’re subscribed?

A brief word about subscriptions: #Selfietember is free, all I have here is free, but if you upgrade to the monthly or annual paid levels, you help keep this good thing going.

A partially-inked page, and a little preview of the next episode of WRASSLIN’ CENTAURS!

I’m inking the next set of WRASSLIN’ CENTAURS pages, so those will be posted here in the next couple of weeks. After that, I’ll be making covers for a print-only zine, a side adventure with Jerry and Ari. The zine will be available when I make my tabling debut at SPX, sharing space with comics luminaries Mariko and Zareen Choudhury ! Don’t worry, I’ll set aside a few copies for you, and I’ll keep you posted on how to get one.

Are you an Eternal Teenager? Are you anxiously awaiting your final chapter in the Heartstopper series? Do you want me to do an update or sequel on the books that make me want to make art? Talk to me, my friends!

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