The annual BOOM! Box Mix Tape is an eclectic collection of stories featuring beloved characters from established BOOM! Box series as well as original stories showcasing up-and-coming creators and brand-new content. With original stories featuring Lumberjanes, Giant Days, Cyanide & Happiness, Goldie Vance, The Backstagers, and many more! Collects the BOOM! Box Mix Tape 2014, 2015, and 2016.

For the third year in a row, we’ve assembled a collection of short comics that embody the BOOM! Box aesthetic, an eclectic mix of weird tales from off the beaten track. This year, we’re really leaning into the “mix tape” element by exploring music through sequential storytelling. These can be comics about being in a band, a story about the first time you went to a certain venue, or even a puzzle quest revolving around a music festival. BOOM! Box 2016 Mix Tape embraces graphic storytelling in a way that embodies Tunes That Make You Think in Pictures...

Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation tells the story of the mixtape from its history in 1970s bootlegging to its resurgence as an icon of nostalgic analog technology. Burns looks at the history of the mixtape from the early 1980s and the rise of the cassette as a fundamental aspect of the music industry. Stories from music fans collecting hip hop mixtapes in the Bronx or recording songs off the radio permeate the book. She discusses the continued contemporary appeal of the mixtape as musicians, novelists, memoirists, playwrights, and even podcasters have used it as a metaphor for connection and identity. From Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mix Tape to Questlove’s Mixtape Potluck Cookbook, Burns analyzes how the mixtape can function as a plot point, a stand-in for emotional connection, or an organizing structure. The book shows how creators use the iconography of the mixtape cassette to create ephemera, from coffee subscriptions to board games, which speaks to the appreciation of the tangible and the analog. The desire to find connection through sharing a physical artifact permeates the various creative uses of the mixtape. From blockbuster films like Guardians of the Galaxy to mixtape throw pillows, Burns highlights the mixtape as a site of collective memory tied to youth culture, community identity, and sharing music.

Judas comes face-to-face with Satan, and the Great Adversary begins to win him over.

Ed’s mysterious past is revealed! There may be alcohol involved.

While on their Jackalope quest, the Roanokes meet Emmy, a roaming cowgirl, and her herd of critters and cryptids.

After the Sharg’s violent return, the Sky Corps Central Command scrambles to deal with the crisis but not before grounding Stanford, Park, and the others. The cadets continue to train under Skip in secret but it’s not long before the Sharg strike again—this time, in a form mankind has never seen before.