Buff Soul is a memoir by Swedish cartoonist Moa Romanova when she joined her two pals Asa and Lina, who’re in a band called Shitkid, in America on tour. They’re young and feel invincible, and do the cliched things bands do on tour - drinking, drugging, sleeping around - all while the spectre of death hangs over them in the form of absent friends - and possibly soon-to-be-absent friends…?
Just as I was bemoaning the current state of comics with its lack of fresh new talent, along comes Moa Romanova with the brilliant Buff Soul! Never heard of her before but this book popped up on a lot of “Best of 2025” lists and my thanks to those people who rec’d it because they’re right - this is definitely one of the year’s best comics.
The title is explained later in the book (“Thinkers have buff souls - from all the thinking”) but, if it wasn’t, you’d be forgiven for believing it might have something to do with Romanova’s art style, which is the first striking thing about this comic. She draws everyone as supremely buff: giant toned bodies, small heads, big ears, no noses. It makes everyone look instantly alien. I’ve not read any of her other comics, so I don’t know if this is just her style or whether she’s drawn it this way to highlight the feeling of otherness of this time of her life.
The story captures the feeling of youth - of being in another, exciting land (America holds a kind of mythic place to young Europeans - possibly vice versa?), being young and feeling invincible, having fun and living life as if it’s a movie. There are moments of comedy, moments of sadness, and it’s always compelling to read. This isn’t a short book but I blasted through it in a single sitting.
It’s also about losing friends too young. The opening scene indicates Moa’s lost someone, which might explain her self-destructive behaviour, and throughout there are scenes that tie back to this theme. Shitkid are recording with Buzz Osborne from The Melvins, who lost his friend Kurt Cobain. When they’re in Texas for SXSW, they’re staying with a hippie couple who get three baby chickens and name them after the girls - but then one of them dies, perhaps foreshadowing what’ll happen later in the book. And then the flashbacks start happening.
This is the only part of the book that I felt could’ve been handled better. It takes place when one of the girls goes missing for a few days and I wasn’t sure if what was happening was in the future or the past, or if it was a fantasy/dream/hallucination. It was a flashback but simple narrative boxes (ie. “Then”) would’ve helped.
Also, for a book about loss, it feels a bit shallow in that it doesn’t have anything to say about losing friends besides “it sucks”. Though maybe there’s nothing more to say about it than that?
Like all great books, this one transcends the subject matter, so even if you’re not into punk music or partying, and youth is a distant memory, Buff Soul is still an enthralling read that pulls you in and takes you on a powerful and vivid narrative ride. A fantastic comic - Moa Romanova has made a new fan with me; I’ll definitely keep an eye out for more books with her name on going forwards.
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