I’ve always loved graphic novels, but I know how hard they can be to get into.

A lot of the most visible comics are part of huge, long-running worlds. They can be brilliant, but they can also feel overwhelming: endless runs, reboots, crossovers, reading orders, and the nagging feeling that you’ve started in the wrong place.

That’s why I fell in love with the wider world of graphic novels.

Stories with beginnings, middles and ends. Strong first volumes. Weird little gems. Big emotional gut-punches. Books with a clear creative vision, where you can just open page one and start reading.

The Spark

My wife Becky gets a monthly book box that she absolutely loves—it's her favourite thing that comes in the post (shout out to Wordy & Wild). Watching her excitement every month made me think: why isn't there something like this for graphic novels?

I went looking. What I found was either mostly overseas, or it leaned too hard into merch and not enough into the actual book. And at some point she said, "Why don't you just do it yourself Mike?"

So Here We Are

Gutter & Spine is a graphic novel subscription I’m building because it’s what I wanted as a reader: thoughtful picks, books we’ve read ourselves, a little context, and a reason to keep reading - without the overwhelm, the hype, or the endless scrolling.

If you want stories that actually go somewhere, you’re in the right place.

And if Gutter & Spine helps even a few people find their next favourite book, it’ll be doing exactly what it was built to do.