Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
The latest Diamond Previews catalog lists a lot of books worth checking out. Here are a few of them. You can order them now through your local comic shop for delivery in May or later. (The ones with April dates are relists of books that have already been published, so they’re available earlier.) Beasts of Burden: What the Cat Dragged InDark Horse, $3.50, MAR16 0030, May 4A new story written by Evan Dorkin and painted by Jill Thompson about cats […]
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A year and a half ago, Jim Ottaviani’s newest graphic novel was published online at Tor.com. It’s The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded, illustrated by Leland Purvis, and now it’s coming to print from Abrams ComicArts. The “historically accurate graphic novel biography” covers Turing’s work on cryptography and artificial intelligence and the struggles of his personal life. The full-color hardcover will be available March 23, 2016, at $24.95. It can be ordered now from your local comic shop with Diamond […]
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Jim Ottaviani, known for his scientist biographies Feynman, Primates, and Dignifying Science, among others, is back with a new one. The Imitation Game is the story of Alan Turing, the “father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence”. Best of all, right now, you can read it for free at Tor.com. As Ottaviani describes it, Flying at the head of Churchill’s flock was Alan Turing, the mathematician who cracked the German Enigma code. That alone would be enough to secure […]
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Even though I had heard many of the incidents in the life of physicist Richard Feynman, I found this graphic novel biography by true-science comic writer Jim Ottaviani and accomplished cartoonist Leland Myrick surprisingly affecting, particularly when it came to the story of his wife Arline. Much of the material will be familiar to readers of Feynman’s biographies, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, but seeing the incidents play out visually gives […]
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This science biography about three anthropologists who lived with primates is astounding. I’ve heard of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey before, but I didn’t realize just what they accomplished. Primates brings their discoveries to life. In 1960, Goodall lived in Africa for a long-term observation of chimpanzees. It’s a good thing that she didn’t mind spending a lot of time alone, doing nothing but watching animals, because she discovered them using tools. That was a revelation, since until that time, […]
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I like true science comics, like the works by Jay Hosler or written by Jim Ottaviani or the Manga Guides to various fields. When I saw The Stuff of Life: A graphic guide to genetics and DNA, I thought it would be another great book in the genre. Heck, it was both blurbed by Hosler and illustrated by Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon, who previously worked with Ottaviani on two books, T-Minus: The Race to the Moon and Bone Sharps, […]
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Subtitled A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology and illustrated by Big Time Attic, a studio made up of Zander Cannon, Kevin Cannon, and Shad Petosky, with a cover by Mark Schultz, Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards is another fine true-science graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani. His most entertaining book yet is full of schemes and, as guest star P.T. Barnum is told, “humbug” as dinosaur hunters plot against each […]
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Subtitled Niels Bohr’s Life, Discoveries, and the Century He Shaped, Suspended in Language is written by Jim Ottaviani and has art by Leland Purvis, with additional work by Jay Hosler, Roger Langridge, Steve Leialoha, Linda Medley, and Jeff Parker. As Bohr was finishing college, physics was entering a revolutionary state. Einstein and Planck had introduced relativity and the idea that measurement couldn’t be exact. Building on their foundation, Bohr used his invention of quantum mechanics to improve the classical model […]
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