The holiday season is a bittersweet time for a lot of people. Good and bad memories collide, which makes it appropriate – and probably cathartic – that one of the most heart-wrenching video game series of all time returns this month on the comic book page.

Published by Titan Comics, Life is Strange: Forget-Me-Not is a new comic series set in the Life is Strange universe. The new arc is written by 2023 Eisner Award winner for Most Promising Newcomer Zoe Thorogood (who also provides a variant cover for Issue 1), with art and colours by Claudia Leonardi and Andrea Izzo – both Life Is Strange comic stalwarts, who have worked on the last six volumes.

Life is Strange: Forget-Me-Not is a little different though. With the saga of Max and Chloe – protagonists in the original Life is Strange game, and prequel Before the Storm – concluded in Settling Dust, Forget-Me-Not instead follows the events of 2021’s Life is Strange: True Colors, from developer Deck Nine and game publisher Square Enix. Of course, a key feature of the Life is Strange games is that your (tough) choices shape the narrative, leading to different endings. Forget-Me-Not picks up and runs with one of True Colors’ several outcomes, namely that heroine Alex Chen and new girlfriend Steph Gingrich leave Haven Springs to pursue a career in live music.

Life is Strange: Forget-Me-Not kicks off with Alex and Steph already touring in their camper van. They’re bouncing from grubby gig to gig, struggling to get noticed, when they cross paths with reticent adolescent runaway Lily. It turns out that Lily has supernatural abilities of her own, which I won’t spoil. However, they make for a very interesting marriage with Alex’s powers as an empath, who can read and even control people’s emotions.

Barring a lot of adorable queer lady fan service (I’m not complaining), that’s all that really happens in the 32-page first issue of Forget-Me-Not, which I already can’t wait to read in one collected format. Month-long waits are going to be painful here as readers hang on tenterhooks, wanting to uncover what Lily is running from. There’s also tantalising relationship drama on the horizon. Alex and Steph’s career ambitions are clearly putting the couple under strain, with Steph appearing far less relaxed and happy-go-lucky here than in True Colors.

It’s worth noting that Thorogood and the creative team have made an interesting choice to set Forget-Me-Not in a version of the Life is Strange universe where Max never arrived in Arcadia Bay. The result is that Chloe and Rachel have coupled up, and there was nobody around to stop some of the most tragic events of the first game. Why this matters… well, I’m not going to spoil that either.

If you’ve never played the Life is Strange games, Forget-Me-Not won’t be accessible at all, but franchise fans have something new to both relish and fret over – with Leonardi’s emphasis on facial expression and nuances of body language really heightening the sense of emotion.

Available from 20 December 2023, you can find all your physical and digital purchase options for Life Is Strange: Forget-Me-Not here on the Titan Comics website.

Cover information is as follows:

  • COVER A: TULA LOTAY
  • COVER B: ZOE THOROGOOD
  • COVER C: EMMA VIECELI
  • COVER D: ANGELA WU